Many, many, many moons ago, I started a series of blogposts listing every tabletop roleplaying game I've ever played - inspired by a post over where the skies are blue (BlueSky) by Kieron Gillen.
I'm still trying to follow some sort of chronological order. If you want to catch up, you can find the previous posts here:
And so, onto the last batch, before I catch up to date with everything I've played. I'm sure I missed some out, but this is all I could remember.
51) The Gaslight Club
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| Cover of The Gaslight Club by We-Evolve |
This was another playtest for Stoo. The Gaslight Club is a weird one – it plays very much like the old Gangbusters RPG from the 80s, all 1920s with gangs and fancy clubs, nice cars, and classy suits. That is, until something bad happens, and you end up injured or killed, only to be taken behind the scenes, waking to repeat the same events over again. You quickly discover you are hosts in a 'Westworld' style theme park who are becoming aware of the abuse you are constantly subjected to from the human guests. It's only a matter of time before the looping narrative becomes a quest to escape. Great stuff!
52) Blade Runner
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| Cover of the Blade Runner Roleplaying Game by Free League |
I wanted to try the Blade Runner RPG not only because I loved the movies, but mostly because I wanted to try out some cool investigative roleplaying, and I wasn't disappointed. Built on the Year Zero Engine as used in more of my favourite games (Tales from the Loop, see number 40 on this list), there are some clever time management elements in there, and delving into your memories for both human and replicant characters. The stories are really well crafted, utilising a lot of props, but the standout moment was when my character (a human) was suspected of being a replicant and was forced to take a Voight-Kampff test... and failed. Was I really human? Or was it all a set-up?
Brilliant.
53) The One Ring (2nd Edition)
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| Cover of The One Ring (Second Edition) by Free League |
Returning to Middle-Earth decades after playing the old Middle-Earth Roleplaying Game (see number 10 on this list), with another game by Free League (or Fria Ligan). The One Ring RPG (second edition, the first edition was done by Cubicle 7) was an interesting experience. Really loved the 'stances' thing in combat, where you could be on the attack, defence, etc. and they did a great job of making it feel like Middle-Earth and the epic scope of Lord of the Rings. But, man, is it dangerous. I think we had three 'total party kills' in one adventure, and we all got wiped out again in the follow up.
Despite all of this, looks like we may be returning to TOR in the very near future.
54) FATE
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Cover of the FATE Core rulebook by Evil Hat |
FATE is one of those games that I've always wanted to see in action, but never really got around to playing. Stoo wanted to run a game based on the TV series "Travelers" (which is a brilliant and emotional series of time-travel and cool sci-fi stuff, which I talked about on an earlier blogpost last year). Lacking a system to play it with, we gave FATE a go – one of those systems that a lot of people really love, but it just didn't gel with me. Sorry. Game was good, but really didn't get to grips with FATE at all. I'm sorry. Had the book sitting on my shelves for years, and it may just go back there. I'd be reluctant to get rid of it, as my dearly departed cat loved to rub her face on the corner of that book, and took some of the sheen off of it. It reminds me of her at least.
55) Mothership
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| Cover of the Mothership Player's Guide by Tuesday Knight Games |
I wrote a little about Mothership last year when we went to Tabletop Scotland. Looking at the cute boxed set of the standard edition – how it had multiple little A5 books, dice, a screen, and more – just inspired me so much, and filled my head with ideas for how to produce games on a similar scale. So darn cool.
Of course, we had to play it. The actual game experience was very like ALIEN (see number 50 on this list), with the same feeling of fragility in the characters, and impending doom. Space is flipping dangerous, and full of horrific nightmare creatures. It was good! We didn't feel incompetent, the skill level was about right, and we encountered some disgusting monsters. It was just so depressing and ominous.
Very good, but doom-laden.
56) Harrowhill Point
Harrowhill Point is an RPG I've been working on for a while with a few of my trusted and regular writers. It's survival horror, in the same vein as Silent Hill or Alan Wake, and I can't really discuss much more than that. We've been playtesting it, and the playtests were SUPER helpful and really worked to bring the epic story of horror and weirdness together. Hopefully, it should he heading to Kickstarter through Cubicle 7 sometime next year.
57) Mythic Bastionland
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| Cover of Mythic Bastionland by Bastionland Press |
And, possibly finally, we are currently playing Mythic Bastionland. Once again, I watched a Youtube video by Quinns (see his Quinns Quest Youtube Channel, it's very good) and was instantly sold on an RPG. It wasn't the subject matter or the game system so much, rather the lovely design and layout. I bought a copy and didn't really expect to play it, I just absorbed the way it was put together and the gorgeous artwork.
The other players in my group were intrigued, especially Stoo who fancied running it, and so we generated characters, created a map, and off we went.
It's been good so far – the random element feels a bit odd, and once you realise how the game works (with the D6 every hex determining what happens) it feels like you've seen behind the curtain, and all the pressure is on the GM to 'make stuff up on the fly'. The communal combat rolls are an interesting new take, and took a little getting used to. It means you have to think tactically as a group, but I sometimes feel it takes away from the individual drama of a fight, and the crazy random outcomes from a bad roll.
It's been fun though!
... what next?
What is next? Of course, this is discounting the D&D 5e game I've been playing monthly with my old gaming group from the 80s (still going strong!) but as it's just D&D and I've already listed D&D right at the start (okay, you pedants, I know, that was AD&D 1st ed, not 5e) I didn't think it required listing again.
Next, I think it's going to be going back to The One Ring, though I know we talked about Slugblaster for a while (another bit of pimping by Quinns inspired that one), along with my constant desire to run something weird an investigative like Masks of Nyarlathotep or Delta Green's Impossible Landscapes. Who knows!
Okay, that's one series of blogposts that I started finally finished.
I guess I should finish off the #RPGaDAY posts for this year, and go back to my other weird reminiscences.
Until then, stay multi-classy.
