You ever have that feeling clawing away at the back of your head that you haven't finished something? You just can't seem to rest until that task is done and dusted? Well, I have, and one of the many, MANY things that has been pickling in its own creative juices is the fact that I never finished #RPGaDAY2025. I mean, I created the darn initiative to do #RPGaDAY, and here was me setting the worst example by not finishing it.
So, nearly eight months late, here is the final half of #RPGaDAY2025. I posted Days 1-16 here on the blog, so let's continue that format.
Day 17 - Renew
For day 17 I thought I'd draw the moment that my interest and excitement in tabletop roleplaying games was renewed, when I went off to University. I'd kinda given up on gaming, some of my group had gone off to Uni and moved away, and my mind was on other things, but when I went off to Uni to do graphic design and illustration, I was introduced to the wonders of Vampire: The Masquerade. First thing I did was blow most of my term's budget that first month on a load of Vampire books and a heap of d10s.
Day 18 - Sign
I couldn't think of anything cool to do for SIGN, and part of me just immediately thought of the weird 'mark' that is etched on some stones dotted around the sleepy little town in New England in the game we were playtesting. And how that sign could keep the Risen at bay...
Day 19 - Destiny
For Destiny, it's all about Tarot cards. A great tool for determining or divining your destiny, but also a great way to resolve tests in a tabletop RPG. The numbers can determine success or failure, but the images on the cards can add further meaning and description to the result, or even simply drawing upon which suit the card is for minor arcana. I used Tarot for task resolution in WILD, and I'm planning on using it again in my next personal game... (when I'm finally able to do it).
Day 20 - Enter
For Enter, I figured I'd do the entry way to a strange location. I had this idea of a doorway under the roots of a huge tree, the path lined with stones holding the earth back. I thought it would be a cool location for one of my games. I'm still pondering how to use it.
Day 21 - Unexpected
Day Twenty-One is Unexpected, and I thought I'd go with the most unexpected moment I've had in a game recently, which was my human character taking a Voight-Kampff test in Blade Runner, only to fail and be sent to holding as a suspected Replicant infiltrator. Really, really cool twist.
Day 22 - Ally
For Ally, I had to go with one of the most memorable allies we've had in our games, and that is Daraka, a Rodian Slicer who was our 'go to' guy for any tech issues we had in our Star Wars: Force and Destiny game. He became such an integral part of the story, we even did a few side-story sessions with Daraka as a playable character.
Day 23 - Recent
This was actually an easy one, as Recent simply meant to illustrate something from a recent game. At the time, we were early in our Mythic Bastionland game, so I thought I'd do a pic of my character, the Owl Knight, who was a bit bookish, but died in the most heroic way. He thought that going with the watery dryad who had taken a shine to him would mean the dryad wouldn't kill anyone else... well, it kinda worked. He thought he was going off to live with the dryad under the inland sea, and he did, for a minute or two... poor Ser Dorza...
Day 24 - Reveal
For Day 24, the topic is Reveal. So, let's talk about the only big game reveal I was involved in, which was Dragonmeet in 2007, announcing the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game, with Chris Birch, Dominic McDowall, Angus Abranson, and Fred Hicks. You can see the photo here... but I doodled my version of it.
Day 25 - Challenge
I challenge you, sir!! For Day 25, I thought I'd go with Mythic Bastionland again, as I seemed to be challenged to duels a few times. My replacement character (after the watery demise of Ser Dorza) was the Dusk Knight, but he was challenged by the previous Dusk Knight who had been lost.
Day 26 - Nemesis
Day 26 is Nemesis, and while I could have drawn a particular horsefaced warlock, or something to do with Romulans, but instead I thought I'd keep it TTRPG related and mention one of the first sourcebooks I wrote which has never seen the light of day. When I was trying to get my break into roleplaying games (the second time, many years after my first attempt in the 80s), I was trying to prove to Eden Studios that I could write something and knew the Unisystem well enough to do it for them. So, I wrote a complete supplement for All Flesh Must Be Eaten, a slasher horror book, where the evil entity you're facing, the seemingly unkillable slasher, is called the Nemesis.
Day 27 - Tactic
There's a whole part of tabletop gaming that is very tactical, and I'm afraid I'm not part of it. I really don't think tactically. I mean, I enjoyed playing X-Wing, and Shatterpoint, but I probably don't play tactically enough to really consider it 'tactical' at all. I kinda just shoot and hope for the best. I have fond memories of playing the old FASA Star Trek III ship combat game with the old gaming group, and I still have my Star Warriors ship combat game for the old West End Games Star Wars, which was fab. Cue TIE Fighter noises!! So, that's what I drew...
Day 28 - Suspense!
I dunno, having to wait 8 months for the final half of #RPGaDAY2025 seems pretty much like keeping you in suspense if you ask me. However, lots of suspense and tension in our game of Public Access, so I drew Joe, Debs' character, investigating the basement of the House on Escondido Street. Playing the game has been great and tense, but the actual way it works is taking a little to get used to. We had a long conversation about the mechanics and the lack of a definite solution, and how players could really break the game if they don't take it seriously.
Day 29 - Connect
Day 29 has the prompt Connect, and I'm hoping that #RPGaDAY in general helps people to connect to each other. I drew me playing D&D with my old group of 40+ years, because the game helps to connect us even though we are spread all over the world.
Day 30 - Experience
For Day 30, the prompt is Experience, and I guessed most people would describe something to do with how many experience points they've gained during a game, or what their most memorable experience of playing is. For me, I wanted to do the latter, and one of the most memorable moments I've experienced in gaming was GMing Kult back in the 1990s. My future-wife's character was upset about the demise of one of the NPCs, and decided to conduct the most epic and mind-melting series of rituals to bring them back, involving time travel and recovering a soul from hell...
Day 31 - Reward
The final day of #RPGaDAY2025 and it is Reward. I wanted to show what my reward was for doing this, and it's a complete sketchbook full of little doodles that relate to #RPGaDAY and it got me drawing again. Something I've been wanting to get back to for a long time. I've done some sketches for early versions of the WILD Tarot, but that was the first real drawing I've done since the old comic publishing days, so it's good to get back to it. I'd love to do all of the illustrations for my next personal project as well, but so far I've hated what I've done for them, and will probably attempt to redo them all. That's fine, I've rewritten the character creation chapter about a dozen times over the last six or seven years, so it's not going to get done for a very long time (and also, I can't really work on it at the moment for other reasons).
So that's it, my reward is a complete sketchbook... hurrah!
To quote Twenty0ne Pil0ts:
"Days feel like a perfect length, I don't need them any longer, but for goodness sake do the years seem way too short for my soul..."
Will there be another #RPGaDAY for 2026?
Who knows? I hope so...
