#RPGaDAY2023 - DAY TWELVE: Old game you STILL play

 #RPGaDAY2023 and we're on to Day Twelve, looking at an old game you STILL play. Originally I talked about the legendary Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG, mostly as it was a work of genius and perfectly emulated the series. 

I haven't played anything old for a while now, mostly sticking to fairly recent games like the new version of The One Ring, Blade Runner, and Aegean. However, I have been looking through those old 'little black books' of Traveller again, amazed at how they managed to get complex rules into little 48-page A5 booklets. Kinda inspirational.

#RPGaDAY2023 - DAY SEVEN: SMARTEST RPG you've played

And we're on to Day Seven of this year's #RPGaDAY, and the first time around the question was a little different, asking about the most 'intellectual' RPG you own. 

Rather than be all high-brow, we've tweaked it a little to ask about the SMARTEST RPG you've played. 

Answering that one's a tricky one. There are some really clever games out there - one that I always mention is the brilliant Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG by CJ Carella for Eden Studios. It's nothing too complex, but it's a work of genius. You can't stake a vampire in the game until their health has been reduced to a certain level. Seems simple, but it means you have to have a fight with the vampire, wear them down a bit, before you can dust them. 

That simple rule means that you actually feel like you're in an episode of the series. You're kicking and punching vampires, then staking them, just like Buffy does!

Very smart.

Building Better Worlds

I should really plan my blog posts better, but sometimes you watch or read something and just feel like putting words on paper, so-to-speak. Please forgive me if this gets a bit ramble-y and off topic.

Many years ago I fell out of love with The Walking Dead. I loved the series, and loved the comics before it, avidly watching the TV series, and reading the comics every month as they came out - then buying those cool collector's hardcovers just so I had them safe and accessible without having to drag out the comic boxes and open each issue's bag one by one. It got to the arrival of Negan, and there was a scene that absolutely shocked me and turned my stomach. I kept reading the comics, but the memory of a certain character's demise (and one of my favourite characters in the Walking Dead universe) kept creeping in. 

About ten or fifteen issues later, I remember reading it and thinking "why am I reading this? This just feels like prolonged trauma." Rather than put myself through the misery of watching these people suffer any further, I bit the bullet and cancelled my order for it at the comic shop, turning to other comics that didn't feel miserable... 

And then, that happened in The Walking Dead TV series. (Season 7, episode 1). You know the bit. And it all came flooding back. My wife stopped watching, and I gave up there and then. 

Many years have passed, and then along came Free League's announcement of The Walking Dead Universe RPG, and I thought to myself... "should I go back to the TV series?" And I did... I started from the episode after the trauma inducing incident where I stopped watching, and I'm getting back into it... Sure, I hate Negan with a passion, but you're supposed to. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is absolutely brilliant in the part, but why do people love him so? How does he get to be in a spin off? I'm still in Season 7, so don't tell me, but honestly, I think there should have been a #JusticeForGlenn hashtag going around. 

I backed the Kickstarter for the RPG, of course, because I love Free League's games, but the thing that really stood out for me was their announcement the team behind the TV series were involved with the 'game universe' to ensure that the events that play out in the game, and their streamed game fits in with the series. I think the plan is that the events of the streamed game is 'canon' to the Walking Dead setting. 

It's a brilliant marriage of game and license. And it could work both ways. Just look at the history of licensed games. Back in the dim and distant past, when there were only three Star Wars movies, and my favourite game company in the 80s (West End Games) produced the first (and amazing) Star Wars Roleplaying Game, WEG created new worlds, new characters, locations, droids... 

And some of those locations and characters have made it into Star Wars canon, mostly thanks to the Heir to the Empire trilogy if Wikipedia is to be believed. More recently, license-holders have seen the value of tabletop RPGs as a way to spread the word of their media, with the Carnival Row RPG (a free downloadable PDF through Nerdist and Monte Cook Games) that was created to promote the Amazon TV series, and The Green Knight RPG that A24 created as a full 'starter set' format game to promote their movie of the same name.

Heck, when I was working with Eden Studios on the Buffy RPG, we were putting the Slayer's Handbook together and remember us saying "Maybe we could ask Fox what Faith and Kendra's last names are?" Eden asked, months passed, but we got a reply - they didn't have last names, but Joss Whedon decided what they would be (Lehane and Young) - and those names became part of canon for the Buffyverse ever since.

Tabletop RPGs can fill in those blanks in a chronology, or missing information. And I guess that's why I called this post "Building Better Worlds" like the Weyland Yutani Corp. Just think of your favourite TV series or movie, and think of how small the actual place or time is involved. TTRPGs can expand and develop areas you've never imagined. Just like the Shackleton Expanse in the Star Trek Adventures RPG by Modiphius - a region of space unused by the series or novels, but on the map of the Star Trek galaxy. 

Here are some examples - 

The Magicians - one of my favourite book series and a fantastic TV series. But what about other students at Brakebills? Other years? What else could be going on in Fillory?

Twin Peaks - one of my favourite TV series. There were 20+ years where we didn't see what happened in that strange little town. And what's happened since Cooper changed the course of history? 

Battlestar Galactica - another ship in the fleet, or another Battlestar that was lost?

James Bond - he's 007, what about the other Double-O's? 

Stranger Things - What happened in the 70's? The 90's? What about the rest of the lab's experiments? Other 'gates' to the Upside-down? 

The X-Files - What happens after Season 11? What about between Season 9 and 10, when the X-Files were 'shut down'? New agents, continuing the investigations even if it's in an 'off the books' capacity. 

Sapphire and Steel - we only really saw Sapphire, Steel, Lead, and Silver in action, what about all those other medium-atomic weights investigating temporal disturbances?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - after Season 7, there are many Slayers out there in the world, all needing training, guidance, and with their own Scooby-gang to help face the demons and vampires.

I guess, the familiar universe and setting, but the potential to do your own thing within those worlds, is why I love licensed RPGs. And while the publishers are fleshing out the world(s), the IP-holders can take this as inspiration for their universes and build bigger worlds. 

Your Licensed Game Is Awesome!

Been a while since I've posted anything on here, I know. The last post was prompted by some serious backlash against a game I had been collaborating on, and the internet space was all getting a bit nasty. So, I took a break from the internet, focused on my work, and doing stuff in the evenings that wasn't tabletop writing.

I dipped my toes into the internet waters again to see if there was anything good happening, and stumbled upon an article in my feed (which I won't link to) that basically said licensed tabletop roleplaying games sucked. I was angry, hurt, and offended - mostly as the image they used for it was the cover of the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game. So, everyone was seeing this article with the headline 'Your Game Sucks' with an image of the game I'd been working on (off and on) for the last thirteen years.

Hard not to be offended!

The actual article itself was basically saying that licensed RPGs were bad, because you (as a player) didn't have the power of a bunch of scriptwriters, and no game could feel as cool as the licensed property it was based upon. 

So I thought I'd take to the blog, and voice my rebuttal. 

Licensed RPGs are awesome.

--

Some of the best roleplaying games I've played, and the most fun I've had, have been playing licensed tabletop RPGs. The first game I GM'd was Star Frontiers, and I was so obsessed with movies and TV series that I populated the epic star-scape of Star Frontiers with lightsabers, T-800 Terminators, Transformers, and more. However, when publishers started actually making RPGs based on some of the movies and series I was so fanatical about, that was when I started having the most fun with roleplaying.

The first licensed game I bought and played was the, now legendary, TSR Adventures of Indiana Jones RPG. Sure, it didn't have character creation in the basic box, and I spent hours typing up a character creation chapter of my own to allow players to generate their own globe-trotting adventurers. But we had fun with it, playing ridiculous adventures of raiding tombs, punching nazis, and action packed thrills. It was great, and something that sticks with me to this day is the excellent 'Judges Survival Pack'. In that little supplement was, not only the character creation rules I desired, but also some fantastic 'random tomb generator' tools, to ensure the GM (or Judge) had a fresh ancient tomb, filled with traps, on hand.

To top this off, there was the amazing 'Chase Flow Chart' that provided an endless stream of roads, buildings, paths, and obstacles for foot or vehicular chases. It was brilliant, and a fantastic idea that I haven't really seen again. 

Hot on the heels of that in my gaming was another legendary game — Ghostbusters. The 'Frightfully Cheerful Roleplaying Game' produced by West End Games. 

To say this game changed my life is an understatement. It was written with a comedic tone filled with self-referential comments and jokes, that made it an absolute joy to read. I LOVE Ghostbusters. Seriously, I was obsessed with the first film, so much so that I bought the VHS when the film came out on rental, before it was available to buy, so I could watch it over and over again. 

I read the game, chuckling away to myself at the jokes and just how cool the game was. This was fun to read, and I had that moment of clarity when I realised if it was that much fun to read, it must have been fun to write — I want to do that!!

As documented here on the blog, I spent hours sat at an electric typewriter, hammering away to create adventures for Ghostbusters, photocopying the manuscripts and sending them off to West End Games. Waiting months for it to get there, and eagerly awaiting a reply. While it was a "no", it was an encouraging no, and it is the reason I wanted to become a roleplaying game writer and designer.

Shortly after Ghostbusters, the seemingly unstoppable West End Games produced the one game I wanted more than anything in the Universe — Star Wars. I was obsessed with Star Wars from before I'd even seen it, from the moment my dad brought home those first couple of action figures for me. Everything was Star Wars, and nothing could top it for me. When I first started roleplaying, Traveller and Star Frontiers were just Star Wars in my head. So when WEG brought out the Star Wars roleplaying game, using a version of the Ghostbusters D6 system, I was instantly sold.

It was great, and we had many epic games of dodging swarms of TIE Fighters, using force powers, shooting at Stormtroopers, and sneaking around Imperial bases.

The production was cool, and after so many years of black and white illustration in roleplaying rulebooks, to have them punctuated with glossy inserts of full colour, and that "Join the Imperial Navy" advert that looked like the armed forces ads that we were familiar with, was just brilliant. Seriously loved that game.

It was towards the end of the 'golden age' of my roleplaying gaming (before I had a bit of a break from gaming) that I delved into the realms of Victory Games' James Bond 007 RPG. 

Again, another perfectly executed game, with brilliant rules to make your character the suave and educated spy that you'd expect from a Bond movie. I loved Bond movies, from my first trip to see The Man With The Golden Gun, so to get the opportunity to run games with cool gadgets, powerful villains, and dangerous henchmen, I couldn't pass it up. After picking up the main boxed set, and one of the adventures, I saw how fantastic the production values were on them, especially the amazing handouts, and saw the awesome chase rules, I just couldn't stop until I had the complete collection (a collection I only really managed to complete in the last few years).

However, the James Bond 007 RPG is often regarded as being the first game to employ 'Hero Points' — a revolutionary development that has continued into games even today. Fantastic.

I'd taken a break from gaming, and returned to the scene in the early 90's when Vampire caught my eye, but many years later I became obsessed with the TV series The X-Files. As there wasn't a roleplaying game for The X-Files, a friend of mine recommended the closest thing, in the form of Eden Studios' Conspiracy X. This got me reading Eden's games, and got me my first real writing gig in the gaming sphere... I was busy working on Terra Primate when Eden got in touch about another of my favourite TV shows of the time...

Eden Studios' Buffy The Vampire Slayer RPG is another one of those brilliant licensed games that actually felt like the source material. Using a lighter version of CJ Carella's Unisystem, the Buffy RPG cleverly meant that you had to fight vampires to weaken them, before you could stake them. Just that little element meant that you had to punch and kick those pesky bloodsuckers until you could stake them, which meant it felt like an episode of Buffy. You did research, you went on patrol, you beat up some vamps, and dusted them. 

And the whole book was written in that lighthearted and accessible way that Ghostbusters was, filled with pop-culture references in the way the Buffy series was, and the way the Buffy characters talked. Just fantastic.

Filled with full colour glossy images, it was freaking glorious, and perfect for a group of vampire hunters, witches, watchers, or even slayers (if you continue from the end of season seven). I loved working on those books, and watching episodes over and over to get the floorplans for locations. 

When it comes to licensed RPGs that do things brilliantly, and perfectly reflect their source material, it's hard to ignore Leverage, published by Margaret Weiss Productions. Utilising a streamlined and modified version of their Cortex system (that was so brilliantly employed in their Smallville RPG), it boils stats and skills down to their core components, and the roles the characters have in the heist - hitter, hacker, thief, mastermind, and grifter. Everyone can do everything, but some are specialists in their field. 

Add to this the brilliant way they construct the anatomy of a heist, it's just a revelation. It was really one of those games where I read through it and kept saying 'I wish I'd thought of that' over and over again. 

Mentioning Smallville though, the relationship mapping when you're creating the game — how everyone knows each other, and significant places and events, is just brilliant. Seriously, you should check it out if you can. And it's a great supers game as well, where the characters don't feel impossibly overpowered.

Okay, you're probably getting bored by now, so I'll just do two more before I wrap up.

One of my favourite games of the last ten years — heck, one of my favourite games ever — is a licensed game. Based upon the artwork and artbook of Simon Stålenhag, Tales from the Loop is an amazing game, and an absolute revelation when I read it. In an alternate 1980s, where robots are common, and weird experiments at the Loop have resulted in time travel, weirdness, and mutation, Tales from the Loop allows players to return to school days and investigate strange goings on. 

Not only does it perfectly capture the feel of the era and the paintings, but it was a complete revelation in rules design for me. The size of the rules section was so small, with an emphasis in the book on the setting and story, constructing mysteries and investigations, it just opened my eyes to how minimal the rules of a game could be. 

We had some fantastic games of Tales from the Loop, one so epic the characters aged to enter the Things from the Flood, failed to stop the Loop going horribly wrong and sending the world into a post-apocalyptic setting of Mutant Year Zero - then time travelling back to Tales from the Loop to try to stop it! Awesome.

And I guess you can't talk licensed games, and mention Fria Ligan, without bringing up the awesome ALIEN RPG. Using a modified version of the Year Zero Engine that powered Tales from the Loop, ALIEN added new stress mechanics that really made you feel like you were in an ALIEN movie. The couple of games I've played have been some of the tensest I've experienced, with a real sense of panic from the players and characters, feeling like your character could meet a horrible fate at any moment. 

The 'acts' of the cinematic play, adding motivations that change as the acts of the story progress, are a brilliant addition, meaning you're never really sure of the other player characters' motivations, and it perfectly reflects the feel of the movies. 

I haven't seen how extended campaign play works out yet, so that's something to look into, but for a short, sharp, shocking trip into the terrors of space, it's brilliant.

Saying that I'm always in awe of Fria Ligan games is putting it mildly, and with their licensed RPG of Blade Runner launching on Kickstarter this week, you can count me in.

So there you go. I love licensed games. I want to play more of them, I want to write more of them. It's in my blood, and has been for a very, very long time. 

Where Do We Go From Here?

Screenshot from Buffy: Once More With Feeling

 It's been a long time since I posted anything on my blog. Are blogs even a thing any more? 

After a particularly brutal weekend of comments over on social media, I thought I'd finally do something I've been meaning to do for a very long time and step back from that addiction to doomscrolling that is Twutter and Facebork. It's an addiction, and I know it's going to be hard - I mean, what else do I do?

A couple of months ago, I deleted a couple of apps from my phone (both themed 'candy crush' clones). I was on, like, level 2500 on one of them, and I used to constantly play in the background while I was watching TV and stuff. Probably a sign of something - my lack of being able to concentrate on anything for any length of time, and getting bored with everything incredibly quickly. Deleting these apps was a big step - I found myself actually paying more attention to what I was watching or doing, and taking in more information. 

So that was stage one.

Stage two, I haven't been able to bring myself to delete my social media presence - after all, I may want to do something on there to promote a book coming out, or to launch August's ninth #RPGaDAY. Heck, I may skip it this year, or leave it in the hands of the mighty Runeslinger. We'll see when it gets a bit closer. Getting rid of social media is something I've been thinking about for a long time - it just seems to be a terrible waste of my time (Twutter has become my replacement for moving coloured gems around the screen sometimes when I'm getting a little distracted). Most of the people I'm connected to on both major platforms I don't actually know - and I still get friend requests from people I've never heard of before. 

I want to use Facebork to keep in touch with my friends - the ones I actually know, used to go to school with, family, things like that. But instead, it quickly became a marketing tool for myself as a 'brand'. I shudder at the thought of that. And yes, I did it to myself. The whole "Autocratik" thing. 

On the subject of AUTOCRATIK, I see a lot of comments about Autocratic governments and dictators - that was never what the name was about. Originally, I wanted to do something for myself, and I created the comics brand "Autocratik for the Masses" as a pun on R.E.M.'s album "Automatic for the People". Then the comic publishing kinda died off, and I thought nothing of it. 

I'd formed a creative collective with some friends to produce a webseries and other comedy sorts, and when that fell apart horribly, and I wanted to disassociate myself from it all, I thought back to the old comic publishing days, and the name Autocratik leaped out. It wasn't because I was a dictator, it was just that I wanted to do things my way. I wasn't going to force people into my way of thinking or doing things, especially as the only person working for me was me. 

Anyway, the upshot of this ramble is that my social media presence is going to be minimised, but I've just paid to renew the domain on this site for a couple more years - so what do I do with the blog? I've kinda neglected it for the last couple of months, but I've been crazy busy. 

So I hope to post here a little more often, not expecting people to actually read it, but I'll still use it to post about what I'm working on, what I'm writing/drawing, what movies I've watched recently, and so on. 

Meanwhile, if you need to get in touch, you know where you'll find me.

[Roll Your Own Life] The TV That Shaped Me (Part 5)

Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)

While most of the planet has the TV series Friends, the series you can always rewatch over and over again and never get bored of it, for me it's Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

The original movie came out just when we were in our peak vampire-fandom (1992), when we were playing the Vampire: The Masquerade RPG, and had just seen the gloriously over-the-top Bram Stoker's Dracula. Then along comes this sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek movie of a cheerleader being told they are the Slayer - one girl in the whole world chosen to stop the vampires. The movie was fun, Rutger Hauer and Paul Reubens kinda stole the whole thing, but we enjoyed it loads...

But, it wasn't what what Joss Whedon, the writer, had in mind. Given the opportunity to continue the story for television, Buffy The Vampire Slayer lived again. Properly turning expectations of a horror movie on their heads, it was about empowerment, and the horror that is high-school amplified to be actual horror. You struggle at school, and want to be part of a group - what if that group are actually possessed by hyena spirits and eat people? You feel completely ignored and feel like you're invisible - what if you actually became invisible? And by season two, the real horror of sleeping with your boyfriend only for him to act like a completely different person the morning after - what if your boyfriend lost their soul?

I could go on, but you know the story and what it's about. When the series first started in the UK (Jan 1998 I think, on Sky) we remembered the movie and thought we'd give it a go. I remember I really enjoyed it, but wasn't completely blown away, but there was something about the dialogue that hooked you in.  As the weeks progressed, and the characters developed, you grew to love all of them.

The first season was a midseason replacement so only twelve episodes, and Buffy really got into its stride with season two and some of the big two-parters. Halloween (S2e6) was the point where my wife was completely sold on the series, and we became hardcore fans. We bought the VHS sets, the DVDs, the action figures, the books, the t-shirts, and engrossed ourselves in Slayer-lore.

We faithfully followed Angel as he span off at the end of season three to his own series (season three is still probably my favourite, with the introduction of the evil mayor, and the slayer-gone-bad, Faith). We worshipped at the church of Joss Whedon, and loved every minute. (Hmmm. Yes, I know, don't worry... I'm aware...)

By the time season five was airing, I remember seeing an advert for the season finale on Sky which showed [spoilers] Buffy's grave and I was outraged that they could spoil things like this. I hurriedly turned the channels over every time the advert appeared on TV to protect Debs from the spoiler, and she remained spoiler-free right until the moment Buffy dove off the construction tower at the end of The Gift.

I have a distinct memory of walking home one evening discussing with Debs how a Buffy The Vampire Slayer RPG would work - we came up with how the Merits/Qualities and Flaws/Drawbacks would work, and how you could create the "scooby gang"... then a couple of months later I got this email from Eden Studios saying they were starting work on the very same thing. I jumped on board, playtesting, working as assistant editor, and writing sections for the supplements. I was in my element. I remember the last thing I was doing for the line was watching episodes over and over again to work out floor plans for significant locations in Sunnydale - The Bronze, Buffy's house, Angel's mansion, etc - for the Welcome to Sunnydale supplement that never saw light of day. *sigh*

Buffy continued to be a bit of an obsession for us - we bought signed photos of most of the cast on Ebay, and our previous house had them all framed and hung on the walls (Buffy series ones in the living room, Angel series ones in the dining room).

Buffy had a knack of pulling off some standout special episodes. Hush in season four (almost completely silent as The Gentlemen steal everyone's voices) and The Body in season five (the traumatising and horribly realistic sense of loss when Buffy's mother dies - an episode completely devoid of music).

We heard there was a musical episode coming up in season six and - not being a fan of musicals - I was a little worried. But we had nothing to fret about - Once More With Feeling is still the best gimmick musical episode of a TV series ever. Amazing TV.


And then, at the end of season seven, it was all over. Sarah Michelle Gellar had decided it was time to call it a day, and the series came to a natural, perfect end. The forces of evil were at their strongest, with Caleb (played by Nathan Fillion) as a twisted priest communicating with the First Evil, unleashing powerful uber-vampires on Sunnydale. Potential Slayers were summoned, and evil was defeated in a brilliant and moving conclusion. Possibly one of the most satisfying endings to a series I'd become obsessed with.

Angel continued for another year, bringing fan-favourite Spike over from his Buffy tenure, but that was cancelled at the end of season five, and the world was without the Buffyverse once more.

Sure, it continued in comics, and again in comics, and has been sort of rebooted again in comics, and there is talk of a new Buffy series - a new slayer, new stories, but acknowledging the original - and thankfully not a reboot.

And after Joss Whedon's fall, I still love Buffy. As I said at the start, it is a series that I'll just watch over and over again, and if an episode is on TV I'll leave it on in the background while I work. It's perfect company.

#RPGaDAY 2016 - Days 19-24: Previously, on #RPGaDAY

There was a good reason why I didn't try to run #RPGaDAY this year, and it's a good job I did. Things got on top of me, dayjob, writing, and more... so I'm a little behind. That, and there are some questions this year that I really have no idea how to answer. Let's try to catch up ready for the final week...

Day Nineteen: Best Way to Learn a New Game?

When I first started playing RPGs, I played in other people's games. First of all it was JR's Traveller game, then Pete's AD&D and Runequest. The advantage there was that I was joining a game that other players already knew how to play, and they could guide me, help me with the rolls, and bring me up to speed.

The first game I bought to run was Star Frontiers, and by then I was more game savvy and after reading the rules multiple times before trying to run the game. But nothing actually beats playing. Playing gives you a real sense of how everything works.

I'd really like to experience FATE and how it works in play. It's all fine reading the rules over and over, but I haven't experienced it in action to see it actually underway. I think the only solution to that is watching "actual play" videos on Youtube.

Day Twenty: Most Challenging but Rewarding system you learned?

I guess the most challenging game has to be Nobilis. It really took a while to grok what was actually going on in the game, and it sat on the shelf for ages with me taking the "great white book" off of the shelf every so often to give it another try before giving up again with a resounding "I have no idea what's going on..."

Then I read the examples of play, and everything really clicked into place. While I still haven't played Nobilis, the realisation of how it works was excellent and really opened my eyes to a different way of playing games. One day, I hope to experience it in action.

Day Twenty-One: Funniest Misinterpretation of a Rule in Your Group?

That one I have no answer for. I don't think we've ever misinterpreted a rule and had a funny result. We've usually just realised that something wasn't making sense and ignored it, getting on with the game.

Day Twenty-Two: Supposedly Random events that keep recurring, and
Day Twenty-Three: Share one of your best "worst luck" stories.

I've merged these ones together, because the most recent "worst luck" story is mostly due to a "supposedly random event". We tried our hand at The One Ring recently, so that our usual Star Wars GM could get up to speed for running it at GenCon. However, I think were was something wrong with my set of dice for the game. Considering we must have rolled about 10-20 times each evening, easily over 50% of the time we were rolling the "Eye of Sauron" on the d12. Bad, bad, bad...

Especially in combat with a bunch of brigands.

Which brings us to today...

Day Twenty-Four: What is the game you are most likely to give to others?

The game I'm most likely to give to someone is going to be Conspiracy X 2.0. I loved that game, and very happy with how the new version came out. And, thanks to Eden, I have multiple copies as the author / line developer. It's a great example of a neat, compact, portable RPG book with everything in a series of small books.

Game I'd LIKE to be able to give to others, would probably be the old WEG Ghostbusters, or Eden's Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG. Probably the finest examples of accessible and cool RPGs ever produced.

Right, that's it! I'll try to keep up for the last week!

Until then, LLAP and Stay Multiclassy!

#RPGaDAY 2016 - Day 17: What Fictional Character?

What Fictional Character would you like to have join your group? That's another weird one, but at least I have a few answers for that. Especially as a lot of the gaming I do is based on licensed settings.

How about Mulder and Scully joining in a game of Conspiracy X?

Jar Jar Binks coming along to our current Star Wars game (that would be fun!).

Jacob the Pathfinder (from the movie Ink) to help playtest WILD?

The Doctor, joining in on a game of Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space?

No, I think the one I'd have to go for would be Rupert Giles, playing the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG. See how long it takes for him before he gets knocked out in a fight... Bloody priceless.

#RPGaDAY2015 - Day 28: Favourite Game You No Longer Play

(Oh, to the tune of "Love Story"...)

Where do I begin?

There's such a long list of games that I don't play any more. Most of the time it's because I don't have a gaming group, or the time, but some games really stand out from the others as being sorely missed...

Kult, Mage: The Ascension, Star Wars D6, WitchCraft, Ghostbusters... the list goes on. But I decided to go for a different game for my choice.

Special guest on today's video is the awesome Cat Tobin who has picked, not one, but three totally amazing games that she wishes she could play, or play more of. Great choices too.

Ho well, three more days to go!

#RPGaDAY2015 - Day Eleven: Favourite RPG Writer

Day Eleven of #RPGaDAY2015 and it's another tricky question. So many great writers, so many great games, and even more tricky is that I'm friends with a lot of them, even if it's only over the interwebs.

However, picking my favourite writer(s) came down to the one game that really changed the way I looked at RPGs and how they are written. Previous games I'd played and run were very "traditional" or "old school" - after all, it was the early 80's... but then along came this one game that didn't take itself so seriously, and had a "voice". A real voice that wasn't just "turn to the table on page 37". It was a voice that was full of character, charisma, sarcasm and humour.

And that game was West End Games' "Ghostbusters".

It wouldn't be until many, many years later that I'd see that sort of writing again in the form of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG. But that Ghostbusters RPG changed the way I game, and made me want to not only write RPGs, but write RPGs like that.

#RPGaDAY2015 - Day 6: Most Recent RPG Played

Ah, the wonders of the day-job... it's getting close to deadline, uploading the video for Day 7, while I hurriedly write a blog-post for Day 6.

So, Day 6 - Most Recent RPG Played. 

That one's pretty easy, as I'm only really playing one game at the moment which is a medieval fantasy style setting using cinematic Unisystem. Yes, this is the very game I was levelling up my character when I blog-posted on Tuesday! (Hopefully she won't keep failing her rolls now).

As always, share and enjoy!

#RPGaDAY in a Day. A Month in Review

Wow. Well, August is over, and #RPGaDAY was amazing. I thought it would just be a bit of fun - August is a bad month for a number of reasons, and it would be a good distraction - and I thought it would be nice to talk about the cool and positive side of tabletop gaming, and get everyone reminiscing and feeling nostalgic for those great games we've played, characters we loved, and encounters that have stayed with us over the years.

I really wasn't expecting it to be so readily adopted by so many people worldwide. To hear the name "Autocratik" being spoken on Brazilian vid-casts as people the other side of the planet to me started discussing their favourite adventure and favourite games was just amazing.

Thank you everybody who took part, started following me on Twitter or liked the Facebook page, or just spread the word about #RPGaDAY. Thank you everyone.

I've seen people comment saying that it has helped with their word count to get their blog-writing motivation going, some have said that it has helped them through a bad month as well, some even mentioned that they've learned a lot about writing through working through the questions. I'm just stunned. I'm really overwhelmed that people got so much out of it. Fantastic.

Quite a few people I've followed have summed up their 31 entries in a simple, single blog entry and have suggested that I do the same. So here goes!

Day 1 - First Game Played

As chronicled many, many, many, many months ago, it was original LBB Traveller.

Day 2 - First RPG Gamemastered

Again, chronicled in the early days of this blog, it was the glorious Star Frontiers.

Day 3 - First RPG Purchased

The blue (wizard) covered AD&D Player's Handbook. Bought that before Star Frontiers, to join in with the AD&D game. Still owned today.

Day 4 - Most Recent RPG Purchase

The rather awesome Atomic Robo RPG (powered by Fate), bought at the same time as the new D&D 5th Edition / D&D Next Starter Set.

Day 5 - Most Old-School RPG Owned

While I looked at the old white-box Warhammer, I plumped for TSR's old spy RPG Top Secret. (Finding it hard to write that without the exclamation point, but that's a whole different kind of game involving Val Kilmer...)

Day 6 - Favourite RPG You Never Get to Play

I went for Leverage. Amazing looking game, just don't really have any players...

Day 7 - Most Intellectual RPG Owned

Had to be Nobilis. Gorgeous, but way, waaaay smarter than I am.

Day 8 - Favourite Character

As I don't get to play much, as I GM more than I play, I opted for a bunch of characters that I enjoyed GMing for - the old Mage / Kult / WitchCraft game I used to play. The rather amazing little group of goths that hung around a strange mansion in north London. Awesome.

Day 9 - Favourite Die / Dice Set

I went for my very first D20, which I store in a sad little display box...

Day 10 - Favourite tie in Novel / Game Fiction

The rather amazing Dark*Matter novels which captured the weird X-Files feeling perfectly and kept my head in the right mood for writing Conspiracy X 2.0.

Day 11 - Weirdest RPG Owned

There were a few that leapt to mind. I went for Price of Freedom, which was an odd choice for a subject for a game. While I nearly went for the Xena and Hercules RPG by WEG, I also picked out the Neon Genesis Evangelion RPG, which I've never read as it's entirely in Japanese.

Day 12 - Old RPG You Still Play / Read

I've just started playing a fantasy game that uses the Buffy version of Cinematic Unisystem, so that's really the old RPG I still play (possibly because it's the only game I still play at the moment).

Day 13 - Most Memorable Character Death

Ah, my poor and stupid thief character who enjoyed setting off traps. I guess he deserved everything he got. Pull those levers, see what they do!!!

Day 14 - Best Convention Purchase

One of the elusive supplements for the James Bond RPG - Thrilling Locations!

Day 15 - Favourite Convention Game

CJ Carella's demos of Buffy that were happening on the table next to the Eden Studios stand at Gen Con UK was amazing. 

Day 16 - Game You Wish You Owned

Coming back to the awesome James Bond RPG by Victory Games, I picked the Assault tabletop battle game that I was missing. And possibly some of the other Bond supplements I'm missing like Dr No and Octopussy...

Day 17 - Funniest Game You've Played

It could only really be one choice, and that was Ghostbusters... love that game.

Day 18 - Favourite Game System

While I love Unisystem, really enjoyed oWoD, and WEG's D6 system, I've had the most fun writing and using the Vortex system. Bit of a gratuitous self-plug, but it's not because it's the best game system, but one I've had the most fun with.

Day 19 - Favourite Published Adventure

I picked out two - again with the James Bond with For Your Eyes Only, and secondly with the immensely creepy Kult RPG's "The Judas Grail".

Day 20 - Game You'll Still Play in 20 Years' Time

Again, I went for something a little self-referential, and mentioned WILD.

Day 21 - Favourite Licensed RPG

While I could have mentioned James Bond, Ghostbusters, Star Wars, Buffy, Firefly, etc... I decided to rant about the lack of Harry Potter RPG, and how much I want to write it...

Day 22 - Best Secondhand RPG Purchase

Which were the first editions of CJ Carella's games WitchCraft and Armageddon. One day I'll get them signed...

 

Day 23 - Coolest Looking RPG Product

I love square books...  so it has to be Nobilis again!

Day 24 - Most Complicated RPG Owned

I own a lot of complicated games, but I think GURPS and 4th Edition D&D would probably win... But a special mention goes to Space Opera.

Day 25 - Favourite RPG no one else wants to play...

Everway look amazing, but I get the feeling that I'd never get any of the players I know to give it a go...

Day 26 - Coolest Character Sheet

The coolest character sheet that I've seen in recent years has to be the amazing Numenera RPG's sheet... very cool, gorgeous and folds in an interesting way!

Day 27 - Game You'd Most Like to See A New / Improved Version Of...

Again, another chance for me to rant about games I'd love to write - James Bond and Star Trek.

Day 28 - Scariest RPG Played

Some of the events and encounters in the Kult game were incredibly tense, and one of the most jittery experiences of gaming I've had.

Day 29 - Most Memorable Encounter

This one had to be John's Call of Cthulhu game, with one of our player characters going mad and running off to become a follower of Y'golonac, sprouting mouths in the palms of his hands. Really creepy.

Day 30 - Rarest RPG Owned

I love the limited editions of games, but like a lot of avid RPG collectors, the rarest and favourite of my RPG collection is Last Unicorn Games' "Dune" RPG.

Day 31 - Favourite RPG of all time...

Surprising everyone, my favourite RPG (well certainly the one I have the fondest memories of) is West End Games' Star Wars RPG. Glorious game, setting the bar for licensed RPGs to follow...

-

And that was it!!

If you want to suggest topics for the daily questions for next year, feel free to drop me a line in the comments.

If you enjoyed #RPGaDAY, head over the Will Brooks' Facebook page, and his Twitter, and show your support.

Thank you again for taking part. Keep playing games and above all...

Stay Multiclassy!!

#RPGaDAY - Day 30: Rarest RPG Owned

I do have a bit of a thing for those collectors editions, like the leather bound D&D 3.5s, the collector's Buffy RPG books, and the leather bound Deadlands... but Dune deserves a special mention...

#RPGaDAY - Day 15: Favourite Convention Game

It's the 15th of August, and Gen Con is well underway. As part of the convention theme, let's talk about our favourite convention games...

#RPGaDAY - Day 12: Old RPG you still play / read

Day 12 of #RPGaDAY is "Old RPG You Still Play / Read". Given half the chance, that would be half of my collection... but I don't actually get to play very much. However, I've just started a game which uses an old system, just interpreted in a different way...

Bad At Games IV - Joss Whedon killed my Playstation

Let’s get this out there straight away – I used to hate Microsoft. Okay, maybe not Microsoft as a whole, but I have never owned, and probably will never own, a traditional PC. It comes from my education background going through Art College and then to the “University of the Arts” as they now call the college where I did my degree. Doing graphic design lead you down a very specific route in my day, and that was purely Apple Mac. We have an old Centris in the loft, a G4 carbon tower that hasn’t been switched on in years, and had a variety of Mac laptops from the “wall street” upwards. Bill Gates was not welcome in our house - we were very much Mac-whores.

When it came to gaming, the Macs were never really gaming machines. All you really had was Marathon, so we did all of our video gaming on the PS2. Final Fantasy dominated most of my time, along with the legendary GTA: Vice City with its uber-cool soundtrack of 80’s pop and Miami Vice colour scheme. The wife continued through the various incarnations of Tomb Raider, but all that would change with a simple competition entry.

Buffy the XBox Game (2002)

Wifey and I are huge fans of Joss Whedon. This came originally from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, first with the movie, and then with the TV series. The pop-culture referencing snappy dialogue, the cool action, the great plots. We were hooked. I spotted a competition online on one of the larger UK sites to win a copy of the XBox video game of Buffy and I did what everyone would do in that situation and clicked enter without really thinking about it. It was Buffy. So what if we couldn’t play the game, we were devouring all things Buffy and it would be nice to add to the collection.

Typically, we won. The game arrived in the post and we were unable to play it for months. Months and months. The idea of owning an XBox really hadn’t crossed our minds, but we had this game, and the urge to play it grew and grew. Again, the offer of a second hand console cropped up and as it was cheap we thought we’d get it so we could finally play the game. 

Buffy kicking the vamps in the XBox game

And what a game it was! Brilliant stuff, running around decapitating ghouls with a shovel, staking vampires, and running around our beloved Sunnydale. Neither of us actually finished the game though, as the final levels decided to try to become a 3D platformer and it really was not built to be the next Tomb Raider. We just couldn’t get over some of the jumps, and in frustration the game was cast aside. 

But the local Game store had an XBox running in the shop with a demo of a particularly popular FPS called Halo. I’d not really heard of it before, and I had a few minutes to waste waiting for wifey to finish her shift at work, so I had a quick blast…

I didn’t know where I was or what was going on, but I was in a dropship just like Aliens again, jumping out onto a sunny beach with other troops running around. It was intuitive to control, looked fantastic, and I knew there and then that something was different about this game. Little did I know it would change my social life completely.

RPGnet Chat with Dan Davenport

Last night I did a late night Q&A on the RPGnet Chat with Dan Davenport and others in the chatroom, discussing all things Conspiracy X, Doctor Who and WILD. Below is an edited and formatted transcript of the chat. Enjoy! (You can read the full unedited transcript over at Dan's site - gmshoe.blogspot.com)

--

Dan Davenport: Alright! Dave, when you're ready, please introduce yourself and your games. The floor is yours!

Dave Chapman: Hi, I'm Dave Chapman. I've worked on lots of games for Eden Studios, including Buffy, AFMBE, Ghosts of Albion, Terra Primate and most notably I'm line developer for Conspiracy X 2.0. I was also system designer and lead writer on Cubicle 7's Doctor Who Adventures in Time and Space and now I'm working on my own project called WILD for my little publishing name Autocratik.

Dan: Any questions so far, or shall I get things rolling?

nick3: Well  I guess I should ask if more Conspiracy X 2.0 stuff is coming out

Dave: Yes, there's the Paranormal Sourcebook (thanks to Kickstarter) which is hitting shops this week, the Conspiracies Sourcebook which is in layout at the moment, and Extinction (the future of Conspiracy X) is in the works at the moment too... There's been talk of another sourcebook (The Operations Sourcebook) as well, and there are other books on my harddrive from the classic game that never saw print, so there's plenty of scope for the future.

nick3: The Conspiracies Sourcebook? Mind giving us a bit of information about it .

Dave: Sure. Like the other books, it takes existing classic ConX stuff and updates it (in this case, Sub Rosa, Aegis and Hand Unseen) but it also includes a lot of unseen material from the fabled Area 51 sourcebook... There's also some new stuff in there that builds to the future of the line (Extinction) and takes the game in a new direction. It's been Kickstarted, busted through its goals, and should be finished in the next couple of months. It's all written, it just needs layout, proofing and printing. 

Dan: And do I recall correctly that the Paranormal Sourcebook includes info from the 1st edition magic, psychic, and cryptid supplements?

Dave: Oh yes, only updated and converted to Unisystem. Kickstarter backers could get Zener cards with it, they'll be available to retail soon as well hopefully.

nick3: Are you guys going to aid some more stuff about CAPS?  That was a curious omission in the Paranormal Sourcebook

Dan: CAPS?

nick3: Dan, they are Aegis agency that studies the directly supernatural elements of the Conspiracy X world.

Dan: Ah, thanks.

Dave: CAPS is Center for Advanced Phenomenological Studies. Try saying that with a mouthful of marbles as my dad would say... As they're part of Aegis, I do believe they're covered in more detail in the Conspiracies Sourcebook's Aegis section. I'll check... I did write it five years ago, but I have been doing some additional updates recently.

Dan: Without giving too much away, the supernatural has a unified explanation in the ConX universe... How (or do) the cryptids fit in?

Dave: No problem. The book gives multiple explanations for each cryptozoological phenomena. Maybe it's seepage, maybe it's Atlantean constructs, it's up to the GM to decide what fits the campaign best.

Dan: Ah, I see.

Le_Squide: So, is seepage no longer the assumed truth behind all the weirdness?

Dave: Seepage is the cause of 99% of it, but weird things like the Loch Ness Monster, or Yeti, have very different origins... just to keep agents on their toes...

Dan: I spoke a bit about this to George regarding Extinction, but how do you plan on keeping it interesting and not just a matter of "Oh, great, more lizard guys"?

Dave: It all sounds a bit epic, but CJ Carella (creator of Unisystem) wrote Extinction before he became a recluse and vanished (hoping to avoid government agents I think). It's a huge game, but I see it like TV's "Falling Skies" meets "Halo", on a near future Earth. The Greys and the Atlanteans are about, but have very different parts to play in the battle against the Saurians. Lots of cyberware, nano tech, body modification, and magic has become recognised and public. It's gonna be interesting.

Dan: Really? I didn't realize it was that far in the future. Or is the high-tech stuff a result of interaction with the aliens?

Dave: Not too far, but with the way technology is developing at the moment, and with the Atlanteans predicting the return of the Saurian fleet they're stepping up the game and encouraging technological advances.

Dan: Aha. Gotcha. Are there any supernatural aspects to the enemy, or is that a purely human thing?

Dave: It's more of a human thing. Saurians are (*spoilers*) assumed to be Voids (except for the Dreamspeakers), so they haven't really gone into magic... but the idea of a corrupted Gna-Tall is a scary thought...

Dan: As I mentioned earlier, we discussed Doctor Who quite a bit with Nathaniel a while back, but I would just like to say that the system is awesome... and bears a more than passing resemblance to Cinematic Unisystem. Any thoughts on the subject? (Nat ran a demo game for me. He's local.)

Dave: Cinematic Unisystem was a great influence, one of the first games I'd played that really balanced a powerful lead (Slayer) and a group of White Hats (Scoobies).  When approaching Doctor Who, you had the same problem with The Doctor, and Companions, though in the more recent series, the companions have just as much to offer the story as The Doctor most of the time. Ensuring the poor player lumbered with K-9 has just as much to do and is just as capable in their own way during an adventure is tricky, but hopefully the game balances that.

Dan: How robust do you see the system as being? Obviously, it's been adapted to a more action-oriented setting in Primeval... Can you see it getting as much use as CineUni in various games? (And just because my regulars will be surprised if I don't ask this... could you see it handling pulp?)

Dave: I know the adaptation to Primeval was certainly more combat orientated, and it seems to work really well. I know it's also being used for a number of upcoming games that Cubicle 7 have coming out, but I don't know if I'm allowed to discuss what they are. As River Song would say... "Spoilers!"

Dan: Really? Cool. :)

Dave: I know one of the up coming games is certainly "Pulp-y" so hopefully that'll please your regulars!

Dan: DWPearce mentioned that it's a bit on the deadly side, Story Points aside.  What's your take?

Dave: It can be dangerous. It was a problem that initially came from Doctor Who - most of the weapons in the series are one-shot-kills. Hopefully, the Story Points keep people alive, and if you're running out of them, you're not doing enough dramatic and cool stuff to get them back!! Do something exciting!! There's also systems in play to exchange Story Points with other characters, and to keep you alive and healthy, but the best way to tackle combat in any game is to plan ahead, avoid conflict if possible, and take cover!

Dan: I saw that damage tops out at 1.5x in Doctor Who... Does that stay the same in Primeval? I tend to like rewarding sharpshooters/swashbucklers.

Dave: AFAIK, though you'd have to ask Gareth R-H about that, I haven't seen the final printed copy yet. Keep meaning to buy it!

Dan: Ah, understood. He's currently negotiating with the wife for a Q&A of his own. 

Dave: Yeah, must admit, he's the go-to guy for info on Primeval and Who at the moment, I had to take a step back from it all for a bit this year.

Dan: Okay, so can you tell us about WILD?

Dave: Ah, WILD... well, it stands for Wake Initiated Lucid Dreaming. It's an RPG that takes place in various levels of consciousness - from the waking world to many levels of dreaming. I like to think of it like Inception meets SuckerPunch.

Dan: What's the system like, and how does it handle what would have to be a wildly crossgenre setting?

Dave: It's even looser than anything I've worked on before. It's a new system, I've called "Rapid Die Movement". It's very fast and easy, and should handle anything. There's also an element of Tarot cards, and mandalas... Jung would be proud. 

Dan: How does the system work?

Dave: I can't give too much away, it's early days. There's only four stats, and five "skills", fairly simple dice pool. The depth comes from how dreams work, who's in control of the dream, how much you can alter them, and what happens when you lose control. In the real world there's a technology that allows dreamshare, built for medical and psychotherapy use but, then the military gets hold of it, there's black market copies for underground fight-clubs, dream recording, weirdness like that. Hopefully it should be good. And it may help with your real world problems and induce Lucidity too!

Dan: Are dreams potentially dangerous in the setting?

Dave: Dan, yes... think Nightmare on Elm St. And there's always an element that the dreams may escape. Just watch Paprika! 

Dan: (Oh, that's right... I do need to watch that. I bought it a while back...)

Snake_Eyes: Hello DaveChapman! what is your favorite Dungeons and Dragons module?

Dan: (Snake loves that question. :) )

Dave: Snake! Haven't played D&D since 1st Edition! Demonweb pits is the one that sticks in my mind. Dangerous!!!

Snake_Eyes: Awesome!!!

Dan: Yeah, I love that one. Even had a steampunk spider before steampunk was cool. :)

Dave: Oh, I may have played a 3.5 demo of Eberron about 3 years ago... Looking forward to seeing where 5th Ed goes though!

Snake_Eyes: What would you say is the best advice to give to an aspiring RPG writer?

Dave: Know the system, email the company, and WRITE! Write for free! Prove you can do it! My blog covers my attempts at getting into game writing since 1986, but I think the supplement I wrote for AFMBE is what convinced Eden to give me work. I wrote it on-spec, and it's never been used, but proved I could write for them... I became developer for Terra Primate from it, and the rest is history.

Snake_Eyes: :) Cool, nice to know.

Dan: Terra Primate is awesome, by the way. But you know that, because I reviewed it. ;)

Dave: Many thanks for that, dude. I didn't do much, just plugged the system into existing text, but it's a very underrated game.

Snake_Eyes: What is your favorite personal design you have created for rpgs, as a in rule mechanism?

Dave: Hmmm - I think the Initiative system for Doctor Who. That seems to go down well... allowing the Doctor to talk people out of a fight... I'm hoping the new system for WILD will surprise people too.

Dan: Would you mind saying a bit more about the initiative system, Dave? I've read and played it, but I'm not sure if Snake (or everyone reading the log of this chat) is familiar with it.

Snake_Eyes: Oh, yes I am a little familiar with the system, it allows the protagonist that wishes to engage in diplomacy a chance to act before violence begins?

Dave: Yes... basically, it breaks down into 4 phases. Talkers, Movers, Doers and Fighters. In that order. Gives people chance to talk their way out of a fight, to run away, to do something cool like open a door or trigger an alarm... anything rather than fight. You can fight, especially if you're in a UNIT style game. But in Doctor Who, the Doctor usually slides into a fight and gets them to lower their weapons - giving everyone a chance before the blasting and exterminating starts. I think it's that order... (it's been a while)

Dan: I'm told that there will be an alternate system for the UNIT supplement?

Dave: There's certainly mass combat rules in UNIT for when the troops are called in to fight armies of Cybermen, etc.

Dan: How would you describe the work of a line developer as it relates to the authors of individual game books?

Dave: It's not too different from just being an author, except when there's a line of books coming out, you're not expected to do them all yourself. So you call upon the people you know and ask them to help. Then you take their cool text, merge it into the format you need, and ensure the books have the same "voice"...

Snake_Eyes: What RPG books are you enjoying reading atm?

Dave: Just reading Nobilis (3rd) at the mo, as I loved (2nd) and wanted to see the difference. Leverage is amazing and highly underrated, and I'm looking forward to the Star Wars Beta making it to the UK... Speaking of being in the UK, it's 2:10am here and I've a dull day job tomorrow, I'll need to sleep soon!

Snake_Eyes: cool :)

Dan: So as line developer, is it your decision what comes out, and when?

Dave: Not really, it's usually when it's done, it's ready! Most of that's down to the publisher and the line developer's boss. They set the deadlines (if any)!

Snake_Eyes: well thank you very much DaveChapman, I hope you have pleasant dreams!!

Dan: No problem, Dave! We can call it a night if you need to hit the sack.

Dave: Thank you! I consider all dreams research - I'm cataloging some of them here for the game - http://wilddreaming.blogspot.com

Dan: Cool. :)

Dave: Thanks guys, it's been a blast. Anytime!

Dan: Thanks very much for staying up late to talk to us!