#RPGaDAY2024 - DAY FIVE: An RPG with Great WRITING

 

Day Five of #RPGaDAY2024 and this one is a sort of companion piece to yesterday's prompt about 'great art', today asking about an RPG with great writing. I'm an old gamer, so my first RPGs definitely read like stereo instructions. Going back to some of those rulebooks, I wonder how I ever worked out how to play them.

One that really stood out for me writing-wise was Ghostbusters, the classic West End Games RPG. It was the first one I really had fun reading. It was funny, easy to read, and was the game that inspired me to get into writing tabletop games. I remember that 'if it's that much fun to read, someone must have had a blast writing it' and I knew I wanted to do that. 

Later, one of the games that really stood out as having great writing was Eden Studios' Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG, written mostly by CJ Carella. CJ had taken the same sort of approach as the Ghostbusters game, kept it pretty simple, but made it fun (and funny) to read. An easily accessible style that made rules fun, and got you excited to play in the Buffyverse. 

Again, it really got me keen to write to RPGs, and I was lucky enough to be involved in playtesting, and contributed (both in writing and editing) the supplements, The Slayer's Handbook and Monster Smackdown. 

I miss Buffy...

It's been a while since I read an RPG and really had that 'I wish I had written something like this' moment. Tales From The Loop stands out recently, mostly because the game system is so simple and compact that I was blown away that it could accomplish so much with so little, basically. 

However, most recently, it was Kieron Gillen's DIE RPG, published by Rowan, Rook and Deckard, that had me squirming in that 'Damn this is so well written, I wish I could write like that' way... 

There's just something about the conversational tone of voice, and the masses upon masses of GM advice that really provides players with tonnes of options and opportunities for some seriously cool games. 

Of course, it doesn't hurt that the book is flippin' gorgeous, with some stunning layout and amazing production values as well. 

#RPGaDAY2023 - DAY FIFTEEN: Convention MODULE / ONE SHOT

We're at Day Fifteen of #RPGaDAY2023, and continuing the couple of posts about conventions as this was when GenCon occurred back in that first year of #RPGaDAY, so the question was about favourite convention game, but I've reworded it a tiny bit to look at convention one-shots and modules, just in case you have a favourite module or one-shot designed to be played at conventions or as introductions that you may not have actually played at a convention... if that makes sense...

My response is probably the same as before - while I wasn't an active participant, the Buffy game run by CJ Carella at the last of the UK GenCons was just a blast. Just listening in to the fun everyone was having, it was great.

#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.