Sidequest: Every TTRPG Played 51-57

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:

Every TTRPG I've Played 1-10

Every TTRPG I've Played 11-20

Every TTRPG I've Played 21-30

Every TTRPG I've Played 31-40

Every TTRPG I've Played 41-50

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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. 

Sidequest: Every TTRPG Played 31-40

Many, many moons ago, when I wasn't distracted by work, conventions, and other goings on in life, 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've tried to list them in some sort of chronological order. If you want to catch up, you can find the previous posts here:

Every TTRPG I've Played 1-10

Every TTRPG I've Played 11-20

Every TTRPG I've Played 21-30

So, without further ado, let's move on to 31-40!!

31) Buffy The Vampire Slayer / Angel

Cover of Eden Studios's Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG

Oh man, where to begin with this one. I was a MASSIVE Buffy fan, so when I started doing a little work for Eden Studios and they said they'd got the Buffy and Angel licenses, I was completely ecstatic. I did some editing assisting on the Slayer's Handbook and Monster Smackdown, and got really into rewatching episodes and trying to map out locations for the unreleased Welcome to Sunnydale. 

The Buffy RPG was brilliant, still is, and a real inspiration for many games I worked on. The way CJ Carella baked in the mechanic that you had to weaken the vampires before you attempted the staking move, made it feel like the series, having a cool fight before dusting them.

Still in my Top 5 RPGs of all time in my books.

32) Deadlands

Cover of classic Deadlands RPG by Pinnacle

Played a few games of Deadlands, and they were great fun. I played one of those magic-slinging types with the cards, and it was a really cool the way the game integrated using cards, poker chips, and dice. Really gave you a great feel like you're in the Old West. 

33) Terra Primate

Cover of Terra Primate by Eden Studios

While I'd been doing some editing and stuff for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and All Flesh Must Be Eaten, my first real writing and developing work was for Eden Studios again. I'd suggested some All Flesh Must Be Eaten supplements, but George suggested a helped out with a project they had been working on called Terra Primate. The text for the settings was all done, it just needed the rules plugging in and converting from AFMBE, and testing... Had to be play tested, of course!

I never realised there were so many options for 'Planet of the Apes' style games.

34) Farscape

The cover of the Farscape RPG from AEG

Ah, it was back in the days when D20 was an open license and everyone was making games using the D20 system. Again, if ever there was a game that shouldn't be D20, it was Farscape. Man, I love Farscape. It was a weird series... everyone kept telling me I should watch it, I tried the first episode when it aired and it didn't really do anything for me, but I caught the two-parter of the end of season one/start of season two, and wondered what I was missing. I immediately bought the DVDs, caught up, and was really hooked.

When AEG (back when they used to do RPGs) announced they were doing Farscape, and wanted playtesters, I signed up. I had pages of feedback for them... pages... and then the playtesting stopped, and we heard nothing more until the game came out. Haven't played it since those playtests, but it sits on my shelf as a reminder of what could have been. 

35) GURPS/Hellboy

Deluxe limited edition of the first Hellboy RPG, powered by GURPS

Back when we had the 'RPG Reading Group' at the bookstore I worked at, the first RPG of Hellboy appeared. I loved the comics, so was excited to check out the game. However, again, it was another licensed property that I thought had a game system that didn't work for it. I'm sure it was fine, but GURPS didn't do anything for me. Sorry. We did a session as part of the group, it was fun, but... that was it. Sits on my shelf with the other limited edition books and the Hellboy collection. 

36) Conspiracy X 2.0

Cover of Conspiracy X 2.0 from Eden Studios

I've mentioned so many times on this blog how I have always been obsessed with The X-Files, and I loved the first edition of Conspiracy X. However, the game system just didn't do it for me. I'm sorry. I know there were loads of First Edition Conspiracy X fans out there who were dedicated to the system, but it just felt odd that it was the only game that Eden produced that wasn't Unisystem. I pitched a conversion to George, and in a completely unhealthy way to deal with a loss in the family, I immersed myself in converting the game for a year. 

Once again, playtesting was the key here, and a few sessions playing through some of the classic ConX scenarios. One was incredibly helpful in fixing a rule or two if I remember correctly. Really cool.

37) Doctor Who: Adventures in Time & Space / The Roleplaying Game

Cover of the first edition box set of Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space by Cubicle 7 Games

I've talked about the Doctor Who RPG many times on my blog as well – how Chris Birch was in touch after Conspiracy X 2.0 came out, how we chatted about getting new people gaming, and how he knew people at the BBC. One thing lead to another and I developed the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space RPG, which later became simply Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game. 

Sounding a bit like a stuck record, this was playtesting again, making sure the game system worked. I ran a couple of tiny system tests, but the bulk of the playtesting game from the volunteer groups, and they helped shape it into the flexible game it is. 

38) Fiasco

Cover of Fiasco from Bully Pulpit Games

It's not all playtesting! We played a couple of one-shots of Fiasco as well with some friends. I can't remember too much about it — it was a scenario on a space station if I remember correctly. A murder mystery, may have involved aliens, certainly involved crawling around in air ducts. It's really interesting to play something quite so improv. It's quite freeing. Sometimes you need to try different games to experience new systems and ways of playing. 

39) Star Wars (Fantasy Flight Games)

Cover of the Force and Destiny Core Rulebook for FFG's Star Wars RPG

Yeah, I know, it has weird dice. But those weird dice produced some seriously epic moments. We played a lot of Star Wars – one campaign was a cool one where we played Padawan Jedi, during the Clone Wars and mid-mission, Order 66 happened and we had to go into hiding, start a resistance unit, join the rebellion, and take down as many of them as we could. There were some awesome moments, one involved riding a crashing Aethersprite then jumping off and landing on an AT-TE and lightsabering my way in. Of course, every time Vader turned up, we ran away. That was genuinely terrifying.

We also played games as troopers who switched sides, pirates, engineers, and smugglers. I can't remember a session of it that wasn't a complete blast. Our only gripe was we could do all these cool things, and do epic stunts, but when we had to jump over a gap we just kept failing. Typical!

40) Tales From The Loop / Things From The Flood / Mutant Year Zero

The cover of the Tales from the Loop RPG by Fria Ligan (Free League)

This one's really three-in-one, but it'll make sense. First of all, I have to state that I LOVE Tales From The Loop. Really cool, gorgeous art that inspired the game. Simple system on a minimal amount of pages. It just oozes weird sci-fi alternate 80s. I love the setting, really like the system, and then, to top it off, the campaign we played was flippin' epic.

We played as teenagers in the 80s in Great Yarmouth, close to the East Anglia Loop system. We discovered wacky time travel goings on, strange robots, and creatures as expected in a Loop game. And then, things progressed. We moved into the setting's sister game, Things From The Flood, as we grew up a bit and became older teens. Weirder things were happening at the Loop, and we failed to stop it happening. Something exploded, and the area was irradiated, and we moved the game into Mutant Year Zero. Setting up a sanctuary on the pier, we investigated what was happening, and faced the worst evil – my character's mother, mutated into a strange spider creature. We finally discovered what was at the heart of it all, and how to fix it, using weird occurrences in the Loop facility to time travel back to the 80s to prevent the disaster. We reset the timeline, and saved the county. 

Epic. 

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I think a couple more of these and I'll be up to date! Stay tuned, and stay multi-classy!

Sidequest: Every TTRPG played 21-30

Continuing my previous posts listing every tabletop RPG I've ever played, we're starting to get into the Nineties! Of course, just a handful of Eighties RPGs to get through, but we're getting there. 

If you want to catch up with the list in (sorta) chronological order, check out the previous parts here:

Part 1 - 1-10

Part 2 - 11-20

And now, without further ado, let's get on with it. 

#21 - The Price of Freedom

Cover of West End Games' The Price of Freedom

The Eighties were certainly a strange time when it came to the political climate (not that it's any more stable now). In the Eighties, the threat of war influenced movies, TV series, and games. Heavily influenced by Red Dawn, West End Games' TTRPG The Price of Freedom was all about guerrilla warfare in an occupied America. It was very tactical, and came with hex maps and counters for units. It was a bit bleak, and my players didn't really want to play in that setting, so I ended up converting it to play "V", the TV series of alien invasion with a deep message mirroring the horrors of WWII. 

Instead of fighting humans, the resistance was fighting alien Visitors. The hamsters and mice needed saving!

#22 - Robotech

Palladium Games' Robotech RPG

A bit of a strange one and a bit left-field, but for some reason I wanted to play with big robots, and spotted the Robotech RPG on the shelves at our local store. I bought it, read it, was thoroughly confused (it felt a bit like D&D) and we created some characters, but that may have been as far as it went. I'd never seen Robotech, so the concept of the aliens being flippin' giants didn't even occur to me (it wasn't that clear in the book I don't think, or I was just stupid). This may have been my only exposure to the Palladium system. I think someone else in the group had the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles RPG, but I never played it. 

#23 - Star Wars (West End Games)

Star Wars RPG (West End Games)

Look at it. It's beautiful. One of my favourite games of all time, up there with Ghostbusters, is the original Star Wars RPG by West End Games. I mean, I was a fan of WEG having played Ghostbusters, Paranoia, and The Price of Freedom, but when they announced they had the license for my favourite films that was me sold. 

The Star Wars RPG is just awesome. I know it has its foibles and there were times where we were rolling so many D6s that you could hardly see the table, but it was glorious. It really captured the action and feel of Star Wars. It was the last RPG I bought and ran in what I call my "Golden Age", and we played a heck of a lot of it. Probably so much my players were sick of it, but I loved it, and I loved Star Wars. Still do (with both). 

After that, things wound down for a bit. I went to college, a lot of the players went off to university, and gaming in general faded into the background for two or three years. 

#24 - Vampire: The Masquerade

Vampire: The Masquerade (1st Edition)

There is going to be a bit of a recurring theme here for a while, sorry. I went to the University of the Arts to do a degree (so I could do comics and graphic novels - see, that constant bouncing between comics and RPGs at it again). I'd gone away to Uni, met loads of new people, and immediately stumbled across a gaming group playing Vampire: The Masquerade. I'd never even heard of it, but was immediately hooked. This was back when we had student grants to help pay for our education, before it became 'loans', and I was terrible. I blew a chunk of my grant on buying a heap of Vampire books. This was going to be my next big thing. I ran a game for my old group, started another group locally with people from the comic shop, and set both games in the same city, at the same time, crossing over events and characters. 

Vampire got me back into gaming in a big way, and introduced me to my future wife. We joined the Camarilla, went to a couple of big Camarilla meetings. Heck, Debs was head of Clan Toreador for a while, while I was the second in command in Clan Tremere. 

#25 - Werewolf: The Apocalypse

Werewolf: The Apocalypse (1st Edition)

I told you there was going to be recurring theme... Of course, Vampire wasn't going to be enough, and when Werewolf: The Apocalypse came out, I was just as intrigued, aiming to add werewolves into our current Vampire game. As a bit of an aside, I ran a Werewolf story with my local group set in the same city as the Vampire game – their actions directly impacting upon the Vampire chronicle as a whole. It was fun! I think we did a couple of adventures like that... but then, something else came along.

#26 - Mage: The Ascension

Mage: The Ascension (1st Edition)

Oh yes, now we're talking. Vampire was cool, and goth, and moody. Werewolf was angry, and nature, and anti-corporation. Mage: The Ascension was just nuts. And we loved it. I ran a Mage game for our local group (who we still play with today) and it was amazing. Debs created a character that inspired so many works of fiction. The setting, the characters, the themes we tackled in those games were beyond anything we could hope to replicate. It was Quintessence in a bottle, rather than lightning. When the Paradox Backlashes hit, things went really weird, and yet we kept it all in the same city and story as the old Vampire game. Truly epic. Until one of the characters died...

#27 - Wraith: The Oblivion

The incredibly hard to read and over-the-top cover for Wraith: The Oblivion

So, one of the characters died in our Mage: The Ascension game, but no one wanted to see the end of that character. Luckily, White Wolf had just brought out the next in the line of World of Darkness games, with Wraith: The Oblivion. Therefore, the character remained in the Chantry, and joined in with the adventures, only as a ghost! We never played a dedicated game of Wraith, at least, not to my recollection. But we explored many of the themes and adventure ideas in the Wraith setting in our main WoD campaign. 

It was about this time I considered going back into writing roleplaying games again. 

However, things happened, I got grumpy, over-reacted, and turned my back on World of Darkness. I wanted to keep running the game we had going in Mage, keeping with weird magic and ghosts and supernatural stuff. That's when I turned to the next game in the list...

#28 - KULT

KULT (1st Edition)

The replacement for World of Darkness was an easy conversion over to the grim and terrifying world of Kult. Sure, the magic wasn't as easy to cast, but it made the game more creepy and somewhat sinister. The Mage character's Chantry was a pocket in the Metropolis, and things took a decidedly darker turn. There were still vampires and evil creatures, but the influences of Hellraiser were definitely there. Possibly the tensest games I've ever run, and some of the scariest stuff we've played, but it was cool and very 90s goth.

And that 2nd edition with the cool typography (rumoured to be done in MSWord)... oh, Lordy. That's so good. 

Maybe a little too dark, though, which lead to converting our existing game once again to yet another system...

#29 - CJ Carella's WitchCraft

CJ Carella's WitchCraft

More closely in line with the themes and tone of our old World of Darkness game, we switched over to CJ Carella's WitchCraft. I was initially drawn to the cover design, and that the game was a smaller digest format rather than the usual sized gamebook. It was smaller, easier to carry, had some great art, and the system felt very like the old World of Darkness. Of course, this introduced me to Eden Studios...

#30 - All Flesh Must Be Eaten

All Flesh Must Be Eaten (1st Edition)

We'd relocated to the other side of the country, and the gaming had come to a halt again. But there was a little gaming store on my way into work. In there, I spotted another one of Eden's smaller digest RPGs, the legendary All Flesh Must Be Eaten, a game of zombie survival horror. I didn't actually get to play it until many years later, after we'd moved back to where we were before, and I started hosting an RPG bookclub at the bookstore I was working at. Instead of reading a book and talking about it once a month, we'd pick a game, and run a short one-shot once a month. The members of the group could then buy it at a small discount if they liked it. 

I ended up running a quick one-shot of All Flesh Must Be Eaten, set on one of my sixth-form school trips. It was suitably over-the-top and complete carnage, but great fun. 

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That's it for the latest section. Possibly only a couple more of these to go, I find I'm buying games and reading them more than I get chance to play them these days. You may be surprised at the omissions when it comes to what I haven't played!! 

Until next time, stay multi-classy!

Sidequest: Every TTRPG played 11-20

Well, it's been one of those months again. In such a funk, and kinda down, that I can't really think of anything exciting to add to my blog. It's a good job I've got these ridiculous posts listing things to keep me moderately occupied, rather than just staring into the void. 

So, to continue from the previous post, Kieron Gillen inspired me to list every tabletop roleplaying game I've played. I did the first ten in sort-of chronological order starting with those first games I ever played. Lets see how bad my memory is as continuing the list from 11-20...

#11 - The Adventures of Indiana Jones RPG

Cover of TSR's Adventures of Indiana Jones game

I know, the much maligned Adventures of Indiana Jones RPG from TSR. I freakin' loved this game. Not as free and easy as you may think, involving lots of tables and weird slide-rule thingy, along with lots of cool cardstock miniatures and 3D models. I bought everything you could get for Indiana Jones, and I loved it. I even made a video about it last year. 

Loved it. Wish there was a new version so we can explore, adventure, and punch more Nazis. 

#12 - Warhammer Fantasy (1st Edition)

Cover of the old white box Warhammer RPG

Another game bought by one of our regular players wanting to run something different to AD&D. We should have realised it was going to be very different by the name - Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy Role-Playing Game. It really was quick, brutal, and our characters died very, very quickly. I don't think we got many games in, but after the GM moved to the other side of the world, that boxed set now sits on my shelves.

#13 - Golden Heroes

Cover of the Golden Heroes RPG

Next on the list is possibly our first foray into superhero gaming. We didn't do an awful lot of supers stuff, and when we played Golden Heroes it was just after I'd read Watchmen so we played with powerless vigilante characters rather than having proper 'super powers'. It was pretty cool, but the superhero Odyssey game we played later was better - not because of the game, Golden Heroes is still great, but just because someone else was GMing rather than me and they did a better job. I'm sure it'll come up in a later post...

#14 - Paranoia

Cover of the West End Games Paranoia RPG, 
published as a hardcover in the UK by Games Workshop!

Next is something a little different. Wasn't sure what I was getting into when I started running Paranoia, but it was madness and we loved it. Played all the weird adventures from the time, like HIL-Sector Blues, and Clones in Space. Heck, I even bought those Citadel miniatures and did an awful job of painting them.

#15 - Twilight: 2000

Cover of the original edition of Twilight: 2000

It was the Eighties, and (as you'll see by another later entry) things were a bit tense when it came to international relations. Good thing we sorted that out after all these years! (sarcasm) But, yes, we had a go at Twilight:2000. I don't remember much of it, just creating some characters and wandering around the roads near Krakow. I don't think we played very much of it. 

#16 - Doctor Who The Roleplaying Game (FASA)

Cover of the FASA 2nd edition of the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game

Much like the old FASA Star Trek, we also played the FASA edition of the Doctor Who RPG. We were lucky to have a GM who was not only our Call of Cthulhu keeper, but also a massive Doctor Who fan who knew his stuff. Being a fan of the creepy Hinchcliffe and Holmes era of Tom Baker's run, he ensured the game played like a spooky Cthulhu adventure, with our resident Time Lord, the Collector, strangely absent most of the time (the player hardly ever turned up). 

#17 - Judge Dredd the Roleplaying Game (GW)

Cover of the original Dredd RPG

As mentioned in an earlier post, I'd been reading 2000AD since issue #2, the first appearance of Judge Dredd, and most of us in the gaming group read it to some extent. It was inevitable that we'd play the Dredd RPG. We played a handful of games, engaged in a Block War or two. I'd love to see a new edition soon - I must admit, I'd love to see a TV series done like The Rookie but only with MegaCity Judges...

#18 - Odyssey

Image from the movie ALIENS

Okay, home-brew time. This wasn't just your average home-brew, this was Pete's most epic RPG, taking up a chunky ring-binder of rules. Taking elements from RuneQuest and turning the volume up, Odyssey was Pete's generic RPG to work in any time and any genre. I remember he said "I've a murder mystery RPG to test" and we all joined in on this simple game of regular people who had won a prize to go on a cruise. We thought it was going to be a murder mystery, and then *RUG PULL* the ship sank and we were washed up on a desert island, with superpowers. Inspired by the old Elementals comic, we played the heck out of that. 

However, Odyssey really came into its own when we started using the system to play Colonial Marines in the ALIEN universe. The encumbrance system was genius, and I remember this frantic run for the drop ship and shedding my smart gun to speed up so we could escape the nuclear blast of the terraforming plant exploding. He also ran a brilliant game where one of the players was a villain, working to sabotage the plans for his own benefit. Lots of note passing to the GM, and it was only when combat started and the dice rolls started matching up did they realise who was shooting at them. Decades before Free League's game of marines and hidden agendas, Pete was doing it in the 80s. Brilliant stuff.

#19 - Ghostbusters

Cover of the legendary Ghostbusters RPG by West End Games

Here we come to one of my favourite games of all time - West End Games' Ghostbusters Roleplaying Game. You wouldn't believe how much I love this game. I've written at length about how reading this game made me want to be a game writer and designer. It's just a joy to read, brilliantly simple, and based on one of my favourite movies and franchises. How could I not love it? We played so much of this, so much that the Ghost on my Ghost-Die started to wear off. 

Again, I'd love to see a new Ghostbusters RPG - especially as the D6 system that powers it has returned recently in the Carbon Grey and Planet of the Apes RPGs. If anyone at Ghostcorps is listening, you know who to call. 

Here's a link to another video I made!! 

#20 - James Bond 007 Roleplaying Game

The Victory Games RPG of James Bond 007

Finally for this batch, here's another one of my favourite RPGs of all time. Victory Games' official James Bond 007 RPG. Amazing game, with some brilliant and revolutionary mechanics, and some of the most amazing presentation (especially for the adventures). Absolutely love this game. 

I'm going to sound like a stuck record, but again I'd love to see a new version of a Bond RPG (who knows, it may happen now the Amazon deal has happened - I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they honour such a legacy). And, again, here's a video I recorded if you want to check out what the game looks like. 

We played a heck of a lot of this too, and I ran a couple of the adventures multiple times for different groups, each with very different outcomes. Awesome.

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That's it for this batch. We're getting close to the 'break' I had from gaming, and I'm keeping track of games I've bought and not yet played, just in case I wanted to do a Sidequest of the Sidequest!! 

Until next time, stay multi-classy. 

Sidequest: Every TTRPG Played #1-10

Over where the sky is blue (that's Bluesky just in case you haven't been on there), much respected and loved comics creator and TTRPG writer, Kieron Gillen, posted to say that he was trying to make a list of every TTRPG he's ever played. 

Alt Text - Trying to make a list of every TTRPG I've ever played, which presently includes such classics such as 'the very complicated home-brew game made by my friend James when I lived in America' and 'The one where you're all sad people at the end of the world with a name that sounds ominous'. 

I'm really hoping that his results appear on his relatively recent blog-site that he launched https://oldmenrunningtheworld.com/ . However, it did inspire me to think... 'Can I remember every TTRPG I've played?'...

Challenge Accepted!!

I know I've been doing my "My Nerdy Life in 100 Geeky Objects" series, and there's bound to be a little crossover, but I thought I'd try and do this as well, just to keep my brain busy and so I don't spiral into the mire. Do forgive my indulgences. I'm not going to drag this out into another 100 posts... I promise.

Let's take it a chunk at a time, starting from the very beginning. The order may be a little off, but hey, it is 40+ years ago...

#1 - Traveller

The first three "Little Black Books" for the original Traveller RPG

The first tabletop roleplaying game I ever played was Traveller. I had no idea what I was doing, but I generated a character that sunny Saturday afternoon in what must have been 1983(?) up at JR's place. I remember thinking how old my character was by the time I left military service. I didn't do much, just sat in the background and took in the experience, but I was already hooked by the end of the first game. 

#2 - Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook (2nd Cover)

Had to be there, didn't it? Usually everyone's first game, I leapt straight into Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. None of this Basic or Expert stuff, I was thrown into the deep end of AD&D. Admittedly, I didn't even roll a character to begin with. My first character was a Paladin called Ivanhoe that was already at 8th or maybe 9th level. One of the players in the group was bored of playing the goody-two-shoes, and it was just the sort of character I liked playing. I gave him a last name after a few years, Navarre, from watching Ladyhawke, because, let's face it, Rutger Hauer was the coolest thing around. Played him for years, never got higher than 9th level, but always liked playing Paladins ever since.

#3 - Runequest

Cover of Runequest 2nd Edition

That same gaming group seemed to alternate between AD&D and Runequest most of the time, so it was inevitable that Runequest would turn up on this list, and very early. I really liked the way that individual locations had their own armour ratings, but I remember the GM had bought the Big Rubble setting and we kept heading into the Rubble to seek our fortunes, getting a fraction of the way in, and getting our arses kicked so badly we retreated back to the inn and healed up before doing it all again. 

#4 - Star Frontiers

Front cover of the original Star Frontiers "Expanded" Rulebook

Everyone was running RPGs and I really wanted to get in on the GameMastering action, and I preferred SF to fantasy. Traveller was cool, but it just wasn't saying "Star Wars" to be enough. A trip to the local (if you can all it that) game store and that cover for Star Frontiers literally screamed "Look!! I'm like Star Wars, look at me!!" and I had to get it. Absolutely loved that game. Played so much of it, you wouldn't believe. All the way through to the Zebulon's Guide update and beyond. I'd love to see a proper revival, not the nonsense that's happened recently. 

#5 - Gamma World

Much like my desire to GM something, I remember Coop wanted to GM in our group, and his game of choice to start was TSR's other SF RPG, Gamma World. The weird, post-apocalyptic RPG of an irradiated future. I don't remember playing too much of it, but it was pretty cool. Spent most of my time worrying I was going to grow an extra arm or something from the radiation...

#6 - Call of Cthulhu

Cover of 1st Edition Call of Cthulhu

Of course, the other big classic from the early days of gaming had to be Call of Cthulhu. I hadn't read any Lovecraft, so I had no idea what was going on, but I loved seeing those weird silhouettes and wandering around in the 1920s. I ended up buying my own copy (the Games Workshop hardcover version, rather than the boxed first edition) and we played a heck of a lot of that too. Most of my characters went mad, except for the one that died when another character threw a bottle at me to get me out of their tent. 

#7 - FASA Star Trek

Cover of FASA's Star Trek Roleplaying Game

Our "Keeper" for Call of Cthulhu ran a couple of other games for us as well. One is FASA's Star Trek RPG. I used to watch classic Trek on TV as a kid, and a lot of it went way over my head. It wasn't until much later that I really *got* Star Trek and really loved it (but that's one for another story). I don't remember playing too much of it, but it was cool. I remember us playing the Star Trek III Starship Combat game more...

#8 - Space Opera

Cover of the Space Opera RPG

What the hell even is the Space Opera RPG? I have a dim recollection of this, and remember it being so darn complicated that we spent two evenings just creating characters... and then never actually got around to playing it. Does this one still count? I've cut many a game from this list that I've read but never played, but does character creation count? I think so... maybe?

#9 - Stormbringer

Cover for Chaosium's Stormbringer RPG

Another one of those "one of the players wanted to have a go at GMing" games was Chaosium's Stormbringer. I remember it being very similar to Runequest, so the learning curve was really easy as we'd been playing that for ages. The tricky thing for me was I was completely unfamiliar with Michael Moorcock's Elric stories, so I was mostly confused by what was going on. Still, the art was cool. 

#10 - Middle Earth Roleplaying (MERP)

The cover I remember the most of the old 
MERP game, with the Balrog looking like
Lobo in the background.

Finally, for this first selection of every game I've played, we'll stop at number 10 with MERP, or Middle Earth Roleplaying Game. And I think this was another of the players wanting to GM something. Again (please forgive me, I was young, and not much of a fantasy reader) I was not very familiar with Tolkien. I mean, everyone else in the gaming group had read The Lord of the Rings, but I'd just watched the 70's animated movie. I tried, and I just didn't have the attention-span until much, much later (thanks to Babylon 5 - see, I told you I was a SF nerd). We did play a lot of this as well though, and I have fond memories of the critical tables. 

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So, that's the first 10 TTRPGs I remember playing. I'm sure I'll go back to this list soon, and try to do the next little batch. When I wrote them down, I did manage to get to 100, but that included RPGs I'd bought and read but hadn't actually played. I may cut those ones from the list, or have a sublist - a side-sidequest. 

Until next time, stay multi-classy!