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. 

#RPGaDAY2024 - DAY ONE: FIRST RPG bought this year

 Oh no! It's August again already! 

I had big plans for #RPGaDAY this year... I was going to do the whole 'two birds, one stone' thing and try to get some practice in drawing comics - I used to draw and publish comics about 25 years ago and since then I've hardly set pen to paper, and I really wanted to get back into doing something creative like that. It would also mean I could do #RPGaDAY without people having to see my aging and ridiculous face over and over again on Youtube...

The best laid plans. Maybe I'll still do it and catch up if I get chance.

Anyway, life kinda got in the way, and awful things have happened. But I'm still going to try and take part as much as I can, even if it's just as blog posts.

So... Day One - FIRST RPG bought this year.

I've bought a few this year, not too many. But I honestly can't remember what was the first. There's a good chance it was either the Fiery Angels adventure supplement for Blade Runner, which we played through before I read it, and it was amazing. Totally gripping, and there was a brilliant rug-pull moment of failing a Voight-Kampf test even though my character was human and starting to really question my reality...

Or, it was an eBay purchase of a load of 1st Edition Star Trek Adventures books that I didn't have (not that I had any of them). I love Star Trek, and had the opportunity to work as Line Developer for the initial creative burst on the line until juggling a day job with line-developing became too much and I had to drop out (paying the bills meant I had to stick to the day job, which was absolutely gutting). 

#RPGaDAY2023 - DAY NINETEEN: Favourite PUBLISHED adventure

 

On to Day Nineteen of #RPGaDAY2023, and we're asking about favourite published adventure. Back at the beginning of #RPGaDAY I narrowed it down to the rather cool For Your Eyes Only adventure for the James Bond 007 game by Victory Games, and the Judas Grail for second edition Kult. 

Has my opinion changed? They're still cool, but since then we've played the great adventures in Tales From The Loop (including Our Friends the Machines), we've done the excellent first Blade Runner adventure, and I've edited a great set of adventures (The Timeless Library, The Echo Chamber, and The Hermit's Lantern) for the Doctor Who Second Edition starter set. 

#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.

[Roll Your Own Life] The Comics That Shaped Me (Part 3)

STAR WARS (1977-)

Just as I was really into 2000AD and reading those hints of a new movie coming out called Star Wars, my dad went off on this trip for work for a weekend (some sort of training thing) and when he came back he bought me my first Star Wars figures. The original Palitoy (as they were in the UK) figures of Chewbacca and R2-D2. I remember seeing something about them in 2000AD, but I didn't really have a clue who was who, and what was going on, but I loved those figures.

Shortly after that, Marvel UK brought out the first half of the comic adaptation of the movie - Roy Thomas scripted, with art by Howard Chaykin. It was huge too. Oversized, and full of glorious action. I remember poring over it, every page, over and over again - but not knowing how it ended.

It felt like months and month before the second half came out. It was probably only a month, but finally I could find out how Star Wars finished. This was long before we got to see the movie at the cinema. If my memory serves me well, I think we saw it over the school holidays early '78. It must have been Easter or even the Summer holidays as it came out December '77 and I remember we couldn't get tickets to see it for at least three months.

Anyway, comics...

I also got, and still have somewhere, the first Star Wars Annual. Not sure when this one came out either, but 90% of the annual was a reprint of that comics adaptation of the movie. I remember the first few pages, and the last few were in black and white (for some reason), and (being my childish self back then - see the post about Super Spider-Man a few posts ago) I had this thing about colouring things in with felt tip pens... so stupid.

Though not as stupid as the me who said "Hey, why don't I sell my collection of Star Wars figures? I've only got the first 48 with their original backing boards, and I don't think I need them any more..."

So, bloomin' stupid...


But those adaptations of movies were really my thing. I still have the Raiders of the Lost Ark annual with the adaptation filling most of the pages.

And somewhere I still have the Blade Runner annual. Strangely, an annual - which you normally associate with being a thing for kids - for a movie that was definitely not a kid's film...

Very weird choice for an annual.

I didn't really continue reading the comics for Star Wars when it came out as issues. I remember getting the first couple of issues because they came with little card spaceships - sheets of preprinted punched card that made an X-Wing with issue 1, and a TIE Fighter with issue 2. But when they continued beyond the movie I didn't really keep going. I'm not sure if I was just being a purist - it's not the movies so it's not official... Weird, but I never had that feeling reading Splinter of the Mind's Eye, which is so completely wrong you wouldn't believe!

I had the odd single issue here and there, and got the adaptations of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Strangely they were printed in small paperback novel sized editions when I got them.

I picked up the odd comic here and there over the many years since when it came to Star Wars - especially the Last Command series (as I loved the artwork) and Tag & Bink (just because it was funny). When Marvel started doing Star Wars comics again recently, after the Expanded Universe was reset with Episode VII, I thought I'd give them a go, and loved them. They were great, but as always happens with these comics - when they get successful the publishers bring more and more out to cash in on the success and there's too much for me get, especially financially. So I kinda gave up after a couple of years. I don't think I've got around to reading half of the issues I bought. Maybe that's something I should be doing now we're stuck at home...

Anyway, I talked about the old Star Wars comics, and the new one when issue 1 came out, on a video I shot ages ago. Means you get to see inside the comics I've talked about here. The older stuff is about half way through the video...