LOST the plot...

This is the end... beautiful friend.

Endings have been on my mind a lot recently. I don't know why. Maybe it's because I've been finishing a few series that I've been reading for what seems like forever.

A couple of weeks ago I finished reading Stephen King's The Dark Tower. I'm a massive King fan, and I mentioned in an earlier post that I had the honour of meeting him a few years ago when he was promoting Lisey's Story. The Dark Tower was his epic, his fantasy story that tied all of his universes together - all circling the Dark Tower, and Rowland the Gunslinger's quest to reach it.

It's taken many, many years for King to write it, and almost as many for me to read it. I've reread the first three, been sidetracked by other books, and forgotten the series almost entirely but I finally reached the last page a couple of weeks ago and was left with that disappointment that usually accompanies massive works of fiction.

Let's just get this straight - the ending of The Dark Tower is just about perfect. Without giving anything away, it is a logical conclusion, and a perfect resolution to the story. But, me being me, I just wasn't satisfied.

Maybe it's just me.

Yesterday, I finished reading the comic series Unwritten. Great stuff, about the power of words and stories, and imbuing a person with that sort of power. It defies genre, messes with the medium, and when the main story finished it came to its perfect ending. An ending that goes against expectations, and is another great and brilliantly suited ending. And again, I just kinda felt empty.

Maybe I just don't like endings.

Take TV for example. I quite enjoyed True Blood. Pretty good series, nothing groundbreaking, but that ending!! Oh, jeez... with a couple of minor tweaks it could have had a great ending.

Battlestar Galactica (the remake). I loved that series. Loved every second - brilliantly done, amazing acting, effects, and story... but again, that ending left fans very, very divided.

Of course, the series I felt most betrayed by was LOST. I loved LOST. Loved it. Was obsessed by it. I watched it as it aired, I bought the DVDs, I read the books (even the tie in weird one - Bad Twin), played the awesome online Alternate Reality Game (The Hanso Foundation stuff, and the Rachel Blake blogs), and the action figures. LOST was great. Mysterious, intriguing, and brilliant.

When the island moved I went insane with joy. It was great. And then the time travel stuff? Awesome.

And then came the ending. An ending that they promised us (way back at the end of season one) wouldn't happen. They said that wasn't what was going on, but they lied to us and that last episode ruined everything for me. I've not rewatched LOST, I've given most of the books to charity shops, sold off the action figures, and find it hard to think about that series at all.

Maybe that's why I'm having a problem finishing my writing...  I don't want to pull a LOST. Luckily, I know how the trilogy of fiction books that tie in with WILD end. I know how that last scene plays out - and I don't think it's a cop-out. But then, I bet Damon Lindelof didn't think the ending of LOST was either...

Well. We'll see. NaNoWriMo is looming ever closer, and I'm undecided as to whether I'm taking part - I probably shall, attempting to either make a first draft of the second book in the series, or rewrite the first for a new and improved draft.

Only time will tell!

Until next time, stay multi-classy and LLAP.

D

Two can keep a secret, if one is the GM...

Thanks to my wife watching this almost continually for the last couple of weeks, I starting to think this would be a good idea...

I mean, it starts as a weird mystery series (with very odd moments, almost like Twin Peaks) before descending into Saw territory with so many slasher-film tropes.

Damnit, I need to watch something else before I take this too seriously...

WILD Character Creation (take 2)

Last night we put the band back together. Well, as best we could.

Edge (left), Stoo (via virtual reality, which worked surprisingly well) and Debs

On many occasions I've mentioned the most involved gaming sessions in my gaming history were with a few players - Edge, Tetch, Stoo and my lovely wifey. Those were some of the most intense and creepiest games when we played Mage, Kult and later WitchCraft. And I was eager to try to recapture the magic again.

Admittedly, Stoo lives miles away and had to appear via the wonders of Skype, which didn't work too badly (he could see us all and the table and everything!) and Tetch is on holiday somewhere, we thought we'd run a little trial session and see if the character creation for WILD worked.

I did a trial char-gen before, but thanks to writing the key-phrases on the WILD Cards, this worked a lot faster and easier.

Cards you say? Yes, the weird and wacky thing about WILD is that character creation involves cards. WILD can mean that your character's inner-most fears or memories can surface while dreamsharing, so it is important to have some depth to the character's history and background prior to gaming. Creating a character in WILD involves making a traditional Tarot spread using the WILD Cards.

Stoo's character creation layout.

I think it worked this time. Players who came to the table with an idea in mind for what they wanted their character to be and do still had what they wanted, but with some additional elements they hadn't considered before. Those who came without an idea had a pretty interesting launching point to get them started.

The next phase involved using a handful of spare cards each player had to create a relationship between the characters, common locations, events or people. For such a small group, there may have been too many cards involved, but that's what playtesting is all about. But it strangely worked - a location ties the characters together, and added an NPC and a person in one character's past that may have repercussions for the whole group. Not only does it tie the characters together without the "you're in a bar" first session, but it gives me as the DM (DreamMaster) some ideas for elements to draw into the game.

I talked them through the rules (not that there are many) and it all seems to make sense...

Next will be the first game. I don't know how it'll go - I have an epic and bizarre game designed for them, but it'll be the first time I put the rules into action, so we'll see how it goes.

Until next time,

LLAP - and Stay Multi-classy!

#RPGaDAY2015 - How Was It For You?

I've had a few requests on Twitter from people asking if I was going to do a summary post about #RPGaDAY2015. Well, I wasn't going to - in fact, this is really breaking my "month off from social media" plan that I had instigated to recover from the frantic posting that probably bored everyone throughout August. But, I never want to let anyone down, so here goes...

So, how did I think it went?

Okay. I think it went okay. It seemed to reach a lot of people, seemed to go to a wider audience, but I'm not sure how well it was received. The same people who put in the effort and enthusiasm this year were the ones who openly embraced the concept last year. There were some who were new to it and joined in enthusiastically, and I hope everyone enjoyed it.

What was better this year?

I loved having guests on the videos. Thank you everyone who got involved and joined in - a lot of those people who joined me on the videos were too busy to join in with every day posting, and that was a great way to get them involved. Not only that, it meant that those people who watched didn't have to sit through 31 boring videos of just my ugly face - they could watch segments with far more interesting, exciting and attractive people than me.

Active participation?

On the whole, the basic concept is to get people talking on social media about the positive things that tabletop roleplaying can do. The thing that spawned it (#BookADayUK) was basically just a photo of a book as a response to the question, so getting people actually talking or blogging beyond that is a massive success.

I've heard from people saying that the questions are a great source of encouragement to get them writing blog posts and more, which is fab. Thanks everyone.

It's great to also see so many people joining in with the daily videos, recording their own and posting them. I know it's a huge effort - hell, mine took months of planning and I was relieved when the last one was uploaded. Thank you again.

Feedback?

Feedback on the whole has been mostly positive. I'd say around 90% of the comments I saw on the various medias were positive, encouraging and from people enjoying it. There's always the people who didn't, of course. Those who didn't like the colour of the image, or the choice of questions - they weren't interesting enough, detailed enough, too vague, or just plain boring to them.

And, of course, I had my daily disliker on Youtube who, regularly, about 9am every morning would click Dislike on the video. On one occasion it was disliked before I could even post the video on Facebook/Twitter/G+... Someone was very keen, and spent an awful lot of energy to make sure that the videos got that little dislike. It wasn't all of them, but it was enough to be noticed. Each dislike was like a stab in the back.

A few people didn't get the point of the project at all - #RPGaDAY2015 (and its predecessor) was about positivity. I noticed that a few follow-up questions appeared on various media. Thank you for trying to join in but you missed the point entirely. You can do what you like, but I won't be joining the dark side with all that negativity.

And next year?

At this moment, I honestly don't know. I think I was a little too invested in it this year, and took all of the responses way too personally. If I do it next year, ALL of the questions will be submitted by other people. Frankly, I think I've run out of ideas.

Of course, it does take up lots of time when I could be writing.

Saying that, the biggest benefit of #RPGaDAY2015 was that it has got me writing again. After a massive drought of words that hit about Easter, WILD's game system is pretty much sorted, and the writing is progressing...

...that is, until I get distracted again.

Above all, thank you all for taking part. I hope you got something out of it, and it reminded you that our little hobby is a great one that makes great friends.

#RPGaDAY2015 - Day 31: Favourite Non-RPG thing to come out of gaming...

This is it - the final day of #RPGaDAY2015 - and possibly the final #RPGaDAY post ever (we'll see).
It is "Favourite non-RPG thing to come out of RPGing".

In my video I mention a couple of things - how I got my first job thanks to gaming, and meeting my lovely wifey.

In addition to all this, I must also mention my old gaming group. The Eight as we used to call ourselves (even though there were more than eight of us at many times).

We started gaming as two different groups and came together over the years. Through many years of school and beyond, these guys have always been a huge part of my life. I've mentioned them many times on this blog, and although we're divided by geography, we always know that we're keeping a look out for each other... ready to rally to support if any of us are in need.

So, without RPGing in school, not only would I have never got that job in the council, working for Nature Conservation and Archaeology, which lead to me going to University, and meeting my wife who is also a gamer. But also, I wouldn't have had the amazing friends and support that I needed.

-

I guess that's why I started RPGaDAY to begin with last year.

Playing roleplaying games may seem like a sad and nerdy thing to those unfamiliar with it, but it changed and shaped my life for the better.

When I keep going online and finding such negativity, I just wanted to do something positive.

But, of course, someone didn't even like me doing that. Yes, daily disliker - you troll - I had noticed you systematically disliking my videos every day. It's that sort of behaviour that made me want to do something.

-

As to whether RPGaDAY returns for another year will depend upon a few things...

If the RPG playing community want to do it again?
If I can come up with some new questions that people actually like (and won't complain about)?
If I can justify the amount of time and effort it takes to do this.

RPGaDAY inspired me to get back into writing WILD, right at the moment when I was feeling the most unmotivated. And I'm really glad about that. But I can't help but feel that the last two months of video making, editing, planning, scheduling, and so on, could have been spent writing!!

We'll see...

If you want to do it again next year, comment!
If you have ideas for questions, comment!
If you think it's had its day, let me know...

Until next post - which may be a while, I'm going to spend some time away from the interwebs to recover and do something productive - be good to each other... and stay multi-classy!

#RPGaDAY2015 - Day 30: Favourite RPG Playing Celebrity

Today's topic was a bit of a fun one - inspired by a news item online listing gaming celebrities, I just thought it'd be cool to hear if people knew of any others, and to discuss the coolest gaming celebs out there.

My choice was an obvious one, mostly as his love of D&D had inspired one of his most popular characters. And the dynamic of his D&D group playing had influenced the way the group worked in the Fast & Furious movies.

Vin Diesel is a bit of a legend as well.

Until tomorrow, for the final day...

#RPGaDAY2015 - Day 29: Favourite RPG Website / Blog

Today's RPGaDAY2015 entry is Favourite RPG Website / Blog. I used to go on RPG.net almost every day, just to see what the news was, what people were talking about, but that has all kinda fallen by the wayside.

I just don't get much chance to surf, when I could be writing!!

#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 27: Favourite Idea for Merging Two Games Into One

...which really was pushing the boundaries for how many characters you could squeeze into the little box on the image.

Today's question was mostly the "what game system would you like to use with another game's setting?" type question, though I've loved some of the other responses I've seen.

Here's today's video. Just me in this one, so you'll just have to put up with my boring face this time...

#RPGaDAY2015 - Day 26: Favourite Inspiration for your Game

Day 26 is all about inspiration - what inspires your gaming? Is it something specific, like me being inspired by a few movies, or something broader - looking at the wonders of nature, the weird things that really happen, real life X-Files?

To help with today's video, Andrew Peregrine recorded a piece from the place that inspires him - a particularly cool backdrop for a video!

In a related note, the writing on WILD has picked up since RPGaDAY2015 started, which is kinda what I was hoping would happen. Though, it has inspired me to stay off-line a lot more, possibly taking a holiday from the internet in September... We'll see...

Stay Multi-Classy!

#RPGaDAY2015 - Day 25: Favourite Revolutionary Game Mechanic

Day 25 of #RPGaDAY2015 - Don't worry, it'll be finished soon!! So, day 25 is Favourite Revolutionary Game Mechanic. It's an odd one, because there have been many times reading through new rulebooks when I've gone "Wow, that's a brilliant idea!"

Hero Points, Escalation Die, Health levels instead of Hit Points, Diceless gaming, FATE dice, GM-less play... Where to begin?

Today's video features special guest Gareth-Michael Skarka. Meanwhile, I yatter on about the wonders of Hero Points.

LLAP.

#RPGaDAY2015 - Day 24: Favourite House Rule

Final full week of #RPGaDAY2015 has begun, and today we're on Favourite House Rule. I must admit, while I spend a lot of time on rules in the writing, when it comes to gaming there are a few rules I sometimes ignore - usually in the heat of the battle!

I mean, in the middle of a shootout with alien invaders, are you really keeping track of how exhausted you're getting at the stress of the fight?

Sometimes, house rules make things more exciting - and the special guest in today's video is Grant Howitt who has written many games and some particularly cool and enlightening blog posts about running games. You really should check out his site...

http://www.lookrobot.co.uk/games

The rather excellent Raising the Stakes document, mentioned in the video, can be found here:
http://esix.pbworks.com/f/RaisingtheStakes.pdf

#RPGaDAY2015 - Day 23: Perfect Game For You

Perfect game... wow, that's a difficult one. So may times I've thought "this is it, this game is perfect" only to discover, over time, that there are elements I'd change or do slightly differently. But, as I discuss in the video, maybe it's not so reliant upon what you actually play, more who you play it with and finding that perfect level of engagement.

Special guest on the video is Ole Peder Giæver, and my sincerest apologies for my awful pronunciation of your name dude! Since chatting to him online, I've had my eyes opened to a whole new world of gaming that I never knew existed - some of it weird, some of it enlightening, and all of it very different from my gaming experiences. Seriously worth listening to what he has to say...

Tomorrow sees the start of the final week of #RPGaDAY2015 (well, the last seven days, if you include the bank holiday Monday final day)... Onto the final stretch.

#RPGaDAY2015 - Day 22: Perfect Gaming Environment

Day 22 is the rather odd question, "Perfect Gaming Environment". Where do you like to play?

When I was young we did all our gaming around a table, but then, a lot later in life, I discovered the delights of gaming in comfort. Sitting on the floor, bean bags, piles of cushions, or on the sofa... Oh, yes...

Today's video, the awesome Shanna Germain from Monte Cook Games is the special guest, who tells us how the environment can be changed to add atmosphere and effect to the game.