Bonus: #MayRPGQ2018 What is one setting or game mechanic that just ‘butters your biscuits’?

Apocalypse World, which the indie luvvies have all gone ga-ga over is an impenetrable mystery to me in terms of its appeal. Dungeon World does a far better job of explaining how it is all supposed to work and be played but it can’t overcome the central plank of fail that courses through the system like a dose of castor oil ravaging your intestines.

‘Moves’.

Moves suck. Moves suck the creativity out of role-playing, coming up with on-the-spot actions and improvising absurd plans and Hail Mary’s out of the creativity of sheer desperation.

Characters in Apocalypse Powered games are, meanwhile, lumbered with a pretty restrictive set of ‘moves’ that channel them into a narrow set of actions. This is something that goes against the very nature and appeal of RPGs to me. This is ‘narrative’ chess, the horsey moves like this, the battlebabe takes on diagonals.

Bah.

BAH!

If there’re redeeming features to this game, they are that it makes a good workbook for plot-mapping and tracking, and that some of the artwork is borderline fetishy.

Otherwise, it’s a pretentious, bag-of-wank, ‘indie darling’ and when you don’t like it, people treat you like you don’t know how to use the three sea shells.

Blummin’ cultists.

#WeirdHookMonth – Bad Habits

The Hook

The Sisters of Adrian are a martial order of nuns, that terminates the Vatican’s problems with prejudice. They’ll do anything for Mother Church, with full indulgences and a clear conscience. They’re now implicated in the deaths of several high profile members of the Church.

Suggested System

Macho Women With Guns, Macho Women With Guns d20, Feng Shui.

#MayRPGQ2018 How do you think you can make the gaming community better?

By doing what I’m doing and continuing not to bow to pressure.

The Finnish have a term ‘Sisu’. It doesn’t have an exact translation, but it roughly correlate to grit, determination, stubbornness, strength of will, perseverance and a resolute commitment to a course particular course despite the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. I never knew I had it, until it was described to me and now I wonder if there’s some Viking ancestry that leads back to that area of the world…

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#200wordRPG #RPG #TTRPG – De-Escalation

A game for two players, which uses dominoes. The aim is to negotiate an agreement between South Hanguk and Best Hanguk.

The game’s played in rounds, over issues determined by the first tile laid out each round. The game ends when you run out of tiles.

Play rock-paper-scissors to determine first player.

Rounds:

1. Fill your hand to 5 tiles.

2. The first player lays a tile and announces the issue.

3. The opposite player plays a tile that matches a number on the laid out tiles, and describes a demand (if played on the side facing you) or a concession (if on the opposing side). You can also ‘give’. If you can’t come up with a description or play a tile, you ‘give’.

4. The other player can now play a tile, and play continues until someone ‘gives’.

5. Whoever doesn’t ‘give’ scores the points.

6. Change first player and go to 1.

Tile Total/Points & Issue

0: The border.
1: Disputed region of Noot.
2: Diplomatic presence.
3: Hotline.
4: Prisoner exchange.
5: Agriculture.
6: Infrastructure.
7: Defectors.
8: Immigration.
9: Fishing rights.
10: Human rights.
11: Conventional Militaries.
12: Nuclear Program.

#RPG #TTRPG #WeirdHookMonth – Forever Young

The Hook

Ironic that the Fountain of Youth should be in Florida, so close to the old. There is a hidden grove, filled with things that cannot die. Plants from every era, part-devoured deer, somehow still clinging to life, unkillable dinosaurs – and worse. Do you want to live forever?

Suggested System

Blood! Hollow Earth Expedition.

Art by Jesse Pruitt

#RPG #TTRPG #WeirdHookMonth – Just Desserts

Hook

Remember that chocolate bar you loved so much? Some people pay big money for discontinued treats, but some things aren’t meant to be resurrected. A stash of hundreds of frozen tubs of a yoghurt-like substance from the 1980s are uncovered. Some will pay big bucks for a taste.

Suggested System

Blood!, FATE, All Flesh Must be Eaten, Savage Worlds.

#MayRPGQ2018 Where do you want to go, event wise, to play a game this year?

I’ve left it far too late to get to any cons. I can only really afford to go to them as a stall-holder and prices for doing that have been going up for years. Then the mental health issues also tend to get in the way. We used to go to Indiecon, but that got scuppered by uncooperative site owners, so for the last couple of years, my regular gaming group has put together our own little mini-convention, ‘Awesomecon’, just for us. That’s a lot of fun but does miss out on the opportunities to buy or sell cool stuff and to make new friends…

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#RPG #TTRPG #WeirdHookMonth – Red Meat

The Hook

Vampires aren’t as glamorous as you hoped. Rather than blood, it’s a matter of gulping down raw human meat. Freshly turned you’re inducted into ‘the family’ who run a crematorium where the bodies never reach the fire. Some relatives are getting suspicious and you need a plan ‘B’.

Suggested Systems

Blood, Nightlife, World of Darkness.

Art by Tony Skeor

#RPG #TTRPG #WeirdHookMonth – Traction

The Hook

Twenty years after everything electrical stopped working, the chance discovery of a working traction engine in an old shed gives your family a chance to see a larger, wider world. The machine could also run pumps, agricultural machinery and more – which makes it hotly desired.

Suggested System

BRP, Twilight 2000, Interlock, GURPS.

#RPG #TTRPG #WeirdHookMonth – Parasites

The Hook

Gulped down by a bakunawa, your ship ends up in its stomach only to find a community already waiting to cannibalise your ship and take your supplies. Nobody who has tried to escape has ever managed and you have other, natural, parasites to compete with. Ones that see you as prey.

Suggested Systems

BRP, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Victoriana.