#RPGaDay2018 31. Share why you take part in RPGaDAY

I like the opportunity to shill my stuff.

OK, not exactly. There’s also the fact that it provides useful prompts for a month’s worth of blog content.

OK, not exactly that either.

Rather, simply, just that it is thought provoking and a good way to – non-confrontationally – share what you like, believe and hope for games and to tap into the broader community through a concurrent exploration of these issues.

I find it doubly fascinating to read other people’s responses, from the perspective of a game designer.

Hey, thanks for stopping by. I’m an independent RPG (and other games) designer and author. You can check out my stuff via the links at the side of postmortemstudios.wordpress.com. If you feel so inclined, after a look around, you can support me at patreon.com/grimachu, Minds.com/grimachu or steemit.com/@grimjim. Questions and queries are welcome, remember, ‘Nullius in verba’!

#RPGaDay2018 30. Share something you learned about playing your character

I’m usually the Games Master, but in playing characters of fundamentally different mindsets to my own I think I’ve learned – imperfectly but better than most – to understand (but not really empathise with) those other mindsets.

I think this has made me a better debater in my real life and has helped me to comprehend where others are coming from, even if I disagree with them and what they’re doing.

On reflection, I think this is one of the many things playing these games and these characters can do for people in a positive way that betters their lives beyond the game. In playing these games we often learn about politics, science, history, ideology, religion and a host of other issues in a gamified way that encourages even more learning.

Each character you learn something new, each world you hone skills of interpretation and imagination. That has to be worth something.

Hey, thanks for stopping by. I’m an independent RPG (and other games) designer and author. You can check out my stuff via the links at the side of postmortemstudios.wordpress.com. If you feel so inclined, after a look around, you can support me at patreon.com/grimachu, Minds.com/grimachu or steemit.com/@grimjim. Questions and queries are welcome, remember, ‘Nullius in verba’!

#RPGaDay2018 29. Share a friendship you have because of RPGs

Pretty much all of them that mean a damn thing.

Hey, thanks for stopping by. I’m an independent RPG (and other games) designer and author. You can check out my stuff via the links at the side of postmortemstudios.wordpress.com. If you feel so inclined, after a look around, you can support me at patreon.com/grimachu, Minds.com/grimachu or steemit.com/@grimjim. Questions and queries are welcome, remember, ‘Nullius in verba’!

#RPGaDay2018 28. Share whose inspiring gaming excellence you’re grateful for

#RPGaDay2018 28. Share whose inspiring gaming excellence you’re grateful for

Satine Phoenix gets a ton of praise from all and sundry, to the point where a lot of people are probably sick of her.

The praise is deserved.

Satine is an indefatigable dervish of enthusiasm, love, creativity and wonder. I love her to bits.

She’s traced an odd path to becoming such a keystone in the community relations aspect of D&D and at every stage I think she’s been a wonderful spokeswoman for the games and the community (such as that can be said to exist).

I find her enthusiasm infectious, and it re-ignites the passion for gaming in this jaded and embittered old bastard. I’m happy to have played some tiny role in aiding her success.

I hope she stays with us – and gaming – for a long, long time.

Hey, thanks for stopping by. I’m an independent RPG (and other games) designer and author. You can check out my stuff via the links at the side of postmortemstudios.wordpress.com. If you feel so inclined, after a look around, you can support me at patreon.com/grimachu, Minds.com/grimachu or steemit.com/@grimjim. Questions and queries are welcome, remember, ‘Nullius in verba’!

#RPGaDay2018 27. Share a great stream / actual play

 

Also: http://gameschool.tsrpn.com/2018/07/14/107-machinations-space-princess/

Hey, thanks for stopping by. I’m an independent RPG (and other games) designer and author. You can check out my stuff via the links at the side of postmortemstudios.wordpress.com. If you feel so inclined, after a look around, you can support me at patreon.com/grimachu, Minds.com/grimachu or steemit.com/@grimjim. Questions and queries are welcome, remember, ‘Nullius in verba’!

#RPGaDay2018 26. Gaming ambition for the next 12 months

I need to play more games.

It’s an old song at this point, but people who get into games as designers and writers often find that they no longer play the very thing they devote themselves to.

This fact sucks.

My situation is made worse by the fact that I live in a relatively isolated village and find it hard to visit other locations. The nearest games club with regular meetings is in Salisbury (I think) and while I have been to visit it a couple of times the drive is just too much for me – especially at night. Anywhere else is road/rail/walk and so short of going away for a weekend (which I do about every month and a half) there’s just no way to get there.

I could host, but people are loathe to travel out to where I am.

That leaves running games online, and that has a host of technical, scheduling and other issues that get in the way of making it work, plus – until we get fibre – I have potato internet and can’t bogart the line when it’s needed for other data uses too.

Running games online is also borked by the ‘closing up’ of Google Hangouts, which used to have a smorgasbord of plug-ins and tools to make roleplaying easier, that you could pick and choose from. Sadly the game-hosting programs that exist all seem to be Pathfinder and D&D oriented and to have hosts of complicated options that seem – to me – to just get in the way of the roleplay. All I really need is a shared dice-roller program and a way of showing people maps and art. I don’t need a feature-rich option.

Still, I’m determined to get some sort of semi-regular online game going, it just needs to be something that people can drop in and out of without too much trouble and – for the sake of making it ‘pay’ I suppose I should be running my own games or playtesting them with people.

Finding the people then becomes the next problem.

But in short, and without the whining, ‘Playing more games’.

Hey, thanks for stopping by. I’m an independent RPG (and other games) designer and author. You can check out my stuff via the links at the side of postmortemstudios.wordpress.com. If you feel so inclined, after a look around, you can support me at patreon.com/grimachu, Minds.com/grimachu or steemit.com/@grimjim. Questions and queries are welcome, remember, ‘Nullius in verba’!

#RPGaDay2018 25. Game that had an impact on you in the last 12 months

We’ve been playing Eclipse Phase – a game I actually get to play when I’m not Games Mastering Iron Kingdoms. I generally don’t enjoy playing as much as Games Mastering, but I have enjoyed this game a great deal.

It’s not only my preference for being the Games Master that stands in the way of me enjoying playing a game – particularly this one. There’s a host of other factors at play that make my enjoyment of the game remarkable.

I’ve had several depressive episodes while we’ve been playing that has made me distracted. I have also been through a number of med adjustments over that period that have had me falling asleep at the table, easily distracted or spaced out. In spite of this, I’ve enjoyed it – but don’t quite know how to apologise to the GM for my spaceyness. Meds and depression also lead to anhedonia, which is worse for me worrying about my own games, but also applies here.

I play a ‘useless’ character. That is to say, he’s no good at combat. He’s a defrosted cryo-capsule head with a re-grown body who used to be a science fiction writer. The best I can do is schmooze, trade pre-Fall knowledge for favours and gaze in wonder at the world in which I find myself – something I deliberately amped up by NOT reading the sourcebooks so everything would be new to me. Despite being useless, he’s fun to play and to poke at the setting with.

We have a large gaming group, so people often go a long time on the sidelines or out of the spotlight, especially a social/’useless’ character like mine.

The makers of Eclipse Phase are often arseholes. Fortunately I can – usually – separate art from artist.

Despite all that, I enjoy playing this character in this game, getting a lot of self-contained enjoyment from the character concept alone – and putting myself in his jaw-dropped wonder and love of the wider universe he woke up into.

Hey, thanks for stopping by. I’m an independent RPG (and other games) designer and author. You can check out my stuff via the links at the side of postmortemstudios.wordpress.com. If you feel so inclined, after a look around, you can support me at patreon.com/grimachu, Minds.com/grimachu or steemit.com/@grimjim. Questions and queries are welcome, remember, ‘Nullius in verba’!

#RPGaDay2018 24. Which RPG do you think deserves more recognition?

Well obviously all the ones that I have written or worked on, clearly. I’m a friggin’ game design genius! He said, tongue firmly planted in cheek.

Most of the games that I think deserve recognition already have it. Cyberpunk 2020, Vampire the Masquerade, Mage the Ascension, FATE (or FUDGE, if you want to be pedantic), Traveller, Call of Cthulhu, Feng Shui. It’s only when you get into the ones that are more designer-influential than gaming culture influential when you start to see different things popping up.

Space 1889 is underrated as pre-Steampunk I think, most of the GDW games are underrated – given their influence – however ‘whack’ the system could be. Over the Edge has influenced a lot of designers in a good way.

Then there’s the games that most heavily influenced British roleplay and game design, which may have been overlooked by a wider audience. There was the Games Workshop, Romano-Celtic take on RuneQuest, using the Basic System, there was Dragon Warriors – which I’ve mentioned before – and there was Fighting Fantasy. That was a global phenomenon, but still – I think – had a more profound effect on British gaming. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay – first edition – is still something that looms large over British design with its black humour, Pythonesque-Peasant focus and grim themes.

From my point of view all of these have some measure of recognition already, so it’s hard to pick out anything that deserves it, and didn’t get it – at least in some measure.

Hey, thanks for stopping by. I’m an independent RPG (and other games) designer and author. You can check out my stuff via the links at the side of postmortemstudios.wordpress.com. If you feel so inclined, after a look around, you can support me at patreon.com/grimachu, Minds.com/grimachu or steemit.com/@grimjim. Questions and queries are welcome, remember, ‘Nullius in verba’!

#RPGaDay2018 23. Which game do you hope to play again?

As I have belaboured extensively, I’m usually the person who Games Masters, and that’s where I’m most happy to be. If you include ‘Games Master’ as one of the players, then just looking at the games currently in my immediate library shelf…

Vampire the Masquerade: I got so damn jaded from the LARP experience it made it virtually impossible to enjoy. I guess I’ll take a look at 5^th edition.

Cyberpunk 2020: We’ve got things planned – VERY much in advance – for me to run a CP2020 game in the year 2020. So that should be fun!

Tales of Gargentihr: A gem of an indie RPG from ‘back in the day’ which I should go through in my video series sometime – though it suffers from the same self-destructing tendency as early SLA Industries books.

Dragon Warriors: An old school fantasy RPG that I have fond memories of.

GearKrieg: GearKreig’s rules (silhouette) are good, but its presentation is terrible. DUST Adventures is the reverse. Mayhap I could Frankenstein something playable with the good parts of each.

Gamma World: The 4e D&D stripped down version, which was – nonetheless – a lot of whacky fun.

Paranoia: Not played in a dog’s age, not sure if the satire holds up so well today, but I can make it.

Call of Cthulhu: One of those games you constantly want to get back to, and somehow never do.

Hey, thanks for stopping by. I’m an independent RPG (and other games) designer and author. You can check out my stuff via the links at the side of postmortemstudios.wordpress.com. If you feel so inclined, after a look around, you can support me at patreon.com/grimachu, Minds.com/grimachu or steemit.com/@grimjim. Questions and queries are welcome, remember, ‘Nullius in verba’!

#RPGaDay2018 22. Which non-dice system appeals to you?

There’s a poker-mechanic I began developing for a Japanese/Western game I stopped work on after Far West began being developed. Maybe I shouldn’t have stopped, given that game is still nowhere to be seen.

The players worked together to create a hand of cards to try and beat the GM’s hand, with special abilities helping to modify and switch cards, rather than having to stick with what they drew. High Noon battles were run using blackjack and simple skill-checks were done with the draw of a card.

The poker mechanic worked, but got a bit complicated in larger conflicts. I think what would need to be done if I revisited it, would be that everyone would have to get a hand and all would be compared against the GM’s hand.

Players bid from their pools, initially using their skill and experience (low risk) before – if they sought it out – risking their health in the same way to try and win the conflict. When the GM ran out of chips, they won, when the players ran out of chips, they were defeated.

When it comes to existing, diceless systems, the ‘rock paper scissors’ of Mind’s Eye Theatre had a certain elegance and meant you could play anywhere, the deeper and more complex finger-show mechanic in the L5R LARP book was underused, but had some appeal if you wanted more complex rules dynamics in a similar fashion. Card-based play has its own appeal to and games where you build a ‘character deck’ have been moving around in my brain as much as other ideas lately.

We’ll see if anything makes it to reality from there!

Hey, thanks for stopping by. I’m an independent RPG (and other games) designer and author. You can check out my stuff via the links at the side of postmortemstudios.wordpress.com. If you feel so inclined, after a look around, you can support me at patreon.com/grimachu, Minds.com/grimachu or steemit.com/@grimjim. Questions and queries are welcome, remember, ‘Nullius in verba’!