RPGaDay: Day Seven: RPG with 'Good Form' - my Mulligan

Day Seven: RPG with Good Form? 

I struggled to understand what this means. To me it suggests well played sporting behaviour, avoiding anything that's just not cricket.

Given that I'm pretty sure that's not what is intended, I'm taking the suggested mulligan, RPG anecdote.

This isn't my best RPG anecdote, but too many require context (wolves on the bus), are over long (Dervish Dungeons 1, 2, 3 etc), or aren't suitable for public dissemination (that time with that gnome in that bar).

So this happened back in the seventies. The party were in a protracted melee with a bunch of orcs in the dungeon. My dwarf thief wanted to shoot at them, being a) pretty good with a short bow, and b) unwilling to get close to the orcs with their nasty, pointy weapons.

Me can I shoot them?

DM no, they're in combat 

Me but I'm behind them 

DM you can't shoot into melee 

Me but Legolas does it in the film (the cartoon, recently released)

DM (with no sense of irony) that's just fantasy.

Well, it amused us, I guess you had to be there.

#RPGaDAY2024

BOYL Acquisitions

I didn't come away from BOYL 24 empty handed. I've already shared the pictures I took, so now I'll show you what I got.

Shortly after arriving, while chatting, drinking coffee and planning where to look first, a chap wandered by with a tray of minis. He put it down and invited us to help ourselves, then wandered off. 

If this was you, thank you very much.

I was restrained, taking a couple of goblin fanatics missing their ball-and-chains, and a squat with heavy bolter. My plan was to use the weapon with the Crimson Fists that I started painting back in. Now I look at him, it's a shame to pull him apart.

The rest of our group took a few more items, but we left plenty for others.

Next acquisition was the BOYL 24 special character. This is a lovely bit of work, sculpted, I was told, by Gary Morley.

The mini is a tribute to Brian Ansell, who passed away recently. The emblem on the top of the staff is a representation of the old Citadel Miniatures logo. I shall enjoy painting him, and I'll probably call him Lord of the Citadel.

BOYL is held on Wargames Foundry's premises, so quite rightly, the only retailer there is Foundry themselves.

Nevertheless, a few people were handing out free samples, and I got these intriguing resin minis from Curtis of Ramshackle Games. He was also responsible for the impressive Helsreach game, and managed to explain what was going on.

And finally, it would have been rude not to get something from the Foundry shop. I've been thinking about getting something to use as the Linden Way militia and these Lowly Foot look just right.

A couple of packs gives me sixteen, which is a bit short for Linden Way, but there's a pack of ex Citadel mercenaries that will do very nicely to bring them up to twenty, plus there's a great mini for Mayor Leofwine. 

Unfortunately they were out of stock, but I'll look out for them at shows or next time I'm down that way.

Molly also took advantage of the shop, stocking up on Foundry paint triads and quite a bit from the Darkest Africa range. 

As I said before, BOYL 24 was a great fun experience. Although we were new to the show, everyone was friendly and helpful.  I wish I'd known who a few more of the people there were, as I've probably read their blogs, but even as a mere moocher, we were made very welcome.

I'm looking forward to the opportunity to visit again in future years.

#BOYL2024

RPGaDAY: Day 6: RPG that is easy to use

Day Six, RPG that is easiest to use

I think I'll give this to Savage Worlds. 

The basic mechanism is straightforward, additional Traits and other abilities, add to this, but they are all well explained and mostly intuitive.

There are some other games that may be simpler; some of the OSR retro-clones aim for this (though they often add some particular extra or conceit, which can increase complexity).  

These simpler games tend to focus just on one aspect of roleplaying games, usually dungeon crawling. I have  a series of PDFs that take the dungeon crawling game down to very simple levels, limiting profession just to warrior, and I'd one day like to run an open table using them, with the warriors employed by wizards to loot a mega dungeon (possibly Jennell Jaquays' awesome Caverns of Thracia).

One day.

But the reason I'm nominating Savage Worlds is the fact that once it's learnt, it's all you need for many, many different games. It fully supports many different play styles. So far I've dabbled with weird Westerns (Deadlands), Star Trek, folk horror, post apocalypse and traditional fantasy. All with the same set of rules.

If you're interested in trying Savage Worlds out, there's a free quick start on the Pinnacle Entertainment Group's website.

#RPGaDAY2024

RPGaDAY: Day Five: RPG with Great Writing

Day five, RPG with great writing

I'm nominating Rivers of London from Chaosium. This is partly because it's the most recent RPG I've got (see day one for more details) and I feel that the writing in games is getting better.  

I've read a lot of game rules, and they can be of variable quality, but there's certainly a trend to improvement. Presumably, as the hobby grows and becomes more mainstream, it attracts more professional writers*.

Chaosium have done a great job of putting together a well presented book, with clear, straightforward and easy to understand rules. The inclusion of The Domestic, an ENNIE Gold award winning solo case file that allows the player to create their first character on the go, is great, and I first saw this in another Chaosium product, Alone Against the Flame for Call of Cthulhu.

But to take Rivers of London to the top spot, there's a specially written 'Moment' from Ben Aaronovitch, with Peter Grant introducing the residents of The Folly to roleplaying games. You can't get better writing than that.

#RPGaDAY2024

*I'm waiting for the fuss that follows the publication of the first RPG to be written by an AI. It's not out there yet (as far as I know) but I think it's coming. We already have AI generated content, and even AI GMs.

Bring Out Your Lead 2024

I'm back from BOYL (Bring Out Your Lead), the Oldhammer community's annual meet-up held at Wargames Foundry near Newark.  This was my first time here, and if I took pictures of your game or minis and you'd like me to attribute it, please leave a comment or drop me a personal message and I'll be happy to do so, you certainly deserve it.

Andy suggested that we go, just as casual moochers rather than talking part in any particular event. We're all old enough to remember this stuff first time around, so it seemed like it might be fun.  

I drove down with T'Other One and we met Andy and his niece Molly at the event.

Here are some photos of the the various games.

The Wargames Foundry entrance. Beyond was a wonderland of Oldhammer. 

A Cabinet of display minis. Apparently a lot of these are metal versions of plastic minis from boxed games. They were cast up so they could be painted in time for inclusion in rule books and White Dwarf. 

Painted Heroquest and Advanced Heroquest minis

Space Crusade display minis, including the awesome Chaos Dreadnought 

The minis from the Warlock of Firetop Mountain board game 

A Warhammer game of greenskins vs gnomes. Also note that Hawaiian shirts were in fashion 

More of the Alpine Gnomes. These are available from Old School Miniatures 

Just to show that not everything was Old School, I found this game of The Old World in a corner

A game of Warhammer Siege. Apparently the lovely castle walls are painted Lego!

The orc besiegers' view of the Lego castle walls.  Presumably the besieged just use Lego bricks as caltrops?

 

I think this was a Border Patrol game, a Warhammer game for small 400 point forces and with limited army selection 

Mordheim being played around some nice MDF ruins 

The pavilion contained the food area and two huge games. 

Helsreach was a massive Necromunda game, with multiple warbands assaulting the Necron held city. There was even a scratch built Ork(?) helicopter.

The Necron held town of Helsreach 

The attackers. What a lot of lovely scratch built terrain and models 

The attackers' view of Helsreach. I think that's a wrecked titan at the front 

The other game in the pavilion was this awesome Warhammer Siege. Alas I only got the one picture. They are using the old Mighty Fortress, or rather, lots of Mighty Fortresses (Mighty Fortri?). Apparently there were "about 20000 points a side, roughly"

The Evil side faces the besieged good side

Outside the pavilion there were lots of other games.  It's a good job it didn't rain!

This game of Warhammer 40K features the classic card Imperial Bunker model. I wonder how many gamers had this back in the day, and how well they've held up over the decades?

There were minis as well.  This lovely little lot caught my eye.

Some gorgeously painted minis, the troll is especially good 

And an even better shot of the troll. It was a big troll!

There was also an amazing paint job on the classic cockatrice 

More display cases, here are some classic Chaos, and on the lower shelf, some Ancients 

More Chaos and Ancients 

Chaos Dwarves (inspiration for my Ewal Dwergar) and some good dwarves. There's a unit of Bugman's Rangers in there 

Another game of Warhammer, this time Chaos on the left vs Greenskins on the right. 

We had a great time at BOYL. There were lots of other games being played, including Space Fleet (I'd completely forgotten about this 'Battleship Gothic Lite' game), Talisman, Space Hulk, Full Tilt and Chainsaw Warrior.

We also picked up a few freebies, and I made a couple of minor purchases, but I'll save those for another post.

#BOYL2024

RPGaDAY: Day Four: RPG with great art

So, an RPG with great art? 

Art is very subjective, but the one that springs to mind is Dragonbane. I don't own the full game, but I did get the Quickstart a while ago.  

Lead artist Johan Egerkrans really captures the mood of a fantasy world, and I find his art evokes an air of mystery and menace. His style reminds me somewhat of Sidney Sime's illustrations of Lord Dunsany's writing, or (a favourite folkloric artist of mine), Brian Froud.

The game itself is a Swedish roleplaying game called Drakar och Demoner. I rather like the look of the rules, but it's probably not the sort of game that would be a hit in my current group (see yesterday's post about investment of time, money and effort).

When I look back at RPG artwork it's changed massively over the years. 

The earliest D&D pamphlets had line drawings done by the writers and their families, sometimes based on existing artwork which can readily be identified. 

Later RPG works used artists with a knowledge of the genre, but, partly due to the nature of the printed material, still tended towards line drawings.

These early illustrations, and artists such as Dave Sutherland, Erol Outs, Clive Caldwell and others immediately take me back to my youth. 

Much more of this and I'll be taking about THAC0 and level caps.

Modern RPGs tend towards a much more polished art style, and there are far more artists with gaming knowledge to do the work.  There are some very positive changes in the way many artists depict people; early RPG artwork can look quite offensive or exclusive to the modern eye, and I'm glad to see some moves to correct this.  I don't think were completely there yet though.

There have also been issues recently with the use of AI artwork, and I suspect this is something that will rumble on.

I'll finish with a personal, and perhaps controversial opinion, art in horror games, particularly Mythos style games. 

The horrors in such games are often described as 'indescribable', or 'that of which the merest glimpse would send a viewer mad'. Some games are better than others, hinting rather than showing, but if you show me a picture of a horror that should drive me mad and I remain sane, then you've failed, and cheapened the experience as well.

The best artwork in such games shows the results of such horrors (avoiding anything too graphic, of course). The look on an investigator's face as they witness something 'unspeakable' is far more effective than attempting to show the unspeakable thing.

The same applies to minis of such horrors. To my mind the early Call of Cthulhu sets did this best. Rather than minis or even fully drawn standees, they had a sheet of silhouettes. (Of course, Call of Cthulhu is a game that works perfectly well without minis or maps, and I much prefer it that way).

#RPGaDAY2024

RPGaDAY2024: Day Three: Most Often Played

Most often played RPG. 

Again, this one's easy, and again it's D&D5E, valid for 2024 and for my whole time gaming.

If I look back over close to fifty years of roleplaying, I've always come back to D&D in one form or another. 

I played every edition, albeit not much of second, and enjoyed them all. Fourth edition did get a bit tedious towards the end, though it was, so far, the longest continuous campaign I've ever run (check out 'All Good Things, the campaign finishes, introduction', if you want to read more).

I have played a good number of other RPGs in my time, including Fantasy, SF,  Horror and Superhero, but as I get older, time gets more precious, and the cognitive load involved with new games becomes greater. I'm less willing now to try something completely new. 

We seem to be in a time of more and more RPG options. New rules are published increasingly often, and then there are the new supplements for existing games. Much as I've commented previously regarding Wargames rules, if I'm going to invest time, money and brain power (all three now diminishing resources) in something new, then it's got to be worth my while, and it's got to be interesting enough to get the rest of the group onboard. And if it turns out to be a game that we play a bit, but then move on and never return to it, I'd rather have stuck with one of the staples.

D&D gives me a reliable play experience. I've constantly moved up editions, not because they are necessarily better, but because they are popular. I'm more likely to find another group of D&D players than any other system, and they are most likely to be playing the latest edition. 

I'll admit to a certain trepidation regarding the new edition though, and I wonder if it might be time to climb off the train and stick with fifth edition, or D&D14 or whatever they are calling it this week.

#RPGaDAY2024