RPGaDay 2017, Week 1

Alright, so, if you've followed this blog before you probably know the routine. For those that haven't, #RPGaDay is an exercise where every day in August, you answer a list of questions about role-playing games and how you play them. This year's questions are here. I do daily-ish posts at my Plus account, collected here, and here at the blog I do weekly recaps. And here is the first of them.





Day 1: What published RPG do you wish you were playing right now?

Honestly, after adjusting for stuff I've played recently or am running (and getting a little sick of,) I think that might be Eclipse Phase. Like, straight-up, original system Eclipse Phase, not just the Fate version. Because that's a system I'd love to take for a spin, except I look at the character creation rules and just check out.

Maybe their second edition will be an improvement, but I couldn't tell you because it's been a while since I looked at the available playtest documents.


Day 2: What RPG would you like to see published?

Trinity Continuum and Trinity Continuum: Aeon, the new editions. I mean, it's going to come out, it's progressing closer and closer to being finished. So maybe this is cheating slightly. But, like Veruca Salt, I want it nooooowwwwww!


Day 3: How do you find out about new RPGs?


Word of mouth via social media, usually conversations on Plus but occasionally through a link to a Kickstarter on Twitter or something.


Day 4: Which RPG have you played the most since August 2016?

Well, there are a couple of ways to count this.

If you mean just playing, then it's a tie between Adventure! and Pathfinder, as one of my weekly groups alternates between those two and my Doctor Who game.

If you count running games as well as playing, then overall it would be Pathfinder because the group I run for alternates between Pathfinder and Werewolf: The Apocalypse. So I either run or play Pathfinder the most, followed by Werewolf, Adventure!, and Doctor Who.


Day 5: Which RPG cover best captures the spirit of the game?

Okay, so this is one of those 'I don't know how to answer this' ones, because it's so subjective and I can't even begin to imagine how I would rate one against another. So, into the Alternate Questions!

Alternate Question: Campaigns: do you prefer set-length or open-ended play?

I prefer set-length, for the most part. At the very least, a 'seasonal' structure so there are points where you can stop and step away. Games where there is no defined end in sight seem to be much more likely to run out of ideas and try to surge forward on momentum alone. If you don't know when you're going to be taking a break from the story, then you're more likely to get frustrated and fed up over time.

So yeah. Set-length.


Day 6: You can game every day for a week. Describe what you'd do!

Okay, there are an absurd amount of potential variables. But if it were up to me, off the top of my head? I'd do a week of one-shots that I think people need to experience or I don't think I'll otherwise get to run/play.


Day 7: What was your most impactful RPG session?

Well, I'd say it's a toss-up between two.

First, the Doctor Who RPG session where my player characters encountered the Doctor and learned about what happened to Gallifrey during the Time War, and later getting to witness the Berlin Wall opening up for the first time to let people freely pass through.

Second, one of my old Promethean sessions (I've had those on the brain because reasons) where my friend Shomo's character, a Promethean created to fight Nazi monsters in WWII, met the surviving family of the body that provided most of his parts, implying that the guy's ancient and somewhat senile mother recognized his face.