#RPGaDAY2015 Day 31: Favorite Non-RPG Thing to Come Out of RPGing

Day 31: Favorite Non-RPG Thing to Come Out of RPGing

The final day.  The final day and I got nothing.  Nothing, nada, zilch.  The big goose-egg.

Talk about ending with a whimper.

Sigh.


#RPGaDAY2015

#RPGaDAY2015 Day 30: Favorite RPG Playing Celebrity

Day 30: Favorite RPG Playing Celebrity

Tough one.  I'm not much of a celebrity follower and thus don't really have a favorite celebrity gamer.  I guess I will go with Wil Wheaton.  I've enjoyed the things I've seen him in, particularly the Big Bang Theory, and I like the way he's been representing gaming.



#RPGaDAY2015

#RPGaDAY2015 Day 29: Favorite RPG Website/Blog

Day 29: Favorite RPG Website/Blog
Another toughie for me.  I like several. 

I like reading the forums and the reviews on RPG.net.

I like the blog Strange Stones by the Venomous Pao.  Cool Barbarians of Lemuria posts and the G-Man BoL adventures keep me going back.  Also nice Mini Six and Labyrinth Lord stuff.

I enjoy The Most Unread Blog on the Internet.  Ever. Tommy Brownell writes really good reviews on a wide variety of games and its one of my first stops when I am looking information I trust.

Then there's Vargold:  The Wolf-Time by the Good Professor, Rob Barrett.  He likes several games that I like (BoL)and teaches college level courses on fantasy literature.  Which I think is extremely cool.  I also like the blogs subtitle:  Barbaric Yawps on Comics, Role-Playing, and Spec-Fic.

Heroes & Other Worlds blog by C.R. Brandon.  All about the wonder of his game.  Mr. Brandon also writes the Sword & Shield blog.

And a new blog for me.  die heart by Sophia Brandt.  I have found myself reading her blog more and more often.  Not only does she write helpful reviews but she is a Linux user also.  (I am writing this on Lubuntu running off of a flash drive.)


#RPGaDAY2015

#RPGaDAY2015 Day 28: Favorite Game You No Longer Play

Day 28: Favorite Game You No Longer Play

The two games I play most in olden days were Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and Melee/Wizard.  I had the black box Traveller but spent more time fooling around with it than I did actually playing it.  Since I still pull out Melee and its successor Heroes & Other Worlds, I guess by default this catagory goes to AD&D.  But it's not like I miss it.  I mentioned recently that I wish I would've gotten ahold of Moldvay Basic instead of getting into AD&D.  I really liked it at the time but there are too many rules.  Maybe this is just me looking back through my current rules-lite loving filter, but hey, I can't speak for my teenaged-self anymore.

I just discoverd while googling for an image that AD&D also stands for Accidental Death and Dismemberment insurance.  Come to think of it, many D&D characters could use an AD&D policy.



#RPGaDAY2015

#RPGaDAY2015 Day 27: Favorite Idea for Merging Two Games into One

Day 27:  Favorite Idea for Merging Two Games into One

Sorry.  I can't really think of anything.  I do like the idea Weird Wars Rome.  Historical gaming with horror thrown in.


#RPGaDAY2015

#RPGaDAY2015 Day 26: Favorite Inspiration for Your Game

Day 26:  Favorite Inspiration for Your Game

Conan of Cimmeria.  The original Howard version as well as representations by later writers and artists and the comics (particularly Savage Sword of Conan).  All of the adventures and illustrations have something to steal, borrow or disguise for games.  The stories are what inform and color my view of Sword & Sorcery and feed my desire for games and gaming.


#RPGaDAY2015

 

#RPGaDAY2015 Day 24: Favorite House Rule

Day 24: Favorite House Rule

Ya know, I don't really house rule.  The closest I came to house ruling was with Basic D&D.  when my boys were younger I would allow them to roll 4d6 for stats and place them where they wanted.  That way they could play the character type they wanted to.


#RPGaDAY2015

#RPGaDAY2015 Day 23: Perfect Game for You

Day 23: Perfect Game for You

Really!?!  That's both difficult and easy.


I am now being horribly repetitive but I'm going to have to go with Barbarians of Lemuria again.

Here's why:

• Sword & Sorcery is a genre I enjoy.  Human-centric and a bit grim and dark at times
  with the right amount of mysterious magic that can seriously bite you in the butt.
• It captures the genre very well for me.
• It is rules-lite.  I don't have the time or energy anymore to memorize large volumes of rules anymore.
• It is adaptable.  It captures the feel of S&S really well but it can also be adapted it to any action oriented genre.  And it has.  And with a little work of your own you can adapt it too.

#RPGaDAY2015

#RPGaDAY2015 Day 22: Perfect Gaming Environment

Day 22: Perfect Gaming Environment

Anywhere where I am comfortable.

#RPGaDAY2015 Day 21: Favorite RPG Setting

Day 21:  Favorite RPG Setting

Another hard one for me.  Though I like Lemuria of BoL, it's not my favorite.  I like the setting for Lankhmar, Heroes of Hellas (Ancient Greece, of course) and Legends of Steel.  I think my favorite though is the Servants of Gaius.  I'm going to combine it Weird Wars Rome and just run with it.

#RPGaDAY2015 Day 20: Favorite Horror RPG

Day 20:  Favorite Horror RPG

First, let me wish H.P. Lovecraft a happy birthday!  125th if I'm correct.  I hope he's resting in peace....

Ya know, I haven't really played any horror RPGs.  Some games have had horrific elements but I've never played a specifically horror centered game.  Maybe, in honor of the day I should pull out the Call of Cthulhu quick-start and try it out on my H.P. Lovecraft loving son.  I also just received The Outer Presence, a short horror game that I'm looking forward to reading.  Oh.  I also have the Horror Companion for Savage Worlds.  Hmmm.  Going to have to get my horror on one way or another.

Question for those of you who run horror games.  How do you set the atmosphere to get maximum effect?

#RPGaDAY2015

#RPGaDay2015 Day 19: Favorite Supers RPG

Day 19:  Favorite Supers RPG

This one is simple.  My favorite supers RPG is Supers! by Simon Washbourne.  I have the original version.  I hope to get the revised edition at somepoint.  I hear good things about it.  Til then, the original version will work fine.

#RPGaDAY2015

#RPGaDAY2015 Day 18: Favorite SF RPG

Day 18:  Favorite SF RPG

Have to go with Traveller.  Played it a lot, mostly solo, back when.  Loved the mini-games of character creation and system creation.  I enjoyed the starship construction and the other little bits and pieces.


#RPGaDAY2015

#RPGaDAY2015 Day 17: Favorite Fantasy RPG

Day 17:  Favorite Fantasy RPG

You'd think this would be an easy one for me.  (Bol, BoL, BoL!!!)  But it's not.  I love Barbarians of Lemuria.  I've probably refered to it as my favorite game.  But...I have an abiding love for Melee/Wizard/Heroes & Other Worlds.  Early loves are hard to shake and Heroes & Other Worlds just increased that love.  And it's not one I want to shake.  And then there's my new love, Basic D&D of the Moldvay variety.  I did not play it back then.  I went from Holmes to AD&D.  I wish I had played Moldvay back then.  Simple and straightforward.  As many others have said, we didn't play AD&D with all of the rules.  Not even close.  So when I finally did read Moldvay it was closer to what we were playing anyway.

So, a very hard decision that I don't feel like making now.


#RPGaDAY2015

#RPGaDAY2015 Day 16: Longest Game Session Played

Day:  Longest Game Session Played

Not us.  I wasn't this cool looking.

Once again I must go back to my Middle School days.  Imagine it is a hot summer day.  Say 90 degrees.  The second floor of a two story house without air-conditioning.  A small room on the second floor with one window.  Then imagine two 12 or 13 year olds playing AD&D for 14 hours with only brief breaks for sustenance.  Wiping our sweaty brows as he guided me through whatever dungeon I was fighting through.  We must've smelled LOVELY after that.


#RPGaDAY2015

#RPGaDAY2015 Day 15: Longest Campaign Played

Day 15:  Longest Campaign Played

I believe the longest campaign I played in was a two year AD&D campaign I played in middle school.  That was the height of my actual role-playing.  I played a cleric who reached, I think, the 7th level.  I have his stats and such written in a book packed away somewhere.  I'll have to dig him up and post him here.

I don't have my AD&D books anymore.  They were well used and got fairly ruined in storage years ago.  (Thanks, Mom.  That old chicken coop was a great place to store my RPG books.)  I thought I was done with role-playing after college so I got rid of them.  Then I rediscovered the joy of role-playing and now I kick myself.  I did the same thing with the red Basic D&D set.  Fool I am.



#RPGaDAY2015

#RPGaDay2015 Day 14: Favorite RPG Accessory

Day 14:  Favorite RPG Accessory

My imagination?  These days I really don't have accessories.  I have dice, a writing implement, the rules and maybe a binder as a screen.  Not much else.


#RPGaDAY2015

#RPGaDAY2015 Day 13: Favorite RPG Podcast

Day 13:  Favorite RPG Podcast

Gotta take a pass on this one.  I don't listen to any.

#RPGaDAY2015

#RPGaDAY2015 Day 12: Favorite RPG Illustration

Day 12:  Favorite RPG Illustration

I'm going to have to cheat a little bit again.  My favorite RPG illustration is that of Arak-Aree from Barbarians of Lemuria:  Mythic Edition.  I really enjoy Peter Frain's artistry and unique style.  He really brought the character to life for me in a way I wasn't quite expecting.  I'd like to post the picture but I don't know if I'm allowed to.

Edited to add image.


#RPGaDay2015

#RPGaDay2015 Day 11: Favorite RPG Writer Part 2

Ok.  That's what I get for posting tired and unfocused.  There is a second RPG writer that I wanted to mention but didn't.  My other favorite RPG writer is C.R. Brandon, the author of Heroes & Other Worlds, Rogue Space and the upcoming Blades & Black Magic amongst others.

There are two things in particular I like about about Mr. Brandon's writing and another two things I like in general.  So, the first thing I like about his writing is that he writes in the same playground I play in.  What I mean by that is he writes rules-lite games, some of which are based on Melee/Wizard/TFT.  Heroes & Other Worlds is and so is his newest free item Swords & Spells.  (Which by the way is a nifty one-booklet combination of Melee and Wizard which will give my poor, battered 35 year old copies of those games a break.)  The second thing I like about his writing is that he seems to write specifically for me (which I know isn't true, but I like to say it anyway).  I think we think along similar lines when it comes to games and I really like that.

The two things that I like in general is, first, he puts out a lot of free games and supplements.  The above mentioned Swords & Spells is one example.  Free is always nice particularly when it is good quality free.  Second, he is always open to input when he is creating games.  He's taken suggestions from the comment sections of his various blogs and worked them into his games.  That's nice.

Oh, a third thing I like is that his wife does some of the cool art for his games.