RPGaDay 2023 #22-25

#22 Best secondhand RPG purchase

I don't think I've bought any RPGs secondhand.

#23 Coolest looking RPG

For me, it's still Traveller's elegant black-and-red look from 1977.

These days, I find readability and accessibility more important than coolness. I particularly like huge coffee-table books, so most large-publisher RPGs are a turn-off for me. (I find the current Mongoose Traveller more readable than the old GDW booklets.)

I find RPGs also often fail at making them easy to use during play - the ALIEN books (and adventures, especially) are particularly bad at this.

#24 Complex/simple RPG you play

As I said before, I generally prefer simple RPGs. I once ran a campaign using only 2d6. The players said what they wanted to do, rolled 2d6, and I interpreted the results. So those were probably the simplest rules I’ve used, but it wouldn't have worked if we didn't trust each other.

Currently, I am running a playtest of As the Sun Forever Sets, a Forged in the Dark game set during HG Wells' Martian invasion. I've not run Blades in the Dark, and I'm finding the game extremely fiddly - with lots of things to think about that I would normally ignore or handwave. I wouldn’t say it's crunchy (which I associate with numerous modifiers and rules for specific situations), but ATSFS has many more subsystems to keep track of than I'm used to. I feel like I’m playing a boardgame – but without the helpful player boards and counters that a boardgame would come with.

My sweet spot is probably Fate Accelerated, which is just about right.

(I know there’s an argument that the “game” part of “roleplaying game” means there must be mechanics and systems. But that’s not why I roleplay (that’s what boardgames are for). What I like when I roleplay are a story, playing characters important to that story, and PCs who talk to each other (not just to the GM). None of which involve rolling dice. Anyway, I’ve covered this before.)

#25 Unplayed RPG you own

I had stopped playing (and running) Traveller by the time I bought The Traveller Book. (I had moved on to Call of Cthulhu by that point.) Which is a shame, as I think it's the best iteration of the original Traveller rules.

I also have the latest iteration of Mongoose Traveller. I hope I'll play that soon - and maybe even run Secrets of the Ancients.

Also unplayed is Good Society, which arrived over a year ago. It feels like a game that suits face-to-face play rather than online play, and while I want to play/run it, I don’t have a regular face-to-face group. Maybe I need to nag someone else into playing it.

Cold City and Hot War are in my “unplayed and not currently planning to play” category. I’ve played in a couple of Hot War one-shots, but I don’t think I’ve got the hang of it – which is why I’ve not run it. While I’ll play them should the opportunity present itself, I’m not planning (or thinking about planning) either. 

Urban Shadows is in a holding pattern. I have a pdf of the first edition, but I’m waiting for the second edition physical book from Kickstarter. I’m hoping this becomes something I play rather than something that sits on the shelf.

Finally, while I have numerous unplayed pdfs, the only one I'd really like to bring to the table is Monsterhearts.

I have no unplayed boardgames.