What would I change about my favourite RPG system?

While I participated in RPGaDAY back in August, I found the questions a bit frustrating as I would have liked them to be more reflective.

As I was going through the month, I came up with a few questions I would like to answer. This is one of them.

What would you change about your favourite RPG system?

My favourite system, the one I find easiest to run and play, is Fate Accelerated.

I find Fate Accelerated absurdly simple. Characters are defined by:

• Aspects (“Hotshot pilot” “Rugged archaeologist” “Bull in a china shop”) which are always true. (Aspects can be applied to anything.)
• Approaches – how the character does things. Approaches come in six flavours: Forceful, Quick, Careful, Clever, Sneaky, and Flashy.
• Stunts – special abilities that work in certain circumstances, often giving a +2 bonus to a roll.

There are no skills – if you want skills, you should use Fate Core or Fate Condensed. (But I’m not a fan of Fate’s skills list, as I mentioned in my Fate of Cthulhu writeup.)

Doing stuff

So, to do something in Fate Accelerated, a player rolls four fate dice and adds the relevant approach. If they are smashing down a door, it’s probably Forceful. If they are picking the lock, it might be Careful.

The difficulty with approaches

Sometimes, I find it tricky to work out which approach should be used. Clever and Careful often seem to have an overlap. I don’t worry too much, but if I’m struggling, I do two things:

First, I consider what the result will be (and what might happen if they fail). If the player is carefully defusing a bomb, then that suggests a methodical approach. If they fail, they’ve probably taken precautions against taking too much damage. But quickly defusing a bomb suggests a certain recklessness.

Second, it’s sometimes helpful to think of the approaches as D&D attributes. While this works for Forceful (Strength), Quick (Dexterity), and Clever (Intelligence), this doesn’t work so well for the others. (This doesn’t work for every case. If a PC was trying to intimidate an NPC, I could imagine them rolling Forceful.)

I guess I could argue that Careful might equate to Wisdom, but I suspect that the blurriness between Clever and Careful is like that between INT and WIS.

But there’s no approach in Fate Accelerated equivalent to Charisma or Constitution. That’s fine for Constitution – there’s no need for a “healthy” approach as that’s covered by stress boxes and consequences.

But Charisma? That’s the bit in Fate Accelerated I miss. My players often try to befriend or get to know NPCs, and I find the approaches let me down in Fate Accelerated. So, I’d like to see a “charming” or “charismatic” or “likeable” approach for social situations.

Just one change

So that’s the change to Fate Accelerated I’d make: a seventh approach – Charming.

RPGaDay #26-31

#26 Favorite character sheet

I don't have a favourite character sheet.

#27 Game you'd like a new edition of

I'd love a second edition of Hillfolk. The first edition is, um, not good. These are the changes I'd make:

System: Right now, I wouldn't change it. But after I've played it a few more times, I may have ideas.

Cover: Currently, a muddy brown cover with a couple of indistinct figures. Make it compelling. And beautiful.

Fonts: Currently tiny and (to my old eyes) almost unreadable. Make it bigger!

Series pitches: Currently, over 50% of the book consists of alternate game ideas (of varying quality). Throw all but the three best out and turn them into character playsheets along the lines of Jon Cole's one-shot playbooks. Keep the other series pitches, but as pdfs (ideally with playbooks).

Size: Currently a 230+ page A4 hardback. Cut it down to a trade paperback size and give it some love.

#28 Scariest game you've played

Scary games are hard to do, and I think the scariest game I played was in the mid-eighties. I was in a games club in Exeter, and we were playing Call of Cthulhu. I can’t remember the plot, but for some reason, we were exhuming the body of a suspected sorcerer. And somehow, the anticipation of what we would find turned that into the scariest session I can remember.

What’s odd about that is that we were in a large room in a pub, with other games going on around us. So the atmosphere was against us, but somehow, for me, it became scary. (That’s what I think of when people talk about immersion. Not the what-you-see-is-what-you-get sense from some larps, but being carried away by the game so reality fades into the background.)

#29 Most memorable encounter

Cosmic Encounter. For lots of reasons, most of which I've put here.

#30 Obscure RPG you've played

No idea.

#31 Favourite RPG of all time

I’m not sure I have an all-time favourite RPG. I guess it could be Fate Accelerated, for the reasons I talked about in question #18.

However, since running a session of Hillfolk at Continuum last month, I suspect Hillfolk will be my new favourite – but it’s too early to tell. (A more detailed write-up of that Hillfolk session will follow in a later post.)

My favourite boardgame is easy, though: Cosmic Encounter.

And my favourite freeform? That’s complicated, as freeforms aren’t normally played more than once. But if you forced me to pick, I’d probably say either Home of the Bold (my first freeform ever) or Café Casablanca (my first weekend freeform), both of which I’ve played twice.

Reflecting on #RPGaDay 2023?

31 questions feel like a lot – and I feel like I’ve petered out. I’m not sure the questions were that great either.

I’d much rather things were spread out during the year – allowing for more time to think about them properly.

But hey, I still did it. Will I do 2024? Maybe. Probably. 

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.

RPGaDay 2023 #13 to 17

#14 Favourite convention purchase

My most used convention purchase is my trusty dice bag and dice tray from the fine folk at All Rolled Up. I found that my pens fell out when I turned it upside down, so Miss H added a flap to keep them secure during transport.

My favourite convention purchase, however, might be my most recent: The Floor is Lava and Bored? Games! by Ivan Brett, both purchased at Airecon earlier this year. (I reviewed them here.)

#15 Favourite con one-shot

I run quite a few convention games, but based on my last convention (Continuum in Leicester), it's Hillfolk - specifically, the one-shot playbooks created by Jon Cole. It was a superb session, but I've only done it once, and I'm looking forward to seeing how repeatable it is.

For me, the key to a good convention game is getting the characters right. If you get the characters right (with links between the PCs and, ideally, a little conflict), the scenario runs itself. Much of that can be created at the table, with a shortened session zero.

As a player, my favourite game was a Fate Accelerated game run by Neil Gow at Furnace. The setting was Werewolf: the Apocalypse and we were the last werewolves facing the apocalypse. (Although I was an elf. Anyway.) Alone, we faced the baddies and prevented the apocalypse. It was epic and huge – and it felt like we were playing in a movie. Brilliant.

From a freeform perspective, they're all one-shot games. I don't have a favourite, though.

#16 Game you wish you owned

There's nothing from the past I think I want. (One thing I like about playing RPGs is that it can be a cheap hobby if you want it to be. Some rules, dice, pens and paper, some friends - that's it.)

There are a couple of boardgames that are coming out that I've got my eye on, but I've not made any decisions yet.

#17 Funniest game you've played

Fiasco is often the game I laugh most in, just because it's so wrong. The game itself isn't funny, but the situations players end up in...

RPGaDay 2023 #10-13

And on we go, into the middle of the month.

#10 Favourite tie-in fiction

I don’t read tie-in fiction, so I don’t have a favourite.

I also don’t read other types of tie-in fiction. I’ve read a little Star Wars fiction, and a little ALIEN fiction, but I usually find them unsatisfying.

#11 The weirdest game you've played

I’m not sure how to answer this. I’m not sure what a “weird” game is – RPGs are all pretty weird. Especially when trying to explain them to my father-in-law…

So how do you play them?

Er, you sit around and talk. Each player has a character and another player plays the rest of the world and sets interesting situations for them.

And what do the different dice mean?

Er, it depends on the game. They’re used to make decisions or decide how much damage something does in an attack.

Is there a board?

Er, sometimes. I don’t usually have a board, but others use a map with miniatures.

And do you dress up?

You can, but I don’t. Dressing up is more common in <takes a deep breath> larping.

What’s larping?

It’s like tabletop roleplaying, but standing up. And in the woods, or a castle.

This sounds most peculiar…

And so on..

#12 Old game you still play

For me, an old game is one I was playing last century – so something like Traveller, Call of Cthulhu or Vampire: the Masquerade. I don’t currently play any of those, and even if I did, I’d use their latest ruleset.

As for boardgames, I still play Cosmic Encounter when I can (which isn’t often enough, as discussed in question 6). But again, with a modern edition.

#13 Most memorable character demise

A couple of years ago, I ran Destroyer of Worlds for ALIEN, and although I am not fond of combat in RPGs, it did create our most memorable scenes. In an assault on an insurgent compound, Captain Silva froze (panic!) while trying to make her rappelling roll—and moments later, the dropship was hit by two RPGs. The NPC android Chaplain was hit (he was piloting), and the dropship went into a spin, crashing and killing Silva (skull crushed) and disabling Chaplain (severe chassis breach--legs torn off). All in a matter of moments.

As far as a freeform goes, my most memorable character death was in Tutankhamun: Evil Under the Egyptian Sun where I played movie star (and serial murderer) Rudolph Valentino. At the end of the game, my past caught up with me and I was dragged away for execution. When it came time to be executed, I tried to escape and was shot in the back like the villain I was.

RPGaDay 2023 #9

#9 Favourite dice

D6s. Always.

The dice of my childhood. Of Monopoly, backgammon, Traveller, Escape from Colditz, and more.

As I said before, proper dice.

RPGaDay 2023 #4-8

 Where is the time going? Anyway...

#4 Most recent game bought

Same answer as #3:

• RPG: Codex of Worlds for Monster of the Week. 
• Board game: My City (actually the last game I bought).

#5 Oldest game you've played

I started playing RPGs in 1981 with Traveller, which probably makes that my oldest RPG. While D&D was published in 1974, I didn’t play it until 1985-ish, and we played AD&D anyway, which was 1978, I think. So Traveller.

This year, the oldest RPG I’ve played (or rather, GM-ed), is 2013’s Hillfolk at Continuum.

As for board games, I think the oldest physical game I’ve played is Reiner Knizia’s Lord of the Rings from 2000, which I rescued from an inaccessible cupboard in Miss H’s bedroom. I’ve also played a couple of games of Cosmic Encounter, which dates from 1977 (but my copy is the 2008 FFG version, so that may not count).

I’m not sure which is the oldest freeform I’ve played this year, as Retcon B and Continuum both featured several freeforms that have been run before. My guess is it’s one of Marlow 2020 or Hope Springs Eternal (at Retcon B), or Veterans Day (at Continuum).

#6 Favourite game you never get to play

My favourite game I rarely play is Cosmic Encounter. I wish I played more. I’ve played two games of it this year (a good year for me). While Miss H enjoys Cosmic Encounter (and I last played it with one of her schoolfriends), the theme doesn’t appeal to Mrs H, alas.

As for RPGs, I wish I played more Hillfolk. I’ve had the book for a decade and ran it for the first time in July. And it was awesome, and I’d like to run more of it – so that’s my plan. I’m not sure it’s my favourite game, though. At least, not yet. Other games I want to play more of include Microscope, Monsterhearts and Hot War. But none of those are my favourite games either. 

I’m not even sure I have a favourite RPG.

#7 Smartest RPG you've played

Hmm. Smart as in appearance, intelligence, or pain? Or all three?

Appearance: Traveller, in its little black dress with red trim. I prefer Traveller’s elegant design to most RPGs. (So much so that when I bought The Traveller Book, I threw away the dust jacket with its J Andrew Keith painting in preference for the original black-and-red design beneath.

Intelligence: Fiasco is one of the smartest RPGs I’ve played, the second edition especially. It does so much with a slim rulebook and a couple of decks of cards. I love it.

Pain: Anything with a lot of crunch I find painful. When I’m wading through the numbers and figuring out rules and exceptions and modifiers, I’m not enjoying the bit of roleplaying I enjoy – riffing off the other players. I don’t like playing crunchy games, and I try not to run them.

#8 Favourite character

I’m not sure I have a favourite character. I play a lot of one-shots (or 7-8 session mini-campaigns), and as a result, I’m never with my characters all that long.

My most memorable character was Kira, a Traveller character. I can’t remember her skills or anything, but I and another player decided we were married (which was actually a ruse, if I remember right). Anyway, I derailed the campaign (which was supposed to be Twilight’s Peak) when, a few sessions in, I threw a grenade into the game by declaring that my character was pregnant. Things didn’t last much longer after that.

RPGaDay 2023 #1-3

I can’t post every day, so for RPGaDay, I’ll post now and again, catching up with old posts. Like today, when I’m doing three posts.

#1 First RPG played this year

My first game of 2023 was the first of three sessions of Kingdom by Ben Robbins. Kingdom is a collaborative story game where you chart the rise and fall of a kingdom. Or, in our case, The Egregious Society of the Silver Fork. I wrote more about it back in January.

My first freeform of the year was Incense and Insensibility, which I played at Retcon B and wrote about here.

And according to Boardgamegeek, my first board game of 2023 was London (second edition). Probably against Mrs H, and almost certainly resulting in my defeat because she is so much better at it than I am.

#2 First RPG gamesmastered

Of all time? Traveller back in 1981.

This year? Kingdom (well, I facilitated). If facilitating doesn’t count, then Count Magnus’ Descendant, a Cthulhu Dark investigation in February.

As for a freeform larp, that was Death on the Gambia, I think. I wrote Death on the Gambia some years before starting Freeform Games.

#3 First RPG bought this year

I buy very few RPGs. I know how I like to play (and run), and I’m not a big fan of learning new mechanics and settings.

For a few minutes, I couldn’t think of any RPG material I’d bought – then I remembered that I backed Codex of Worlds (on Backerkit) for Monster of the Week. So, a supplement rather than a full game. There’s a stone age setting that looks interesting, but I haven’t run it yet.

As for board games, I’ve bought My City (a tile-laying legacy game) and backed an expansion to D-Day Dice (cooperative dice rolling set in Normandy 1944), which is due to land before the end of the year. I’ve also pre-ordered Daybreak, the new global-warming cooperative game from Matt Leacock; I’m not expecting that until October.

RPGaDay 22-31

Here are my answers to the final few questions for 2022’s RPGaDay in 2022.

22 - Who is your current character?

I’m currently playing Nyssa Jones, a GCHQ cybersecurity specialist in a game of Cthulhu Deep Green set in modern-day London. She also works for Artemis, an organisation seeking to save humanity from the darkness. Her handler is Mr Garland—whose name we picked because we had just finished a game of The Dee Sanction. Is it the same Mr Garland? We don’t know.

(And I say “currently playing” as that’s my only ongoing game at the moment—it’s been a slow summer for one reason or another.)

Cthulhu Deep Green is a kind of Delta Green for Cthulhu Dark. The system is a little more forgiving than Cthulhu Dark. Artemis is our equivalent of Delta Green.

23 - What situation are they currently in?

We’re investigating some attacks in East Hampstead, which has led us towards some disappearances and potentially even the Highgate Vampire from the 1970s. We found a mysterious old house that I found really creepy—I waited outside while my colleague bravely explored it. Whenever we think we are getting somewhere in the mystery, we have more questions. I’m loving it.

24 - When did you start playing this character?

November 2021. As we play weekly, that sounds like I should have played 20+ episodes by now. But thanks to the GM getting a new (and stressful) job, we’ve only played four times (I’ve run Fate of Cthulhu instead). 

We’re using a detailed Trello board, so it’s easy to pick up where we left off.

We’ll get back to it soon—I thought it might be this week, but we’re returning to Fate of Cthulhu instead.

25 - Where has the character been?

The game so far has been confined to London—we’ve not strayed further afield, and I don’t expect to, as London is one of the defining things about the game.

26 - Why does your character do what they do?

That’s a good question and one we haven’t explored. The meta reason is that she does the things she does because we’re playing Cthulhu Deep Green. I guess I should think about her motivations for doing this (but I love this kind of game, so I don’t need strong character motivations to enthuse me).

27 - How has the character changed?

It’s a bit early for that. And to be honest, I don’t expect we’ll play long enough for any character development—apart from the usual mental trauma characters get from a Cthulhu game.

28 - Roll 1d8+1, tag that many friends with your favourite RPG cover art.

I am generally underwhelmed by RPG cover art and don’t like most of it. I think the best-looking RPG is/was Traveller: I really liked the little black books for their understated elegance. That’s not really “cover art”, though, is it?

29 - Who would you like to see take part in #RPGaDAY?

I didn’t answer this one, but I saw one inspired answer that I really liked—the Queen!

30 - What should #RPGaDAY do for its 10th anniversary next year?

Realise that 31 questions is too many. These are starting to run out of steam—as are the answers.

I prefer fewer questions, more spaced out. 

31 - When did you first take part in #RPGaDAY?

This is the first year (although I participated in Dr Mitch’s 12 days of RPG back in December 2017). August is normally a bad month for me—we’re usually away for the first week in August, and then it feels like hard work to catch up.

This year, I caught covid and had time to sit at my laptop. So here we are.

Will I do it again next year? Maybe, maybe not. 31 questions is a lot, and I feel the quality of both the questions and answers dropped towards the end. 

RPGaDay 15-21

So I’m still doing RPGaDay in 2022. Here’s questions 15-21.

15 - Who would you like to Gamemaster for you?

Me. Not that I think I’m a particularly wonderful GM, but I run the games I want to play. It would be great if I could also play in them.

16 - What would be your perfect game?

It’s less about the game, but more about the people. With the right group, RPGs are magical.

With the wrong group, they’re awful.

For me, though, the right group would be more focussed on telling a story and in-character banter rather than killing monsters or worrying about getting the modifiers right when rolling dice.

And plot—I do like a game with a plot.

17 - Past, Present, or Future? When is your favourite game set?

Present—I much prefer a present-day (or slightly historical setting).

I find when I’m playing fantasy (or some SF games) that I suffer from culture shock—I don’t understand the cultural norms or how society is supposed to work. (And sometimes GMs punish my ignorance, but that’s a different topic.)

I don’t get any of that with a modern-day game. I understand the world, the technology and what’s going on. Add an overlay of weirdness (vampires, secret aliens or whatever) and I’m in heaven.

So, give me Liminal, Monsterhearts, Call of Cthulhu and numerous others to D&D, Runequest, Ashen Stars or Starfinder. 

18 - Where is your favourite place to play?

At home—mine or someone elses. Around a table. With snacks.

Online is in second place—it’s very easy to get a game (no commute!), and I get to play with friends from across the country, but the social experience isn’t the same. 

Pubs and clubs and conventions—they’re okay, but I don’t enjoy having others around me when I play.

19 - Why has your favourite game stayed with you?

I find this really difficult.

My default go-to game is Fate Accelerated—but it’s not perfect (approaches need getting your head around) and I’m not sure it’s my favourite game. But I often find myself playing (or running) another game and thinking, “this would be so much easier if it just used Fate Accelerated.”

So maybe that does make it my favourite game?

At the moment.

Because my tastes change. For some years I would have said that Call of Cthulhu was my favourite game—I lived and breathed Cthulhu. And then I got into GURPS, at which point that was my favourite game. (And then I did freeforms and started getting very minimalist and I didn’t really have a favourite game.)

So if by “favourite” we mean “flavour of the moment”, it’s probably Fate Accelerated. Ask me again in a few years, and it may be different.

20 - How long do your games last?

A session is normally 2-2.5 hours online. In person maybe 3-4 hours. I like short campaigns, so somewhere between 8-12 sessions—enough time to explore the setting and come to a decent conclusion. 

I’ve never run or played a lengthy campaign, and I’ve no desire to—there are too many games to play.

21 - Share an intriguing detail from a game setting you enjoy.

The IISS Ship Files (Games Workshop’s 1981 book of starship deckplans for Traveller) suggests that jump drives interfere with psionics, and gave their Zhodani ship (the Tiafliet-class patrol frigate) a very distinctive elongated shape with the bridge about 80m from the jump drive. Sadly, I don’t think this idea was picked up anywhere else.

IISS Ship files - still my favourite deckplans

RPGaDay 9-14

 And here’s questions 9 to 14.

9 - What is the 2nd RPG you bought?

Traveller was my first RPG, and then the most significant RPG for me after that was Call of Cthulhu, a year or so later. But between Call of Cthulhu and Traveller, there might have been Gangbusters and Tunnels and Trolls (neither of which I played much). Or were they after Call of Cthulhu? I can’t remember.

10 - When did you start Gamemastering?

It was 1981, and my friend Rob came over to play the weird new game I had just bought (Traveller, as mentioned earlier). We rolled up characters and then tried the combat system. I can’t remember who won.

Rob then bought the Shadows/Annic Nova adventure. He ran Shadows, I ran Annic Nova (I can’t remember who went first).

We always shared being the GM or playing.

11 - If you could live in a game setting, where would it be?

Somewhere upbeat and hopeful in the future (I like to think that we somehow make it past our current troubles and reach the stars). I can’t think of a specific setting that has made me think, “I’d like to live here.”

12 - Why did you start RPGing?

I liked boardgames, I liked science fiction. The advert for Traveller sounded intriguing, and when the game arrived, I tried it out and enjoyed it.

(I then also got into hobby gaming—I bought Car Wars, Ogre, and Cosmic Encounter all around that time.)

13 - How would you change the way you started RPGing?

I wouldn’t change a thing—I like how I started roleplaying: I didn’t start by playing D&D, and I didn’t start by joining someone else’s game. I did it the hard way—figuring everything out from three little black books. I kinda like that. (I wouldn’t wish it on anyone else, but I also wouldn’t want to change it.)

14 - Roll 1d8+1, and tag that many friends and suggest a new RPG to try.

I don’t like tagging people, so I’m going to change this to RPGs I would like to run. I’ve not run any of these, but I’ve played one or two of them (just the once.)

Hillfolk: I’ve played this once, and really enjoyed it. Now I want to run it. But it’s a bit challenging to bring to the table—I find myself intimidated by it. It’s a game I really want to play, and it’s so radical I’m a little surprised that it hasn’t had a bigger impact on RPGs generally.

Urban Shadows: I backed the Kickstarter for the second edition, and I’m looking forward to giving it a try—although it’s another game I’m intimidated by.

Kingdom: I’m a huge fan of Ben Robbins’ Microscope—it’s the one game that I couldn’t wait to play after I had read the book. I’ve got Kingdom, but haven’t got it to the table yet—I really need to push that up the playing order. I might have played this, once, at Furnace.

Trophy Dark: I listen to the Fear of a Black Dragon podcast (which is generally excellent). They have mentioned Trophy Dark and Trophy Gold several times. I don’t have Trophy Dark, but I gather it’s inspired by Cthulhu Dark (which I do have) and focussed on one-shot play, so that appeals.

Good Society: The Jane Austen game. A pleasant change from flying spaceships and staking vampires.

Monsterhearts: I’ve played Monsterhearts once, but would like to run it.

RPGaDAY 2022 Q1-8

I don’t normally do RPGaDAY—it happens in August, and August is holiday month for me.

However, this year, while I was on holiday, I caught Covid and was stuck at home with little to do.

So this year I’m doing RPGaDay. I’m posting them daily on the Tavern, and here are the first eight.

1 - Who would you like to introduce to RPGs?

I don’t think there’s anyone I want to introduce RPGs to that I haven’t already.

However, there are people who I wish would play RPGs with me. (Mrs H, in particular--it would be nice to share RPGs with her. But if I did that, I’d probably have to be more into the garden/allotment than I am. So we have a happy balance - she plays boardgames, and I cut the grass, strim and compost. She has watched me run a game for friends and sat there in puzzlement while she knitted. This reminds me of when my mum overheard me roleplaying with my friends back when I was at school: “You’re just making it all up!” she accused me. Well, yes.)

I’ve already GM-ed for my daughter. Her first game was when she was 4 or 5, when I ran Faery’s Tale for her. She’s occasionally played since - she’d happily do more.

2 - What is a great introductory RPG?

I don’t worry about teaching rules when I’m introducing someone to roleplaying - I tell them to describe what they want to do, and I tell them what dice to roll and whether they succeed.

Back in the 80s, before Geek culture ruled, Call of Cthulhu was my go-to game to introduce new people to roleplaying. It’s easy to explain that this is a ghost/horror story. (Toning down the mythos and sticking to vampires, werewolves, ghosts and so on.) BRP was a nicely simple system.

To me, the setting is more important than the rules. I can handwave some tricky rules, but it’s much harder for a new player to understand an inaccessible setting. (Modern-day or recently historical are best for me.)

(And dare I mention Freeform Games? Yes, they’re larps (but that’s just TTRPG-ing standing up), but we describe them as murder mystery games. We make an okay living by introducing ordinary folk to roleplaying games without telling them that’s what they’re doing.)

3 - When were you first introduced to RPGs?

1980 for me. A cryptic advert for Traveller in Starburst #22 and #23 intrigued me, but it was another year before I actually purchased those little black books.

(I've written about this before.)

4 - Where would you host a first game?

Ideally around a table in someone’s home.

5 - Why will they like this game?

I don’t know why anyone enjoys roleplaying. We all enjoy it for different reasons—perhaps to hang out with friends, be part of a story, chew scenery, kill monsters, and escape into a fantasy world. Everyone’s different.

So I’m rephrasing this as:

How would you run an RPG session to make it likely that a new player would want to play again?

So, some principles:

• Keep it small: no more than three or four players. That gives everyone plenty of spotlight time.
• Keep it short: A short one-shot adventure—I wouldn’t drop a new player into a massive ongoing campaign. The ideal adventure would have some investigation and roleplaying before a fight. No longer than about three hours of play.
• Accessible background: Make the background accessible. If you must run a fictional universe, remember that their character knows more than they do.
• Keep the system in the background: Don’t overwhelm them with numbers and statistics. I would probably use Fate Accelerated, which I’ve taught new players many times.

After that, I hope they will enjoy sharing an adventure with their friends, and I hope their character does cool and memorable stuff they couldn’t do in another medium. And maybe then they’ll come back.

6 - How would you get more people playing RPGs?

I’d like to see more positive depictions of roleplaying in movies and television. Stranger Things was great, except the kids were geeks and nerds. It would be nice to see RPG gamers depicted as less nerdy and more ordinary.

A harder question is how to get more BAME people playing RPGs? I remember chatting with Remi at Aircon in Harrogate a few years ago, and he noted the attendees were 99% white. I hadn’t noticed—but I’m white, so it didn’t seem unusual to me. I don’t know how to fix this, although I expect positive BAME role-models in cinema and television wouldn’t hurt.

7 - System Sunday: Describe a cool part of a system you love.

I’m not sure I love Fate, but I like Fate points. They do so much:

• They reward good roleplaying and putting characters in peril.
• They permit players to create story elements at the table.
• You play them after you roll the dice—so you’re unlikely to waste them.
• They’re powerful—a +2 bonus doesn’t sound like much, but on the Fate probability curve, it’s huge.

I may not love them, but I miss them when the system I’m playing doesn’t have them.

8 - Who introduced you to RPGs?

Nobody, as explained when I answered question 3. I was patient zero – I was intrigued by a cryptic advert in Starburst for Traveller. I had no idea what I was buying…

Next time

Next time - answers to questions 9 to 16.