#RPGaDay2015 29: Favorite RPG website/blog

Last year we celebrated Autocratik’s #RPGaDay, where we spend a month celebrating RPGs, discussing what we love and what we love about them. Here are the responses of the TRF crew. Be sure to tweet, blog, or post your own with the #RPGaDay!

For August 29, What is your favorite RPG website/blog?
Aser: DriveThruRPG πŸ˜›
Chuck: DriveThruRPG
John: TheRedactedFiles.com, Twitter.
Jonn: Reality Refracted. A.L. has a very nuanced approached to talking about role-playing games. The post are rarely antagonistic and he doesn’t spend any of his time bashing people like a lot of bloggers do.
Landan: Paizo, Monte Cook Games, TRF, Geekly Inc., and I can’t think of any others off the top my head.
Matt: The Angry GM is a good read for me. I tend to design and plan games in similar ways to him, but he has much more detailed insight into why what he does works. This has helped me understand why I do things the way I do, which in turn has helped me refine my techniques. And, while I don’t visit Penny Arcade or their forum as much as I used to, I got a lot of really good info from there.
Megan: I like Gnome Stew and Tribality quite a bit for advice and news. I also love TRF because it’s my baby πŸ™‚
Patrick: TRF, I really don’t look anywhere else. My plate is usually full of my other gaming vices.
Rob: TRF

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#RPGaDay2015 28: Favorite game you no longer play

Last year we celebrated Autocratik’s #RPGaDay, where we spend a month celebrating RPGs, discussing what we love and what we love about them. Here are the responses of the TRF crew. Be sure to tweet, blog, or post your own with the #RPGaDay!

For August 28, What is your favorite game you no longer play?
Aser: It’s hard to believe we haven’t played Eclipse Phase in more than a year, but that’s the sad truth. D20 Modern was fun too, though I’m not sure how those characters would’ve done in the long run.
Chuck: The old DC supers game, the first edition
John: BECMI D&D (might play again soon?) or Marvel.
Jonn: For me, it is D&D 2e/4e. I’ve enjoyed most every version of D&D but recently stopped playing 2e/4e. I have been gravitating towards games like Fate Core and Cortex. I’ve gotten the most enjoyed out of D&D than any other ruleset; however, I slowly gravitated towards simple rulesets that have less rigid systems for combat, skills and (especially) magic systems.
Landan: It has been a long time since I played Saga Ed. Star Wars RPG
Matt: D&D 3.5 did a lot of things very well, and I played it for a long time. While Pathfinder is strictly better in almost every way that matters to me, I had a lot of fun with 3.5.
Megan: WH40k: Rogue Trader. The first RPG I played, and it still has a special place in my heart. I miss Khan, the greatest explorator.
Patrick: Mage: The Awakening
Rob: RIFTS

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#RPGaDay2015 27: Favorite Idea for Merging Two Games into One

Last year we celebrated Autocratik’s #RPGaDay, where we spend a month celebrating RPGs, discussing what we love and what we love about them. Here are the responses of the TRF crew. Be sure to tweet, blog, or post your own with the #RPGaDay!

For August 27, What is your favorite idea for merging two games into one?
Aser: My favorite idea is something we’re doing currently actually. The party from our Mysteries of the Ninth World campaign is going to step into The Strange. πŸ™‚ It was Megan’s idea and I was foolish enough to add fuel to the fire.
Chuck: I thought mixing The Strange with Numenera would be fun, turns out, there were some problems.
John: The Strange makes that very possible. Or introducing the Cthulhu Mythos into Eclipse Phase.
Jonn: A setting inspired by Earthdawn and Fallout. Where the cataclysm occurred during the pre-Columbian period. Places like the Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde, Tulum, Chichen Itza were constructed to be vaults and the PCs would come from and/or be exploring these locations.
Landan: I am not sure maybe two parallel universes all of a sudden start to merge… I have no clue.
Matt: I’d love to have a game that incorporated vehicle combat well, whether that was spaceships, car chases, etc. that lets the PCs work together in a meaningful way.
Megan: I don’t think there are a lot of game systems I really want to merge into one. But I love the idea of merging worlds together (which the Strange does beautifully). I’m playing with this concept in my Numenera game, by bringing the Strange into it.
Patrick: Aces and Eights and Deadlands.

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#RPGaDay2015 26: Favorite Inspiration for your Game

Last year we celebrated Autocratik’s #RPGaDay, where we spend a month celebrating RPGs, discussing what we love and what we love about them. Here are the responses of the TRF crew. Be sure to tweet, blog, or post your own with the #RPGaDay!

For August 26, What is your favorite inspiration for your game?
Aser: My favorite inspiration when planning a scenario is typically a random bit of interpersonal interaction in a larger work of history I’m reading, something humanizing, that can really turn people you’ve never met into someone you care about. I try to bring that into the game. Or when running The Strange, I’ll just open the Bestiary and see what nastiness would be fun to inflict on my players that day. πŸ˜›
Chuck: Live play podcasts.
John: Movies, game-inspired fiction, podcasts.
Jonn: Famous Quotes, Ancient History and American History.
Landan: Music, Art, Television, and Movies. The most recent character I created was based off the album cover for Chevelle’s “La Gargola”
Matt: Plato’s Allegory of the Cave provides a lot of potential for a story that evolves over time without resorting to a “twist”.
Megan: I use Aser a lot to bounce ideas off of, and then twist his and my ideas into one mega-idea.
Patrick: Horror films.
Rob: Zombie Movies

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#RPGaDay2015 25: Favorite Revolutionary Game Mechanic

Last year we celebrated Autocratik’s #RPGaDay, where we spend a month celebrating RPGs, discussing what we love and what we love about them. Here are the responses of the TRF crew. Be sure to tweet, blog, or post your own with the #RPGaDay!

For August 25, What is your favorite revolutionary game mechanic?
Aser: We keep talking about the Cypher System, but for good reason I think. In Cypher, the points used to buy uses of your special abilities and boost your die rolls, are also your health. the use of expendable points to help your rolls or achieve success in Gumshoe is also a real favorite: emphasizing the toll the adventure is taking on the player.
Chuck: Exp for discovery not combat.
John: Burning Games’ FAITH uses cards not dice; the ‘rest’ refresh method from Cypher System and D&D.
Jonn: Fate Points. Well Fate Points are nothing new, but how they interact with the rest of the system is fairly revolutionary.
Landan: Maybe the GM intrusion mechanic for the Numenera RPG and I believe other Cypher System games.
Matt: Communal world-building is a great idea that I kick myself for not incorporating into my games before. I love it as both a GM and a player. Runner-up is the social combat system in the Dresden Files RPG; it’s the only such system I’ve seen that works reasonably well.
Megan: I like being able to spend to increase your roll in the Cypher System, as well as being able to reroll by spending XP. It’s the only mechanic I regularly miss when I’m playing other games.
Patrick: Drama Dice from 7th Sea. Tangible rewards for cool stuff players do in game. Look it up, cool shiznit.
Rob: Complications replacing HP

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#RPGaDay2015 24: Favorite House Rule

Last year we celebrated Autocratik’s #RPGaDay, where we spend a month celebrating RPGs, discussing what we love and what we love about them. Here are the responses of the TRF crew. Be sure to tweet, blog, or post your own with the #RPGaDay!

For August 24, What is your favorite house rule?
Aser: If it’s cool enough, it happens.
Chuck: Stop the game by making the GM laugh uncontrollably, get an exp point.
John: Roll 4 dice for d20 Attributes and discard the lowest. Also the Final Girl method of drawing one card at a time to streamline death scenes.
Jonn: Depends on the system, but the most common rule is not tracking mundane equipment. Characters is assumed to have basic equipment that fits their character, roll a high-low roll for items that would be possible for them to have, and told what they would have to do to get their hands on it otherwise.
Landan: I am a fan of Megan’s Nat 20 always being a critical hit without having to roll to confirm. My in-person group tends to also always have Weapon Finesse as a free feat.
Matt: N/A. Can’t think of a house rule that wasn’t set up to fix something frustrating so we could get on with a game.
Megan:Β Most of my house rules come about because I don’t want to spend time looking up some specifics. But I’m always really happy to let something happen if it’s particularly clever or awesome.
Patrick: Roll a Nat 20 on a skill check get 100 xp and a permanent skill point to that skill.

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#RPGaDay2015 23: Perfect Game for You

Last year we celebrated Autocratik’s #RPGaDay, where we spend a month celebrating RPGs, discussing what we love and what we love about them. Here are the responses of the TRF crew. Be sure to tweet, blog, or post your own with the #RPGaDay!

For August 23, What is the perfect game for you?
Aser: The perfect game for me is something more towards the social, rules lite end of the spectrum though still probably with a GM. It will probably end up being whatever the TRF crew behind The Strange comes up with using the Cypher System Rulebook
Chuck: One that has friends and will keep going next week.
John: Eclipse Phase. Bored woth PC? Change bodies! RPG is so fun and varied, sci fi, humor and horror; rules are flexible enough to be adapted pretty easily: I easily envision a habitat fighting a Terminator: Future War scenario or a Gamma World Earth for example.
Jonn: Fantasy/SCI where actions are heroic and maybe the gravity is 15% less πŸ™‚ the with A game where magic is either limited in magnitude or is extremely dangerous.
Landan: Any session I come out alive and not dead.
Matt: Probably something like the Cypher System or FATE; simple mechanics with the ability to do a lot of customization.
Megan: I like rules light games in weird settings so Numenera is basically my perfect game. I love pretty much everything about this game, and any new addition just makes it better .
Patrick: Airship Pirates with magic and stuffs.
Rob: Final Girl

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#RPGaDay2015 22: Perfect Gaming Environment

Last year we celebrated Autocratik’s #RPGaDay, where we spend a month celebrating RPGs, discussing what we love and what we love about them. Here are the responses of the TRF crew. Be sure to tweet, blog, or post your own with the #RPGaDay!

For August 22, What is your perfect gaming environment?
Aser: My perfect gaming environment is one I rarely get to enjoy: it’s any time I get to sit near Megan while playing.
Chuck: At home with large table
John: In basement with dim lights, online via Google Hangouts or Skype.
Jonn: An place that supports human life and isn’t too windy.
Landan: Well I guess a good internet connection for my online RPG activities like TRF, and a decently big table for when I play within an arm’s reach of people.
Matt: Anywhere with plenty of space and a well-stocked bar.
Megan: I really love playing around a table, with lots of snacks and alcohol. But playing online is also a ton of fun!
Patrick: Home, or a friends home. Just make the experience a bit more intimate and you can play off the energy of the room.
Rob: Kitchen table with beers and snacks!

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#RPGaDay2015 21: Favorite RPG Setting

Last year we celebrated Autocratik’s #RPGaDay, where we spend a month celebrating RPGs, discussing what we love and what we love about them. Here are the responses of the TRF crew. Be sure to tweet, blog, or post your own with the #RPGaDay!

For August 21, What is your favorite RPG setting?
Aser: I’m going to cheat and say the world of The Strange. Because in The Strange, you can go pretty much anywhere. My party killed Darth Vader last month… πŸ™‚
Chuck: The Strange
John: ‘Real’ world, or BECMI Mystara setting.
Jonn: Hmm, That is a hard one. I would say Fallout, but that would be using a technicality since I never actually played the fan made Fallout Pen and Paper. I’ve gotten the most use out of Eberron. I’ve used that setting for games in at least four different rulesets.
Landan: I really like the world Pathfinder has established but Numenera’s setting is really great to.
Matt: Planescape still stands out to me. So much potential for wild adventures with no limitations on how weird things could get. I keep hoping it will get an official relaunch in some capacity, but Numenera and The Strange are excellent spiritual successors that I am enjoying.
Megan: The Ninth World, no question. It has everything I could ever want in a setting.
Patrick: Not sure if there is a Diesel punk setting, but I’d be down for that all damn day.
Rob: Shadowrun

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#RPGaDay2015 20: Favorite Horror RPG

Last year we celebrated Autocratik’s #RPGaDay, where we spend a month celebrating RPGs, discussing what we love and what we love about them. Here are the responses of the TRF crew. Be sure to tweet, blog, or post your own with the #RPGaDay!

For August 20, What is your favorite horror RPG?
Aser: My favorite horror RPG has to be Fear Itself. There are other gumshoe contenders like Trail of Cthulhu, Esoterrorists, or Night’s Black Agents, but Fear Itself makes you face all the potential horror as normal people. Now, that’s scary.
Chuck: Weird Wars Rome for Savage Worlds
John: Call of Cthulhu, duh!
Jonn: Call of Cthulhu
Landan: Generally not a fan of horror but the closest thing was a D&D 3.5 game played at Geekly Con 2015 DM’d by Michael Lane of the Cthulhu and Friends Podcast. Either V’s creepiness rubbed off on him or she may have gotten some of it from him since he DM’d for them back in the day if I remember right when they first met. Generally dolls don’t creep me out but he had an extremely creepy doll and a creepy old man NPC.
Matt: I’m not sure an RPG is the best medium for horror. I enjoy the genre for movies, video games, books, etc., but it somehow doesn’t translate well to RPGs in my experience.
Megan: I think I like the sanity/stability mechanic in Gumshoe the best, so Trail of Cthulhu and Fear Itself.
Patrick: Haven’t played one yet, maybe soon. And I can’t qualify anything that I’ve played by White Wolf as horror. It’s is the Coke Zero of horror.
Rob: Call of Cthulhu

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