A Rune Awakening 10: Murder Most Foul

A hideous humanoid creature bends over a slain man in a barn, newly discovered by a screaming woman with a lantern. He is cutting a seven pointed star in the mans chest with a large razor

Flush with their victory over the goblins, the party settled into a comfortable rhythm in Sandpoint. But now one of their own is suspected of murder, and they need to find out who is hunting residents of their newly adopted hometown.

Featuring Aser, Jonn, Landan, Megan, and Patrick. Music by Kevin Macleod, “Five Armies.” (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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Review: Delta Green Agent’s Handbook

Delta Green Agent Handbook Cover. Shows a man looking fearfully to the side in the woods, while carrying a book.

The designer of Red Markets and long-time contributor to Role-Playing Public Radio Caleb Stokes once remarked that games like Call of Cthulhu are, contrary to popular belief, just as escapist as your stereotypical sword-wielding adventuring fantasy, only in a different way. I couldn’t agree more, and I love them for it. I first came to tabletop role-playing a little after I’d just gone blind. Well, I’d been pretty much blind as far as most people were concerned for quite a while. But Where before I’d been able to make out shapes, perceive color and detect motion, now I truly, functionally could not see. I felt frail and small and decidedly mortal. And then I found a podcast feed from something called The Unspeakable Oath, with actual play recordings of a game called Delta Green.

This variant of Call of Cthulhu starred members of a conspiracy within the United States federal government who conducted investigations within investigations, concealed evidence while trying to find the horrible truth, discredited witnesses of the unnatural, and served as the only effective defense against things man was not meant to know. It was a hard game, one that challenged you to play smart and watch out for any angle because the odds of emerging with your body and sanity intact were already vanishingly small. And therein lies the escapism: with the whole world, the uncaring cosmos arrayed against you in all its apathetic splendor, you play a puny human that goes out into the dark to fight the monsters with nothing but a Glock, a fake ID and the knowledge that you can only ever forestall the inevitable, because if you don’t do it, no one else will. Fuck the odds, humanity is still here and will be until these agents are dead at least, because that’s what it means to be Delta Green. It was a setting whose fatalism and sense of gallows humor appealed to me. So imagine my disappointment when I discovered that the books from which these games were run had been published more than a decade before and long since disappeared from store shelves. That would change of course, with the advent of electronic sales and print on demand, Delta Green could be had again, but too there was talk of more. Delta Green would rise again.

And now it has, in the form of an entirely standalone product with its own line of hardcover releases scheduled through this year and the next at the very least. Born of Kickstarter and gifted with the depressingly rich world of Post-9/11 covert operations to muck around with for background, the new Delta Green RPG promises a thrilling new world of modern mythos horror for your agents to die in: nihilists rejoice!

Continue reading Review: Delta Green Agent’s Handbook

September Release Schedule

A map of the dreamlands

What are we playing this month?

September 4, 2016 – A Rune Awakening 10: Murder Most Foul
Flush with their victory over the goblins, the party settled into a comfortable rhythm in Sandpoint. But now one of their own is suspected of murder, and they need to find out who is hunting residents of their newly adopted hometown.

September 11, 2016 Scary on the Choo-Choo 9: Murder on the Dreamlands Express
As the group choo-choos towards Venice, they take the chance to get some much needed rest. Unfortunately, their sleep is troubled when they board the Dreamlands Express.

September 18, 2016A Rune Awakening 11: Farm of the Living Dead
Quickly following the clues the true culprit of the crimes plaguing Sandpoint is leaving behind, the party finds themselves needing to rid the countryside of zombies.

September 25, 2016 – Scary on the Choo-Choo 10: DOOM
As the team scrambles to find the thing that committed the most horrific murder in the entire campaign, they’re drawn into the conflicts and drama of the other passengers on the Dreamlands Express.

#RPGaDay 31: Best advice you were ever given for your game of choice

RPG a Day 2016 image

Each year we celebrate 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 31, what is the best advice you were ever given for your game of choice?
Aser – I was told a long time ago that if you’re a GM and the roll goes against plot direction, just lie…
John D. – ‘Don’t worry about the rules; it’s more important for everyone to have fun. You can retcon or fix the plot later if needed but try to just roll with what the players give you.’
Jonn P. – Making sure everyone is having fun isn’t the responsibility of the GM, it’s the responsibility of everyone at the table.
Landan – I forget who said it but I really liked hearing someone say “Don’t let the dice get in the way of the Story” and in that vein people need to remember the books are guidelines to play. If something is not written in them and a player wants to do figure out a way for it to happen if possible.
Megan – I think the best advice I’ve gotten is to relax and let the plot go where it goes instead of rigidly depending on an outline.
Mike G. – I have a great, very experienced group that introduced me to games like FATE, Apocalypse World, and other systems that drive story instead of muddying things up with rules. Their advice was always to concentrate on the story and the rules will flow from that.
Patrick – Don’t be a dick.
Phil – Don’t get too attached to your character, it’s going to go mad or die.

#RPGaDay 30: Describe the ideal game room if the budget were unlimited

RPG a Day 2016 image

Each year we celebrate 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 30, describe the ideal game room if the budget were unlimited?
Aser – I would like a large table lined with comfortable chairs. I would want access to a digital projector and adjustable lighting to help with mood.
John D. – A room with hi-fi surround sound with speakers and rumble sensors built into the chairs and table, motion-controlled lights and dimmers, smell-o-vision and monitors displaying all the charts from a GM screen. The room would be fully accessible for players with Braille pads, TDD and so on. An opaque electronic privacy shield would disable cell calls and texts inside while preventing outside noise. A robot butler for snacks and drinks would be nifty.
Jonn P.  – A room with plenty of standing room and shelf space around the game table.  The table would be slightly larger than two folding tables. In the center of the table would be a lazy susan large enough for a Chessex 34½” x 48” Battlemap that I could use for battlemap, game art or food.
Landan – It would take me a long time to describe it I think, but it would likely end up being as big as a house alone. I would also want billiard tables, bowling lanes, some pinball machines, shelves devoted for board games, shelves devoted to RPG books, etc.
Megan – A big room with plenty of tablespace and comfy chairs, with food and drink and good lighting. I always thought those projector setups for making a grid were awesome too.
Mike G. – Shelves of books, dedicated wifi, embedded laptop/tablets around a large gaming table with a wet/dry erase board in the center. Does anyone have $25k I can drop on this? Please?
Patrick – Dragonsreach from Skyrim, but with better heating. And you know, game tables.
Phil – Comfy chairs and table. Good acoustics. Donuts.

#RPGaDay 29: You can game anywhere on Earth, where would you choose?

RPG a Day 2016 image

Each year we celebrate 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, you can game anywhere on Earth, where would you choose?
Aser – I would game wherever Megan was: no really, we had to play apart so long that I couldn’t wait to literally share these moments together.
John D. – I have no idea; ideally a setting similar to the game at hand (a cloud, underwater, the desert, etc)
Jonn P. – I would like to say someplace like Mesa Verde, Chichen Itza, or some other ancient place, but, in reality, traveling cause me anxiety. I am perfectly happy gaming at one of the local game shops.
Landan – Guinness Brewery in Ireland.
Megan – I think somewhere appropriate to the game we were playing. So an old library for a 1920’s Call of Cthulhu game, etc. But I think anymore I would just pick anywhere with a group in person!
Mike G. – A national park with lots of space (indoor and outdoor) where you can get the mood of the game without being disturbed by others. Did it twice, it was great.
Patrick – I would give my big toe to play a game of Better Angels inside the Westboro Baptist Church whilst broadcasting it live over the loud speakers. And just watch with glee all the vitriol they could spew out. Well, either Better Angels or any of the White Wolf games when it was still World of Darkness.
Phil – Wherever my groups are.

#RPGaDay 28: Thing you’d be most surprised a friend had not seen or read?

RPG a Day 2016 image

Each year we celebrate 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 the thing you’d be most surprised a friend had not seen or read?
Aser – I would be surprised if anyone I knew had not seen Star Wars.
John D. – Read: Lovecraft or Conan, seen probably the Aliens, Predator or Terminator series.
Jonn P. – To this day, I am surprised by how many people I have met that DM without ever having read the Dungeon Masters Guide.
Megan – Lord of the Rings
Mike G. – Lord of the Rings. I would be very surprised.
Patrick – Labyrinth.
Phil – Firefly. Belgariad.

Scary on the Choo-Choo 8: Deranged Degenerates

A field of white grass with vines growing through it

Finally turning their attention to the business of acquiring the simulacrum, the party meets some new adversaries.

Featuring Aser, Eli, Megan, Phil, and Zack. Music by Kevin MacLeod, “Alchemist’s Tower”(incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Direct Download!
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#RPGaDay 27, Most unusual circumstance or location in which you’ve gamed?

RPG a Day 2016 image

Each year we celebrate 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 the most unusual circumstance or location in which you’ve gamed?
Aser – I’ve almost always gamed over an online interface. On one occasion though, I really played 5E on an actual kitchen table.
John D. – I got up at 3 am on my off day while deployed to the desert to run Black Crusade for the group; it was supper time for them back home! Aser thought it was funny I had good wifi in my room but had to go three buildings over to use the bathroom.
Jonn P. – I was running a pickup campaign of Keep on the Shadowfell at the local game store when one of the Assistant Directors at my job dropped by with his son to try out D&D. He was playing a paladin and his son a wizard. I had previously planned for the party to fight kobolds and a young brown dragon, a decent challenge for the party’s level.  Long story short, during the fight, I was faced with a moral dilemma, the squishy wizard had waded into the frontline, and I had to decide if I would spare the Assistant Director’s kid. I took the only morally correct option for a DM…blind the paladin with the dragon’s breath weapon before crushing the elf wizard in the brown’s claws. The integrity of the Dungeon Master must remain beyond reproach!
Megan – My first game sessions were in a conference room in the middle of a lab at grad school.
Mike G. – In the middle of the sidewalk in downtown Chicago. It was very odd.
Patrick – I’m pretty much a stone sober kind of guy but my most unusal game session invloved people who were coming down from five day speed benders and a lot of reefer.
Phil – On the internet I guess. Or at square dancing.

#RPGaDay 26: What hobbies go well with RPGs

RPG a Day 2016 image

Each year we celebrate 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 hobbies go well with RPGs?
Aser – I think reading and to other degrees consumption of other narrative media goes well with reading, as does history. The key is a love of storytelling and a desire to create or discover new stories.
John D. – Board games, reading comics, reading in general, to a lesser extent video games, writing, listening to podcasts.
Jonn P.  – Creative writing is something I think goes well with RPGs. I’ve been in several games that made use of character stories written between session as cannon and would dread them for ideas. Seeing the internal dialog and hearing the story told from the character’s perspectives made them feel real.
Landan – I think for some people the painting mini’s works really well. If you draw or do illustration you can always draw your characters or group you play with characters maybe NPC’s your party has helped.
Megan – I think a love or stories and books. You can incorporate almost any creative hobby into RPGs though, that’s what great about them.
Mike G. – Reading, math, and music.
Patrick – Miniature war-gaming, reading, movies, writing, math. Anything that allows you to flex creative muscles really.
Phil – Dice collecting, doing math for fun, earning money.