#RPGaDay 2017: What Was the Best Run RPG Kickstarter You Have Backed?

Specifically, they asked which films/series were the biggest source, but I think that’s a bit limiting. This is a curious question more for what it says about geek culture, rather than gaming itself…every game, I’m sure, has had it’s “Game Over, man! Game Over!” or ...

If you’d asked this 20 years ago, it would have been a library and a notebook. Today? A good laptop or tablet. You can store the rule books, have a dice program, notes, maps, pictures, mood music — whatever you need. Need to access information on the fly? If you ...

Define resources… There are a few games that do a plethora of splatbooks to give you new mechanics or setting material, or reference material. If we’re using that as a metric, there’s no competition: GURPS. What do you want to play? GURPS has a book on it. I ...

I can’t speak for others but for me? A good Islay scotch (Lagavulin, please!) or gin (The Botanist.) Good food comes in second.

No. The very idea is flawed. “Pay what you want” publishing proceeds from the idea that demand drives pricing. This is inherently a correct approach if the publisher is unsure of the worth of their product, or values short-term market share more than near-term profit. In the latter instance, they ...

I think this question is interesting because it calls out a problem I think the industry as a whole has — the need to make game books look like art books. (Tales From the Loop is essentially a game built around an art book, for @#$% sake!) By focusing on slick art ...

This question could be taken two ways —  mechanics end of things (I run X system because I get it), and what kind of setting you run well. Let’s start with the second: Back in the midst of time, when MTV was still doing music and everyone was worried that ...

I can’t really speak to this except to say it was published before White Wolf became popular. Any of the early RPGs from the mid ’80s can set up rules and a setting with half the pages than an RPG can today. Jeez, Cubicle 7 felt the need to ...

Ten years ago, I’d have said Coas Book Store in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Now? eBay and Noble Knight online. There’s a really good one out of Canada, I think, that Runeslinger uses that shipped internationally. I’m sure he’ll chime in with a comment as to ...

That’s a tough one. Define “best”…best delivery of information, how to play the game; best writing for setting tone? The problem with RPG writing is that it is part technical manual (the rules) and part creative writing — two sharply different styles of writing with divergent purpose. To balance ...

Easy: Victory Games’ James Bond: 007. I bought a first edition copy in 1983 and have used it until about 2010, since when we haven’t had an espionage game running. Partly, this is a function of having worked in the industry, partly it was a response to the real ...

io9 let slip that Fantasy flight, who gave us the multiple core book bullshit for Star Wars that Last Unicorn did with Star Trek, not to mention proprietary dice, is doing pre-orders for a reprint of the original West End Games d6 Star Wars RPG. You know, the real one ...

I think this question is supposed to be “…and never played.” At least that’s how I’m taking it. Hands down, this is Jovian Chronicles by Dream Pod 9. It’s an anime giant-robot setting with a lot of hard science trappings. Think The Expanse meets any Japanimation space ...

We picked up this week with our 5th edition Dungons & Dragons campaign in the aftermath of the fight between the characters and a pair of Furies. It was looking like a TPK in the making when the monk character, Icio, called on his patron angel, Michael, to bail them out ...

The only rules set that I use with little or no alteration is Cortex. The original Cortex, not the Fate-ified Cortex Plus. The way the game is constructed, there is little that needs tweaking to work well, and the one or two issues I have with it have rarely gotten ...

This is a curious question, as it can be taken a few ways. Do they mean adapting the rules to a different setting, or adapting the setting to fit a rules set? Let’s start with the first option. I have, over the course of 30 years, used James Bond ...

As with other questions we’ve had this year, my response is “All of them?” A more precise answer would be, whatever one you have on-going material for. I’ve played a lot of long games, but they usually last about two to three years before they run out of ...

This question brings up an interesting secondary one: Is a game ever really “dead” if you can find it online (either as a used book or a scanned copy?) I would say “no.” You can play a game long after it’s out of print. I was regularly running James ...

Our Dungeons & Dragons game got off to a late start last night, but jumped straight to the action. We had cliffhangered last week after the first round of combat between the party and a pair of Erinyes (Furies) with a pair of Hell Hounds in tow and Bayla, the succubus ...

I think on this one I’ve got to go with Numenera and Tales from the Loop. I’m not a fan of the Numenera  system, but come on! the art is gorgeous! And the artbook of Simon Stålenhag inspired the whole bloody game Tales from the Loop, so I ...

The question for today was “Describe a game experience that changed how you play.” I really don’t have a response for this one, so I’m going to go with my own question: How Has Gaming Positively Affected Your Life? There’s the usual hackneyed responses about having made ...

There’s a glut of small press RPGs out there. I’m guilty of it — I produce adventures for Fate and Ubiquity. There’s a lot of folks chasing the same dollars, even if e’re not necessarily “in competition” with each other. My stuff, for instance, doesn’t really ...

I’m a bit late for day seven, having had birthday parties for kids, myself, and other end of the summer nonsense to deal with, so let’s roll! “impactful” is a strange word for this…do we mean the most meaningful session for the characters? The players? The storyline ...

All of them? Facetiousness aside, most of our game sessions start about 6:30pm, so everyone can get here from work. (One guy takes the bus…) We have dinner and socialize — to my mind, the real point of gaming — and that will take us to seven or 7:30. Often ...

I’m caught up! Day nine of #RPGaDay asks what a good RPG to play for 10 sessions is. As with the last question, my answer is “All of them?” When you consider that a four to six hour adventure in an RPG has usually got roughly the same meat ...

As we slide into home for The Queen of the Orient, our sourcebook on 1930s Shanghai, I thought it was time to slap together our first series of adventures for Fate and Ubiquity into bundles. Now you can get the jungle adventure The White Apes of the Congo, a murder ...