Social Justice Ain't for Wizards

Autocratik's #RPGaDAY

August 18^th – Favourite [Favorite] Game System

Love turns to pain. Pain to anguish. Anguish give way to anger. And anger, properly channeled, becomes change. The clarity this process provides is invaluable.

Had this been the topic a couple of day ago, my resounding answer would've been White-Wolf's Storyteller System (cWoD). Hell, it was the first system I really loved. My young mind didn't care about the statistical problems at higher levels, in the beginning, I couldn't even comprehend them. The grand joke here is, now, that I can see the mechanical difficulties, I don't care about them. Not at all.

Every system is flawed. No system caters to roleplaying, and no system prevents it.

Ask my cousin, he's my primary board game partner. Go ahead, ask him how many times he's told me to shut up, as I describe, and play out the events I imagine to happen over the course of a game of Carcassonne. It positively infuriates him. But then again, I wouldn't call him a roleplayer.

Life works in funny ways. Maybe I was to attached to White-Wolf as a product. Maybe I had crossed the line from enjoying something, to becoming a fan of something. That doesn't sit well with me. A fan had clouded judgment, branded blinders, and a full morral.

Their nose firmly in the bag of oats to which they've become accustom, and their eyes shielded from the wonders around them, fans deviate little from the vision presented to them by somebody else. Be it of an author, publisher, developer, or even a game system, a fan is a follower.

I do not want to be a fan.

Today, my answer, for the purposes of Mr. Chapman's exercise, is Numenera's Cypher system. I don't own Numenera, and I don't think I'm interested in The Strange. I'm currently playing in a Numenera game, and loving it. I think I'll pick up the core book, eventually. Maybe.

I'd hate to become a fan, they usually blow.

THE I'M NO LONGER A FAN SALE

The following books are for sale or trade --- make me an offer!

Vampire The Dark Ages

Umbra The Velvet Shadow - WtA

The Sea of Shadows -WtO

The Risen - WtO

Wraith Players Guide

World of Darkness Hong Kong

The 1000 Hells - KotE

Kindred of The East Companion

Kindred of The East

Mummy The Resurrection

Project Twilight

The Inquisition

Dark Colony - VtM

Midnight Siege - VtM

Vampire Storytellers Handbook Revised.

Guide to The Camerilla Revised

Guide to The Sabbat Revised

Guide to The Anarchs Revised

The Hunters Hunted

Vampire The Masquerade Revised

Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - PoD Black and White

A World of Darkness 1st Edition

nWoD the World of Darkness

Changeling: The Dreaming Second Edition

Changeling Storytellers Guide

Book of Storyteller Secrets - CtD

Dreams and Nightmares - PoD Black and White - CtD

The Bygone Beastary

The Autumn People - CtD

Players guide for Changeling The Dreaming

Clanbook Lassombra

Book of Lost Dreams - CtD

Mummy Second Edition

Blood-Dimmed Tides

Clanbook Tremere

Clanbook Assamite

Gehenna - VtM

World of Darkness Time of Judgment

Gypsies

Orpheus

Rage Across Appalachia - WtA

Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition - PoD Black and White

In which the gates are kept closed for our hero, but he doesn't lose hope.

Autocratik's #RPGaDAY

August 17^th – Funniest Game you've played

The day's been long, hot, unrelenting. No time for lunch today, the schedule was just too full to make time. There'll be no dinner waiting either, there's no one who cares enough to make it for you. Might as well stop for a beer, maybe chat up a barfly, break the monotony, kill the loneliness, if just for a few hours. Maybe someone will remember you this time, probably not. You know them, you see them every day, know each of their names, and what most of them do for a living. They've told you time and time again, a skipping record of conversations, a repetition of false bravado and candid failures. They don't know you though, They don't remember your name, they don't remember what you do, they don't remember having talked with you the night before. They never do. You are nothing. What you do doesn't make any difference, you don't matter.

You'll open up that sad and sorrowful door, step through the threshold, and nothing, nothing, will ever be the same again.

Your depressing watering hole will be gone, replaced by the strange and unusual. Standing out among bipedal dogs in overcoats, Elves, Dwarves, and Disgustingly Cute Furry Things, is the ugliest C.H.U.D. you've ever seen pass for human. Almost seven feet of scales, bumps, humps, warts, and scars. It'll be behind the bar, it'll notice you, it'll approach slowly and say, “The house specialty is the Singularity. What'll ya have?”

Welcome to Tales From The Floating Vagabond, a game of trans-dimensional hi-jinks, where up is down, and left is yellow. It's hard to know exactly what you'll get with a game this purposefully whacky.

The primary mechanic is the 'Shtick'. This is basically a super charged, comedic version of a trope, common to popular media.

There's The Rambo effect, with which, no projectile weapon fired towards you at close range will hit, ever. No matter what.

Then there's The Trench Coat Effect. It lets you conceal any number of absurdly large items within your overcoat, and gives you a chance to have anything anyone happens to ask for, randomly in your pockets.

Just two of the many, mad effects available to characters in this over the top laugh fest of a game.

Really it's fun. Relax, have a smoke, a few beers, and go with it. You won't be disappointed.

Wish In One Hand

Autocratik's #RPGaDAY

August 16^th – Game you wish you owned

This might, for me, be the toughest question yet. The list of games I'd like to own in near infinite, unfortunately, space and money are not.

For simplicity's sake, I'll ignore the games I'm planning on getting soon, Numenera, and D&D 5e. I'll also leave out the hard to find Deleria supplements, Everyday Hero’s – Adventures for the Rest of Us, and Goblin Markets: The Glitter Trade. I'll also leave out Within the Ring of Fire, because I can't decide if I want the beautiful hardcover copies, or if the game line will be my first digital only game purchase. (Not entirely true, I just got the MOBI file of FAE, and I love it. I'm just not 100% on PDFs yet.)

                     

          



I'll also leave out all of the awesome things that are getting announced each day a GenCon, there are just too many to list, and honestly, I want them all. (Looking in your direction Onyx Path Publishing... I see many great things on the horizon.)

Now that I've managed to manipulate the topic into Every Game I wish I owned, I should probably get to the question at hand.

Nobilis. I wish I owned Nobilis. Not a PDF, but a nice, hardbound, beautiful copy. Ever since I read Deleria, I've been fascinated with resolution systems that were not standard dice rolling. I've also found myself attracted more and more to rich and detailed settings, rather than mechanically perfect, or sound even, systems.

Maybe I'm crossing over to “story gamer”, but I'd prefer not to label things, that really don't need it. I am a gamer, pure and simple. We all are, we all like games. Simulation, story, and hyper realistic, it's the games that bring us together, labeling them, or ourselves, just serves to inflate the importance of an artificial division.

To quote a space squid, “It's a trap!”    

Feels Like the First Time

Autocratik's #RPGaDAY

August 13^th – Most Memorable Character Death

Vald Tepes, Anarch, Nosferatu, biker, animal lover.

Vald was my first character in Vampire: The Masquerade. He was a good character, well, no he wasn't, but he was my first character, so I loved him.

He was the kind of character that makes veteran Vampire players cringe, a leather clad, katana wielding, badass, who lost his taste for bubble gum, the moment he was embraced.

Vald was part of a motley crew of Anarchs, hell bent on replacing the powers that be with 'our man', a price for the people. It's funny, looking back I think we'd have played Carthians in Requiem, had it been available at the time.

As with many second edition games, our primary struggle was with the Sabbat. The zealots thought our city easy pickings, as they do most cities with an Anarch infestation, and they were right. Infiltrating both the movement (I told you Requiem has been creeping in), and the existing Camerillia power structure, they successfully played both side off of one another, eliminating the most powerful kindred, and keeping many others distracted.

The final assault, split the coterie, seeing each of us protecting our own territory, and eventually falling to the fangs of the Sabbat. It was a fitting end for a chronicle that had lasted almost two years, and saw much in fighting, both in character, and unfortunately, out of character.

Each of us had our own figurative, 'moment in the sun', dying hero's deaths. My moment in the sun, however was much more literal. Vald was defeated in a city park he watched over, and staked on the top of a gazebo, left to greet the morning sun. The final words of the chronicle were spoken to me, delivered in an emotionless deadpan.

“You're burning, you're burning, you're dead.”

A HOL Other Kind of Game

Autocratik's #RPGaDAY

August 11^th – Weirdest RPG owned

This topic is great! Today I've seen all sorts of weird and wild games, most of which I've never seen before. The games themselves don't look that great, and I suppose given the title of 'weirdest' RPG owned, the probably shouldn't be.

There are a few exceptions. One of which springs to mind is, Ghost Dog: The RPG. This is one of those games so specific, it's a wonder any sold at all. I've read on others post's about how niche the movie, from which the game was based, was, and how little exposure that it ultimately had. This doesn't change the fact, I know know this RPG exists, and I want it, terribly.

Another RPG I've seen mentioned at least a couple of times, is HOL. Human Occupied Landfill. It is the parody game to end all parody games, irreverent, over the top, and downright offensive. (In the best possible ways)

Initially this was to be my choice as well, but as I looked over the core book, and the supplement Buttery Wholesomeness, I was reminded, that indeed, I owned an even stranger roleplaying game. Freebase.

This parody within a parody, mocks Live Action Role Playing with a crude style and disgusting panache, usually reserved for more starting bar fights, than a sardonic parody.

The game itself is everything Live Action shouldn't be. Within the rules, are guidelines for dealing with, what are referred to as 'Non Players', that is all of the 'extras' around you, who are so committed to playing the game, that they won't even admit to be playing a game, and will react as though they are not, by not breaking character yourself, and attacking them.

Obviously the thought that anyone would take this little pamphlet seriously, and attempt to 'play' this game, is sickening, and despite the fact that the cover art is a huge, repeating disclaimer, there is still a very strongly worded, and clearly written disclaimer on the back.

This is the world in which we live.

A Tie that Binds

Autocratik's #RPGaDay

August 10^th – Favourite [Favorite] tie-in Novel / Game Fiction

Songs of the Sun and Moon: the Changing Breeds Anthology – Onyx Path Publishing

Stories by :Jason Andrew, Bill Bridges, Matthew McFarland, Andrew Peregrine, Aaron Rosenberg, Ree Soesbee, and Eddy Webb

This anthology was unlocked and expanded as part of the fundraiser for W20 Changing Breeds, and I'd personally like to thank every backer.

I haven't read much in the way of tie-in novels in the past, a Vampire book here, and a 40K book there, nothing really captured the feeling of playing my favorite games, so I traditionally have stayed away. I've been trying to follow the #RPGaDAY chart faithfully, and not wanting to have nothing to write about for yesterday's entry, or worse, something negative to write, I decided to hop on over to DriveThruFiction.com, and check out some tie-in fiction.

I am NOT disappointed. The file seamlessly transfused to my Kindle, and I was off and running. While I can't yet give a review, as I'm only about half way through the book, I'm anxiously awaiting the chance.

Another #RPGaDAY BOGO, or How the Weekend Sneaks Up when You Haven't Written a Word

Autocratik's #RPGaDAY

August 8^th – Favourite [Favorite] Character

For me, this is a particularly tough question to answer. I usually fall into the role of GM, so initially I thought I'd talk about some other people's interesting characters, from some of my games.

(Shoutout for Oswald Batemen and Kimmo Vera, two of the most interesting vampires ever to masquerade.)

Fortunately, in the recent weeks, I've had a chance to play in a game of Numenera, which is still ongoing, and the development of my character Tomas has proven quite interesting.

Numenera is an interesting setting, in the fact that almost anything you imagine can come from one of the previous ages. This opens up so many possibilities, at first I had trouble wrapping my head around the freedom.

I don't yet own the rulebook, and for me, that's a huge advantage. It's not that I don't want the book, it's more of a budget issue, but it's high on my wish list. This gives me the freedom to explore the ninth world in character, with the only disadvantage being that I'm not familiar with any published regions or nomenclature.

Tomas was a quick concept character. Exploration seemed to be key in Numenera's game-play, so the first idea that popped into my head was Indiana Jones, of course I wanted to put my own twist into the character, as to not play Temple of Doom. So I went with a Jack, a leather jacket wearing, middle finger to the Aeon Priest throwing, cypher stealing, coward.

I tend to favor interesting over direct, martial combat. Maybe it's a reaction to years of murderhoboing, maybe now, I've just seen to much real world violence, to make pretend violence interesting. I don't know, I'm certainly no psychologist, much less so then the well worn grooves in my armchair might suggest. I was with this thought in mind that I chose Tomas' weapons, a small folding knife, not once used in combat, and a pouch of small stones, ever being replenished.

It's a fine line, playing a character who's a coward. On one side you want to stay true to the role, and run away, all of the time. On the other side of this razor thin line is the fun of the whole group. Obviously, if Tomas ran from everything, there would be no point in playing, he'd live a boring and unproductive life. It would also derail, if not completely negate, the GM's plot, linear or not, if Tomas turned tail at the sight of every inter dimensional beast.

The joy for me, comes in Tomas' growth. Those moments when he has to throw out his doubts, fears, and misgivings, drop the Might pool to 1, and charge into battle to save his friends.

Also, Hedge Magic is a fun replacement for 'Force Grab', to draw other people's weapons out of their sheaths and into your hand. It never fails to surprise.

August 9^th – Favourite [Favorite] Die / Dice Set

This is another tough one for me, as statistically every die rolls the same (Yeah, yeah, yeah Game Science, balanced dice and all of that. If I'm not in a casino gambling my hard earned money away, I just can't be bothered.).

I've seen pictures and videos today of lucky dice, old dice, original D&D dice, people's first dice sets, and so on. What I haven't seen is too many unique dice, aside from neat looking Fudge / Fate Dice sets.

So it is with great honor, and immense pride, I present to you, the Werewolf: The Apocalypse Auspice / Moon Phase Die. One of the most unique and specialized dice that I've had the pleasure of using. I wish I had saved the whole set. There was a time when I had the Werewolf Dice and the Vampire dice, it was a good time, a fun time, but it was a long time ago, and only this lonely Auspice die remains.

Good Gaming!

I wanted it to be intellectual, so I've used lots of commas.

Autocratik's #RPGaDAY

August 7th - Most "intellectual" RPG owned

I spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out which RPG on my shelf could own up to the lofty appellative of intellectual. Initially I was drawn to Ars Magica, as I see many others were today, but my thoughts drifted from complicated, towards hard to grasp, as my basis for intellectual in this case.

Mr. Chapman's own choice for this topic, Nobilis, deeply intrigues me, and seems to follow suit with what I'm leaning towards, with intellectual, meaning difficult to wrap your head around.

For this reason, I've chosen Satyros Phil Brucato's, Deleria: Faerie Tales for a New Millennium, from the now defunct, Laughing Pan Productions.

While the system is easy to use, easy to learn, and Compact (see what I did there). The setting, it appears, is a really tough nugget to crack. So much so, that a, if not the, primary complaint I read on forums and review sites, is that people can't find the game, withing the book. I'll be the first to admit, it isn't easy, but if you look, it's there. It's there, and it's amazing.

Betwixt a compelling faerie tale about the Dream Stag, and an absolute wealth of setting information, lay the heart of the game, people, normal, everyday people. Everyday Hero’s, if you will. They form the backbone of the game, and their trips, purposeful, or more often not, into the land of faerie, flesh out the rest.

Addendum: If anyone out there has either of these two Deleria supplements, and wants to part with them ... eh, it was worth a shot. 

Lamentations of the Games I'll never Play

Autocratik's #RPGaDAY

August 5th - Most Old School RPG Owned

I'm not exactly sure what "Old School" means anymore. The definition seems to change depending on the person asked. I suppose it might mean bare bones, or basic. Possibly produced before a lot of rules bloat started creeping into games, hell, I don't know, by that definition, I haven't any Old School Games.

The Oldest RPG I own is Earthdawn. I know the system has it's issues, but when I was young and first introduced to it, the complexities and shortcomings weren't that apparent, but the wonderful, new take on a fantasy setting was.I don't get to play Earthdawn anymore, but I understand that there have been new editions, so I look forward to checking those out, as time permits.

http://kirasanta.deviantart.com/art/earthdawn-88254299

August 6th - Favourite [Favorite] RPG Never Get To Play



Ars Magica. I have NEVER had the pleasure of playing this wonderful game. Although it came before, and I was initially exposed after, I've not seen a more unique magic system outside of Mage: The Ascension's sphere magic.

I like the open ended, scale-able nature of the magical effects. I like the portfolio of supporting characters you've got to create because, well, a wizard's time and life are just, far too valuable to track down ALL of those rare components.





Well, I guess I do get to play it, in a way.

A lame way.                      

Roll 1d4+1 on the Staggered Release Table...

Autocratik's #RPGaDAY

August 4th - Most Recent RPG Purchased

Like many other's last month, I purchased the D&D 5e Starter Set. The parts I've read, I like. While I haven't yet had the chance to read over the whole thing, I think I like this edition enough to be playing it for many years to come. Only time, and the release of the rest of the core books, will tell.

I was introduced to Dungeons & Dragons through the second edition of AD&D. I played with several groups on and off over the years, one of which almost exclusively played D&D games, so I at least got some exposure to the earlier editions. Then came my White-Wolf years.

I all but abandoned dragons, and dungeons too, for that matter, in favor of Gothic style night clubs, and fanged abominations from ages past. It was well into the run of 3rd edition when I found my way back to Dungeons and Dragons, via another exclusively D&D group.

After some time, I left that group as well, looking for other, different, new, games to play.  I looked, found nothing, and looked some more. More nothing. That's not to say that there weren't new games out there, I just couldn't find them, or anyone to play them with, so I took a break from the hobby.  I missed 3.5, the OGL, Pathfinder, and 4th edition.

Over the course of the last few years, I've been rebuilding my collection and branching out into as many new games as I can try, without prejudice, and having so much fun.

Autocratik's #RPGaDAY

August 3rd - RPG Purchased

I might as well just get this out of the way now. In my younger years, I was a huge fan of White-Wolf publishing. For many years, their games provided the bulk of my role-playing experiences. It wasn't that I didn't like other games, it wasn't even that I didn't play them. Like a dope fiend with a bankroll, I just kept coming back for more, just one more White-Wolf book, it's all I needed. And just like the dope fiend, one more was all I ever needed.

With that being said, I have a feeling many of my answers in this exercise will be White-Wolf games and books. I'm also sure that there will be some titles repeated, multiple times.

The first RPG I purchased was Werewolf: The Apocalypse. Second edition had just been released, and not having read t first, I had no idea what to expect. The color comic that began the book, was the best introduction I had read at the time, I was immediately and irrevocably consumed by the setting. The perfect mixture of youthful angst and anger, rallied against the exaggerated world view, of a planet on the brink. This game couldn't have been more "90's" if it came with Doc Martins and a flannel.

Believe me when I say, that I mean that. I mean it in the most loving and warmly nostalgic way.

Death of a Death Game

AUTOCRATIK's  #RPGaDAY

August 2nd 2014 - First RPG Game-mastered

We were well into our Seattle based Vampire: The Masquerade chronicle when our storyteller, Tim, needed a break. He had been Game-mastering for the group, his group, for years before I had joined. Not once had anyone volunteered to run a game, one shot or otherwise, so that he could have a chance to play.

After talking it over with him, I decided to give running the newest White-Wolf game, Wraith: The Oblivion, a shot. We were young and inexperienced gamers, and lacked the maturity necessary to grasp all but the most basic aspects of the game.  We had dabbled with Werewolf, and Mage, but mainly focused on Vampire, and it's city-centric viewpoint, that would eventually prove my Wraith story's undoing.

Not realizing the nuances between The Tempest and The Shadowlands, I painstakingly created a Wraith 'bar'. Not a haunted, Pathos infused location for the players to gather and harass the occasional mortal, but a full on, middle of The Tempest, place for Wraiths to gather, and politic.

Needless to say, it didn't go on for long, and although I was never able to run, or play, a Wraith game that I felt did the setting justice, I was able to pick up some valuable experience that eventually led to a wildly successful chronicle of Werewolf: The Apocalypse, that helped shape the standard to which I hold my games today.

Where the Red Fern Grows, Curse Words, and Marvel Superheros #RPGaDAY

I rather like the idea of writing assignments, and I love RPG's, so I've decided to join into David Chapman's (Autocratick) #RPGaDAY celebration. Today is the first of August, 2014.

When I was in the seventh grade, an extraordinary thing happened to me. Among the typical boyhood rites of passage, I was introduced to Role Playing Games.

As a class project, we were paired off, and assigned a book. My assigned partner, Tim, was a quiet sort of fellow, always reading to himself, or furiously scribbling in his notebook. Our book, Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls. A tale of love and loss, so poignant, it's effects me to this day. Thinking back to Billy, Old Dan, and Little Ann, brings tears to my eyes, tears and memories of a childhood, once long forgotten.

Our assignment was to write a short review of the book, and to give a presentation, with visual aids, to the class. Tim had loved the book as much as I did, so we quickly moved through the reading portion of the assignment, and wrote our report together over the phone.

With our parents help, we arraigned a time to get together and draw a few posters. We chose a few scenes to illustrate, that we thought were key to the story, and set about or work. I was tasked with a picture of Old Dan's grave, and grew bored coloring in such a large area. In my infinite, twelve year old wisdom, I thought it's be funny to write the letters F,U,C, and K into the barren area, of course, to be filled in the rest of the way later. We had a good laugh, and continued our work.

If you or your kids have ever done something similar, I don't have to tell you, the plan to cover my 'crime', did not work, no matter how much we colored around, over, or behind, yes behind. We colored the back of the poster hoping it would help conceal the language most foul, from our parents and teacher.

In the flurry of digging through pockets and book-bags for art supplies powerful enough to cut through my, no longer funny curse, Tim produced, and cast aside several dice, some of which held shapes I had not previously saw before. All interest, for me at least, in the project faded to static, as I badgered Tim for answers regarding the oddly shaped dice.It took some doing, but eventually Tim confessed to me that the dice were for a game he played called Dungeons & Dragons, and it was kind of a big deal. He told me a little about each die, and the things it might be used for in the game, and a bit about the basic setting. I was hooked. Although, at the time, I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that there was no board or pieces, Tim offered to give me a quick run through of his newest game, Marvel Superheros, if we could salvage the poster with some time to spare.

History was made that evening as I rolled up a basic character, and imagined my way into greatness. Marvel Superheros and it's incredibly complex resolution chart eventually gave way to AD&D Second Edition, which eventually gave way to Vampire: The Masquerade, but that's a whole other story.