#RPGaDay2016 - Day 31: Best advice you were ever given for a game of your choice

I can't think of an answer for this, which is frustrating as it's the last day and I want to go out on a bang.

So, little bits of advice - not necessarily the best, just the bits I remember - from a host of games and in no particular order.

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer - "Yes, thigh-high stilletto boots with stakes for heels would be very cool, but could you actually walk in them?"

2. Aberrant - "Think bigger."

3. Ravenloft - "You need a big gothic tragedy for the players to interact with, and individual gothic story arc for each player to travel through." (ie, you aren't going to change the world, but you might be able to change yourself.)

4. Deadlands - "I like the character development we're building. I don't want this to be a party of individuals."

5. Cyberpunk - "Someone's always got a bigger gun." "If you get into a gun fight, it's your own fault." "Why make guns illegal when bullets can be really expensive?"

6. World of Darkness - "Share the storetelling." "It's all about being a teenager, really. Werewolves = uncontrollable anger, Vampires = numb deadness, Hunter = believing you're unique and special."

7. Exalted - "What does it look like?" "If you can imagine it, you can probably do it. Just not yet."

8. ShadowRun - "Sometimes doing nothing is the best thing to do."

9. Midnight - "You aren't the heroes. You won't survive if you forget that."

 

#RPGaDay2016 - Day 30: Ideal game room, if money's no object

Wasn't this a question last year? I would love the hi-tech room briefly described there, but I think the cosy room is the one I can better expand.

So: big, comfy, flumpfy sofas and cushions for the players; a comfy chair for the GM, with a table the right height for whatever tools they need. A ceiling fan. Blankets. So far, so combining my lounge with my friends' conservatory. Possibly why this appeals to me so much.

A kitty to get in the way

There's more, though, to move into the 'money no object' realm. Mostly, I want a huge library with floor to ceiling bookshelves, andthose cool library ladders that whizz along rails, and a spiral staircase to the game area, which would nested in a top corner of the library on a mezzanine overlooking the main library. And there would be at least one secret passage opened only by pulling on the correct fake book. Maybe that's where the hi-tech game room would be hidden...

 

#RPGaDay2016 - Day 29: If you can game anywhere in the world, where would you game?

The thing is, I prefer to game indoors so it kinda doesn't matter where in the world I am! Gaming outside - if it's windy, dice and character sheets go everywhere. If it's sunny, I sweat and burn. If it's rainy, character sheets get wet. If it's hot/humid, I get ill... Basically, when it comes to weather I'm fussy! So indoors - ideally with heating/ceiling fan - is better for me. And if you're indoors, it doesn't matter where in the world before. As I and many others have said before, it's the people who make it.

There's a lot of places I'd like to visit - Canada, Iceland and New Zealand probably being current top options - and lots of places I'd like to visit and game - like Australia (if Mark Knights can find me space at his table) and Canada (there's a few friends I miss a lot who live there).

The other thing is, I live in a beautiful part of the world with a temporate climate that (just about) suits me, so really, home is where I want to be.

Husbit answers: "Vin Diesel's house. Obviously with Vin Diesel, or that'd be a bit weird." Can't really argue with that.

#RPGaDay2016 - Day 28: Thing you'd be most surprised a friend hadn't seen/read

It's a long running joke in our group that Bells hasn't seen any films that don't have superheroes in them, so I'm no longer surprised when he hasn't seen something.

Other people, though... Labyrinth is the best film ever and I will jelly wrestle anyone who says otherwise (except my brother, cos that'd be a bit weird and I just have to accept he's wrong). It has some nice techniques for building a campaign, too: there's a motley assortment of main characters (Ludo is my favourite, though the one I'd be least likely to play); there's a good motivation for the plot; there's foreshadowing; there's a powerful end where at least two of the characters (Sarah and Hoggle) have grown and learnt about themselves. Oh, and puzzles and traps and dancing and bargaining and a little bit of fighting.

And the fireys. 

Books? Discworld. It's such a common feature of most bookshelves I see, it surprises me when people haven't read any. Similarly, if someone tells me they've never read anything by Ursula K LeGuin, I sit and blink: I grew up breathing her words.

And Swallows and Amazons... I've been craving re-reading those (Dad's keeping his eyes out for ours, but they may have been charity shopped already :-/) and it turns out surprisingly few of my friends have read them - and then a films come out!

Erm... I really ought to twist this back to roleplay but tired and should go to bed instead...

 

#RPGaDay2016 - Day 27: Most unusual circumstance or location in which you've gamed

I have friends who've gamed on beaches and in castles; I've larped in the woods. There used to be a particular student flat in my uni town, a ground floor flat with a leaky cellar that was used by many (though never me, sadly) for horror games, particularly Cthulu.

The castle with this view, in fact. *rainbow not always included.

The most unusual place I've roleplayed was on the coach to Warhammer World the day I met Husbit - the way I met Husbit. The journey is a good few hours and none of my friends were coming so I was bored. Behind me, I could hear some of the regulars from the store a town over, who were sharing our coach, playing some corrupt version of D&D. Even if I hadn't been bored, I'd have probably tried to join them. Luckily enough, they let me. And Husbit (who wasn't Husbit at the time, just Al) wasn't playing in the tournament that was the purpose of the trip and popped round to see how I was doing and we had the same phone in the same colour and he was so goddamn cute...

So yeah. The most unusual circumstance was the process of falling in love. Or lust, at least. Either way, worked out well for me ;-)

 

#RPGaDay2016 - Day 26: What hobbies go well with roleplay?

This is it! This is the question I've been looking forward to most this year! It's a topic I'd been mentally preparing a post for before I saw the list of questions, and when I saw it decided to hold off until today.

Ok, it's not exactly the theme I was preparing to explore. I've been having some stupid body issues, and that was the angle I was going to come from: addressing my body issues by dressing them up as looking at exercise supporting roleplay. To be honest, I still want to, because having body issues is ridiculous and I don't want them and I think it will help me deal with them to be honest about them (opening up to Husbit has already helped hugely, especially as he didn't dismiss them and tell me I was being silly for having them but accepted this new part of my neurotic side because he's shiny and understands me better than I realise most of the time). But RPGaDay isn't the time to talk about body issues so that'll wait for another day and instead I'll share some of the compatible hobby thoughts I've been percolating.

Aerial

I'd love to tell you aerial circus complements roleplay, but it isn't the best fit. Oh, I adore it and it's amazing and I genuinely believe everyone who's physically capable (even if they don't necessarily realise it) should give it a go (even though I know it isn't for everyone and it breaks my heart a tiny bit whenever I convince someone to try and they fall into that category), but it doesn't exactly complement roleplay.

I thought it would. Acrobatics is a skill common to many systems, and characters are always tumbling around and doing crazy stuff, but all it's really taught me is how much harder a lot of things our characters make look easy is - most of the exact skills I'm learning aren't things I'm going to use in a game. Although it was my geeky friend Mazz who first dragged me along, and he plays in Matt's ShadowRun game. He told me about one game where they were dangling in a liftshaft and needed to pick some electrics to save themselves, and Matt said how?, seeing as they needed their hands to hold onto the cable. So Mazz described how he'd wrap his foot in the cable to lock it in place, then cross the free leg over the locked leg, bend his knees and lean back (I don't think I have footage of me doing this move - cross-legged release - because my knees have a tendency to bend sideways if I'm not very careful so it's not a move I do often). Matt, surprised, looked at him and asked him if his character would know how to do it. No, Mazz conceded; but the former acrobat party-member would! So circus has some use...

Story

I read a lot - most roleplayers I know read a lot, and those who don't tend to watch films or tv dramas or play computer games with storyline. A lot of us write, too, either as GM's preparing for games or as players writing up games, or for the sheer joy of writing - or for the sheer need of it. A lot of GM's, particularly, seem fond of people watching, which is a similar story-forming habit. Surprisingly few drama students, though. Think I was the only one in my year...

I think a lot of us can't help it: we are addicted to story, and roleplay is just another way of getting our fix. Not true of all (maybe even most) roleplayers, but enough that it's significant.

I feel like the benefit of books/film to roleplay is so obvious it'd patronising to point out, but just in case it's not so obvious: we can learn about character, about comic timing, about suspense, about drama by absorbing story in many places, both from the good and the bad.

Travel Skills

Image used without permission from here.

I don't enjoy climbing. I've tried - a lot of my circus friends climb and my younger siblings enjoy it - but I can't get into it. Still, the little bit I've done has given me an appreciation of what it feels like to climb - of how to spot suitable holds, or navigate and overhang or traverse - and that comes in handy in a game.

There is a pretty amazing facility not far from me, that offers more than just climbing - yoga, cafe, cheerleading, circus... and Parkour. I've only been once, but I really enjoyed it. Reckon I could really get into it, but that was last autumn, about when my latest bout of fatigue kicked in and ripped my mornings away from me. 

Parkour is great though - running up a wall makes you feel invincible. And that type of running around a city or town, well, it's something I've done in most settings at some time.

And horse riding is a very common method of travel, particularly in fantasy and Western settings, but how many of us actually understand the skill and stamina it takes to ride?

Hobby Skills

Taji is an artist - there's a beautiful in-game reason why she took up art. One of the side effects is that I'm adding doodles to the notes I'm making for that game (Exalted). I've never been any good at art - my Dad and a lot of my Mum's family are fantastic at it, so I guess I assumed it would come naturally to me. I never realised how much work they'd put in! When I wasn't immediately good, I lost interest, but every few years the bug rises in me again, and I dig out my sketchbooks and add to what's there. Sometimes I'm even halfway happy with what I draw.

I'm have friends who make drawing and art look easy - the image on the left was sketched by Antipixi (Chris Drake) for me at the NAF Championship Blood Bowl tournament a few years ago, and he's done similar sketches for other people and as certificate prizes at other tournaments - he's so quick and precise it's exciting to watch. Paul and Rich can both draw, and both have created exciting props for Pathfinder - Paul sculpted an entire town, while Rich has made us runes and many beautiful maps, letters and newspapers. It really adds something to the game.

Mostly I'd like to be able to create my own character portraits; I love the ones Abbie does for me, but I'd like to be able to do something on my own better than that outline of Ursella and Tempest above (3rd ed D&D halfling druid and her panther companion. With a name like Ursella, Tempest should probably have been a bear, but cats are cool).

Scuba diving doesn't come up often, but I suspect if I dived more than that one exciting holiday in Egypt I'd find ways to bring it into games - and it has the advantage of its own sign language. I suspect parachuting is similar, but I ain't jumping out of no plane, fool!

And music! Like art, it's something my Mum's family make look easy so, again, I'd assumed I wouldn't have to work at it... Also, I wanted to learn the flute because she played the flute, but I should have quit and switched to violin after that afternoon I borrowed my brother's and discovered a more natural relationship with the instrument. (My Granny's 90 this month and we're having a get-together that includes instructions to bring whatever instruments you have, so I may talk nicely to my violin-playing cousin - if he's there - about him showing me the ropes properly...) I really want to play Ylva one day, but it'd be nice to understand music better first.

Rich plays guitar and piano and has a good understanding of music theory, which helps him pick good background/theme music for games; Husbit used to DJ and watches a lot of films so has similar abilities.

Martial arts

I don't have a picture for this, and I'm too lazy to create one.

Combat is a large part of a lot of games, so having some experience in what it actually feels like to fight is useful and can add flavour to the fight. I think it's even more true if your experience is in some form of trained fighting. I did ju-jitsu for a bit (and aikido for an even briefer while before that), which helps me describe locks, grapples and throws when I fight. I've attended archery sessions, which is coming in useful with Taji (most of my characters who shoot end up with crossbows, which I've only used once or twice so don't really understand. I've never fired a gun that wasn't loaded with nerf or paint). I've only fought with swords in LARP (or wooden blades against siblings...), so I'd love to try fencing and/or some form of reenactment (I know there's active Vikings around me), but it's that old triangle of time, money and energy. But I think for something we spend so much time simulating, it certainly makes sense to spend some time experiencing!

In summary...

Anything your character does often is worth trying out! 

 

#RPGaDay2016 - Day 25: What makes for a good character?

I think, for this one, I'm going to hark back to what I said on day 13: the best characters have ties to the game world and to other characters - ideally both party and NPC.

There's more, of course. Depth and layers and flaws and strengths and loves and hates.

My favourite characters tend to be those with an innocent exterior hiding a steel-strong core - Kella, Plays, Svetlana and Solomon fall into this category, and Kamaya was intended to. They also all enjoy the company of others - they're gregarious and will try to befriend someone rather than murderise them. But then, I also loved Kismet and 'Mathilde', who were definitely less friendly - downright nasty, in fact. Or at least, completely uninterested in the feelings of others but living in the world on their own terms, which was interesting. And Chrissie, of course, is far from innocent on the exterior, and, though friendly, doesn't make friends with all and sundry, the way Svetlana and Kella do/did. She's a lot more conflicted. And I'm really enjoying Taji who's different again - she has a hard outer edge to her in an inversion of my usual preferences. My favourite characters do have one thing in common, now I think of it: a deep connection to the world and other characters, even if that's (as with Mathilde, whose ultimate dream was to destroy the world) a nihilistic connection.

But most of all, a good character is one the player connects with, and enjoys playing.