#RPGaDay2018: Day 10 - How has gaming changed you?

Years ago, I wrote up 4 characters for Deadlands. The one I was most interested in playing was Solomon Blackbird, a mediator rather than a fighter. I didn't play her, but picked the gunslinger Lizbeth Hunter for the first game instead.

I knew I wanted to play more persuasive characters, though, and I wanted more confidence to do that sort of thing in the real world, so I statted a skald (barbarian/bard cross and a fan-made Pathfinder class), Ylva, but the rest of the group didn't want me to play her because a lot of her boosts wouldn't help them by nature of the skaldic magic, which was fair enough but frustrating.

We started playing Aberrant, and I decided Chrissie was going to have leadership qualities I lack, to help me learn them. It paid off; I felt more confident playing her (helped by the smaller group, I'm sure, and specifically the other people in it). Then I started playing Taji, who is pretty much confidence personified and has no doubt (or very occasional doubt only) in her ability to lead.

And it's really paid off. I was becoming frustrated in the other group, with the 'interlude' to Pathfinder which I'd expected to be relatively low power and short-lived becoming something as epic as the other game, the important game (which I have no problem with, but I didn't like being led to expect one type of game only for the rug to be pulled from under me), and the main game having gone from a diplomacy-based game to one that was very combat heavy, where the player characters don't really interact with each other, and where the newest player was dominating at, it felt, the expense of my stage time (mine and the assassin's, really). We're going back to Pathfinder soon, and I had the confidence to lay out my concerns for both iterations with the GM without worrying I would hurt his feelings. He agreed with me and understood - he's promised to keep the oracle and paladin from dominating, to give me and the assassin time to shine, and to make sure I actually get time with the NPC's even if it frustrates the paladin. He even sought my reassurance he's a better GM now, something I was more than happy to give (he reads a lot of advice, and practices, and all that). He wasn't a bad GM before, just let dominant players dominate the game until it stopped being fun for me, but I contributed to that by not having the confidence to tell him. I have it now, and the confidence to tell the other two to shut up at the table. One of them won't mind (he lives with me; he's watched my confidence growing), but the other might not like it very much!

And it's not the gaming table. I'm confident to tell people at work when they're wrong without lots of hedging (though more diplomatically than "You're wrong"), and able to hold the conversation long enough to explain. My department closes next year, so I'm hoping this new confidence will help me find a new position somewhere engaging.

What about you? If you're taking part this year, please leave a link below!

#RPGaDay2018: Day 9 - How has a game surprised you?

Another tricky one, for me. I feel like there's two ways to answer this: by considering a game system, or a game session.

For the first... My first gaming group were pretty scathing of D&D. The Shadowrun's GM was particularly disapproving of how powerful you could end up, so I was surprised by how powerful it was possible to end up in Shadowrun! They also didn't like that you could reach a point where a headshot wouldn't just kill you, which seemed unrealistic to them (though that could happen in Shadowrun, too, and actually in real life). When I finally started playing D&D systems, I discovered a lot of what I'd been told wasn't strictly true (at least not in the versions I've played), though have to agree with the general feeling that alignment is more trouble than it's worth, being too subjective and leading to too many arguments. So I was surprised to enjoy D&D more than I expected - to begin with. Coming from a Shadowrun/World of Darkness background, I found the levelling and classes system to be too restrictive. I think it's why I usually gravitate to playing rogues: they're the class that's offered me the most flexibility. You can be a thief, a diplomat, an assassin, a sniper, an academic, a general do-gooder... And then the combat! It's so slow, and only having a single d20 means that 5% of the time you are guaranteed to fail badly, no matter how good you are. We went back for a one-off Pathfinder session after having played Savage Worlds Deadlands for long enough that we were all taken by surprise at how clunky the combat was, and how drastically it slowed the game, making it harder to enjoy the plot (until the GM made the last few combats more cinematic than rolled).

So D&D surprised me by both being less bad than I expected, and also worse.

For the second, I'm struggling to choose. Campaigns often end up in unexpected places: when we started Pathfinder, I had no expectation of ending up married to the King; when I played a game based on Final Fantasy X as a White Mage from Besaid, I had no idea I'd end up a Summoner. But these are things that grew out of play, so it's not exactly fair to call them surprises. For that, I think I need to look at individual sessions, rather than the campaign as a whole.

Vienna exploding around us in Aberrant was certainly a surprise. When you're a superhero, you often think you can't fail, which Adam felt like he had for a long time after (Chrissie, more practical, tried to reassure him it wasn't his fault, but his ego never quite believed her). There's been a lot of twists and turns in Exalted, too, but I keep talking about Exalted at the moment, so I'll leave those for today (also, most of them haven't been written up yet). Tark's death was a horrid surprise that really got under my skin - I think it was the first time I really, truly felt with my character, which was horrid and thrilling and exciting.

I don't know. I don't feel like I have a good answer to this one. Looking forward to seeing yours - don't forget to add a link in the comments :-D

#RPGaDay2018: Day 8 - How can we get more people playing?

This is a very hard question to answer. I think, talk about our games and our love for them in public. I know I've had people express interest as a result of that - usually people with a background in either writing or acting or both, so maybe we should start targeting these groups?

The next step is to actually get a game together the interested new people can join, which is where I always fall down.

Finally, when someone new does join your game, make sure they feel welcome and included. Lead by example at the table, demonstrating the way your group tends to play, but make sure they have time and space to take part and don't end up an observer to your glory. Help them out a bit if they get stuck, but (here's the trick!) without being patronising. Ask their opinion after, ideally without that starry-eyed wonder that I know tends to take me over when I get to talk about my games. Ask what their character did that they enjoyed doing; ask what they'd like to explore next time.

If you're taking part this year, please leave a link to your response below. 

#RPGaDay2018: Day 7 - How can a GM make the stakes seem important?

This is a hard question to answer. A lot of the games I've played over the years, the stakes have been world-saving, which makes them pretty important! But the stakes should matter even when they aren't so big.

I guess some of it comes down to the degree the players have invested themselves in the world. It's pretty easy to have even minor stakes feel important to me: give an NPC I care about a good, in-character reason for caring, and my character will too - and "care about" can mean my character loathes them; there's a lot Svetlana would happily do if it meant undermining Irrevetti's power. While Lacy had to point out to other party members that saving his friend's friend would help us achieve our meta-goal of saving the world, for Solomon it was enough that someone she admires asked for her help.

Another trick is to look at the character - both the character sheet, and the way it's played. In Deadlands, my partner knew Carson would offer himself as the one who'll die when we attempt to bring the Flood to Lost Angels because the character has the "Big Damn Hero" flaw (or whatever it's actually called), and the player remembers it too. Likewise, Solomon would do whatever he needed her to to assist, because she's Loyal. Taji is overconfident and very competitive, so give her  a challenge or imply she can't do something and she'll go out of her way to prove you wrong: the stakes aren't particularly high, necessarily ("bet I can dig faster than you!"), but they'll matter to her (this also works on Bells's Mage character, Howard, who is also overconfident and dislikes admitting he can't do something). My new Exalted character Amaryllis, whom you haven't met yet, has very high Compassion, which means give her a bit of a sob story and it becomes important.

Make it personal. NPC's are the easiest way for me, but not all players are interested in NPC's, so maybe have a beloved item nicked from one of them, or rumours of an item of power another would benefit from. Feels a bit boring to me, but works for many other people.

Remind players of clocks ticking - that plague village they visited a while back, has anyone been back to see if it's still spreading? That Quantum lake that covers Vienna, when did you last visit? It occurs to you you haven't seen Tark for a while. A newspaper headline announces the progress of the army marching this way (I love in-game newspapers for delivering plot hooks and clock reminders). You turn on the radio to hear Theresa's parents pleading for her safe return. You did remember to write back to Marcy, right?

If you're taking part this year, don't forget to link to your response in the comments below!

#RPGaDay2018: Day 6 - How can players make the world seem real?

This is one where I'm especially looking forward to what other people have to say - it's something I want to be good at, as a player, so I'm hoping to pick up tips.

For me, at the moment, I think it probably boils down to the way you interact with the world. You can accept the quest, slaughter your way through the undead-filled dungeon, retrieve the macguffin, and return to receive your reward. So far, so computer game. Or, you can explore how you know the quest-giver, what you know about them. You can befriend them (and not just because a quest-giver is a useful person to have on your list of contacts). Then in the dungeon, as you slaughter you can investigate why it's so filled with undead (which might lead to more adventure hooks). If appropriate, you can make the macguffin more personal to you, too. So, if you're rescuing someone, talk to them, find out about how they ended up kidnapped, find out where they're from. Return to the quest-giver and don't just receive the reward (or argue with the quest-giver in the hopes of receiving a bigger reward just for the sake of it - that's one character interaction I see often and find boring), but recount tales of your heroism, or otherwise continue the interaction you started before you left.

In our Mage game, Howard and Ragna stole an RV and driving from Los Angeles to Chicago (to get holy water to fight vampires). Howard is LA born and bred, while Ragna is from Norway originally and has only seen LA in the US. Ragna's the better driver, but doesn't have a valid US licence. That didn't seem as important in a stolen RV, so they were driving in shifts. It was late evening, early night, and Howard's shift was ending. He pulled over on the side of the road at a safe spot, to stop for the night. It was eerie - tall pines grey in the gloaming, darkening fast as heavy clouds came over. The headlights picked up silver threads of rain.

A sudden thud against the RV woke Ragna with a start - she looked round to see Howard even more startled. Even his cat, Marcel, seemed disconcerted. Another rattling thud shook the truck. The storm didn't bother her, but Howard's fear spread through Ragna: she'd never seen him show any signs of it before. His face was white with it now and she wondered what he'd seen. She peered through the windows, but couldn't make anything out in the blackness beyond the pelting rain.

The next rattling was accompanied by an unearthly howling, which snapped Howard into action: he leapt back into the driver's seat and Ragna buckled in beside him, trying to calm her companion as she brought up a google maps route to the nearest official truck stop. Once there, he stepped outside and smoked an entire packet of cigarettes.

It was just a storm, but Howard had no idea what a storm was like outside a city. Ragna knew very well, but was infected by his fear. Our GM afterwards said he'd half-intended to have us attacked by werewolves, but the way we engaged with and expressed the experience meant he changed his mind.

So that's my advice: get curious about the world. React to it. Use the scenery. Make friends with the NPC's. Believe in it.

If you're taking part this year, I'd love it if you'd include a link to your reponse in the comments below. Look forward to hearing from you! 

#RPGaDay2018: Day 5 - Favourite Recurring NPC

As yesterday, I've thought back over the various NPC's who've recurred in the games I've loved. I kinda wanted to pick a villain. Irrevetti, is the one who stands out because I hate him, and I'm loving it! He mostly recurs through being mentioned rather than us interacting with him, though, and I want to pick someone we spend in-game time with.

Irrevetti is a major villain in our Pathfinder game. The GM, Rich, created a bunch of NPC's and gave life to others from the book - to the point I'm not always sure which are which. From there, he expanded it to give Bells and I a full superteam of NPC's, as well as family, friends, mentors and rivals in Aberrant. I was really tempted to pick either Holly or Alastair from that game, for the maternal relationship Chrissie has with them both (most complicated with Alastair), but in my opinion it was Exalted where all the effort he's put into NPC building and development really came together. Again, some of them are named in the setting and many more are his creations - including some (Lawrence) who were created on the fly in response to things we chose to do (hire a child to help us not fall foul of curious and changing laws in a new city).

Meredith is wonderful. A First Age Solar living in seclusion, a Twilight, a formidable sorceror and crafter, she's scatty, she swears a lot, and my character idolises her more than a little. 'Gruncle' Cathak Chow, who raised the twins, last seen when he saved their lives in a part of the story not yet told. Captain Ling, another character who was created on the cuff and we liked so much (because she kept the young twins safe) she was used as a reason to get us to go somewhere dangerous...

But I'm going to pick the Undying Fury of Creation. If you've followed the story, you'll have met him very briefly in the 'non-canon' section. He's another being from the First Age, and carries his emotional baggage far more clearly than Meredith. A powerful Lunar, his bond with his Solar mate was such that her death tore him apart and he's never quite recovered. As mortals, Taji and Kito caused him great harm, such that Taji feels she owes him her death - that her death can come at no hands but his (though she still puts herself in thoughtless, reckless danger). As Exalts, he's saved her life on more than one occasion. Their relationship is complicated, emotionally intense, and very rewarding.

If you're taking part in the challenge, don't forget to leave a link to your response in the comments :)

#RPGaDay2018: Day 4 - Most Memorable NPC

There's a lot of NPC's in my current stable of games who are definitely memorable, but hard to say which will prove to be most memorable (though The Emissary's theme song does make him stand out somewhat). Instead of picking any of them, I've reached back through the games I've played, trying to remember NPC's who stand out, and I think I'm going to choose Tark from the ShadowRun game I've recently started writing up. It was a close call between him and Drazen, or possibly Jaz, as it's a good 15 years or more since I played, but I still remember the 3 fondly. I've picked Tark, though, because his death shook me up.

The game had been running for a while when I joined, so the NPC's were already embedded. My character, Kamaya, was a speedfreak adept, making her very similar to Drazen. Tark was a shaman. I think I was the only magic player character, and they were the two magic NPC's who most frequently assisted on runs. Drazen was pretty callous, with a disregard for human life, and it ended up rubbing off on Kamaya (because I was young and impressionable and forgot she'd started out disliking killing), and Tark, with Wolf as his Totem, followed his pack, so most runs were pretty bloody.

It's no spoiler to tell you about Tark's death; it happened long after my notes finish.

Several of the trio's early runs were against Ares, until they ended up with a bit of a reputation as being the runners you wanted on your team if that's who your target was. Of course, this got them onto Ares radar, though I was too young and naive to realise it was a risk. Tark went missing for a while - I assumed he was on some kind of shamanic retreat, so had Kamaya react accordingly and not worry about him. Until he showed up, walking up the stairs of the restaurant/club she'd just bought (I was working to retire the character because she'd become so powerful). Ares had taken him and inserted a cranial bomb that they'd detonate if they didn't come with him.

He refused to let them come with him, and Kamaya was too shocked to argue.

His brains splattered the walls. 

I learnt a lot about the game world, and gaming, and even GM'ing (if I had a young, inexperienced player in the group, I hope I'd give a better indication that she might want to be more suspicious!) Part of me still misses Tark. He was a good mentor for Kamaya, sweet natured beneath it all. 

If you're taking part, don't forget to add a link to your response in the comments :)