#RPGaDay2015 - Day 17, Favourite Fantasy RPG

I'm torn.

Fantasy games I've played include a couple of Homebrews that fit nicely elsewhere, D&D 3rd ed, 3.5 and 4th ed, Pathfinder and Warhammer Fantasy RolePlay. Oh, and fake D&D spoof game that Husbit was running when I met him (seeking out the secret herbs and spices that made Kobold Fried Chicken finger linkin' good). And D&D variants such as Midnight and Very Forgotten Realms (in which all sentient beings in the known world had woken some years previously with total amnesia). And our Exalted game is currently very fantasy-like, but I don't know if that's an Exalted thing or an our group thing.

I've played some very enjoyable D&D campaigns (the Midnight setting particularly stands out) and of course I adore our Pathfinder game. Meanwhile, I've yet to play a WFRP's campaign that has absorbed me as completely, yet I really, really like the system.

So I'm torn and going to break my answer down.

I think Midnight might be my favourite fantasy setting because it is a bit different and the game is inevitably lower level; darker and dirtier.

Our current Pathfinder game is my favourite fantasy campaign. I'm very much behind Svetlana and want things to work out for her. I'm (fairly) sure they will and want to see her story through.

But WFRP's is my favourite system. I prefer moving through jobs than levelling in a class. When you reach 20th level in D&D, it feels like that's it, you're done (like a level cap in a PC game) and that's a shame. In Wfrp's, you can move through another career path to conitnue improving, continue learning new skills. I also like the huge variety of careers you can follow and pick up valuable skills from - moving through peasant-type jobs isn't a penalty the way a level in commoner would be in D&D. Just a shame there's no Blood Bowl player career! (Yes, I know, it's an alternate reality in which the sport replaced war, but I'd still like to run a campaign where you start as members of a Blood Bowl team...)

I'm not sure though. There is so much variation and variety and home rules and personalisation available to fantasy that I'm sure there are many better systems and settings out there, and I look forward to discovering more of them.

 

#RPGaDay2015 - Day 16, Longest Game Session Played

I know my current (Pathfinder, Aberrant/Exalted) GM is doing his best to take the record, but I remember playing weekend-long sessions when I was a student, so the longest session would be part of Kella's story.

As mentioned on Day 12, she's one of my favourite characters of all time and a large part of that was down to how immersed we as players became in the game, which was assisted by being able to play for extended periods: I shared a house with the GM (Sith) and his girlfriend (Penny), who played Kyann, and our friend Owen (Rax) was the other main player and practically lived there too - and when Rowan (Reisha) joined he was just around the corner too. I know we needed to cram a lot in to make sure we finished the game before I finished uni, so I suspect the final session was the longest.

I've never played Final Fantasy X, the inspiration for this game, so I don't exactly know how it deviates. Our game was set 1,000 years or more before the computer game. The world has a strange mix of magic and and technology-esque items - leaning more towards magic than the world I remember from my foray into Final Fantasy VII, although that is a different place. Kella was Besaid born and bred, golden-brown skin, long hair thick and dark, and a love of Blitzball - the sport that unites the world and is particularly popular in her corner of it. She has a stocky, athletic build and plays passionately, but it's her younger sister Elin who has a real talent for the game. By the end of the game, she'd progressed from white mage to summoner.

Rax (short for Sycorax) was a chocobo breeder, as I recall. He became convinced he'd died and wanted Kella to send him on - I remember the GM saying he was a bit worried because Rax hadn't died but he was so convinced of it, the GM half expected if I tried a sending it would work!

Reisha was a man out of time. When the party was attempting to convince Phoenix to join them as part of Kella's available summons, they found him or Phoenix returned him to the world and left him to their care - I was never entirely sure which, or if something else entirely was going on. I think this was the first time he muttered "I could get used to waking up next to you" on seeing Kella - and then blushing bright red on realising he'd spoken out loud.

Whilst Reisha was the oldest player character in terms of time since birthed, Kyann was oldest in time lived and in maturity. She was a strong, steely woman - good in a fight, but her strength was predominantly that of will. A bit of a loner, she accepted the company thrust on her by fate and circumstance before realising she was fond of the others - close enough to call them friends.

It was her strength of character that meant Kella could survive her final encounter.

It's sadly hazy now, but I do remember avoiding an intended boss battle with the Behemoth King. I'd picked up a ring that enabled me to talk to animals and we ended up recruiting him as part of the party. We climbed Mount Gagazet where Reisha and Kella finally admitted to their mutual attraction. Kella had just enough time to realise she was pregnant before Reisha was killed (?) to save the party - by this time, everyone knew they had to get Kella to the top of the mountain, had to keep her alive so she could sacrifice herself...

It was revealed to them - a vision from the future (characters in the computer game) - that Kella didn't need to die. She chose Kyann to be her final summoned creature - the one destined to kill her. Kyann was taken over and indeed went to fight - but she was fighting within herself because she was determined not to kill her friend - and she won, staying the sin growing within her.

The Behemoth King returned to his herd and the surviving party - Kella, Rax and an NPC, Natasha (daughter of another NPC who'd died along the way) - returned to Besaid for the epilogue: Rax, who'd accepted his life during the final battles and who'd fallen in love with Elin before that, was married to Kella's younger sister and they had twins - Rain and Sky. Rax was on the beach with Kella, watching Elin play Blitzball and watching his twins and Kella's son, Zet, when something fell from the sky, and Kella knew it was Reisha coming home to her - and of course it was. And that's what the picture I chose for Day 12 illustrates. I wrote the scene as a fan-fiction after, and it still makes me cry to read it.

 

#RPGaDay2105 - Day 15, Longest Campaign Played

I thought I'd have to think quite hard about this because I tend to play long campaigns, but it turns out Pathfinder wins fairly easily - even if you take the Interlude characters we're currently playing as seperate from the main Pathfinder game, I think it's still just in front.

The Awesome Uni World of Darkness campaign I played definitely needs a mention. I was still in the first year of my three year degree when I joined - I'm not sure how long it had run before that, a year or more, maybe? The game wrapped up before I finished uni, though I forget exactly at what point. I certainly played for at least 2 years, probably nearer 3, and if we were taking game world time this would be the one that won hands down because I joined Vampire in the Dark Ages - Sabbat styley. The others had played generations in both Vampire and Werewolf from Roman times and had recently played through Dark Ages as Masquerading vampires and reached Modern Day in Werewolf (we all much preferred Werewolf - something about the intimacy of the pack versus the mistrust of the cotierie, I suspect). Once Vampire reached Modern Day, we added Hunters to the mix, including some players who weren't involved in the other games and that was a lot of fun.

After uni, we had a regular roleplay group that fell to pieces and reformed in various forms on various occasions. We'd settled into a fairly steady pattern of alternate Sundays and running short campaigns in different systems when Rich took the reigns with Pathfinder. He wanted to run the Kingmaker campaign, so we created Brevic characters and went with it. I'd recovered from the aversion to D&D-type games my very first roleplay group had inflcited on me (it was something they all agreed on: D&D was too clunky and too overpowered and I should never bother trying it because it was just rubbish); their influence still colours my opinion (it is clunky), but I've found the right group and/or the right storyline means this is not insurmountable (maybe this is why I'm more forgiving of 4th Ed than D&D fans seem to be?)

And the Pathfinder game turned out to have a very powerful storyline, even if 3 or 4 years on (or longer...) we still haven't technically completed the first book of the campaign we were meant to be on. We got to a suitable stopping point - defeating the Stag Lord - and Rich offered up his seat, knowing Husbit wanted to run some more Deadlands or 'Punk and there being a few other games being mooted - but we were enjoying this game and the other games weren't quite ready so we carried on and sort of forgot about switching...

In an ideal world, I'd love enough free time and disposable income for me and my gaming network to play, prepare and run all the games we want. There would be a lot more long campaigns - and I think a lot more fiction flowing therefrom, from several members of the group. 

 

#RPGaDay2015 - Day 14, Favourite RPG Accessory

This feels like an incredibly broad topic. I could talk again about my dice collection (it's grown again...), or go over some of the wonderful props GM's make - letters, newspapers, scrolls, journals, runes - or the use of glass beads to track health levels and power (eg quantum) expenditure without ending up wearing through your character sheet (we have separate tubs so we can keep note between games).

But I think I'm going to talk about Hero Lab instead. I didn't like the sound of it at first, thought a digital character sheet would be somehow inferior in lacking the physicality of a paper sheet, and there's that feeling of "it's not a proper character sheet until you've spilt coffee on it" which is not something I really want to do to the laptop...

I've come to the conclusion I was wrong. Svetlana is still a paper based character (as is Chrissie and my new Exalted character, Taji) and that works fine for her because she's fairly straightforward. Jvala is immensely more complicated and I really appreciate the ways Hero Lab helps me keep track of what she can do as a two-weapon ranger. I can just tick a button to have all the stats update to include favoured terrain/enemy bonuses rather than scribbling all over the sheet to remind me of the different bonuses under different circumstances. It also has a hover-over feature that sums up different abilities so I don't end up wasting time trawling through books trying to remember how something works - Svetlana's sheet is covered in scribblings of my tiniest handwriting to remind me about her lesser-used abilities and using Hero Lab to run Jvala means her sheet is still tidy and, importantly, legible. 

It's not perfect. An upgrade I would particularly like would be to share Jvala's money with her animal companions automatically. At the moment, if I want to buy them equipment I generally have to 'buy for free' on the pet and then deduct the money from Jvala's journal, which is a faff. It would, I think, be a lot simpler, if animal companions had money and equipment available from their related character's sheet - so I could buy the shiny collar of awesomeness on Jvala's page and equip it on Flash's, or buy the super-sharp fang extenders directly on Cinder's page without having to fuss around with where the funds are coming from.

Overall, though, it's been a very valuable tool. It saves time during level up, as well, because we all have a copy we can fiddle with, whereas before we were all trying to read the same books at the same time. Hero Lab also has all the feats together, so it's a lot easier to find the one you're after if you're not sure which book it's in.

#RPGaDay2015 - Day 13, Favourite RPG Podcast

I don't currently listen to podcasts, but I've recently ended up with a car (looking after younger sibling's whilst she lives abroad for a few years) so my commute is about to change from reading a book on a train to driving to build experience and confidence. My other younger sibling listens to podcasts when he drives, and when I've borrowed his car I've found them to be pleasant rather than distracting as I'd anticipated - so I'm going to cheat here and ask for recommendations!

There are a couple of Blood Bowl podcasts I'll be downloading - Three Die Block and Double Skulls - but I would like some roleplay-based recommendations. My journey is likely to be about 30min, as a guide for length of show. Presenters of both Blood Bowl shows have given me dice, if you fancy giving me a bribe incentive to pick your favourite as mine ;-)

#RPGaDay2015 - Day 12, Favourite RPG Illustration

This seemed insanely difficult to me - there's a lot of fantastic art out there and a lot of utter dross. But then I thought, I love some of the illustrations friends have done of my characters, and it'd be nice to share them again here.

1. Kella and Reisha (Homebrew: Final Fantasy Noir)

 

Drawn by my friend Rowan who played Reisha, this depicts the 'epilogue' scene of our game. If you've played Final Fantasy X then you'll know more than me about the long history of summoners who believed they had to sacrifice themselves for the planet. Kella, my character, was a summoner around 1,000 years before the computer game and had become so accepting of her inevitable fate that Reisha was introduced deliberately as a love interest to shake things up a bit. He was a character out of time, found in a chamber when visiting a lost Faythe (Phoenix). He ended up sacrificing himself completely for her just after she'd discovered she was pregnant (which she didn't tell him as she was still set on dying and didn't want him to lose two people); they never found his body.

Of course, there was a way out of the situation that didn't involve Kella's death (just that of another of her closest allies, in another incredibly intense roleplay moment). She went back home to Besaid and a year or so later Reisha fell out of the sky and, in true fairy tale fashion, they lived happily ever after.

I pictured Kella as being somewhat stockier and her hair in thicker twists, but this picture is beautiful to me and summons up strong memories of a deeply immersive game.

2. Jvala (Pathfinder - interlude)

This is my current Pathfinder character as drawn by my friend Abi. It's a great likeness considering how little info she had to go on when I asked for the picture - what I particularly love is the dress, which is pretty much exactly what I picture her wearing to a ball or some such, and I gave Abi no clues in that direction! From the way her hair and skin are shifting slightly in colour, it's clear she's excited about something. Her swords are close by but not in her hands, so she's unlikely to be angry or afraid - I think she's probably trying to hide the fact that she's thrilled to be going to the party she's off too, but she can't control the way her inner flame flickers behind her skin and through her hair!

3. Svetlana (Pathfinder - main)

Again drawn by Abi from very basic info. I love the way she's captured Svetlana's joy and innocence. The dark leaf armour is much nicer and more imaginative than what I'd pictured and I love the plait! 

Svetlana sits jointly with Kella as being my very favourite character, possibly because they share this innocence that they wear almost as a shield against the harsher side of the world. Kella's was ultimately rewarded: she didn't have to die and her beloved was returned to her. Svetlana's is gradually being stripped from her - wrenched from her desperate grasp. Her death and time in Erastil's realm has hurt her badly because it's shown her how little time she will actually with her love and she finds it very difficult to know that once she's dead that won't matter to her: it makes how she feels matter more now. The political circles she is expected to navigate when not fighting demons are also teaching her not all people are as good as she wishes to believe...

Another thing the two share is a sense of duty to a cause bigger than themselves. For Kella, she grew up knowing about summoners and their sacrifice and I think that made it easier for her to accept the mantle when it was passed to her: she knew what she was doing was necessary for the good of everyone and, although I don't think it mattered consciously, she also knew that as long as she succeeded she would never be forgotten and would always be honoured. Svetlana has more internal conflict. For a start, she now has two duties: to Brevoy and to Golarion. For the good of Brevoy, she must try to tame her chaotic nature and learn to play the political game, but that seems irrelevant when placed next to the threats to Golarion she has discovered whilst fighting in the Worldwound and whilst off in another dimension. Here, her life and her love are in danger but she must fight on and not give up for the sake of her world. She does this with more reluctance than Kella, perhaps because this is all newer to her. She's also, unlike Kella, an only child, so I think there is a little more selfishness in her. But she fights on nonetheless.

As always, with thanks to Autocratik.

 

#RPGaDay2015 - Day 11, Favourite RPG Writer

This year's RPGaDay is making me very aware of how little attention I pay to the individuals who put in so much effort to create the games I love... I don't know any names of any writers of RPG games or supplements I've played! That's a bit embarrassing...

But I have read a lot of roleplay fiction, predominantly for Ravenloft. One author stands out: P N Elrod. I, Strahd in particular is a wonderfully written gothic novel. You can see the path down which the tragic hero treads, and you cannot steer his steps away from the doom he brings on himself. Elrod writes with grace and empathy such that you cannot hate Strahd despite what he does. And you root for him as he tries to come to terms and make amends - as he tries to live with what he has created. I think that's part of the beauty, in fact: the character does terrible things and acknowledges them rather than seeking to hide behind petty justifications - there are petty justifications, but they are written such that the reader and character see them as hollow as they really are. Cleverly done.