#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.

 

#RPGaDay2015 - Day 10, Favourite RPG Publisher

.... I don't have one; I don't really pay enough attention to that sort of thing!

I'm excited by what Paizo's done with Pathfinder; I find it a lot more fluid than D&D 3.5, somehow. It's possibly just the group combined with the enthusiasm of my GM, though.

He creates such fantastic props

ShadowRun will always be special to me because it was the first deep game I played in and the background is fantastic, so Fasa Corporation need a mention.

Been thinking a lot about WFRP's recently (First Ed mostly, being the one I've played, but chatting with my brother about the differences in how magic is handled in Second Ed has me intrigued), but I don't have much time for GW since they cut support for their specialist games - the ones that still interested me - and particularly when they stopped letting the Blood Bowl championships be held at their HQ... but that's another gripe. Never mind.

But I think there is a winner. I love all the White Wolf games I've played so far: Aberrant, old Vampire, Werewolf and Hunter, and most recently Exalted. With Exalted, we've barely started but being familiar with the other systems helps keep things moving.

I love the way the mythologies have been built in the old WoD games. The reflection of many real world mythologies appeals to my inner mythology-geek - the part that grew up reading myths and folk and fairy tales from across the world (if mainly Europe). It's Werewolf, with the balance between Wyrm, Weaver and Wyld that falls into conflict, that most appeals to me. The animism intertwined with that also reflects faith systems I can relate to, building on the folk tales I absorbed.

The WoD games are, apparently, based on the emotional rollercoaster that is puberty: rage, numbness, feelings of disconnection and an inability to fit in. Like Buffy, then, it gives you monsters to fight to help you deal with such issues - useful to those of us who continued to suffer a lot of similar turmoil into our adulthood (yay Depression!) as well as for teenagers.

I've not played the new World of Darkness stuff yet - I was disappointed to hear certain favourite aspects had been removed - but I think I will try if I get a chance because I'm told it is very well done: similar depth, but a slightly more streamlined system - where you still get to roll great handfuls of dice.

#RPGaDay2015 - Day 9, Favourite media you wish was an RPG ~UPDATED~

It might seem strange, but I found this really, really hard! A lot of my most beloved things that I want to play are already available in roleplay form (Buffy, Firefly) and others are easily adaptable from existing games (The Invisible Library would work well in lords of Gossamer and Shadows, and Supernatural is basically just Hunter...), and others - well, I have some very imaginative friends who are prepared to spend a lot of time developing and play-testing homebrew systems to run Final Fantasy X and Star Trek in tabletop roleplay forms.

Oh, but there is one game...

I'm not massively into MMORPG's, but there was one and it was beautiful and I miss it. City of Heroes/Villians (CoX) was a superhero game released in 2004. I first played it on a friend's account shortly after, and then a year or so later on another friend's account until I finally got my own and played and played and played. Husbit, I and several friends would get together at weekends and play in a group, but we also made friends online and I'm still in touch with the one I got closest too. 

Then it stopped.

And I was gutted. And every now and then I really yearn to play. Even before it closed, I was thinking about running a tabletop version of the game, finding a simplified version of the computer game mechanics to control it. I was going to give out badges and everything! But I never got around to writing the mechanics down before the game ended, and I'm sad. I had so many ideas...

I had so many characters! Every however-many months you'd unlock extra character slots, but I still had filled all mine in both English speaking European servers, and was starting to try to learn internet French with a character on their server. The character creation was an aspect I really miss, because it was a really handy way of creating an image for characters in other games - there were so many options and so much control. It was ever so cool

I don't have many screenshots left, but here's a few:

Hero Elfie Maggot, Blaster

The villainous Luci Fair & her zombie horde

Lady Mercury - another villain (I think a Dominator)

I can't remember this villainous Brute's name - Mistress Blitz or Mistress Blitzen?

- she wielded a pair of swords and had lightning armour

Fey Blessing - healing Defender

and again, showing off her new outfit

Pixie Strike, a claws/evasion scrapper and the first character I got to 50

Pixie Strike in action

and Isis Kali, another Defender, this one dark/dark

I had loads of fun with these guys and all the others, and would love to bring the world to life again in tabletop form.

So that's my day 9 of RPGaDay2015. Thanks to Autocratik for running it again! :)

UPDATED: And we reach day 19, favourite supers RPG and Dave Chapman (Autocratik) gives an explanation as to why I don't have my desired CoX RPG as well as making me feel even more thirsty for it by describing how epic it was to have been! Check it out here.

#RPGaDay2015 - Day 8, Favourite Appearance of RPGs in the Media

I WON AT DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, AND IT WAS ADVANCED!

http://community-sitcom.wikia.com/wiki/Advanced_Dungeons_%26_Dragons

I've been really looking forward to this one because I thought it would be really easy to find the clip of Pierce Hawthorne shouting that in Community... but I was wrong. So you'll just have to have me shout it instead.

My friend Mike (of Nazgob's Blog) introduced me to Community and I fell in love. I was watching The Big Bang Theory at the time, and starting to have issues with the way geeks and women were portrayed (this Tumblr post sums up a lot of my issues with the show: when I first stumbled across it, it was illuminating because it put into words a vague unease I was feeling), so to find another show that isn't about geeks, as such, but about real people that happens to include geeks - that was cool. And the characters are flawed but that's ok - you accept them and forgive them for their flaws because you see those flaws in yourself and your friends, and you become more accepting of your flaws, and your friends' flaws.

It's not a perfect show. It would be easy to pick many, many holes in it. But I love it. And I particularly love the two episodes devoted to Dungeons & Dragons: Season 2 ep 14, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, and Season 5 ep 10, Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Each episode follows the group as they play a game of D&D to try to help someone resolve a personal issue (not necessarily with that person's appreciation). To again briefly compare with TBBT, when D&D is played there, it is played by the rules but not the spirit of the game: the second episode adds occasional in-game sound effects, but otherwise each episode is entirely them, in the room, play a game. And it is engrossing and engaging even for non-gamers watching.

I think the handling of D&D is fantastic, and then there are the paintball episodes, and the floor-is-made-of-lava episode and, oh, the 8-bit computer game episode and so many others. And it's fun and funny and loving and I adore it.