I have loads and loads of opportunities to try most games; if I’ve not tried a game, it’s usually qualified by… not yet. When I look at all the games going on on The Raspy Raven, I do think, though, could I squeeze just one more wafer-thin night of gaming in (monsieur)?
Two games spring to mind: firstly, Ars Magica, seemingly incredibly complex and embedded in historical influences, but the bit that gets its hook into me is the dedication to magic, the rituals that may take many weeks, months, years to come to fruition. Whole campaigns set around learning a new spell or discipline of magic. The troupe of GMCs that gather around these events and the players can puppeteer different levels of influence. But I know I’m not to be trusted around a game like this; it would soak up my time like a sponge, send me down the deepest of rabbit holes, and I’d not be satisfied with just skimming the surface. One for deep into retirement, I think.
GUMSHOE. Which may sound odd to people who know me. I play a lot of Gumshoe. Recently, The Yellow King RPG and, soon, a return to Trail of Cthulhu. A Trail of Cthulhu campaign in the Bookhounds of London setting, using The Armitage Files as the campaign basis. I’ve been reading and playing Gumshoe games since 2007, almost twenty years, but I’ve never got bored of them, and I always feel I’m learning something new. Partly, it is due to their simplicity; you can interpret how the core system works in many different ways. Also, it’s the many iterations of Gumshoe; any genre can be satisfied. But mainly, it is the quality of writing and inventiveness of the supplements and scenarios.
Bookhounds of London transplants the investigators into 1930s London. They all play greasy, grubby, greedy booksellers, buyers, and collectors. Centred around their shop, they take on various roles: analysing ancient tomes, searching for new ones, connecting collectors to them, and even attempting to repair or recreate them.
Your preferred distance in any type of RPG conflict?
Distance
I like getting up close and personal in RPG conflict, not necessarily because every fight should be fought at arm’s length, but because danger is most exciting when it feels immediate, specific and personal.
I have only played The Walking Dead Universe RPG once, so this is very much a first impression, but I struggled with its swarm mechanic. It sensibly abstracts hundreds of individual walkers into Swarm Size and Threat Level. As the dead close in, the Threat Level rises, your choices narrow, and the consequences become increasingly lethal.
During our Coriolis: The Third Horizon campaign - Mercy of the Icons, the players accumulated an utterly ridiculous 41 Darkness Points and counting.
Darkness Points are a sometimes dubious way of messing with players: players may push their rolls, praying to the Icons for good fortune, granting them a re-roll, but each time they do, they hand the GM a point with which to make their future considerably less fortunate.
An enjoyable moment of grit PCs did or did not tough out
Grit
In By Endurance We Conquer by Harald Eckmüller, Willem was fleeing a mechanical horror beneath the Arctic ice. A complication meant he could escape, but only by knocking another crew member back into its path.
His player chose instead to fail, accepting almost certain death or dismemberment rather than sacrifice someone else. He invoked one of his Burdens, made the roll a complete success, and both men escaped.
Share an RPG charity, past or present, that moved you.
Charity
I’m going to link to Dirk’s page on the Mike Hobbs Memorial Fund. I never knew Mike - more the pity by the sound of it - but at many grog cons I go, his name lives on. We browse his and his friends’ collection, whilst contributing to a wonderful charity to keep schools and youth groups in RPGs for many years to come.
In Dragonbane, our group started as decent sorts, always willing to talk to mild NPCs and discuss various turnip-related gossip.
We’ve killed a lot of monsters in the intervening sessions, and maybe those that weren’t really monsters, but they perhaps stuttered when we asked them probing questions, or they just had a look in their eyes.
We’re going to follow Nantz, a character played by Nantz in our mini campaign, Into the Dust, The Electric State RPG. A frankly odd idea for an RPG: a road movie RPG. We travel through a post-Civil War USA that is rapidly regressing to a broken, messed-up society anesthetised by its technological advancements. Nothing like the real world then.
Directness: A fast introduction of a new PC or player?
Directness
This is always a question in OSR games. How do you introduce a new character in a seamless and immersive way when the expectation is that at least one person is having his curtains measured, about six feet by two, every session?
One thing that will cause a character to lose their composure?
Composure
I’ve just done a session zero of Stonetop, and my character Eadgyð (Edith or ED-Yith) is a fox - a criminal with a conscience. Brought up in a nearby town by gangs and unlawful filth after she lost her parents at the age of five. Betrayed by her best friend, left for dead in the fens. She survived. She is tough and resilient; she made her way to the rural town of Stonetop. Trying to make a new home, forget old ways, but what could ruffle that composure?
For now, I’m considering her poised on the knife-edge of settling down versus the chaos that can destroy all of that, her past both her own personality and the people she hopes she escaped from.
What is a game held in high regard that you have yet to play?
Regard
I’ve never played a Without Number game, and people that I respect in the hobby always sing their praises. In particular, Stars Without Number, seemingly a definitive Space anything, sci-fi anything game. Am I being snobby about a game with such a corporate, dull-sounding name? I also have many sci-fi games that I love: Those Dark Places, that I enjoy playing; Mothership and that I’m nostalgic about; Star Frontiers or have a love/hate relationship with; Traveller.
So is another, however highly rated sci-fi game, needed?
So far, what is the heaviest set of RPG things you have carried to play?
Strain
Well, easy one: Haunted West. I picked it up at Dragonmeet a few years back, a super deal from Leisure Games. It is a humungous tome, a two-handed RPG rulebook. I really should delve into it more as I’ve been loving Tales of the Old West and I am sure there are many things to mine from within Chris Spivey’s book; he of the amazing Harlem Unbound, how can it not?! But maybe it could have been split into a few volumes for ease of use and protection of my back muscles.
More recently, I’ve realised that Blade Runner requires a solid duffel bag to lug around grog cons. Firstly, if I’m running, as I have been with Blade Runner: Replicant Rebellion, see issue No. 59 of Never Mind the Dice Rolls for my review, then I need those rules, plus I also have to take the original rules AND the Asset Pack AND the GM screen. Oh, and the fancy eye/unicorn dice.
Most things end. What is one RPG loss you still feel?
Loss
I have an ambivalent feeling towards RPGs, especially when looking back. I enjoy them more in the moment; the memories fade quickly. This doesn’t mean I don’t take them seriously or want the players to have fun, just that to me, they are games; there are many other things in life more important. So this theme was a little difficult.
I suppose I could list unfinished campaigns - Eternal Lies, Cassilda’s Song. There is a bit of a completer-finisher in me that regrets not getting to the end, but then again, you need to sometimes cut your losses if the games aren’t giving you what you need.
A character made great by having or not having tact
Tact
Our forever GM on a Sunday- well, it is a shame he is a forever GM, because his characters are always in your face and have a variety of UK accents.
Their character may start quiet, even timid, with no inkling of what is to come. They work well within the party, performing their designated role, stepping forward into danger as required.
Or came out about a character. When playing Eternal Lies, the epic Trail of Cthulhu campaign, we unfortunately had to say goodbye to three of the players. I asked them all how they wanted to go out. The vicar decided on an image of him standing on top of the Griffith Observatory as liquid fire ran down his hands from a Mythos tome above his head, just as the sunset. The criminal decided it was time to take everyone out, so she was loaded down with grenades, and our professor was open to anything.
That night, we had one new player join. At the end of the session, the vicar was a steaming pile of ash, the criminal was scattered to all corners, and the professor lay on the ground with a fatal knife wound, as the remaining PCs gathered around, open-mouthed and shell-shocked.
Give one reason why it is a privilege to play with your group
Privilege
Privilege is playing with people who follow the fiction to develop a story and maximise the fun.
By that I mean they don't spend every moment asking, "What's the highest modifier?" or "How do I beat this encounter?" Instead, they ask, "What would my character do?" and "What makes the most interesting story?"
A moment when a character kept or broke their resolve?
Vote Tiny
Tiny was played by Jon in our Yellow King RPG campaign, Cassilda’s Song. Not yet released. Jon was playing in the Aftermath setting; see Day 3 for details.
In this particular setting, we had to define a Goal, a political goal for the group. The group decided on Get Tiny Elected! Tiny was a somewhat focused and brutal character, and as the setting progressed, his methods became more agricultural, wiping aside opponents or enemies with his gun.
The title isn't just evocative, as it captures one of the campaign's central paradoxes. The Order of the Pariah, known throughout the Third Horizon as the Samaritans, are feared and distrusted by many. Yet on Coriolis Station they offer free medical care to anyone in need, regardless of wealth, status or faith. The people many see as villains are also those who heal without asking for anything in return. It's a wonderful reminder that mercy often comes from the places we least expect.
