RPGaDay Challenge 2018 - After Thoughts

The RPGaDay Challenge for 2018 is over and I thought I'd share some general musings about it and the experience of doing it. 

I noted a few times this past month that the questions this year were better overall than those of recent, previous years. Why? What makes a question better or worse?

It is my opinion that the questions in a challenge such as this should be challenging to the person answering them. That challenge should come from the nature of the question, the subject matter, and how they relate to the individual's own experiences. 

They should not relate to how the question is worded. So many questions from this particular challenge have vague, ambiguous, or simply poorly placed wording. 

I should want to think about how best to answer the question. I shouldn't have to think about what the question is asking. 

How would you define your RPG play and/or GMing style? Is a good question.

It let's you decide to answer it as either a player, a GM, or both, and directs it to the individual posters particular approach to RPGs. We learn something about the person answering the question, which in turn makes the reader think about their own style.

How does your style effect play? Is a terrible question.

What does it even mean? How does my style effect my own play? Play in general, for the whole group? My style in doing what exactly? How I play? How I GM? What is the question trying to ask?

Some of the questions this year focused on how gaming influenced you, the responder, or how you were influenced by other gamers.

This is great. More like this would be awesome. They are not always the easiest questions to answer in a single, reasonably sized post, but I would have have one like this then be asked for the dozenth time...

What art/music/movies inspire your game?

Ugh. That is such a boring question as worded. It implies we all play a single game, 'your game'-singular, and it limits the possible sources of inspiration. I'd much rather see something like...

What entertainment source gives you the most gaming ideas outside of the games themselves?

Yes, it's a tad wordy, but it covers more area and allows for a wider variety of answers covering a wider range of gamers. 

At least I think so. 

There were a few times when, while answering a later question, I had to give second thoughts to what I had stated in an earlier one. The most outstanding example of this is that my gaming ambition for next year (Day 26) made me want to change my statements on my plans for my next game (Day 16). 

Of my three potential new gaming ideas, only the Wild West idea really does what I said I wanted to do for next year. In truth, I have a ton of ideas far more esoteric than those, ideas that meet my gaming ambition for 2019, but they are definitely more peculiar and therefore harder to sell to a potential group. 

The great eternal paradox of my personal gaming tastes.

Last thought...

I feel like I could have written a lot more for some of the answers. The problem is I wouldn't know where or when to stop. Take the Day 28 post for example. I could have named another dozen people and it probably wouldn't even have scratched the surface of identifying all those who've inspired and improved my gaming with their humor, skill, and wisdom at the table. 

I had to end the posts somewhere and I'm not sure I did so in the perfect places all the time. A minor regret but one I will try to remedy in next year's challenge.

Well that, as they say, is that. 

On to September...

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Barking Alien

RPGaDay Challenge 2018 - Day 31

This is it, the grand finale! The big finish!

I've noticed over the years that the summer months are a period of extreme slow down for me when it comes to blogging. 

I tend to game a lot during the summer but I can't seem to muster the focus or drive to post as often as I'd like. I am not sure why. It could be that my attention is directed more toward the games I'm running and not toward talking about them. That is to say, time I could be using to write on the blog about my last session could be better used developing material for the next session. 

As August is the month wherein I celebrate my gaming anniversary (specifically August 25th), I am more motivated to post during this month. But what to post about exactly? I need an inspiration, a catalyst of some kind to shake off the habit of not posting I've grown accustomed to over the prior two or three months.

That's where the RPGaDay Challenge comes in.

It gets me to think about gaming again in a different way, a way that involves wanting to put down my thoughts and share them with others who are sharing theirs.

I give the Challenge are hard time, with snarky and sarcastic comments about the nature or wording of the questions but I do enjoy it. If I really didn't like it or think it had merit I wouldn't make jokes but rather just not bother with it at all. 

This year's questions were, generally speaking, much better than those of the past couple of years. I am glad this was the case and hope the trend continues. 

Well that's it. I guess I will see you all again next year for RPGaDay Challenge 2019!

More of Barking Alien's regular weirdness coming really soon!

Take care,

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Barking Alien

RPGaDay Challenge 2018 - Day 30

Brace yourselves...

Something I learned playing my character?

As I've noted many times before, in the 41 years I've been playing RPGs I've probably only had a dozen or so characters. I've primarily been a GM. When I say 'primarily' we're seriously talking 95% Gamemastering to 5% playing as a Player. Actually, that 5% seems a tad generous.

Sadly, although there are positive reasons as to why I started Gamemastering, my focus on it over playing stems from what I learned playing my character(s) fairly early in my years in the hobby. 

My time as a player wasn't always wonderful in the early days. 

OK, let me be clear...it sucked. Being a player in Dungeons and Dragons games run by other people taught me never to do that again. And yet I have, so perhaps I never learned anything at all. 

No, no, that's not right. Let's focus on the positive. 

I learned to be bold, take risks, and think fast. 

I learned that if you complicate your actions the GM had more material to use against you. I like to think I mastered the art of keeping things simple, concise, and straightforward.

I learned to concentrate on what I wanted the outcome to be and then I would figure out which skills, abilities, powers or whatever could be used toward accomplishing my goal. 

This is something I am always trying to convey and teach to new players. Don't look at your character sheet, scan your abilities, and see what you can do. That's foolish. It makes your brain freeze up. If you don't see any powers you can use in a given situation, most people lament 'there's nothing my character can do here.'

Frell that noise. Make the GM work to figure out how to rule on your action instead of making your action fit his or her narrow view of how things should work. 

I learned to play my character's personality and thought process even if it isn't the most 'beneficial' or 'efficient' thing to do in the moment. Unless I was playing a moron I wasn't going to purposely do something stupid but I learned it was more fun and interesting to not be so perfect all the time. 

A major pet peeve I have with a lot of modern players. Few players are willing to see their PC as anything less that a perfect, always prepared, 100% badass all the time. Rarely do I see people get surprised, feel astonished or frightened, or have PCs take in the wonder of the world around them. 

I also learned - though I knew this from the start really - to be aware of the other players, the other PCs, and the GM. I played my character but always with an unspoken acknowledgment that I was only one of the players in the game. I never created the lone-wolf guy who doesn't work with a team for example, because, ya'know, I wasn't at the table by myself. I always wanted to learn about the other PCs stories and help them solve mysteries in their backgrounds. I investigated and explored the settings because the GM had worked hard to create a setting to explore and investigate. 

I guess the most important thing I learned as a player was what my personal preferences are. I now try to make games that would be campaigns I myself would want to play in. That can backfire too of course. What I think players want to see, what I want to see, isn't necessarily what the average player desires. 

I gotta be true to me though.

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Barking Alien

RPGaDay Challenge 2018 - Day 29

First, a Happy Birthday to my good friend Joe Cangelosi, who was mentioned in yesterday's post. 

Now, speaking of friends...

Sometimes I feel like I wouldn't have any friends if it wasn't for gaming.

Of course that's not true but I will say that I definitely met the majority of my current collection of good buddies, my girlfriend, and most of my close associates thanks to our mutual love of RPGs. 

I only know my good friend Carl because we met online in a Google Hangouts group only to later discover we lived within relatively easy face-to-face distance. Now I am friends with a fairly extensive group of people thanks to that Google group but I actually get to see Carl in person. 

One of my best buddies is Dave, one of several Daves I've mentioned on this blog in the past, but this particular Dave is a fellow I met when he dropped into the second or third session of a game I was running at my FLGS. That was over five years ago, probably more like eight, and we talk about a lot more than gaming. 

My point is, when people share a common interest, there is no guarantee that they'll end up friends. Friends are a deeper thing than just a gaming buddy. Friend require more of a commitment on the part of two individuals to make the relationship and connection work and become something you want to come back to again and again. 

Still...friendships forged through gaming seem to be pretty solid and last a long time. I vaguely remember someone describing it as similar to the connection people form when serving together during military actions. Well, I don't know if I'd go that far but I get the gist and I can't argue with it. 

In summary, I have a lot of friendships I've made because of RPGs. The best ones have continued and become stronger not because of RPGs but because of friendship. 

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Barking Alien

RPGaDay Challenge 2018 - Day 28

I've been feeling a bit frustrated since posting my Day 26 entry on Sunday. 

It's not the post itself that is getting to me - not exactly - but rather a combination of it's subject matter and some of the responses to a recent post I made on my Barking Alien Gaming Group Facebook Page.

The nature of the latter was that I advocated starting a campaign with flawed and/or less experienced and powerful characters compared to what we (my players and I) are used to doing. My thinking was and is that the campaign will last longer if you start small and build upward and outward.

This was met with mixed reactions, though most of my fellow gamers agreed with me. Some even wrote me or call me to discuss the subject. 

One particular fellow, a member of one of my in-person groups, disagreed on the basis of the fact that our games don't always last long enough and we only play once a month.

That is to say, since we only play once a month, and we tend to play campaigns that last  about a year at most, he has a desire to start off a little more capable and powerful just in case we never get to that point.

I can understand that to some extent. If you're someone who feels that game 'gets good' at 5th or 6th level and the games you've been in only get from 1st to about 4th before the GM ends the story and feels like switching to something else, sure, I can grok the idea of starting at 3rd so you and your PC get to see what being 6th is like.

But...

One of the reasons this particular GM (me) grows weary of campaigns is because we start out with really tough, really 'effective' characters who are difficult to challenge and almost universally act like they've been there and done that. Basically, the fact that we start so good and get really powerful after a while is the thing that makes the game end. 

If we actually started with flawed, imperfect characters who were challenged with staying alive, we'd get to know those characters better, build a fondness for them, and the campaign would actually last longer. 

*Sigh*

Anyway... 

Answering this question by naming a single individual would leave out so many people it's nearly impossible to choose one. 

I'm really not sure I can. I've learned so much from so many players and gamemasters over the years. I've had the luck, the pleasure, and unparalleled opportunity to game with some of the most skilled and talented people you can imagine. That's aside from them being dear friends.

I'll go with some of my earliest memories...

I am grateful to a 7 year old boy by the name of Tom Zizzo, who taught me to play Basic Dungeons & Dragons 41 years ago,

I am grateful to Dave Pollack, who a year later made me the Dungeonmaster for himself and our mutual friends. I am further grateful to Dave for being a good friend for many years, a damn fine player, and someone willing to play a truly Lawful Good character and do it right.

I am grateful to one Martin Lederman, a close friend growing up and one of the funniest guys I've ever known. I thank him for playing a character that was three dimensional, flawed yet powerful, and for going halfsies with me on Villains and Vigilantes.

How can I forget Joseph 'The Animal' Cangelosi. I can't. We've been friends since 2nd. We've re-kindled our friendship and it's awesome. I thank him for showing as much enthusiasm for my purchase of FASA Star Trek as I did, beginning my over 35 year obsession with running games in that universe.

There are so many more people I could mention. Dozens. A hundred? Maybe.

In the past I have done 'Player Profiles' posts focusing on friends I've gamed with who I've felt deserve special recognition. I've really only done three of them as of this writing. I am inspired by this question to make doing more of those a priority. 

How about you? Are there any gaming gurus or playing pals special to you?

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Barking Alien