Failing Forward

As you can see, I am not going to be able to complete the RPGaDay Challenge for 2024. It simply wasn't in the cards this year for a variety of reasons.

My real life personal and work schedules were much more unpredictable and irregular than has been usual for a typical August of the past few years. 

When I have had time to think about gaming my thoughts were focused on very specific topics and not the general subjects some of the RPGaDay prompts might suggest.

I still haven't gone back to my 31 Days/31 Characters Japanese Pop Culture Edition Challenge and that's frustrating. So much so that I keep thinking about that project more than this one.

In conclusion, I'm sorry I wasn't able to best the challenge this year but also not so much as I had to create my own prompts just to kinda be into it [given everything I mentioned and the extremely lackluster official prompts].

I expect to be a bit more prolific with my posts in  September as I have a lot of cool ideas and new game experiences to share. Get ready for discussions galore and a return to some of the previous endeavors I've left uncompleted.

That's all for now.

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Barking Alien

RPGaDay 2024 - Barking Alien Edition - Day 15

'All the Universe is full of the life of perfect creatures.'

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Scientist. One of the 'fathers' of modern astronautics and rocketry. 

I love animals and I love Science Fiction, so it isn't surprising that one of my favorite aspects of the latter is alien critters. The field of exozoology would definitely be my calling if I lived in a distant future akin to Star Trek or Traveller. 

Art by Nicholas Ferrand

I love considering what kind of animals might live on the planets I create for my Science Fiction RPGs, even if they don't necessarily play a major part in the adventure I'm running. As mentioned previously in the post on WORLDS (Day 13), a creature that is both strange to the players but squarely fits its environment can add a sense of 'realism' to an otherwise largely fantastical local. 

Shy by Alexander Ostrowski

Dragon Magazine #123 (July 1987) had a Star Frontiers article in it titled, 'The Whole Earth Ecology' that discussed just this very subject. While the article was not an in depth bio-sciences analysis of life on other planets, it did what many great Dragon articles did back in the day; it made easily forgotten things into points to remember. It caused the often overlooked to stick out in your mind and as such, it inspired ideas. 

Art by nao70shark

Like a lot of articles from the old Dragon, I've read and re-read this one over and over, each time getting charged up by the very idea of populating distant worlds with new life forms. I couldn't wait to flex my creative muscles and create creatures that would challenge and interest my players and create a believable ecosystem for the world around them. 

The Sardu Reef by Alex Reis aka Abiogenesis

As you can see from the images accompanying this post, visuals play an important role in my use of creatures. I really like having or making pictures of the creatures I am referring to during a game. Sometimes the visual of the critter comes first and it inspires the biology and stats. Sometimes its the other way around; I envision an alien beast, write it up, and then I search for or illustrate what it looks like. Either way, a picture really enhances the introduction of a new extraterrestrial animal. 

Art by Ben Mauro

With that, I don't really have much else say. I just love me some cute and cuddly creatures like the fellow above. Heheh. I'm sure I'll have some inspired revelation tomorrow but that's the way it goes. 

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Barking Alien

BONUS FEATURE: Day 15 of the official RPGaDay 2024 Prompts:

Hmm. You know which characters have great gear? Starfleet characters and Ghostbusters. 

I might have mentioned this before but playing these two games, along with Star Wars, really shook up my outlook on how to run an RPG. Starting the characters off with some seriously awesome hardware not only feels right for the settings in question but also adds to the idea that gear is cool but not the goal.

The objective isn't obtaining more and/or better weapons when you start off with a Phaser or Particle Thrower. The Tricorder and PKE Meter are the right tools for the right job in their respective settings. You've already got the best toys. You're free to dig a little deeper and search for something more meaningful. 'Course you could still be in it for the money in Ghostbusters and Star Wars I guess. Oh well.

RPGaDay 2024 - Barking Alien Edition - Day 14

This is tricky to answer as it's difficult to pick my favorite campaign setting.  

I could easily go with Star Trek and explain why even after 42 years of running campaigns set in that universe, I still love to do so and probably will for 42 more. Honestly, I feel like I've discussed the subject before or I am very likely to do so in the future. It's also...too easy. Too expected. 

Instead, let me tell you why I don't generally like Medieval Fantasy but I do enjoy running my D&D-But-Not setting of Aerth, the world of The Winghorn Guard.

First created in 1982 for a campaign called 'The Winghorn Guard', the main idea behind the game is the same reason it remains special to me. The concept was simple, 'Run a Dungeons and Dragons campaign using the Gamemaster advice from a Superhero game'. Instead of planning to do a Medieval Fantasy game using ideas from the Advanced D&D Dungeon Master's Guide , I based how to go about running the game using what I'd learned from years of reading comic books like Marvel's Avengers and DC's Legion of Superheroes. Eventually, when I purchased Villains and Vigilantes [2nd Edition], I used the Gamemaster advice in that game to supplement what I was already doing. 

Giving Dungeons and Dragons 'Four Color' Superhero Comic Book elements allowed the game to have a unique identity and feel. I was able to focus on aspects of world-building and adventure design that emphasized the heroics, ethics, and emotions of the PCs, while de-emphasizing the murderhobo approach. The money, violence, and quest for power normally attributed to traditional D&D PCs are what the bad guys are concerned with on Aerth.

My objective was to inject Medieval Fantasy and Folklore with something I understood a lot better and that, at the time, was Silver to Bronze Age comics. The results were very successful and continue to be four decades later.

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Barking Alien

BONUS FEATURE: Day 14 of the official RPGaDay 2024 Prompts:

What about them, eh? What makes a character compelling?

That's definitely a subject that could take up an entire post (good job official challenge!) and may be too broad a topic for a 'BONUS FEATURE' entry. 

I'll say this; it isn't always clear at the onset what will make for a compelling character. Often times players write multi-page backstories for their PCs not thinking about the fact that what they (really the player) might find really interesting is something they hadn't considered or didn't even know about when making up the character. 

As an example, my Hogwarts/Wizarding World PC, Frank Pellgrove, was created with an eye toward making him less interested in and effective at casting spells or brewing potions but really good with Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology. These were two things I knew most other players wouldn't give much thought to.

At some point during the campaign he helped birth a Hippocampus (mythological fish tailed horse) in the Hogwarts lake and became especially interested in aquatic beasts thereafter. In follow up sessions he would take an interest in boats, other sea creatures, and it was suggested to him that he might someday get a job as the Wizarding World's equivalent of a Marine Biologist.

These were profund moments for Frankie and ones that intertwined with and challenged his sense of self. Now, after roughly 6 or 7 years playing Frank, he's a much more compelling character than I ever would have expected. 

Bottomline is don't limit yourself to what you think would be compelling. Start with a basic concept, an outlook on life, and then through play allow yourself to be compelled. Give it a try!

RPGaDay 2024 - Barking Alien Edition - Day 13

"Impressive. They can make planets."

-Maltz

I consider myself a 'World-Building GM'. 

What does that mean exactly? Well, according to a definition by Merriam-Webster world-building is, 'the creation of a fictional world (especially within the science fiction and fantasy genres) that is believable and consistent within the context of the story'. Solid explanation I'd say. I would add that [good] worldbuilding creates a setting that feels alive as if it exists, or could, in some other time, place, or alternate universe.

As a World-Building GM, creating the setting and breathing life into it is my favorite part of the job. The best part of the TRPG hobby experience overall for yours truly is when one of my players shows interest in some element of the setting and decides to actively investigate it. 

Since I run a lot of Space Adventure Science Fiction, it isn't uncommon for me to create a lot of worlds. A lot of a lot. Consider my Star Trek Adventures campaign Star Trek: Prosperity. This is a bi-weekly campaign with a multi-role Starfleet vessel that visits a planet, spends two or three sessions on that world (on average), and then visits another planet in the next adventure. The campaign is in its 8th year now. Even with holidays, sick days, and other cancellations and skipped sessions we must have gone to literally hundreds of planets by now. 

Now most of these aren't fully fleshed out the way my Medieval Fantasy/Dungeons & Dragons-esque world of Aerth is. Aerth is over 40 years old and has been the setting for roughly a dozen campaigns (likely a little less than a dozen). There are people in the real world who know the layout of the streets of Rae-Uhn, the food of the island-continent of Corindel, and the location of the Cornerstone of the World. The cultures and history of the Elves, Dwarves, Ancient Humans, and even the Dragons have been explored. 

People have 'lived' on Aerth. People will live there again. They will find that past events and the actions of previous Player Characters have had an influence on the people and places that they have interacted with. Likewise, their activities will effect those that come after them. If even one of them remembers this world and their experiences on it fondly later in their real life, I have successfully built a world.

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Barking Alien

BONUS FEATURE: Day 13 of the official RPGaDay 2024 Prompts:

Wow. I actually like this prompt. Fits with mine in a way. Cool. 

I am big on evocative environments. When creating a game world I like to have a few interesting 'set pieces' not matter where the PCs go. These visually distinct environs serve as both background color.and interactive terrain.

Background color translates to the players being able to 'see' where their PCs are and how it informs the atmosphere of a sequence. A cloudy evening with light rain over a vast plain surrounding your small farm invests the scene with loneliness, melancholy, and perhaps a tinge of fear. Soaring high above the shimmering sea on the back o a dragon during a beautiful sunny day generates a very different mood. 

Interactive terrain is an environment the PCs can use or which could be used against them. Think about snowy hills on an icy planet or in the deep winter of medieval europe. There is ice to slip on, banks of snow to hide behind, sliding downhill on your shield as a quick escape, and throwing snowballs makes for a great distraction. 

Anyway, I highly recommend switching up the environment around the PCs to something other than a stony underground corridor or the same old Eurasian forest. Shake it up!

A Bolt From The Blue

As you can all plainly see, I am running pretty far behind on the RPGaDay 2024 Challenge. The main reason for this is I've been distracted by RPG ideas I am currently finding much more inspiring and engaging.

One of these is the upcoming Smurfs Tabletop RPG by Maestro Media. I've received the Quick-Start Guide which contains the basic rules and an adventure. 

My initial thoughts...

Smurfberry Crunch

My first impression of the rules were that they seemed a little too crunchy for a Smurfs game.

There are Difficulty Level dice pools used in an attempt to roll under Attributes, something called Effort that can be spent to improve your chances of success by lowering the Difficulty, a Smurf's Advantage, Smurf Equipment, Smurf Power, Smurfberries, Safety Rolls, and YIKES! That's a lot of components to Smurf! All this for a game about little blue people living in a Mushroom Village? Yet...it all works.

It kind of reminds me of the Cypher System if you changed all the things I despise about Cypher into things I really like. 

Obstacles and opponents have a Difficulty Level, which is how many D6s you roll. The objective is to get a total number under your Attribute. What's cool is that rolling  In Cypher, and I'm going to explain this badly as I can never remember this exactly not matter how many times I play that game, to hit a Level 3 opponent you need to roll a 9 or better. Yes, a 3 means 9, a 4 means 12, and so on because you multiply the level of things by 3 on account of needing things to be more complicated and less intuitive than they should be. In Smurfs, a Difficulty Level 3 challenge or enemy means you roll 3 six-sided dice. A level 4 Difficulty means you roll 4D6. The number means the number. Novel right?

With an average Attribute of 6 things can get really tough really quick if you're trying to roll under that after adding up a roll of even 3D6. It seems all the sample Smurfs Attributes total up to 24 each, so while you could have everything at 6 you could also have something like Quick: 6, Brawn: 4, Mind: 9, and Heart: 5. The clever Smurf with these stats is going to have an easier time succeeding at intelligence related challenges. 

In Cyphe your Attributes are really pools from which you not only subtract points to improve your chances of success but are also spend to activate certain abilities. Additionally, the Might pool is your Hit Points. So everything is dependent on these three, usually not too beefy pools of points. This makes one reluctant to spend them but you have to, especially early on, as your PC often sucks. Next thing you know you are either unable to use your cool powers and/or unconscious.

Here you spend Effort similarly but its separate from your Attribute and have nothing to do with using your Equipment or special Advantage. The Smurf stated above has Quick: 6 and therefore a Quick Effort of 6 points. Likewise they have 4 points of Brawn Effort, 9 points of Mind Effort, and 5 point of Heart Effort. These can be spent, up to 3 at a time, to lower the number of Difficulty dice in a challenge. An all but impossible task of 5 or 6D6 can be brought down to 2 or 3D6 by spending 3 Effort.

Damage, Fatigue, and the like are subtracted from the appropriate Effort related to the situation. If you go to Zero Effort in one area all your following challenges are at +1D6 Difficulty but you still have the related Attribute! Hefty is still Strong when he's injury, Brainy is still smart when he's tired, etc. Things are just harder. If you go to Zero in two Effort categories you are Smurfed! You are knocked out and can't do anything other than make a Safety Roll. More on that below. 

Smurf Advantages often add a +2 to your Attribute for the purpose of rolling under for an appropriately related challenge. Let's say Hefty has a Brawn of 12. He also gets a +2 to all tests of strength, so his roll under number to pull Handy out of a river or lift a log trapping Smurfette would be 14. Some Advantages reduce the Difficulty level instead. Clumsy has an Advantage that is really cool and does a completely different thing. The full rules will list which Advantages do what I assume.

Equipment also lends a hand, adding a +2 when applied to a related task. For example, Jokey has an Exploding Present that adds +2 if the player can figure out how that would help in a given situation. Hmm. How's this...?

According to Jokey's Character Sheet, if he can use an Exploding Present to accomplish a goal that requires an Action Roll he lowers the Difficulty by 1D6 (that's his Advantage). The Exploding Present itself is a +2 piece of Equipment. Gargamel goes to grab Jokey. Gargamel is a Difficulty Level 3 opponent, so Jokey's player will roll 3D6 and try to get under Jokey's Quick of 8. Hold on! Gargamel is using a large net to catch Jokey, not his hand, so the Storyteller adds +2D6 to the Difficulty. Oh my Smurf! 5D6!

Thinking fast, Jokey tosses a Present Box up and over his shoulder, hoping it will explode as the net comes down. This will make a hole in the net that Jokey can easily escape through. He lowers the Difficulty to 4D6, spends a Quick Effort point to make it 3D6 and, as mentioned, gets a +2 for the Exploding Present (his Equipment) added to his Quick of 8.

Now it's a 3D6 roll and Jokey needs to get under a 10. He makes it with a 2, 3, and 4! Total of 9. Boom! Gargamel lifts up his net to find a burnt and smoking hole and Jokey running away laughing. 

I like this because I really don't like the Cypher equivalent where it feels a little counterintuitive. You're always lowering the Difficulty there. Here you can lower the Difficulty and/or add to your Attribute. Getting a Plus to something just feels better than lowering the Difficulty for some reason. 

There's more with Smurfberries and Smurf Power but that's enough for now. 

Oh wait, one last thing, Safety Rolls! I like this because it feels very Saturday Morning Cartoon or 'Funny Pages' Comics and ties into one really interesting aspect of the game I didn't expect. There's a Base Building element! Seriously!

When a Smurf is rendered unconscious and unable to continue on due to reaching Zero in two of their Effort scores, and no other Smurf can render aid, the injured Smurf's player makes a 2D6 Safety Roll. If the player gets under the target number, their Smurf awakens in their own bed safe and sound back in the Smurf Village. The Storyteller and player come up with a narrative to explain how the PC got home. Saved by friendly Squirrels? Rescued by a team of nameless background Smurfs? You decide! 

Best part is that the target number is determined by your Smurf's Mushroom House! That's right Smurfettes and Gentlesmurfs, you get to build your own personal Smurf Cottage that can give you bonuses such as extra Equipment, a Work Bench to create new Equipment, a way to regain spent Smurf Power, and ways of lowering task Difficulty - For example: If you need to bake some Smurfberry Tarts, go to the house of Smurf in the party who added a Kitchen! Love this!

OK, that's it. I have more to discuss and so many Smurfy game ideas.

Smurf you later!

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Barking Smurf

Sorry for the Cypher bashing everybody. By that I mean you shouldn't have to sit through my dislike of Cypher so I apologize to you. I do not apologize to Cypher however. It knows what it did and it should be ashamed.