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...
AD
Barking Alien
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