31 Questions For Barking Alien - Phase II - Question 3

Our third question of the month comes from the jolly JB of B/X BLACKRAZOR fame/infamy. The question is simple enough that I could answer it was a Yes/No and if Yes a list of names but that doesn't make for engaging internet content. Funny enough, neither will this! 

Enjoy!

Do you ever attend (gaming) conventions out in your neck of the woods, and if so, which ones? 

I live in New York CIty and believe it or not, there aren't and haven't been a large number of Gaming Conventions in my home town. Now, not a lot of cons doesn't mean none. If you include the Greater Tri-State Area (New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut - as well as Philadelphia) as my 'neck of the woods', you up the number of conventions considerably.

It's been a while since I've attended any cons but in the past I've been an [irregular] regular at Dexcon (NJ), Shorecon (NJ), and of course RECESS (NY). To my knowledge, all of these conventions are no longer in existence (though I'm not sure about Dexcon - that sometimes goes away for a while and then reappears). There was also a great one in Cherry Hill, NJ that the late, great Allen Halden invited me to a few times (can't recall the name). 

I've been lucky enough to find gaming going on at various Anime Conventions (local and beyond), where I have gotten the chance to play Japanese TRPGs; cons such as Katsucon (originally Virgina, Washington DC), Otakon (originally Baltimore), and several small NJ events.

As a final note: I've worked as a Retail Dealer at a number of conventions and as an Event Coordinator for a Convention Producer. Between those occupations and numerous industry friends and contacts I've attended a great many cons for free. Nowadays, having to pay to get in, I am much choosier about which ones I go to. 

That's another down and (hopefully) a lot more to go...

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31 Questions For Barking Alien - Phase II - Question 2

This next question comes from my good friend Miguel de Rojas, who has come all the way from Spain to provide us with this inquiry! Via the internet that is.

In your Star Wars games, do you follow Legends or Disney's timeline? Or do you disregard both to to make your own? What are your feelings about the prequels and the sequels?

And finally, maybe worth splitting into a second question, do you have any favorite "obscure" Star Wars work, besides Visions?

This could get complicated but I'm going to try to keep it focused and trust in The Force.

All my Star Wars games follow the same basics rule:

First, Star Wars is a Fantasy Fairytale set in Space. It is not Science Fiction. 

Second, The Original Trilogy - Star Wars [Episode IV: A New Hope], The Empire Strikes Back [Episode V], Return of the Jedi [Episode VI] - happened. That is the only definitive absolute canon that matters. Everything else - EVERYTHING - is apocryphal after that in my mind.  

Many, though not all, of the materials from Star Wars The Roleplaying Game (Star Wars D6) by West End Games are part of my gaming headcanon and considered to exist within the universe of my campaigns. 

I generally ignore any and all 'Legends' material. Components may creep into my games here there but for the most part none of it exists within my Sta Wars RPG headcanon. 

I generally accept the events of the Prequels but mostly in broad strokes, preferring to be vague on the details and allowing for or ignoring them on a case by case basis. I was not a fan of the Prequels and I am still not. They are, unfortunately, a major touchstone for many people when thinking of Star Wars as a whole and so I allow for them. 

I generally accept the events of the Clone Wars Animated Series in a similar fashion, though I very much enjoyed the Clone Wars. 

I generally accept the events of the Star Wars: Rebels Animated Series as it is one of my favorite productions in the entire franchise. The one possible exception is the existance of Grand Admiral Thrawn, though I will address that further on.

I generally ignore the Sequels. I might use a species or technology (a BB Droid for example) but for the most part that entire era and all the characters involved are irrelevant to my games.  

I generally ignore Rogue One as I did not care for it and I feel it weakens the first Star Wars film. Elements of it are excepted but I don't use the film, its events, or its characters for the most part.

Star Wars: Resistance the Animated Series is generally ignored, although I may borrow ideas and elements from it. I initially really liked it but as it went on it became more and more meandering and eventually meaningless. As I don't care for the Sequels, this story set in the same era is of no use to me. 

Solo: A Star Wars Story is for the most part completely ignored. 

I generally accept the first two seasons of The Mandalorian as, again, I am a fan of that work and I feel it fits my style of play rather well. 

I generally ignore the Bad Batch Animated Series but will use elements from it here and there. I wasn't a big fan of the show. It started out kind of interesting but it ended up  wasting most of its potential and spent too much little time on its best characters and qualities. 

I accept Andor and that may sound strange considering how I feel about and treat Rogue One but the former was an incredibly well executed series with some of the most interesting characters in the setting. 

I largely ignored The High Republic publishing initiative and do no have a strong opinion on it one way or another. It has [had] very little if any impact on my games. 

I have not made a final decision on the Ahsoka series but I am leaning towards generally ignoring it. I might use aliens, devices, or other things from it but overall I did not like it very much and was extremely disappointed by its handling of the Rebels characters who are, as noted, among my absolute favorites. 

The Acolyte was not a thing. It didn't happen. You can go about your business. Move along. Move along. 

I generally accept Skeleton Crew, though I have yet to really utilize much from it in my campaigns. 

Finally, while I can appreciate his role in the Star Wars: Rebels series, the character of Grand Admiral Thrawn is one of my least favorite Star Wars things ever created. His very presence in a book, show, or other media immediately takes me out of it being 'real Star Wars'. While I will put up with him being there and not immediately write off the production he appears in, Thrawn, his species the Chiss, and most of the other particulars related to him do not exist in my Star Wars RPG headcanon. 

As for the second question/part of the inquiry...

I can't say I have a favorite 'obscure' Star Wars project or product. I have a number of things I've liked across the many decades of comic books, novels, video and computer games, etc. but no particular thing stands out as a favorite. I do have a soft spot for the Droids Animated Cartoon from 1985. I always found that series fun. 

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31 Questions For Barking Alien - Phase II - Question 1

Welcome to December of 2025 Barking Alien fans! Oh yes, I see you out there; the half dozen or so of you freezing your butts off in the nose-bleed seats of an otherwise empty stadium waiting for the big game to start. I don't say this enough because there is no way I ever could but thank you so much for coming and for giving my madness a moment of your time. It is very deeply appreciated.

Alright, enough mushy stuff, let's get down to business. Just like last year, I will be devoting December to the answering of viewer provided questions. As of now I have...hmmm...very few. Definitely nowhere near 31. Is it too late to shop around for a new theme?

No! It's to EARLY to do that. I am certain my friends and fellow TRPG bloggers will come to Gondor's aid once I light the beacons! Now...where did I put that blowtorch? No matter! I will get to that in a moment. Right now, the First Question (Cheering, Trumpet Sounds):

From that British Guy Who's Super Fly - Tim Knight!

Have you started serious prep work on whatever games you're planning for next year? How long do you take to prep a campaign or single session? What does this involve for you?

I have indeed already started to prep for what I hope will be my big game of next year. I might even call the prep 'serious' depending on how one defines that word. I am in what I tend to refer to as the 'Pre-Production' stage. This is where I do research on various game systems I think might work for the genre/setting I am looking to run, read up on a wide range of topics related to the genre/setting, make A LOT of notes, brainstorm ideas for themes, adventures, locations, characters, etc., and do some preliminary concept art. In some cases I might sketch out a map.

Once I have finalized what game I am actually going to run, both the rules and the setting, I start doing some more detailed write-ups of NPCs, locales, and the like. A more detailed map is usually completed before I'll say anything else is done so I have an idea of where to put everyone and everything in the given world. 

I can take a long time to plan a campaign - the more time I have the better to be honest. It can take a while to look up historical details or literary references, perfect the artwork, get an idea about how the NPCs think and act, and create and fine all the details.  My preference would be a few months but I've done it in as little as three weeks. 

What it involves is a lot of reading, writing, sketching both by hand and on the computer, watching TV, Streaming, Film, Animation, and even YouTube videoes of genre related material, going over the rules a dozen times or so to understand the base mechanics and key elements, and other creating a 'cheat sheet' document or two with the finer points of both the mechanics and the major narrative points. Basically quick reference material so I am rarely slowing down the game to look anything up for more than a few seconds. 

Once the campaign starts, I spend almost no time on prepping for the single session by comparison. Finding or creating illustrations of all the NPCs, Creatures, smaller maps and that sort of thing take up the most time and yeah, that can be as much as a few days but usually its pretty quick. 

My campaign development is very 'front loaded' you might say, so that once the game begins there is very little week to week upkeep I have to worry about. As my buddy William Corpening once said, "If you did the first part (the prep) right, the campaign runs itself".

Well, that's the gist of it. One down and hopefully a lot more to go...?

Oh yeah before I depart, check out this wild thing! It's a Map of the TTRPG Blogosphere! 

Created by an awesome dude with too much time on his hands (kidding!) named Elmcat, James of Grognardia explains what it is far better than I can. It just think it's cool that someone went and did this and that ol' Barking Alien is on it, roughly in the same sector of space as some of my personal favorite creators. 

Anyway, Later Days,

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