RPGaDay 2026 - DAY 20 - PROMISE

PROMISE

The Promise of completing the RPGaDay Challenge this year seems unattainable at this point but if I'm being honest, I'm not overly upset about it.

I've gotten further along with it, had more engagement from it, and accomplished so much because of it, much more than in previous years, that I am considering this a win. 

Because of my focus on the Japanese TRPG Space Opera Heroes, a lot more opportunities and other projects have opened up and honestly, attention to those endeavors needs to be my priority right now. 

I have been asked to run a short Star Wars campaign and I am being paid to do so. Yes, a paid Gamemastering gig. I'll be using Space Opera Heroes to run it, so I am currently working on an adaptation of the rules I am calling 'Star Wars Heroes' for now. With some very minor tweaks, this adaptation will serve as the basis for a Star Wars Visions Heroes campaign that I hope to run next year. 

I am have a few other bit business to address while I have your attention...

Tuesday, August 25th of this year, marked by 49th year in the Tabletop RPG hobby. Next year will be 50 years\.

Yesterday was National Dog Day and today is my dog Sketch's Birthday. Happy Birthday buddy!

I need to acknowledge the passing of an American Entertainment Icon, Humanitarian, and the absolute 'Queen of Country', the one and only Dolly Parton has let us at the age of 80. It's hard to explain how sad this news made me. While not a Country Music fan, I've all but grown up with Dolly thanks to her appearance with the Muppets, on the Simpsons, and of course her incredible scenes on The Orville. A true National Treasure, she will be greatly miss. 

Another talent we lost this week was Tim Curry, English Actor and Singer, a Star of Stage, Screen, and numerous Voice-Over Projects for more than five decades. His break-out role was Dr Frank-N-Furter in cult classic The Rocky Horror Show and it was followed up by some of the most memorable characters in cinema history. From comedies like Clue: The Movie and Muppet Treasure Island to Pennywise in the classic horror series IT, Tim Curry was a unique individual with a knack for choosing some very special projects. Tim Curry was also 80.

Rest in Peace to both of these legends in their own time. The night sky is darker now for there are two less bright stars.

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Barking Alien

RPGaDay Challenge 2023 - Day 14

 

Like questions 1, 3, and 4, there is apparently quite a bit of interest and importance placed on when and where a game is purchased. I guess I can see there being something to this; the time, place, and other circumstances around buying a game can certainly effect one's feelings toward it.

What were we talking about? Oh yes, my favorite CONVENTION purchase. Got to go with Sketch, which is the same answer I gave back in 2014. I haven't played Sketch in a really long time and that makes me sad. I really love this game.

 

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Barking Alien

RPGaDay Challenge 2018 - Day 27

I have but one answer to this question...

...because, frankly, I don't watch or listen to these very often. Definitely not regularly. 

The only time I check out streams or actual play videos, podcasts or whatever is when there is a new game I'm interested in and I either want to get a handle on it before it comes out or it came out and I need help understanding some of the mechanics.

The exception to this is The Pod of Many Casts. 

Partly because some of the guys in it are friends of mine who game at my table (and I at theirs) and partly because of the comedic aspect of the series, I find this one a little different and fun to have on while I'm working on various projects or reading or what-have-you. 

Give it a listen and enjoy.

That's it.

See ya tomorrow!

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Barking Alien

A big Happy Birthday shout out to my puppy Sketch who is one year old today!

It's been a tricky six months but I couldn't have rescued a sweeter, cuter dog. He spends half his time playing and the other half cuddling. I love you buddy!

RPGaDay Challenge - Day 14

Day 14- Best Convention Purchase

Hmmm. This is a tough one. I've had some really good purchases over the years.

Some of my Japanese TRPGs were purchased at conventions. I was able to buy a number of items I had missed to complete my collections of FASA Star Trek and West End Games Star Wars at GenCon and a few more local conventions.

I was able to get my LUG Star Trek TNG - RPG signed (By Patrick Stewart!), as well as my Mutants & Masterminds First Edition (by Steve Kenson). 

I bought my copy of Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition at GenCon with my ex-wife. Our first vacation together (we were living together, but not yet married at the time).

Hmmm. So tough. So many good products. So many memories.

Wait.

Got It.

 

SKETCH! 

  

Oh my lord, have mercy, how I love this game!

Sketch! is a work of sheer and infinite genius created by two guys named Seth Johnson and Brian Schomburg. I met one of them. I forget which (Sorry guys, it's been a while). I picked it up at GenCon 2000, which I attended with my then wife.

I walked by the table of Corsair Publishing, and noticed a bunch of drawings on the booth 'wall'. The drawings were mostly done in crayon or magic markers and reminded me of when you were a kid and went to those restaurants where you could draw on the paper placemats.

One of the two creators asked me, "Hey, do you want to play a game?" I asked what kind, and he said it was an RPG where you create your character by drawing it. As my eyes popped out, my wife-at-the-time laughed and said she was going to go check something else out and would be back later. We always got each other that way.

I sat down at a table inside the booth, as the creator and soon to be GM rustled up one more player. As it turned out, he, the game's designer, was in for a surprise. He had pulled in two ringers. 

One of the first things he said was, "You don't have to be an artist or anything to play Sketch! You just need a cool idea and a way to show that idea on paper." He himself has a simple, heroic female body shape on his character sheet, colored in patriotic stars and stripes of red, white and blue, with a black & white, newspaper photo of an old lady's face. The photo was taped or glued in place. The only non-visual clue to this character's origin and powers was her name...General Grandma!*

General Grandma - Modern Reboot

 

The idea of the game is that you draw your character, and than hand it over to the person next to you, who then passes it to the next person, etc., until it comes back to you. Each person, upon receiving the character sheet, rates the character's abilities on a scale of 1 to 10. The attributes are pretty basic, consisting of Speed, Muscle, Power, Gear, Mind and Toughness.

Other than the illustration, all the others players have to go on is your character's name. This is the only non-visual clue you can give about your character to try and influence their decision on how awesome your character is.

Using only D6s, the game is extremely rules-lite. It's basically stat + 2D6 vs. either a difficulty number or an opponents roll of the same. Highest roll wins.

After rating the characters, it was an all or nothing, knock down, drag out brawl, to see who would claim the title of 'Sketch World's Mightest Warrior', a kind of pro-wrestling, TV show for out of work, or struggling, heroes, villains and powered creatures from across the universe.

I played Do-Inuraijin, a vaguely dog-like robot that sort of resembled a Pokemon or Digimon character. He was a dark blue and light blue mechanoid with glowing yellow markings and eyes. I illustrated him surrounded by electricity. He had sharp teeth, claws, and an armored body.

The other player the GM managed to bring in was, it turned out, a toy designer and illustrator for Kenner, who had worked on the designs for numerous Star Wars figures and other toys. His illustration was amazing, blowing both mine and General Grandma out of the water. Named CyQuilBoar, the character was a humanoid boar with porcupine quills and cybernetics. Of course it was.

CyQuilBoar and Do-Inuraijin both attacked General Grandma early on in the match, and it wasn't long before the arthritic avatar of America was beaten. Next, the remaining contenders faced off, with CyQuilBoar landing a few solid blows against the bolt blasting bow-wow, Do-Inuraijin.

Finally, CyQuilBoar grabbed Do-Inuraijin in a bear hug, from which I proceeded to shock the daylights out of him, pointing out my character constantly encircled by lightning. See, you only have the powers you appear to have in the picture, uuunless you manage to convince the rest of the group otherwise.

CyQuilBoar was finished off by an additional electrical discharge and Do-Inuraijin was the winner! Woot!

I have since run this game numerous times, most notably for my friends in New Jersey, and the students in Sunday tutoring class. I have never gotten to use it for an ongoing campaign, but I would love to try. The book has some really solid ideas for long term play, describing a humorous version of the world seen in Alan Moore's TOP TEN comic book series.

Elements of this game inspired ideas that went into my Muppets RPG.

Great game, great read, a lot of fun, very happy to have purchased it.**

Hmmm. I should run it again soon...

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*During the game everyone was talking trash to each other. Amid the banter, we gleaned some of General Grandma's background. Apparently, she was retired, a widower with two children and three grandchildren. She was doing the wrestling thing because she was bored, and to earn a little extra money to 'get the Grandkids something nice this Christmas'. She was most active during World War II as a Golden Age superheroine named Captain Mom.

**I bought two copies. One in 2000, and one in 2002 when I thought I'd lost my original one.

It's Time To Meet The Muppets - Part 2

"Mee Bee Mee Mee. Meep Bee BEE Me Meep. Beep be be mee!"

"Agreed Beaker. I couldn't have put it better myself."

"Is...Beaker OK Dr. Honeydew?"

"Oh yes Adam. Why do you ask?"

"Well...there's smoke coming out of his head."

"Oh that. Yes. Occupational hazard I'm afraid. More importantly though Beaker wants to make sure he is understanding the rules of your Muppets RPG correctly. Any chance you'd be so kind as to give us a demonstration of character creation?"

"Absolutely."

Let's say I'm making up a Muppet character for a Muppet Show campaign. I decide I want to play a Beaver or Woodchuck who is a carpenter and makes sets for the show. He is also a bit of a handy man and general fix it guy for when things break down.

Ok, first I need an image. How about...

Looks good.

Now a name. Ernest. It's both descriptive of how I see him deep down (an honest, hard working, regular guy just trying to do his job. If that regular guy were a beaver.) and just seems to fit his look.

Now I need some Shticks. The first one is easy...Beaver. I want him to be able to build and fix things so...Mr. Fix It. Now I occasionally want him to be able to pull the 'I'm on break' and 'Not in my contract' routines so I'm giving him Union Guy. Finally, I want him to get along with most of the people on the cast and enable him to fit in with the guest stars so I give him Regular Joe.

OK, so Ernest the Beaver has the Shticks Beaver, Mr. Fix It, Union Guy and Regular Joe.

I pass the character to the other players and these are the ratings I get on a scale from 1 to 5.

Fozzie gives him Beaver-5, Mr. Fix It-3, Union Guy-5 and Regular Joe-4.
Miss Piggy gives him Beaver-5, Mr. Fix It-2, Union Guy-2 and Regular Joe-3.
Rowlf gives him Beaver-5, Mr. Fix It-2, Union Guy-3 and Regular Joe-5.

Fozzie wants everyone to be happy and is a bit of a pushover. Miss Piggy is very critical.

So, I talk to the players and ask a few questions about their scoring. Most say I should've drawn him holding a tool to get higher Mr. Fix It scores. Also, Union Guy is hard to depict (maybe he should have been eating his lunch or something to bring out that 'I'm on break' feel.).

OK, so I score myself...Beaver-5 (Dude looks like a Beaver!), Mr. Fix It-3 (I get where they're coming from but I want him to be able to fix stuff and he's wearing safety goggles. Safety goggles for crying out loud!), Union Guy-2 and Regular Joe-4.

One alternate idea I have is that when you score yourself you can only use each number from 1-5 once. That way giving yourself all 5's or 4's is impossible. It needs to be 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

The final results are tallied and averaged by the 4 players (Fozzie, Piggy, Rowlf and myself). Fractions are rounded up.

Ernest the Beaver
Muppet Show Carpenter and Handy Man

Shticks
Beaver-5
Mr. Fix It-3
Union Guy-3
Regular Joe-4

Now all this information has so far focused on creating a Custom Muppet. So how do you create a Whatnot Muppet? Easy...

First, Whatnots are limited to only two permanent Shticks, the first usually being what they are if they are anything of note. Many Whatnots are generic 'people' but there are Whatnot monsters, pigs, dogs and frogs to be sure.

The Whatnot then gets three Shtick Slots for Temporary Shticks. Temporary Shticks are only obtained by entering a scene or sketch and disappear soon after. Sometimes it's as soon as the sketch ends, however if the character is encountered in a backstage scene immediately following a sketch it will retain its Temporary Shticks.

When encountered randomly or suddenly approached by another character, bear in mind that the Whatnot has no Shticks other then its basic two and its Slots are empty.

Additionally, a Whatnot receives 15 Dice toward Shticks. They do not go through the 'creative process' of being considered by the Muppet Performers that a Custom Muppet goes through.

Finally, though there will be additional notes on this in the next post, the Custom Muppet starts with a Star Power of one (1). A Whatnot starts with no Star Power.

"What a jip. At least there's a chance of bein' a star though. I mean I did it. Heheh."

You are correct Rizzo. Some Whatnots, if they are about to attain Star Power can eventually change to a Custom Muppet. Rizzo the Rat and even Miss Piggy to some extent did this.

Next up, Props, Costumes and Rule Mechanics for running the game.

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Muppet Quotes

Kermit: A tap-dancing chicken act? Gonzo, I've never heard of anything as ridiculous as a dancing chicken.
Gonzo: How about a talking frog?

Here's A Muppet News Flash!

I have slightly changed my original schedule of events for the month. So far it's shaping up as follows:

Week 1 - The Muppets RPG - Character Creation, Rules and How to Run the Game
Week 2 - The Muppets RPG and Muppetizing Other RPGs - Scenario and Rule ideas
Week 3 - Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock and Other Muppet Productions
Week 4 - Super Surprise Special Guest Cameo Week!

Also...

The image of 'Ernest the Beaver' was made from Harvey Beaver, a character in Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas. It was combined in photoshop with various stock photographs of carpenters and construction workers. It took less than 10 minutes to produce.

Originally Miss Piggy was created to be a background chorus singer who was only prominent in one sequence in the original 1975 Muppet Show pilot episode, The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence (Yes. That really was the title. Look it up. Here's proof via a screen capture that later appeared in the follow up second pilot, The Muppets Valentine Show).

It's Time To Meet The Muppets - Part 1

On The Muppet Show Tonight!

"Now we're going to get into the real meat and potatoes of my Muppets RPG. This post covers Character Creation. Here to assist me is Dr. Bunsen Honeydew of Muppet Labs and his assistant, Beaker.

Thank you for your help with this Dr. Honeydew."

"Oh no Adam, the pleasure is all ours I can assure you. Isn't that right Beaky?"

"Mee Mee Beep Bee!"

"Yes indeed. Beaker and I are big fans."

"Well thanks guys. That's great. I'm big fans of yours too.

Just one quick note to the audience...

I recommend using a troupe style play with this game. For those of you unfamiliar with the term it refers to each player having more than one PC to control. While I don't normally go that route for most of my games I think it's the best way to run the Muppets.

For one thing, the Muppets are all about having a large cast of strange characters. If each player runs three to five characters the ensemble cast feeling is achieved. Next, each Muppet Performer voiced several different characters so this reinforces the atmosphere that you're creating your very own Muppet Show. I actually refer to the player as The Performer on the character sheets. Lastly, it's fun to watch a RPG session but much more fun to play. With a group of diverse characters at your disposal there is a better chance that you'll have the right character for a given scene or sketch. Jim Henson had a guy in 'Pigs in Space' (Link Hogthrob) and Veterinarian's Hospital (Rowlf). Frank Oz played Miss Piggy is both sketches. Jerry Nelson played his character Julius Strangepork in 'Pigs in Space' but wasn't in 'Veterinarian's Hospital'. Nurse Janice in 'VH' is played by Richard Hunt whose not in 'PiS' but he's also Scooter so he's got a lot to do in backstage scenes. Basically, you can't be in every scene but you always be doing something.

OK, let's get started."

Character Creation - The Muppet Worksh

"Here at the Muppet Workshop we essentially build two type of Muppets. The Custom Character and the Whatnot.

Custom Characters are designed to very exacting specifications to insure the highest quality of entertainment modern science can achieve."

"Bee Meh Mee Mee."

"Whatnot Characters are anything Muppets, designed to fill in the chorus, work in the background and generally support the custom built stars of the shows.

Both types of characters are built in a similar fashion but not identically. We'll start with a Custom Muppet, shall we?"




The character creation system's core was liberally extracted from Sketch! and then modified with Risus. You start by drawing your Muppet. If you don't think you draw well, look at everyone else's paper. Very likely no one draws well. If one person does, either get that person to draw everyone's character (we recommend hypnotism, blackmail, bribes or if all else fails simply asking politely) or trace, copy, modify with photoshop or otherwise obtain an image for your Muppet.

Once you have them depicted, give the character a name.

Once named, list a number of Shticks, similar in nature to the clichés of Risus, that represent the character. While it's up to you and your Director (the GM of a Muppets RPG campaign) I recommend no less than 3 and no more than 5 Schticks. Note that if your character is of a particular species, definitely include that. Kermit is a Frog, Fozzie a Bear, Rizzo a Rat, etc. If the character's species or nature is not important to who the character is, don't waste a Schtick on it. Scooter, Waldorf, Statler and Floyd Pepper don't really need a Schtick to be 'people'.

Once you've listed the Shticks you think the character should have, pass the illustration, with its name and listed Shticks, to the person on your left (after all, your right hand is probably busy operating the mouth *wink*). Each player than rates how well the picture represents the Shticks and vice versa. Score the Shticks from 1 (Doesn't do it for me) to 5 (That is the idea incarnate!). When the character has gone around once and come back to you, you get to rate your own character. Sure, you could rate everything on your own character 5 but then everyone could that every time. Don't be a putz. Plus you still have to do one final step. To determine the final Shtick ratings, average the scores (including your own) by the number of Performers (including yourself) in the adventure or campaign.

The resulting scores are a dice pool. Basically you have that many 6 sided dice to roll when you want to do something. Designate one die as the Exploding Die (either by making it larger than the others, smaller than the others, a different color, etc.). Since it's an Adam game and a Muppet game a die that 'explodes' was bound to be included. More on that when we get to the rule mechanics.

"Who are you calling a moron?"

Good grief. It's a running gag.

Tonight - An example of Character Creation and a sample Muppet Character!

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Barking Alien

Muppet Quotes

Gonzo: "As long as I'm here, I'd like to donate my body to science."
Rowlf: "With your body it would be donated to science fiction."
Janice: "To donate your body, don't you have to be dead?"
Gonzo: "So what? I believe in re-incarnation."
Miss Piggy: "What would you come back as next time?"
Gonzo: "How should I know. I don't even know what I am this time."

Here's A Muppet News Flash!

The images of the Muppet Workshop in New York City (which is sadly no longer there as much of the construction is now done on the West Coast and in England) are from a rare book called 'The Art of the Muppets'. This book, published by Bantam Books in 1980, was done in connection with a display of the behind the scenes workings of the Muppets at Lincoln Center in New York in 1979. I went to that exhibition at the age of 10. I did not get a chance to purchase the book itself until a year or so later. I know have two copies, both in mint condition even though I've read them hundreds of times.

I have an idea for a drawing a collection of body shapes, eyes, noses, hairdos, etc. to be included in the PDF so that those of you who feel you can't draw can simply copy, cut and paste a Muppet in minutes. Truth is though, no one is judging you. It can be a googley eyed stick figure. As long as everyone at the table buys into the idea that its a Muppet you're good to go.

It's Time To Get Things Started...

"Hi-Ho and welcome to the Muppet Show! We've got a great show for you this month ladies and gentlemen, as our guests are Adam Dickstein and Barkley of the RPG and general-related-nonsense blog 'Barking Alien.'(Oohs, aahs and a smattering of applause).

Yes! So without further adieu, we begin our show with this simple question, "Have you ever wanted to know what it was like to be a Muppet?"(Nods as he looks across the audience).

We didn't think so. However, blatant disinterest has never stopped us before. Instead here's Adam with... "

The idea for a Muppets RPG first struck me at the age of 12 or 13, roughly around the beginning of 1981. I have since forgiven it. The Muppet Show was in its final season (though I didn't know it at the time) and I remember sitting around watching an episode with friends and saying something like, "Man this show is awesome. I was there was a Muppets RPG", to which everyone around me said, "Yeah!" and then ate more Doritos.

And that was it. The initial concept lasted all of 10 seconds in its debut and then it was forgotten. You see, 13 year olds in the early 1980's who were into RPGs thought anything and everything that was cool should be an RPG. Who am I kidding? I still think that.

Several months later while I was attending day camp at the Y*, a pretty severe rainstorm and a bus with a mechanical problem ruined the day for numerous youngsters in the lower age division. Instead of going to see a movie as my group had planned (I had already seen it), I decided to hang back and help out with the little ones.

At one point I was sitting at an arts and crafts table with a bunch of 5-7 year olds who looked pretty bored when I said, "Who wants to play a game?" I got a pretty good response and followed up with, "Its a Role Playing Game. A...Sesame Street Role Playing Game." The kid's were intrigued but also a little unsure of what I was talking about.

I will save the details of that encounter for another post (I will address the Sesame Street RPG idea separately next week) but suffice to say it was my accidental, experimental playtest for a working Muppet Show RPG and it went over really well. From that point to now I have continued to work on the concept, going through numerous alterations and revisions to arrive at its current form. I still consider it a work in progress and probably always will.

The present incarnation is a mixture of several of my favorite RPGs including Risus, Sketch!, Teenagers from Outer Space and Toon. Added to this potent and peculiar mix is a subsystem or two based on lessons I learned from my Galaxy Quest game.

I'm going to break down the basics here, from character creation to 'skills' and other mechanics to what you can do with a game like this. It's really that last part that I think is kind of different and innovative. As a special bonus, I may try to collect all my info and notes into a free PDF at some point before the end of the month. Lastly, if anyone does the insane and actually runs a session of my Muppets RPG before month's end, I will personally create images (either drawn or photo shopped or a combination) of each of the player characters created (as best I can).

And now, as we cut to commercial, Gonzo The Great will eat a rubber tire to Nikolai Korsakov's 'Flight of the Bumblebee'. Music maestro!

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Barking Alien

Muppet Quotes

"How long has it been since you watched a good old fashion human sacrifice...too long you say?
Kermit the Frog, The Muppet Show Episode 419, Guest Lynda Carter

Here's A Muppet News Flash!

At the bottom of some of my posts this month there will be a section under my signature entitled, "Here's A Muppet News Flash!". This section will contain footnotes, trivia, Easter Egg ideas or other fun tidbits that relate to the post. Ooh! Like this one! Weird.
 
*My reference to going to camp run by the "Y" is the YM-YWHA not the YMCA.

Also before I get too deeply into this...this is a work of gaming silliness created solely for the fun and enjoyment of myself and those who read it. This is not a professional work of any kind and I have no intention of making a penny off of it. Any similarity between characters and/or people (or pigs, chickens, frogs, bears, dogs, frackles, fraggles, monsters, prawns, rats, aliens or whatnots) living, dead, undead, felt or in a form such as a gas or a liquid is purely coincidental.

Basically, don't eat me Mr. Mouse.