31 Questions for Barking Alien - Question 10

My first late post for the month! That's pretty good actually. 

Question #10 comes to us from Timothy S. Brannan, a fellow who has been reading and responding to my posts here and elsewhere for quite a while. Really happy to have him supplying a question. And it's a doozy...

What was your introduction to RPGs like? What game(s) did you play and how did your growth change from that?

This is a story I've told before but I'm going to try and give it to you from a different perspective. Here goes...

On August 28th of 1977, an 8 year old Adam was introduced to Dungeons and Dragons through the Holmes Basic Box Set by 7 year old Thomas Zizzo. Being the go-to guy for any geek question ranging from a Phaser's settings to a Superhero's origin, there was no way I was going to pass on the opportunity to participate in a game Tom described as, "It's like playing out a comic book. You create a character, go on adventures, defeat villains, and save people!".

Now here's the rub...

It's interesting to me that in these very first moments you can see the seeds of what will follow. The game is framed like writing or creating a comic book, not like telling a story in a book, or playing some sort of wargame. Character, Adventure, Villains, and the act of Saving Civilians are a focus, while Killing Monsters and Gaining Treasure isn't mentioned at all. 

Right from the very beginning our frame of reference for running and playing D&D (and therefore roleplaying games in general as far as we knew) was not the literature that Gygax, Arneson, and the other early creators of the game had in mind. For us it was comic books, film, and television, including animation, that formed the basis of how we saw an RPG adventure or campaign unfolding. 

I only played that original campaign for about a dozen sessions and it wouldn't be until June of the following year that I got to play D&D again. This time I was made designated DM and the experience had me itching to stay on that side of the screen. Between 1978 and 1982 I would play a lot of Dungeons & Dragons and eventually a lot of Advanced D&D. I would also play and run a number of other games during this period, most notably a stint of Gamma World/Metamorphosis Alpha, a once-in-a-lifetime-lightning-in-a-bottle campaign of Boot Hill, and a session of Traveller that left me with a rather negative opinion of the game. 

One constant in this era of my time in the hobby was that the more I played D&D under other DMs, the more I disliked doing so. The game itself was starting to bug me but not nearly as much as the attitude of those who ran it. The AD&D players and DMs I met were so rigid, so antagonistic towards each other that I rapidly fell out of love with the game that got me into RPGs in the first place. 

My growth following 1982 was heavily influenced by the games I discovered, played, and ran but also, moreso, a desire not to do what those D&D gamers were doing. My goal was to do things differently and so far, its worked out pretty well. 

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31 Questions for Barking Alien - Question 9

Question #9 is another inquiry from my friend Andrew F. Rodriguez who asks...

Are there game settings that have yet to be explored?

Huh. Are there? Can there be? Honestly I'm not entirely sure, nor am I certain how one would know. Also, setting or genre? There will always be new settings so the answer there would automatically be yes. Genre is tougher.

I'm sure I haven't personally explored every possible setting that has ever been published, professionally or otherwise. A part of me, the part that originally powered my desire to try any and all new games as mentioned in my answer to Question 5, truly hopes so. 

For some reason I'm reminded of an observation I and others have made about Japanese Manga and Anime - none are unique but many are original.

Take Neon Genesis Evangelion for example. Basically when you boil it down its an 'Alien Invasion Mecha Show'. Aliens attack the Earth and we, the Humans, attempt to fight them off with giant robots built from confiscated/salvaged Alien technology. We've seen that a hundred times before and after Evangelion. Ideon, Macross, some of the Getta Robo series, and many more feature this premise. So why is NGE lauded as such an incredible series?

A) Because of the way the story is told.

B) because that's not what Evangelion is really about at all.

NGE is a study of character, consequences, and what lengths the Human mind will go to in order to deal with trauma. It is (as noted) not unique in its subject matter but original in the way it portrays it. It is a Mecha Anime setting but one very distinct from Mobile Suit Gundam, Five Star Stories, or Aura Battler Dunbine.

That right there is what I hope for when I check out a game setting I've never played before. I don't want yet another Fantasy Game setting that doesn't do anything interesting. I want a new or different take on a Fantasy RPG setting or one with a really distinct character.

All that said, here are some unusual RPG settings from Japan that aren't necessarily new (some are) but which you don't really see explored in the West. At the very least not all that often or that well.

Double Charger 44 is a futuristic racing game (America needs more cool racing games) akin to a roleplaying game set in the worlds of the F-Zero or WipeOut video game franchises. While not quite as expansive as my beloved Ōban Star-Racers, I could see putting a Space Opera Racing Game together without too much effort. 

Hallelujah Inferno is a game in which you play Demons in Hell trying to make the place a little more fun. Ignore that terrible reputation of eternal torture for your sins. It's great here! Go ahead and sin, we'll save you a seat at the casino's best blackjack table! Free all you can eat and drinks on the house! Very Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel. 

Kill Death Business (which I've mentioned before) has the PCs as contestants on Hell TV's most popular game show. Chase down truly wicked souls and renegade demons to win a spot in Heaven or even reincarnation back to the world of the living. 

Marshmellow Blood - A Cute & Violent RPG has to be one of the weirdest RPG concepts I've seen in a while. PCs are cartoon mascots similar to Japanese Moe characters or the practice of having Yuru-chara. They have 'The Jam', a little bit of evil in their hearts that enables them to pull pranks and make mischief in their otherwise peaceful, cutesy world. Unfortunately, some give in to their naughty aspects and start consuming more Jam to do bigger and badder things, eventually becoming monstrous Beasts. The PCs, who have just a little bit of bad in them, are the only ones who can stop the Beasts. The setting itself sounds a bit like a Studio Ghibli produced Adventure Time.

Meteor City - Star Rainy Days is a game where the players play 'Observers', people who know the truth about their laid-back little city - it's actually a port for Alien travelers. A cozy, slice of life Science Fiction RPG. The setting has a very distinctive atmosphere, even though the GM and players are encouraged to build 'the city' as the campaign goes on. 

I'm postive there are a lot more settings to explore. I hope to discover as many as I can!

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31 Questions for Barking Alien - Question 8

Space...The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of...well...ALOT of characters! No really! There have been 8 different live action shows, 3 animated series, and 13 separate movies. Wow. That is incredible when you think about it. What other franchise has even close to that? 

How do I rate these and how much do they affect my games?

Question #8 from Starfleet Commandant Miguel de Rojas.

How do you rate each Star Trek show and why? I can add a second part to better fit the theme: Which ones, or elements of them, are the greatest influences in your Star Trek games?

Ah Star Trek, my favorite setting in which to run a roleplaying game campaign. I've run more Star Trek TRPG sessions than those of any other kind of game. It all originated with my exposure to the franchise before it was a franchise and my purchase of Star Trek The Role Playing Game by FASA, the first RPG I bought purely by myself with my own money. . 

On to the mission at hand...

#1. Star Trek - The Original TV Series (1966-1969) Top Rated

It's hard to sum up why I love The Original Series so much. As a kid, it just pressed all the buttons I had governing my love of outer space, Science Fiction, and storytelling. It was a television series that featured people in uniforms belonging to an instituation (like my father, a policeman) that explored the galaxy (I was already an astronomy nut). What could be cooler? Plus, one of the crew members - one of the Good Guys - was an alien! Wow! Star Trek just opened up my world to all sorts of other books, comics, TV shows, and movies about space exploration and a positive future. 

I am going to place the TOS Star Trek Films - The Motion Picture, The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock, The Voyage Home, The Final Frontier, and The Undiscovered Country - and Star Trek: The Animated Series as part of Star Trek's Original Series. These are, to me at least, an extension of the first show and intrinsically connected to it in a way none of the other iterations of Star Trek are. 

Influence on my games: It's everything. I model my Star Trek campaigns on the original series; it is the template on which I build and customize what I am running for my players. I pick and chose bits and bobs from the others but The Original Series in the skeleton and musculature holding the whole thing up and keeping it together. 

#2. Deep Space Nice (1993-1999) Second Favorite

Deep Space Nice is my second favorite Star Trek series, though it rarely has much direct influence on my games (see below). This is because I appreciate the series for its excellent writing, acting, likeable characters, and incredible action, especially in its epic space battles. However, since the storyline of the Dominion War runs throughout most of the shows run, the series has little direct barring on my person view of and interest in Star Trek. I love Star Trek for its exploration, big ideas, and positive view of the future, which DS9 bends and twists quite a bit. Were the show not so well done, I likely would have hated it (*Cough-Discovery-Cough*).

Influence on my games: I have taken elements of DS9 such a species, ships, and some references to the events from the series and used them for narrative purposes but the overall themes and storylines presented in the show aren't ones I often want to focus on. You'll find this a fairly common approach by me going forward. 

#3. Star Trek: Lower Decks (2020-2024) Third Favorite

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love comedy. Humor to me is not only fun, its an artform. From the various comedies and comedians I've watched and read over the years I've developed skills in scene direction, timing, character development, and many other components of an entertaining story. 

Aside from loving this show's vibe, characters, designs, and many other elements, its given me new ways to interpret and express aspects of the Star Trek universe.

Influence on my games: While I would love to run a long term 'Lower Decks' campaign (we've done short campaigns and one-shots), I think all of my games benefit from the change in perspective that this series provides. I also like the starships and aliens. 

#4. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994) Fourth Favorite

Now I know my placing Lowers Decks over The Next Generation is kind of odd. I get it. Lower Decks wouldn't, maybe couldn't, exist without TNG. True...but hear me out.

When TNG first came out it was...not great. Honestly it made no sense to me that they set it so far in the future from the point of the TOS Movies. They had all the sets, props, uniforms, etc. You could have just picked a new ship with a new crew and explored new stories (Ya'know, like a Star Trek RPG campaign). Then there was the characters who I couldn't get into, the stories which weren't that great, and yeah, it didn't do it for me.

Over time, The Next Generation grew on me. By the end of its run, I really liked it. Data and Picard are among my favorite Star Trek characters in the entire franchise.   

Influence on my games: Original Star Trek sees us encounter alien beings who are doing something harmful to themselves or others. We arrive and help them see a better way of doing things. TNG has us encounter aliens and see in them a flaw about ourselves. Sometimes the aliens and the Starfleet characters come to terms with this and other times they teach us a lesson. That's a key difference between old and new Star Trek. While I touch on the latter sometimes, my stories tend to lean more towards the former because my players have traditionally been good, open-minded, welcoming, positive people. 

Some of the aliens, worlds, starships, equipment, and ideas introduced in TNG are excellent and see use in my campaigns. All except the Galaxy Class, which is possibly my least favorite Star Trek ship design ever. 

#5. Star Trek: Prodigy (2021-2024) Fifth Favorite 

I joke about this with my friends all the time but Prodigy was sooo much better than it had any right to be. It was a 'kid's show' largely influenced by Star Trek: Voyager (see below). Like TNG, this took a little while to hook me but once it did, damn this series became fire (as the young people say). 

Influence on my games: Like Lower Decks, Prodigy gave me a different perspective on the Star Trek universe, what can be done with it, and how to pull it off. My games have definitely been enhanced by the lessons I've learned from this show. This is especially true in terms of action and personal combat. 

#6. Star Trek: Enterprise (2001-2005) Sixth Favorite

Oh Enterprise, what a wonderful show you could have been. Unfortunately, much of the potential of this series was wasted on storylines that went nowhere and trying too hard to connect it to the Next Generation time period (Ferengi, Borg, Klingons - OK, the latter Klingon material was pretty good). The show was pretty good in the very beginning and got downright excellent at the end but it was too little too late. 

It did give us a lot more stories and information about my favorite Star Trek species, the Andorians, with the incomparable Jeffery Combs as the feature character of Shran. For that, it has my eternal gratitude. 

Influence on my games: The main thing this show did for my Star Trek gaming was to show me how not to introduce and execute adventures. It also gave me ways to introduce and explore characters that both worked and didn't so I could get better at doing it myself. 

Very few ships, aliens, and other such elements from this series play any part in my campaigns. I wasn't a fan of the Suliban or Xindi and I prefer the look of the Daedalus Class and the ships of The Starfleet Museum more than those of an NX-01 style. 

#7. Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001) was also a show.

Hmm. So...how about those Tribbles, huh? Yeah...Voyager.

I don't like Voyager. I do not activitely despise it the way I do STD and SNW but I really didn't enjoy watching it for the first three or four seasons, even though I did watch it. I remember my girlfriend (now ex-wife) saying to me after one particular episode, "Why do you watch this if it angers you so much?" She had a point and so eventually I stopped and we caught up on our Anime viewing.

Like Enterprise, the idea behind Voyager was sound. It definitely had possibilities. Unfortunately, I personally feel the execution never lived up to the concept. I never grew to like the characters (except the Doctor), didn't like how poorly handled the stories and dialogue were, the Intrepid Class USS Voyager is my second least favorite ship (Galaxy Class is still uglier), and ugh...I just didn't like it. I went back and watched the seasons I'd missed a few years later and it didn't help. 

Influence on my games: Very little. I have used the original 'Series Bible' version of Voyager, which was quite different from what we eventually got on screen. I found some of the ideas in the 'proto-show' really interesting and so they made cool NPCs for a lost ship scenario. It took nearly the whole session before one of the players said, "Wait...is this Voyager? Did you base these guys on Voyager?" That was fun and the most I've gotten out of the show.

As you can see, I haven't included STD, SNW, Picard, or anything in the 'Kelvin Timeline/Abramsverse'. That's because I don't care for any of these series or films. I don't usually think about them at all. They have no influence on my games directly, though elements might appear such as the Kelpian species or a shuttlecraft design. Even those instances are rare.

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31 Questions for Barking Alien - Question 7

Ah, so happy to receive a Ghostbusters question. There aren't enough Ghostbusters questions in the world. Or something. 

Question #7 from the focused, non-terminal, repeating Jonathan Linneman

What media would you put into your ideal singular Ghostbusters head canon? If you prefer a multiverse, how would you break that down?

I am weird about canon. Aren't we all? I mean, we all have our own head canon about our favorite settings, be they franchise/IPs or personal creations. When I run Ghostbusters - moreso than any other Intellectual Property I run as games - I have a very particular head canon in mind.

At the same time, I don't go into detail about this with my players. Part of what makes a licensed RPG work is that the participants can hear about specific elements and go, 'Oh yeah, I know what that is', because they've seen the movies, shows, read the book, etc. So even if I don't use a certain part of the Ghostbusters canon in my games, I don't specifically say it didn't happen or doesn't exist. This is what I call 'Passive Canon'. 

If one of my players wants to address or use a component of the franchise that I haven't addressed, they get to introduce it and now its in what I call 'Active Canon'. That said, I do have my own internal 'Ghostbusters Active Canon Bible' of what is and isn't part of my GB campaigns. 

With all that explained, here is my 'Ideal Singular Ghostbusters Head Canon'; what the world of my Ghostbusters RPG game consists of:

Ghostbusters (The original 1984 film) happened as is. No changes. 

Crossing the Proton Streams to Reverse the Particle Flow through The Transdimensional Gate created a Transdimensional Crossrip that permenantly damaged the barriers separating our universe from those beyond. From this point forward, more supernatural entities and events appear on our plane of existence then ever have before due to it now being easier for them to do so. - Based on dialogue and ideas in The Real Ghostbusters Animated Series, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, the fan canon of the Ghostbusters Fan Club 'Franchises', and elsewhere.

The Real Ghostbusters (The animated series that ran from 1986 to 1991) happened, though the exact nature of the events are apocryphal. I'm a huge fan of the original Ghostbusters animated series but make adjustments to some elements to translate them to 'real life' and to coincide with events from other Ghostbusters media. In-universe, the Real Ghostbusters was an animated cartoon dramatizing the Ghostbusters activities between 1985 and 1987.

Sometime between 1987 and 1989 the level of Paranormal Activity dropped significantly. The four Ghostbusters take up other jobs to make ends meet. - Extrapolated from the dialogue and situations at the beginning of Ghostbusters II. 

Ghostbusters II (The second film in 1989) happened, though the exact nature of the events are apocryphal. I'm not a big fan of the film and pick and choose what elements of the movie I confirm to exist in my Active Canon.

Paranormal Activity spikes again and the Ghostbusters become active once more. The proliferation of reported supernatural phenomena is even greater than before and incidents are witnessed nationwide. GB franchises pop up across the United States and eventually in the UK, Japan, and Australia as well. - Background information based on the Ghostbusters Fan Club 'Franchises' and our own Ghostbusters campaigns.

Now here's where things get weird...

Our Ghostbusters: The Home Office campaign started in 1986 with the publishing of the Ghostbusters RPG by West End Games. In that campaign, the PCs are handpicked by the original four Ghostbusters from Franchises all across the US [and one guy from England] to replace them as the field operatives of the company while the OGs manage the corporation. 

This story was set roughly ten years in the future, roughly 1996. Remember that this was 1996 as seen from 1986; Ghostbusters II and everything that came after it (video games, comics, Afterlife, Frozen Empire) weren't a thing at the time. This means that The Home Office campaign is in its own continuity, a separate timeline if you will.

Going back to the question above, Jonathan notes 'If you prefer a multiverse' and the truth is, I don't. I love the idea in other settings but here it kind of puts me off. Not sure why but it just doesn't feel right. Even so, that is where we find ourselves when we run sessions in this campaign world.

Other campaigns I've run haven't addressed the classic Ghostbusters team or events except in the broadest sense. Essentially I approached these games with the mindset of 'You know what Ghostbusters is about right? Great! You guys are Ghostbusters...'. At the same time, I don't generally have 'The Home Office' team be the group back at the home office. In both our Ghostbusters Hoboken (GB NJ) and Ghostbusters Seattle campaigns, the New York team is thought to consist of Venkman, Spengler, Stantz, and Zeddemore. 

In the end, my ideal Ghostbusters Head Canon is somewhat amorphous and fluid. It generally assumes the first film is the cornerstone of a lot of stuff that may or may not have happened. In the meantime, I'm able to cherry pick from the four motion pictures, numerous seasons of cartoons, a host of video games, stacks of comics, and anything else that comes along. 

Yes, I said four films. There have only been four. 

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31 Questions for Barking Alien - Question 6

My answer to this particular inquiry is very much unique to me I'd wager. Maybe not. It's possible that others share a similar opinion. We'll see. 

Question #6 from the ever excellent Tim Knight 

What do you consider to be the most ‘elegant’ (however you choose to define it) roleplaying system you have encountered?

First, let's define 'elegant' shall we? At least, I'll define how I am going to view it for the purpose of answering this question, just so we're all on the same page.

According to an Oxford Dictionary search we have 'pleasingly graceful and stylish in appearance or manner'. Ooh. I like that. OK, so a stylish, graceful system, a good looking game, and one the runs smoothly and in a pleasing manner.  

The one that stands out to me is...

The ALIEN RPG by Free League Publishing is one of my all time favorite tabletop roleplaying games and its only five years old. It is definitely the most elegant and IMHO one of the easiest systems to learn, play, and run to come out during the last decade. It's elegance comes from an 'economy of rules'. It has what it needs, uses what it has well, and doesn't add unnecessary rules it doesn't need.

Utilizing a variant of Free League's 'Year Zero System' (aren't they all - variants that is), it wasn't a rules set new to me when I read the ALIEN corebook. This version of Year Zero clicked with me more than my previous experiences with the system had, for reasons I will go into later.  

The game has a largely traditional TRPG structure, simplified so as to run quickly and efficiently. The rules are reasonably easy to learn and understand. As I get older I find it difficult to grok the mechanics of many games just from reading them. Often these days I have to play the game to comprehend how the game is played. Not so with ALIEN. I read it and got it right away because honestly, it isn't hard to get. Plus, it's a Dice Pool system and I've played and enjoyed quite a few Dice Pool systems.

Added to the basic Dice Pool mechanic is a subsystem involving Stress and Panic. Even with a table to reference, the Stress/Panic rules are very smoothly integrated into the standard Action Roll. What results is a game that runs fairly effortlessly and creates an atmosphere perfectly in-line with the ALIEN setting. 

There are additional rules and mechanics but they all build off that base die resolution or interact with it in a way that never bogs down the flow of a session. Like I mentioned in a previous post, having a unified approach to all rule judgements is what I am after and what ALIEN delivers.

ALIEN does a particular thing and it does it well. It handles a fast-faced, cinematic action setting with a major horror component very nicely. Perhaps, in fact very likely, one reason I connected with this version of the game and its system moreso than other incarnations is the relationship between the rules and the ALIEN universe. This is also why I've used the basics of this version to create other games such as Red Dwarf and my homebrewed Ghostbusters kitbash. All these worlds are cinematic action settings with a horror [and humor] component, so they work for much the same reasons. 

If I had to award a runner-up or honorable mention I'd go with the new SMURFS RPG. Seriously. It is a great game that works really well, adding depth to a franchise you wouldn't think needs much depth. At the same time, it just makes for a really awesome system. The only reason I don't speak even higher of it is because its not out yet. I don't know all the rules, having only run the quickstart rules. We'll take a look at it again when it comes out in its full form. 

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