Today's topic is One. Every so often the topic comes up of what RPG would you choose if you could only choose one. If I over-think it, it becomes hard. There are so many great RPGs out there. So many that I love and have loved playing. But if I could only choose one, forever, then the choice becomes clear and easy. CJ Carella's WitchCraft RPG. WitchCraft is, hands down, my favorite game. Period. Picking up a copy of this book back in 1999 was just like picking up a copy of the Monster Manual in 1979. Everything I ever wanted in a game was right there. Everything. WitchCraft had such a profound effect on my gaming that I can draw a rather clean line between what came before and what came after it. Granted a lot was going on in 1999/2000 both gaming-wise and personal that may have added to this effect, it was an effect all the same. Back in 1999, I was really burned out on D&D. I was working on my own Witch netbook and reading a bunch of different games when someone, I forget where, must have been the old RAVENLOFT-L that TSR/WotC used to run, told me I really need to check out WitchCraft. At first, I balked. I had tried Vampire a couple years ago and found I didn't like it (and I was very much out of my vampire phase then), but I was coming home from work and my FLGS was on the way, so I popped in and picked up a copy. This must have been the early spring of 2000. I can recall sitting in my office reading this book over and over. Everything was so new again, so different. This was the world I had been trying, in vain, to create for D&D but never could. The characters in this book were also all witches, something that pleased me to no end, it was more than just that. Plus look at that fantastic cover art by George Vasilakos. That is one of my most favorite, is not my favorite, cover for a gamebook. I have it hanging in my game room now. WitchCraft uses what is now called the "Classic" Unisystem system. So there are 6 basic attributes, some secondary attributes (derived), skills and qualities and drawbacks. Skills and attributes can be mixed and matched to suit a particular need. WitchCraft uses a Point-Buy Metaphysics magic system, unlike Ghosts of Albion's levels of magic and spells system. Think of each magical effect as a skill that must be learned and you have to learn easier skills before the harder ones first. In D&D, for example, it is possible to learn Fireball and never have learned Produce Flame. In WitchCraft you could not do that. WitchCraft though is not about throwing around "vulgar magics". WitchCraft is a survival game where the Gifted protect humanity from all sorts of nasty things, from forgotten Pagan gods, to demons, fallen angels and the Mad Gods; Cthulhoid like horrors from beyond. WitchCraft takes nearly everything from horror and puts all together and makes it work. The Eden Studios version was the Second Edition, I was later to find out. The first one was from Myrmidon Press. I managed to find a copy of that one too and it was like reading the same book, from an alternate universe. I prefer the Eden Edition far more for a number of reasons, but I am still happy to have both editions. The central idea behind WitchCraft is the same as most other Modern Supernatural Horror games. The world is like ours, but there are dark secrets, magic is real, monsters are real. You know the drill. But WitchCraft is different. There is a Reckoning coming, everyone feels it, but no one knows what it is. Characters then take on the roles of various magic-using humans, supernaturals or even mundane humans and they fight the threats. Another conceit of the game (and one I use a lot) is that supernatural occurrences are greater now than ever before. Something's coming. (dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria). It is most often compared to World of Darkness, but there are things WitchCraft does that I just like better. Unlike (old) Mage there is no war between the (good) Mages and the (evil) Technocracy. There is a war certainly, but nothing so cut and dry. Unlike new Mage, there are rarely clean divisions between the factions. Yes, yes Mage players, I am being overly simple, but that is the point, on the simple levels new Mage dives everything into 5 because that is how the designers want it. There are factions (Associations) and there are different metaphysics for each, but also overlap, and sometimes no clear and defined lines are to be found or given. It feels very organic. In my opinion, C. J. Carella may be one of the best game designers out there. WitchCraft is a magnum opus that few achieve. I took that game and I ran with it. For 2000 - 2003 it was my game of choice above and beyond anything. The Buffy RPG, built on the Cinematic Unisystem took over until I wrote Ghosts of Albion, which also use the Cinematic Unisystem. I mix and match the systems as I need, but WitchCraft is still my favorite. WitchCraft, in fact, is what got me into professional game design. Back in the Spring/Summer of 2001, I started up a new game. I had just purchased the WitchCraft RPG book about 16 months prior and I was looking for something new. That something came to me in the guise of Willow and Tara. I had been watching Buffy for a bit and I really enjoyed the character of Willow. When she got together with fellow witch Tara I thought they were perfect. I had become very involved in the online Willow/Tara fandom so I created a game, focusing on just them. The game would focus on just these two, no one else from the show (which I would soon become an ex-fan of, but that is a different story). Plus it gave me something to try out in a modern setting, something I have not done since my days with the Chill RPG. The trickiest part of developing game stats of any fictional character that belongs to someone else is knowing how to strike a balance between the game's rules and the fictional portrayal. A lot of "artistic" license needs to be used in order to get a good fit. For example, how do you determine what some one's strength is when there is little to no on-screen evidence? What spells would the girls have? In the end, I decided to play it a little loose, but I love where their stats ended up. In many ways, this is who Willow and Tara are to me, not the characters on TV or comics, but the ones that were my characters since that day back in May 2001 that I decided they needed their own chance to shine. After this, I went on to work on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG. It should be no surprise then that the Willow and Tara stats that appear there are not that much different than my own. I can be quite vocal in playtests. That got me the chance to write the Ghosts of Albion RPG. This also allowed me to meet, work with and remain friends with Christopher Golden and Amber Benson. WitchCraft paved the way for so many other games for me, not just in terms of playing but in writing. If it were not for WitchCraft then we would not have had Buffy, Angel or Army of Darkness. Conspiracy X would have remained in its original system. There would be no Terra Primate or All Flesh Must Be Eaten and certainly, there would be no Ghosts of Albion. The game means that much to me. But you don't have to take my word for it, Eden Studios will let you have it, sans some art, for free. http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product_info.php?products_id=692&it=1&affiliate_id=10748 Download it. If you have never played anything else other than D&D then you OWE it yourself to try this game out. My thing is I wish it was more popular than it is. I love the game. If I was told I could only play one game for the rest of my life then WitchCraft would be it.

Today's word has gotten me thinking about what are my favorite RPG Supplements. Day 15 Supplement RPG supplements are kind of an odd thing. Some very much have the feel of "leftovers" or things that were meant for the core book but for one reason or another they didn't quite make the cut. Others do feel like a very nice addition to the game they are supporting. Back in the earliest days of my gaming, I did not really see supplements as something "Extra." Indeed the marketing worked well on me I and I often saw this or that book as somehow "required" to play. I have naturally relaxed that attitude a bit. I have all the major hardcovers for AD&D 1st ed, but I stick mostly to the cores for AD&D 2nd Ed and D&D 3rd Ed. 4th Edition is somewhat different, but I do have a "core" I stick with. Same as Pathfinder. The first real supplement that I ever bought was for a game I didn't get to play all that much, but the supplement was worth every penny I paid. That would have been Chill Vampires for 1st Ed (Pacesetter) Chill. It really changed how I played vampires in my games so much that when Ravenloft finally came around later I was already using character sheets for my main vampire villains. Another one that also had a huge impact on my games was Original D&D's Eldritch Wizardry. Demons. Druids. Psionics. It was everything my Basic D&D game was missing that I wanted. I didn't care all of this was in AD&D, that cover and those pages just called to me. I am impressed that it is back in print. Well, Print on Demand anyway. I hear the PoD copy is also rather nice.

Everyone has some vision or idea for where the campaign they are playing in will be headed. Make sure that everyone's on the same page!

It is August and that means time for another #RPGaDAY from David Chapman and Autocratik. I look forward to this every year. Always some great writing prompts and I enjoy seeing what others come up with. Day 1 Scenario I had something planned for this, but I started writing it, and explaining it all was taking way too long. Even then I wasn't getting to my point so I scrapped it. One question I get asked every so often is why do I like to use published Scenarios, aka Modules. Simple. Sometimes I like to use something where a little bit of the heavy lifting (map, NPCs, monsters) has already been done. But that is only the lazy reason. The reason I am doing it for campaigns like Come Endless Darkness and The Second Campaign is to give my players the full D&D Experience. For something like War of the Witch Queens it is more can I take everyone else's witch-based adventures and fit them to a campaign arc of my needs. Mind you I am not opposed to my own scenarios or adventures. I did The Dragon and the Phoenix and The Season of the Witch campaigns for my Buffy games. I enjoy reading other scenarios and I enjoy coming up with them. Here's to a great #RPGaDAY2021 month!

One of the things I have never really been able to do to my own satisfaction is Solo play. Day 28 Solo The idea of solo play is one that does go back to the earliest days of RPGS. For example, there are plenty of Tunnels & Trolls adventures that are for solo play. The infamous introductory adventure with Aleena in the Mentzer version of the D&D Basic Red Box is another example. I had a few of the Endless Quest books, but mostly I got bored with them very quickly. I tried playing the various Zork games from Infocom (yes including "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" game. No. I never got the Babel fish.) Back in the 80s my High School DM and I spent a lot of time programming a BASIC (as in the computer language) AD&D combat simulator. We could load up to 10 characters and 10 monsters (of an unlimited number on disk) to fight. It worked out rather nicely. There are now much better D&D experiences in terms of software that can be enjoyed as a solo player but for me they suffer from the same issue that Tunnels & Trolls did/does. Nothing can beat the interaction of others. I suppose if given the choice of an online game with others using just web meeting software (like Zoom) vs a really interactive video game that is as close to D&D as you can get. I'll take the online game. Not that I don't like video games, they are just not the experience I want when I want to play an RPG. DragonAge and Skyrim feel the closest to me.

Messing with mechanics and the design of an RPG is something I find entertaining.

#RPGaDAY Day 2 First RPG Gamemastered Also pretty easy. It would have been the Moldvay Basic D&D. I wrote all my own adventures back then and my first dungeon had two dragons in it. It was not till later that I realized that with 10'x10' rooms and 10' wide halls there was no way for these dragons to get out. I hope there was a steady supply of adventurers for them to feed on!

I think today I will go with one of the alternate words on the list. Day 5 Community Today I am going with Community. One of the things I really hope to get out of this month of posting is to get a sense of community from this. While writing these posts is a joy in and of themselves and I do enjoy the challenge, what I am looking forward to is the community. I am very curious to see what everyone else does. Take today for example. I have no idea what I would write for Throne and I am very curious about what others might write about. Will someone else choose Community? What days might occur where each word is chosen. That might be fun. I also feel it is important not to be just a passive participant here. So I need to make sure I also interact with all the other posting on various social media sites. So if you are participating in this please feel free to leave a comment below with links to where you are posting. I'd love to see what everyone is doing and saying.

One of the nice things about #RPGaDAY for 2021 is we also get a set of alternate words we can use. Today is Day #2 and that is Map, but the other words are "Senses," "Plan," and "Voice." But I am going to go with Map. Day 2 Map I adore maps. I knew very few role-players that are not fans of maps. I talked about this in the past. A lot. Lost lands of Middle Earth & Doggerland Doggerland as Middle Earth The Original Known World Victorian London Mystara / Urt / The Known World Ancient Earth Mystoerth! Speaking of Mysoerth, here is a new color map that fellow Mystoerth fan Matthew Fenn had made. It is still a really fun map. If you look I have elements of not just Mystara and Oerth, but a little bit of Al-Qadim and even Gary's Necropolis. Let's me have all my cake and eat it too. A couple of things I would love to work into this map are Hyperborea (I already have a Boria) and maybe even a lost continent. I might need to make my world a bit bigger to fit it all in though. I have been playing with the idea that it is Ansalon there in the far south of the Far End Ocean. It would mean redoing large sections of Krynn to fit my world and it might not really even be possible. But then again my Zakhara does not look anything like the Zakhara from the Forgotten Realms. I am still using Blackmoor as a common point of both worlds. I am also still wanting to make Hyperborea the land beyond the Black Ice. I am guessing it is about the size of Antarctica. Not sure if I can cram everything in there. Another map that I have been having some fun with is this Flat Earth map known as "The World Beyond the Ice Wall." I have no idea who made it but I get the sinking feeling that Flat Earthers actually take this one seriously. I did find out who made it. It was made for a fictional sort of world, but it seems the Flat Earthers have adopted it as truth. It does however reflect how I would do Hyperborea. A land beyond a wall of ice.

Today's topic is Door. There are a lot of doors in D&D. Which reminds of that old saying and my response to it. D&D taught me that closed doors are supposed to be kicked open. I feel the same way about "Gatekeepers". This is a topic that has been coming up a lot lately. Some groups are claiming that other groups are gatekeeping and those groups are claiming they are not. I can't speak to any groups really, save my own. Take the lessons we all learned in D&D. If you see a door, or a gate, kick it the fuck open. Or better yet, say fuck you to those groups and do your own thing. Someone says you can't play their way, kick in the door and take their shit. I don't normally call out groups but I do want to mention what is going on in my back yard. So a while back there was this new movement started to counter what they thought were some of the more regressive elements of the OSR scene. They called their movement #SwordDream and I personally think they have some interesting ideas. I am not 100% sure what they are doing will last, but I don't know. I can't say though I could name a product that has been made yet under the SwordDream banner, BUT that has more to do with mether Should the OSR be worried? No. In fact, they should be thrilled this is happening. Competition should bring out the best in everyone and if one group wants to do things one way and another wants to do another thing then we should all be happy right? Well...there is that whole gatekeeping thing. SwordDream has mostly been met with derision among some old school stomping grounds and outright hostility in others. Yeah I know, I have read the posts. These are also the same people that will claim NOT to gatekeep. See the problem is that gatekeeping is not just telling people they can't play it's also telling them their way of play is wrong. Or thinking their way of wanting to do things is wrong, or lesser, or stupid, or whatever. Is the OSR full of regressive types? Full? maybe not. Are there a bunch of old fucks that don't want people to sit at their table? Yeah there is. Are there good people in the OSR too? Of course! Lots really. I kinda wish that the critics of the OSR would see those people too. What are you the new young gamer supposed to do? Kick in their door. Or better yet tell them you don't want to sit with them anyway. Kick in that door. Do your thing. Do you.

There is always one day in these month-long posting sessions that I have nothing. Today is that day. I mean I can come with stuff for "Push" don't get me wrong, just nothing I feel inclined to write about in a meaningful way. I usually allow my self a pass on any given day. Today I am taking it. So here is something "push" related. I guess Garbage is from the same area as D&D, so there is that.

That was a tough one to figure out. I bought a lot of RPG-related items this year from adventures to minis, but I think the first full RPG I bought this year was the Spanish Language version of CJ Carella's WitchCraft RPG. The Spanish Language version from Edge most resembles the Eden Studios 2nd Edition. The text is the same and the art is the same. The difference, of course, is this new Edge version is in Spanish. I am happy to have this as this was one of the other "Holy Grail" items for my Spanish collection of RPGs. It was also the last CJ Carella WitchCraft book I am likely able to buy. I am pleased that I was able to read a lot of it. Granted, my Spanish is still very limited, but I know this book very, very well. My collection of Spanish Language RPGs is not huge, but it covers my favorite games and about 85-90% of the games I like to play. Not a lot, but enough to keep me busy for a while. I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August. Since it makes sense, here is Roberto Micheri's Spanish translation. You can find Roberto (and me often making a fool of myself with my pre-school-level Spanish) in the Puerto Rico Role Players Facebook Group. Si es tu primera vez, todos los días de agosto mira la sugerencia y escribe, haz un blog, vlog, podcast, dibuja, haz manualidades o lo que sea como respuesta. Si no te gusta la pregunta completa, por ejemplo, en el Día 3 la pregunta es "RPG (juego de rol) más jugado", la palabra "más" está en negrilla y puedes usar sólo esa palabra como respuesta si quieres hablar de otra cosa. También hay una opción alternativa al final, por si acaso. Si no te gusta ninguna de estas sugerencias, sigue leyendo. Primer RPG comprado este año RPG jugado más recientemente RPG más jugado RPG con gran arte RPG muy bien escrito RPG fácil de usar RPG con "buena forma" Un accesorio que aprecies Un accesorio que te gustaría ver RPG que te gustaría ver en televisión RPG con “one-shots” bien respaldados RPG con campañas bien sustentadas Entornos evocadores Personajes fascinantes Gran equipamiento para los personajes Rápido de aprender Una comunidad RPG cautivadora Momentos de juego memorables Sesión sensacional Aventura increíble Campaña clásica Notable personaje no jugador (NPC) Jugador sin igual Aclamados consejos Dados deseables Magnífica pantalla Maravillosa miniatura Excelente artilugio para “gamers” Impresionante aplicación (app) Persona con la que te gustaría jugar Juego o jugador que echas de menos Alternativa - Una anécdota sorprendenteSi no te gusta ninguno de estas sugerencias, ya sé que son de última hora, puedes optar por un conjunto de temas para #RPGaDAY completamente diferente. Sugeridas por Skala Wyzwania, estas ideas son muy divertidas e incluso hay un gráfico muy atractivo para esta versión. Sólo tienes que mirar el día a la izquierda, elegir el tema y tirar un d10 para descubrir qué deberías hacer con ese tema ese día. Genial, gracias Skala. Runas Bosque Demonología Cosmos Hadas Portal Ciudad olvidada Experimento Héroes Steampunk Invasión Mundos paralelos Zombis Despertar Genética Mazmorra IA (inteligencia artificial) Maldición Holograma Batalla Desastre Espacio interdimensional Ritual Antiguo Mutante Tatuaje Transformación / Cambiar de forma Mimeto (Mimic) Caballero Trampa Dragones Cada día tira un d10 para seguir la sugerencia Resultado Describe un monstruo Crea un personaje no jugador (NPC) Escribir una misión para el tablón de anuncios Inventar un objeto Escribe una leyenda o un rumor Crear una tabla al azar Crear una mecánica sencilla Presentar una idea para un encuentro aleatorio Escribir un diálogo escuchado a escondidas ¡Dibuja! ---

My first Anime was Akira. I remember hearing a lot about it in college and I finally watched it, but I was not all that impressed. Sure I liked the whole neo-Tokyo vibe that pervades so much Anime and it had style, but the story left me flat. Then, a change happened. I was teaching at night so I had my days free.I also had a NetFlix account. Ao I began to get anime, and flankly a lot of it was so good I even dragged my wife into them. I do admit I sought out what had been considered some of the best, Witch Hunter Robin, Cowboy Bebop were our faves. We also enjoyed the Witchblade anime as well as some that were even less than family fare. What I liked about them were obviously the stories and in many the humor, but also the style. Anime have a beginning, middle and an end. Obviously due to their manga origins. Some TV shows in america seem to go on ad nauseum. It is a style I would want to duplicate in an amime based RPG game. Get in, tell your story, and get out to let others have the stage. It's a style more than a system thing. You could do high action anime D&D (and some claim that is what D&D4 is) or even horror. But all the same I sought out various games. Here is a breif run down before I get into details. For this I even have new "label" for these threads; Anime. BESM My first Anime game. I started with 2nd Edtion and quickly found out that there was a 2nd Edition revised. What was great about BESM was it was a primer on all things related to Anime. I learned what "Fan service" was, even if I already had an idea, the history, the conventions of anime (not Anime cons) and in there was also a pretty slick system. There were parts I didn't like, but that is fine. BESM + Unisystem in my mind was a great mix. I picked up BESM d20 (which I really liked to be honest), Silver Age Sentinels (using the same system) and a bunch of the splats to go with it. I also bought BESM 3, which I really did like a lot, but never could find anyone to play with. I like BESM, it is very easy to write for, I just wish there was a market for it. Mutants & Masterminds: Mecha & Manga I love M&M and was really looking forward to this. To me anime and supers are of a similar breed. Both typically have comics or cartoons as their storytelling medium, so that gives them a lot of surface similarities and similar stories are often told. Astro Boy and Superman are more alike than different. But while I like M&M, Mecha & Manga left me a little flat. It is a great book to add to your normal M&M game and it is a great book to add to a BESM game for other ideas. But I think I was expecting more. OVA This is a new one to me, but not a new game. I just got it and I like what I see so far. The system is very different that BESM, but it has some good character creation guidelines that I think would work nice with any game. Cartoon Action Hour Season 2 AKA CAH:2. Another new one for me. Like OVA I have not gone over it much other than to print it out. It is not really an Anime RPG, but a Cartoon one. But I am not going to let that stop me. It also has some great character creation ideas and a series creation worksheet that is great for every game really. Of my recent purchases (OVA, BASH and CAH:2) this one is my favorite so far. Heart Quest Heart Quest is a Soujo Anime/Magna RPG using the Fudge RPG. Why did I choose this one? Well a lot of what goes into Shoujo can be found in Buffy as well and visa versa. There is even a very anime looking Buffy-like character on page 43. It is obvious from the start that while the mechanics are mostly the same to other Fudge games, the tenor is very different. HQ only has five attributes in what looks like an odd cross of Unisystem and BESM. In fact, the holds up that Fudge Universal Translator theory well since HQ looks like it could convert to BESM in a snap. Skills are the same, mostly, as are the Gifts/Faults. Magic becomes a Supernormal Power, so more inline with Buffy here. Where HeartQuest has the most to offer is half-way through the book with different Shoujo genres. Teen Romance can add lighter feel to a younger Junior High or just starting High School set game and has some good advice on how to deal with relationships and sex on a more mature level. The chapter on Magical Girls shows the connection between and obvious debt owed to Sailor Moon by Buffy. Here again is advice on how to run a game where a group has magical powers, fighting against some evil, and yet still trying to live a normal life. In fact all seven of the types of Magical Girl games they suggest can be done with the Buffy rules. Extending the TV theme farther it is easy to see shows (and thus Buffy or Now Playing rules adaptations) for most of the Magical Girl types. Team: Sailor Moon; W.I.T.C.H., One Girl: Buffy, Witch Hunter Robin; Rivals: Winx Club, Psychic Girls: Twitches; Witch In Training: Kiki's Delievery Service, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, 8th season of Charmed. Charmed and my Willow and Tara series has run the gambit to include all of these at one point. The book goes on to describe Historical Romance (great for Ghosts of Albion game), a sample setting for the three different genres and some sample characters. There is also a sample bibliography and resources not to be missed. There is also another Fudge game actually called Shoujo Anime that covers similar material. The bibliography in fact is identical. Which is fine for Fudge I guess, but a little odd all the same. I also have a post about Fudge/Fate coming up sometime soon. Bounty Head Bebop A game using the Inverted 20 system. I reviewed it here. Open Anime This one just came out from Battlefield Press. Looking to buy it here soon. Random Anime I have never been able to find a copy of this game, but have wanted to try it out. I'll detail some of these games in, well, detail, as the weeks progress. I'll start with BESM since that is where I started. I am most looking forward to OVA and CAH:2. Looking at any Game through the Anime Lens What happens when you add a bit of Anime to your games? Well some things change that is certain. Obviously the easiest answer is, it's the same game only there is more of it. Black Cat above notwithstanding there is more to it than that. I'll try to detail that when I deal with each game, but the idea is this is something different. I in fact separated out my normal Unisystem-based Willow and Tara game (the Dragon and the Phoenix universe) and my anime based Willow and Tara the Animated Series. They had a lot of things in common, but enough differences that I was compelled to make them different worlds. With doing things Anime or Manga it is ok to break the rules that are often the sacred cows of the normal worlds. For example, in the Marvel Universe Iron Man is Tony Stark, but in th eMarvel Manga universe it Toni Stark who is the Iron Maiden and the Hulk is a 70 ft tall Godzilla like monster. Small changes, but there are a lot like that.

This one was much harder than it should have been. Day 12 Triumph What would I consider my greatest RPG-based triumph? I have had some great opportunities in the RPG world. I have had some great gaming groups over the decades, met some fantastic people and I have worked on some great projects. But I have to admit that Ghosts of Albion is one of my greatest triumphs. Back when Eden Studios was working on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG I was part of the team. But I was also, for various reasons, growing dissatisfied with Buffy and the license. In the process, I got the chance to meet and talk with Christopher Golden. He had done some original fiction for the game and was interested in the process. He was at the time also working with Amber Benson on a new property with the BBC. It was about two siblings who discover they have a legacy of magic to live up to and a country to fight for in early Victorian England. The new animation, written by Golden and Benson and directed by Benson, was Ghosts of Albion. From the very start, we wanted it to be compatible with Buffy and Angel. It had more magic and more powerful creatures. While Buffy had vampires and Angel had demons, Ghosts would vampires, demons, as well as fae creatures and of course ghosts. And all of these could be player characters. It is one of the highest-rated and best-selling titles I have ever worked on. People still tell me how much they love the magic system, the content, and the rules. I have to admit that sometimes I read over it and think to myself "wow, I wrote that!" I love the Victorian era, I love writing about magic and honestly, I loved working with Chris and Amber. I have worked on many licensed products before and this one was by far the best experience I have ever had on a game. Here's to hoping I can do more with NIGHT SHIFT to capture the same sort of feeling.

our 5th article for the #RPGaDay2020 Challenge: Tribute. Here I divulge a secret for GM's to make dramatic moments for their players!

Hi everyone! In my opinion, one of the hardest parts of writing RPGs is framing the sentences so that they are specific, descriptive, open to a minimum of interpretation, and fit within the layout. Some of you may already know that I am currently working through character creation, equipment and rules editing for Era: Lost … Continue reading #RPGaDay2020 – Day 15: Frame →

#RPGaDAY Day 19, Favourite Published Adventure I would almost have to say my favorite is I6: Ravenloft. There is so much about that run counter to what everyone thought D&D was or should be, but it had a huge impact on the game and my games especially. I have ran it maybe half a dozen differ times over the years and I still enjoy it. Of course I do have to mention my own published adventure for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG, The Dark Druid.

Should be easy to stay on theme today. Day 19 Theme If my participation in the Character Creation Challenge in January, the April A to Z Challenge, and this month's #RPGaDAY Challenge, is any indication, I do love a nice theme to work with. In my blog posts, it gives me a little extra focus and a little extra motivation. It gives me something to look forward too and apparently, my readers agree. My hits tend to go up during these times. This year I am going to be doing my usual October Horror movie marathon and I am considering doing a Lovecraft film fest. While that has some appeal and something I wanted to do for a while, but sadly many of the movies are not very good. Not to mention I have seen most of them already. Kinda defeats the purpose of the Horror Movie Challenge. I will also be participating in the RPG Blog Carnival for October. The subject, naturally enough, will be Horror. I have a few other treats for October planned as well, it is practically my holiday. Other themes I enjoyed recently were BECMI month last year, Troll Week, Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, and for a deep cut, Superbabes. I still want to do a series of Superhero posts including some different approaches to the superhero genre. I could easily spend a month on that.

When I first started in RPGs I was all about complexity and systems that mirrored everything, these days, I am more about simplicity. Day 21 Simplicity There used to be big debates in RPG circles, narrativist vs. simulationist. Gamist was thrown in there as well. You don't see that as much anymore. Well. You do, but now the focus has shifted a bit. This debate has waged on in various formats, various permutations, over the decades. But in the end, the one that wins out for me is Simplicity. I like a lot of games. I like to read and play a lot of games. I don't like needing huge volumes of pages to explain to me how to play a game. Sure I understand the value and the place of supplements and "Splat" books, but the core needs to be simple and complexity for complexity's sake is not a value. AD&D is a great game, but let's be honest. The rules are a hodge-podge of systems that are largely unrelated to each other save in a post hoc fashion. The layout of the rules is equally poor. We learned it then because it was what we had and we didn't know any better. AD&D 2nd Ed is better organized (sort of its purpose) but there are still bolted on systems. Honestly look no further than skills and psionics. Also, AD&D 2nd ed loses some of the charms of AD&D 1st ed. Is the charm in the complexity or is the charm in our memory via "Nostalgia Goggles?" Hard to say. D&D 3rd Edition did a bit of a better job of this. 5th Edition does a better job still. Still neither are at the level of say WitchCraft, Ghosts of Albion, or even Doctor Who Adventures in Time and Space. I am not trying to imply that simpler is always better. For example, many of the Powered by the Apocalypse games are quite simple and none of them have ever really grabbed me. In fact, I usually find them too simple. But for me, I desire to remove unneeded complexity for complexity sake and keep my games and my designs a little more simple.

The Other Side Blog is a game design blog from Timothy S. Brannan

Here we are, the half-way mark! DAY 15: Describe a Tricky RPG experience you enjoyed. Back in my later college days, my old High School DM had moved down to my own. We were not gaming together at this point; I was working on getting into grad school and he had a new girlfriend if I remember right. But anyway he invited me over to help him run the "Nightmares of Barovia" adventure option found in I10: Ravenloft II House on Gryphon Hill. He introduced me to his group and we began. I ran Ravenloft II and everytime they characters fell asleep he would pick up with the same characters in Ravenloft I6. We had to keep track of various things that players were totally oblivious too. We played it at a marathon session over a Halloween Weekend. This was back when my school (SIU) through some pretty notorious Halloween parties, but the city had shut it all down the university was send everyone home. The adventures were great, individually. Together...welll I don't think anyone at TSR actually ran the "Nightmare" option. But it was great. Though by hour 36-38 I was done. Still it was hard, lots of juggling and so, so much fun as a DM. I would do it again in the drop of a hat, but I'dd need someone that whose style would be a good match for this. Plus we would need to meet ahead to discuss how to handle things not covered in the two adventures. I'd also need a group of players that know of Strahd, but never played anything with him in it. Or at least never played I6 or I10. It would be fantastic!

Excalibur, Stormbringer, Mjölnir, the Sun Sword, Blackrazor, Narsil/Andúril, the Bessy Mauler, the Sword of Kas, Needle, Elbe the Heartbow. All worlds, whether ours or fantasy have fantastic legendary weapons. Quasi-artifacts to quest for or be granted to those that are worthy. Day 4 Weapon Like all good game worlds, I have a number of unique and special weapons. Demonbane Demonbane is a bastard sword from The Treasure Trove found in Issue #91 of Dragon Magazine. The sword is described as "a great, many-hued blade of which the origin has been forgotten, but which was wielded by the great paladin Nord in his single-handed destruction of the Citadel of Conjurers." Created by Ed Greenwood it would later go on to be called Dornavver in the Forgotten Realms. In my games, though it became one of the weapons of my paladin Johan II and used to defeat Orcus in module H4. IT was lost in the Astral Sea and it has been the focus of all my paladins for the last four generations to recover. The "forgotten origin" has been changed to a drow savant, Sharis Val, that created it along with his adoptive father a dwarf cleric of Moradin. The multi-hues come from the variety of metals used in its construction. Ebonblade, the Sword of Black Flames Ebonblade's history is tied up in that of Demonbane's. The story of Demonbane's construction is not as forgotten as reported. Among blacksmiths, the tale of the swords construction and its use to defeat the Citadel of Conjurers is a tale told by masters to apprentices all over the world. One such apprentice found where the Demonbane was made and used the leftover materials to make a sword to avenge the death of his killed master. The materials used in making Demonbane responded to Sharis Val's desire to rid the world of evil and in particular demons. Ebonblade responded to the hate and desire to kill others and thus became an evil weapon. The Star Sword This weapon was made from bit of a "star" the fell to the Earth. Longer than a bastard sword, but not quite as long as a two-handed sword. This sword focuses the magic energies of the wielder into the blade to add extra damage. The Mace of St. Werper Admittedly not all that different than the Mace of St. Cuthbert, in my defense I made mine before I ever read about it in the DMG. This one though was specific to my first cleric. The Death Staff This weapon is the very first Staff of the Warlock used by my character Magnus. It can blast a humanoid with its necrotic power and turn them into a zombie under the wielder's control. What weapons populate your world?

Today's topic is Vast. Vast. Seriously it is like it is too large of a word to tackle all at once. To any PC in any sort of RPG the setting should feel vast. For D&D it is can be the world or the known planes. In sci-fi games, this can be the galaxy or even the universe. But I don't write vast. I write local. Yes, there is a whole world out there, but how much of it are the PCs going to see? What do they really know about it? Sure, there were people in the 13th century that had a pretty good idea what the world looked like, but did the peasants? Let's look at Star Trek and by extension my BlackStar game. Because really, what is more vast than space? That is a map of the Known Space of the Star Trek universe roughly at the end of the 24th Century. My BlackStar game is likely to be set 50 years prior to this. This is a LOT of territory. The Sol system is where the larger yellow line is. Click to see larger. This is roughly 1,500 Light Years wide, of the Milky Way that is 105,000 Light Years wide, about 1%. That's a lot of untold stories. I wish I had more time to do more!

It's a Monstrous Monday and it is also Medium day for the #RPGaDAY. Day 9 Medium Most of my monsters in the various Basic Bestiary are Medium-sized. This works out well for a number of reasons, but mostly it is a boon for something I had been wanting to do for a while. In D&D 5 monsters have different HD die types depending on their size. It works out like this. Table: Size Categories Size Space Hit Die Tiny 2½ by 2½ ft. d4 Small 5 by 5 ft. d6 Medium 5 by 5 ft. d8 Large 10 by 10 ft. d10 Huge 15 by 15 ft. d12 Gargantuan 20 by 20 ft. or larger d20 So Medium monsters use the common d8 for hit dice and the truly monstrous Gargantuan creature gets a d20. While AD&D and Basic D&D went more for larger creatures having more HD this works for what I call the giant baby problem. A gigantic creature can have a lot of hit points, but no combat ability, two things that HD covers. I also like this idea for personal reasons. When I moved from Basic D&D to Advanced D&D I often used a d10 for monster hit points and not the RAW d8. I figured the monsters had to be more "advanced" so they got more hp. I also rationalized this with the fact that Basic fighters use d8 for hp, and Advanced fighters used d10. Of course on average, this is only 1 extra point per HD, but I liked it all the same. 3e and 4e also used different die types for hit dice, but these were different for different types of monsters. I like the 5e way of using these for size. You might have seen these in some of my write-ups. The Mad Hatter Goblin is a small creature. I list it's standard HD is 2 and it's average hp from a d8 and it's Con mod is 9 +2 or 11. As a small creature, the same 2 HD and +2 con mod gives the creature an average hp of 7 +2 or 9. Sure not a lot of difference, but enough over the long run. I am presenting both sets for people that want to use my "Advanced" set of size-based hp calculations or the standard RAW ones. I have been using this for a while now and while there might not be a significant difference in the play of the vast majority of monsters, the ones it does affect really affects them. I hope people, especially in the OSR crowds, take to the change.

The name of the game was Dungeons & Dragons. So there was a certain expectation on, well, dungeons. But that is not all of what we got. Sometimes we went outside. Day 11 Wilderness Live-Action Role-Playing was not really something we knew a lot about back in the early to mid-80s. Yes even in my little town we had heard about SCA but that was something that happened far away in places that sounded exotic to us. We did know about live D&D. Of course, we had heard stories of people getting trapped in their make-believe world. I mean we had seen Mazes & Monsters right. But still in the time after discovering D&D and before discovering easy access to alcohol there was a time when my D&D group would run around the woods wearing all black to play "live D&D." Sometimes this was near the train tracks near the Hospital north of town but most often it was at the local Boy Scout camping area out way west of town. Known as Ebaugh County Park, we always called it Ebaugh Corner since it was on this corner of old Route 36. It felt a lot bigger than what is on that map I can assure you. We didn't get out there often. Our town was hit with Satanic Panic back in the mid-80s and we worried the cops would come out and harass us. Not a lot of D&D was played here really. Frankly, my eyesight was getting bad then (and it never got better!) so running around in the dark was not something I could well. I was actually pretty pathetic really! I remember my last time there too. June 1987 right before college. I never really did try live-action D&D again. Was never really my thing. This has come up again recently as I am getting ready for a trip to the Renaissance Faire in Bristol, WI. My son and his friends are all dressing up in Assassin's Creed gear. I have been there in the past in Steampunk gear. Though I must admit I want to go in period clothing and keep a Star Trek badge hidden, just in case. Hope to head there this weekend. It might not be the actual wilderness, but for a city kid like me, it is close enough.

Today's topic is Examine. ὁ δὲ ἀνεξέταστος βίος οὐ βιωτὸς ἀνθρώπῳ" "The unexamined life is not worth living" - attributed to Socrates Gen Con is a great time. I get to run different kinds of games and I get to play different kinds of games. But I also get a chance to reflect on my own style of Game Mastering. I played in a Call of Cthulhu game that my son ran and I was really impressed on how he had come since the last time he had run a game for me. Really, really impressed. Now he is young and has more to master than a 50-year-old like me. But I could not help but think how much he had improved his own game over how much I had, or had not, improved my own. I also got the chance to play in Jess Ross' Blue Rose game. Jess is an amazing GM and she also has an actual play podcast for Blue Rose at: http://bitchesandliches.com/ Jess also runs her games a little different than I do and it was also quite a lot of fun. Both of these events got me thinking more and more about my own style and what I need to do to push it up a notch. I have not quite figured it all yet, but I am certainly examining what I liked about these other play styles. I think I want to go back to my notes of when I was running Ghosts of Albion all the time. Those were some great games and I'd like to recapture some of that for my D&D games.

Today's topic is Guide. This is a topic that is likely to come up many times today. Games work best with guides, not just books, but people and things to help show you the way. I think my first real guide to D&D actually predates my D&D exposure. I have mentioned in the past that my true introduction to what would become my D&D was d'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths this was nearly immediately followed by Tolkien's The Hobbit. In between my reading of these two books was when I discovered D&D. The line is pretty direct for me from Greek Myths to D&D and the Hobbit. These two sources were my guide to what D&D could be if not what it should be. In fact it is not too much of a stretch to say my D&D then was very much Greek Myths + The Hobbit. The next guide I picked up were D&D proper. While Holmes Basic might have been my first set of D&D rules, it was the AD&D Monster Manual that was my first exposure to D&D. But I have detailed these two books and their impact on me many times here. From here my guides were less about books and more about people. When I was learning to how to play and moving through my first few years of D&D I got to play in a lot of different groups and knew of several more. Here other's experiences and their readings came to influence me. While I had read many of the books on the infamous Appendix N, they were only a tertiary impact on me and my games. Usually, either through someone else have read them and applying them to their games and what was in the RPG books. Over the years I have had the chance to play with others who have helped guide me (and vice versa) through many RPGs. Each time I take away something to aid me or push me on. There were my high school games where I got the chance to play with a lot of different groups. The summer from college that I played in an OD&D campaign. Games at college and striking out all on my own in 2nd Ed to recreate my own worlds. Campaigns with other games like ShadowRun, Vampire, and eventually WitchCraft. Meeting people online and talking games with them discovering that even though we all did things in a different way there are common stories and share experiences. To the message boards, blogs, and social media of today. Even reading these posts today will help guide me in other directions.