It’s August and that means that the annual #RPGaDAY ‘question a day’ is here to celebrate “everything cool, memorable and amazing about our hobby.” This year we’ve decided to join in the fun and will be canvassing answers from the ENWorld crew, columnists and friends in the industry to bring you some of our answers. We hope you’ll join in, in the comments section, and share your thoughts with us too… So, without further ado, here’s Day 13 of #RPGaDAY 2017!
#RPGaDAY Question 13: Describe a game experience that changed how you play.
Michael J Tresca: Playing with six players under the age of 12 has greatly simplified my approach to game mechanics in my 5E D&D Star Wars campaign. There's no initiative, we go around the table; for all powers that use a point pool (Force, maneuvers), we have one physical system involving papercraft Force crystals they throw into a box when they spend it; I created cards to clarify the use of all their powers. This is all for sanity purposes with a chaotic group, and the chaos has diminished with each session as a result.
Angus Abranson: I found this question really tricky and was almost going to pass on it. But then I really had a second, third, fourth… think on it and I think I’m going to go with two games that came out within months of each other that both introduced our group to the concept of Players being able to directly mould, change and take charge of the storyline and almost act as secondary Gamemasters in some ways. Now obviously players are pretty much always changing the story and moulding it to their own, but in both Torg (1990) and Amber (1991) we found games which enabled the players to directly change plot elements (Drama Deck) or move the story (through the use of Shadowshifting) to completely different pastures.
The Drama Deck in Torg not only gave the players ‘preferred actions’ that if they could work them into the story they’d get bonuses for doing but also gave you ways to ‘change’ the story… that big bad NPC that’s been causing loads of problems… well they’re actually an old friend of one of the PCs and owe them a favour. With Amber any character that has walked the Pattern can ‘shadowshift’, changing the reality they are currently in through subtle manipulations and changes to be able to move to ‘elsewhere’… be it virtually the same place but with a few minor differences all the way through to anything out of the characters wildest imagination… everything that may exist does exist somewhere in Shadow… Thus the characters could go literally anywhere and anywhen.
Amber Diceless Roleplay also introduced loads of new ideas to our group – from roleplaying without dice and to keeping character diaries to taking much more control of the game than we were used to in previous games. It was truly one of the most revolutionary games around.
James Wallis (The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Paranoia): During an all-day session of Empire of the Petal Throne towards the end of the 1980s, I became aware that the GM wasn't in the room. He'd gone to make lunch for everyone. The game continued without a break for almost an hour: plans were made, deals were done, an expedition began. It was a revelation about the way group-play can function if the game's structure is flexible enough to permit it, and it's influenced my thinking on RPG design ever since. Also the lunch was terrific.
WJ MacGuffin (Paranoia XP, Unknown Armies): Back when I first started playing RPGs (D&D basic set 1977, yes I'm that old), I played to roll dice and kill monsters. As I grew up, I started taking roleplaying more seriously. I delved into my character's personality and passionately argued over the rules. ("But my character wouldn't do that!")
Then I discovered Paranoia and ran "Me and My Shadow, Mark IV" for my group. Oh, my.
That game experience taught me two very important lessons that I keep close to my gamer heart.
1) Rules are not the Word of God. Instead of arguing over them, keep the game going. Being "right" is nowhere near as important as playing.
2) The whole damn point of gaming is to have fun. That needs to be the focus of every single game session. And if some rules or die rolls need to be fudged to keep people having fun, that's a good thing.
Sure, you could argue over how to define "fun," but after spending a few hours killing Troubleshooters around Mark IV, I realized that I was taking RPGs too seriously. I could deviate from the rules on the fly if that made the game better for players. I could change my die roll that killed a PC into one that kept the player in the game. I could even change a published adventure without worrying about balance or "what the designer intended" if that meant more smiles 'round the table.
When I got back to running D&D, I threw out rules for rations and encumbrance because no one liked them. (If you do, that's fine! I'm not telling you how to have fun!) Someone wanted to play a full orc? There are no rules for that — but what the hell, go for it. We'll make some up so they enjoy their character.
For a while, I forgot games were supposed to be fun. Thanks to that game experience, I won't forget that ever again.
Mike Mason (Chaosium; Games Workshop): Many years ago, I was running a Call of Cthulhu campaign – Masks of Nyarlathotep in fact, and the investigators were dying by the dozen each session. It got repetitive and dull. The players lost any sense of connection they might have had with their characters and the game stalled, thus prematurely ending. I was simply following the directions in the campaign, but these did little to help actually play in a campaign style. I was frustrated, as I wanted to enjoy ‘the whole’ campaign (having spent the money on it), just like the players had wanted to do. From that point, I resolved to run campaigns like a novel or film, where there would be a clear end point, with a dramatic a journey to get there. Yes, there might be set backs and the odd player character might die along the way, but I would avoid and rethink any potential for multiple and repeated character deaths. This didn't have to mean dumbing things down or reducing the threat levels of encounters; it meant using them intelligently by focusing on the drama, horror, and tension, while reducing senseless combat or over-the-top opponents. Since then, I always get to the end of the campaigns I run – and everyone enjoys that far more.
Ian Sturrock (RPG writer and game design lecturer): In college, over the course of a weekend-long binge play session, I played a lazy Halfling Thief in a game of D&D 2e (The Temple of Elemental Evil). During a break in the action, the party returned to Hommlet for some R&R. My character decided to try and joint he local Thieves’ Guild and was tasked with breaking into the local bank. He succeeded in spectacular fashion and was able to procure more than enough wealth to buy into the Guild. Instead, he decided to take the wealth and return home to live out his days. It was the first time I intentionally chose to retire a character because it made sense for that character to do so.
Aaron Hubrich (Jetpack 7; Gods & Goddesses): I think the online services and services that allow you to see the game play out on a full color screen are very nice. To be able to play with other people hundreds of miles away is amazing to me.
Wes Otis (Plate Mail Games, Realms of Rothaen): Many years ago, I was running a game at a con, I believe it was GURPS Old West, and I had 6 players, one of which was female. During the game one of the players made a rape joke about a situation in the game, and our female player, rightly, got very angry. At the time, I was ignorant to why such a joke would be a trigger for her and I did nothing while she yelled at the other player and left. We looked at each other like she was crazy, but we were the jerks in reality. Since then I have learned from that mistake and why it was not acceptable. You must respect that you have not walked in anyone else’s shoes. You can’t know what others have dealt with in their lives. If you’re male you do not know all the things a female must contend with day to day and you can’t be dismissive about their feelings. Joking about such things is flat out wrong and as a GM, I should have backed up my female player. I understand that now. The table is for everyone, and we need to respect all those who sit down to play.
David Donachie (Solipsist, Starblazer Adventures): The first time I played Shock! was a revelation. It showed me how deep, and emotional, a game could be with only a handful of scenes. I was used to multi-year campaigns, where characters and conflicts developed slowly, and the concentration of action really blew me away.
Rich Lescouflair (Alligator Alley Entertainment; Esper Genesis 5E): Playing Paranoia for the first time showed me how much fun it can be for your character to die, especially if it all goes off the rails.
Federico Sohns (Nibiru RPG): I think storytelling and reading through Changeling the Lost (my favourite game) for the first time really opened my eyes to how deep RPGs can get. The whole game had such an impact in me, on how it portrayed its worlds, themes and characters, that it really set the bar for what I deem as great overal design in an RPG, and it probably evolved into some of the most enjoyable campaigns I've played.
Simon Burley (Golden Heroes, The Super Hack): I have two. Firstly, I re-entered the RPG world in the early 21st century by travelling to Games Conventions to test/promote my Trad SHRPG - Squadron UK. Great game but fully Trad. Figures, mapboards etc. Crash, bang Superhero battles. I travelled up to a wonderful games convention in Scotland (Conpulsion) which took hours and cost a lot of money on the train. Carrying all the gear that far was a pain. I later found out it was actually cheaper - as well as faster - to FLY to Edinburgh from Birmingham (go figure) but that was hand luggage only. Paying for all the gear made it more expensive again. So I designed a lighter - more narrative - "theatre of the mind" SHRPG - The Comics Code. This I could throw in my overnight bag. Then a player pointed out that the rules were so light they could easily be adapted to other genres. I've since produced iterations for SciFi, Steampunk and Anime and am working on Fantasy and Horror. I've all but given up on playing my fully Trad games at the moment.
The second was when I, and some other GMs, were invited to a COMPUTER games convention to promote tabletop RPGs. There was a communications snaffu and - when we got there - it turned out that the space was being paid for by a trade stand and they only wanted us playing games they had on sale - which was basically Pathfinder. I've had my issues with Pathfinder in the past. Add onto that, when we were asked to run the one hour Pathfinder demonstration games I thought "there's no way you can demo RPGs in an hour." I was wrong, of course. The demos were short, effective and quite charming. That turned me onto the idea of running one hour demos at various geek conventions (SciFi, Anime, Boardgame, CCG etc.) which I've been doing ever since.
Darren Pearce (EN Publishing; Savage Mojo): A game experience that changed how I play. It would have to be when I first ran Feng Shui, seeing how that game worked changed the way I tend to do action scenes — I’m a lot more freeform in the things I expect players to do and more lenient. I favour a cinematic approach to a lot of it.
Mike Lafferty (BAMF Podcast; Fainting Goat Games): In a D&D 2e game a few years ago, my room-mate and I were developing a contentious relationship between our characters. We were big believers in the “roleplay is better than roll play” stuff – and, unfortunately, this could lead to in character roleplaying that was not always conducive to everyone having a good time but was tolerated (or even praised) because we were “staying in character”. In one particular session, it looked like our in-character bickering was going to derail things. To prevent that – we spontaneously decided our characters were quarrelsome brothers. One had become a priest, the other a warrior. They fought a lot – but it was how brothers fight. This one narrative change deescalated the squabble and made it possible for us to continue our in-character bickering – but do it at a lower intensity that didn’t tank everyone else’s good time.
This taught me that the better path is to collaborate in a way that lets everyone have a good time. Since then, I’ve generally tried to look for opportunities to set the group’s fun as the first priority and try to help facilitate everyone having a good time at the table. It doesn’t always work – but it’s a better position to start from (as opposed to trying to grab the spotlight and chew as much scenery as possible.)
Eran Aviram (Up to Four Players; City of Mist): I'll be strict to the letter of the question, and describe a game experience - only it wasn't mine (Is that cheating? Someone ask the GM please). A few months after Dungeon World first came out, a friend of mine who wanted to translate it to Hebrew asked me to help with the editing. So I started reading the system, and it opened my eyes - but it wasn't until I watched a recorded actual play (it was in the days before *streaming* actual plays became a thing), and watched in awe as this interaction unfolded: "Is there a wizard in this town?" asks the player; "I don't know, is there?" Says the GM. And my life changed.
Stephanie McAlea (Stygian Fox Publishing, The Things We Leave Behind): Continuum. I went from rolling dice to roleplaying/amateur character acting.
Simon Brake (Stygian Fox): Fiasco encouraged me to inhabit my character more. As there are no character sheets there’s more reliance on role-playing over dice-rolling, and it got me more comfortable expressing myself, even if I still struggle to inhabit characters significantly different from myself. The same is true of many other rules light games and, all in all, I prefer games that highlight the character over the character sheet.
****
Originally created by Dave Chapman (Doctor Who: Adventures in Time & Space; Conspiracy X) #RPGaDAY os now being caretakered by the crew over at RPGBrigade. We hope you’ll join in, in the comments section, and share your thoughts with us too!
#RPGaDAY Question 13: Describe a game experience that changed how you play.
Michael J Tresca: Playing with six players under the age of 12 has greatly simplified my approach to game mechanics in my 5E D&D Star Wars campaign. There's no initiative, we go around the table; for all powers that use a point pool (Force, maneuvers), we have one physical system involving papercraft Force crystals they throw into a box when they spend it; I created cards to clarify the use of all their powers. This is all for sanity purposes with a chaotic group, and the chaos has diminished with each session as a result.
Angus Abranson: I found this question really tricky and was almost going to pass on it. But then I really had a second, third, fourth… think on it and I think I’m going to go with two games that came out within months of each other that both introduced our group to the concept of Players being able to directly mould, change and take charge of the storyline and almost act as secondary Gamemasters in some ways. Now obviously players are pretty much always changing the story and moulding it to their own, but in both Torg (1990) and Amber (1991) we found games which enabled the players to directly change plot elements (Drama Deck) or move the story (through the use of Shadowshifting) to completely different pastures.
The Drama Deck in Torg not only gave the players ‘preferred actions’ that if they could work them into the story they’d get bonuses for doing but also gave you ways to ‘change’ the story… that big bad NPC that’s been causing loads of problems… well they’re actually an old friend of one of the PCs and owe them a favour. With Amber any character that has walked the Pattern can ‘shadowshift’, changing the reality they are currently in through subtle manipulations and changes to be able to move to ‘elsewhere’… be it virtually the same place but with a few minor differences all the way through to anything out of the characters wildest imagination… everything that may exist does exist somewhere in Shadow… Thus the characters could go literally anywhere and anywhen.
Amber Diceless Roleplay also introduced loads of new ideas to our group – from roleplaying without dice and to keeping character diaries to taking much more control of the game than we were used to in previous games. It was truly one of the most revolutionary games around.
James Wallis (The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Paranoia): During an all-day session of Empire of the Petal Throne towards the end of the 1980s, I became aware that the GM wasn't in the room. He'd gone to make lunch for everyone. The game continued without a break for almost an hour: plans were made, deals were done, an expedition began. It was a revelation about the way group-play can function if the game's structure is flexible enough to permit it, and it's influenced my thinking on RPG design ever since. Also the lunch was terrific.
WJ MacGuffin (Paranoia XP, Unknown Armies): Back when I first started playing RPGs (D&D basic set 1977, yes I'm that old), I played to roll dice and kill monsters. As I grew up, I started taking roleplaying more seriously. I delved into my character's personality and passionately argued over the rules. ("But my character wouldn't do that!")
Then I discovered Paranoia and ran "Me and My Shadow, Mark IV" for my group. Oh, my.
That game experience taught me two very important lessons that I keep close to my gamer heart.
1) Rules are not the Word of God. Instead of arguing over them, keep the game going. Being "right" is nowhere near as important as playing.
2) The whole damn point of gaming is to have fun. That needs to be the focus of every single game session. And if some rules or die rolls need to be fudged to keep people having fun, that's a good thing.
Sure, you could argue over how to define "fun," but after spending a few hours killing Troubleshooters around Mark IV, I realized that I was taking RPGs too seriously. I could deviate from the rules on the fly if that made the game better for players. I could change my die roll that killed a PC into one that kept the player in the game. I could even change a published adventure without worrying about balance or "what the designer intended" if that meant more smiles 'round the table.
When I got back to running D&D, I threw out rules for rations and encumbrance because no one liked them. (If you do, that's fine! I'm not telling you how to have fun!) Someone wanted to play a full orc? There are no rules for that — but what the hell, go for it. We'll make some up so they enjoy their character.
For a while, I forgot games were supposed to be fun. Thanks to that game experience, I won't forget that ever again.
Mike Mason (Chaosium; Games Workshop): Many years ago, I was running a Call of Cthulhu campaign – Masks of Nyarlathotep in fact, and the investigators were dying by the dozen each session. It got repetitive and dull. The players lost any sense of connection they might have had with their characters and the game stalled, thus prematurely ending. I was simply following the directions in the campaign, but these did little to help actually play in a campaign style. I was frustrated, as I wanted to enjoy ‘the whole’ campaign (having spent the money on it), just like the players had wanted to do. From that point, I resolved to run campaigns like a novel or film, where there would be a clear end point, with a dramatic a journey to get there. Yes, there might be set backs and the odd player character might die along the way, but I would avoid and rethink any potential for multiple and repeated character deaths. This didn't have to mean dumbing things down or reducing the threat levels of encounters; it meant using them intelligently by focusing on the drama, horror, and tension, while reducing senseless combat or over-the-top opponents. Since then, I always get to the end of the campaigns I run – and everyone enjoys that far more.
Ian Sturrock (RPG writer and game design lecturer): In college, over the course of a weekend-long binge play session, I played a lazy Halfling Thief in a game of D&D 2e (The Temple of Elemental Evil). During a break in the action, the party returned to Hommlet for some R&R. My character decided to try and joint he local Thieves’ Guild and was tasked with breaking into the local bank. He succeeded in spectacular fashion and was able to procure more than enough wealth to buy into the Guild. Instead, he decided to take the wealth and return home to live out his days. It was the first time I intentionally chose to retire a character because it made sense for that character to do so.
Aaron Hubrich (Jetpack 7; Gods & Goddesses): I think the online services and services that allow you to see the game play out on a full color screen are very nice. To be able to play with other people hundreds of miles away is amazing to me.
Wes Otis (Plate Mail Games, Realms of Rothaen): Many years ago, I was running a game at a con, I believe it was GURPS Old West, and I had 6 players, one of which was female. During the game one of the players made a rape joke about a situation in the game, and our female player, rightly, got very angry. At the time, I was ignorant to why such a joke would be a trigger for her and I did nothing while she yelled at the other player and left. We looked at each other like she was crazy, but we were the jerks in reality. Since then I have learned from that mistake and why it was not acceptable. You must respect that you have not walked in anyone else’s shoes. You can’t know what others have dealt with in their lives. If you’re male you do not know all the things a female must contend with day to day and you can’t be dismissive about their feelings. Joking about such things is flat out wrong and as a GM, I should have backed up my female player. I understand that now. The table is for everyone, and we need to respect all those who sit down to play.
David Donachie (Solipsist, Starblazer Adventures): The first time I played Shock! was a revelation. It showed me how deep, and emotional, a game could be with only a handful of scenes. I was used to multi-year campaigns, where characters and conflicts developed slowly, and the concentration of action really blew me away.
Rich Lescouflair (Alligator Alley Entertainment; Esper Genesis 5E): Playing Paranoia for the first time showed me how much fun it can be for your character to die, especially if it all goes off the rails.
Federico Sohns (Nibiru RPG): I think storytelling and reading through Changeling the Lost (my favourite game) for the first time really opened my eyes to how deep RPGs can get. The whole game had such an impact in me, on how it portrayed its worlds, themes and characters, that it really set the bar for what I deem as great overal design in an RPG, and it probably evolved into some of the most enjoyable campaigns I've played.
Simon Burley (Golden Heroes, The Super Hack): I have two. Firstly, I re-entered the RPG world in the early 21st century by travelling to Games Conventions to test/promote my Trad SHRPG - Squadron UK. Great game but fully Trad. Figures, mapboards etc. Crash, bang Superhero battles. I travelled up to a wonderful games convention in Scotland (Conpulsion) which took hours and cost a lot of money on the train. Carrying all the gear that far was a pain. I later found out it was actually cheaper - as well as faster - to FLY to Edinburgh from Birmingham (go figure) but that was hand luggage only. Paying for all the gear made it more expensive again. So I designed a lighter - more narrative - "theatre of the mind" SHRPG - The Comics Code. This I could throw in my overnight bag. Then a player pointed out that the rules were so light they could easily be adapted to other genres. I've since produced iterations for SciFi, Steampunk and Anime and am working on Fantasy and Horror. I've all but given up on playing my fully Trad games at the moment.
The second was when I, and some other GMs, were invited to a COMPUTER games convention to promote tabletop RPGs. There was a communications snaffu and - when we got there - it turned out that the space was being paid for by a trade stand and they only wanted us playing games they had on sale - which was basically Pathfinder. I've had my issues with Pathfinder in the past. Add onto that, when we were asked to run the one hour Pathfinder demonstration games I thought "there's no way you can demo RPGs in an hour." I was wrong, of course. The demos were short, effective and quite charming. That turned me onto the idea of running one hour demos at various geek conventions (SciFi, Anime, Boardgame, CCG etc.) which I've been doing ever since.
Darren Pearce (EN Publishing; Savage Mojo): A game experience that changed how I play. It would have to be when I first ran Feng Shui, seeing how that game worked changed the way I tend to do action scenes — I’m a lot more freeform in the things I expect players to do and more lenient. I favour a cinematic approach to a lot of it.
Mike Lafferty (BAMF Podcast; Fainting Goat Games): In a D&D 2e game a few years ago, my room-mate and I were developing a contentious relationship between our characters. We were big believers in the “roleplay is better than roll play” stuff – and, unfortunately, this could lead to in character roleplaying that was not always conducive to everyone having a good time but was tolerated (or even praised) because we were “staying in character”. In one particular session, it looked like our in-character bickering was going to derail things. To prevent that – we spontaneously decided our characters were quarrelsome brothers. One had become a priest, the other a warrior. They fought a lot – but it was how brothers fight. This one narrative change deescalated the squabble and made it possible for us to continue our in-character bickering – but do it at a lower intensity that didn’t tank everyone else’s good time.
This taught me that the better path is to collaborate in a way that lets everyone have a good time. Since then, I’ve generally tried to look for opportunities to set the group’s fun as the first priority and try to help facilitate everyone having a good time at the table. It doesn’t always work – but it’s a better position to start from (as opposed to trying to grab the spotlight and chew as much scenery as possible.)
Eran Aviram (Up to Four Players; City of Mist): I'll be strict to the letter of the question, and describe a game experience - only it wasn't mine (Is that cheating? Someone ask the GM please). A few months after Dungeon World first came out, a friend of mine who wanted to translate it to Hebrew asked me to help with the editing. So I started reading the system, and it opened my eyes - but it wasn't until I watched a recorded actual play (it was in the days before *streaming* actual plays became a thing), and watched in awe as this interaction unfolded: "Is there a wizard in this town?" asks the player; "I don't know, is there?" Says the GM. And my life changed.
Stephanie McAlea (Stygian Fox Publishing, The Things We Leave Behind): Continuum. I went from rolling dice to roleplaying/amateur character acting.
Simon Brake (Stygian Fox): Fiasco encouraged me to inhabit my character more. As there are no character sheets there’s more reliance on role-playing over dice-rolling, and it got me more comfortable expressing myself, even if I still struggle to inhabit characters significantly different from myself. The same is true of many other rules light games and, all in all, I prefer games that highlight the character over the character sheet.
****
Originally created by Dave Chapman (Doctor Who: Adventures in Time & Space; Conspiracy X) #RPGaDAY os now being caretakered by the crew over at RPGBrigade. We hope you’ll join in, in the comments section, and share your thoughts with us too!
