#RPGaDay 2017 (part I of III)

Whether or not these lists have value in today's RPG blog-o-sphere, I'm going to answer as many as I can over the course of three days.

Why three days?  I don't want to tie up my precious blogging space with random questions for each day of this month (and I'm a bit late to the party).

#1:  What published RPG do I wish I was playing right now?

Assuming this is going to be a one-shot and assuming that I'll be playing as a player (rather than my usual position as GM), I'd love to play one of my own RPGs (Crimson Dragon Slayer, Alpha Blue, or The Outer Presence).  To this day, I've never been a player in the aforementioned RPGs.  I'm sure it'll happen soon, though.

But if that wasn't a possibility, then something fun, oddball, and awesomely ridiculous like Encounter Critical.

#2:  What is an RPG you would like to see published?

Hasn't everything been published already?  Just to see how far I could get (didn't really expect much), I contacted ABC to see what they wanted for the license to make an official RPG for Lost.  They never emailed me back, unfortunately.  So, I guess Lost might be my answer.

#3:  How do you find out about new RPGs?

Through blogs and the occasional forum thread.  DriveThruRPG makes it easy to see what's new or what one might like based on similar purchases.

#4:  Which RPG have you played the most since August, 2016?

I think that would have to be Alpha Blue.  I've been running a lot of demos on Roll20 and ran 3 or 4 sessions at Gary Con IX.  Plus, the odd home game.

#5:  Which RPG cover best captures the spirit of the game?

Which game?  My favorite cover is the Tom Moldvay magenta box with Erol Otus art.  A close second is the AD&D Player's Handbook.  I've seen a lot of cool answers that other people have given, and agree with many of them - 2nd edition Paranoia, 3rd edition Call of Cthulhu, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st edition...

#6:  You can game everyday for a week.  Describe what you'd do!

I'd either have to envision this as the mother of all RPG conventions or traveling back in time - before a career, wife, and 5 kids.

While I like hopping from one game to another, sampling this and that, there's something deeply satisfying about sticking to a particular game for consecutive days/nights.  I have fond memories playing Vampire: the Masquerade, D&D, WEG D6 Star Wars, and Call of Cthulhu day after day or night after night in the summer with friends in the early 90's.

So, I'd probably run something simple and spontaneous where I never seem to lack for ideas - Alpha Blue.  It's my sleazy go-to baby for when I don't have anything prepared.

If I had to choose something that I didn't write, it would probably be Masks of Nyarlathotep.  If I worked at it, I think we could get through the whole thing in 7 days, assuming 5 - 6 hours per day.

BTW, just saw the PDF for the Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion.  Awesome cover!  Sure, it's over 700 pages (hmm... they can't all be winners with that much content, am I right?) but $47.50 for the PDF?  Damn, that's expensive.  I mean, it's more than double the cost of the actual Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign!  Doesn't that kind of price gouging encourage gamers to pirate the digital content?
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Ok, the next 9 or 10 questions tomorrow and the final installment on Wednesday!

VS

p.s.  Only 3 days left to back the Battle For The Purple Islands Kickstarter.

Will 6th Edition Have Open Art-Testing?

Hmmm... I've been reading a number of fantasy RPG blogs (most of them OSR, probably) about the D&D Next covers.  One guy said they were badly cropped.  I don't disagree.  Another chap liked them overall but couldn't, in all honesty, say that he loved them.  Can't blame him.  And some dude did THIS!

Art is a subjective thing.  We won't all nod our heads in unison that one piece of artwork is superior to another.  Nevertheless, I think many of us can weigh in on what we like and why, as well as, what we loathe and who should be held responsible and smacked in the head with rotten tomatoes.

What I really want to know is this - did anyone even bother approaching Erol Otus?!?

I'm sure the gaming ghetto of the internet is buzzing with comments about the subject.  So, that begs the question... if the rules were aired out and mulled over for a couple years before being published this summer, why not the artwork?  After all, isn't that part of the D&D experience?  Don't we care about what's on the outside almost as much as what's within?  Sure, a cover is just the surface of a book, the tip of the iceberg... however, the tip is so very, very important.  Why leave it up to a handful of professionals?

Additionally, the same aesthetic standards of indie RPG companies and publishers do not apply to Hasbro / Wizard of the Coast.  We don't expect our product to make millions of dollars.  We won't reach an audience of hundreds of thousands.  The future of the RPG industry is not in our tiny hands.

That brings me to another question - should game design be democratic?  Each decision based upon a popularity contest?  Is that effective or even healthy?

Personally, I think the 5th edition covers are fairly decent.  Unfortunately, "fairly decent" doesn't really cut it, does it?  I care about roleplaying in general, Dungeons & Dragons in specific.  Even if I don't plan on playing Next, I have skin in the game.  This is my hobby, my passion, my life.  I'm not going to climb a clock tower with a rifle because there aren't enough tentacles or I dislike fire engine red.  But let's face it, it matters to me just as the next generation of roleplaying matters to me.

I didn't paste the new covers in this blog post because chances are you've already seen them dozens of times and that was probably plenty, unfortunately.  So, enjoy some truly amazing RPG artwork: the basic D&D "magenta box" by Erol Otus.  In my mind, the greatest RPG cover art ever!  It has all the basics - a dragon in a dungeon being attacked by more than one adventurer - magic and martial prowess working together in hopes of acquiring a treasure chest of precious gemstones!  Yes, it's a bit dated.  The dragon doesn't inspire the level of fear I'm sure the DM would like, yet, whole captures an otherworldly tone sorely lacking in most RPG art.  Second place - the AD&D Player's Handbook by David A. Trampier!

If you have any thoughts on D&D Next - good, bad, ugly, awesome, weird, not weird enough, etc., please feel free to speak your mind.  I shall not denigrate you in public.  Just in my fevered imagination.  ;)


VS

Liberation of the Demon Slayer - update #2

Not much has happened since I just got back from vacation last night, but there has been progress.  The editing continues... should have a completed manuscript around June 1st, then layout, adding interior artwork (which is starting to filter in - some of it is really great!), a bit more tweaking, and hopefully it will be finished sometime in August.

Faustie has been working on the front cover.  This is his latest version on the right.  I've given him a few notes for changes, but the finished product will look similar to this.  He's going to take a couple days off and then get working on the back cover.

Incidentally, Shane Ward came up with his own layout for Liberation of the Demon Slayer - two different versions.  Email me if you want to check that out, I'll send you the PDF.  Keep in mind that it's not the latest edit of the manuscript, nor will it necessarily resemble the format of the final product.  Enough of the update.  Now, I'm going to write a little about my trip from an old school gamer's perspective.

Disney World is just as fun, fantastical, and occasionally frustrating as it was 30 years ago.  If there was an RPG based on Disney, then there would be three main classes:  princess, pirate, and wizard.  And together these characters would explore the jungles of Africa, the Devil-monkey worshiping mountains of Asia, futuristic mountains of nebula-warping, Carribean coves, and the storybook lands of fairy tales.

Seeing all that stuff again decades later was amazing.  I got to go on most of the rides I remembered from my childhood.  Sure, a few things changed.  Johnny Depp is prominently featured in Pirates of the Carribean.  Mr. Toad's wild ride is simply gone.  And there's a bright and flashy new Little Mermaid ride.  And, of course, many things stayed exactly the same, like it's a small world after all.

This isn't unlike the old school passion, nostalgia, and gaming principles of Dungeons & Dragons and similar roleplaying games.  There are pieces of rules or rulings we fondly remember from years and years ago.  Things we wish wouldn't change.  Maybe it's saving throws or d6 weapon damage despite what is being wielded.  Improvements have been made, fancy expensive improvements.  Some of which actually make the game better... other "improvements" seem to detract from it - based on our own subjective views.  Additionally, there are the elements we remember as cool decades ago, but have since lost their luster.

Anyways, going back to Disney World was a blast from the past.  I got to go on Space Mountain - something I always wanted to do when my parents and I went to the Magic Kingdom, but never did.  On the one hand, it probably didn't have the same effect on me as an adult that it would have had on me as a kid.  On the other, I was totally in touch with the aeons-old vibe.  Like seeing an Erol Otus illustration I've never seen before but still have an old school nostalgic love for because his aesthetic came from a certain place and time.  Indeed, I had a similar timeless enthusiasm for all the neato scifi imagery of the mid 1970's.

Space Mountain is actually the oldest rollercoaster in Florida (I just looked it up).  It was refurbished (including complete replacement of the ride trains in 1989 and 2009). So, even when something looks like age hasn't touched it or retains a retro style, it might still have modernized parts or a contemporary philosophy or paradigm attached to it.  And vice-versa.  Some visions are incredibly old, yet done in a totally contemporary way.

Besides that, I got a lot of ideas brewing inside my head for current adventures and future campaigns, everything from meteor storms that make dinosaurs frenzy to primitive wood-carved leopard stools to king-making swords lodged in stone.


VS