The #RPGaDAY writing prompt for today is “How do you find out about new roleplaying games?” — a question I don’t have a good answer for. I mean, I used to read message forums and know about cool things that way. I also used to enter the neighborhood bookstore and stumble across something new. This is how I found out about Shadowrun, through a copy of Bug City sitting on a shelf at a Hastings in a slowly-dying mall in Bryan, Texas. It’s also how I found out about 7th Sea. (But that was at a used bookstore, a month or two after I discovered Shadowrun, so my big college era game was more cyberpunky than swashbuckly.)
I guess these days it’s social media.
Well, that and working on layout for books then getting told what’s coming out down the line but I can’t tell anyone about it until the company makes an announcement.
I mean, with Chill, I think I heard about it on twitter and wrote to the people doing the new edition and got in that way. Or with Unknown Armies where people reached out to me. (I think.) Or this new version of 7th Sea, where a prior working relationship led to that book. Everything else, social media. Or trawling through Kickstarter for the Crowdfunding Highlights articles I do for Purple Pawn. ((Not that I’ve had time recently to write anything for the website.))
Well. That was a short answer.
Previously, on #RPGaDAY…
Last year, a character moment I was proud of. I talked about Amy’s last line in our Lady Blackbird game. That was cool: Amy established the Lady’s control over her future with one line. It was the perfect ending. This year, it was in our Princes of the Apocalypse D&D game, where Ciaran took what was basically a fantasy nuke out of harm’s way after a combined effort of all the heroes to separate it from the mad bomber, saving hundreds of lives. I had a random roll for how long it would take for the thing to detonate and he managed to hang onto it, one dimension door after another, throwing it at the very last second, and nearly dying in the process. It was a tense scene, full of action and suspense. Truly, Ciaran was the Hero of Summit Hall that day.
In 2015 the topic was favorite new roleplaying game of the past year. There I listed Dracula Dossier (which I intend to pick up at Gen Con this year along with Dracula Redacted and Night’s Black Agents). This past year I am tempted to go with Apocalypse World‘s second edition, but I’m really going to give it over to Tales from the Loop. I’ve only played this once and the players chose the American setting — I would have preferred the Swedish setting — and it’s a fun little game. A bit like Stranger Things, ((It even has an adventure outline in there that is taken straight from that show.)) the game reads and plays a bit lighter than that series. As mentioned earlier, it’s up for several awards in the ENnies and if it beats out stuff I’ve worked on, I am okay with that.
In 2014, I wrote about the first game I purchased. The first one I definitely remember purchasing with my own money was Twilight: 2000, even though I had been playing Dungeons & Dragons, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition, and even Champions. But now that I’m really thinking about it, I know I had some other RPGs before I changed high schools — Twilight: 2000 was definitely a game I purchased after the move. ((I switched schools in the junior year of high school, overseas to a school operated by the American Department of Defense. I recall playing Twilight: 2000 over there.)) I definitely recall having Autoduel Champions, a Champions supplement for playing heroes in the Car Wars universe. Also I joined a game of Rolemaster, so I remember getting a copy of the various books of tables for that game.