graphic design and book layout
Our topics for days 8 and 9 of #RPGaDAY are “What is a good RPG to play for sessions of two hours or less?” and “What is a good RPG to play for about ten sessions?” Easy-peasy.
Primetime Adventures.
When I run Primetime Adventures, each episode takes about two hours to run through. A long season of PTA is nine game sessions. Add on one session to bust out the pitch session — where we all make protagonists and decide on the series we are going to create — and we’re at ten sessions.
I’ve been playing the Mr Robot phone app game, 1.51exfiltrati0n.apk (.ipa on iOS), which would be fun if I wasn’t so worried that the damn thing crashed again. The game, from Night Sky Studio (partnered with Telltale Games) simulates a text messaging system.: you find a phone and start receiving texts on it. The gameplay is done through your responses to the texts. It’s like a choose-your-own-adventure book that way. A cool thing: although the game is called “Mr. Robot” on the app’s icon, the notifications on your actual phone come from “ECorp Messaging”, the faux-app inside the game.
While the game is described as a real time game, it’s actually just keyed off of timed events: you end a conversation with D, and then one hour later, E texts you. The frustrating thing is because these gaps exist, I don’t know if I’m waiting on the next message or if I’m in a strange game state where I can’t advance through the storyline.
Ah, another question from Tracy Barnett! What’s my favorite magic or high-tech item in a roleplaying game? My twitter answer: The Wand of Wonder. Point it at a target and who knows what’s going to happen? Maybe you’ll cast a fireball. Maybe you shoot a lightning bold from the wand. Maybe six hundred large butterflies pour forth from and flutter around, blinding everybody.
Let’s roll and find out! 88? Okay then! 10-40 gems of 1 gp base value shoot forth in a 3″ long stream ((Something like 30 feet in game terms.)), each causing 1 hp of damage to any creature in path — roll 5d4 for number of hits.
It should be pointed out that I did have a character with a wand of wonder. It was a grommam (an orangutan-like race from Spelljammer) with Boots of Striding and Springing. Battle cry: “Eat randomness!”