#RPGaDAY2015, Day 3: Favorite New RPG of the Past 12 Months

by ThomasNo Comments

The third entry in #RPGaDAY2015 is the favorite new RPG of the past year. Not favorite RPG, but favorite new RPG. Newly released? All-new game? A bit tricky, but the graphic used for the writing prompts doesn’t include much space to break down the minute details of the topic. I’m taking it to mean the favorite RPG I picked up or played in the past year that was new to me. (Granted, I haven’t played much this past year, either.)

I mentioned Chill for Day Two’s answer, and am tempted to go back to that for all the same reasons, but I’m not going to do so. Instead, I would have to pick the 5th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons. We’ve got the whole line so far and I’m impressed with the game. When it was winning ENnies a few nights ago, it was the first year I thought it won because it deserved to and not because there were people voting for it, dismissing everything else out of hand, as if they were rooting for their regional sports team because that’s what one does.

onsvh9apbgixtgjpik0k-300x212I hadn’t played D&D proper since AD&D 2nd Edition — third edition (and Pathfinder) seemed like an overwrought mess, fourth edition seemed to stray even further afield yet devolved into an overly-complex miniatures battle game. By the time 5e came out, I was done with fantasy roleplaying, but the new edition brought me back to the land of make-believe. And WotC’s campaigns, borrowing heavily from Paizo’s Adventure Path concept, have been…more or less good. The Elemental Evil campaign book could be a complete setting guide for the middle/interior of the Sword Coast. It’s just fantastic. The Starter Set’s adventure is also crazy fun. And we’ve been playing (off and on) as a family. It plays quickly, reminding me of the best of AD&D2ed with some goodness from the past decade of gaming. 4e didn’t feel like D&D to me. 5e does.

#RPGaDAY2015, Day 2: Kickstarter Game You’re Most Pleased You Backed

by ThomasNo Comments

The second #RPGaDAY2015 topic is Kickstarter Game You’re Most Pleased You Backed. I would reword that topic to “Crowdfunded Game…” because there’s some fantastic stuff coming out on Patreon and IndieGoGo. Every three weeks at Purple Pawn, I write a Crowdfunding Highlights article (4-6 things that have caught my attention) in rotation with two other staff members, and there’s more to crowdfunding than just Kickstarter.

But Kickstarter has the best interface for finding things to throw money at, which is part of the reason why I’ve backed many more things on that funding platform than all others combined.

I’m going to go with a game that I worked on: Chill, 3rd Edition. I backed this at a dollar, which is something I do when I’m brought on board a project before the campaign ends. I really I want to see the backer-only updates and the backers’ comments. (And, if need be, respond to the comments if it’s cool with the campaign creator.) There are about seven of them in my backing history, and Chill is one of those one dollar backings.

chill-openI’ve played Mayfair’s edition of Chill and loved it. When I heard of a potential 3rd Edition, I contacted Growling Door Games, and after a little bit of discussion, there I was, creating the graphics for the KS, laying out the quickstart, and designing the rulebook. And by designing the book, I mean actually designing the book — I had just come off of Firefly, where I was working from Daniel Solis’ design. While Firefly was a fun gig, I wasn’t as free to lay down some design work for a full product. The physical book arrived just three days ago, and it came out looking even better than I thought it would. I’m still amazed — here’s this thing that I did and it’s right here. It’s so…awesome. It makes me smile. Chill, 3rd Edition, is the most pleasing game I’ve backed.

Honorable Mentions: Posthuman Pathways for the ENnie, Primetime Adventures because it’s my favorite RPG, and Play Dirty 2: Even Dirtier because John Wick is John Wick.

Aside: I also backed a book at a level that would have gotten me the PDF of the it. After the campaign, I came on board during production to finish laying out the book. After it was done — meaning, I had all the book files from here — I received a download code to get my free copy of the book. Crazy!

#RPGaDAY2015, Day 1: Forthcoming Game You’re Most Looking Forward To

by ThomasNo Comments

Last year, Dave Chapman (designer of Cubicle 7’s Doctor Who Roleplaying Game) hosted a month-long series of writing prompts about roleplaying games called #RPGaDAY. He’s back again this year with another month’s worth of prompts to celebrate “everything cool, memorable, and amazing about our hobby.” I’m planning on participating again, but over here on my website instead of G+ this year. (This is also a sneaky way of prompting me to update my website.) Along with these 2015 posts, I’ll be revisiting last year’s posts.

Sorry, but I just had to change it from that horrible pink color. Click through if you want to grab the color-shifted fullsized image.
Sorry, but I just had to change it from that horrible pink color. Click through if you want to grab the color-shifted fullsized image.

Day 1 of #RPGaDAY2015: Forthcoming Game You’re Most Looking Forward To

tachyonThere are three games that I’m very interested in, but I think I’d only ever get one to the table. The two that I probably won’t be able to play are Apocalypse World, 2nd Edition and Unknown Armies, 3rd Edition. The third one is the Sentinels Comics RPG.

Apocalypse World, because my wife didn’t like the game (but I think that was more to the sour way our AW1 game ended — I learned from that game and know I won’t make the same mistakes, but a game that ends on a sour note always spoils chances to play again). Well, that and I’d really need a face-to-face crew that I know well to pick it up again. But gods alive, I love that game. The MC chapter is so amazing! It’s the first RPG book that explicity tells the game runner to not have an adversarial relationship with the players: “Be a fan of the player’s characters,” the book says. Nice. I love this game. It’s one of my favorites. I’ll probably never get to play it. (Although I’ll probably be looking for a game on G+ Hangouts.)

Unknown Armies is a game I’ve always wanted to play but never did. Again, lack of a regular gaming group will keep me from playing this, I think. Second Edition, I had a copy of and every so often I go back to read the fiction in the game and think about street-level games that never came to pass. I do have 3rd’s playtest files and a small group that might tackle it. So, who knows? That may turn into something.

But I’m probably going to be able to play through the Sentinels Comics RPG, based on the Sentinels of the Multiverse card game (and related properties). The young girl likes superheroes, but we need a fast and easy game to play that I could use to introduce her to actual heroic stuff. Something a bit more complicated than RPG Kids, but nothing as complex as pretty much every other Supers RPG out there. The team on Sentinels is mostly the same group as on Marvel Heroic, which is super fast and easy, but might be conceptually a bit over the 9yo’s head. I haven’t seen Sentinels yet, but I know Cam’s work ((I’m working with him on the Demon Hunters RPG and worked on his designs back at MWP)) and I like his stuff. I think the girl will, too. However, if Sentinels doesn’t work out, we might have to go with some sort of ICONS/Fate mashup.