#Running a Tabletop RPG •

[prokopetz]

If someone's primary experience with ttrpgs is 5e played without encumbrance rules and with milestone experience, and they wanted to try an osr dungeon-as-a-heist type game, what game would you recommend to make that transition easiest?

(With reference to this post there.)

Probably Mausritter. Among other things, it handles the logistics of encumbrance via playing inventory Tetris with print-and-play cards, which I find is a lot more approachable to folks unaccustomed to logistical play than jumping straight to stapling a spreadsheet to your character record. This does mean you need to either use a virtual tabletop app to play online, or else put people on the honour system about what items are in which slots, of course.

(Admittedly, the "gritty sword and sorcery fantasy except you're all mice" thing can be a hard sell for some groups, particularly those who are inclined to be weird about anthro stuff. On the flip side, it's pay-what-you-want and the core rules are only 24 pages long, so you won't lose much if you decide to pitch it and your group says "no".)

[vintagerpg]

Run for Cover (2006) is a retrospective of Derek Riggs’ art career which, for the most part, means it is a retrospective of all the Iron Maiden art of note. He got his start with some Heavy Metal covers and basically fell right into being Maiden’s go-to art guy. Eddie, their mascot, is really Riggs’ creation — the zombie on the band’s first release was originally called Electric Matthew and was a personal work.

Riggs’ work for Maiden is one of the richest in metal, producing a body of over-the-top, horror-tinged art work that really has no rival in the scene. It’s a real joy to see all of the covers, to the albums and singles, collected in one place, along with the merch designs and sketches and alternate painting and what not. Riggs’ packed so much detail into his works that there are still surprises to be found in nearly every one.

Less delightful is the lengthy interview with Riggs that runs the course of the book. He’s a lot to take in, a little bit of a bullshitter, a lot of a grump. His relationship with the band can be best described as “contentious” and when the relationship fell apart for Fear of the Dark, Riggs makes it clear that he was sick of the band. It also sounds like maybe the band was sick of Riggs, too. The partnership didn’t break up for long, Riggs was back for A Real Live One because he needed the money, and has continued to work with them periodically since.

It’s…weird. I can’t imagine having that sort of career, bound almost entirely to one band, with little ownership of all that work. Riggs, for all his grumbles, doesn’t seem to have any regrets, though. More power to him. And I will say: my enthusiasm for much of the band’s catalog has cooled over the years, but I’ll never get tired of Riggs’ paintings.

If you want a copy, Riggs has them for sale on his site.

[haveyouplayedthisttrpg]

Have you played RUN ROBOT RED ?

By Annie Rush

Playing as funny little robots

[dungeonofthedragon]

For a limited time: grab three of my solo-friendly games for just $1. That's a saving of over 80%!

Seek the Grail alongside King Arthur.

Navigate a vampire's castle to rescue a loved one.

Explore a wizard's tower and meet the colorful characters within.

Get this bundle here!

[sohkrates]

It Drinks Light: The Origins of the Xenomorph and LoadingReadyRun's Heat Death

In previous drafts of this essay I spent paragraphs outlining my love of the Alien films, defending Alien 3 and Resurrection, and using that to lead into why you would enjoy an Alien RPG actual play series called Heat Death. But I just spent a lot of money on a tattoo that I think will speak to my bona fides:

I like the Alien franchise. I like Geiger’s xenomorph, I like the clunky cassette futurism imagined in those 80’s movies. It feels increasingly like a much needed antidote to modern digital interfaces, and the maddeningly undefiled aesthetics of the corporate digital age.

But after I saw Prometheus and then Covenant it became very apparent to me that Ridley Scott isn’t interested in the parts of the universe that I am interested in. Or at least, his answers to those questions aren’t particularly satisfying.

There are some good things in those movies, don’t get me wrong. The moment when the two Michael Fassbenders have flute lessons is some of the gayest shit in the series, right alongside Ripley and Call having come good ol’ fashioned knife play in Resurrection.

The prequels also continue the theme established in the first few movies that the whims of the rich and powerful will doom us all in general, and the people who work for them specifically. Their corporations are shown time and again to be fundamentally opposed to human flourishing. True as it ever was.

But that’s kinda it for me.

The question at the heart of these prequels is “Where did the xenomorph come from?” to which they answer:

Some sort of chemical weapon or tool synthesized by tall aliens called engineers for ambiguous purposes. Millenia later this was discovered and hijacked by a singular android of human design, flawed in all the ways its creator was flawed. Some iterations and experiments later we get the xenomorphs we recognize. 

Admittedly there may be more nuance than that. But as far as I can tell any further details are all muddled in cut content and unskilled storytelling.

Ultimately, according to the prequels thus far, the xenomorph is something we did to ourselves.

That is not a particularly engaging answer to me. I don’t really care about how the titular alien came to be. I don’t need to see the engineers, or the origins of the space jockey. I liked it when it felt like that tall alien was merged with the cockpit, when it looked like one organism, a new and novel form of life from another evolutionary path completely unlike our own.

And if you feel the same, I have something to recommend to you. 

Heat Death is an actual play series made by the Canadian comedy/streaming troupe LoadingReadyRun in 2020 as part of their Dice Friends series. They did 6 episodes where Cameron, the GM, leads 4 players through their own scenario in the official Alien RPG.

And it’s one of the best Alien stories I’ve ever seen.

Cameron provides much more interesting answers to the questions Ridley Scott keeps asking, and in a method that compliments the familiar set up of Alien films. A typical day in the life of spacers is interrupted by a combination of corporate malfeasance and/or the existence of the xenomorph.

The setup of Heat Death is thus: The crew of the research vessel Ludomia, our PC’s and NPC’s for the series, wake up on a strange and grandiose space station called New Eden. Their vessel is missing, the rest of their crew is missing, and they have no idea where they are. They seek answers, they seek escape, and they try to figure out what was happening here hidden in the shadows of space.

And in typical Alien fashion, it all goes to hell.

Part of the reason the series works so well for me is because the GM has a background in the sciences. This helps when the characters are confronted with the truly alien things they find. I am an amateur appreciator of things like biology and astronomy ,and so there is just enough detail to make me feel like I know what’s happening, but also enough unfamiliar jargon that I feel an appropriate sense of awe and dread. Cameron doesn’t talk down to his audience or his players, he describes the world in ways that would make sense to the character’s point of view, and offers explanations and details when prompted.

The xenomorph’s biology is described as being reminiscent of Teflon, an immediately startling non sequitur.

The primordial black goo from the prequels is described as incredibly hazardous to human beings through exacting technical terminology. It makes it seem real and dangerous. In the prequels it always felt flat and… out of place.

I like Heat Death because Cameron and the players are actively investigating the question of the origins of the xenomorph without limiting the possibility space. It’s not a closed loop that begins and ends at LV-426 with the space jockey and its ship. Instead we see a possible answer to what is waiting for us in the stars, a galactic ecology that we have stumbled into and are ill-equipped to handle. It makes the machinations of Weyland-Yutani seem even more feeble and doomed.

It also works so well because the players are all in on it. They lean into the themes of the franchise, of roughnecks who shoot first, of commanders in over their head, and corporate representatives quietly manipulating things to their own end. There’s no power gaming or looking to get the upper hand or finding an optimal path to survival. They see the awfulness coming and they don’t look away.

There’s more that I could recommend about this series, but I run the risk of giving away too much. There’s the poetic introductions to each episode that give breadth to the fiction. The investigations of different bits of lore and tech, from faster than light travel to how synthetics work. But I guess I’ll end by going over all the players and their characters.

First there’s Commander Roman Moritaka, played by Ian, who I think more than anyone leans into the doomed nature of the storytelling. Ian is always ready to make the obvious mistake and try to do the most reasonable thing in an unreasonable situation. One of my favourite moments in the game comes from Roman making telemetry calculations. How many AP’s do you know that bother with the drama of rocket science?

Then there’s Clinton Barker played by Alex, a colonial marine who thinks in equipment and utility, and has no time for metaphor or theory. Alex is also obviously an Alien fan and someone who knows military tech and lingo, which lets him launch into interesting asides and funny anecdotes that punctuate the story.

There’s Gregory Sinclair Jr., the corporate liaison played by Cori. He is a perfect mix of uselessness and cold corporate comfort. Cori plays him relentlessly, a perfectly willing pawn right into the final moments of the final episode, and a constant needle in everyone’s side.

And then there’s Harris Schafer, played by Adam. Harris is a laid back academic and scientist, which makes them a great foil for the other characters and the perfect POV character to let us know just how bad things are, much like Adam himself. Adam is a great addition to the table, always willing to ask the basic questions and react in relatable ways.

I’ve already mentioned Cameron, and as GM he plays all the NPC’s with depth, and deftly cuts between scenes, heightening moments of tension and underlining moments of impending dread. His obvious writing ability is on full display. It feels like he loves this stuff. And in a way that Ridley Scott kinda doesn’t. Not in the same way. There’s curiosity and time and thought on display here, and I really appreciate that.

And that’s it. You should watch it, especially if you like the alien series and the art of actual play. It’s good. It’s on Youtube and it’s on podcasts. Check it out. Let me know what you think. Recommend me some other Alien fanfiction.

And if you would have liked to have read this earlier, or would like more essays and stuff like this, kick me a couple of bucks on Patreon. If folks like this sort of thing, I may do more essays. Heck, I'll probably do them if you hate it.

[drzootsuit]

art done for the Toon ttrpg game I've successfully now run once!Genuinely proud of these designs honestly i gotta draw more funny dumb shit and less serious cool anime people i think

[captaincleverusernamehere]

All of the NSBU system is 4 pages and two of them are the abilities and group suites you can purchase with turbo tokens. I love this. I want to run this SO bad.

[delverschoicettrpg]

Filip's Fantastic Locations: Draconic Reserve Y-127 (Heart: The City Beneath)

Tier: 2 or 3 Domains: Desolate, Cursed Default Stress: D6 in the Ruby Splinter's fortress, D8 in the cavernous depths as yet untouched by any delver Haunts: None

The Heart has a love of stockpiling rare and impossible things: objects of art, weapons of techno-arcane destruction, magical beans. On occasion, the depths closest to its centre act as arcs of species long-extinct elsewhere; but what its inhabitants remember in tale and song, the Heart renders unto its own oozing approximation of reality.

The cavernous depth now known as Draconic Reserve Y-127 began its existence thus. Perhaps it would have remained so, a repository from which great dragons would venture off into the furthest reaches of the Heart and the wilder world. That was not meant to be. When Dagon Ashre, disgraced former alchemist of Spire, chanced upon the fathomless cavern full of draconic eggs waiting to hatch, she recognised in them an opportunity to expand her research. Her tinkering with the eggs culminated in the creation of a turbo-drug, kernel. Drawn from the embryotic fluid of dragon eggs and mixed in with the cursed witch-blood of Ashre herself, kernel proved capable of tapping into the collective ancestral memory of all the world's deceased dragons.

Users of kernel may find themselves lost in the memory of long-dead great wyrms to the point of abandoning all notions of their original identities and seeking a solipsistic existence of endless high in the belief that they are great dragons of old. For those of sufficiently strong will, much of value can be drawn from this memory: not only historic truths long-since forgotten but specific skills and morsels of draconic lore.

Dagon Ashre chose to distribute kernel via a band of a splintered cell of druids exiled from Redcap Grove (Heart, p. 148) for their heavy-handedness. Unfortunately for Ashre, her partners in crime soon decided her technical know-how was no reason for the alchemist to call the shots. They have since locked her in her own laboratory and have used threats of violence and starvation to force her to continue her production of the drug. Under the auspices of the so-called Ruby Splinter, the heart of Draconic Reserve Y-127 has been transformed into an insurmountable fortress.

Many hope to control the production of kernel: some within the Ministry of Our Hidden Mistress, for example, feel that the knowledge to at long last loosen the aelfir's grip on Spire may well be hidden within the collection of draconic memory. The Spire council might meanwhile suspect that the dragons of old knew of terrible and beautiful ways to dominate lesser beings, or experience such debauchery as not even the aelfir know. They would gladly learn these ways.

Still others seek to do away with the kernel trade entirely--drug lords of Spire such as the Threadneedle Sisters would gladly see this gaping wound into their bottom line closed. If the accursed cavern where the drug is produced were to be sealed off permanently…well, good riddance.

Somewhere, perhaps, a few souls even care for the plight of the endless draconic eggs fated to be rendered for a mere ingredient in the latest drug craze to come over the Cities Beneath and Above.

Special Rules:

Imbibing kernel allows any Delver to roll with mastery on one task of their choice at the cost of D10 Mind Stress (Brutal). The dangers of taking kernel, however, are myriad and are thus represented by the fallouts below.

Major Fallout, Mind: Lost in the Draconic Sauce It is impossible to remain sane within the sheer weight of collective draconic memory, so you don't. A part of you no longer believes the narrative of your life, but instead considers a very different one: of flight amid the endless crimson skies of a world much younger than this one, of great and terrible power, and so much more.

Severe Fallout, Mind: A Dragon Reborn: Your doubts are put to rest. The truth has never been more clear: you are a dragon of old. Noble of bearing, powerful beyond measure - a shame that this humanoid husk somehow keeps the power buried. If only you could rip and tear through your body to reach to the core, release your true self from these obscene bonds…

[keevabobeeva]

I've been looking up stuff about the marvel multiverse role playing game because I was curious if a big comic publisher could make a superhero RPG that actually looks fun to play. Unfortunately I am intrigued

I need to keep telling myself that I don't need to buy books for another system I will probably never play. I don't want to run a game where every PC is a custom multiverse spiderman, or a member of a new X-Men team.

But man, do those things sound neat

[bloodborne-on-pc]

Played a new tabletop RPG called CAIN last night and it's been living rent-free in my head for the last 24 hours. Genuinely such a simple and engaging system, with just enough lore to inspire you without restricting you.

[zitasaurusrex]

Practical advice on describing where people are in a scene to keep everyone at the table on the same page in a trpg, from Patrick Stuart in the front of Silent Titans.

Silent Titans is first and foremost a weird setting where reality doesn't work as expected, so thought into how to make sure everyone is tracking what's going on is appreciated. (And applicable to other games!)

[haveyouplayedthisttrpg]

Have you played Down the Road Through the End of the World

By Kodi Gonzaga

The world ended, but you’ve heard of a haven out there somewhere, so together you journey to find it. Uses the Otherkind dice system used in PSI*RUN!

[skunts-own-truth]

I am thinking about her today…

Burning Wheel…

[galaxywhump]

I don't think I've shared one of my most important possessions here

[digitalkaijustudios]

Kevin and Kayla interview Ron Ogden, Producer, Actor, and DM of the Dungeon Run Podcast!

SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/6fv0wJybzM7o0cOG7NNvPY

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/xhEPSac5Lsc

KO-FI: https://ko-fi.com/digitalkaijustudios

This is a clip from episode 5 of Writing for Roleplay, a TTRPG advice blog by Digital Kaiju Studios. This podcast is hosted and produced by Kevin Carpenter and Kayla Knutson. Art by Ashlee Hart.

[eelslippers]

I so desperately want to run a fall out inspired oceanfaring campaign set in a world based on 1950's scandinavia with some eldritch horrors inspired from terraria