Once again, I am participating in the April A to Z Blogging Challenge, but this year I wanted to do something a little different than more normal witch or monster-related postings.
This year is the 60th Anniversary of my favorite sci-fi show of all time, Doctor Who!
I thought it would be fun to celebrate all things Doctor Who next month.
Not 100% sure what I'll talk about, but I know I have plenty to work with.
I have a lot going on today, so let's get going.
I am ending my Month of Halloween the same way I began, by guest starring on a podcast.
On October 1 I appeared on Monster Movie Fun Time Go where I talked about the movie Day Shift and my game NIGHT SHIFT.
And today October 31 I appeared again on Wobblies & Wizards. Where I talked with Shane (Logar) and Ryan of Appendix N Entertainment about all sorts of horror movies.
So check them both out!
I was also interviewed over at Third Kingdom Games. So give that a read as well.
Limited Edition Pumpkin Spice Wampus Country
PDF. 30 pages
From the product page,
A Halloween-and-Harvest compilation of articles from the Wampus Country blog, suitable for use with classic fantasy games and related nonsense. Within, you'll learn the dark arts of sucromancy, punch ghosts, explore death masks, and more.
Yeah sounds like something I would like really.
These are all articles collected from the Wampus Country Blog which has been out there doing its thing for 11 years. So they are quite upfront with what to expect, but the new format and layout of this PDF is worth the price really.
The articles are a mixed (Halloween) bag, including Candy Magic and Bone Magic. There is a great section on creating random witches, which I really liked. A Ghost Hunter monk subclass.
The art is Halloween ephemera so it is all rather appropriate.
It is a rather fun collection of articles to be honest and to have them all in one place for an easy download is worth the price of the PDF easily.
Ah, I had to look back for this one, but my very first was not until 2014.
One of the reasons for this is I am always super busy in August due to Gen Con (didn't go this year) and my Fall term start.
Well, that is another #RPGaDAY for the history books! How did you all do?
Today's question looks to the future. What should #RPGaDAY do for its 10th anniversary next year?
Two things I can think of.
1. Poster's choice. You participate in a past #RPGaDAY that you did not do originally or did not complete. So for me 2017 and 2018.
2. Roll a d10 to and post for whatever that year was. This means Dave still needed to come up with things for Year 10 (2023)
I think my money is on #1.
Who would you like to see take part in #RPGaDAY?
Honestly? I would like to see some of the big names in the industry do something with it. So Wizards, Paizo, and others. Sure, use it to sell your own games, but it would be fun to get some of the big names involved.
Though the more the merrier to be honest!
In the past, I would have focused on the adventure, the excitement and the interactivity of it all. Today I would still do that, but I would also focus on the things that mean more to me these days; playing with family and friends.
I'd also point out how it is a great creative effort. Want to write an 11 backstory for your character? Sure! Go ahead. But keep in mind they might die at any point. What to do then? New character and new backstory!
There are so many reasons people get into RPGs now and so many different kinds to choose from. Getting people into RPGs may not be the right question. Instead, how do we help people find the right RPG for their needs and wants?
I guess this is continuing on from Day 3's choice.
Why will they like this game?
Well for Basic D&D you can get up and running really fast. Character creation is quick, you can be right into the action in under an hour.
I also use D&D Basic to sell people on the game by appealing to their sense of history, I talk about how many others have traveled the same paths they have. I appeal to their nostalgia. With "Stranger Things" so prominent in the media now this is a good hook.
"So many heroes have walked this path, but so many more are now forgotten. Which one will you be?"
This one is easy.
If it is the first game for people I don't know well and I am teaching them the game then I usually want to do it at my Favorite Local Game Store, Games Plus in Mount Prospect, IL. This way if they want to buy the game in question everything they need is right there. Plus it is a nice neutral environment.
If it is for people I know well then I prefer my game room here at my home. I always wanted my own game room and now I have one.
I just need to convince my kids they need to clean up when they are done using it.
I believe I have shared this story before, but it never hurts to re-share.
For me, it was the Winter of 1979. It was "quiet reading" time at school and I had already read everything in our school's small library on science and my new fascination, Mythology. So instead of picking up "D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths" for the 100th time, I borrowed a friend's book that also covered all the same monsters and creatures.
The book was the AD&D Monster Manual.
The rest is history. I tried to figure out to play on my own, made up a bunch of stuff, and then finally got a copy of the Holmes Basic book. A poorly Xeroxed copy to be exact. Until I got my hands on the Moldvay Basic set this was how I tried to play D&D.
There are a lot of great choices out there, but I am still rather partial to the 1981 Moldvay Basic Set. Starts you out simple and lets you build as you go on. While the Mentzer Red Box Basic for the BECMI line gets a lot of kudos (and got the sales to be sure) I am still more in the camp of Moldvay.
I suppose it follows then that Old-School Essentials is also a good choice as is Basic Fantasy.
Hmm. I have already introduced RPGs to so many people. My kids and through them more people.
I think there are is an untapped market in appealing to other creatives I know; artists, writers, and the like. I think many of them would naturally take to RPGs.
Though it is still many, many years down the road, maybe I can introduce RPGs to my grandkids!
Tomorrow is the first of August and that means #RPGaDAY for 2022!
Started and maintained by Dave Chapman at AUTOCRATIK, this has been a yearly thing for the last nine years. My first was in 2014. I took 2017 off, and didn't finish 2018s. But I am here for it all in 2022!
Here is the list of post prompts I will be doing all month. They follow the questions of Who, What When, Where, Why, and How. With bonus questions on Sunday.
As well as text ones for anyone using a screen reader.
#RPGaDAY2022 Prompts:
1 - Who would you like to introduce to RPGs?
2 - What is a great introductory RPG?
3 - When were you first introduced to RPGs?
4 - Where would you host a first game?
5 - Why will they like this game?
6 - How would you get more people playing RPGs?
7 - System Sunday: Describe a cool part of a system that you love.
8 - Who introduced you to RPGs?
9 - What is the 2nd RPG you bought?
10 - When did/will you start Gamemastering?
11 - If you could live in a game setting, where would it be?
12 - Why did you start RPGing?
13 - How would you change the way you started RPGing?
14 - Suggestion Sunday: Roll 1d8+1, and tag that many friends and suggest a new RPG to try.
15 - Who would you like to Gamemaster for you?
16 - What would be your perfect game?
17 - Past, Present, or Future? When is your favorite game set?
18 - Where is your favorite place to play?
19 - Why has your favorite game stayed with you?
20 - How long do your games last?
21 - Setting Sunday: Share an intriguing detail from a game setting you enjoy.
22 - Who is your current character?
23 - What situation are they currently in?
24 - When did you start playing this character?
25 - Where has the character been?
26 - Why does your character do what they do?
27 - How has the character changed?
28 - Style Sunday: Roll 1d8+1, tag that many friends with your favorite RPG cover art.
29 - Who would you like to see take part in #RPGaDAY?
30 - What should #RPGaDAY do for its 10th anniversary next year?
31 - When did you first take part in #RPGaDAY?
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This is a holy order of knights set to defend Christianity from Muslim incursions. Vlad Dracul was a member, but when he became a vampire the order shifted focus to destruction of all vampires and hunting of the supernatural.
The Divine Order of the Sisters of Orleans
A sister organization to the Order of the Dragon created by and in the name of Jeanne d’Arc. They have also survived to the modern day to fight supernatural threats.
Jason gives some advice on adding Folk Horror to your NIGHT SHIFT games. This part was left out of the core rules.
Our old friend from the Eden days Derek Stoelting has been part of NIGHT SHIFT from the start. He is up with more information on the location mentioned in the Quick Start Kit.
Supers
A couple of good posts on Supers including how to create street-level supers in NIGHT SHIFT using the Inventor class. Followed up by adding supers to a fantasy style RPG, with NIGHT SHIFT as the translator.
This naturally branched out to and from the next two topics.
Cyberpunk and how NIGHT SHIFT, or more accurately O.G.R.E.S. is a great Rosetta Stone for all sorts of old-school play.
Finally we get some discussion on the Fighter class.
I also have more NIGHT SHIFT goodness for you all coming up including some more weirdness from Valhalla, AK and a new feature I am working on called From the Editor to support my Weirdly World News NIGHT WORLD from the Night Companion, and GenHEX from the NIGHT SHIFT Core Rules.
So keep an eye out here and on the Elf Lair Games blog for more material for Jason, Derek and myself.
One of the things I loved about small cons in the 80s (and really, those were the only ones I went too then) was the little indie Zines. Small, cheap (a bonus for a broke high school student) and packed with all sorts of strangeness, they had all sorts of appeal to me.
Granted they were not all good, but they had a sense of, I don't know, love about them. This was before Desk Top Publishing was even taking off yet so often these were Xeroxed, hand stapled affairs.
While it might be easier to get Zines out to the masses, the sense of love is still there.
This is why Zine Quest was made and now we are at the beginning of Zine Quest #3 over on Kickstarter and the choices are overwhelming.
There are plenty of OSR and D&D 5 choices as well as plenty of other indie games in the truest sense.
Trying to track them all is a bit more than I want to take on by myself. Thankfully there are good resources to help us all.
Hero Press / I'd Rather Be Killing Monsters
If you come here then you know "the other Tim" from across the pond. Hero Press is my go-to entertainment blog for all things RPG, Superhero, and more. Go there. No qualifiers, just go there. But he is also covering the Zine Quest projects he likes. You can also follow his Zine Quest tags.
Over on the Facebook side of things his group, I'd Rather Be Killing Monsters will be featuring even more Zines and project owners are encouraged to post links to theirs.
Gothridge Manor / RPG Zines
Tim Shorts (yes another Tim!) is also keeping everyone posted on Zines. He has been talking about them on his blog Gothridge Manor (also a great blog!) and his Facebook group RPG Zines. This is pretty much Zine central and worth your time to check out. Like Tim, Tim has a Zine tag for his blog as well.
But where Tim Shorts rises above the other Tims is his own contribution to the Zine project.
Be sure to back The Many Crypts of Lady Ingrade on Kickstarter.
Tenkar's Tavern
If you have been in the OSR any amount of time you likely know about Tenkar's Tavern blog/podcast/Facebook group. Tenkar is also covering Zine Quest with a lean to the OSR zines coming out.
You can also follow the #Zinequest3 hashtag on Twitter.
There are more launching every day in February, in fact, one launched while I was writing this post that I want to back. So expect a Part 2 next week!
In case you forgot (it has been a while) TBBYANR stands for "The Best Blog You Are Not Reading" and is was a great feature in the early days of the blogging scene. Since then communications have become more fractionalized with people on Facebook, Discord and other mediums. It is hard to know how well others know about other blogs. Plus so many blogs also have their own Facebook and/or Twitter outlets.
So in my merging of these two features or more accurately #FollowFriday assuming the role that TBBYANR once held I figure I'll post some blogs I have been enjoying and how you can interact with them on social media.
Chuck Thorin's "They Might Be Gazebos!" is a good classic OSR blog. He does some reviews and retrospectives and is usually focused on Swords & Wizardry and Dungeon Crawl Classics. He does the occasional character write-up as well.
One of my favorite features of his is his OSR Retrospective where he looks at the games of the Old-School Renaissance.
Chuck is also the author of "Gary vs. The Monsters" the cinematic, campy horror monster-fighting old-school RPG.
Again, I am not sure how many of you know about this site, but they are worth checking out.
Links
Theodric Ælfwinesson has been running MR for a bit now. While the focus is Old School there is still new content (like Pathfinder) but viewed from an Old-School lens.
Some of my favorite topics are on monsters and world-building.
Definitely check it out, there is an absolute ton of material there.
Links
Swords & Stitchery is very likely a blog you all do know about. Eric has been posting his thoughts on old-school games and his own campaigns for a long time now. At a couple of posts per day he is constantly supplying new material. I have to pause often to just catch up to his output. His OSR Commentary might be the best feature, and his coverage of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea keeps me coming back time and time again.
Recently he has been discussing NIGHT SHIFT and I am very excited to see what he does with it.
Links
That's good for now!
