2022-12-17 Answering questions nobody is asking

Sitting in a hotel late at night trying to digest that triple chocolate whammy at the end…

Saw this on social media via @bradjmurray and @paulczege and answering this might dispel the winter blues for a bit.

@bradjmurray

@paulczege

First store where you bought a TTRPG?

Nordliechtli, Zürich, at the main station, where Beat Liechti was selling games. He still has a game shop called Rien Ne Va Plus.

Favorite TTRPG game world

None. They all entice me to buy books and then I don’t read them because they are boring. The pantheons are boring, the histories are boring, the people and cultures are boring. I’d rather surf on Wikipedia, remove the sexism and racism and slavery and other shit I don’t want in my games and it’ll be time well spent.

A published NPC that had a lasting impression on you

Nualia, in one of the early Rise of the Runelords adventures had her arm replaced by a crab and ever since crab men and the cult of Garaskis are a thing in my settings, people with crab arms and crab armour and the like are a thing.

First TTRPG you bought from its creator

None. I think the only game creator I’ve actually met is Gavin of Old School Essentials back when he was just a dude from social media and had released Theorems and Thaumaturgy for free.

TTRPG you’ve played the most

D&D 3.5 had a long run. Later, played some Pathfinder and some 5E but I guess Halberds & Helmets is getting there.

Halberds & Helmets

A favorite TTRPG character you’ve played

Jens the pyromancer who was a traumatized veteran of a terror war and even though he survived the campaign his epilogue was melancholy.

Jens

The TTRPG you’ve spent the most money on but never played

I won’t pull out the exact numbers but I bought the new edition of Burning Wheel and never played it. I bought Burning Empires and never played it. I bought the new Mutant Chronicles edition and never played it. I try to curb it by not following creators and their hype train followers on social media. It’s harsh, I know. But since I’m not playing the games I’m a fake customer, anyway.

Favorite TTRPG for its art

I don’t notice art all that much, I think. I noticed the simple and stark visuals for Apocalypse World. I guess I partially bought Ryuutama for the mood the art work projected.

Favorite TTRPG for its writing

I like In a Wicked Age for its writing. Mostly because it’s short. I also liked Polaris for being short and poetic. I want games to sound less like manuals, but I also don’t want in-game short stories interspersed with the rules. I want short and poetic rules.

Have you played a journaling game

Never. I tried to play a solo Traveller game but after half I session I asked my wife for input…

Have you played a hex crawl

I do it all the time. Did I tell you about Hex Describe? 😅

Hex Describe

Have you designed a dungeon

Yes I have. I am currently trying to write a German megadungeon, in fact. My regular games also need smaller dungeons every now and then.

Have you played larp

I went to the Mythodea larp but was not impressed. I was impressed by the thousands of people there, over many days. It’s just that the actual day to day experience for me and my wife was not great. We should have had better organized friends, we should have prepared better. We didn’t know what we were getting into and we didn’t know to take advantage of it all.

Favorite object one of your characters has owned

I don’t remember. Orland had some of sort of diving helmet that granted some bonuses, I think. My characters didn’t have great items, I think. Right now, a level four fighter of mine has a sword of the planes, but it’s a broadsword in an AD&D game and my fighter is not proficient, and we’re not dealing in the planes, yet. So right now it’s a magic sword +1 I don’t use.

Orland

Memorable relationship one of your characters has had

Rindawan had a love hate relationship with Dywynn Norborn, who was a warlock with a demonic pact. I liked portraying Rindawans concern and growing mistrust.

Rindawan

I had a similar connection going with the same player in that game were I played Jens who was slowly descending into madness and the other player played Gunnar Vidarson who tried to hold Jems back from the brink.

Do you collect TTRPGs by a certain designer

No.

TTRPG you really want to play in 2023

Burning Wheel. The Ultraviolet Grasslands and the Black City. Silent Titans. Yoon-Suin.

Most memorable monster/villain you’ve confronted in a TTRPG

As a player? I don’t remember.

Ever experienced bleed

I guess this is the Nordic Larp thing where I feel emotions my characters feel? I mean, I often imagine myself as the character, melancholy, morbid, eccentric, humble, … I guess I experience this mostly on the rare occasions where the muse takes me by the hand and the words flow into session reports and epilogues that still affect me years later. It’s a very rare thing, however.

How did you get into TTRPGS

My mom told me run this game for her and her friends.

​#RPG

Comments

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Burning Wheel. The Ultraviolet Grasslands and the Black City. Silent Titans. Yoon-Suin.

I too am a fake customer of the Burning Wheel. To the other wonderful three you mention, I’d recommend adding Gathox: Vertical Slum and Anomalous Subsurface Environment, just because.

– starmonkey 2022-12-24 05:54 UTC

starmonkey

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I haven’t heard of Gathox: Vertical Slum, but I do have the first volume of Anomalous Subsurface Environment and I even ran a session or two in it. It had a surprising amount of information about the world outside the dungeon and a pretty mundane dungeon so at the time I didn’t know why it had such a great reputation, but I also didn’t run it for very long. I remember the party finding a half buried giant robot, which was an interesting visual but they couldn’t actually do anything with it. It wasn’t interactive in any obvious way. Did you run it?

– alex 2022-12-24 09:20 UTC