RPGaDAY 2024 - Day Twenty One

 

Classic Campaign.

I'm going to go with a premade campaign, not one of my own invention. Mine usually fall apart part of the way through and things just don't work out. But this one had some really good moments in there. It's Land of the Free for Cyberpunk 2020. Now I have the actual boxed set, not the all in book form reprint. So all the big map is there, the props and hand outs, it's really a nicely done little kit. 

This takes you on a great ride across the United States of 2020 from New York, across the Appalachian territory, down to the gulf, up to Texas and then finally to Night City. So you get much more of a feel of what life is like all across the very changed landscape the the cyberpunk future. Now the Home of the Brave sourcebook is great to have with this if just for the amount of extra details you can get for the various regions. Really helpful when the party strays off course a little. 

Two thumbs up, highly recommened. 

RPGaDAY 2024 - Day Twenty

 

Amazing Adventure.

The entire line of adventures from the original edition of Twilight 2000. They were absolutely great to play through. Had everything you needed and were fun. They are a bit 'railroad' style by today's standard. But back then they were simply amazing. 

RPGaDAY 2024 - Day Nineteen

 

Sensation Session. 

For this one I'm going to actually link to another post on my blog. My current campaign with the Squad Who Can't Catch A Break and all their shenanigans. A few games into the Land of the Free boxed campaign set for Cyberpunk 2020 and things break loose pretty quick. This session was so much fun from beginning to end. It's also why the entire party of characters is wanted by the Appalachian government. Pretty much war crimes on the freeway of flames. One of those times where I shook my head and wondered why the hell did I ever give Brick a flame thrower. 

Yeah those were good time. Some of those character are still, surprisingly, still in play. 

RPGaDAY 2024 - Day Eighteen

 

Memorable moment of play.

Many years ago, in a Twilight 2000 game. I'm playing my Captain who is a tanker and has the nickname 'Captain Cornbread'. Trekking our way across Europe and we get in a heavy fight. The tank I'm takes a pretty heavy hit and we do all the checking for armor, ablative armor, etc and it rocks my characters world pretty hard. However when the big hit was rolled on me another player at the table yelled out over coms "Oh hell we got fried cornbread now!". 

That derailed everything for a moment. But it really made that instance so much memorable. 

RPGaDAY 2024 - Day Seventeen

 

An engaging RPG community. 

I've spent the last year slowly pushing back into gaming communities online. I fell out of them for a while, some due to burnout, partially because of assholes I got tired of dealing with and also because platforms closed up and people kept moving around. 

So far I've found a lot of luck over on Bluesky and the Mastodon server dice.camp. Both of which have some really good solid gaming folks on there. Also I started finally messing around on Discord, something I had been avoiding like the plague. It's hit and miss for me still but I can see the allure. 

Now I'm not going to mention my negative community encounters on here because I think this should be a more positive thing. Hope you all have some great online circles that you fit into well. 

RPGaDAY 2024 - Day Sixteen

 

Quick to Learn.

Going with one that I haven't mentioned yet. The amazingly easy to learn, super fast and simple fantasy game from across the big pond. Advanced Fighting Fantasy from Arion Games. With it's roots growing from the old Fighting Fantasy books of old (Sorcery! and Warlock of Firetop Mountain were the GOATs) they have built upon that simple 2D6 mechanic and made it into a full fledged RPG. Easy to play, lots of optional stuff to add in. Just all around a really great game that needs more attention! 

RPGaDAY 2024 - Day Fifteen

 

Great Character Gear.

Okay I'm going to start sounding like a broken record here. But, yes, it's Cyberpunk 2020 once again. I mean we have the Chromebooks, Blackhand's Street Weapons, Maximum Metal, Rache Bartmoss' Guide to the Net AND Brainware Blowout. It's just absolutely dripping with great gear for the PC's to blow their money on. Also that same gear can be used by the NPC's to blow the PC's away in just a few rounds. I'm a really bad gearporn guy in games though.

Runner up. Battlelords of the 23rd Century with their absolutely insane gear list followed up by the doubly insande Lock-N-Load sourcebook. Aliens blowing away other aliens was never so much fun. Especially when you spend hours gearing out your character and having them get blown clean through by a weapon your armor is weak against. 

RPGaDAY 2024 - Day Fourteen

 

Compelling Characters. 

Let's go back to Cyberpunk then shall we? Morgan Blackhand, Alt, Johnny Silverhand, Rogue, Rache fucking Bartmoss. I love them all. Okay now maybe they aren't talking about characters that are part of the lore. Maybe they're talking about the PC's that are generated. 

Then I'm going with Cyberpunk again. The lifepath system adds just the right amount of flavor, background and inspiration to bring the characters to life from the sheet. Even down to how they like to dress and favorite objects. Ran so many games where the source of adventure came from the friends and enemies generated. 

RPGaDAY 2024 - Day Thirteen

 

Evocative Environments 

Going to give another shout out to Eclipse Phase 2nd edition here. Everything about that game made me want to play it. The setting alone is just dripping with great stuff that I've stolen for other games. Once again, never got the chance to play it. Not hyped to run it that badly though, kind of like Rolemaster in that regard. Want to play, not run. 

RPGaDAY 2024 - Day Twelve

 

RPG with well supported campaigns. 

Drawing a blank card on this one. Most people I know, or who frequent the shop, don't play in pre-written campaigns. Most are homebrew games, various adventures strung along with no real planning. We also don't sell many full on campaign settings. I guess ole' Dungeons and Dragons would be the only one that comes to mind since everything they published seems to be more campaign than sourcebook nowadays. 

RPGaDAY 2024 - Day Eleven

 

RPG with well supported one-shots. 

While it's not my cup of tea and I don't have any real experience with the game I'm going to mention. However I do work in a game shop, I see what we stock and I hear what other gamers talk about. So for this one I'm going to have to say Dungeon Crawl Classics. Apparently they have tons of one shots for the system. 

“Yes, and” isn’t the great D&D advice you think it is

RPGaDAY 2024 - Day Ten

 

RPG you'd like to see on TV. 

I'm assuming a live action or animated adaption here. Not just some folks setting around a table playing, we already have that in spades and most are boring as hell. So let me think for a moment. 

We've already go Cyberpunk covered with the Edgerunners series from Netflix. 

Alien was based on live action. 

Fallout... nuff said there. 

So I'm going to say Sla Industries even though I have nothing to do with that game anymore at all. But a well funded live action series would be simply amazing. Only if it was based more off the original version (which I linked to) of the setting and not the bland remake we have now. An animated show done with the quality of Arcane, now that would kick ass. 

RPGaDAY 2024 - Day Nine

 

An accessory you'd like to see. 

Bit of a tough one here. I'm more from the traditional school of gaming so a lot of what I like as accessories already exists. I mean I'd love to have one of those fancy game tables with private messaging systems built in and all that. But who doesn't?

I'd like to see more management systems, mainly involving cards, be introduced. Nice little tray that sets the cards upright so you can see them. Put up your initiative number, or a stack of cards for your gear, etc. Some games do this, but not enough. 

RPGaDAY 2024 - Day Eight

 An accessory you appreciate. 

The easy answer here would be whisky. Voted best gaming accessory for several decades running. But I digress.

I like the GM Screen. But not as a barrier between the players and GM, not hide die rolls behind, not to keep everything hidden. But to consolidate all the charts you need to run the game in one place. With art on the other side to help project the feel of the game setting. 

RPGaDAY 2024 - Day Seven

 

RPG with 'Good Form'. 

I'm not even sure what this is supposed to mean. 

RPGaDAY 2024 - Day Six

 

RPG that is easy to use. 

Going to catch hell for this one. But here we go. Dungeons and Dragons fifth edition. 

I know, I know, but hear me out. It's easy to use because it's insanely easy to find people who will show you how to play. You can find groups, in person or online, much easier than any other game out there. You can hop on youtube and see videos on how the game works, twitch streams, podcasts, everything. So much 'how to' content that it could fill your entire local library if printed out. 

It's easy to use because it's easy to find instructions on how to use it.

RPGaDAY 2024 - Day Five

 

RPG with great writing. 

I don't buy games for the writing quality any more, mostly for the content quality. So I'm not the best judge for this category. But I will say the game that kept me turning pages when I was reading the core book was Eclipse Phase 2nd edition. Pity I never got to play it as nobody else seemed interested in the game other than (as usual) being a player. 

RPGaDAY 2024 - Day Four

 

RPG with great art. 

Going to break off from my usual answer hear for a bit. A game I've been looking at a lot over the last year but haven't pulled the trigger on yet would have to Vaesen from Free League Publishing. One of the good parts of working at a game shop is that I get to flip through the books from time to time. This one has really caught my eye. The artwork inside is amazing and it very captures the feeling of the setting perfectly. 

RPGaDAY 2024 - Day Three

 

Most often played. 

Okay, I'm starting to sound like a broken record here. But once gain it's Cyberpunk 2020. Really been running the heck out of it over the last few years. Again got a great group so that really helps out a lot.

That's for 2024. If we talk about up until now it's a bit different.

Most played would be a friend homebrew system called Hardcore. Played for over a decade easily, if not more. He runs great games and the system works like a charm when he's the one in charge. After that I would say Kult, Sla Industries and Little Fears would rank up pretty quickly. 

RPGaDAY 2024 - Day Two

 

Most recently played. 

Oh this is real simple. Why it's my ongoing Cyberpunk 2020 game with the squad that can't catch a break. Been running it for almost a year now. Maybe longer, I'm not sure. With a couple of short breaks for some playtesting here and there. 

Okay technically I'm running not playing. Haven't played in a game all year. But such is the way when your group is really good and entertaining. So I have to give them all props, Jason, Niki, Lori, Tyler, Larry and the now moved to far away to play Zack. A great bunch each with their own strengths that add to the gameplay immensely. Couldn't hope for a better group. 

RPGaDAY 2024 - Day One

 

First RPG bought this year. 

I don't think I've actually bought a full on new RPG this year at all. I did finally run Cyberpunk RED in between some of my Cyberpunk 2020 sessions. I also picked up the Edgerunners Mission Kit for CPR here recently. 

I've looked at quite a few as possibilities. But instead of buying them I've decided to run what I already have shelves of. Which my group has been really enjoying.