#RPGaDay2026 - Day 20 - "Promise"

Day 20 of #RPGaDay and I expected "Promise" to be a fun topic for discussion at our last Monday night game session.

I was horribly wrong, 

Surprise, surprise, my old college roommate Steve once again a steered a concept into ruins, which is exactly what we're talking about today.

Sometime in the late 2000s/early 2010s one of my foci was variants of the reverse dungeon: here you play as the monsters in the dungeon, in the defense of your home against the evil encroaching adventurers

I quickly diverted from the normal staple of dungeon defense and really started to use some other classic material to reverse engineer concepts. 

Being part of the gangs elements in B6: The Veiled Society.

Being the mostly drugged up citizens in B4: The Lost City.

I even managed to run a campaign in the last few years based in Gulluvia, the land labeled in the original B3: Palace of the Silver Princess. 

The only one I plotted out and failed horribly. I was doing the Lost Valley out of B10: Nights Dark Terror.

On a quiet weekend nearly twenty years ago, I ventured down to my friend Scott, and then-wife Kelley's house in Allentown and commandeered the dining room table with our extended group to play a few game.  My goal was to play basic D&D, testing the limits of a meat grinder, testing out rules for the subjugated Traldar and the ruling Hukataan race: simply two different types of people encountering the evil that was seeping throughout the valley.  

We never really got to the hook of the evil... or even play the Hukataan.  The short, squat, bald Traldar picture created some basic biases.

I think the Traldar slaves average Intelligence in the 7-10 range, but the group started with simple names and embraced the rabbit hole whole heartedly.    They played them ridiculously dumb to the point where the replacement characters all had rhyming name: Og, Dog, Hog, Zogg, etc...

I was quietly peeved, but I also need to know my players better and I did let it happen... for hours...

They failed horribly and by the time I drove home, I put the plans on the back-back burner.

The only quote Steve remembered was me calling a bathroom break with the quip, "There's nothing in the rules or background that say you have to play this way...."

I wasn't able to regroup during my bathroom exile, and just embrace the players having fun... I know the last time I moved I found the Traldar character sheets... and promptly recycled them. 

Alternate Question: Have the characters kept or broken more promises?

#RPGaDay2026 - Day 19 - "Desire"

Day 19 of #RPGaDay and I had a few moments putting together stories about "Desire" of any sort.  

Then I let it out for my Monday night players, and the floodgates open.  

I've got to admit, I'm guilty of running moments of ficus passion, as in the journal entry at the end of the Adam Sandler version of Mr Deeds: 

Consuela:
Want me to wipe the leaves on your ficus tree, Mr. Blake?

Blake:
You can call me Preston.

Consuela:
Want me to wipe the leaves on your ficus tree, Preston?

Blake:
Yes. Yes! YES!

[they embrace wildly]

Oh it's cheesy, it quicks, and luckily the players have put in enough effort in the PCs relationships that a shirtless dwarf shining in sweat staring at the large German housekeeper washing dishes at the Chateau elicits the biting of her lip, some over the top conversation and actions that rival a telenovella.

Our Star Wars pilot Tarrie Prolek was known as a notorious womanizer, yet as the game progressed, his type was revealed to be older women, bartenders and waitresses, the he returned to accommodate his personal needs, but a sense of loneliness pulling at his soul.  

And then... there are the worms.  Their underground scene during Fair-Town Queen's Joust is legendary.  

Of course my roommate Steve would want to play a six-foot tall mutant earthworm in Gamma World.  Even after growing a shaggy white coat of fur...  he searched for more of his kind.

I had him meet on of his kind, we researched a lot about earthworm reproduction, and Squiggles quickly learned he was pregnant (must have been the mammalian fur that changed things). 

On the return trip to the Queen's Joust, he hooked up with his worm ladyfriend, got pregnant, and discovered  the actual underground lifestyle of all types of mutant worms.  We stopped at the joke about a bait cooler of "wringling masses, not needing to go into further details. 

A huge risk taken because of desire?

#RPGaDay2026 - Day 18 - "Directness"

 Day 18 of #RPGaDay and the alternate question was one of the easiest to choose.

"A fast introduction of a new PC or player?"

The smoothest introduction of a new character was bringing Hoyce's Duk'k the Bounty Hunter into play almost running

We've been bugging our friend Hoyce to join the group since we were originally playing 5e online.  Around a year into our Star Wars d6 game, he finally had availability and a fun character concept.  A Sipsk'ud Bounty Hunter patterned after Dog: The Bounty Hunter.

Weird, rough around the edges, and quietly confident?  He hit all the core demographics of the group. I even targeted him as the unknown victim to be rescued.  They got him his bounty hunter armor and weapons and they escaped with elan. 

Duk'k's arrival helped change the focus of the games into competency with a healthy dash of jealousy.

Alternate Question: A fast introduction of a new PC or player?

#RPGaDay2026 - Day 17 - "Intensity"

 Day 17 and the prompt is "Intensity" 

By far, the most intense session in recent memory was a fill-in session one Monday night, where we played Magical Kitties Save the Day.  

No, I'm not joking.

Creating the kitties was a piece of cake, and surprisingly inventive in the backgrounds, for a bunch of old wargamers.  

For a game of role-playing, investigation, and overcoming human odds while being magical kitties. I may have brought a sledgehammer to nano-surgery.  

I never had the experience of introducing stereotypical D&D min-maxers to Call of Cthulhu, but the apparent frontal assault the kitties took on to help one of their humans with a small crew of (allegedly) Italian neighborhood goons definitely gets an honorable mention. 

We will return to the game one day, with new cats, new backgrounds, new adventures, and perhaps some small children to remind adults how cats are supposed to act. 

Alternate Question:  A satisfying example of a character’s integrity

#RPGaDay2026 - Day 16 - "Composure"

 Day 16 of #RPGaDay2026 is "Composure," something players and characters have in spades when they don't really need it.  

27 years ago.  College.  The group was still young, but we were navigating the storylines in the B1-9 In Search of the Unknown.  They had chosen the jobs to recover a religious artifact from one Elwyn the Ardent.

No one anticipated the dragon. 

Everyone expected to roll up new characters next Saturday, not be saved by some random goddess Thendara and forced to solve some curse in a mysterious land called Haven. 

There were a few fun moment (See Dag from Day 7) but the group was disorganized and confused, even with hints.  

And this is where Rolf Wolfsblood, Barbarian of the Galmar plans, member of the adventuring party since session 1, finally kicked into glory.

The group had ever-so-wisely split up, Velandro the cleric and his group having tough encounter after tough encounter.

The other group, led by Rolf,  found a very un-barbarian sitting room, set for tea.  Annoyed that there had been no sign of the ruby and the group was becoming even more lax and incompetent than usal Rolf went on a rant,   He kicked chairs, chucked a plate, started screaming at his fellow adventurers. When he grabbed a tea cup to gesture drinking tea like some weak "civilized" human, he was shocked to hear the cup talk in Thendara's voice

Three crystal notes
Two Silver Statues
One ruby sword
All will smash the Demon's Eye
And lift the curse.

Rolf was delighted to notice that the other party members heard the voice too.  He wasn't as crazy as Echelon and his stupid wolf, Pathfinder, who he claimed he could talk to.

Ultimately, Rolf's group met up with Velandro, while Velandro's group was in a running swordfight with a red robed humanoid and a racial mix of minions.  The party reunited and the battle continued to move, right into the throne room.  Dozens of statues of Haven's citizenry stood inside, including an obvious Princess Argenta (and Sir Ellis to Velandro).  Sitting on her throne was a ruby that was at least the size of Rolf's gigantic fist.

With the fight going poorly, the barbarian slew hobgoblin in front of him and ran away!  Most were so overwhelmed by the attacking forces that they didn't notice.

Rolf raced to once of the bedrooms.  There had been a harp there.  Harps make notes!  His muscles barely strained as he lifted the instrument off its base and ran back to the battle!   Upon entering the Throne Room, he held it to the floor and played as many combination of notes that he could find. Some arrangement that he played must have work, for the ruby shattered into a thousand pieces, the evil human and his minions fled, and the still-intact statues reverted back to their living forms.

The barbarian had quietly observed, picking up clues, and just when things looked like they would fall apart for could, he saved the day. 

The curse had been lifted.

The lone picture of Rolf (actually a painting) has been lost to time.  Here's mix of him and apparently George 'The Animal" Steel (Nightcafe)

Alternative Question: One thing that will cause a character to lose their composure?

#RPGaDay2026 - Day 15 - "Endurance"

Day 15 of #RPGaDay and "Endurance" can go into so many directions.

I immediately thought of Hackmaster and the rules I didn't use, combat endurance being one of them. 

The 4th Edition of Hackmaster, the actual license for Pre-d20 D&D for Kenzer and Company, with a overtly healthy dose of parody and over-seriousness.  

And it's my favorite FRPG of all time. 

Fun fact: for a game with giant Gummi Wurm monsters, swiping dice over autographs for good luck, and a critical hit chart that requires a d10,000 , there are only a handful of rules we avoided.

Level Training:   There will be a post this month regarding the millions of gold heroes need to do anything in D&D/AD&D, but with most of low-magic/low-gold games, paying excessive amounts for gold and spending excessive amounts of time for training never appealed to me.  I applied most of the fringe benefits (free skills/skill points).

Threshold of Pain:  Great concept.  If anything alive takes a certain percentage of damage from a single attack, they're incapacitated.  A great concept that ensures that high-level characters or big monsters can still be swiftly neutralized by a lucky, high-penetrating damage roll from a smaller foe.

Except it's another stat I need to keep track of for eight players and the same in camp followers... plus the actual monsters themselves?   No thanks.

And I'll retract my combat endurance answer to start this off.  I avoided Fatigue Factor: rolls to stave off exhaustion in combat.  Essentially, the longer you fight, the more tire someone can be.  Again, much of this is the purview of the GM, and the only fatigue I try to gauge in combat is player fatigue. 

The Alternate Question:  How would you organize an endurance session of your favorite game?

#RPGaDay2026 - Day 14 - "Regard"

 Day 14 of #RPGaDay, and I'm grateful for the alternative question for the prompt "Regard."

"What is a game held in high regard you have yet to play?'

... and I'll add the obvious disclaimer, "... that I WANT to play?"

Honestly, that last part turns a short list into a tiny one.   Maybe Castle Falkenstein, with the journals and playing cards...

But... during my epic weekend at Historicon, Flagbearer Games had a booth, and I did pick up the basic book for Nations and Cannons the Revolutionary War setting for 5e.  

I mean, after weeks and weeks of ad copy during the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff podcast  (YourDadWillLoveThis.com !) I finally succumbed.  And in a gaming group with a social studies teacher, two history degrees, and a guy who re-enacts as the hated British, we might get bogged down into minutiae, but we just might have some fun doing it. 

Alternative Question: What is a game held in high regard you have yet to play?