#RPGaDay2026 - A Recap

It was 2014 when I missed enough of this odd little community concept called #RPGaDay that I used the questions as filler for my December posts.

Fast forward to the present, and we've completed the 13th Annual #RPGaDay.  

It was good.  I'm tired.

To be honest I'm tired for a number of reasons.  It wasn't a year I was necessarily enthused, nor did my ideas or nostalgia flow off the old keyboard.  

The prompts were serviceable.  They're serviceable every year, and everyone is subject to the writer's whim. 

And a huge shoutout to my Monday night online group.  I brought about a dozen of the prompts to the the sessions and we mined a few gems for topics that I had completely forgotten about. 

Like last year,  most clicks go to Twitter, while most engagement remains Bluesky's domain, although... I expected a lot more traffic.  Although all the clicks from social media and other engagement for the month was still less than my Historicon 2026 AAR views... a month after the con.

My favorite post was about my friend Hoyce on Day 1 "Discipline."   While the most popular overall is the gaming internet's obsession with Lathar Bracken, Day 3 "Poise"

Barring any surprises, I'll be back to daily community sharing with the #CharacterCreationChallenge in January.

#RPGaDay2026 - Day 31 - "Edge"

The final day of #RPGaDay , Day 31!   And if I'm grateful, it's for the prompt "Edge" to be the last day.  It's been the one problematic prompt, even with the helpful alternate question to help us along.  

So, I've devolved to tooting my own horn, "What's my edge as a GM?"

If my players were here, they'd say my greatest strength is continuity.  The world is just a series of things, growing, evolving, adapting to the rest of the campaign.  Even if portions of the game are too linear, recalling NPCs, actions, and events keep the campaign lively,  a slowly developing web, rather than that straight line of events.  It's a constant proof (and threat) to the players that every interaction, every decision reverberates through the campaign in some direction.  

And sometimes it feels like this...

My biggest suggestion?  Treat everything in game like it has a true memory, imperfect and changing, and let that influence future interactions and events. 

Alternative Question: Why does a character think they have an edge?

#RPGaDay2026 - Day 30 - "Pride"

 It's Day 30, the penultimate day of #RPGaDay !   And we should show a little "Pride" that we've made it this far. 

We'll even go so far and used the Alternate Question: A game event that you are still proud of?

Now, I always go down the convention game rabbit hole, and I don't anticipate too much deviation, but Let's try a non-con game

"It's a Wonderful Reunion" Circa 1999  With the spring semester of college looming, I had split the group into gamers and non-gamers for the summer.  About half the group got teleported to, and adventured in Talislanta for the summer, while a few of them still were stuck with some pretty horrible things back in town.  And after a few sessions for the "homebodies" who survived everything, only to have the armed threat of foreclosure on their base of operations, the "Chateau" on the first day of Yule. 

We met on the evening of move in day on campus, staffing with the dorm basement like improv theatre, some of the PCs with murder plots for the moneylender coming, while villagers, townsfolk, and their lost fellow adventurers made big reveals... only for the next person to make an appearance to prevent tying up loose ends.  One of the least likely characters shows up with the gold to pay off the loan and save the Chateau, and there was artwork displaying a kobold Mariachi band.   

That out of the way, let's cover my prideful moments after 35 years of running convention games.

"Scavenger Hunt" Circa 1996  A GURPS-IOU game at CoveCon, Blue Valley Farm Show Building, Bangor, Pennsylvania.   This was the first con I ever helped run, and we.... broke even, to the penny! 

The characters I put together were fantastic, my players were simply top-notch, and the looks on my friends faces as they ran their own games, watching the chaos descend,  but all knew the students were close to obtaining the disco ball from the 1977 IOU Winter Social, only to face off against the Village People and their Disco Zombie minions.... culminating to when I played a Village People Greatest hits cassette as background music for the final combat.  

It holds a dear place in my heart, but I kept no notes from the game, and every years, the memories get vaguer and vaguer.  

Monster of the Week - Mepacon 41 - November 2021 -  A game I actually PLAYED in!  That weekend I had spent Friday and Saturday at Historicon in King of Prussia, playing and running wargames for the masses willing to leave their homes.   I came home Saturday night so I could take my daughter to Mepacon, a mixed-game convention, since it was 20 minutes away.  Mandatory masking AND proof of vaccination were annoying to hear other players on an active table, but otherwise understandable and tolerable.  

I let Maja choose her game, and the only words I remember her describing it were "mature audience", "mystery", and "children's teeth."  I thought the worst, but was relieved to find out it was Monster of the Week, and we were saving children from corrupted tooth fairies.  

The game itself isn't too important, it's that, despite masking and other inconveniences, this was the first time we played together in a game as equals, rather than one of us as sidekicks.   That itself warms a burnt out portion of this old man's heart. 

My Little Pony - Mepacon 34-ish - November 2017 - COVID screwed up the numbering for the bi-annual convention, but there's a full write-up of the weekend here.  With my daughters 8 and 6, my search for a good RPG for them was always in full effect.  I had found a great game, My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria Storytelling Game and would run it every two hours when I could make it the Mepacon.  Better yet, I allowed the kids to keep the pony they made at the table, and "level them up" each time they played at my table, be it that con, or a future one.  

While most of my players were always kids, their parents, and two tolerable Bronies, things didn't escalate into awesomeness until the bro-nies showed up.  

Brandon and Anthony were two college-age guys who had two open hours and signed up for the game, partly for fun, partly for the challenge.  

Everyone was having a good time, but as the game progressed, it was obvious the young girl playing the pony Harmony was heading for direct show-down with the captain of the gnome legion.   When that showdown took place, I expected her father on his feet, cheering her own,  I expected the other kids, but the bros were the ones on their feet, standing on chairs, tossing Tokens of Friendship (think Savage World super-bennies) to improve her rolls every time she falter, cheering raucously with each success until the gnome legion was vanquished.

Kids get excited when they can play a game with their parents.  

Parents are excited to play with their kids.  

These two guys took that energy and ran with it.  

Alternate Question:  A game event that you are still proud of?

#RPGaDay2026 - Day 29 - "Labor"

Four weeks down with #RPGaDay and we're in the home stretch with "Labor."

This September will be the 17th anniversary for the blog.  I've been averaging OVER a post per day for over a decade.  It's certainly a labor of love, especially the role-playing stuff.  I normally post my Top 20 posts for the past 12 months at the end of September, and it normally is chock full of painting, convention AARs, game store reviews, and a few quality wargame recap,   Even well promoted #RPGaDay or #CharacterCreationChallenge posts don't scratch the traffic of the other posts. 

Why do I do it?  Because introducing journals to the groups almost 30 years ago helped play.  Adding experience for writing in the core book around 2001 produced some great entries for my Hackmasters games.  

By 2018, I had catalogued much of my AD&D/OSR time, all the ongoing games Cthulhu and Star Wars games.  

The only thing missing from my ongoing World of Georic campaign, was the early, non-journal years (1989-1997).   The campaigns I kindly label the high school, army, and Sabut Tablesmasher storylines.  There's bits and pieces, fleeting memories, and I either don't possess or threw out the material I ran for those guys.  

The solution was to make a fictional character to wade through the aftermath of these supposed adventurers cause, and with that, the Lost Dispatches of Feraso was born.  Thanks to a scribe who wrote above his station, Elsderth Millsbottom and his accumulated group of friends and allies acted as chroniclers, and sometimes damage control for the wake of destruction my high school group.  It was great, because it filled in the story gaps for 30+ years, it helped the mis-matched accumulation of Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, and Dungeon Magazine adventures all within a few leagues of each other, and they allowed me to map out sections I've barely put together,  

Elsderth Millbottom: scribe, hero, judge, Baron Greyhawk, horrible father, racist witch.

I covered the entirety of high school games, my entire army campaign, and the host of smaller, mini-campaigns I ran for folks.   Eldsderth became a real character by the end of the 100 episodes, gaining titles, losing friends, abandoning his family for selfish reasons, and secretly filling in a ton of plot holes that eased my brain. 

I still keep the sessions for our Gamma World campaign up-to-date, and I do some entries from the campaigns Gazetteer, but the Lost Dispatches is the last true labor of love I'll probably do for the blog.

Alternate Question:  Thing you are most willing to work on for a game

RPGaDay2026 - Day 28 - "Devotion"

Day 28!  Four weeks of #RPGaDay and we show our "Devotion" to the process.

The most devotion I've ever seen was Echelon and his animals....  

My college roommate Steve has a 30-year, well-documented history of creating unique (and annoying) characters. 

Despite some great ones after we moved to the online era gaming, he truly peaked with Echelon.  

Echelon's  back story alone was enough to create heart palpitations with a GM.  When his only piece of equipment purchased was his trident, I knew I was in trouble.  

With the rest of his starting gold he bought animals... and the cages and carts needed to transport them. 

A regular Dr Doolittle. 

And a lot of pigeons.  A LOT of pigeons.

Echelon die NOT have buy in during the early episodes.  Sure, he travelled to the dungeons of the ancient Temple of Alasku, but he refused to go down into them, worried some animal would eat his animals. 

Echelon: Come back out here if you need healing.... Don't worry I won't charge.

He even brought a large tent, his fellow adventurers delighted that they could stay dry during an encroaching thunderstorm.

Echelon: No that's for the animals... 

I also believe he let Timmy, the torchbearer, stay above ground to help him tend the animals.  

This schtick didn't last very long, probably because I embraced it with foils.  

As the party released prisoners from the dungeon, they gave them some rations and sent them out of the dungeon... and into the passive aggressive tones of Echelon, while he was feeding his cages of pigeons.  Most simply wandered away, heading towards the nearest village, if the cleric pointed in the right direction. 

Then I had Carthon come up, a basic 0-level human.  And despite getting Echelon annoyed at every step... he stayed near the cart.  He befriended Timmy, and finally Echelon allowed him to stick around as a servant.  

Having Carthon around forced/allowed Echelon to actually adventure... adding more gold to his coffers. 

When the adventuring party left on a mission for the ArchBishop of Hydincall and were all assumed dead.  Carthon used his unknown skills (Echelon never asked) and liquidated some of the animals, and along with Echelon's fortune, bought a small estate "The Chateau"  outside of the village, on the off chance that the group would return one day (spoilers: they did).  The Chateau raised pigeons and made wine.  It was a great action by Carthon, until Echelon and Talis learned how he financed the place.... and they nearly lost everything, but I talked about that on day 13 - "Strain"

Alternative Question:: Game you have played the most!

#RPGaDay2026 - Day 27 - "Hunger"

Day 27 of #RPGaDay and I'm running on fumes.  

Perhaps I should have had my players order my rations for the week, to supplicant the "Hunger" I'm looking for.

For the RPG community, one of the most epic stories has always been "Eric and the Dread Gazebo."   Immortalized in print by Knights of the Dinner Table, the classic tale of players not knowing everything, whether its in the book or in real life, can be quite amusing.  

When I brought forth today's prompt to my Monday night players, the immediately went with "The Mead Story"

I don't know the source anymore, perhaps a wacky letter in Dragon Magazine but I know I'm not the originator of it, but it goes like this:  

New campaign, new characters, definitely new players, who might have cracked open a Player's Handbook truly for the first time.  With a lot of handwaving to encumbrance and basic equipment, there's always a moment for a DM to officially question if the party had 500' foot of rope between them, or or gallon bucket of bat guano, or eight 10-foot poles, and food is always the easiest to call out. 

For us, and many other, rations are a rolling commodity: if you bought two weeks of rations, we essentially say you resupply when necessary, unless we deal with some underground adventure, or lost at sea, or something similar where food will dwindle.   My friends who borrowed my campaign world kept the same liberal worldview.  

The gist of the story is, the party reaches some point where character sheet bookkeeping is required for some reason.  Every one in a while a character is caught off guard, and the others usually share. 

And then there's the one player:  Oh, I'm fine I brought 15 days worth.

Fifteen days? Fifteen days of what perchance? 

Mead.

You bought 15 days of mead?   Just mead? 

Yeah, I figured it was per day and I know we don't follow encumbrance, but it didn't seem to take up much space.

You're adventuring and surviving on 15 days worth of mead? 

Sure!  Is there something wrong?

Do you what mead is??? 

Gemini

**** There is a practical discussion as to what mead actually is.  The player is enlightened, a little embarrassed, and suddenly very worried.*****

Then.... we never made it here.  

What do you mean? 

You asked me to get feed for the horses... 

Oh no....

I've been feeding them nothing but mead for the last five days we've been in the mountains...

Gemini

I know there's a mention of the mead story back in the RPGaDay2016 posts, but nothing that's happened to me directly.  

Any guidance to the origin to the story would be appreciated.

Alternate Question:  What do you hunger for most from a session?

#RPGaDay2026 - Day 26 - "Regret"

It's Day 26 of #RPGaDay and as we wheel closer to the end of week 4, there should be no "Regrets," but one character from my beloved Hackmaster campaign has plenty.

Gnome Titans in Hackmaster are essentially medieval gnome Spartans.  Fierce warriors on their one, regardless of their chosen class, the race mocked for their "Groin Stomp" skill, actualy had some crazy combat bonuses, and extra bonuses for having multiple Gnome Titans fighting side-by-side.

The adventuring company known as  The Burning Trogs had three of them. 

And for  General Zorin Redrock, Plenitatory Ambassador for the Barthey Empire, Revenger of Frandor's Keep... he has been focused on his one big failure for the last 15 years since he retired.

During the last critical days of the Siege of Frandor's Keep, Zorin, his trusted narcoleptic albino pal Whitey, the Gnome Titan priestess of Pangrus, Janus, and  the party's torchbearer, Coreena, left the Trogs to join the Gnome Titan Legions marching to relieve the keep.

While they were gone, the remaining party members at the time were kidnapped and almost enslaved by the Slavers of Roark.   The four members, Cecelia Darkspruce (half-elf warrior priestess of Sif), Gwendalyn Lorax, (half-elf druid), Brother Thomas, (human monk) and Marek the Learned (double invoker),  all managed to escape the ship and into the City of Roark itself.   The group broke out of the city under heavy pursuit,  but with the deaths of Marek and Brother Thomas (allegedly by fire-breathing velociraptors, the other two separated, and it was months before everyone was finally reunited.  

Despite fantastic success, fame, and fortune at Frandor's Keep, Zorin has not been able to live down that he was not around to save, or possible fight with, his friends.  While the woman who survived have risen to great position of powerful in the region, Zorin's watched them work through the trauma.  He's made it his mission to destroy the Slavers by any means necessary.    

Of course, finding an elusive slaving ring that's been around for hundreds of years is one thing.  Trying to do it without sailing experience was problematic.  He's lost most of his fortune, most of his ships, hundreds of men, and possibly the years of respect his previous career had garnered him. 

But those slavers will pay. 

And this leads to by biggest regret, and my biggest failed GM pitch that has never been realized:

Players will start as halfling sailors on Zorin's ship, Vengeance, prepping for the biggest raid of their career.  If successful, they just might find out some information on the Slavers of Roark, and with that Zorin may have to get the band back together to level Roark, and any other outpost they discover.   

This is my dream campaign, that allows the crunchiness of Hackmaster and a chance to get everyone together (probably online), recruit my other players who hadn't participated in the Burning Trogs to fill out the ranks, and finish A1-4 with righteous vengeance and furious anger.

And old man Zorin will get his revenge... and soothe that sharp part of his soul. 

Alternate Question:  One game you regret not trying? 

#RPGaDay2026 - Day 25 - "Familiarity"

Day 25 of #RPGaDay and our prompt is "Familiarity," or to use the alternate question offered:  "One game you want to get more familiar with?"

Staring at my shelf, after years of Gamma World, it's an acceptable transition to explore Mutant Crawl Classics (MCC)  by Goodman Games. 

I've had the opportunity to play Dungeon Crawl Classics, including with some of the published authors.  It's the right amount of zany old school fun.  I've also been blessed to have a local con where Goodman either has had a booth, or one of the authors running a booth over the years and acquired a copy of MCC for a steal. 

I honestly haven't gotten much time to peruse the entire book, but just delving into the first few pages have generated some great gonzo tables perfect for the style of post-apocalyptic play I enjoy.  Here's hoping I get that opportunity soon.

Alternate Question: One game you want to get more familiar with?

#RPGaDay2026 - Day 24 - "Distance"

Day 24 of #RPGaDay and the prompt of "Distance" is a no brainer from a guy who games online.

Yes, it's a poor attempt using Gemini, but here's a map of our regulars 

It's not London and Paris and Tokyo, but it's a good bunch of folks.   Plus, we were just missing our Boston delegation when the rest of us descended to Historicon in Lancaster, PA last month. 

Alternative Question:  Your preferred distance in any type of RPG conflict?

#RPGaDay2026 - Day 23 - "Fortune"

 Day 23 of #RPGaDay and the prompt "Fortune" make me immediately go back to the series of D&D boxed sets.

Perhaps it was the expected rapid levelling, maybe it was just a different economy, but all levels of BECMI D&D seemed to have fat stacks of gold everywhere.  It seemed like there was a lot to save up to, and once you got into Expert, the concept of "Name Level" where it was expected to building strongholds, castles, temples and towers and start ruling.  Noble titles were horribly designed, but structurally, where one could break down realms into handy standardized hexes on a map, it made sense.   (Example: A Viscount needed to rule multiple baronies, with at least barony having a Baron pledged fealty to him... He couldn't upgrade to a Count unless he actually conquered someone else's territory.  Weird but logical - Rule Cyclopedia, page 135)

In that same structure, building your stronghold was better organized that in AD&D.  Perhaps it was just the age, but we designed the castles, calculated the cost, and all that work was reasonable. 

Plus, the concept of having not henchmen, not hirelings, but actually levying troops was completely satisfying. 

Better yet, D&D offered better dominion administration, and a whole ongoing system of dominion check and dominion confidence to keep a Name-Level adventurer on his toes. 

And just an FYI, for those wishing to house me... the anticipated expenditure to keep a Viscount entertained is 150gp per day.  

Alternative Question: An enjoyable moment of good or bad fortune? 

#RPGaDay2026 - Day 22 - "Grit"

Day 22 of #RPGaDay and my old college roommate, Steve continues an extensive influence on my posts, even showing a bit of "Grit" by giving me a story that wasn't even my game!  

In college, I had one game, possibly THE game for the dorms that surrounded the quad.  Saturday nights were for AD&D 2nd Edition, my then 10-year old "World of Georic" campaign.  As games on other nights of the week grew from that, my players now acting as GMs borrowed much of the information I was willing to share and turned it into their own, especially the Prinicipalities (sometimes Kingdom) of Emron. 

My college roommate Steve was in one of the offshoot games, this one run by our dorm neighbor Nate, aka TOWN (The Other White Nate).   With his history of odd characters in campaigns, past, present, and certainly future, it was a shock to the system of all to find out he was playing Benverho.

Benverho was a classic magic-user.  Now, he was a craven, manipulative, and selfish character, but he was the most "normal" character in a group that had weird cast-offs from my game, and a character named Beer-Nut. 

Benverho seemed poised early one to acquire knowledge by using people, and a healthy use of meat shields between him and the bad guys, and to be fair that continued for the length of the campaign, despite certain softenings of his stance. 

But sometime around 2nd level, the party was in an ultimate low-level bind, and Benverho found himself in a keep, face-to-face with a man-at-arms with a crossbow pointed at him.  

Steve: How much does a crossbow do? 

TOWN:  1d4 points of damage.

Steve: I like my odds.

He then proceeded to step forward at the crossbowman with a Shocking Grasp. 

The crossbow bolt whizzed past his AC 9 ear.

The Shocking Grasp killed the guard.

The room was stunned that he did not die, as was all the rage that session.

And despite months of campaign play afterwards, that might have been Benverho's only gritty combat moment.

Produced by Gemini

Alternative Question: An enjoyable moment of grit PCs did or did not tough out

#RPGaDAy2026 - Day 21 - "Charity"

 It's the end of the third week, Day 21 for #RPGaDay, and we're looking at "Charity."

Another suggestion from the Monday night group, "You were really charitable not killing off Ozark on day one..."

Following the accidental death of one of the chosen ones, Echelon.  I waited with baited breath for Steve's replacement character.  He came back with a banger of a Max-Min character (yes the I flipped the term). 

What could go wrong?

• Half-Orc
• Cleric of a Minor but normal deity
• Freaky Old "Venerable"

A healthier version of Ozark... or Yoda's older brother.

Ozark was going to be a 75 year old Half-Orc old-man cleric.   Referencing what I had (no half orcs in 2nd Edition, so half-orcs in 1st Edition cap at 4th level, already two levels  below the group. 

He was the spoiler, slowing down the group, criticizing the food, rapping the amorous bard on the head for loose morals with the ladies.  He hurt his fellow adventurers more for loose morals than damaging monsters.

And the sonuvabitch just wouldn't die... 

He played it so well, everyone hated Ozark so much, that I killed him off in White Plume Mountain and made a dramatic return of a wiser, more enlightened Echelon in the fight with the gargantuan crab.  

Alternative Question: Share an RPG charity past or present that moved you?

#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.

Pictures of Rolf are rare, but this pic I used for him from the first session of Ballad of the Pigeon God is far better than the AI crap I tried to generate.

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?

#RPGaDay2026 - Day 13 - "Strain"

Day 13 of #RPGaDay and I'm feeling the pressure, perhaps the "Strain?"

If cheesy line about pressure creating diamonds, what does strain create? 

Hemorrhoids.

And I'm the king of being the pain in the ass for my players.

Because I like continuity, I like bringing one-off scenarios, or flavor text back.   Not everything, but just enough to remind the players that the characters' actions have influence in the world, if not outright consequences.  

But as I ponder options to talk about strain with my Monday night gaming group, the winning answer came from the guys who experienced it all happen: "When Echelon and Talis ran a barony..."

Day 8 I talked about Echelon and Steve.    Two strange bedfellows who became the best of friends until each died. The whole barony thing is where it started. 

Spring Semester '99 - College - a few of the players are locals, they'd like to continue the campaign.  I set up a whole wizard from another dimension, trying desperately to go back home.  While the party visited the capital city, Talis wisely set up rooms at a local brothel.   For the last session of the semester, Kannex the Wizards researched too well, transporting him... and everything in the brothel back to his home world of Talislanta.

For the summer, we converted our AD&D 2nd Edition characters to Talislanta and went on a series of missions exploring the realm, but also getting more components and MacGuffins for the return journey home.

I had left Talis, Echelon, and their friend Brutus the Gladiator standing right outside the vanished building. 

What the rest of the summer group didn't realize was that I ran two additional sessions for Echelon and Talis' players.  

They returned to their established base outside of Eding... then they remembered why they left in the first place. 

• The Talislanta wizards, Kannex?  He was trying to help the group stop a wedding to the local lord that had been infiltrated with a race of spider-people doppelgangers.  (Seriously, read Ballad of the Pigeon God... it makes sense, but its weird...).  Let's just say that wildly different magic systems resulted in spell failure and spell explosions often. 

When he wanted to fireball a group of spider people charging the altar... a reasonable response and rolled a max critical success.  

His well-weighed response, causing minimal civilian death or property damage essentially nuked the entire ceremony, guests included. 

The battle turned to healing, hunting down rogue spider-people, and putting out the fire at the Blue Wizard Inn, the only inn in-town. 

The good news was the spider-person bridge was killed.  The bad new was many other guests of high status... including Lord Athelstane himself were killed!  

In the aftermath, the leader of a rival adventuring party, sent a runner to the capital, and essentially declared martial law in the village, taking charge.  

The disaster in the center of town, the deaths of many essential villagers just a few weeks before harvest,  and the ncompetent rule of "Prince William" set the stage for a rough autumn.

• The threat of famine for the winter.
• Tornados and storms threatening what was left of the town.
• The secret BBEG revealing himself to be the brother of the king... and Talis had slept with his daughter. 
• An uprising by some of the surviving peasants.. for all the wrong reason.  They torched the manor house and sent Prince William and his non-so amazing friends scattering.
• Columns of fire descending from the sky (it was a good things, but horrible optics). 

It was Talis and Echelon who kept people fed, purchased extra supplies, rebuilt essential equipment and fought off the various threats to this village.

... And if they didn't do it, they had the benefit of a collection of NPCs that had become their friends help them.  

Winter would be harsh, rations meager, but the village would survive...

And to make the wild session end on an ominous note, it was uncovered that the Chateau D'Echelon, there base of operations was still under a loan, and that individual, one Mister Nebuchadnezzar Tinpenny, was within rights to call in the entire loan, due to a number of "Act of God" contingencies in the agreement. 

We left our duo nearing the due date on the first day of Yule, and them plotting how to commit enough heinous acts on the moneylender and his well-earned good squad... and I left them hanging all summer until we reconvened on move-in day, Fall Semester, for a wonderful reunion, no one had seen coming.  

Strain: So far, what is the heaviest set of RPG things you have carried to play?