#RPGaDay2022 - Day 14 - Suggestion Sunday: Roll 1d8+1 and tag that many friends and suggest a new RPG to try.

 Day 14 of #RPGaDay2022 debuts a unique concept to increase awareness and generate a little more social media presence, "Suggestion Sunday: Roll 1d8+1 and tag that many friends and suggest a new RPG to try."

My roll is 7 (6+1), so here goes nothing.  

• Dr Bob
• Steve O
• Brian N
• Mike D
• Scott B
• Hoyce
• Wooly

With a special guest star appearance by the one, the only, Crazy Darryl !!!

Let's go to war!   And better yet, if I'm drafting you into this hypothetical game, let's give you options.  

Option One: First off, the GI Joe Roleplaying Game by Renegade Studios. 

Between the 80's cartoon and the original 80s comic run by Marvel, there is so much material to base a game off of, the systematic plot model makes a rotating cast of characters ok.  

And anyway, I just want an excuse to run a Gray-game where the Drednoks steal a Cobra hyrofoil and take it out on a night on the town....

Option Two:  Let's get a lot darker and pseudo-realistic with the latest rules for the GDW classic, Twilight: 2000.  Now produced by Free League (Fria Liga), this game of a Third World War that fell apart and the PCs are left to their own devices in Europe has a revised system, and lots of shiny and new bells and whistles... and it's burning a hole in my bookshelf waiting to be played

Option Three:  If fake warfare with laserguns and planes were everyone has an ejection seat isn't for you, and the dystopian future/past of WW3 is too soft,  let's go full-on brutal.  No, I don't mean Phoenix Command, I mean Palladium's Revised Recon.  No frills Vietnam-era combat missions, no space for personalities and backstories (save the Palladium alignment system.)  Expect a sizable body count on both sides.

The 2022 RPG Dream List

I don't foresee another Social Media project endeavor, such as the #CharacterCreationChallenge or #ZineMonth2022, so it's back to one-off posts about RPGs.  

The recent lull in the Star Wars online game has forced some interesting one shots, and a collective review of what else we (re: I) would like to play.  

Of course, the significant drop-off in COVID infections and hospitalizations mean that the world is getting a bit back to normal and we could possibly resume/resurrect some face to face gaming. 

Finally, with the captive audience at home no longer captive 24/7 about basketball, I should probably try to sink my gaming hooks into them one more time.

Face-to-Face Gaming

Call of Cthulhu  - During a recent "chat only" Monday night session, my friend /college roommate / regular player Steve let it out of the bag that while he enjoys most RPGs systems, he enjoys classic Call of Cthulhu the most.  That's a pretty strong vote to consider CoC with the return to actual tabletop sessions.  A resumption of our now classic 1920's CoC Campaign would be the end goal, regardless of how we get there. 

Call of Cthulhu Invictus - But even I know that diving head-first into that old campaign would not be beneficial to anyone, so a few sessions of Cthulhu Invictus would satiate my desire to play Cthulhu, and use some of the material I've acquired over the years.  

Basic D&D - "Home" -  My permanent placeholder on these lists for at least a decade now, my Polynesian D&D game covering the fact that the PCs are natives on the Isle of Dread would change styles of play as the game progressed.

Twilight: 2000 - One of my long-awaited Kickstarters was for the Free League Twilight: 2000 Boxed Set.  I'd love to run it, but with my group of players *cough* civilians *cough*, I believe face-to-face gaming would almost be required to get them acclimated to the darker setting.  It would also expand my ongoing Challenge Challenge project, where I try to exhaust as much GDW and other material out of Challenge Magazine that I can. 

GI Joe - Almost a complete 180 degree swing from Twilight: 2000, the upcoming RPG about the popular TV series/toy line might work for both online and face-to-face.   First I need to get the rules to make sure they're as decent as I hope they are.

At-Home Options
Savage Mouslings - I've already done some gaming with the girls using Reaper Mouslings and other similar figures.  The first four significant games were using Savage Showdown, but I would like to go from skirmish level to actual role-playing, with a rotating cast of support NPCs.

Gamma World - All the stuff Thom Wilson has written for post-apocalyptic gaming has made me realize that Gamma World with the girls might be a fun exercise, a mixture of beat 'em up combat and riddles as the PCs try to decipher the secrets of the Ancients.  I'd use the 4th Edition of the rules (Proto-d20 almost a decade early).  

Pulp Alley: Tomb of the Serpent - After three season of the Savage Saga of Maja Millie, season 4 is taking a sudden turn.  Savage Worlds/Showdown is moving to Pulp Alley and with the option for multiple leagues, it's time to turn to the Tomb of the Serpent for a long-term campaign.   Just reading the intro scenarios, this is a bit more intense than we're used to, and we'll need to convert/kitbash some terrain.

My Little Pony - I stand by the fact that River Horse's My Little Pony RPG is one of the greatest role-playing games of all time.  Yep, I'm that enamored with it.  The girls are almost too old to play it enthusiastically, but getting things together is, as always, the toughest part.

Online Options

Hackmaster - Burning Trogs Redux... Continued.  Longtime readers may tire of my longtime pipe dream:  getting all my old Hackmaster players back together to have their characters exact the very sweet justice and revenge on the despicable Slavers of Roark  

Espionage RPG - I've compiled a good assortment of spy/espionage material and I'd like to try it out.  Initially I was thinking a Spice Girls RPG using Top Secret, but Top Secret is simply too crunchy.  It may take awhile, but I think I found a system I can hack for the lighter mechanic but heavy planning required, but time will tell.

Canadian Call of Cthulhu - My 90's based horror/paranormal game based in Medicine Hat, Alberta needs more love.  The scenarios are outlined, I just need a steadier rate of game to go further.  A two or three session arc each time there's a Star Wars lull might do it.

Star Wars D6 - This remains the old stand-by.  We recently restarted after an extended holiday hiatus, and the sheer joy everyone had resolving the cliffhanger we paused at warmed my heart.  This could end with a bang, I could cover the mid-game and end-game ideas I've had from session 1, or I could continue to peruse decades of materials (and Traveller articles in the Challenge Challenge) and keep this going indefinitely.

IOU a la Risus - It's quite simple, I need to use Risus for one-shots a LOT more, and Illuminati University (IOU) continues to provide the freedom to run with the crazier ideas, concepts, and puns. 

(Twilight: 2000) Specialist Seth Hudson, Signal Corps - #CharacterCreationChallenge - Day 31

The high point of this month hasn't been participating in the #charactercreationchallenge, it's not completing some awesome project, or even how well my kids are doing in basketball.  I got an updated prescription for the glasses and reading is a pleasure again.  A small part of that pleasure is I got a chance to sit down and read the physical copy of the Twilight:2000 boxed set I got from Free League's Kickstarter.

I end this challenge, with a hastily made character for the game:

Specialist Seth Hudson, Signal Corps
The smartest thing for someone who wants to serve your country and avoid getting shot?  Being able to avoid combat arms MOS is a start.  Plenty of Chair-borne positions, and technical jobs where most of the work is safely behind enemy lines. 

In peacetime, that's a slam dunk option, but when the war gets hot, anyone who's qualified with a weapon in Basic is getting moved, especially when the shit hits the fan.

Seth Hudson figured the Army was the easiest way to get out of Alabama, learn some technical skills, and possibly see the world.  Computer, communications, and other Signal Corps jobs kept you out of harm's way for two terms, until he caught up in the shit-show in Europe.  He was finally pulled from his depot and assigned to the last group of reinforcements before everything went dark.     There's probably nothing left of the depot, so alive and lost in Poland is still a better option... for now.

Name: Seth Hudson

Nationality: American

Branch: Army 

Appearance:  Short, male pattern baldness.

Military Rank:  Specialist (E-4)

Moral Code:  Help/Spare innocent civilians caught up in this mess.  

Big Dream:  Find a secure location with electricity with a Playstation... heck an NES or Atari would work right now. 

Buddy - TBD

How you met the group - Final group of reinforcements before things went dark.

Attributes and Skills

• Strength=C
• Agility= C
• Driving = D
• Ranged Combat = C
• Intelligence = A
• Tech = B
• Empathy = B

Specialties: Communication, Computers, Electrician, and Improvised Munitions

Combat

Hit Capacity = 4

Stress Capacity = 6

Coolness Under Fire  =8

Unit Morale = TBD

Radiation

Permanent : 3

Gear

Assault Rifle

d4 Reloads

Flak Jacket and Helmet

Knife 

Personal medkit

Basic Tools

Electrical tools

Backpack.

My Gaming Plans for 2021-2022

As I tried to assemble my thoughts on what my goals should be for the next twelve months, I looked at at the last three or four years' worth of these posts.  I'm pretty consistent, with two or three raging successes, a few lukewarm accomplishments, and most of my disappointment with pet projects or outright pipe dreams.  And if I temper my goals with my most successful posts from last year, I think I have a good mixture of practical and pie-in-the-sky with the One Big Goal.

This year's theme will be a Return to the....

The blog will always be named Gaming with the Gnomies, so I need to continue to focus on gnomes, then everything else that tickles my fancy. 

1. Gnomish Space Marines: The Adventure Continues:  Here's hoping year two of the GSM goes as well as year one, if not better.  Actually using the figures in a game is my secondary goal.
2. Gnome Wars: If I can paint the GSM, my Gnome Wars figures should be a piece of cake.  I'm shooting for completing the Gnomans and one more unit. Regular small-scale skirmish/role-playing-esque games (a la Flintoque inspired scenarios) would be great as well.
3. Star Wars d6: Let's keep the ongoing campaign the blazing success that it has been, even if I'm looking for solid evolution to a new general storyline.  Of course, the recent introduction of a new player, and a properly eccentric character, may throw all that off the rails.
4. Pulp Alley - Tomb of the Serpent: My pulp games have some of highest traffic of all my posts, and moving from Savage Showdown to Pulp Alley and their Tomb of the Serpent campaign should bring up the page views and still be fun.  There's a lot of prep work involved, and the campaign is LONG, so wish me luck!
5. Face to Face... with Cthulhu: Barring a disaster, we so need to return to regular face to face gaming, and Cthulhu Invictus might be enough of a change to ignite that.
6. Looking For a Friend, at the End of the World:  Another option is running Twilight:2000 needs to be face to face, needs tangible handouts.
7. Gaming with the Kids: Gotta try something different to keep things interesting, as we still reach back and occasionally grab a game from the library.   Still thinking Gamma World might fill that need... or moving directly into Pulp Alley.
8. Top Secret: Spice Girls:  No, my Spice Girls project doesn't involve a security clearance.  I am going to have a little "fun" and try to stat out the Spice Girls.  I won't label this one a disappointment if it gets shelved, but I'd like it done faster than some of the Buckaroo Banzai idea I've had spinning around for years.

#RPGaDay2021 - Day 2 - Maps for the End of the World

Day 2 of #RPGaDay and I admit that I was stumped towards the exact direction for the primary word: MAP. 

I've already posted about my crayon sketches of my World of Georic back in 2015, and the few maps to flesh out my 30+ year homebrew campaign might go along with a different topic.  I'm not even a guy who actively uses Roll20's full potential.  

But Day One inspired, nay I say, kickstarted this topic in a different direction.  

I spend quite some time in junior high and high school expanding my gaming horizons.  Our RPG pedigrees were pretty decent by the early 90's, but there was one awesome white whale that I didn't get to play:  GDW's Twilight:2000.  Coming from the generation of Rambo, Chuck Norris, and specifically Red Dawn, the idea of a gaming in a devastated setting where World War III went wrong in unexpected ways, and the character were stranded in Europe with low ammo and low supplies seemed like a challenge.  Throw in the fact that the group contained a military history dude and two guys who enlisted into the military out of high school, and I'm still surprised we never bit the bullet and invested more time into it, instead sticking with Palladium's RECON and Vietnam.  Don't get me wrong, I love me some RECON, but T:2000 had that edgier feel. 

While taking some early college classes, I fell into the local gaming club and played a little GDW Dark Conspiracy, with a pre-X-File, pre-Delta Green vibe, but that wasn't the best the system or setting had to offer.  

In the midst of pandemic last August, Free League, publishers of Alien, Tales from the Loop, and MÖRK BORG, launched a Kickstarter for a new edition/version of Twilight:2000.   Gone are the stark typewritten pages with effective black and white art.  It's a polished project through and through, far fancier than anything GDW even dreamt of.    While I wait for the finished product to be printed and shipped from Sweden, I have a very impressive pdf of the final product to tide me over.

But the one thing I want physically in my hands are the maps.  

The original maps were something I could picture the characters have unfolded across the hood of some vehicle, arguing over which crossroads they were actually at, hopefully at least one soldier scanning the countryside for ambushes, marauders, or worse yet aircraft.

Just the pictures of the Free League's Poland map brings back that feeling.

And better yet, those crazy Swedes have their own interactions with the Soviets/Russians, so a map of Sweden is also included, for those of us with more Nordic sensibilities.  

Sweden - The Elite Playground for WW3

When I first saw the maps, my very first though last summer was, "This needs to be played in-person."  That has not changed, and I'm hopeful that we get some time together to safely play this by the end of the year.   With only two players with military experience (and one with a Doctorate in Military History) the rest of the group might take a bit to get on board, but I picture a bleak, wonderful ride, no matter where the characters are in Europe.

Next Year's Projects for 2020-21

Will there ever be another con game?  Heck, we've still got a cruise in May that we don't know the status of!

Face to Face?  My group is jonesing for a game.

Facebook,  Twitter: @tabletopinq  Insta: @tabletopinquirer

The Gnomish Space Marines:  This has been a running gag since the parody song in Dragon Magazine and we started statting up TWERPS characters in the early 90s, but thanks to the delivery of all the "Sci-Fi Dwarf" Kickstarter, I think I should make a Squat-By-Any-Other-Name army a reality.  I'm not statting up a 9th Edition IG army for 40k.  Looking into some vehicles and the Mantic and Wargames Atlantic Plastics.

Star Wars d6: With the exception of an extra player or two, running Star Wars was the perfect tonic for the doom and gloom of COVID.  I got to get the creative juices of campaign building flowing, I'm constantly collaborating with the group to add more depth to the story, and my proudest moment, they've taken on the roles of not only NPCs to keep everyone active, but entire side-stories with Bo'Non'as and Oopsa.  With a few breaks here and there, I'd like to see this going on through at least June.

Retro Twilight: 2000: I broke down and pledged for Free League's (Tales from the Loop) Kickstarter for Twilight:2000.  They're looking at a June 2021 release, and they're pretty good at delivering, so I'm thinking of going completely retro by that point and play from T:2000 face-to-face.  Heck, I might just invest in some cheap microarmor.

Yellowstone
We still don't know the status of 2021 cons (heck we don't know the status of Halloween or the kids going to school/staying virtual.  Why predict anything?)  Cold Wars 2021 will be in Ocean City, MD and will be another attempt to promote Wargaming in Education.  After reading, Watching Over Yellowstone, it's a good time to dust off the old rules, update the turn-based mechanics (and add more cool trivia) and spruce it up for the 2020s.  Call me crazy, but after running the Gnome Wars-themed version, I may break down and purchase "proper" US Cav, civilians, and even animals for a "serious" game.

The Lack of Basketball: The community league I'm on the board of has cancelled any season for at least the 2020 portion, probably the entire winter season.  Fall ball is curtailed for the girls so much Maja has returned to dancing and both Maja and Millie are participating in flag football through the beginning of November.

What does this mean?  I need to set aside weeknight and weekend time to play and paint with the girls.  A great excuse to get us all off of devices/Fornite/etc... Too many figures to paint and family games to play that aren't seeing use.

Edit: And just before I was to give the final approval to publish this post, both Maja and Millie were invited to play for two different programs.  No overlap, for better or for worse.  Still, my goal stands firm.

Actual Play Archive: In scant weeks, the Lost Dispatches of Feraso will wrap up with Episode #100.  Immediately following that, Adventures in Gulluvia will fill in the normal Tuesday slot,  and my much ballyhooed Star Wars d6 game will premiere on the best Tuesday of 2021, May the Fourth.

I'm regularly two episodes behind on writing up Star Wars, but I still have more  FRPG Actual Play write-ups to complete. I ran a Hackmaster campaign back in 2007-2008 and it's set in the near future of the Trogs Redux campaign concept, so I'll attach those sessions to that campaign.  I have no idea if they'll see the light of day within these next twelve months, but I'm shooting to finish them.

The Lead Pile:  The Gnomish Space Marine project is going to move the lead pile along, but I do have some plastic boxed sets that the girls are old enough to learn the horrors of crazy glue/Zap-A-Gap/plastic cement.

Georic Gazetteer Update: I say at least once a year that Blogger format (at least prior to the latest update) was what I was missing as a kid,  a repository, an archive, a wiki of my hobby.  Even though my FRPG campaign experience is now well-documented, I might as well start my old info, clean it up country by country, and make that a regular weekly addition on a non-Tuesday.  I can list them on a page, just like the actual play episode, and add the data on my Google Drive for posterity.