#RPGaDay2024 for 8 August: An accessory you appreciate

Today's prompt: An accessory you appreciate

I've been a fan of Rory's Story Cubes since I first discovered them more than a dozen years ago. I bought them to play with the Cabin Kids, which we still do, but I quickly discovered they made a great creative tool for my style of preparation, fleshing out bare bones random encounters.

Free associating with the Story Cubes helps keep me from falling into predictable ruts as a referee, as I noted in the linked post: " . . . I would never, ever have come up with anything even remotely like this on my own. The Story Cubes lead my imagination to wholly unexpected places, which is what makes them so much fun." I lean heavily into genre tropes and clichés to help with prep before the game and improvisation at the table in actual play, and toward that end I read and watch cape-and-sword fiction to feed my imagination, but what makes them tropes is their recurrence in different works. I like to think my swashbuckling 'highlight reel' is pretty extensive, but Story Cubes allow me to approach that knowledge with fresh eyes.

#RPGaDay2024 for 7 August: RPG with 'good form'

Today's prompt: RPG with 'good form'

good form: (chiefly UK) behavior that is both morally and socially correct; proper manner, decorum or etiquette.

2e Boot Hill has my favorite 'social system' of any roleplaying game, consisting of a reaction table and a morale roll. What makes it so distinctive is the reaction table, introduced in BH1 Mad Mesa, the first published adventure for BH, which isn't based on modifiers for an attribute like Charm or Charisma but on your character's earned reputation.

It's an elegant system, one I like so much I adapted it to Flashing Blades. So how does this relate to 'morally and socially correct behavior'? It's all in the modifiers. Behaviors which earn a character positive reaction roll modifiers include respect for law and order, friendship, heroism, belonging - honestly, this is way better than alignment in influencing how characters act, because it directly affects how non-player character see the adventurer, whether or not they will react favorably, offer assistance, and so on.

#RPGaDay2024 for 6 August: RPG that is easy to use

Today's prompt: RPG that is easy to use

Arguably the simplest roleplaying game I played was Metagaming's Melee and Wizard, the skirmish rules that would form the basis for - or were derived from? - The Fantasy Trip. Now, many gamers consider Melee and Wizard to be exclusively skirmish rules, but I'm inclined to believe that if the rules allow me to roleplay a character in an imaginary world, that's sufficient. Dawn Patrol and En Garde! are unquestionably roleplaying games given my personal conception of roleplaying, and based on what we actually did with the two 'microgames,' there's no reason I can see for excluding them.

I picked up both Melee and Wizard in 1978 or 1979, and indeed we used them primarily for arena battles at first, but as (some of) our characters survived more than two or three battles, they began to take on a life of their own, so we grew curious about the world around the arena and their lives beyond its walls. Whereas AD&D was our game for exploring dark dungeons and howling wildernesses, Melee and Wizard lent themselves to a sort of urban fantasy setting centered on the fighting pit - first there was a tavern where our gladiators drank and wenched and gambled and brawled between matches, then a neighborhood grew around that and a city around that.

The whole thing very quickly developed a Sanctuary feel - remember, Thieves World was published in 1978, contemporaneously with Wizard - leavened with a bit of Lankhmar, in particular a Thieves Guild that would offer bribes to fighters to throw battles, a dangerous proposition as survival couldn't be guaranteed for characters attempting to yield or feign serious injury.

In any case, this lasted about a year or so, and by then I'd largely moved on from fantasy adventure gaming for Traveller, Boot Hill, and Top Secret. The whole experience would strongly influence a 1e AD&D character I created years later, a high Dexterity fighter who I modeled on one of my old Melee gladiators.

What stands out in retrospect was how the barebone rules didn't prevent us from making stuff up on the fly as we needed it for our adventures away from the arena, and then would find their way back into the fighting pit - scaling walls, leaping, taunting, cajoling. With three stats and no skills, we still managed to have what would arguably be my first real experience with swashbuckling adventure outside of the Yaquinto boardgame. Fond memories indeed.

Sea Soldiers: Marines in Flashing Blades

MARINE
A Marine is a Soldier in the Royal Marines Regiment. Marines are trained to fight at sea, and are stationed onboard warships and important government ships. Being a Marine is quite dangerous, especially since French Marines were expected to learn by experience. They had their initial training on land, although expected to serve at sea. Characters with this background are assumed to have spent enough time on ships to have 'learned the ropes.' Characters from other backgrounds who join the Royal Marines will always start as Recruits (not Troopers) and will be expected to fight at sea. Characters with Marine background are allowed to determine starting rank normally (just as Soldiers in Flashing Blades). The Royal Marines are recruited in both France and the Colonies. - High Seas, 2.2 NEW BACKGROUNDS & SKILL CHOICES, p. 1

The piracy supplement High Seas gives us French Royal Marines as a character background and career path, along with a very good colonial "small wars" adaptation of the original military campaign minigame in the Flashing Blades core rules. Established in 1622 by Cardinal Richelieu - who was sincerely dedicated to improving France's presence as a marine power - as les compagnies ordinaire de la mer, the first royal marines were composed of independent companies commanded by naval officers to patrol the docks and man the ships of the nascent royal navy. By 1626, the independent companies were first organized as a regiment, le régiment de La Marine, and through various reformations and renamings through the rest of the 17th century, French marines would remain a fixture of the Royal Navy, though not without challenges, such as a succession of ministers of war appropriating the various marine regiments for service in the Royal Army.

A Marine's duties are described in High Seas as follows (4.2.3 Marine Duty, p. 8).

Marines may be stationed either on land (as additional garrison troops for forts) or at sea. For every two months served aboard ships, a Marine may spend one month at a colonial port. While garrisoned in the colonies, Marines determine Colonial Campaigns in the same way as Colonial Soldiers. Marine troops are added to the French total in Colonial Campaigns, but are usually stationed only in small numbers (twenty or forty).

At sea, Marines are assigned to serve as boarding and defensive troops on French Warships and Merchantmen. On a small or medium sized ship (such as a Corsair, Merchantman, or Small Warship) a squad of twenty Marines will be stationed. Larger vessels may have forty or sixty Marines (two or three squads). Warships rnay carry large numbers of Marines for raids.

On board Merchantmen, Marines are only defensive. Roll for normal encounters for the ship (as detailed in section 6.2.3). If a hostile encounter occurs, use the rules in section 6.4 to determine the outcome.

On Warships, Marines rnay participate in Naval Battles (as boarders), or in land raids on foreign colonies'(as raiders). The design and use of naval battles are up to the discretion of the Gamemaster. If the High Seas players are familiar with wargaming, the Gamemaster may wish to use some advanced rules for naval battles (see the beginning of section 6.4 for a list of good ship-to-ship wargaming rules). Otherwise, the rules in section 6.4 may be adapted for small naval battles.

Marine raids on foreign colonies should be handled as detailed in section 4.2.2. Marine raiders, however, may face varying numbers of defenders, depending upon the colony and the situation (as determined by the Gamemaster). After successfully taking a foreign port, Marines may roll twice for Booty.

So, good enough as far as it goes. Can it be more?

First, in 17th century France, another option for characters wishing to serve as sea soldiers is a military Order, the Knights of Saint John, based on the Mediterranean island of Malta. Sergents, lay brothers of the order, served as marines aboard the knights' galleys, and later roundships, in their ceaseless war with the Barbary corsairs and the Sublime Porte. Sergents can also be found at commanderies - abbeys - of the order in France. A campaign of player character knights, sergents, and sailors aboard a ship of the order could be a lot of fun.

Second, does a character with the Marine background have to be a marine at all? Looking at the skills available to Sailors/Pirates and Marines in High Seas (2.2 New Backgrounds & Skill Choices, p. 2), both backgrounds offer the following skills: Acrobatics, Captaincy, Seamanship (which Sailors/Pirates receive automatically), and Strategy. Both backgrounds may take the Gunnery martial skill as well. The main differences are in bonus skills between the two backgrounds - Marines get Captaincy and Strategy, Sailors/Pirates get Acrobatics - the presence of Pilot on the Sailor/Pirate's skill list, and martial skills, with Marines getting three and Sailors/Pirates only two.

With this in mind, a character with the Marine background could take the necessary skills to be eligible to sign on for a Sail or Gunnery position aboard ship from their own background skills. This effectively makes a "marine" simply a sailor who is better trained at fighting than his shipmates.

So is a "trained fighter" really a thing in High Seas? Well, as a matter of fact . . .

Once an enemy ship has been grappled, boarders (led by the ship's Master-at-Arms) may swarm aboard. At this point it is necessary to determine how many Trained Fighters are in each crew, as shown below:

• 1/4 of a Merchantman Crew are Trained Fighters
• 1/3 of a Navy Ship or Privateer Crew are Trained Fighters
• 1/2 of any English or Dutch Crew are Trained Fighters
• All Pirates are Trained Fighters
• All Marines are Trained Fighters
• All of a Ship's Officers are Trained Fighters

A boarding party may only be made up of Trained Fighters. (6.4.7 Grappling and Boarding Melee, p. 20)

So, a "Marine" then could be a Royal Marine, a sergent of the Knights of Saint John, or simply a sailor or pirate who's a bit more badass in a fight and serves in boarding actions.

My current campaign includes one more option for service as a sea soldier: the marine militia. Members of the city militia may also serve aboard the chamber of commerce-owned privateer galleys as "marines" and are treated as Trained Fighters.

#RPGaDay for 5 August: RPG With Great Writing

Today's prompt: RPG with great writing

Opinions about Gary Gygax run the gamut among gamers, but page for page, pound for pound, the 1e AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide remains the most influential roleplaying game rulebook/manual in my collection. Thirty-five years on, I still reach for it for refereeing advice, written in Gygax's uniquely florid style.

Like many gamers, Gygax's writing style, in particular his vocabulary, was influential far beyond playing AD&D. I distinctly recall lying on my bed, or the floor of the family room, with the DMG spread open in front of me and my red hardcover Merriam-Webster dictionary close at hand, so that I didn't miss any of the pearls secreted in that crowded tome.

But beyond the rules and advice and the lavender prose, what sticks with me still is Gygax's depth of knowledge, of history, mythology, and literature, fantasy and otherwise that came through in his prose. This was not at all surprising in the context of the time - scratch a wargamer and you'd find an amateur historian lurking beneath the skin. A love of books shines through in references to Bulfinch, Shakespeare, and Lives of the Saints alongside Anderson, Dunsany, Sprague de Camp, and Leiber, and Gygax's affection, enthusiasm, and respect for literature fed into my own. Gary Gygax spoke directly to my love of words and ideas, an abiding passion I still feel today.

#RPGaDay2024 for 4 August: RPG with great art

Today's prompt: RPG with great art

Without a doubt, my favorite artwork in a roleplaying game product is the Dan Brereton illustrated Nocturnals: A Midnight Companion for Mutants and Masterminds. Nocturnals is one of my favorite comics, and Brereton's fully painted illustrations are a big part of that, along with great characters and a terrific setting, of course.

When I purged my roleplaying library about fifteen years ago, I hung on to 1e M&M and this sourcebook, and while I'd probably use the old TSR Marvel Super Heroes FASERIP rules these days to run a Nocturnals-inspired campaign, the sourcebook would be an invaluable resource as well as a beautiful one.

I discovered the series when it was first released in a comic book shop in Fresno, California in the summer of '95 and was immediately taken by its mix of gangsters, aliens, and undead rendered in Brereton's signature style. As I approach a signature birthday, the temptation to get a Doc Horror or Gunwitch tattoo keeps growing on me.

#RPGaDay2024 Blog-O-Rama!

Hey, this looks like fun!

I'm a couple days behind, so I'll catch up here.

1/8 First RPG bought this year
Spire: The City Must Fall by Grant Howitt and Christopher Taylor, published by Rowan, Rook, and Decard in 2018. I don't recall how I heard about this game, but as I was preparing a city campaign and I like to cast a wide net for ideas, I picked up the quickstart and liked it well enough to finally shell out for the .pdf. Contrasting my long-established refereeing habits with how other gamers approach the same challenges and opportunities helps me break free from imagination calcification. Spire was much more traditional than I expected and I was able to glean a few interesting ideas - unfortunately I can't share which ones just yet, in the event my players are peeking. That could actually make an interesting future post, at the opportune moment . . .

2/8 Most recently played
I'm currently running a play-by-post Flashing Blades campaign at the RPG Pub, but my last experience as a face-to-face player specifically was 2e Boot Hill, several years back. This isn't counting some Traveller, Burros & Bandidos, and Flashing Blades solo play.

I tend to be a referee far more often than I am a player. Before Flashing Blades, I ran 1e Chill face-to-face for the Cabin Kids.

3/8 Most often played RPG
Given my blogging pursuits, this answer surprises some people: "classic" Traveller. I've played and run more Traveller than I have any other game by a fair amount. Merchant princes, independent troubleshooters, mercs for hire - played 'em all off-and-on since the late Seventies. No matter what I'm playing or running at any given moment, Charted Space - my house-ruled Judges Guild sectors, not the canonical GDW OTU - is always lurking in the back of my mind.

In fact, in quiet moments recently I've been daydreaming about a lost colony Traveller campaign, set in a system behind the fringe of Charted Space, forgotten - perhaps - by Humaniti.