I've never taken part in RPGaDAY, though I've been following other creators as they cover prompt on blogs and podcasts for years. #RPGaDAY seeks to bring positivity through interesting discussion centered on a specific prompt for each day of August. I'll be going through the prompts on a weekly basis and all thoughts offered are those of myself, Joe Salvador, and not those of Raven God Games LLC and we are not connected to any of the games or companies mentioned. Links are provided for your convenience only.
You can learn more about RPGaDAY here.
DAY 15: Great Gear. I'm going to look at this one from the GM-standpoint and say that Call of Cthulhu offers some of the best gear to set a Keeper up for success. I'm thinking about the handouts specifically and while they've been present since the beginning, they've improved greatly over time. Handouts add a certain amount of tangible realism that helps draw he players into the investigation scenarios---and what a great reward for successful Library Use checks!
DAY 16: Quick to Learn. One of my favorite "one-shot" games is Tunnel Goons (and its variants), its super short and quick to jump into. Still, not all easy to learn games need be short; a streamlined mechanic, great layout, and an easy-to-read text with solid examples goes a long way to making a quickly accessible.
DAY 17: Engaging Community. While I'm a social media lurker, the games that stand out to me that have great communities are Mothership and Shadowdark. Both Discords are filled with enthusiasts that quickly accept members and are ready to answer the questions of those new to the game.
DAY 18: Memorable Moment. Memorable moments are what the game is about. Rather than relating one, I'll just say that cooperatively experiencing make-believe adventures with your friends creates great camaraderie and amazing memories. It still surprises me that I can talk with friends about games that we played decades ago and we can recall details, names, die rolls...
DAY 19: Sensational Session. Choosing one from recent years, one session of Reaver stands out in my mind as particularly fun and complete. The PCs were tasked with hunting a rampaging boar of "unusual size" and during the session tracked it, found it, made it angry, found that it wasn't a normal boar, slew it, located its lair, and one PC ate a corrupt mushroom and experienced some unusual effects. Good times had by all. Come to think of it that may have been two sessions...
DAY 20: Amazing Adventure. One of the only pre-packaged adventures that I've run multiple times is I6: Ravenloft, the adventure that kicked off the entire brand. I ran it ages ago with 2E, revamped it for running with 3E before WotC released an official version; and most recently it reappeared for the 5E playtest. While there are things in it that I don't care for, I have a copy with a ton of hand-written notes, removing those things and inserting my own ideas. It may be a while, but I'll probably run it again eventually.
DAY 21: Classic Campaign. Though I've played in a few, I rarely use pre-packaged campaigns myself, so I'll relate a D&D 3E game I ran for several years. The game began with only two players and started kind pretty typically---PCs ambushed by goblins and track them to their lair. But after they reached a nearby settlement, the game became more formalized and I largely based the background on the Volsunga Saga with a number of competing factions and a dragon's lair overlooking the local river. During the course of the game, we continued to add players (I think we ended up with 6) and one of the original PCs (Grimhild Ravencloak) became the leader of a warband that wandered the north, sacked a fort, took part in land disputes and wars, and fought against the missionaries of an encroaching religion. In the end, Grimhild and the few remaining of the warband died attempting to slay the dragon, only to be avenged by the Grimhildsons.
Related Posts
