RPGaDAY 2015: Days 25-28

Day 25: Favorite Revolutionary Game Mechanic

Gaining experience when failing a move (skill roll) in Dungeon World. 

Dungeon World and Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) games already want rolls to only be made when they mean something, but this mechanic gives a little more drive to the GM to make that happen. Otherwise players can abuse the situation by rolling for anything, and getting more failures = more xp. I'm serious. I've got a min-maxer who was ready to roll all the time, because he knew that for the most part he couldn't "lose". He knew SUCCESS = win and FAILURE = xp.

For me as GM it was another impetus to learn to only ask for the rolls when they mattered. And it helped me drive up my game with roll failures which were more than just "oh, you missed. take 5 damage."

A disadvantage of failing rolls in some games is, such as some traditional D&D, is that just means you "missed" and now have to wait for the table to cycle before you can do anything else. One of the great advantages to this PbtA mechanic, however, is that there is always a silver lining when you fail, as a player... you get an XP! And it's only like 8 or more xp to level. So that's big too.

Day 26: Favorite inspiration for your game

Music. The track Hyperspace by Faust and Shortee, which inspired me with the Star Frontiers game.

Actually, there are more than a few tracks on that album I like for gaming. I love looking for good tracks that work in the backgrounds, especially if they have a certain beat or cadence which inspires the mood for the scene (but without distracting from the conversations in the foreground).

Day 27: Favorite idea for merging two games into one

Some good choices here. 

It's been said before in some of the other RPGaDAY posts, but shit: Dread. Jenga + RPG = excellence.

In recent times, one of my favorites is the Star Frontiers conversion for Savage Worlds, just because it's taken a setting I wanted to use, and converted it into gaming "Esperanto" so that everyone can play it. It isn't really a merging of two games, but more of a conversion of one into the system of another, however check out the amazing job they've done with these:

If you remember, or have, the original Star Frontiers rules, you'll see they basically took the book and layout, as is, and scraped out the text, and just replaced it with Savage Worlds-related text and mechanics. It's artfully done.

Day 28: Favorite game you no longer play

Probably Battletech, purely for the memories. I loved walking into a pond and having the heat sinks in my legs cool me down, and jump up in the air and shout "death from above!" But alas, no one I know really plays it. I did get to play a short skirmish at the local con last year, when someone helped my friend Howie and I run through a quick combat (I think they were trying to promote the re-released box set. Howie then went on to buy it, but we haven't played since. And to be honest, I want to play a mech pilot, but I don't really like war gaming in general (too crunchy).

And that's why I'm sort of excited for this game: ATLAS RECKONING by Stras Acimovic. I got chat with him up at GoPlayNW, and he showed me some tidbits... a character sheet / playbook here and there. And it looks awesome, like a little bundle of Robotech and Pacific Rim and G-Force and whatnot all rolled into one. Not sure if the link'll work, but here's what I got re details: plus.google.com/+StrasAcimovic/posts/dp26DHBzxFL.

So hopefully this will go from a favorite game I no longer play, converted into a newer game I do.

#RPGaDAY2015