August 2015 – Page 9 – The Designer Monologues

August 7, 2015

#RPGaDay2015: Day 7

Welcome to Day 7 of #RPGaDay2015! Today’s subject under discussion: Favorite Free RPG. There are a TON to choose from these days, ranging from System Resource Documents of Open systems (D&D Basic, Pathfinder, FATE, etc.) to DIY Indie projects, to less-than-official PDFs of long-out-of-print games from defunct companies, etc.

For my choice, I’m going to go with a commercial game that is now available for free in it’s complete form — so not a beta playtest version, or an SRD, but a game that used to be for sale, and is now available at no cost. It’s hard to find one out there that is better than the complete D6 System from West End Games. The game system that powered the phenomenal Star Wars Role-playing Game is freely available in it’s most recent form — the entire line! Three different core genre books: D6 Adventure, D6 Fantasy and D6 Space, as well as every supplemental release that West End did for it. All for free, at the link I just provided. Go grab it NOW. What’s even better — the entire system has been declared an Open system, which means that you can design and publish your own D6 products.

So that’s my choice. Let’s check in with Dave Chapman, and his special guest Anita Murray, for today’s video entry!

August 6, 2015

#RPGaDay2015: Day 6

Here’s the question that I’ve been dreading. Day 6 of #RPGaDay2015: Most Recent RPG Played. Yeah… About that…

The sad truth of the matter is that I haven’t played an RPG, aside from work-related playtests of stuff I’m designing or that my students have developed in my game design studio at the Kansas City Art Institute, for literally years. I think the last time I was actually in a game was a 4th Edition D&D “Essentials” campaign that ran for a couple months back in 2010. Half a friggin’ decade ago. Yeesh.

There have been a few fits and starts since then — mostly character creation and single sessions which never panned out into recurring games, mostly due to scheduling difficulties and such. The One Ring, Marvel Heroes, Star Wars: Edge of the Empire. The starter clicked, but the engine never turned over. Most of my friends are spread around the globe, and the ones that are local have all come down with severe cases of Life, making scheduling problematic.

It’s gotten bad enough that I’m seriously contemplating running an online game — something which I’ve never done before. Not sure if it would scratch the same itch, to be honest.

Well — THAT’S a depressing entry! Let’s check in on Dave for his video entry for the day… with special guest, the inimitable James Wallis!

August 5, 2015August 5, 2015

#RPGaDay2015: Day 5

Today’s topic in #RPGaDay2015 is: Most Recent RPG Purchase. I don’t tend to purchase a lot of RPGs — one, I’m not currently in a regularly-scheduled playing group, and two, a lot of stuff is sent my way as swag from industry colleagues. But when I do make a purchase, it’s something that has grabbed my attention to the point where I cannot let it go. That’s definitely the case for my most recent purchases.

Folks who know me are well aware that my greatest love is what might kindly be called “Trash Culture.” All of the various things that I’m really into: Spaghetti Westerns, Kung Fu and Wuxia, Monster movies, Spy-Fi, Pulp, Comics, etc… all of it is the sort of stuff that parents and teachers warn us “would rot our brains.” And, given that I grew up in the 1970s and 80s, trash culture from those decades hold a special place in my heart. So you can imagine my joy when I heard about The Spirit of 77 RPG. I immediately ran out and bought the PDF of the rulebook, and the first supplement, Wide World of 77.

I mean come ON. Look at that awesomeness! Spirit of 77 is basically the RPG of the Trash-Culture Seventies. Blaxploitation heroes, Kung-Fu Fighting, Bionic Women, Luchadores, CB Bandits and Stunt Bikers… It’s all there. If you like any of this stuff, you owe it to yourself to check it out. OUTTA SIGHT!

Now, I’ll turn you over to Dave Chapman for his video entry of the day.

That Dave is one bad muthaSHUTYOURMOUTH!

(I’m just talkin bout Dave…)