Category: Gaming

Today’s topic is Favorite RPG Accessory, which, apparently, is supposed to mean “something for RPG use which isn’t the game or its supplements.” Now, I suppose that I could use this entry to expound upon my love of tie-in-fiction (something I love so much I’ve released some for my own games, like Tales of the Far West, for example). Or I could geek out about soundtracks, which I use during play, and some companies have also released for RPG use (Pinnacle did music for Deadlands, for example, and we’ve done for Far West as well). But rather than do that, I think I’ll go with cards.

Back in the 1980s, a small company called Lion Rampant released a product called Whimsy Cards, which were a game play aid that allowed players to affect the story being told through play, by playing cards like “Unexpected Aid” or “Bad Tidings.” It was one of the first products that allowed players to step into the previously-walled-off role of the Game Master, and I loved them. When Lion Rampant evolved into White Wolf, the cards were expanded and rereleased in 1990 as Storypath Cards, coming in two decks: The Path of Intrigue and The Path of Horror, with cards thematically appropriate to those genres.

Sadly, both the Whimsy Cards and the Storypath Cards are long out of print. However, Pinnacle produces something similar: the Adventure Deck, which is sold as part of a two-pack with their Action Deck. The Action Deck is a standard 54-card poker-suite deck with jokers, for use in Savage Worlds‘ card-based initiative system, but The Adventure Deck is a whimsy/storycard-esque deck allowing players to affect the story. Savage Worlds licensees have even released their own Action Decks, thematically appropriate to their published campaigns — and Adamant is no exception — we released a pulp-based Thrilling Tales Adventure Deck, cards from which are illustrated below (click for detail).

So yeah — cards which allow players to affect the story. That’s my favorite RPG Accessory.

It seems that Dave Chapman likes cards as well, as you’ll see in today’s video entry:

Today’s topic is one where I am at a distinct disadvantage: Favorite RPG Podcast. Here’s the thing: I don’t actually listen to podcasts. It’s not that I don’t want to — I’m very interested in the form: I used to work in radio in the early-to-mid-90s (the local NPR station), and I regularly listen to audio dramas from BBC Radio 4 (which thankfully are available streaming internationally) and Big Finish Productions.

I’m fascinated by the possibilities of podcasts… but for whatever reason, I haven’t made the leap into a regular listener, even when everybody was raving about Welcome to Night Vale and Serial. Part of it is time — I’m up to my eyeballs in late projects, and I can’t really concentrate on what needs to be done with anything more than just music playing in the background. On those few days when I leave my office, and take the 45 minute drive to teach at the Kansas City Art Institute, listening to a podcast in my car would be perfect — except my car is old, with no way to connect my phone to the speakers (I’ve tried using a radio adapter, but there are not enough “dead spots” in the signal spectrum in this area, and we can’t use a cassette-adapter because the car has a CD player).

That said, I do semi-regularly listen to a podcast, and it is, at least nominally, an RPG podcast — although they spend more time talking about non-RPG-specific topics. That podcast is Ken And Robin Talk About Stuff, with Ken Hite and Robin Laws. The wonderful thing about this podcast is that it essentially is a slightly-more-categorically-structured version of what it’s like to sit with Ken and Robin at any convention bar. Seriously. Conversations about film, or weird history, or, yes, sometimes even gaming topics — and getting a chance to take part in that, even passively, via a weekly podcast, is far better than the 1 to 3 times a year that I’d otherwise have.

So there’s my answer. It seems that Dave Chapman has a similar difficulty with this topic, as he demonstrates in today’s video:

Today’s #RPGaDay2015 topic is Favorite RPG Illustration. There are so many I could choose from that I’ve loved: The covers of STAR FRONTIERS and JUSTICE INCORPORATED (a cover I loved so much, in fact, that I licensed the artwork so that I could re-use it for Adamant’s THRILLING TALES Savage Worlds book, and also offer it as as a poster), interior illustrations such as Tim Bradstreet’s work on the first edition rulebook for VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE, or Jim Holloway’s work on the first edition of CHILL, or even re-used artwork from non-RPG sources, such as the color plate inserts from the Games Workshop hardcover edition of CALL OF CTHULHU, which used a bunch of horror art, including The Croglin Vampire by Les Edwards. I could go on and on.

Despite all these fantastic choices, though, I’m going to pick something which isn’t particularly flashy or dynamic — a simple pen-and-ink illustration of two characters. This was the interior title page illustration from the very first RPG I ever owned or played, TSR’s first edition of TOP SECRET. The illustration is by Jeff Dee:

That’s it. With that one picture, with the flared pants and the turtleneck, with the pistols and the expressions on the characters’ faces, Jeff Dee managed to distill turn-of-the-80s Spy Cool. I knew that within those pages, I could create a spy to put James Bond to shame. I know it looks really goofy now, but that illustration grabbed me and didn’t let go — and that’s what an RPG illustration SHOULD do.

Here’s Dave Chapman, who talks about his choice (which is another of my favorites), with special guest Jon Hodgson from Cubicle 7 who talks about several of his: