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Today’s topic is a quick one (as befits a weekend entry), Longest RPG Campaign.

As a designer, I don’t get a chance to do much long-term playing: Playtests aren’t usually long-term affairs. Plus, in the past couple of years, I haven’t had a local group for recreational RPGing, so I have to go back to my college years for the answer to this one, and, to be honest, depending on how you measure it, I have two answers.

The longest game in actual play sessions was a Vampire: The Masquerade campaign that I ran from the year of it’s release, 1991, until around 1994 or so, with basically weekly play (while school was in session — we took breaks between semesters).

The other longest game was a one-on-one game of James Bond 007, where a friend and I would play once every 6 to 8 weeks with a “new movie” (completely with an original soundtrack, composed by my friend — I’d give him the title of the next “film”, and he’d come up with a title theme, an action sequence theme, and either a sneaking-around or a romance theme). Eventually the time between films got longer, especially after he moved, but we kept it going during visits, making the adventures of Richard Deming, 001, last from around 1992 to around 1996.

So there’s my answer. Or rather, answers. Let’s check in with Dave Chapman, and today’s special guest, Robin D. Laws:

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: