I had an amazing rpg weekend with @catrinity, @Ghulgrube and @tinofalke. First in-person games in almost exactly three years.

We played #ThingsFromTheFlood, a Swedish rpg about a run-down society in an alternative 90s setting where the great sci-fi promises of its predecessor setting #TalesFromTheLoop never panned out. I loved how our GM seamlessly switched between "everything's broken, everyone's depressed", "weird sci-fi stuff happens", "teen drama" and "oh, right, that funny stuff existed in the 90s!" The mechanics of the game work decently too, though they really require only rolling for stuff that's actually challenging because every roll *will* be hard.

Our second game was #Masks, a #pbta game about teenage super heroes. Our group had a Delinquent (theme song: Castle by Halsey) who was told to do some superheroics as community service if she didn't want to end up in jail and a Protégé (theme song: I am the Fire by Halestorm) and Legacy (theme song: tbd) from two rival superhero academies depicting the idealist and ends-justify-means part of the spectrum. I love how the game invites you to go all-in on the genre tropes - after getting the "Insecure" condition, I looked up the way of clearing it: "take foolhardy action without talking to your team." So naturally I went rogue to solve the case on my own, got caught, had to be bailed out by my team and Learned A Valuable Lesson. And I even came up with a decent one-liner!

That said, if anyone has an idea for a good theme song for a teenage superhero called "Lux" with hardlight- and gadget-based powers and a "ends-justify-means" attitude from a poor background stuck in an ivy-league academy, I'm all ears!

#ttrpg #pnpde #CiferRPGMusings

Today on #Starfinder: An undead Shade tries to possess my big brutish Vesk. Which means trying to enter his space (and body) and provoking an attack of opportunity. Which means eating a critical hit from the only weapon of the party that can *really* hurt them and promptly dissipating.

Who says exorcisms need a priest? Just punch ghosts!

#ttrpg #pnpde #CiferRPGMusings

A few days ago, I played #CallOfCthulhu during an online Convention.
The scenario was fun, both the plot and the atmosphere in act 1 and 2, but I feel like the horror ended once the monsters showed up. I think there is a specific combination of them being rather fast so we had no option of avoiding them, but not very tough - one ended up point blank on my doctor's shotgun, which wasn't very healthy for it. I assume a slower and less attentive monster might work better because the characters might not actually decide to confront it, however dangerous it might turn out to be or not be.

Another interesting aspect was balancing an effective search for a young woman with staying discreet and not ruining her reputation by asking around too obviously for the men who were seen in her company.

Also, best dialogue exchange of the evening:
Private Detective: "At a crime scene, it's important to move carefully and not disturb any evidence."
*Archaeologist*: "Oh, that is a fascinating idea, I shall make a note of that!"
... good old 1920s.

#ttrpg #pnpde #CiferRPGMusings

Today's #WerewolfTheApocalypse game was mostly story-heavy. The characters of the veteran players explained all the prior events to the new packmate. Turns out we have played this campaign for five years now and despite only three months passing in game, a lot of stuff has happened...

Afterwards, the characters told stories they had heard of the main NPC of the coming scenario, the Admiral of a small ocean settlement called the Rust Fleet who once had to go on a diplomatic mission.
So now they will be meeting a cruel but honest tyrant with a weakness for cherry beer. The last question was "Do you think she is a good admiral"?
Thank you, Alex Roberts, for helping a lazy GM shift prep work to players by adapting #ForTheQueen!

#ttrpg #pnpde #ForTheQueen #CiferRPGMusings

In yesterday's #MonsterHearts game, we managed to crash a status quo with harmony.

Our Witch told the Dragon he can't make everyone like him and shouldn't try. So naturally, the Dragon turned around and ended the long-overdue fight with his best friend... by kissing him, to the sound of two dozen clicking smartphone cameras and probably 1 1/2 existing relationships breaking. Oops.

#ttrpg #pnpde #CiferRPGMusings

Another second Saturday, another #MagpieGames Community Play Day. I played in a fun session of #UrbanShadows. My "Veteran" archetype was a Fae scion of the Summer Court who spent the last 50 years at a human college because he found out learning and college life are fun. He may also have supplied half the campus with... um... herbal remedies.
Over the course of the game, we investigated a murder and messed with one elder vampire on behalf of another elder vampire. Our characters worked together quite a bit more than the system usually intends, which definitely sped things up, but also made the web of debts we spent some time setting up feel a bit wasted, though sometimes worldbuilding feels like its own reward.

Also, as it turns out video games are really helpful in supporting ttrpgs. The #SaintsRow Boss Factory (available for free on Epic) is increadibly awesome for creating character images for modern settings and #StrangeHorticulture made sure I had a sufficient amount of weird plants to distribute. Thanks again for the recommendation, @Lilliana_S!

#ttrpg #pnpde #CiferRPGMusings

Heute beim #DasSchwarzeAuge Spielen: In der Schenke unserer Stadt wurde möglicherweise das Bier vergiftet. Wir beauftragen unseren Hexer, das Zeug zu analysieren, er gibt zu bedenken, dass das ja aufwendig ist und schwierig und eine ganze Weile dauern könnte. Wir werden uns einig: Er soll es trotzdem machen.

Also geht er in den Burgkeller in sein Labor, kippt es dort in seine Alchimieschale und liefert uns ne halbe Minute später das Ergebnis.

Der hat die Alchimie doch bei Scotty gelernt.

#ttrpg #pnpde #CiferRPGMusings

Vor drei Tagen ist das MC-Kapitel als Preview aus dem leicht verspäteten #UrbanShadows Kickstarter zu den Backern geschickt worden, ich hab's dann mal gelesen. Hgrn. Wie soll ich mich denn dann zwischen dem und #AcesInSpace entscheiden? Ich fürchte, es müssen früher oder später mal zwei Kampagnen her.

#ttrpg #pnpde #CiferRPGMusings

Another fascinating aspect for me is how much other players influence how your character is seen. I've read about "Den König spielen immer die anderen" ("The king is always played by other people"), meaning your role is determined by other people's reactions to it as much as how you play that role. I don't think I could portray a really suave and seductive character, but all other characters played as either smitten by him or respecting him, so apparently, he *is* that charismatic and it really helped me grow into his role.

#ttrpg #pnpde #CiferRPGMusings

Had the final game of our #Monsterhearts fewshot yesterday. As it turns out, having your werewolf girlfriend transform in front of you (and thus make you decide you really want to keep her, because she could be so *useful*) can easily become only the third most dramatic event of the session when the Queen and the Unchained go for mutually assured annihilation via setting each other up for having brought drugs into the school and the Unchained threatens the Werewolf's grandmother (bonus points for the note at her bedroom door saying "Granny, why do you have such long teeth?").

It's interesting how differently the game behaves in a oneshot versus fewshot versus campaign situation - in oneshots, there's often not enough time to build up *really* heavy drama, in campaigns the characters need to remain playable for a long time and can't go too far, but a fewshot of three to five sessions has enough opportunity to build up situations and is short enough that you won't sit in the ashes for too long after you've burned it all to the ground.

#ttrpg #pnpde #CiferRPGMusings

Playing a #MonsterHearts fewshot on the side, I continue to be impressed by yesterday's events:
My character's scheme to drive a wedge into a clique by showing one of them just how little the others value her and how much better she'd be off with him worked perfectly...
...for about 5 minutes until another character visited her, bullied her and made her realize that associating with my character would likely mean also associating with them.

Lessons of the evening:
-Schemes may work better if you tell your so-called allies how not to accidentally thwart them.
-I'm fairly sure we're playing a villain origin story prequel.

#ttrpg #pnpde #CiferRPGMusings

I love how in well-made games the dice are made to help tell a story. Sometimes that just happens by accident though - in yesterday's #MonsterHearts, there was obligatory bottle-spinning. The bottle was introduced as "probably haunted" and had often pointed to the Ghoul in the last session it was used in.
There were seven players at the table, so we rolled a (virtual) D7. In the first eleven rolls, the Ghoul got hit five times.
Also, my Seer realized she's in a relationship with a literal Nightmare, the Witch realized her last ritual may have been a really bad idea after three participants had the same nightmare (which is different from my Seer's Nightmare) and the Ghoul and the Dragon realized their feelings for each other. Fun times!

#ttrpg #pnpde #CiferRPGMusings

During the Community Play Day of #MagpieGames, I played in an awesome game of #TheBetween where we investigated and finally exorcised the Saint James Street Ghost. Awesome first look into the game and the ways it facilitates creating a story, a setting and three-dimensional characters to inhabit them!
Also, maybe my Factotum was a little miffed at the insinuation that apart from strange occult purchases, the finances of a household could be considered boring.

#ttrpg #pnpde #CiferRPGMusings

Yesterday in #MonsterHearts, the witch reenacted a sacrificial fertility rite for a school project.
On the plus side: Some farmer is going to have a great harvest next year.
On the minus side: Apparently some spirits of unknown power are now angry with us for not actually killing the classmate who played the sacrifice.
Whoops!

#ttrgp #pnpde #CiferRPGMusings

Today in #werewolftheapocalypse, our Egyptian cat shifter is currently debating with his invisible spirit companion about the timing of his death. Or maybe he's just imagining her. On the plus side, none of us can understand him in his cat shape. On the minus side, our allies can and probably ask themselves why they came along on this trip right now.

#ttrpg, #pnpde, #CiferRPGMusings

Listened to a very fun #Spire game this evening on #drachenzwinge. A cell of drow revolutionaries trying to keep their casino front from failing while playing various nobles against each other and hoping they don't notice. Fun times! I like this system.

#ttrpg #pnpde #CiferRPGMusings

Yesterday on #monsterHearts: My Seer and the Witch completely agree that when trying to figure out whether someone is romantically interested in the Seer, the obvious path is to use cosmic and forbidden powers to peer into the web of fate. Much easier than just asking him.

#pnpde #CiferRPGMusings