#rpgaday #rpgaday2019 - RPG a Day - "Unique"

-

Day 2 - UNIQUE

There is a pressure, especially on the GM's, that everything they come up with is supposed to be unique. 
It doesn't have to be. 
You do you.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

But seriously:
  1. My first GM's homebrew world was Warcraft 1&2 mixed with some ideas from Might&Magic series and gods pantheon from Slavic mythology.
  2. When I started creating my first setting I should have named it Generia - the generic land of generic fantasy ripped off from Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms novels. Thankfully I only ran one adventure there.

    Clichea - the land of tropes
    (http://unleadedwriting.com/2016/07/23/fantasy-tropes-and-cliches-beginning-with-the-world/)

  3. The other guy from that group made up a totally unique setting of a fantasy world but it's in the near cyberpunk future. And it totally didn't rip off Shadowrun and Cyberpunk 2020.
  4. Kickstarter is full of heartbreaker 5E settings that are supposed to give you the experience similar to playing this or that video game (frequently it's some aspect of Dark Souls). 
  5. People hate HEARING tropes and cliches but love PARTICIPATING in them.

We are all children of the same pop-culture and have similar sources of inspiration.
This is remix culture.
Even when you run a published adventure, you will prep it in a unique way. 
You will run it in a unique way. 
The people in the group will play in a unique way.
You cannot run the same adventure the same way for different tables.
The whole hobby is unique.
Adapt things. Have fun. Have a great game.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Silvery Moon Tavern - review

-
Image
Product received for free So... You meet in a tavern... This supplement from Silver Bulette   gives the DM a fully fleshed out tavern, easy to insert in any fantasy city but also a part of their  Undying Orbs Omnibus   campaign (review soon-ish to follow). The basic idea is to have a sort of headquarters, a place where the party will be coming back on a regular basis to replenish the resources and rest between the adventures. What's in the box?! The many sections of the Silvery Moon Tavern supplement give an overview of the history of the tavern hinting at some events in the outside world. There is a dozen of tavern employees described, with portraits and plot hooks involving them either by referring to their personal lives or by tying them to some events in the area. There are five adventuring parties frequenting the place - from very low level to a serious threat - that can be utilised as a friendly competition or straight up enemies. A random...
Read more

Khan of Khans - review

-
Image
Stay Golden It's the Gen Con weekend and now we know.  Two Gold ENnies for " Khan of Khans " (Best family product, Best RPG related product) and they are well deserved. *le box Khaaan!  Do not pay any attention to the BGG score - the bitterness comes from people expecting a deep strategy or tactical game. This is not that at all. Khans is a simple push-your-luck family game with some tactics derived from the memory element of the game. The whole premise of the game is slightly absurd for people living in modern society - you are leading a tribe of animal riders and your goal is to procure  as many cows as possible through raiding different locations. Caaards! The game was designed by that German guy that pops up everywhere when board games are mentioned - Reiner Knizia .  Mechanically there are 10 piles of cards representing different locations in Glorantha's Dragon Pass (you may see a pattern developing here ). On your turn you draw a card ...
Read more

#rpgaday #rpgaday2019 - RPG a Day - "Vast"

-
Image
DAY 21 - VAST The original, old school way of playing D&D promises a vast, almost infinite world with infinite possibilities. The land that was promised But this is what you as a player might get. A lot of imagination required For many players, not always new ones, that is too much of a choice. "You can go anywhere, you can do anything". But where to go? What to do? Even with maps that present something it is usually abstracted to a degree that is difficult. Looks good to me when I analyse it a bit, but what does it tell you? This is mostly just colours ChicagoWiz's advice on both his blog and in his unfortunately defunct podcast The Dungeon Master's Handbook  was to create just three hexes . Start small, don't smother your players with choices, develop as you go depending on the events of the game, player expectations and your own ideas. The world does not need to be overly vast to feel alive.
Read more