What To Do When You (Suddenly) Have Lots of Free Time

It's been less than a week since Carbine shut down. I can't say I've been particularly productive. I've been listing old RPG items on eBay, hoping to raise enough money to pay for my hobbies once all this other crap gets sorted out.

One thing I need to do is work on my knowledge of Roll20, the virtual tabletop that I'll likely be using to run games... eventually.

I also need to get a freelance project to work on, add some more doubloons to me olde coffers.

Eh... it's not so much being bored, though that is part of it. It's more about not seeing the people I'm so used to seeing on a daily basis. I don't exactly live around the corner from the Carbine office, either. I should see someone of those folks tomorrow, though. We'll see how that pans out.

Rest in Peace, Carbine Studios

I haven't posted here in almost exactly four years.

Blogging has always been something of an on-again, off-again thing with me. I'll go steady for days, weeks, months, and then... I'll stop. No reasons cited. I guess my attention shifts. Maybe I'll pay better attention this time around.

The game studio I've worked for over the past 6+ years, Carbine, was shut down yesterday. I've been in the computer games industry for over eleven years now. This makes for my third layoff. Being honest, I have trouble considering 38 Studios' implosion as a proper layoff. Maybe we'll say that I've been laid off twice as well as completely vandalized once.

I don't take it personally. There's no bad guys. It's a fact of life and folks like me accept it. There's a dream, of course, that you'll find the perfect product or the perfect team and make a perfect career out of it. That happens, but it's not common. The fact I survived at Carbine for six years and through two other layoffs is something of a minor miracle.

The first layoff I was swept up in was at EA Mythic. I was a designer on Warhammer Online. The game wasn't doing well, and in the end they cut just about everyone (including me). It was right before Thanksgiving. There was a severance package that would keep us afloat for two months, but I came to see that as a lit fuse rather than a safety net. It wasn't going to take long for it to burn away.

I went home that day, told my wife the news, and then I sat and cried. My family and I were across the country from our starting point in California. I didn't know what I was going to do. I had no idea if I'd find a job in time. Christmas was two months away. I was terrified.

I was also a relative freshman in the industry. I had a pretty good list of freelance writing credits to my name, but only 2 years and 5 months of hands-on computer game development. Not only that, but writing jobs were (and still are) hard to find. Recruiters weren't going out of their way to send me messages about openings at their companies.

It ended up working out for me when 38 Studios made me an offer just before Christmas. It was a good offer and their future looked bright... but that's another story, and probably one I've told before. Even if I'd known the outcome ahead of time, I still would've taken the job. I learned a lot from that experience and grew as a designer and writer.

I know I'm going to survive this, but there are so many others who don't have that comfort. At least, not yet.

Losing Players

It's never easy to lose a player, much less two of them. My group is getting smaller by two members who are moving on to a job opportunity in another state. Tonight is the last game we'll be playing together (for the foreseeable future) before they begin their road trip next week. Their absence will be noted and felt going forward, and we'll all miss their participation and contributions. Both of them have been excellent additions to our game, not to mention friends of the highest caliber.

That said, the group--a 5th edition D&D party--will be losing its barbarian and bard, leaving behind a cleric, paladin, thief, and warlock to contend with all the threats and nasties they'll face in the future. I'm mulling over the idea of keeping the group at four players, or trying to recruit one more. I suppose I'll talk to everyone about it and see where they stand once the dust settles.

I've had plenty of groups explode in my time gaming, but I can definitely feel this one more acutely because we're all friends and we've known each other (and gamed together) for over two years now.

Anyway, that's about it. I've got a game to prep for, so I'd better stop with the whining.

Lords of Nal Hutta

A few months after I started at Carbine, I received an email from FFG asking if I'd be interested in contributing to their new Star Wars RPG, Edge of the Empire. I jumped at the opportunity to do so, and I'm glad I did. That first project was relatively small in the grand scheme of things, but it started the freelance ball rolling for me after a couple years' worth of downtime.

That project, Lords of Nal Hutta, has just been announced, and it should be on store shelves sometime later this year. Though it's not the first FFG Star Wars product to be released with my name in the credits, it is the first one I ever worked on. This feels like some sort of milestone for me, and I'm so happy to have had the opportunity.

In other news, Cubicle 7's Lone Wolf Adventure Game Kickstarter has been funded, and I'll be doing my best to bring the world of Magnamund to life. As a kid, I enjoyed the heck out of the Lone Wolf books. They took the "Choose Your Own Adventure" formula and turned it into something dynamic and exciting. For a kid who didn't get to play RPGs very often, they were a godsend.

Keep an eye out for more Star Wars and Lone Wolf news, and I'll see you a little later!

#RPGaDay: Day Thirty-One - Favorite RPG of all Time

Not your typical fantasy setting.

This is something of a tough question for me to answer, but when I consider all the games I've run over the past twenty-eight years, I can narrow it down to a handful of settings and systems. I'm going to focus on settings, rather than mechanics, though, to answer this question. The setting, in my opinion, has always been more important than system mechanics. Well, unless the system mechanics are utterly terrible and/or impossible to use. Anyway.

After playing AD&D for a long while, I grew tired of the traditional D&D tropes. I focused more on science fiction and horror settings rather than anything even remotely fantasy-oriented. I was also, for a time, totally done with class-based/level-based systems. I absolutely abhorred them. I even modified my Cyberpunk games to omit the Roles (ie, classes) that, to me, restricted the character creation process.

I don't know when I first heard of Dark Sun, but it was late in the game. It was well after the 2nd edition had been released, I know that. For some reason, I found a used copy of the 2nd edition Dark Sun boxed set on a used shelf and bought it. I took it home, started reading, and suddenly my hatred of class- and level-based systems was a thing of the past. It was a game I had to run.

Our old stomping grounds. Man, I miss this place.

I started a Dark Sun game not long after that. I tested a few things out using my wife as a guinea pig (ask her about the fight with the ankheg sometime) before I really got into it. About the only thing I couldn't stand in 2nd edition AD&D was the psionics rules. Luckily, no one wanted to be a psionicist, and the only thing I had to worry about in that regard were wild talents.

In any case, the players seemed love the game. It went on for a long while, and we managed to finish it off with a bang. I don't remember the highest character level in that crew, but I think they got to around 7th or 8th level. I tried to bring it back once 3.0 came out, but there was something about that edition that got under my skin. 3.5 fixed most of those issues for me, but I never tried to run Dark Sun again with any system.

I realize there's a bunch of stuff out there that adapts Dark Sun to 3.5. Now that 5th edition is here, I'm thinking I might have a go of adapting it to Dark Sun on my own. I'll probably wait until all the core books have been released, so I've got some time. If I ever get around to this little project, I'll be sure to let you guys know about it. However, if the freelance train gets rolling here pretty soon, I probably won't have time for it. Such is life,

Brom's art really sold the world of Athas.

In closing, Dark Sun was the setting that brought me back to fantasy RPGs. If not for Dark Sun, I might never have looked into Midnight, a setting that runs a very close second to Dark Sun insofar as my favorite fantasy worlds go. You also know that I'm a huge fan of the Star Wars RPGs that have been released, as well as The One Ring and Cyberpunk 2020. Like I said, this wasn't an easy decision to make.

I guess this wraps up #RPGaDay, given that August is over and September is here. I'm sort of surprised I stuck with it (though I was late on a couple of occasions). Feel free to follow me or my blog. You can even find me on Twitter @BarrierPeaks. I can't guarantee I'll update daily, but I'll do my best to keep this thing alive.

#RPGaDay: Day Thirty - Rarest RPG Owned

Uh... I don't really know.

I've got an extensive collection of RPG books. I've been dragging these things around for years and years. I remember finding a copy of Deities & Demigods that included the Cthulhu mythos, and I was ecstatic. I don't know what it goes for now, or how rare it really is.

I'm not sure what the values of most of my books and boxed sets are. I know I had a hell of a time finding a copy of The Will and the Way for the original Dark Sun campaign setting. I did find one eventually, and it's nestled in with the rest of my DS books. I tracked down and purchased just about every supplement they produced for that game line, and they're all in pretty good condition.

Another book I could never find was Hideouts and Strongholds for WEG's Star Wars RPG. The stress of not having that book was alleviated when my friend Jay sent me a copy from his collection. I owe him one for that. It also seems that some of the Saga Edition Star Wars books are worth a pretty penny. For instance, Starships of the Galaxy, the first Saga edition SW product I worked on, used to be pretty expensive.

I don't generally keep an eye on RPG prices. I collect them, but I don't do it because they're valuable. I do it because I enjoy gaming.

#RPGaDay: Day Twenty-Nine - Most Memorable Encounter

Like this. Only without the rat, skull, or sign.

What do you do when you find a half-elf defiler sleeping in your barn? Why, you lynch him, of course.

That's what happened to my wife's character in the original Dark Sun game I ran. Her character, a defiler/thief named Innath, decided to slip into someone's barn on the outskirts of a desert village. While he was sleeping, the barn's owner discovered him, gathered some friends, and decided to mete out some Athasian justice.

The farmer and his buddies, all humans, woke Innath up in a most uncouth manner, searched him, and then escorted him to a place where no one would hear him scream. They gave Innath a shovel made from chitin and told him to dig. As he dug himself a hole, they pulled out the broy and drank themselves silly, but kept just enough of their sobriety to ensure he wasn't going to slip away.

When Innath's hole was as deep as they liked, they tied his hands and made him kneel in it. They filled the hole with dirt until Innath's head was the only thing at ground level. Helpless, Innath watched as they gathered around him and relieved their broy-filled bladders directly on top of his head. Then, laughing, they gathered up the shovel and went home.

The sun rises higher in the sky and the temperature begins to bake the urine-soaked earth around Innath's head. Suddenly, he hears what sounds like a strange, shrill bird call. He can't turn his head real far, but he catches a glimpse of a snake-like neck of a large bird pop over a rise and stare hungrily down at him. The bird shrieks again, and another one pops up. Then another. And another. They begin to stalk closer, revealing themselves to look like spiny ostriches. The birds (abrians) circle Innath's head.

Innath would've been dead if the other players--a fire priest and an escaped gladiator--hadn't been attracted by the birds screeching and decided to investigate. The gladiator charged in, with the fire priest close behind, and slaughtered the birds before they could pick out Innath's eyes.

That was one of the most memorable encounters I remember from that Dark Sun campaign. There were other epic moments--a battle with a bulette at an oasis, the gladiator's duel with an elf tribe's champion, or the climactic fight against a lich and his undead minions in a subterranean tomb below Tyr--but that's the one I remember most fondly.

Note: The art is from a game called Blood Dawn, which is related to a quirky sci-fi RPG called Battlelords of the 25th Century, originally produced by Optimus Design Systems (ODS). Looks like Battlelords is now being produced by the chaps over at SSDC. The artist is Michael Osadciw, as near as I can tell.

#RPGaDay: Day Twenty-Eight: Scariest Game I've Played

This is generally the point when your brain 'splodes.

I've said before that I'm primarily a GM. I've run a lot of horror games in my lifetime, and I've even had players tell me they were genuinely scared during such sessions. What I haven't done is played in a lot of horror games, which means I have a very narrow selection of such to choose from.

I've played horror games at conventions, but they were never particularly scary. Maybe it's the atmosphere of being in a room with a hundred other gamers with everyone talking, rolling dice, and hamming it up. I've always preferred to run my own games with the lights down. Or, even better, keep the lights off, with candles here and there to provide a more "organic" form of illumination. Put some creepy music on at a low volume (always preferred the Hellraiser score, myself) and it takes most of the work out of getting your players in the mood.

But I digress.

The scariest game I've ever played was one of my girlfriend's (now wife's) Call of Cthulhu games. There are three such games that stick out in my mind, and two of them were genuinely frightening. I'll focus on the one I recall the best, which was set in 1920's San Francisco. At least, I think it was. Anyway, there were two players in the game. One of us was an educated fellow, sort of a scholar. I, on the other hand, was playing a federal agent.

Our first investigation began as a missing persons case, or so we assumed, involving a little girl. We canvased the neighborhood where she'd been seen, talked to folks about her. No one could say where she lived, but they'd seen her here and there. In fact, one of them had called the case in, hoping we'd locate her and find out where her home was.

Eventually, we did find her. Her name was Madeline, but she was a bit odd. Once we'd spoken with her the first time, she sort of disappeared (not before our eyes, but she definitely wasn't there anymore). We did some research, and it turned out a girl about her age and description went missing near the turn of the century. It couldn't have possibly been her, since she was around eight or nine years old. Or could it be? Old photographs we dug up looked pretty much like she did, right down to the clothes she wore.

Long story short, she'd been taken away by some kind of extradimensional thing or being, which she referred to as "mommy." Apparently, there were lots of "mommies" where it had taken her. In order to get into the realm where this entity lived, you had to do a little hopscotch thing and recite a strange rhyme filled with words no sane man should ever hear, let alone speak. We didn't believe her, but when she showed us--and vanished right in front of us--there was a bit of sanity loss.

My character, as sentimental as he was, felt that he had to rescue this poor innocent girl from whatever evil had taken her away from her family all those years ago. This meant doing "the Hopscotch" (as Madeline called it) and reciting the rhyme she'd used. The creepiest part of the game was crossing that threshold and seeing what lay beyond it.

We did end up saving her, and our sanities suffered for it. My character ended up adopting Madeline. She was a strange little girl, probably insane, but she was also young and there was a chance she'd recover. My character made life as good for her as possible, but she never was what people of the '20's would call "normal." She was even a useful reference during future investigations, though my character was hesitant to go to that well too often.

That, in a nutshell, is the scariest game I've ever played in.

My wife doesn't run games anymore, for which I'm eternally saddened. She had a great grasp of storytelling, and she was probably the most internally consistent GMs I've ever had. Occasionally I bug her and whine about it, but she hems and haws. She doesn't really enjoy GMing, so I don't push the issue. I have her as a player, and that'll have to be enough.

#RPGaDay: Day Twenty-Six - Game I'd Like to See a New/Improved Edition of...

Darker than Dark Sun.

This is a pretty easy topic, and I bet you're probably thinking, "He wants a new edition of Cyberpunk." While that may be true, I'm perfectly happy with 2020 the way it is (was?). If a new edition of my favorite dark future RPG comes out, I'll pick it up. I may even play it. But it's not what's at the forefront of my mind when I think about RPGs that I want to see a new edition for.

That distinction belongs to Midnight, a campaign setting produced by Fantasy Flight Games, and which I was privileged enough to contribute to. You see, after I discovered Dark Sun in the mid-nineties, I didn't think there was another fantasy setting that could draw me in. I was certain of it. Who wants to play your run of the mill dwarves, elves, and halflings, anyway? Athas is all I needed.

Then, some time after D&D 3.0 came out, I discovered Midnight. It was a campaign setting that threw everything for a loop. People would ask me what it was like and I'd generally answer, "Imagine you're playing in Middle Earth, only Sauron (or Morgoth) wins." Dark Sun was a sort of post-apocalyptic fantasy setting where the events that shaped the world happened long ago in a time that no one remembered... except for the Dragon-Kings.

In Midnight, the war against the Shadow has been lost within living memory. The formerly free peoples of the world are either enslaved or backed into the corners of their own homelands. Peace is a fleeting dream, and the future a horrible nightmare. To rail against the enemy is to invite your own death, as well as that of your family. It's a dark setting, even darker than Athas.

A map of Eredane, the land of the Midnight campaign setting.

A second edition of Midnight was released that brought everything together under the 3.5 banner. It had a lot of great improvements, a wealth of information, and as much fluff and crunch as anyone would want, maybe even more. After 4E was released, there wasn't much more to be done. In 2009, FFG seemingly put the nail in Midnight's proverbial coffin. I still ran games of Midnight because it was still awesome and I hadn't jumped on the 4E bandwagon. To me, it was like running a game of Red Dawn, except the Russians were orcs and the AKs were vardatches.

Now that 5th edition D&D is out and I've had a chance to read the rules, roll up some characters, and will be running a game of it soon, I feel that it would be a great system for running Midnight. That said, even an original system--perhaps even one akin to Edge of the Empire's rules--would be pretty cool, too. I'm not picky. I just want my Midnight to come back and see support. Maybe they'll even ask me to write for it again.

Well... a man can dream, anyway.

#RPGaDay: Day Twenty-Six - Coolest Character Sheet

This is how we used to do it in the old days, kids.

This is sort of an odd one. I mean... I don't really have a favorite character sheet, nor do I think of any of the ones I've seen as being particularly "cool." Character sheets need to be useful, presenting important details at a glance while providing enough space for all those building blocks we make our characters out of.

Truth be told, I miss the days of yore, when characters were scrawled on sheets of lined paper in pencil. The way that games have developed over the years, with increased character options and a variety of different systems, has made tabletop RPGs more dependent on official character sheets. If you look at a 2nd edition AD&D character from the 90's, and then compare it to a character sheet from D&D 3.5 (or even 5th), you'll notice there's a heck of a lot more to record and write down. At least, it feels that way.

I appreciate a well-designed character sheet just as much as the next gamer. I'm generally pleased with the quality of the sheets made for the games I've been playing over the past few years. Edge of the Empire/Age of Rebellion, The One Ring, and D&D 5th edition have perfectly functional and visually-pleasing character sheets in my opinion.

Are they cool, though? Sure, I guess so. Are any of them the coolest sheets ever? I really can't say. They do what they're supposed to do. If they ever invent a character sheet that can roll my dice and track its own hit points, I suppose that might earn the title of "coolest."

#RPGaDay: Day Twenty-Five - Favorite RPG No One Else Want to Play

Only one person in my current gaming group actively wants to play The One Ring. The rest of them aren't necessarily opposed, but they'd prefer something else at the moment. Perhaps it's the over-saturation of Peter Jackson's Hobbit and Lord of the Rings movies that have set them on their course. In my opinion, TOR is so much more Tolkien than Peter Jackson's films are. While they're pretty (the sets, costume designs, and visuals are certainly top notch), the movies are likely far and beyond what Tolkien would have approved of.

I will do you a favor and avoid ranting about the movies. That's not what we're here for. Must... resist...!

Be that as it may, I will be running The One Ring again at some point. You hear me, people? You're destined to walk the byways of Wilderland eventually! And when you do, not even Gandalf will be able to save your sorry behinds!

#RPGaDay: Day Twenty-Four - Most Complicated RPG Owned

Living Steel gave Rolemaster a run for its money.

I never did buy into Phoenix Command, but I seem to remember that Living Steel and the Aliens Adventure Game (both of which are based on PC) are pretty damned complicated. I've got copies of them both on the shelf next to me, and a cursory glance through the rules confirms that many charts and tables are required to perform any manner of combat check. I always felt that anyone who bothered to foster their familiarity of the system might be able to run it reasonably quickly. That person was not me.

I also own a few Rolemaster and Hero system books. GURPS can also be pretty complicated, though I was exposed to it a lot growing up and I know it doesn't have to be a nightmare to play/run. And, of course, I always considered my copy of Shadowrun first edition to be nigh-incomprehensible. I played in a few games of SR in my earlier years (never wanted to run it because I was a Cyberpunk 2020 guy) and I always relied on the GM to know what needed to be done and why.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Twilight: 2000 (first edition) by GDW. I remember picking it up because it looked so damn cool. I got it home, read the rules, and was instantly befuddled. It was the first game I'd ever seen where you needed a worksheet to create your character, which you then transferred to a proper character sheet. The fluffy parts of the game were awesome, but learning that system was a struggle. GDW eventually released a simpler version in the second edition, but damn.

I keep a lot of these complicated games around because, when you look past their systems, there's a plethora of very evocative content in there. Care went into creating these worlds and settings. Inspiration is important. I may never play these games, but it's nice to comb them for interesting ideas and tidbits that I can employ somewhere else.

#RPGaDay: Day Twenty-Three: Coolest Looking RPG Product/Book

For sheer style, visual impact, and bulk, I have to say that Monte Cook's Ptolus is probably the coolest-looking RPG product that I own. I picked it up in 2007, the year it won an ENnie for Product of the Year. If you've never seen it,it's a huge hardback tome that clocks in at 670 pages in length. Given its sheer immensity, it's a lot of information to take in all at once. It's an impressive product, both visually and conceptually.

There are plenty of other RPG products that look pretty darn cool. I'm not the sort to buy collector's editions/limited editions of games, though I did have a secret desire to own the original Dark Heresy collector's edition. I couldn't really justify the cost at the time, but it was such a cool book to look at. My friend Kate got one back in my Warhammer Online/Mythic days, otherwise I wouldn't have known what I was missing.

So far, I've been really impressed with the way The One Ring's products have looked. The layouts are clean and the art really meshes with the setting. Sure, I may be biased a great deal (I do keep bringing the game up, don't I?), but Cubicle 7 does such a good freaking of producing their products.

#RPGaDay: Day Twenty-Two - Best Second-Hand RPG Purchase

A very bad picture of my WEG Star Wars shelf.

One of my favorite things about the game store we used to go to in San Diego was that it had a shelf of used games and RPG books. It was fairly well-stocked, but there was always a certain amount of product that never moved. Once you became familiar with the stuff that didn't sell, you could easily spot anything new that was added since the last time you came in. I found some pretty good stuff on that shelf from time to time, but there's one purchase in particular that really made my day.

At some point, I'd lost track of WEG's Star Wars RPG. I still had my original first edition books at the time, but for some reason I'd never gone over to the second. As it happened, I walked into that store one day and discovered someone had sold their entire WEG Star Wars RPG collection to the store. It was second edition stuff, too, and included a full run of the Star Wars Adventure Journals. Best of all, most of the books were about $3 and $4 each, with the hardcovers being somewhat more expensive (probably between $6 and $8 apiece).

I decided I was going to take all this stuff home. I mean, I loved Star Wars, and I'd had no idea so much stuff had been released for it. I don't remember how much everything totaled up to, cost-wise, but it was a bargain. There were a few holes in the collection, some of which I eventually filled, but overall it was something like 25-30 books that I'd be hard-pressed to find for those prices now. Since then, my Star Wars library has served me well.

#RPGaDay: Day Twenty-One - Favorite Licensed RPG

Use the Force, Mithrandir!

This comes down to my two favorite IPs--Star Wars and Middle Earth--and I have a lot of trouble choosing between the two of them when it comes right down to it. I've loved them both for many, many years, though I suppose my adoration of Star Wars predates my love of The Hobbit by about six whole months. You see, Star Wars was released in May, 1977. The animated film The Hobbit was broadcast on NBC in November of that same year.

Perhaps that explains the conflict that rages within me on a near-daily basis.

This is one of those "photo finish" preferences that is so close, it might as well be a tie. It's right up there with asking me if I like bacon more than I like cheesecake more than I like bacon. There is no correct answer! It's one of those Lovecraftian things that drives men mad.

(Incidentally, I love both bacon and cheesecake. I am now curious if anyone has ever made a bacon cheesecake before, and if not, for the love all that is holy, WHY NOT?)

(And here is the answer. I think I need to be medicated now.)

Since I've brought up the subjects of bacon and cheesecake, you can tell this is a really big deal for me. It's a decision no mortal man should have to make. Whoever came up with this RPGaDay thing is a sadist of the most sinister nature.

Ultimately, it's a choice between Edge of the Empire/Age of Rebellion and The One Ring, isn't it?

Fine. I'll make a choice. Have it your way.

Due to the fact that I've been running nothing else but EotE for the past few months, and given that I've contributed to AoR professionally, I suppose that Fantasy Flight's Star Wars lines are currently my favorite licensed RPGs.

But it's really, really close, people. Like, by a hair's breadth. I'm talking about as broad as a hair from the world's smallest chihuahua. Slim. Very, very slim.

I'm going to end this post now before it gets any more drawn-out, melodramatic, or silly. Please accept my humblest apologies.

#RPGaDay: Day Twenty - Will Still Play in Twenty Years' Time...

I'm pretty sure the game I'll still be playing in twenty years is going to be some edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Given the propensity for new editions, they'll probably be on 8th or 9th edition by then, too. It's not that D&D is my favorite game, though I have enjoyed playing specific editions for years on end. It's mostly because D&D has been around for forty years, and I'm pretty sure it'll still be around in 2034 (barring acts of God, global thermonuclear war, or zombie apocalypse).

I have a fairly extensive gaming library at my disposal. Assuming I don't leave the hobby (highly unlikely) or get a job overseas and sell the majority of my collection (somewhat more likely, though still day-dreamy pie-in-the-sky), I'll be running at least some of these games as the years pass by. I'm sure I'll be playing Star Wars in one incarnation or another, or Cyberpunk 2020, or (old) World of Darkness.

This also makes me think back to the games I was running twenty years ago. Cyberpunk was probably the big one for me back then. I used to love me some horror gaming with the Chill RPG (and I'm still tempted to dust that one off from time to time, too).

Note that yesterday I got my copy of the 5th edition Player's Handbook, and it's looking pretty slick. It retains much of its third edition charm, so I may very well be on board. I'm going to be trying it out soon enough, and only then will I be completely sure if I'm upgrading. More on that, later.

#RPGaDay - Day Nineteen: Favorite Published Adventure

For its time, this was a seriously kick-ass game.

Before I get to the long-winded part of this post, where I pontificate like a long-winded grognard after too many margaritas, let's get down to the nitty gritty.

While I own plenty of adventures, I haven't run very many of them. If I have to pick just one to be my favorite, though, I'm going to go for nostalgia and choose Rebel Breakout. For those of you not in the know, Rebel Breakout was the adventure included in the 1st edition of West End Games' Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, and was written by Curtis Smith.

Given Rebel Breakout was made to teach new GMs how to run Star Wars games, it's not terribly complicated. Still, it served as my introduction to published adventures, and I know I ran it at least once or twice when I first got my feet wet role-playing in a galaxy far, far away.

I've even given some thought of creating an adaptation of the adventure for use in Edge of the Empire/Age of Rebellion, but, as I've said, time is precious. If I did forge ahead, it'd probably be little more than a document of stat blocks for the various encounters presented in the adventure.

Other honorable mentions for Favorite Published Adventure include Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, one of the great classic D&D adventures from way back in the day. And I'll never forget the first full-length Star Wars adventure I bought, Tatooine Manhunt, which is another one I'd love to adapt to modern Star Wars RPG mechanics.

As for the pontification I promised, I never used to run published adventures. I had the free time available to plot my own stories for my various groups, for better or worse. I always felt that published adventures were the lazy GM's last resort.

Then I grew up.

Growing up meant less free time. It meant a steady job. It meant I had to pay taxes and bills and buy toilet paper without embarrassment like everyone else. All of this added up to me having less time to invent my own stories and plots for the games I was running.That's not to say I went quietly into that dark stage of my life. I still try do most of the work myself, and I usually succeed. Usually.

With that in mind, I have (over the years) learned that published adventures are wonderful sources of inspiration, maps, and lore. I don't often run such adventures, but I've written a few--"The Fell Star" in Scum and Villainy, "The Perfect Storm" in Galaxy of Intrigue, and (most recently) "The Perlemian Haul" in the Age of Rebellion core rulebook. I've come to enjoy writing adventures very much, because it allows me to do what I loved doing in my early days of GMing: To create a stories for players to experience.

#RPGaDay: Day Eighteen - Favorite Game System

When it comes to game systems, I'm either fickle or I'm poly-amorous. I like lots of them for different reasons. I suppose having a favorite for me depends a great deal on what I'm playing--or want to play--at the moment.

It's a pretty close tie at the moment, but I suppose I'd have to go with the system used for FFG's Star Wars RPGs, Edge of the Empire and Age of Rebellion. Part of it has to do with the fact that I've written for Age of Rebellion, and the other part has to do with the fact that it's what I've been running lately. It's a nice, sleek game system that does precisely what it sets out to do--allow both players and GM to contribute to a game's narrative.

It took a little getting used to, what with the custom dice and all, but it really does allow for another level of freedom when both running and playing the game. Once the players get into it, their contributions really tend to add a lot to the game and the story that you're all telling together.

My runner-up is the system used in The One Ring. I've only run a handful of games, but I really dig how the dice work and how everything feels so very right, especially in regards to running a Middle Earth-themed game.

Other systems I like quite a bit in no particular order are Hollow Earth Expedition's "Ubiquity" system, the original (Old) World of Darkness/Storyteller system, and (of course) the Interlock system used in Cyberpunk 2020 and Mekton. I still have a great fondness for Saga edition Star Wars and D&D 3.5, and I'm very comfortable with them. Fifth Edition D&D is looking good, too, but the jury's out until my new PH arrives tomorrow.

#RPGaDay: Day Seventeen - Funniest Game I've Played

I know I've played in funny games. I know I've run some games where funny stuff happened. But I'll be damned if I can remember a single game that was the funniest of them all.

There was one time, I was running Edge of the Empire for the first time. I used the beginner box adventure, but the players had drawn up their own characters. At the end, they've stolen (acquired?) a Trandoshan slaver's ship and they're flying away into space. Someone asked if there was any food on board. The conversation went something like this:

GM: There's several chunks of raw meat in the refrigeration unit.
Player: What kind of meat is it?
GM: You have no idea. For all you know, it's Wookiee meat.
Player: I cook some up. How is it?
GM: It's a little Chewie.

Yeah, rim shot. We laughed about that one, given the spontaneity of it. There were a few other Wookiee-themed cracks, too, but that's the one I remember the most.

#RPGaDay: Day Sixteen - Game I Wish I Owned

Right now, at this moment, there are a few games I'd really like to have in my possession, but I'll narrow it down to the one I covet the most.

Fantasy Flight released copies of the Force & Destiny Beta at GenCon, and I've seen photographs of it on the social networks I frequent. I've become a big proponent of FFG's Star Wars RPGs over the past year or two, and I'd love to get a peek at what they're planning with F&D. I'll get my paws on it eventually, I'm sure, but for now I'm in total geek whiny mode about it.

Honorable mentions for games I wish I owned include the up-coming Star Wars Armada (fleet-level miniature space battles) and I'm really very curious about Dark Heresy 2nd edition (I did some work on the original, and I'd like to see what's new and different).

It's not just that I've done work for them lately, but Fantasy Flight has really become one of the companies whose products I anticipate the most.