Retro Dungeoneering

You'll no doubt recall my declaration that "the dungeon crawl is dead". Well... not quite.

One of the great things about Christmas, secularisation and commercialisation aside, is that you get given presents... and cash with which to buy more games!

This year I received two RPGs - Supernatural and Labyrinth Lord. Of the former I will write at a later date... of the latter... hurrah!

In the last 12 hours or so I have been transported from my all-grown-up conception of roleplaying in fantasy worlds and delivered into a retro-heaven of hobby goodness.

Here are my dribblings in response...


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Going Solo?

Here's an experiment I'd like to try: playing 6d6 RPG using the Mythic GM Emulator to create a solo game.


Of course, I'm not the first to ask that question:
Aleksandar Šaranac mentioned it -->here<--
But I want to actually try it out.


Why Solo?
Well, getting friends together for gaming is hard. Especially when you have an ongoing campaign but you want to try a system, or prepare a system for a future campaign.


6d6 appears ideal for this: you can create a character in minutes, you play with cards, and you can create new things as you need them. Low prep time, easy play, flexible.


Combining Mythic's GM Emulator with it seems an easy shoe-in.


So... here goes...

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6d6 Core, Part Two

Following on from my first review article on 6d6 Core, here's an update on what I've been doing with these new rules.

Cards, Cards, Cards!
6d6 RPG is a card-driven game. There is no character sheet and, instead, you use character cards.

Opposite is a snapshot of just six of the cards that make my patron NPC for the Serene Dawn campaign, Asperance T. Hood.

(You can download the whole .PDF character
-->here<--)

Getting to having a fully prepared Non-Player Character (NPC) took a bit of work and this is how I got there...

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6d6 Core, Part One

The beginning of the good news about 6d6 Core, being a review about the most exciting and innovative roleplaying system created this century.

If you're like me then you've read a lot of roleplaying rulebooks in your time. You've seen it all, Hershey, and you're probably rolling your eyes at the prospect of reading another one.

I don't know about you but until yesterday I was really getting pretty jaded regarding roleplaying rulebooks.

And then I read this one.

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The Conversation

As part of my prep for GMing the next instalment for my home roleplaying campaign I came across a rather helpful idea from the pen of Avalon Games. It's that natty title pictured to the right. This post is a gentle recommendation for it.

The Premise
The basic idea in the booklet is a simple and obvious one. Like all obvious things, however, sometimes it needs to be made more obvious.

It's obvious that roleplaying games are built around the art of conversation. This booklet, which can be read in one sitting (I took about  45 minutes), explains how that conversation can be improved.

It's the second part of a four-part collection on gaining "GM Mastery", it has a crap title and really poor editing, no appreciable artwork, and it's very cheap and cheerful. I'm not recommending the other parts either... just this one.

This booklet contains useful stuff. It'll tell you about the conversation.

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Becoming a Decent GM

Ok, I admit it. I suck as a GM.

This week I have been really puttering around the basics of my own interpretation of the Traveller setting that I talked about in some recent articles.

Along the way, by way of an epiphany arising from the project, I've also been considering what makes me a sucky GM.

I have a few ideas...

Really?
Here's how I know that I suck as a GM:

• I feel nervous and unprepared for each session.
• During the game we are regularly distracted by non-gaming stuff... and I feel like it buys me some time.
• I don't have much in the way of written notes to refer back to.
• I am regularly having to look stuff up on the rulebook... even basic stuff.
• I never let on to my players that I need some help.

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