RPGaDAY followup

Apparently Zak S. added more to the RPGaDAY questions, because you can do that. My answers wound up way more '90s than I expected.

1. Worst game you ever played
Furry Pirates. Quite possibly the trifecta: worst rules, worst setting, worst experience.

2. Interesting rule embedded within otherwise baleful game
The spell-creation system in the Dragonlance SAGA game (the one with cards) was clever, although we never did too much with it.

3. Game you never played but you knew it sucked just looking at it
Street Fighter: the Storytelling Game.

4. Game you most wish didn't suck
Rifts. It has heaps of concepts that I love, but both the setting execution and the system are pretty much botched.

5. Game about which you have the most mixed feelings
Changeling: the Dreaming. I don't like the White Wolf "feel" (although it appealed to me in college) or the system at all. There were ideas in Changeling I really liked, although the central core idea (resisting Banality) did not work at all. I ran a lot of sessions, and it did click for a couple of games, but wasn't sustainable. It was a half-baked modern fantasy RPG that only worked if you turned your head and squinted just so. But the parts that worked, did work.

6. Old game most in need of an upgrade
Over the Edge is old enough to drink, and definitely shows its '90s conspiracy roots. A version that looks more like the modern world would be welcome.

7. Game you can run with the least prep
OD&D (easier if it's '74 OD&D and I can just grab a map and run).

8. Game with awful art (and who you wish you could hire to fix that)
Original D&D. I'd hire James Raggi to produce a single-book edited version in a hardcover with art and layout roughly matching that of Isle of the Unknown.

9. Best houserule you've seen in action and now use in your own games.
I don't really have anything for this, because I don't go about grabbing house rules.

10. Game you've most changed your thoughts/feelings about
5e D&D. I was all primed for hating it but then I went and played it.

11. Game you'd use to run just about any setting if you had to
Basic Roleplaying. Either Call of Cthulhu or the big gold book.

12. Game that haunts you and you're not sure why
There are three concept-heavy RPGs from the late '90s that I always wish I'd gotten a campaign together for when I was in college: Blue Planet, Fading Suns and Tribe 8.

13. Game that would probably be most fun to play a bee in
Over the Edge. Since it doesn't differentiate who gets what dice, you could totally have your sting as a combat skill for 3 or 4 dice.

14. Best Star Wars game?
The only Star Wars game I've spent any time playing is the one from Wizards of the Coast in the early 2000s. The only one on my shelf is the West End Games one, which I've always sort of "meant" to play but never have time to. So ... (punt)

15. Game that's good in theory but you're kind of on the fence about it to be honest
Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. Has a ton of stuff I'd like, and I particularly enjoy the zine output, but there are a lot of things that hold me back from running it. The crazy dice and different stats I'm fine with; I can even get along with the streamlined d20 system it uses. But the magic system seems like it just wants to take over the game, and make it "about" wizards as if they weren't already big enough in D&D. I also think its appeal is primarily to gamers about 5-15 years older than me; namely people who were 12 in the period of the Holmes, Moldvay or Mentzer Basic sets, who switched to first edition AD&D. There is an element of nostalgia that I don't have, and am not quite comfortable with.

RPGaDay in One Day.

RPGaDay is a series of 31 questions intended to be answered at the rate of one question a day for a full month. That's too inefficient, so here they are in one day. Enjoy!

1. Forthcoming game you're most looking forward to
I am looking forward to the new Delta Green RPG from Arc Dream Publishing. A huge update of the excellent take on modern Cthulhu is very welcome. And it's still using the BRP system, which is really refreshing. Runner-up: Mutant Crawl Classics.

2. Kickstarted game most pleased you've backed
Metamorphosis Alpha deluxe edition. The additional stuff from the Kickstarter created a bona fide game line that has deserved to exist for almost 40 years now. You can get in on Epsilon City, the follow-up, right now!

3. Favourite New Game of the last 12 months
Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. At the moment it's probably my second favorite flavor of D&D (after OD&D, of course). It has just enough crunchy bits for my taste without really sinking the game.

4. Most Surprising Game
Castles & Crusades, but in a negative way. It read like it would run like I ran AD&D as a 1e/2e hybrid, but the SIEGE mechanic did not work like I wanted it to. Led to me picking up older editions.

5. Most recent RPG purchase
GURPS Russia. (I love the GURPS sourcebooks.)

7. Favourite Free RPG
Iron Falcon. (The better clone of my favorite flavor of D&D.)

8. Favourite appearance of RPGs in the Media
n/a

9. Favourite media you wish was an RPG
Lupin III. Either the "Green Jacket" or "Red Jacket" series from the 1970s would make a brilliant caper RPG. (Not so much the later TV specials and movies, where the plotting is all too elaborate.)

10. Favourite RPG Publisher
TSR, Inc. Sorry to OSR folks, but it's TSR with Judges Guild as the runner-up.

11. Favourite RPG Writer
E. Gary Gygax. Runner-up: Dave Arneson.

12. Favourite RPG Illustration
I'm going to go with Erol Otus's cover for Swords & Wizardry Complete. It makes me want to run S&W Complete again. There is a close runner-up that most folks probably haven't seen: the cover by Fred Fields of the Al-Qadim boxed set Ruined Kingdoms. I love that cover, it was one of the very few in the early '90s TSR products that would scream "ADVENTURE!" to me in a totally pulp way.

13. Favourite RPG Podcast
Save or Die! The current rotation are my favorites.

14. Favourite RPG Accessory
My Gamescience dice. I refuse to roll online even in Roll20.

15. Longest campaign played
The AD&D (1e/2e hybrid) Greyhawk campaign I ran in high school. It ended with an epic fight on the planes of Air and Concordant Opposition.

16. Longest game session played
Freshman year of college, AD&D 2e, Dark Sun. Started around 8 PM on Saturday, finished around 1 PM on Sunday. ("Don't drink the special Mountain Dew...")

17. Favourite Fantasy RPG
Dungeons & Dragons. (Original being my favorite flavor, with or without supplements.)

18. Favourite SF RPG
Metamorphosis Alpha 1e.

19. Favourite Supers RPG
FASERIP Marvel Super Heroes. We played a ton of this in high school.

20. Favourite Horror RPG
Call of Cthulhu.

21. Favourite RPG Setting
World of Greyhawk (pre-Wars). Close second, Wilderlands of High Fantasy.

22. Perfect gaming environment
My parents' dining room circa 1998. My parents have a beautiful wood table, that for reasons of not destroying we put a pad over. (I did have to yell at my friends if they leaned back in the chairs.) It could easily seat 8 players, had French doors at one end and opened into the living room on the other. There were always 3 bags of chips, 3 bottles of soda, a ton of books and dice. I've had plenty of gaming environments since, and I do hope to get to run games at the kitchen table in my house once my daughter's a bit older, but I loved running in that dining room.

23. Perfect game for you
Original D&D (including supplements).

24. Favourite House Rule
Critical hits. I've houseruled them lots of different ways and done the most with them. Charts, max damage, double damage dice, pretty much any excuse for me to switch from "okay, you do 3 damage" to "ok, the goblin is now pinned to the tree by your arrow" or "you take its head clean off."

25. Favourite Revolutionary Game Mechanic
Karma, FASERIP Marvel Super Heroes. The idea that you got points for being a good super-hero was actually really important given that we were playing FASERIP in the grimdark '90s.

26. Favourite inspiration for your game
Mostly pictures. I can't draw, so I really riff off of images I can expand in my head.

27. Favourite idea for merging two games into one
Metamorphosis Alpha and OD&D are very compatible.

28. Favourite game you no longer play
FASERIP Marvel Super Heroes.

29. Favourite RPG website / blog
G+.

30. Favourite RPG playing celebrity
Stephen Colbert.

31. Favourite non-RPG thing to come out of RPGing I'm not sure what the question means, but I like swords, and I blame RPGs for that. So let's go with swords.