22 #RPGaDay2020 Rare

I love Artefacts/Artifacts, so when I was 11 I made sure players got access to them as quickly as possible in my naïve D&D games. Players actually complained about being given lots of magical items, explaining how I was undermining the value of everything.

The psychological impact that rarity has on us is a curious thing, like many things it is not straightforward. Whilst I own a lot of RPGs, I don’t have the money required to be a collector of rare books, but due to many RPGs being purchasable via PDFs, some older works are easier to acquire. Of course, like many others, I still like to own the physical RPG books as well. One day I might get justify the cost of GURPS Prisoner.

Whilst pondering Rare & RPG, I was reminded of the forgery skill at Lorien Trust LARP. If memory serves it was only available via the Scouts or Bards Guild. The skill was rarely used, in part because it required a lot effort to use in game, including OOC referee involvement, but also because if a forgery was detected, then the people would assume one of the Guild members with the skill must have done it. Pesky LARP logistics, maybe this issue has been resolved since I last played that game. This reminded me of an old TED speech about rarity, forgeries, value. Worth a quick watch if only for the explanation of Han van Meegeren duping Goering:

Street Fighter RPG

The impact rarity has on the power of characters is best exemplified by the “Inverse Ninja Law” taken from Dr McNinja:

“One ninja is an elite and powerful adversary. Multiple ninjas make a group of faceless and incompetent pawns.”

I love/hate parallel world ideas; I mentioned I am running a multiverse game, WoD: Sliders, for Day 21. Jet Li’s film The One explores this idea in a daft but fun way 😉

Having reread GURPS Infinite Worlds recently, I contemplated making a MultiVerse Authority version. Who are the Multi-World Warriors? 😉

After playing about with character stats for Jet Li’s two characters in The One: Gabriel Yulaw and Gabe Law, I felt I needed to rewatch the film to do a good enough job. Partly to see what maneuvers they specialise in, if any. But since characters rapidly become super powered, making normal character sheets seemed a bit daft. I might come back to the idea, plus I can use the Aberrant rules variant that is explored in Warrior’s Fist Issue 04 (English), Punho do Guerreiro 04 (Brazilian).

Other Peoples’ Answers

Anthony Boyd @Runeslinger

https://castingshadowsblog.com/2020/08/22/rpgaday2020-day-22-frame/

Charles Etheridge-Nunn @charlie_en

https://fakedtales.com/2020/08/22/rpg-a-day-2020-part-twenty-two-getting-burnt-rare-in-rpgs/

Craig Oxbrow @CraigOxbrow

http://thewatchhouserpg.blogspot.com/2020/08/rpgaday2020-22-rare.html

https://thewatchhouserpg.blogspot.com/2020/08/rpgaday2020-buffy-22b-rare.html

Bob Freeman @OccultDetective

https://bordermengames.wordpress.com/2020/08/22/rpgaday2020-day-22-rare/

Kehaar @DissectingWrlds

https://clarkythecruel.wordpress.com/2020/07/22/rpgaday-22-rare/

Melestrua @Melestrua

https://melestrua.net/2020/08/22/rpgaday2020-day-22-rare/

Geek-Life Balance @cybogoblin

https://geeklifebalance.wordpress.com/2020/08/22/rpgaday-2020-rare/

This is a non-exhaustive list; I still have many posts to read today, so I might be adding more links. I’d recommend searching the hashtag and judge those great answers for yourself: #RPGaDay2020, some people use #RPGaDay.

21 #RPGaDay2020 Push

An old work situation, my then boss asking players at a game meeting: “Are saying that want to be able to push a button called ‘Play Game’?!” Several of the players did in fact say “Yes”. A great example of how a room full of players, and in this case customers, want different things, to push things in different directions. The context was to do with whether to simplify some complex mechanics down to a simple process, some wanted it, others preferred to micro-manage things. The following week at work had some lively conversation, but the upshot being goods things were designed.

One of the regular tabletop games I’ve been running has the working title ‘WoD: Sliders’; this is not the TV Series Sliders, but I have used that title because things can slide between realities, they just need a Push. To summarise, characters exist in different realities, the PCs are a connection between the realities, each an axis. I almost choose this game for yesterday’s topic, because the players are investigating a problem that has clues in different realities; player clue file is currently 30 pages. 🙂 In one reality the PC is a Mage, whilst in other realities they are either a: Changeling, Werewolf, Wraith, Mummy, Vampire and finally Hunter. The players have various multi-reality powers, for example they can Push things between realities. Linking back to my opening anecdote, the players choose to have these mechanics hidden from them, to effectively have a button they can push that keeps things simple for them at the start, and they FOIP the powers (Find Out in Play). So far the characters have used a few Push powers, but are not sure exactly what is happening and have become suspicious of them.

Whilst I had wanted to run a game with the players understanding the big picture going in, so their PCs would have control over their multi-reality powers, but the players choose otherwise. I am happy enough that they liked the idea, trusted me to run it, and crucially I didn’t push the system on to them.

Street Fighter RPG

I recently looked through some old SFRPG house rules I made many years ago. One big topic I pushed back then was Fight Camp Preparation. Since then I have learned a lot more about game design, different martial arts and training in general, so some of these old ideas are laughable to me; thankfully a few still hold up IMHO. One of the dodgy ideas was that of a character pushing fitness. The idea actually goes back to old games: Panza Kick Boxing (Amiga) and C64 Barry McGuigan World Championship Boxing, both of which had fight camp mini-games.

Note I’ve not posted the mechanics here, because they were part of a package, which I think needs a solid rework. I wouldn’t want to push ideas that I think are faulty. 😉

Other Peoples’ Answers

Anthony Boyd @Runeslinger

https://castingshadowsblog.com/2020/08/21/rpgaday2020-day-21-dramatic/

Charles Etheridge-Nunn @charlie_en

https://fakedtales.com/2020/08/21/rpg-a-day-2020-part-twenty-one-push-your-luck-with-stress-in-alien/

Sue Savage @SavageSpiel

https://savagespiel.blogspot.com/2020/08/rpgaday-push.html

Craig Oxbrow @CraigOxbrow

https://thewatchhouserpg.blogspot.com/2020/08/rpgaday2020-21-push.html

https://thewatchhouserpg.blogspot.com/2020/08/rpgaday2020-buffy-21b-push.html

Kehaar @DissectingWrlds

https://clarkythecruel.wordpress.com/2020/07/21/rpgaday-21-push/

Melestrua @Melestrua

https://melestrua.net/2020/08/21/rpgaday2020-day-21-push/

John M. Kahane @jkahane1

https://jkahane.livejournal.com/2172520.html

Geek-Life Balance @cybogoblin

https://geeklifebalance.wordpress.com/2020/08/21/rpgaday-2020-push/

Paul Baldowski @deesanction

http://thedeesanction.com/push-rpgaday-21/

This is a non-exhaustive list; I still have many posts to read today, so I might be adding more links. I’d recommend searching the hashtag and judge those great answers for yourself: #RPGaDay2020, some people use #RPGaDay.

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