#RPGaDay 9. How has a game surprised you?
FFG’s Genesys surprised me by being good. I came to it in the expectation that the custom dice were a total cash-grab gimmick, and I was pleasantly surprised. I mean, the dice are still a cash-grab gimmick, but at least they’re a well-designed one. I may actually buy this game.
Burning Wheel surprised me by being the game that broke me. It was the first RPG that failed miserably when I approached it with my existing notions of how to play RPGs — i.e., you learn how to “role-play” and then individual RPGs are just sets of deck chairs you re-arrange on the Titanic.
Burning Wheel called bullshit on that and refused to work until I accepted that I could trust the text and simply run it as the author intended. This is a lesson I had to learn again with Mouse Guard, but it eventually sunk in.
In that sense, BW is also kind of answer to the next question, because it forever changed how I approach the hobby.
Ooh, good answer. Dogs in the Vineyard did that to me. I’d never before read a game that told me how to run it. Not just general guidelines on creating NPCs and building stories, but hard proscriptions on what to do and not do.
Dogs in the Vineyard did that to me. I’d never before read a game that told me how to run it. Not just general guidelines on creating NPCs and building stories, but hard proscriptions on what to do and not do.]]>
Adam D I think this also explains a lot of early reaction to Apocalypse World, given it;s wider exposure. “Why is this guy telling me how to GM?”
Apocalypse World, given it;s wider exposure. “Why is this guy telling me how to GM?”]]>
Yeah, and everyone thinking “I know how to GM, and this advice is all the stuff I would have done anyway!” Oh is it? Is it reaaaaaallly?
reaaaaaallly?]]>
Adam D Mostly, it’s fun to look back on the blogosphere from those days and just laugh and laugh. “This will never work.”