the other matt's rpg blog

Our group started our first Pendragon adventure last night from the Starter Set.  After a brief rules review, we chatted a little bit about various “questions” for our group to tackle.  The starter set pointed out in various places that we should try to agree on whether we want to luxuriate in lavishly detailed scenes or if we should just get through them quickly and move on.  We all weren’t quite sure so agreed to try out getting a very detailed scene and seeing if we liked it. The starter set also made it clear that the purpose of the game was to earn glory, and find out “what kind of knight are you.”  I made sure to emphasize these points. The players picked Sir Asterius, Dame Lynelle, and Sir Evrain.  It was a nice mix of characters - the stranger in a strange land, the knight hiding a secret identity, and the knight in love with Lady Morcades, respectively.  I had generated some names of squires for them before the session started and we randomly rolle...

Initial Thoughts Running a new game is always a little daunting.  The enthusiasm for the new game usually helps me ride through it, and access to other players online makes finding advice or getting questions answered pretty easy.  It's still more work than playing a familiar game though. It hasn’t been any different, really, for Pendragon.  I’m really excited for it.  I don’t have so much personal time in my life to devote myself fully to it, but I’ve been examining it in chunks for a little while now.  Luckily, the Pendragon starter set somewhat follows the format of the Cthulhu starter set.  It begins with a Solo adventure that you can play immediately.  Then a rules booklet, and finally a booklet of scenarios.  It differs from Call of Cthulhu in two important ways though: there are no character creation rules, and the scenarios are linked into a specific mini-campaign. In the first case, this is understandable, but disappointing.  In Cthu...

(Halloween 2021, Spring 2022, then July 2023 - Aug 2023) I’ve gotten a lot of Mileage out of this thing!  When I first bought it I played the solo scenario, Alone Against the Flames, and had a blast.  My wife played it, and my then-current group played it too.  Just telling each other what happened to our characters was extremely fun and told us what the game was about.  After playing this scenario, I ran Edge of Darkness for everyone (on Halloween) and it was a perfect intro to the game not just for my friends, but also for me. A few months later, another friend group got together to try out the game.  We played through The Haunting, (from the Quickstart), and then started a Terror Australis campaign based on everyone’s interest.  At this point, I had purchased the Keeper rulebook, but usually just used the much lighter and more portable books in the starter set. I didn’t try out any of the remaining scenarios in the starter set, though.  But then I ...

Moving to a new city is tough for many reasons.  One of those is the loss of your in person RPG group.  Re-establishing one can be very tricky, but I've done it each time I've moved over the last 3 moves successfully.  The trick is to offer to play D&D before you let loose the idea that there are other RPG games out there that you'd like to play. I answered an ad in a sticker shop looking for players for D&D back in December.  The group needed a DM.  I volunteered and in session 0, I suggested a campaign that would go from 1st to 5th level and end in about 6 months.  At which point we'd revisit.  Everyone thought that sounded good and we began.  This was basically our audition.  Not just mine, but theirs.  We were all testing out if this group of strangers would transition into friends that would play RPGs. It went really well!  The D&D campaign wrapped up nicely and that's when I gave them the pitch: all three Chaosium ...

Burnout Around the middle of January, my RPG schedule was: Weekly Lancer game with students in tabletop game club Weekly UVG+Troika! game with friends online Bimonthly Runequest game online Bimonthly D&D game with new friends in person Commitment to #Dungeon23 It was too much.  I needed to scale back.  Quitting Dungeon23 was easy, but it actually did not bring a whole lot of satisfaction.  I realized I needed to trim back the number of games I was playing, and I spent another month or so hemming and hawing about “which one” I needed to let go, until it struck me. I needed to let them all go! So the students are running their own games now.  I said farewell and wrapped up my character’s adventures in the UVG, etc.  Except I will keep the in person D&D game.  I’m new in town and these are new folks I’ve met and am becoming friends with.  Also, it is an in person game, which has been very nice. So in essence, there hasn’t been any time for me to r...

Somehow made it through this week! I haven't been keeping up with my session reports, and it seems like doing that would be a much better use of my time, lol, but my "school" filled with (checks notes) "roach goblins, bees, and robots" is chugging along. This week, I pretend the school has a robust technical program and space for some arts.  Every school I've worked at has had a daycare run by students learning child development so that is here too. I still think of this as a more post apocalyptic gonzo thing, something I wouldn't necessarily run with d-n-d, but with something that has mutations, psychic powers, and also magic. I've taken my own advice and decided that these "seven room regions" will now be occupied primarily by one type of entity, which if I was running the game would appear on a 1-3 on the encounter die, and on a 4-5 a creature from a neighboring area would show up, and on a 6 something from the next level down would show...

I made it to a second week!  Victory to me is simple: do this whole thing! I have found that in my "extra" moments throughout my days I drift towards planning, and my mind starts listing types of rooms.  Later, when seated and writing, the list comes back and I can pick my favorite room and then riff off it. I am not paying any attention to number of traps, treasure, tricks, or monsters.  If I ever actually use this thing then I can fill those in as part of my prep for a given session.  I am trying to really not worry about using this at all though: it makes it much easier to just scribble down my thoughts or ideas without worrying too hard. I didn't add much to my "trophy" or "graffiti" list, which is something I should think back on as I expand, although those can of course just be a part of that "actual prep that would happen if I was really running this thing..." It is fun to imagine I'd use it though! this week, the school heads outs...