RPGaDay 2018: Week 1

I'm way behind on this and might not even finish it (didn't finish whatever the a-day thing was a month or two ago), but here's the first week:

1. What do you love about RPGs?
I've met a bunch of new people through RPGs, both online and face-to-face, though that's been more of a mixed bag, so I guess the thing I consistently love more is that RPGs (the good ones, anyway) give me a way to think of something neat and let other people fuck around with it.

Kind of like a choose your own adventure book or video game, just with way more freedom and you don't need to know how to code.

2. What is the first thing you look for in an RPG?
Assuming it's a physical book, the very first thing would be production value, because that's the first thing I'll see just flipping through it. It's also the thing I find lacking in a disturbing number of RPGs.

For digital stuff it's probably price-and-page-count, because I've seen an equally disturbing number of RPGs charging ridiculous prices nearly as high as a buck per page.

Typically these things go hand in hand: you pay a bunch of money and get very little in return.

3. What gives a game “staying power”?
Some combination of playability and flexibility. As in, is it clear what the game is supposed to be used for, does the game make it easy to do those things, and can I play it a bunch of times without it getting boring?

I can't really get into a lot of sci-fi/fantasy stuff, especially mecha RPGs, because aside from getting in a giant robot and blowing shit up I'm not sure what the fuck else you're supposed to do, and that gets boring pretty quickly.

4. Most memorable NPC?
Varies by campaign. My players might have differing opinions, but for me:

In our Age of Worms campaign, Abby, a doppelganger that Humal charmed and then Corzale smashed when it was regenerating but she thought it was dead. Filge is a close second, but he's also been around the most. The argon they found just outside of Kyuss's ziggurat would be third, partially because he's saved their asses with his anti-magic eye a bunch of times.

In the campaign I run on alternating Tuesdays, this would probably be Alepi, the head of a zombified lammasu that the party found in the first dungeon, which they carry around and ask questions, though they tend to forget about him quite a bit because he's just a head. With the way the campaign is going, it might soon be the gynoid they found in a crashed German spacecraft carrying the cracked ark of a demon lord.

5. Favourite recurring NPC?
Also varies by campaign and, again, my players might have a different opinion.

In our Age of Worms campaign I like the bone devil that follows Humal around, constantly trying to get him to give up his rod of seven parts fragment in exchange for various favors and/or items.

In the other campaign the PCs have been traveling around a lot, so there hasn't been time to work in a recurring NPC, yet.

Announcements

You can now get a physical copy of Dungeons & Delvers: Black Book in whatever format you want! We've also released the first big supplement for it, Appendix D, so pick that up if you want more of everything.

Our latest Dungeon World class, The Apothecary, is now available.

Dwarven Vault is our sixth 10+ Treasures volume. If you're interested in thirty dwarven magic items (including an eye that lets you shoot lasers) and nearly a dozen new bits of dungeon gear, check it out!

Just released our second adventure for A Sundered World, The Golden Spiral. If a snail-themed dungeon crawl is your oddly-specific thing, check it out!

By fan demand, we've mashed all of our 10+ Treasure volumes into one big magic item book, making it cheaper and more convenient to buy in print (which you can now do).