#RPGaDAY2018 - Day 4: Most memorable NPC?

I'll answer this in three ways: From an actual play stream, when playing in someone else's game, and one from my own games. This is for NPCs that only appeared once in a campaign, since my favorite recurring NPCs in both categories will be revealed in tomorrow's question.


Most memorable NPC from an actual play stream

Asmodeus, as presented by Jerry Holkins and Chris Perkins in the Waffles, Inc finale:

Skip to 2:30:00 for the encounter

I'm not a big fan of demon lords and archdevils in RPGs. But I am a fan of how Asmodeus was portrayed by two DMs at the same time. The way he would talk to himself when considering things, and how the DMs portrayed how one of the most ancient evil beings would carry himself, made this encounter be an excellent resolution to an epic multiple-session weekend storyline, without a fight being involved.

Most memorable NPC in someone else's game that I've played

Aleena, as presented by my dad in the D&D Red Box Starter Set 1 adventure module:

Before everyone had their first RPG death with Final Fantasy VII's Aerith, mine was with Aleena.

I mentioned this back in the first day's post, but I do still occasionally think back to the first NPC that I saw die. Aleena guided me and my siblings for a little bit while we explored our first dungeon, and she was mostly quiet otherwise. After she died at the hands of Bargle, however, it struck a note to me how characters can die for good in this game, and so my choices have consequences.

Most memorable NPC in my games

This one was tough since I usually make sure that memorable NPCs become recurring. Technically, this one only appeared in 2 back-to-back sessions, so I think it counts. Let me talk to you about the monster we called SIN. (The name is based off of FFX's namesake giant monster)

My campaign was nearing it's end, and I had long hinted at a legendary monster that lurked in the outside areas of the world, trapped and hidden away. My way of planting a Chekhov's gun idea that they would face this being at the end of the campaign.

For what was originally supposed to be the last session, I decided to bring in a monster that would challenge them. They were all, however, epic level (~30) adventurers (3.5 edition), and there were 9-12 players. Nothing in the monster manual could challenge them, so after a friend's suggestion, I decided to take the Tarrasque and amp it up.

SIN uses the Tarrasque as a base monster, and gives it about 6 templates including half-dragon and half-fiend, as well as some character classes. It was a truly dreadful creature, capable of ending encounters on the first round if not taken seriously.

In my head, SIN looked like the Cloverfield monster, but with wings

What makes SIN memorable is that the players were so afraid of interacting with it, that they decided to attempt to turn it against other villain NPCs. They succeeded, and SIN went on his way, but not before destroying the brave PC that dared talk to it. 

While I'm not particularly proud of SIN in hindsight, I like to think that it left a big impact on myself and some of my players.

#RPGaDAY2018 - Day 3: What gives a game "staying power"?

This question could be taken in two ways: The game system itself, and the game as it's being played. I'll try to cover both.

What gives a game system it's staying power?

In order for a game to stay relevant, it need to do a couple of things, besides just being a fun game. I will focus on the two big things I think are the most important, based on observation:

Community: A game is only as good as it's players. And if your players like your game enough, they will make sure to find other people that play it. Sometimes that means players introducing their friends and family to your game. Sometimes it means players creating fanmade content based on your game. It always leads to generating interest and keeping your game alive.

If your game allows players to pour a little bit of themselves into it, and you make sure to stay in touch with them so they can share their experiences with you, your game will have a good chance to remain relevant for a while.

Good examples for this are the Dragonlance and Mystara campaign settings, among many others. Though they are all based on D&D, they haven't been given official updates by WoTC. While that would mean certain death for them, the authors and players have formed very solid communities around these campaign settings, often talking about their ongoing campaigns and what new twists they bring to them.

A community helps a game stay interesting, and gives it life beyond life.

Updates: Eventually, the stuff that was originally released for a game system can grow stale, and delivering occasional updates goes a long way in keeping your game interesting. These updates need to expand upon things that players already know about, as well as present new things to add to the game. An example of this could be an adventure module, which takes the players to places that they may have previously heard about, or new region in a world that they've played in before. Good adventure modules also bring a mechanic or two that encourage the players to run the game in a different way.

I will use the Tomb of Annihilation module as an example. I've been running this for a few months now and it's brought a lot of new life to the game. Here's the description for it: "The talk of the streets and taverns has all been about the so-called death curse: a wasting disease afflicting everyone who's ever been raised from the dead. Victims grow thinner and weaker each day, slowly but steadily sliding toward the death they once denied."

Now Acererak appears in two D&D book covers

This adventure takes players to Chult, a place in Faerun that had yet to be explored in the current edition of D&D. This place is full of dinosaurs, undead, and undead dinosaurs. And the players are motivated to go here in order to stop the Death Curse; a game mechanic that prohibits resurrection or any other effect that deals with souls. All of this makes ToB an interesting module: it has many of the things that we all love and are familiar with in D&D, and puts a twist to all of it. This is how you update your games.

What allows a campaign to keep running?

I feel like this topic can be covered in a several page guide, but I will give my two cents based off my experience of running several campaigns that have lasted for 2-3 years each, for many players at a time (7 - 12+ players).

Consideration: This is not easy to achieve in large groups, since every person has their own needs and expectations. However, making sure every once in a while that every player is getting something that keeps them happy is vital. It's also important for players to be considerate of others: Sometimes they may want to attempt PvP-esque actions in the game; This is fine as long as the players are okay with each other at the end of the day. The last thing you want is a schism in your player group. 

Energy: Your players feed off of your energy and motivation for the game. If you're not really feeling it, maybe take a break. Have someone else DM for a while until you recharge your batteries. If it looks like you're simply losing interest to DM this game, perhaps it's time to end your campaign early and on a high note. This goes back to consideration, but making sure that everyone, especially yourself, is having fun, needs to be a priority, or it will affect everyone on the table.

#RPGaDAY2018 - Day 2: What makes you want to DM?

What makes me want to DM is the opportunity to perform for others.

Going back to yesterday's answer, I've found joy in entertaining others ever since all the way back when I used to play games with my siblings when we were little kids. Most, if not all, of the make-believe games we would play together would be led and designed by me. Even when we played console games, I would make myself the one in charge of making sure that everyone's having fun.

And that shaped the way I entered new situations and handled social encounters. I usually place myself in a spot where I can make sure everyone's having a good time, and often that has led me in a position of leadership. It's exactly the same for D&D.

I like to DM because I enjoy myself the most when I'm making sure that my friends are having fun. Coming out of a great gaming session and being able to pat yourself in the back because it was as good as it was thanks to you has to be one of the most rewarding experiences ever. And I believe it's an experience I would recommend to anyone.

Having control of absolutely everything that happens in the game is cool too, I guess

Today's actual question was: What do you look for in an RPG? And any answer I can give basically boils down to wanting to play D&D; I want familiar races and classes, easy rules for newcomers, a fantasy setting, and other tropes that you can trust D&D to bring. Even though I've tried a few other systems, all with their own merites, in the end I just want D&D in my RPGs. Since I'm aware that this is a pretty boring answer, I decided to pick one of the other alternate questions.

#RPGaDAY2018 - Day 1: What do you love about RPGs?

What I love the most about RPGs is being able to have many fantastic experiences all the while being in a comfortable place and remaining well-accompanied throughout.

Having four siblings, we've learned that best use of our time is to do play cooperative games instead of taking turns watching each other play single player games, since our parents would limit the amount of time we could use whatever console we had at the time; Better for us all to play one game for 2 hours than 30 minutes of an individual game each. All of this led me to become really fond of cooperative games.

Also, even before I learned about D&D, I would play little make-believe games with my siblings, often as a way to make chores more fun, and not just in your typical cardboard starship scenario.

So when D&D was introduced to us, an actual cooperative game of make-believe, I immediately saw it's potential to do exactly what I have been doing, but with actual rules that all of us could follow. And turned out to be more than that.

I'd say Zee Bashew knows exactly how to put it in his video:

My first experience playing a tabletop RPG, namely D&D, is also probably my fondest memory with my father. I remember that one night, he sat down with my 9 year old self and my younger siblings, and he ran the original red box adventure for us.

Taken from the internet, not my actual red box that was lost to time

While I admittedly don't remember my first character's name, I do remember our hilarious encounter against a Rust Monster, our exciting fights against skeletons, goblins, and giant rats, and our epic encounter against the evil Wizard Bargle before all of that even happened.

20 years later, I remember Aleena's death as clearly as last week.

RPGs allow me to have similar experiences as that first time. And all of it at the comfort of a table, with some good friends.

#RPGaDAY2018

For the next couple of days, I will be attempting to keep up with this event and write a new post every day.

The image above is probably too tiny to read, so here's a link.

You can read up on all the event details on the link above. The tl;dr of it is that I'll be answering one question each day until the end of august. Here's hoping I don't stop midway!