In the UK, throughout the pandemic (which is still going on though cases are declining and vaccinations are being pushed out rapidly), we’ve been through a few “lockdowns” – schools closed, work places closed, people working from home, children learning from home while parents try to keep them on-track (no easy task).
A year, just over now, of a new way of life and not seeing friends and family.
Admittedly, I’ve had other things to occupy my time; getting Seven Deaths of an Empire ready for publication and writing the possible sequel, but I’ve missed out on those nights at Playopolis (Rochester, UK) playing Dungeons and Dragons, Numenera, Lord of the Rings… rolling dice with friends and adventuring throughout strange lands.
We’ve, like many others, moved online for our game playing; Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, and Foundry Virtual TableTop.
Just for your interest, here are a few of the games my two groups (one always online and across the world, and one group of local friends) have been playing.
The first two are games that I GM for my group of local friends:
Adventures in Middle Earth (5e)
You’ve read Lord of the Rings, or at least seen the films, well now you can play in the world. This takes the 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons D20 system, strips the overt magic away, adds in some social and moral mechanics, and lets you roam the lands.
My group are playing through the years and years of the Mirkwood Campaign, interspersed with other adventures that take place around the great forest and build the flavour of the world. Tolkien’s world is one slipping into the shadow and this darkness coveys really well through the setting.
Plus Gareth Ryder Hanrahan (The Gutter Prayer) wrote the campaign so you know its going to be good! And actually, removing the big magic spells makes combat flow much quicker and you can get on with telling the stories.
Star Trek
I’ve loved Star Trek since I was a little lad. The utopia, edged with the darkness which creeps in through TNG and finds its feet in DS9, alongside the “magic” of phasers, spaceships, and alien planets.
This system uses a clever 2 D20 system which is a little more complicated than DnD‘s single dice roll. However, it does give you the chance to think strategically about how to spend your dice or momentum to alter the outcome of the task, event, battle.
Plus you get to explore strange new worlds, new civilisations, and kick bottom when required. And this is Star Trek, everything comes down to those moral choices in the end; save a planet and break the Prime Directive?
These two are GM’d by my friend Mark.
City of Mist
Professor Guillemot, expert in geology and able to take on the characteristic of any material he touches; tough as nail, solid as concrete, as light as a feather. My character in City of Mist, a noir super-natural RPG full of memorable enemies, is generally a pacifist, preferring to bumble and mumble his way out of any situation, but hides a powerful right hook, is fun to play.
The game is designed to be played like a TV show or film – with cinematic moves, players having to narrate their actions, or flashbacks, or sequences. It is different and I like that. Plus I get to play in it, not run it!
The Witcher
Now we’re talking dark world, everyone out for themselves and coin. We’ve just started this one and the system of combat is a little more tactical than Star Trek or AiME… a head wound here can kill you in one shot, but fighting monsters, and making the life of the Innkeeper a living hell is a lot of fun.
An arrogant, self-centred, magician who views his comrades at arms as a mere convivence, as tools to ensure his survival in this world, is a LOT of fun to play – so different to my other characters. Magic is powerful, but a sharp sword is deadly – and there is little forgiveness to be sought from the monsters you hunt.
Sure everyone wants to play a Witcher, just like in Star Wars everyone wants to be the Jedi, but there is so much fun to be had from all the other classes and roles.
These final two are played on a Saturday morning with my group across the world.
The One Ring
Yes, this is another Tolkien/Lord of the Rings RPG, but I was playing in this one and the system is so different to DnD. The Second Edition of this was on Kickstarter recently, and I’ve backed it. It is strange to see how much a system impacts the way you play a game, but there are choices here you don’t get in AiME (and vice versa).
I played a Woodland Archer whose arrows were only deadly to the ground, walls, trees, and clouds – renowned for missing almost every monster they tackled! This was not on purpose, just the gods of the dice teaching me a lesson in hubris!
We played through a Bree campaign, I joined later on, and it was so much fun to explore a different part of Tolkien’s world and in a different way.
Alien
In space no one can hear you scream! But if you’re trapped on a spaceship with creatures who want nothing more than to implant their young in your stomach, rip out your heart, or just beat you around the head with a handy wrench, everyone can hear you scream!
This was a game of treachery, betrayal, and moments of utter-stupid bravery. Our One Ring GM played in this one, another player taking over the GM role, and managed to have four characters killed – luckily there were others to take over a play.
This is not a game for those who become attached to their characters. Everyone died… well, not quite everyone… I survived, kind of.
And now I’d better get back on with writing, but the call of adventure is never far away.
Seven Deaths of an Empire is due out 22nd June US / 24th June UK in Hardback, eBook and Audiobook.
Title image by Nika Benedictova.
Jennie Ivins
JC Kang