RPGaDay 2015: The Adventure Continues

5. What is your most recent RPG purchase?

I think the most recent thing I purchased was the Noir-themed Bundle of Holding. You know all about my addiction to these things, if you've been reading my blog at all, and I jumped at this one (although I've been more circumspect in my purchases lately with the budget being non-existent and all). Noir is a genre that I'm very attracted to, and I've been eager to get my hands on more source material. Greg Stolze's A DIRTY WORLD is pretty good, although it left me wishing it was about fifty pages longer, with more discussion of how a Noir game should be prepared and played. I felt like I got a better look at that by listening to an Actual Play of ADW on the RPPR Actual Play podcast. Worth a listen, if you haven't already checked that out, and those guys tend to play games that I like.



I was pretty happy with the bundle, especially SECRETS AND LIES by Dan Bayn, a game I honestly hadn't even heard of before, although of course I was familiar with Dan's seminal action RPG WUSHU. Dan's done the best job I've seen yet of approaching Noir tropes in a game, with a slim, slick little rule system that does a good job of applying pressure where needed. It also comes with three Noir-themed campaign frames to get you started. Very nice stuff. It's Pay-What-You-Can on DriveThruRPG (as is WUSHU), and I recommend it. Well worth sending this fine designer some bucks.

6. Most recent RPG played?

I mentioned last post that I had started up an OVER THE EDGE game, and that's the most recent thing I've played. OtE was always a favourite of mine, since the days that I heard about it on Usenet and browbeat my FLGS in Kingston into ordering me a copy. It was a community darling back then, one whose evangelists often crowed could "do anything" (although a lot of people say that about any given game that has become an internet darling). I'm not sure that's 100% true, but it does what it does very well - if you are looking for a system that lets you make interesting characters quickly and provides slim but solid support for resolutions, this might be for you. Of course, it's worth noting here that the system has most recently become open-source, under the name "Wanton Role Playing System" (or WaRP, for short). Check it out here.

The setting is still the same heady mix of weirdness, conspiracy theories, intrigue, sex, art, and bloody knife fights that I loved so much the first time I plunged into it. If you have never read it, OtE is a classic that only seems more and more relevant, and it was a formative text for me in that it was one of the first games that guided me toward character-centric (and thus, dramatic) play. You can download the 2nd Ed corebook and the supplements from Atlas Games's site, as linked above.