Often when I'm running a game, I focus on antagonist NPCs, characters who force me to think about what they're doing and how the player characters can react to their activities. It is rare when an allied NPC gets spotlight time, which brings me to this idea of "checklist NPCs". The NPC is associated with a checklist of prompts or events that best represent their purpose in the game. A player can check an item off the list to bring that event into play.
I had the opportunity to run a Monster of the Week Holiday Special, so I mashed up megachurches, mind control, and murder. This one's more of a mystery than a monster but don't worry, there are still monsters aplenty.
Last year I talked about using Cortex Prime with Star Wars. I've run a few more times and while there are no major changes in my philosophy, I've learned enough to warrant sharing some ideas.
My online group decided to keep going with Monster of the Week, where the weeks are fast and the monsters are furious. This mystery owes everything to The Wraith, Blacktop Wasteland, Christine, Death Proof, Ghost Rider, Fast & Furious, and my childhood obsession with cars that drove by themselves.
I love spooky games for spooky season. Maybe someday I'll run one. Until then, *stick around* for a big dumb action movie for your Monster of the Week hunters.
I recently figured out a decent pipeline to get Blender models into Tabletop Simulator (TTS) for online gaming. Let's face it, if I'm painting digital minis I can keep putting off painting my physical ones.
I made a Fiasco playset for the July Sixth Park Dinojam over at itch.io. Spared No Expense brings lofty ambitions and poor impulse control to an all-inclusive theme park and resort, where their aging robosaur attractions have been replaced with all-new real life dinoclones! Find your way to the one-of-a-kind Mesozoic Valley Resort and Casino, … Continue reading A Fiasco Playset 65 Million Years in the Making
Again with the car chases. After several attempts across multiple ad-hoc systems, I think I've twisted the excellent ttrpg toolkit Cortex Prime into something that'll run satisfying car chases.
My Thunder Road / JUNK'D homage game sat on the back burner for a long time until my kids got interested in Fast & Furious: Spy Racers on Netflix. I decided to bring out the XPS foam road segments and make a fun racing game that was less Mad Max and more kid-friendly. I'm still … Continue reading Fast & Fury Road: Spy Racers
I followed the principles laid out in my recent post about getting car chases into tabletop rpgs and ended up with this mildly-playtested rules system.
Don't Roll a One 