Class, background preference link to player personality

After connecting with the team at Quickphix.ch who ran this TTRPH personality survey earlier this year I had a look at some of the outputs.

tl;dr: survey results comparing Big Five Personality Inventory with class and background preferences gives some hints on who likes to play what.

Reasons for coming to the table are pretty clear among the (N = 53) group of respondents: socialising, getting immersed in the world and being creative. A second 'tier' of drivers include system mastery and the thrill of risk.

Actual play: Kobolds Art Exhibition part II - adventures in paintings

Following up on the previous post about playing the Kobolds Art Exhibition zine.

Our party - children of the rulers of the realm - found the Kobolds in the sealed up basements of their family palace as the dying Duke tasked them with reopening things. After a first encounter where the party reopened and defeated the guardians before a masterpiece, the party returns with the Lady of the House while price negotiations for the masterpiece happens. As the Curator and the Lady of the House negotiate the party is pulled aside by one of the junior kobolds. In pidgin draconic they convey that there are kobolds lost in a painting that they need help to recover and the party agrees to help.

Review: Wormskin zines 1-8

Given the upcoming Dolmenwood kickstarter and the neat thematic fit with my menagerie world campaign I thought it would make sense to talk about the Wormskin zines.

tl:dr; these zines are the pieces to either run the setting or pull out selected cool sub-pieces to enhance your own home-brew or tailore the flavour of other settings. If you want to inject a little fae forest into your game - whether whimsical or fierce, the Wormskin zines are both tool-kit and toybox.

Review: We Have Lost

A "small game, previously playtested by some at Warpcon" to quote the author Donogh McCarthy, this is a GM-less story game for 3-6 players. With art by Wayne O’Connor of whom I am a big fan.

This is a 4 page game where all players are - were - companions of the Empress who has just died. Aspects of everyones character and the set-up are defined by choice from a list or vote and then the game itself is in remembering the Empress. Over a number of rounds you go about the table and each tells a tale of your times with the Empress.

What is very cool about this is the 'bennie' type mechanics - with red and black stones that trade hands depending on whether the tales told in a round move you in one direction or another. At the end the counts of those stones determine who gets to tell the definitive story of the Empress death and its aftermath.

With a page to set the context, a page to say who the players are, a page for the mechanics and a page for inspiration this is a taut, neat game that I will be giving a go at next opportunity. I think there is potentially a nice synergy with Microscope or a potentially a great place as a flash-back within a more classical campaign besides its potential as a fun one-shot game.

Blog challenge: posts that improved my gaming

A CHALLENGE from Sundered Shillings off the the OSR Discord server: Hunt down the blog posts that have forever changed how you have run your games, prepped your games, done your game design, or is otherwise terribly significant or personal to you.

Some of these may be obvious but while they are fresh on my mind:

Actual play: Wolpertinger, Were-rat ... Well

tl;dr - a great urban module to drop in with some nice on-ramps and trailing hooks; add it to any city you run.

I ran Wolpertinger, Wererat - Well! as an urban encounter within my house campaign. As of time of writing its a Gold seller on DriveThruRPG, rocking a 5 star rating.

The blurb goes "[t]his adventure is an unapologetically linear dungeon crawl [that] follows the three-pillar principle: combat, exploration, social interaction. The idea is to spice up the classic formula with varied challenges that result in a short, entertaining session. This makes this an excellent adventure for beginner players and DMs! Detailed support is provided for the DM in the form of roleplay advice for six completely fleshed out original NPCs, advice on the three pillars in each scene, and scenic sensory descriptions for every scene to make the adventure come to life."

* * * Spoilers Below! * * *

Review: Creatures

I backed the Kickstarter for Creatures which billed itself as "Designed by the creators of Shadows of Esteren and Fateforge, Creatures is a love letter to fantasy bestiaries." Still waiting on the hard copy to arrive, I am going to talk through the draft document I have my hands on. Things may change, grain of salt etc.

tl;dr - nice product, a new angle on classic city and fantasy countrside plus a whole new steppe setting; I will be putting it to use.

First impressions on a flick through is that its gorgeous and exactly what I hoped it would be - one of those bestiary / setting combos similar to Veins of the Earth. The art is great, all tied together in a more 'pencils and watercolours of a real place' than the high fantasy standard of D&D main line products.