I really like the idea of using a setting-creation game like Canon, then turning to a game tightly focused in on a specific premise but open on setting, like Misspent Youth. Two very different perspectives on the same setting, that act complementary to each other.
2 Appreciations
I’m currently co-running and co-playing in an Urban Shadows 2 game with my wife. We do a thing with PbtA games when we can’t make scheduling work for larger group games where we both make 3ish PCs and then take turns playing and GMing in a joint setting.
This time we’re doing Chicago, based around Armor Square and delving into the old bloody history of the city and it’s architecture. All the PCs are connected to the same core groups of a faction of Fae taking over the mob, a group of Specters who were murdered by the mob and want revenge, and the musical wizards of the old Chicago blues sound who are fighting to take the city back. It’ll inevitably end in blood opera
3 Appreciations
Currently:
Playtesting a Discord play-by post board/RPG hybrid about gang warfare in 1895 New York City.
Upcoming:
Playtesting a space pirate themed TTRPG with an underlying structure that, if it works, will be wonderfully versatile.
Playtesting The Experiencers, a black box larp about a family that encounters a UFO, Roshomon style.
Soth with a new group, face to face.
Playtesting an air traffic control slow larp.
3 Appreciations
I find it too hard not to ask: what happens if the same player’s characters are at odds? Do you switch who plays them, ignore that material, something else?
Aw, man. I got Soth to the table for one quick session… would love to do it again. What a hilarious game!
2 Appreciations
These days I have been playing two role-playing mini-games that I am writing in Italian with my girlfriend:
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Death in the Saloon (Morte nel saloon), a game about escaping Death entering a saloon, while playing the story of its potential victims, the saloon regulars;
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An as-yet-untitled game about writing reviews full of entitlement and contempt for bad restaurants. It is a game based on funny combinations and finding out what will happen to those restaurants.
Last night I also happened to play Remember Tomorrow, Gregor Huttton’s cyberpunk game that pays homage to William Gibson’s choral novels. We did four rounds of scenes in six (the game recommends playing with a maximum of five players, but I didn’t remember and there were six of us).
I am also reading Urban Shadows (first edition) to start a campaign with my friends in August or September. I’m at the chapter explaining the first session.
2 Appreciations
I lived in Chicagoland for 50 years and have never heard of Armour Square. 
This week I started playing in a Conan 2d20 game that plans to last about 4-5 sessions. We play via Zoom, but roll our own physical dice.
I ignored 2d20 for a long time but then recently gave it a shot at local con and have become enamored with it. I’m hoping to run some Star Trek Adventures eventually.
Beyond the Conan game, I have nothing scheduled — my gaming has been very ad-hoc lately. I am going to BurningCon in September, so I have been diligently rereading Burning Wheel. I am thinking about running a “Burning 101” series where we use pregens and play The Sword and the Hochen demo scenarios. This would be both to help introduce the game to others and to get my BW game-mastering skills in shape.
3 Appreciations
Mostly that doesn’t happen. Same player’s characters don’t end up in scenes together, and we steer (both as players and GMs) to keep their interests from overlapping too directly.
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Hi Brand, that’s interests me. I think it’s matter for an actual play\thread — if you have time and energy to talk about this.
2 Appreciations
I’d guess the locals don’t call it that. It’s the area just west of Chinatown, centered on the triangle between the 90 and 55 – going south along Deerborn Homes to Wentworth.
That’s not a bad idea for a different thread, so I started that discussion over here.
3 Appreciations
Delving into the history of a real place is really a winning move for Urban Shadows, huh. I once played as a PC in a campaign set in Rome, with a group of washed-up outcasts dealing with Ancient Roman heritage and completely modern problems. Good times were had.
As for what I’m playing right now: a very slow-paced game of Stonetop because two-quarters of my regular group have a 1-year-old and the length of our session depends on the whims of baby/their exhaustion level.
The game itself has been nice so far. I’m playing as the Seeker (scholarly/wizardly type playbook), and am trying to flavor him as the village blacksmith since the game’s magic is mostly based around artifacts (Arcana) and I’ve read too many essays about the bond between metalworking and shamanic practices in Norse mythology 
Overall I like how we shaped the village relationships because they gave us pretty solid bonds/excuses to adventure/stuff to talk about.
On other fronts, on Free RPG Day I played oneshots of Orbital (where I was facilitating as player, since it’s GM-less) and ARC (GMing). Both were quite interesting; I tend to go zero prep for events where I run demos because I want it to be clear that the fun demo is not me being an amazing creative GM, but the result of game mechanics that help you pull together a good story without excessive fretting. I have pregen characters for ARC (and could share them here if anyone is interested) to speed up character creation for convention play, but they’re all rolled from the book’s random tables.
Future plans: I mean to playtest Momatoes’ Children of Inang-Uri when I get the chance and there’s an upcoming chamber larp convention in September where I’ll be playing some new as-yet-unpublished stuff.
2 Appreciations
I have so much going on, yet in pause.
- We paused the Brinderwood Bay campaign because one of the players had a baby
- Before the summer break, we started a Cy_Borg campaign, but we played only 2 sessions (1 job)
- I’m running a 2.5-year-long campaign at Blades in the Dark - we are near the end, but no one seems to want to finish it, and every session, we add something more to the fiction we are curious to explore. I started calling the Never-Ending Campaign.
1 Appreciation
As for me, what I’m currently playing:
- A Sorcerer series centered around “Silicon Valley Sorcerers”, where demons are made of AI, nanomachines, and high-tech software. The series was on summer hiatus and will restart today.
- A Fantasy World campaign with @LordPersi and @Byakko which is on hiatus but will restart sometime in September.
- I’m playing Tales of the Round Table with anyone that I can entice.
- S/Lay W/Me and other twosie games with my girlfriend.
- the-pool A lot of The Pool of all kinds using my customised version.
- I’m writing a caribbean-themed mystery for my (not) investigative game Inquest, set in Port Royal, Jamaica, 1650—1692. I’ll play this at Dark Tower Con on September 19th.
1 Appreciation
Matteo, I’d be interested on an account of your Blades in the Dark play, especially because my conclusions about Blades in the Dark’s usefulness as an instrument for me ended up mixed—to the point I’ve decided I won’t play the game or any derivatives anymore, despite liking Scum & Villainy a lot.
In our conversations on La Locanda you seem to be having a different time than me and possibly preventing the various issues of GM-player outcome negotiation, and the score being inconsequential busywork, that I see a lot in BitD groups. I’d be interested in knowing more of the details of how a score is run in your group, when do you make important details into solid fiction, how you go through the action roll procedure, how you set position/effect, how you pick consequences, the usage of resistance rolls, the role of stress, etc…
(I’m not looking for a review or showcase, only an account of play).
1 Appreciation
Currently running:
My 4 years long Pendragon Campaign. Were >120 sessions in, on our third generation of characters and the end of it all is in sight. It is hard to explain how much this game has meant to me. I’ll absolutely be running it all again with 6th edition coming out.
Starting up a Firefly RPG game. I did a one shot of this cortex plus gem and fell in love again and excited to dive deep into the space western vibes.
Starting up Stonetop RPG. I did a 5 shot of this a year ago and reaaaallly liked it. Now I’m trying again but committing longer term and starting fresh with new people.
Playing:
Battletech (stars without number previously MechWarrior Destiny). This is a battletech/Pendragon inspired mashup where we play nobles in space going to war in our mechs and planning and politicing at the annual Kerensky Ball. It’s cheesy and melodramatic in all the right ways. Like if Yellowstone and Top Gun had a baby who was a mech.
Cairn.
3 Appreciations
Welcome, Eric!
I had a similarly short-lived run of Stonetop (for out-of-game reasons) and really enjoyed it, but the game gives you so much in setup that’s kind of a shame not to play it longform. I also hope to play it again sometime. Lots of fascinating stuff in that game.
2 Appreciations
I come back from a residence/summer convention of RPGs and board games called CrocoCon Relax.
I’ve played the following titles as one-shots across 8 days.
- The Pool with my scenario “The Siege”
- Trollbabe
- Circle of Hands
- Sorcerer
- The Mountain Witch
In a week and half, my usual campaigns of Apocalypse World and Fantasy World will start again. Finally, we should begin also a campaign of Runequest Classic.
I’d like to play more OSR/old-school D&D games like Lamentations of the Flame Princess and Vaults of Vaarn plus The Clay That Woke. Unfortunately, I don’t have time and must wait. Maybe I’ll play two of the titles at a couple of conventions this fall.
2 Appreciations
Starting a game of Bushido, tonight. I’ll be the gamesmaster and there are two players: one playing a Bushi Ronin and the other a Shugenja from an artisan background (a family of shipbuilders, in this case). We’re setting things ~ mid-15th C on Kyushu, and are drawing on material related to the heavy pirate activity that was going on in that area in that era. A feature of Bushido is that thought character creation gives a very compelling portrait of your character, there’s still a lot of open space that the GM needs to fill in about the starting situation in order to orient the characters so that they aren’t simply portraits but rather are dynamically in motion (or ready to be in motion). We’ll see how it goes!
1 Appreciation