DB

I am currently preparing a list of games that I would like to run at a local nerd convention! This nerd convention is a general convention, and it has various sorts of nerd things going on: cosplay, panels, and gaming rooms. There is both a video gaming room and a table top gaming room, which has both a board game library and now, a dedicated tabletop RPG room, which is lots of fun.

This will be the 3rd time that I’m volunteering to run games with this community of folks, and there are a few good and bad when it comes to running games for a general audience. One, is that there will be lots of attendees. And the bad? Well, it’s the big bad of last year…damn you, WoTC!

It is hard to get people to depart from the dragon game. It’s much like trying to get people to try a new tactical shooter, MOBA, fighting game, or MMO. It’s hard to get people to try new things, especially when it took so much time and effort to learn the one thing. And hey, they like the one thing–why should they play or try another thing?

Because that’s life! You don’t have to master a new game, or become a professional, or any of that nonsense. It’s fun to have new experiences, and games are one of the easiest ways to get one of those (cause hey, travel is rather expensive).

So, let’s start selecting some games to run for some general folks who may be adverse to trying a new TTRPG…

Knowing the audience

Since this audience tends to be a little adverse to new TTRPGs, I focus on offering games that are relatively rules lite. In terms of mechanics and difficulty, I look at the dragon game as a measuring stick. Does the game provide the same, or less mechanical intensity as 5e? In that case, I can consider it!

What is also of consideration is that a lot of rules lite games, and especially story games, lean a lot into providing a loose structure to model play around. This dips a lot more into the improv-esque collaborative storytelling that can happen around a lot of tables, and can be intimidating for newbies (trust me, I’ve been to more than one improv jam and 101 class). What can help on this front is if there are an ample amount of suggestions and guides for what the player can do, and if there is enough substance of genre and flavor for a player to lean on. If those both exists, then I will most likely run the game.

And also, does the game make me excited? If it does, I will run it! That energy is contagious, and if I like the game, I’m more likely to help facilitate a game that I am already enjoying by reading and prepping for.

On GMless games…

For a general audience, it can be intimidating to play a new game, and it can be equally as difficult to play a GMless game. For most of these games, if they normally are designed to run GMless, I will be providing some light facilitating for the games. I have had experiences with players who take advantage of others in a GMless game, or who do not keep in mind to share the spotlight with others, so I will facilitate these games to ensure that everyone has spotlight time and the players are safe.

Brindlewood Bay

You play as grandmas who run a book club, enjoying mystery novels, and you solve mysteries! It has some PbtA elements with some of its dice resolution, but what I love the most is the flavor of grannies solving crimes. Speaking of solving crimes, I just love the mystery solving mechanics that are brought in this game, which lean a lot into the collaborative storytelling of TTRPGs, and I think more games should have conversations like that across the table.

CARZ

CARZ is a game that is dripping with flavor, in a sci-fi, post-apocalyptic Earth that has become the Junk Capital of the Universe. When aliens stop by and drop off the explosive shit, the mutants get to go FUCKING wild in their souped up cars among the junkyard trash heap that is the Earth. It is the flavors of Mad Max and Borderlands in a wild presentation and shaker bottle of rusted nuts and bolts, and I’m all here for it.

Dialect

Dialect is a game about building a community and their language, and watching that community and their dialect die. It is both a collaborative world building game, and a story game that frames world building rounds between bouts of scene work.

It’s uncommon for story games to already be in the space, and language death makes me deeply sad. I still have to playtest this with some folks, but if it is as evocative as reading through it is, I will be more than happy to run it.

FishBlade

I mean, you’re playing as a group of people that pilot a fish with a blade. There’s not much else to ask for. It’s in the same vein of chaos as Everybody is John, and the premise alone is just a fun flavor of chaos. I am excited to play other fish, and people as this chaotic School (the group that pilots the fish mech are called a School, and that is glorious) tries to make decisions while they’re literally out of water.

Hitobito no Hikari

Hitobito no Hikari is a pamphlet sized TTRPG where a group of girls search for Hikari, who has disappeared. It borrows elements from the survival horror genre as they search for Hikari. The rules are simple, the themes are evocative, and I am truly excited to see where the players will take these girls as they struggle to save someone despite the dangers to themselves.

In Case of an Emergency

In Case of an Emergency places players as employees of a corporation that operates through the exploitation of supernatural entities, like SCPs. Something went wrong, so the employees now have to fix the problem. It borrows some elements from Forged in the Dark (FitD) as you build upa dice pool. You have to appease the Shareholders, there’s lots of scary supernatural things, and the presentation is wonderful.

Kosmosaurs

You’re playing as space dinosaurs who go around helping the galaxy–what else do you want? It is modeled after Saturday morning cartoons, which serve as the base reality for the game. When you’re talking space dinosaurs going about helping people, that sounds good to me. And with a system that seems to borrow from Lasers and Feeling’s 2 attribute leanings, it’s bound to have some rules lite fun.

Mazes

Mazes is a refreshing take on an Old School Renaissance (OSR) game, with the simple character building and mechanics of an OSR game, but with the guidelines and mechanics of a modern game that empowers the players to create changes in the world and to develop their characters. I love a game that has a flashback mechanic, and I very much enjoy mechanics that show the players that I’m not just putting bullshit down to make their lives terrible.

PSI*RUN

PSI*RUN is a game about superpowered amnesiacs who are on the run from their chasers. It is a balance of avoiding danger, remembering your past, and indulging in supernatural funsies. I like the Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) flavors of this game (hey, it’s designed by the Bakers after all) and I enjoy the aspects of active character building that happens during the game. I think they’re good tools to take away into your dragon game, so even if they don’t end up playing another PbtA game, I’m just happy if they’re telling stories with the tools this game offers.