RPGaDay 2024 Day 2 - Most recently played RPG

 

This question really has two answers, because I was just at GenCon, and therefore trying all manner of new systems, which doesn't reflect what games I tend to play.

But I'll start with answering the question as written, and as you can probably guess, my answer is Mythcraft.

If you haven't heard of Mythcraft, that's not surprising; it was written by a small, independent company, QuasiReal Publishing, and I only found it because I ended up at number 10,600 in the GenCon event lottery, and so didn't get anything I'd requested.

I chose it because I loved the system name and the event description, and as with 90% of the indie games I play at GenCon was very happy that I did. In fact, after playing the session, I went and purchased the game, so I could continue the story we started. 

Setting

The setting is a basic fantasy environment; there are good places, and bad places, and the bad places have scary things in them. It had a distinction that there were two types of threats in the area we were in: The typical monsters you'd find in any fantasy setting, and the monsters who exist because the world itself is wrong.

The characters were extremely varied. Several were anthropomorphic, some were human, one was a living energy construct; one was also dead, but we didn't hold it against him. That variety gave the impression that you'd really be able to create almost any character you could imagine.

The characters, which were part of a "10 premade characters" expansion were all unique, enjoyable and had great backgrounds that could lead to strong storytelling over time. My character had some serious family honor debts to pay, which connected to who had been wronged, and who could free us--as in world options. Other characters had similar backgrounds and connections to the world we were playing in.

Mechanics

The basic task resolution mechanics were simple but effective. Your stats were simply a number that modified your die rolls. So if you had "Strength 3" you'd roll a d20 and add your strength score. I found this elegant compared to the d20 mechanic of "10 or 11 is +0; 12 or 13 is +1" and so on.

You also had skills within those stats, and those further modified the ability. This came out when the "good boi" dog paladin told me that someone had stolen the missing necklace. As a 7' tall bipedal bear, the obvious answer was to pick them up, turn them upside down and shake them to see if they had the missing item. d20 +3 strength +4 threatening" later and the merchant with a head rush suddenly is confessing to his crimes.

The system also has action points, with a twist: you can save unspent ones to the next round. This has a number of things I liked: By default you have three action points, with 2 being the cost to do a basic attack and 1 being the cost to move. That can be 3 moves, or a move-and-attack. However, it can also be "move twice, and save one action point for next round" so you start with 4 action points and can attack twice.

I didn't get to see how this worked as it scaled--when we advanced to second level, part way through the adventure, my character got an additional action point, so could in theory quadruple move or could attack twice every round. I'm guessing that there are bigger actions available at higher levels. I know one of the characters had a 3-action-point weapon, so I'm guessing that there will be 4 and 5 action point opportunities later.

Levelling was interesting. There aren't really classes; there are just abilities and stats. When my character advanced to 2nd level, he got +1 (stat that gives action points in a 2:1 ratio), he got more hit points and another ability. That ability let me "take the hit" for someone nearby, while also reducing the damage by d6. It meant that when the BBEG hit my daughter's character, I took the hit, and rather than going down, (as she would have) I was able to stay up with one hp remaining, and help finish them off.

As I said above, I purchased the game after playing, and hope to continue the story we started. As we do, I'm sure I'll post a "second opinions" review of the game.

My other "most recently played" game

I play a lot of indie games, and always run events for Monte Cook Games at conventions. However, the games I play in at home are all 5e D&D. The home campaign I play in is 5e, when I'm not running, and the campaign my Toastmasters club runs is 5e.

5e is a fine system, and I've really enjoyed seeing the characters that people have created, and have come up with some really fun ones over the last few years: a hobgoblin bard, a half-orc druid, a loxodon (elephant) paladin and a human  arcane trickster who *finally* got a pair of dark vision goggles, so he doesn't have to blow his hiding with a torch.

So if I play 50 games in a year, probably 40 of them will be 5e D&D, and I love those stories, but when asked "the most recent game I've played" I'll always delve into my memory for the most recent game that isn't that; just in this case it really wasn't.