Wednesday 16 August 2017

#RPGaDAY 2017 - Day 16 What RPG do I play as is?

Day 16 of #RPGaDay 2017. 

Which RPG do you enjoy using as is?

No one is going to expect this one.

First off let me know that my general answer is "all of them." I am a big fan of Rules As Written or RAW. I'm not someone who enjoys tinkering with RPGs. I've got some really strong beliefs about RPG rules and how they are the one common language every player at the table shares and how messing with that language can impact the game negatively. I'm not here to talk about that though.

What I want to talk about is Paranoia. One of the things that amazed me the most about Paranoia back in the day is that it was the only RPG that I owned that encouraged you to break the rules. But, it had great rules! It was so ironic. Paranoia (at least in 2nd edition which is the one I ran the most) has a very decent D20 skill based system that I found brilliant compared to the games I played at that time.  The combat system was quick and solid and as deadly as you wanted to make it. They managed to put in funky super powers (sorry mutations) that all managed to work together and didn't break the game while still breaking the core rules. It was a great system, and here they were telling me to ignore it.

So what did I do? I stole it. My first self-published RPG was called Rad City and was a post apocalyptic RPG that was a mesh of Phantasy Star, Final Fantasy, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Cyberpunk 2020, and TSR Marvel Super Heroes and the glue that held all that together was the Paranoia D20 based system. I have friends today that still think Rad City was one of the best RPGs they played. 


For those wishing to play along at home, here are the topics for this years #RPGaDay. Feel free to use these cues in your tweets, facebook posts, g+ threads, blog posts and more.

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