Learning To Speak Multiple RPGs Allows You To Translate For Newer Players

If you've ever walked by a table running a game you haven't played before, it can sometimes sound like they're speaking a different language. Between the jargon used to shorten game terms, and mentions of specific rules and aspects, it can sound more like a spirited court battle on a foreign television station than a roleplaying game at times. However, if you sit down and listen, following the action, it starts to feel like that scene out of The 13th Warrior where our Arabian poet learns conversational Norwegian from watching and listening to his new companions for weeks on end.

That is the last time Ragnar talks shit about my horse!

This is a thing I've run into several times. When you're a gamer, you learn the language of the games you play. Sometimes that gives you enough parlance to make yourself understood in closely related games (most editions of DND are like romance languages, for instance... if you're fluent in one, you can pick up another pretty easily), but not all games translate easily. More than just the language of the mechanics, though, are the themes and concepts of RPGs.

Because if you want to get a new player excited, you need to be able to explain it to them in a way they understand.

How I Sucked a Werewolf Player Into a Dark Sci-Fi Dystopia

If you've never heard of Mutant Chronicles, it's a sci-fi fantasy game set in a galaxy-spanning far future where megacorporations have colonized the planets, and constantly fight for supremacy, market shares, and control of resources. The world is being inundated with a dark force that's corrupting everything it touches, destroying technology, warping humans, and spreading like a cancer that the corporate overlords have been slow to believe, and even slower to respond to. Whether you want to play warriors spreading across the stars, cops in the gritty back alleys of Luna, or nearly anything in between, you can probably pull it off in this game.

World's on fire, may as well go out with some sparkle!

For those of you who are thinking this sounds a lot like Games Workshop's signature Warhammer 40,000, you're definitely not wrong. However, the setting is unique enough to avoid lawsuits, and it provides a different kind of flavor than you can get with games like Rogue Trader or Dark Heresy. The other thing that made this Modiphius game unique was that it had a sample module and rules set, so I figured I'd download the Mutant Chronicles free quick start, and run it for a group to see what we thought.

One of my players, who's usually down to try out anything with dice, was having a hard time wrapping her head around the setting. She's not a 40k player, and generally sticks to more fantasy than sci-fi. I was having a hard time trying to find a purchase to pull her in, but when I mentioned the corrupting forces of the Dark Symmetry, I could almost see it click in her head.

"Oh," she said, nodding. "It's like how the Wyrm is trying to destroy everything in Werewolf!"

That was when I remembered that Werewolf: The Apocalypse was this player's main game. She'd played several different systems and settings, but she'd been an organization head for Werewolf, and she knew its lore back-to-front. And what had been a difficult process for me quickly became a snap of my fingers as I found direct thematic correlations between the two games, bringing across that Mutant Chronicles had that same feeling of struggling grimdark, but instead of being shape-shifting spirit warriors you were now front-line soldiers and psychic weapons trying to turn back the tide of cosmic evil.

Once I found some familiar ground for her to stand on, she was in with both feet. If I hadn't had that ability to translate the idea into a format she understood, though, I likely wouldn't have been down a player when I tried to muster my table.

Play Widely, Run Widely

We've all got games that are our mainstays. Things that we know inside and out, back to front. But it's important to spread out, and to change up your gaming diet from time to time. Partly because you might find some games that provide settings and experiences you'd never have otherwise... but also because it helps you meet gamers who speak a different language than you do.

And you can never know too many languages when it comes to finding something that makes everyone at your table happy.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. Hopefully you enjoyed, and if you've used run these kinds of games before, leave us a comment to let us know what worked for you!

For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Can't Get Enough of Free RPG Day? Dig a Little Deeper on Drive Thru RPG!

This past weekend was Free RPG Day, and I remember several years ago it was one of my favorite days to be a gamer. I'd pop down the street to the local gaming/comic shop, play a demo, grab some splat books, and maybe even score a cheap mini or a free d20, if the gaming gods were kind to me.

Choose your weapon!

Sadly, over the past several years, the options in my little corner of the state have all but dried up. There's only one comic/gaming store in convenient travel distance (others that I once visited have shuttered their doors), and they have opted not to participate in this yearly ritual. As such, I spent this year at my work desk, wishing I had a convenient way to get my hands on a lot of free games.

That was when I got the urge to look up a game I played years ago with an old roommate of mine. Back in the pre-digital dark age of gaming, the game was Mutant Chronicles, and I half expected it to have totally vanished into the ether... but low and behold there was a free Mutant Chronicles quick start right there on Drive Thru RPG!

I got a bit of a grin out of that, downloaded the guide, and started flipping through it. I'd never played a Modiphius game before, and I've been having fun trying to get my head around their 2d20 system base. But as I browsed Drive Thru RPG, I noticed something else... there is a veritable treasure trove of free gaming content on there!

If you're willing to look for it, that is.

Try Before You Buy!

I'll be up-front here, most of the free content you're going to find browsing through the site are quick start guides, and similar samples of bigger, more involved games. These guides give you a taste, and usually a scenario you can run for your group using some pre-gen characters to try and get a sense of how the game plays before you invest $20 for the full PDF, or even $30 or $50 for a physical rule book. It's a risk-free way to dip your toe in, and to give the game a chance to sell itself to you.

Some of them are, admittedly, more complicated than others.

Rather than telling you to just go and slog through the entire archive, though, I figured I'd shoot you a few interesting, totally free things I found that I'm going to be flipping through over the next few days. After all, I'm sure I'm not the only one who didn't get any swag this weekend, and who doesn't love checking out a new game for the low cost of absolutely nothing?

- The Entropic Gaming System: This quick start guide gives you a line on the Entropic Gaming System, which is meant to work with any game, any theme, any genre, any era. It's got an escalating die system, and in some ways it reminds me of Savage Worlds. A fun read so far, but not one I'm done with by any means.

- Frozen Skies Jumpstart: Speaking of Savage Worlds, this particular free guide is all about getting you hooked on the setting. Full of sky pirates and aerial bandits, it's set in a dangerous, grim frontier where all you have to rely on are your gunners and your skill, this one has definitely peaked my curiosity.

- Is It A Plane!?: If you told me there was an RPG out there that replaced dice with Pictionary, I would have told you that you were a crazy person, but Psychic Cactus Games has an RPG out there that does just that. I have not tried this one out with my group just yet, but the concept of drawing your actions for the Editor to interpret was surreal enough that I felt it had to be mentioned.

- Bloodlines and Black Magic: The City of Hauberk: This setting really grabbed my attention, because it combines the familiar rules systems of both Pathfinder and 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons, but it gives us a secret, modern world setting full of shadowy corners, corrupted bloodlines, occult secrets, and dangerous power players. A solid intro, I'd definitely recommend giving this one a read.

These are, of course, just a start when it comes to the demos, quick start guides, and huge troves of free stuff out there! My advice is to pop over to Drive Thru RPG and to use the terms, "free," "demo," or, "pay what you want," and to see what comes up. There are all sorts of older editions on there that are now free for the asking, and it feels like practically every game line big and small has a demo for you to play or a setting guide full of rich content to convince you to take a chance on the full-scale game.

My two cents, if you find something you like, try it out of an off-night. The sort when the whole party can't make it, or when you'd just sit around playing a board game. It can make for a refreshing palate cleanser, and it might be enough to really spark your group's interest!

Also, as a closer, if you're looking for some additional, inexpensive swag, then check out my list of contributions on Drive Thru RPG. From NPC lists for fantasy games, to unusual feats for Pathfinder, to one-shot modules for Dungeons and Dragons, I've got a bit of everything for folks looking to expand their lists of gaming options!

Like, Follow, and Keep in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. Hopefully you enjoyed the film, and it provides you all with the same sort of inspiration it did me!

For more of my work, check out my Vocal and Gamers archives, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!