ReadCon

ReadCon: What have you been up to since ReadCon 2013?

James: Since ReadCon 2013, I have been working hard on my Master’s degree at university, but in the background, I have run one campaign, and been working a little more on my own system. All in all, however, it has been pretty slow! Since October, though, I have been working on The Talinz Project, which is my blog. I try and post 1000 words there weekly (I manage it most weeks), that steadily details a Science Fiction setting for the Fate RPG by EVil Hat Games. Its got robots, and advertising and NASCAR and Isaac Asimov galore, so it’s pretty fun.

  RC: You’re Running the RPG Room; what systems can we expect to see at ReadCon 2014?

J: Well, last time we brought a host of systems. But you can definitely expect old stalwarts, such as Dungeons and Dragons, which always get a good turn-out, and Maid, a Japanese anime-themed RPG that I’ve always known to be well-received at anime cons. Last time, Fiasco went down pretty well, so I will probably be bringing that again too!

I’ll be prepping stuff for Hong Kong action cinema system Feng Shui, Dogs in the Vineyard, a wandering cowboy game, and perhaps a few games that are ‘Powered by the Apocalypse’, a family of games birthed from Vincent Baker’s Apocalypse World.

I’ll be taking requests, and bringing my laptop, filled with lots of different pdfs beyond those I have mentioned, and probably bunches of dead leaf books too, so pop on down anytime and see if you fancy anything I’ve brought.

  RC: Do you have a particular favourite RPG system?

J: Anything written by me?

Any person who has been DMing for a long time has a few soft spots for systems. I am particularly partial to Feng Shui and Dogs in the Vineyard. 4th Edition D&D, on the other hand, gets a lot of flak, but is also hits a weakness in me somewhere that no other game is quite able to fill.

I think what’s most important though, is that your system fits the kind of stories your group wants to tell. I’m always on the look-out for new systems, and frequently pick up obscure RPGs with every intention of foisting them on the next group of willing participants in my next hair-brained scheme. For example, I really want to facilitate a game of Sea Dracula… But I can’t find anyone willing to play an awesome surreal anthropomorphic lawyer dance battle RPG for some reason, which makes me sad.

  RC: We understand that you’re working on your own system? Tell us about it!

J: Yeah! It’s called Humours, and is an urban fantasy game about playing people in the modern day with the gift of prophecy. The players can see the bad things coming, and the bad things that might happen if they don’t do something, but often they only see part of the picture, and the fun comes from compiling all of that together, and the suspense of a growing endgame each arc that all the players already know is a thing, by seeing the pieces fall into place. It uses packs of cards instead of dice to determine the results of events, so success and failure is determined by how a character manages their physical and mental resources, rather than by chance. The name comes from the Ancient Greek Humours; their associated dispositions are the game’s equivalent to mental and social statistics.

Humours is currently in its second playtesting stage (By which I mean I have made revisions from my first playtesting stage and I have yet to throw it back out to folks to test it out). It has a few different models at the minute that I want to try out, that lean in different directions, towards different kinds of games that I like.

  RC: (From Ieuan Jones, via Facebook): Have you ever felt burnt out as a GM: felt your games weren't running well or were sick of the system but the campaign hadn't ended? What advice would you give for people who go through this?

J: Yes, quite a few times. Talking to your players about it always helps. It might be that they feel the same way, and have a few ideas to make it better. Alternatively, another way is to push to a climax that little bit faster, to get it over with. I find that the campaigns I never got around to finishing are always the ones that stay on my mind the longest, even if I wasn’t massively into running them at the time. Above all, though, remember that GMing, just like playing, is meant to be fun. I talk a lot about the GM role facilitating fun at the table, but if the GM isn’t enjoying it himself, it shows. Again, this is an issue that often resolves itself by chatting to players. Maybe they would be willing to take the reins for a few sessions or give you a recharge break too.

I experienced a bit of GM burnout myself this year. After finishing up a campaign I had been running, and really enjoying running, I should add, a few months ago, I have been enjoying taking a back seat for a while. It occurred to me that this has been the first time in 4 years when I haven’t been GMing an RPG, and I am enjoying the rest for a bit!

   RC: What subject is your panel upon?

J: Last year, we spoke a bit about writing your own systems. This year, I want to talk about running games, and build on last year by discussing how my playtesting is going, and talking about some of the maths behind games a bit. But don’t worry; I won’t be going all algebraic! It is all pretty understandable to folks all around. I’m sure my running mate, Mickey, also has a few of his own priorities to talk about too!

  RC:What are you looking forward to at ReadCon 2014?

J: I sadly missed Christine Ni’s panel last year (as we were giving the RPG one at the same time!) but I’d love to see her. She’s very passionate about Chinese culture, and I think she really conveys that in her talks. It is well worth checking out! Asides from that, I expect I will be trolling around in the RPG room for most of the day, so I am quite looking forward to all the new folks I get to meet there!