Vayra's Questions

Being an individual of advancing years it's often some time before I catch up to the latest trends currently entertaining the kids, and when I do it's embarrassingly late. So here I am, some TEN WHOLE DAYS after the original post, attempting to answer the ten setting questions posed by Vayra in her recent post:

https://madqueenscourt.blogspot.com/2021/01/ten-setting-questions-sort-of-like.html

The setting being interrogated is the implied setting of PARIAH.

I've updated the post to include links to other sets of answers:

• http://bogeymanscave.blogspot.com/2021/01/answering-vayras-10-setting-questions.html
• https://coloursofpentagrams.blogspot.com/2021/01/answering-vayras-setting-questions.html
• https://portalsandpegasi.wordpress.com/2021/01/24/finally-some-answers/
• https://caput-caprae.blogspot.com/2021/01/vayra-asks-ten-questions-i-give-ten.html
• http://seedofworlds.blogspot.com/2021/01/varya-asks-10-setting-questions.html
• https://spectrumcourt.blogspot.com/2021/01/vayra-asks.html

But what are these questions?

PARIAH ETAU CAMPAIGN, SESSION 26 & 27: PLANNING & PLOTTING

These events continue from the TWENTY-FIFTH session but also picks up the characters not seen since the NINETEENTH SESSION. The real world session took place on Saturday 9th and 16th January 2021 on the Atelier Hwei Discord.  

Players:

- Eugene  https://twitter.com/eakiselev  as Nervously Rides the Grave 
- JFur https://jenniferixon.itch.io/ playing as Fallen-far-from-the-Wind
- Mister Kent https://twitter.com/MrKentKomiks as Beautiful Other-far-from-the-Lake
- Oisín https://twitter.com/OisinoftheHill playing as Earnestly Wooded
- Semiurge http://archonsmarchon.blogspot.com/ playing as Witheringly Footed at the Point

The Temple of Water

28th Day of Crow Moon

Beautiful Other was joined by Antelope, the old ally of the founding pariah band in hope of tracking down the mystery surrounding the irrigation temple and the apparent disappearance of Wither, Rides-the-Grave and Earnestly Wooded. The latter resolved itself fairly soon after leaving the settlement...

Interview with W.H. Arthur, RPG Designer/Maker

Arthur's RPG design work is available at https://aryl-ether.itch.io/

During last year’s COVID lockdown/Zine Quest crossover special it came to my attention that fellow RPG designer/maker W.H. Arthur lived in the same town as me. We arranged to meet, face-to-face out in the real world in real time: summer was in full swing and government guidelines had relaxed substantially since the beginnings of the pandemic.

If someone had told us that our next meeting was going to be nearly 6 months later and under full lockdown conditions it is doubtful either of us would have believed it. Nonetheless,  last weekend we found ourselves on either end of a discord call, catching up on the intervening period… a period which has been particularly busy for Arthur.

Exploring Space: Procedure in Different RPG Environments (Part 2)

Part 1 of this 2-part post special can be read here:
https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2021/01/exploring-space-procedure-in-different.html

In a previous post I look at play procedures in different environments, in the hope that this might somehow "unlock" the secret to running a city encounter. For many readers I'm trying to solve a problem that isn't there, and I'm not going to argue with you: I think this is probably about my own obsession with cities and what they mean. Hopefully something good can come out of it.

Lilith, Anselm Kiefer

Before digging into the urban environment I want to examine the final play procedure: delving. In producing this text it occurred to me that my issues with cities in RPGs is that they can offer the same high risk/high reward scenario that dungeons and other discrete locations can offer, but the procedure for exploring such sites is entirely unsuited for the majority of play within a city.

Anyway, here's my breakdown of dungeoneering. Again: this is not didactic, merely how I interpret old-school style play at my table, ymmv: