Old Men Running The World

Author: Kieron Gillen

  • Kiery G on Mythy-B* on The Smiling Fox

    We wrapped our Mythic Bastionland campaign last night. We’ll be doing a Threedom soon enough, I’m sure, but if you want an advance taste, I was on the Smiling Fox, the premier** Mythic Bastionland podcast, last week talking about the game generally and my game specifically. It’s basically me and age jumps, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g mortality in a sexy way.

    You can listen here – the Smiling Fox was a big part of my process for running Mythic Bastionland, so was really lovely to come in and guest as I was wrapping our game.

    * Joke Stolen From Chris McDowall
    ** Only.

  • My 101 Favourite TTRPGS: 97-90

    As I turned 50, I decided to make a list of my 101 favourite TTRPGs. I return, to finish off the 90s, and have strong hopes I will complete this in time for turning 100, and starting my 101 TTRPG I played between 50-100 list. Because that will definitely happen.

    Staring at the existential horror of non-existence? That sounds like a cue for…

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  • Open Hearth, Open Mouth

    Jim and I were having a chat (via text, in one of these new fangled AIM-replacement bits of software). Should we link to places where we’ve talked about RPG stuff here?

    Yes. We decided the answer is Yes.

    Open Hearth gaming community has a bunch of podcasts – one of which is the community podcast where they invite a couple of folks on to talk about what they’ve been playing, on and off the Hearth.

    The last one had Lowell Francis chatting to Cat Rambo and myself about all things new. For me, new was Mythic Bastionland.

    Listen, if you want a taste of forthcoming Hot Takes on the micro-pendragon we like to call Mythy B and if you’ve never had the “Wait – this is what he sounds like? He sounds like if you pumped Noddy Holder full of amphetamine.”

    Listen here.

  • My 101 Favourite TTRPGS: 98-100

    We finally return to my list of every single TTRPG I’ve ever played (up to my 50th birthday) as ascertained by my rigorous and definitely not entirely improvised methodology.

    I bring you 100, 99 and 98. Yes, at this rate, maybe you can expect this list to be completed by the time I’m 100.

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  • What Makes Me Want To Run A Game?

    Or, to give it its true clickbait title, “Why I have absolutely no interest in running 7/9 of the games Quinns Quest has reviewed.”

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  • A Bright Dark Future: Ex Tenebris Interview

    If you’re a British game designer, you work beneath a cloud – both literally and figuratively. For the former, it’s really cloudy here, For the latter, it’s a small country that homes a big company. Unless you come entirely outside the standard gaming ecosystem, Games Workshop likely have touched your life. It’s there. How can you deny it? How can you escape it?

    As such, when I heard about Ex Tenebris, I was intrigued.

    Josh Fox and Becky Annison’s Black Armada Games have a golden run of interesting games which take and then show real mechanical understanding of what’s at their core. To choose a few examples, Lovecraft-esque Lovecraftesque was ahead of the curve on the post-modern adventure format that’s the current big thing in mystery games. Bite Marks is the pack-centric werewolf game that really understands what it means to be Alpha and to be family. And now , with Ex Tenebris, they’re doing a grim far-future RPG about investigators digging into occult incursions and xeno-conspiracies which can destroy civilization…

    I would be less interested if it wasn’t them. As it is, I’m very interested.

    Yes, It’s very clearly influenced by the Inquisition in Warhammer 40k, as turned into an RPG in Dark Heresy… but look again. You can forget the modern, bespoke mechanics (but why would you?) but the specifics of the setting seems to make the point all too clear – specifically, it a game set after a grimdark empire has fallen, about a civilization trying to form itself in the aftermath of this star-addled fascistic fuck-up. That’s intriguing for me – it admits the interest and the formative influence, but also – in mechanics, text and subtext – speaks of the need to move past it.

    I’m also in the mood for games which assume fascism can fall, and we will then work out what to build in the ruins. That sounds like a useful theme to me.

    So I was interested. Interested enough to say “yes” when they asked me to write a scenario for it. And now, with the Ex Tenebris Kickstarter their most successful ever and into its final week, I thought it a good time to chat about everything that makes up Ex Tenebris, where they are and where they’re heading next.

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  • My 101 Favourite TTRPGS: 101

    Earlier this year, we saw John Harper on the socials having worked out how many TTRPGs he’s played. It was a big number. It made Jim and me sit back and do ours. My initial survey revealed I was just shy of 100. And, as a recovering pop culture critic, I knew what that number meant.

    A listicle to end all listicles.

    I’m starting it today. I turn 50, and wanted to do a long, playful look at my life and how it has intersected with an art form I’ve loved. This seems like it.

    (And, yes, when asked if there was any special treat I wanted for my birthday “Can I have time to start writing a listicle?” says a lot about my damage.)

    When I’d finished digging through everything, the list was over 100, so I made some choices to make it a significant number. I lost anything in the LARP space which felt closer to LARP than storygame – so I won’t be telling about the time I played Labyrinth with a bunch of other games journos on a press trip. Any game which involves acting a role but positions itself as a party game? That’s also out, so no Fellas, Is It Gay? or Jolene.

    When I played multiple editions of a game, I only include them if I can reliably remember the differences between the editions. So (say) Monsterhearts and Feng Shui will only pop up once.

    But we’re getting into spoilers. Let’s get in.

    You may note that I may not have defined what “favourite” means. That’s going to be part of the exercise. When arranging the list, I had to chew over what favourite means for me, in terms of my memories, experiences and joys with these games.

    Which also means, working out what my least favourites means.

    That was easy. I wasn’t sure of anything else in this list, but I knew what was at the bottom.

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  • The Skim: Teeth: False Kingdom

    It is this organ’s firm and unyielding belief that one cannot review an RPG from reading it. You can review a manual, certainly, but you’re not reviewing the game in any meaningful way.

    However you can skim and see what pops out.

    This is the Skim, and this is what we got from skimming False Kingdom.

    IN A SENTENCE:

    It’s Medieval1 Forged in the Dark2 Paranoia4.

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  • DIE RPG: When I roll A 1

    I’ve been meaning to put this here for a while, but as the DIE RPG quickstart has been lobbed on Drivethru and Itch, it seems a good time. This is a tweaked version of something I wrote over on my newsletter, when I finished my long playtest campaign of DIE RPG.

    I often think of this bit of Red Dwarf.

    It’s where Rimmer is describing his great victories in Risk, much to Lister’s annoyance. An endless string of “And then I rolled a 6!” The joke being, that no-one is interested in hearing about people’s gaming adventures.

    I spent fifteen years of my life trying to prove that wrong, and get people excited about that time I rolled a 6.

    Or a 1.

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  • One Dice Wife Vs No Wife? No Dice: Conan vs Seven Part Pact

    Seeing our last two stories back to back made me think of something. Namely, Jim and my time with Conan and my time with Seven Part Pact and how each game chooses to treat your companions.

    Let us talk about wives.

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