Parrying is for wimps!

The Beatles were truly extraordinary – I don’t know much about their history but their influences continue to pulsate like tentacles through the decades.  Everyone will know a Beatles song, or at least part of one, everyone (and I mean everyone) will be able to name at least one of The Beatles and most people will be able to name all four of them (was there a fifth one early on??).  So, it is with trepidation that I disagree with them about ‘All you need is love’ – obviously this is not true – you need food and drink (preferably tea and beer) for a start.  Then there are the vagaries of having your heart broken, getting physically hurt and other issues that occur to all of us at some point to varying degrees – you may think these are not all you need, but they are part of what a human needs generally if we are to grow and become better humans during our lifetimes.  Risk and risk taking, being offended, arguing and seeing issues from other individuals stand points while being able to r

Threads and nightmares......... It is pretty sure that if you meet someone of around my age that grew up in the 80s and they watched Threads , they will have been terrorised by the threat of nuclear Armageddon and had nightmares at least through their teens.   Think of all the crazy government fear mongering of recent times and multiply it by about 1000 to get a taste of what the apocalyptic doom that we were all subjected to felt like.   Threads is truly horrific – so for Christmas 2022 I finally plucked up courage and bought a copy of it for my wife.   She was equally traumatised by it.   We watched it again and I can say it is still terrifying. ..what has this to do with a blog about RPGs?   Well obviously it’s my spurious lead into talking about my recent introduction to Free Leagues Twilight2000 that was updated and published a few years ago.   I actually had the original box set back in the 80s – part of my doomsday obsession with nuclear warfare involved reading books about h

System: Call of Cthulhu (modern) - A Tableau of Red Played on: RPG Nook Discord and Roll20 Players: Yeti / Orf / Speed / Newman / Hedge / Jeremy A I remember having an argument with my daughter when she was choosing her options at school.  She wanted to do ‘art’ and as parents we thought she should do something more academic.  However, she got her way (as she does with most things :>), completed two years of artwork (we even went to the Lake District so she could take photos of herself in a lake for her final project!) and came out with an A.  as I tell everyone who will listen, if you do something do the best you possibly can and don’t create excuses for yourself or listen to those who think they know better than you (although she did drop art after leaving school as it wasn’t what she hoped it would be…so I was right in the end…lol).  What has this to do with a scenario by Helen Yau for Call of Cthulhu?  Well first of all the story is based around a bunch of artists who end up ha

  Delta Green-PX Poker Night (Spoilers!) Handlers notes I first became aware of Delta Green in 2020 at the start of lockdown (I promise I was working from home and I was not looking at RPG stuff during work hours :>), and very quickly became fascinated by the concept described in the game.   After getting the Handlers Guide last year I read the ‘history’ included in the book and absolutely loved it.   I then went all in on the Kickstarter that was launched last year and found a couple of podcasts about DG ( The Green Box  as well as The Redacted Reports - well worth a listen as the former is very informative and the latter really well done and entertaining).   So basically, I really like this game.   So, to prepare for running some DG I played in a few scenarios and I did run Last Things Last as a one shot last year.   I also look at DG as being compatible with a series of events and scenarios for PC development (assuming survival) due to the ‘Home’ game mechanics and bonds. 

The Argent III Report, report! (Spoilers, spoilers and once more just in case - spoilers). I purchased Those Dark Places over a year ago.   The industrial sci fi setting really appealed and, aligned with a simple set of rules it was a no brainer to purchase the book and start playing.   As with all great plans everything went well until the bit about ‘start playing’.   I suspect like many I buy too many rules and then don’t run the games I have purchased within a year or even two!   Anyway apologies to Mr J.Hicks (the writer of the game) but I can say that now I have ran the game, got a TPK and am ready to run more of this game in the future. I ran through the scenario included in the rulebook ‘The Argent III Report’.  As a starter story it is great, short simple and lots of opportunity for the General Monitor (GM – get it?) to provide elements of horror and fright to the players.  I ran the scenario with players from the RPGNook discord: 4acrossisemu – playing as Alan Grist, the

Miskatonic Repository Guest Review for RPG Nook RPG Nook is a You Tube channel and discord server for those wanting to play Call of Cthulhu and other horror orientated RPGs.  Keepers on the server have been given the opportunity to play and then review some scenarios written for the Miskatonic Respoitory.  This is my Keeper review that appears on the RPG Nook You Tube channel of the scenario 'Cold Hunger' written by Paul Dimitrivech. https://tinyurl.com/ColdHunger (affiliate link) When is a scenario ready for publication and when is it not? There is, of course, no correct answer as one person’s bones of a story are another’s ghoul’s feast.   This brings me nicely onto the scenario ‘Cold Hunger’. This scenario was created via the RPG Writer Workshop process. The story starts in the offices of The Watcher magazine and a meeting with the magazine's editor. One of his journalists has gone missing looking into missing hobos in a city called Kamloops in British Columbia and h