GLOGtober 2023-1

So it's GLOGtober, and that means one thing: It's time for GLOGtober. There's prompts over at here and I do those prompts and hopefully I get like a bunch of blogposts by the end of the month!

Also I'm typing this in Textreme2.

It makes typing... fun!

Essential, non-RPG reading for any GM.

Howdy howdy howdy, prompt numero uno has been decided (by random chance) to be: "Essential, non-RPG reading for any GM." But like, darn books, no one reads anymore, so I'm gonna pretend the prompt said something about media or art or whatever instead. Also I'm gonna pretend the prompt specified tabletop RPG so I can include video games. Honestly I'm just gonna ignore the prompt.

1: Skyrim

Look folks I know that Skyrim is a bit of what some may call a, "popular game," and you've probably already tried it, but hear me out. Skyrim has a way of introducing quests that really could be seen more in the tabletop realms. Next time you play Skyrim notice how you walk on the trail towards Falkreath and meet a strange dog (who you can ignore), or pass through the streets of Markarth and run into some weirdo asking about a house (who you can ignore), or open up a random bandit chest and find a sphere which transmits the voice of the Daedra Merida directly to your head (who you can ignore).

Skyrim's take on this is admittedly heavyhanded. All three of those quests - that I chose off the top of my head - result in the player doing the bidding of godlike beings and being granted mythic artifacts. It doesn't necessarily suit the tone of every game if such interactions happen at every major settlement and most smaller ones. That said, much more mundane quests - a wounded traveller on the road asking for the players to deliver a message, or a key and a map found in a pile of bandit loot - are certainly an option.

The point is to consider that "hooks" can come up any time and any place - and can be throwaway options for the players to ignore. You don't have to - and really should not - plan out every quest in full if you are playing "Skyrim style". Short outlines, maybe, but prep time is not limitless. You can instead place the quest-givers in their locations, and structure their surroundings such that pursuing that quest gives you enough time to figure out the rest. Neat!

2: The Fall (2006)

Watching The Fall is absolutely necessary for anyone who wants to tell a story. That's what we're doing, as players of a RPG, we're telling stories. And The Fall gives insight into the emotional core of telling stories. Or maybe it's a cautionary tale about "bleed". Whatever it's a good movie.

3: The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie

Ok this one is actually more serious than the last one, fr, no cap. Road Trip stories are basically just a great genre, enthralling the world ever since the first Road Trip story - The Odyssey - and probably even before that. The thing about Road Trips is they translate so incredibly well to tabletop RPGs. The GM prepares a neat setpiece, the players interact with it to try to get food/directions/fuel/ice cream, hysteria happens, the players move on and the next session repeats the process until we make it to the destination. And so really the main suggestion is just "consume Road Trip media", and I could have suggested reading Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief or the first arc of One Piece, or watching The Blues Brothers or Harold and Kumar go to White Castle, but I like The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.

Honestly Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief is a good one too though. Percy Jackson - a demigod son of Poseidon living in New York - has to go on a journey to the underworld to retrieve Zeus' lightning bolt. Also Zeus thinks he stole it, and has domain over the sky, so planes are not an option. Now we have a vague route: head across the country by land and make it to the underworld via its entrance in Los Angeles. This gives us a strong sense of progression - when you're getting stuck in an enchanted casino in Vegas, you can feel how far you've come since meeting Echidna in St. Louis - but as anyone who knows their road trips knows, that progression is malleable. That casino might take ages to get out of, but you might skip over like 3 states with no real conflict. Road Trips: Clear sense of progression, but flexible, and perfect for session-based RPGs, and also just dang neat.

And that's why you should watch The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.