We're continuing the Let's Read of the Critical Role campaign book. Backtrack to the beginning, or follow along across the Barbed Fields to the gates of Bazzoxan.
I've mentioned previously that these NPCs are given great back stories and personalities, which are then expertly presented in 3-4 paragraph briefings. Each also has an individual goal to pursue.
Very easy to pick up and play. Lots of varied opportunities for cool interactions.
The PCs can win medals for triumphing in various contests. One of these is a medal formed from pieces of a tortoise (awarded for successfully herding horizonback tortoises).
1974 D&D. It's the beginning. Baseline for everything that follows.
Traveller (1977) does triple duty for me.
- Insight into what the first generation of RPGs responded to 1974 D&D.
- First science fiction game.
- Includes a Lifepath system, giving us a first step in looking at approaches to character creation.
Headline-itis is an understanding of the world based entirely around headlines (short summaries inherently lacking nuance, context, or any of the signifiers necessary for determining truth or meaning).
It is made much worse by social media algorithms tuned to promote outrage.
"Man jailed because his brakes failed" creates far more outrage than "Man jailed for killing multiple people after deliberately driving past multiple ditch zones that could have avoided the tragedy", and so THAT'S the version of reality that is aggressively spread by algorithm.
This doesn't even require malicious intent on the part of the headline writers (although it can; and there are obvious incentives for them to do so).