3 Important Games: My Appendix N
I don't have much time this week, but in response to Pris's Appendicitis N bandwagon, here are three games that have shaped me with a brief blurb on why.
Dungeon World
My original foray into running tabletop RPGs was D&D 4th edition, coming out of high school. I had no idea what the hobby was about, and there were no critically acclaimed actual play shows on the market yet. However, somehow, after an overwhelming experience with that game, I stumbled upon Dungeon World, which then led me to the wide and vast array of Powered by the Apocalypse games. I wish I remembered how I discovered it, but I don't!
Dungeon World is not my favorite PbtA game though - that honor would go to Stonetop. Dungeon World is now extremely old-fashioned (and this is not the post to discuss the strange direction of 2nd edition), but if not for this game, I wouldn't have ever played anything other than D&D.
Blades in the Dark
The most prolific Kickstarter I ever backed (in 2016 - I think I still am getting things to this day) is also the game of which I've probably run the most individual sessions. The haunted industrial vibes, the ethos of "scoundrels are fundamentally competent", and a lot of nifty mechanics (Clocks! Stress! Marking gear only when you need it!) have been a joy to play and run in a whole host of iterations since that original game came out. I am super excited for Blades '68, as I have long since mined Doskvol for most of the stories I want to tell.
Nobilis 3rd Edition
I've never run a session of Nobilis, and I don't know how. The scenario structure eludes me, I have no idea how to represent NPCs, and the fiction is obtuse to the point of being ridiculous. However, this is the game that maddens and inspires me the most. I wish I could run it. I wish I could play it. But, I sit in agony and design around it in my own games inspired by spite and pettiness. One day, someone will get the heady promise of "play gods who control bits of reality" right, but it will probably be neither me nor Jenna Moran. In the meantime, I will satisfy myself with running a great Triangle Agency campaign, my favorite game I've played recently.