Today, I am off to the GAME-SLICK WILDS of GENCON, where I will talk a lot about writing and hopefully maybe sneak in a game or two and also did I mention the bad-ass Storium charity game that you should totally go to BECAUSE CHARITY?
Anyway, so to go onto the game theme, I figured I’d pose a pair of questions:
a) Favorite tabletop non-RPG game?
b) Favorite tabletop pen-and-paper RPG game?
Use the comments.
Get to answering.
GO.
And if you’re gonna be at Gencon — swing by, say hi!
Mozette says:
a) Cluedo – that’s an easy one. I love how you have to figure out who killed who.
b) n/a – I don’t play RPG’s … I never really took an interest in them. Dunno why, just didn’t.
July 29, 2015 — 12:06 AM
Hamnerd says:
Have fun at GenCon, Chuck!
Favorite tabletop games: battleship and monopoly
Favorite RP game: Dungeons and Dragons. (I used to be dungeon master when I was a kid and my trapper keeper was filled with maps.) my mom had a fit about that: “Girls don’t play D & D!”
Um yeah right.
It’s been eons…has to be a good 20 years since I’ve played any of those, however.
July 29, 2015 — 12:17 AM
the oncoming spork says:
a) Cards Against Humanity
b) I’m not a big RPGer – but I’m gonna try Storium for sure
July 29, 2015 — 12:26 AM
Nick says:
a) Pandemic
b) AD&D 1st Ed. with house rules
July 29, 2015 — 12:29 AM
tonijnet says:
a) My current favorite is Boss Monster
b) I feel like I really missed out. Never played a pen+paper RPG.
July 29, 2015 — 12:41 AM
addy says:
a) risk. I have never won the game but I always love the idea of conquering the world
b) Sorry I haven’t played any, I want to but I just don’t have enough people.
July 29, 2015 — 3:27 AM
fakedtales says:
Have a good time out there. I first discovered you through your RPG work, so it’s always nice to hear it get a shout out here.
a) Dead of Winter (a zombie game which gets the source of the horror right) or Tales of the Arabian Nights (a massive, multiplayer Choose Your Own Adventure in a swashbuckling setting)
b) Dungeon World, but I’m starting to get back into WoD since the recent updates to the current editions.
July 29, 2015 — 4:31 AM
C R Smith says:
I was a HUGE WoD player back in he day, didn’t even know there are new editions. Gonna have to check that out
July 29, 2015 — 2:57 PM
D.R.Sylvester says:
1. RISK
Because I have the thirst that only world domination, or killing all purple armies and taking fourteen territories, can satisfy.
2. AFMBE (All Flesh Must Be Eaten)
Because a PPRPG where zombies spread from a fairy penguin vector across Phillip Island (and our heroes must fight off zombie dropbears) makes for some damn fine laughs
July 29, 2015 — 5:20 AM
addy says:
the key is keeping austrialia. *procedes to put every available man on austrialia, leaves one man per every other country*
July 29, 2015 — 6:54 AM
D.R.Sylvester says:
Hahha yes! Unless it’s untenable for whatever reason (your friends all have the same idea). Next best for me is South America, or even Africa in a pinch, but once I managed to nab North America in my opening turn and keep it. Fluke dice rolls, but damn memorable stuff.
Anybody know anyone who managed to conquer Asia in the opening rounds and hold it? I’ve yet to see that
July 29, 2015 — 9:15 AM
addy says:
never in the opening rounds but when there was only two other players one managed to take it and win the game soon after.
I was the first to die D:
July 29, 2015 — 11:24 AM
rowyn says:
My brother Nick managed it a couple of times – but he was always a jammy bastard. I love him heaps don’t get me wrong – but it’s been over twenty years and he’s still undefeated at Risk. He has a keen mind for strategy combined with utter ruthlessness – god help us if he ever really set his mind to total world domination – although … he would be a kind and beneficent dictator. Plus I’m his sister so there’s bound to be heaps of perks in that. Hmmm … maybe I should have a chat with him about his future ambitions.
July 30, 2015 — 7:40 PM
D.R.Sylvester says:
If he needs a robot army I have one going cheap…
July 30, 2015 — 7:49 PM
Thom Marrion says:
AFMBE was a fun game to line edit. One of my favorite things about it, at least in my experience, is that it was that it was the one game you could get non-gamers to play if you ran a one-shot with pre-generated characters. Everybody got the genre and nobody cared if they were killed as long as it was amusing and/or cool
July 31, 2015 — 12:13 AM
D.R.Sylvester says:
Ohhhh yeah. It got everybody fired up, improvising explosives and using cars for creative carnage.
Everyone except that one hardcore DND player in every group who min-maxes, and hates being killed no matter what.
That guy complains for the remainder of the game after being bitten. BUT I DON’T WANNA TURN INTO A ZAMBIE. Adds to the realism, I think…
July 31, 2015 — 12:29 AM
Alan says:
a) I’m terrible at favourites, but I guess I’ve been enjoying Ticket to Ride a lot lately.
b) I’ve never played them. The closest I’ve come is some custom online RPG stuff run through email and forums.
July 29, 2015 — 5:39 AM
Sarah says:
1) My best friend turned us on to Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards. It’s absurdly over the top but fun in a ‘I am going to kill you while making ridiculous voices’ way.
2) It’s a draw between Vampire the Masquerade and Mage the Ascension. I’ve really got a hankering for VtM atm, my regular group is on a break. However we recently tried the new Star Wars system. It was super fun! Almost no numbers, a win for my dyscalculia.
July 29, 2015 — 7:02 AM
C L Penney says:
I love many different games from both categories, but…
a) Settlers of Catan
b) D&D 3.5, or basically anything on the d20 system. It was great to be able to play a ton of different games with the same basic rules. Very little ramp-up time.
Cheers
July 29, 2015 — 7:08 AM
J. H. Craig says:
I’m am sure this is not the kind of game you are talking about, but I thought it might amuse you as much as it does me. My IRL alter-ego is spending the summer with school age kids. I was indeed a word-nerd as a child, and never played a bunch of games that are pretty common. So I’m just learning some of them, at my advanced age. We’ve got an UNO obsession this summer, so much so that I ordered a card shuffler out of my own pocket because none of us can shuffle worth a damn. LOL.
As to role-playing, I never did table-top, but I was deeply involved in life-action Vampire: The Masquerade as a young adult. LOL. I was actually all sorts of nerd, huh?
July 29, 2015 — 7:14 AM
Vikki Jankowski says:
Cards Against Humanity is my all time favorite non-RPG. As for pen and paper RPG, wow, there are so many that I’ve played over the last 30+ years. D&D certainly, in all its varieties and flavors. I was also a huge fan of Shadowrun. That one appeased my sci-fi/bladerunnneresque side. Pathfinder is the current iteration I enjoy every now and again.
July 29, 2015 — 8:05 AM
dmoonfire says:
My favorite tabletop non-RPG game? I’d have to say Escape from Candyland. Anything that has necromantic gingerbread cookies has my vote.
And my favorite tabletop pen-and-paper RPG game? FATE. It is a storyteller-friendly system that has relatively simple rules but is very flexible.
July 29, 2015 — 8:27 AM
aproposcrouse says:
You’ve got me sold on Escape from Candyland. Going to have to keep an eye out for it. (Or Just order it online.)
July 30, 2015 — 8:02 AM
Robert Sadler says:
a) GAME OF THRONES with the FEAST FOR CROWS expansion pack. I’ve never played a more enjoyable and balanced 4-player game.
b) Never played one, though I’d love to try. I’ve been told that newbies kinda have to play with an experienced player to know what the hell they should be doing. And unfortunately, I don’t know any RPG players.
July 29, 2015 — 8:34 AM
John Possing says:
1) Fish Cook by cheapass games 2) Villians and Vigilantes
July 29, 2015 — 8:40 AM
Shane Dodd says:
Non-RPG: Legendary Marvel DBG
Pen and Paper: 7th Sea
July 29, 2015 — 8:44 AM
Bryan says:
Choosing favorites is hard! (and subject to frequent changes). That said:
non-rpg: Carcassonne. I just love seeing all those cities and road networks coming together. Maybe its the engineer in me?
rpg: Hero-Wars/HeroQuest (the latter was the 2nd edition of the former, although there was an older non-rpg game called Heroquest too). It hooked me with the character generation: write a 100 words about your character, then underline anything that looks like an ability, relationship, personality trait or special possession–those are your abilities. The all purpose conflict resolution system is pretty sweet too, especially how it lets dissimilar skills be used against each other smoothly. Great system for telling cool stories IMO. (although at the moment I’m running a very fun ShadowRun game… choosing favorites is hard!)
July 29, 2015 — 8:44 AM
Chris Dubecki (@ChrisDubecki) says:
a) There’s a ton of board games that fit, for sure. But I think I’m going to go with Warhammer 40k and Warhammer/Age of Sigmar. All glory to the Omnissiah/Praise be the Horned Rat!
b) I doubt there’s just one… Mage: the Awakening/Ascension will always be close to my heart. Despite its flaws, I have a lot of fond memories of the Anima: Beyond Fantasy games I’ve played. Shadowrun 4e/5e, Pathfinder, and D&D 5e probably round out the top contenders for my favourite slot.
July 29, 2015 — 8:58 AM
Stephen Dunscombe (@cythraul) says:
Non-RPG tabletop game: It’s a tough call, but I’m going to go with Pandemic. (Runners-up include Settlers of Catan, Forbidden Desert, Ticket to Ride, and a host of others)
RPG tabletop game: Pathfinder. There are a great many that I love, but for my money Pathfinder is the best implementation of the “Tolkien/Howard/Moorcock/etc. fantasy” genre. A close runner-up for that niche (and the one I’d probably choose for teaching people new to the hobby) is the new, 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons. (D&D 5e gets bonus points for spending like a third of a page column establishing diversity of gender and sexuality.) I’ve also recently fallen madly in love with Apocalypse World, which is basically Mad Max: The RPG.
The lesson I’m taking away here is that comparatively few of Mr. Wendig’s readers are RPG players. Those who say they’ve “missed out” – it’s never too late to start!
July 29, 2015 — 8:59 AM
Miri says:
Non-RPG: I staff board games for a large convention, so I’ve gotta subdivide this into card games: Legendary (or, its calmer but no less enjoyable pseudo-cousin, the DC Deckbuilder), and board games: Terra Mystica.
RPG: Tossing my hat in for Pathfinder as well. Abuseable without being 3.5e-era borked.
Have fun at the con, good sir!
July 29, 2015 — 9:16 AM
D.R.Sylvester says:
OOOO! PANDEMIC IS AMAZING! We keep dying though… is there a secret to not sucking at it?
July 29, 2015 — 9:17 AM
tonijnet says:
So much luck… or stacking the deck. We won once or twice, but had the perfect character skillset, and the cards were generous in not murdering everyone instantly.
July 29, 2015 — 9:40 AM
dianadiehl1 says:
Am I just lucky? We win each time–but we’ve only played a few games. I know, we’re just brilliant strategists. Ha!
July 29, 2015 — 11:48 AM
christophergronlund says:
Non RPG: I love the randomness of Robot Rally and the ability to screw over friends in Tower of Mystery and Ticket to Ride, but…the suspense and team play of Forbidden Island edges out the others.
Tabletop RPG: D&D will always have a place in my heart (started playing in 5th grade…1979, and was playing when the Olympic Miracle on Ice happened), but GURPS edges out Champions, Traveller, Shadowrun, and some others.
July 29, 2015 — 9:18 AM
christophergronlund says:
And I’ll add that some friends and I have been enjoying the ever-living hell out of Storium! (I have you mentioning it when it was on Kickstarter for that! So thanks for that, Oh Great and Powerful Wendig.)
July 29, 2015 — 9:20 AM
Carrie says:
a) Heroes Wanted – I was introduced to this game at a Tabletop Day event. Players are hero wannabes competing for a spot in the local league of super heroes by fighting a villain and his minions in different scenarios. The game mechanics allow for huge replay value and wacky fun. I don’t know if it’s in stores as it was a fairly recent kickstarter, but it is available on Amazon.
b) I only recently started playing a tabletop RPG, so Pathfinder is the only one I’m familiar with, but I’m loving it.
July 29, 2015 — 9:28 AM
gallifreyan1218 says:
Wow, it’s hard to pick a favorite… we’ve been playing a lot of the following lately: Smash-Up!, Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, Lords of Waterdeep, Betrayal at House on the Hill, Munchkin, Legendary…. I really want to try Five Tribes. Wil Wheaton’s TableTop is problematic for me… I watch obsessively and then buy… LOL!
I’ve never played a pen-and-paper RPG/D&D type game, though I’d love to try the Doctor Who one, the Dresden Files one, or something like that.
July 29, 2015 — 9:29 AM
kessara says:
Scrabble. Oldie but goodie – it is my favorite when playing against three other sharp minds. I like a lot of games – Apples to Apples, Settlers of Catan, etc…but I always default to Scrabble.
RPG? I started with D&D when it was the boxed three paperbacks…but then I found WhiteWolf’s games and fell in love with the storytelling. So, Mage the Apocalypse, Vampire the Masquerade and all the others.
July 29, 2015 — 9:57 AM
RGoose says:
Scrabble and White Wolf… Excellent choices, here.
July 29, 2015 — 9:17 PM
Matthew X. Gomez says:
Going to have to second Scrabble.
Favorite pen and paper? I’ll admit to having a certain fondness for D&D and its iterations, but I highly recommend APOCALYPSE WORLD. It is very much a game designed around the group telling a story and, at its best, playing to find out what happens (as opposed to a preplanned adventure). Besides, what’s better than a game designed around getting your Mad Max on?
July 29, 2015 — 10:13 AM
Stephen Dunscombe (@cythraul) says:
I’ve just run my third session of Apocalypse World, and I am *so happy* with it.
It seems well suited to “lawless” settings, where you want to play up the potential for violence. (I think it would work well for a Weird Western game, or for a post-Roman Britain game.) With “Go Aggro” and “Seize by Force” and “Do Something Under Fire”, violence stops being a well-controlled *tool* that players can choose to surgically apply or not, and becomes a *really messy side effect* of dealing with dangerous situations.
July 29, 2015 — 12:06 PM
Matthew X. Gomez says:
My all-time favorite was a “miss” on a Read a Sitch roll. The PCs end up not seeing the gang rolling up behind them. A few rolls later, and the moves snowball into a completely unforeseen mess.
I think what I also really appreciate is the sheer number of hacks that game has seen, the sheer permutations. DUNGEON WORLD to be sure, but I also recently picked up URBAN SHADOWS as well, with BLADES IN THE DARK waiting in the wings.
That all said, it takes a very particular group for AW to work well, I feel, given the fact that all the PCs have their own agendas, and they can (and often are) opposed to other PCs happiness.
July 29, 2015 — 4:32 PM
Erin says:
Favorites . . . always so hard.
a) Tabletop non-RPG boardgames: Clue (love their D&D version, with wandering monsters), but also enjoy Betrayal at House on the Hill, RoboRally (just played a week ago for the first time), and Trivial Pursuit. (To be played soon: Tesla vs. Edison, game backed on Kickstarter)
Tabletop non-RPG card games: Boss Monster (just got this for my son), Fluxx, and We Didn’t Playtest This At All. (Coming soon: Exploding Kittens, also via a Kickstarter)
Dice game: Zombie Dice
b) D&D of various flavors (3.5 mostly, though I hated the changes to the ranger from 3.0; most recently, 4.0) and campaigns (mostly homebrew, though we have a selection of Forgotten Realms and Eberron books to draw on as well), D20 Modern/Urban Arcana, and my latest favorite, Numenera (also looking forward to their kid-friendly No Thank You, Evil, whenever the Kickstarter rewards flow)
July 29, 2015 — 10:16 AM
Melissa McShane says:
a) Favorite tabletop non-RPG is a tie between Arkham Horror (with as many expansions as we can manage) and Betrayal at House on the Hill.
b) Favorite RPG is definitely Pathfinder, but that’s more of a default because everyone else in my group prefers it. I like doing one-offs of new and unusual games.
July 29, 2015 — 10:52 AM
Ed says:
A) Has to be Settlers of Catan, whatever version you chose to play, even if its some hybrid version made-up-house-rules-only type of thing…..but it says you can do that in the almanac
B) No idea i never played the pen and paper RPG games
July 29, 2015 — 11:21 AM
dianadiehl1 says:
Now that peanut butter jelly line is haunting me. Just the one line. Damn you, Chuck Wendig!
Just getting into table top games. Carcassone is the current favorite, and I’ll admit to liking Takenoko.
July 29, 2015 — 11:46 AM
anonymous says:
a) Favorite tabletop non-RPG game?
Easy. Magic: the Gathering. Though it’s “power creep” over the years has gotten to stupid levels. 😐 I want to try Android: Netrunner but never have found a group to play that.
b) Favorite tabletop pen-and-paper RPG game?
It’s a toss up on what you want to do: I’d say d20 for either Dungeons and Dragons or Modern (firearms and war, I think there’s a d20 future?) or GURPS for general role-playing your character with training/prep time and the like off-sessions. But I haven’t tried Shadowrun yet to say if either of these two top it or equal it.
July 29, 2015 — 1:20 PM
Rose Hunt-Wolf says:
A) Robo Rally. See if you can get into the life-size version they play with actual robots!
B) TORG! Which is super exciting because they are writing a new edition for release in 2016.
July 29, 2015 — 2:41 PM
C R Smith says:
Easy peasy
1) Frag – best non RPG fun a bunch of drinking people can have
2) AD&D 2nd or 3rd edition
July 29, 2015 — 2:55 PM
tczumwalt says:
http://multimediameditations.com/2015/07/29/running-with-the-word-pack/
July 29, 2015 — 5:42 PM
SingTravelAct says:
I’ve loved Uno since I was a kid. I’ve never played an RPG (sniffle).
July 29, 2015 — 7:10 PM
John Marley says:
Table Top, Non-RPG: Elder Signs
RPG: it is a fan-made Dark Tower RPG using the Chaosium BRP.
July 29, 2015 — 7:52 PM
pwodoom says:
1) Risk
2) AD&D 2nd or Tenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We were always broke by the second week of the month so it was cheap beer and RPGs in the barracks. I could have funded my college education with all the change in the cuss jar.
July 29, 2015 — 8:20 PM
RGoose says:
First, I am a game nut… Its my favorite thing to do with friends and I am always sad to find myself in a group of folks that aren’t’ interested. Lame.
Second, so many people here who never played pen-and-paper RPGs, I am surprised! For writers of fiction I would think that it was very common, considering how effective RPGs were at exercising imagination while applying logical rules to the fantasy. Good times for budding young writers.
Anyway, answers:
1) Dominoes. A serious gamer’s game. With math. But of course, I was uber-nerd, and gotta give honorable mention to M:TG, if only for its complexity and gorgeous artwork.
2) I have to say MechWarrior. Tho the dice and logic system had its flaws, it was beyond cool to design, build and battle some seriously hard sci-fi tech. But… Does it really count as pen and paper, since it had a map-board? Does it really count as RPG since no one really cared about who the commanders were and why you were fighting???? Oh well, loved it.
*I also have to give shout-out to my fellow girls who gamed… We did it before it was cool. Actually, it was kinda the opposite of cool. Which made it even cooler? No???? Whatever. *flips ponytail*
July 29, 2015 — 9:45 PM
JQ Davis says:
“Back in the day” I was the only girl in a gaming group that varied from 6 to 15 players. Some of the guys were married to non-gaming fems (never could figure that out. What did they talk about?) It was definitely so uncool it was cool
August 2, 2015 — 2:13 PM
Yvonne says:
1) Songburst, and 2) Chill
July 30, 2015 — 3:11 AM
warjna says:
Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT! I’ve been to GenCon a couple of times and spent all my hours in the writers’ symposia. Now the person I’ve always gone with has up and died and I have no money to go anyway and DAMMIT CHUCK! I’d’a gone just to see you!
Maybe next year. (kicks ground, hands in pockets, pooky face)
Don’t have a favorite non-rpg tabletop game; never was into that stuff. Friends keep pressuring me to play cards (real cards, not gaming cards) but long-term family aversion therapy, so nope.
RPG, now — ahhh, yes, ever so! I NEVER got over loving to play make-believe. Thus, writing, hello?
I’ve played a number of different games since my rpg-deflowering in the mid-70s. D&D, White Wolf, Shadowrun. I’m not savvy about rules & stuff, need help with that. I like GURPS system best, but really, just tell me what shape dice and how many. I’m in it for the ROLE play.
My friend and I (same friend) were among the beta testers for Colonial Gothic, which was a way cool game. My friend was our GM, and threw us a MAJOR curve at the end–perhaps one might almost call it a Deus ex Machina. The Doctor showed up and bailed us out of the WAY too much trouble we’d gotten ourselves into where we’d painted ourselves so far into the corner that that was the only way to get us out…
I think I like Shadowrun best; I like the setting and the concepts. I haven’t found a Steampunk game that comes up to that yet. BUT! My favorite one-time game was played at GenCon a few years back: John Harper’s “Lady Blackbird.” Sort of a Steampunk-meets-Serenity, both of which I love. If I could just find someone down here who would play that with me I’d be in heaven! I’m just not GM quality, can’t juggle everything fast enough to keep up the the incredibly intelligent and agile brains of my gaming friends.
Thank you, thank you, thank you to Matthew X Gomez for the shout-out about Urban Shadow, also by John Harper! I loved Lady Blackbird, so I’ll be looking into US real soon. Thankyou falettin me know!
July 30, 2015 — 3:45 AM
warjna says:
Um…Chuck? Gotta ask–Peanut Butter GenCon?
July 30, 2015 — 3:46 AM
warjna says:
Okay, I just went back and looked, I have *NO* clue where I got the idea Urban Shadow was by John Harper. I sit corrected.
July 30, 2015 — 4:31 AM
Matthew X. Gomez says:
He might not have done Urban Shadows, but he did do BLADES IN THE DARK (forthcoming). Hope that helps.
July 30, 2015 — 3:26 PM
warjna says:
Yeah, I think I looked them both up after reading the other post, so that’s probably where I got tangled. Thanks!
July 31, 2015 — 1:26 AM
decayingorbits says:
a) Favorite tabletop non-RPG game?
What? What kind of question is that?
Everyone knows it’s [i]Yahtzee.[/i]
July 30, 2015 — 5:26 AM
Philmagpie says:
a) Would have to be another shout for Magic: The Gathering, which has brought me so many years of fun and friendship.
If I had to choose a boardgame, then Elfenland, which is an incredible puzzle to play.
b) HeroQuest 2, by Robin D Laws. This is the RPG, not the boardgame by MB. Surprised there are so few narrative/story games in the list above.
Happy Gaming
Phil
July 30, 2015 — 6:53 AM
aproposcrouse says:
a) the Arkham Horror line of board games are great, especially since it’s a cooperative effort on the players part. You win or lose together.
b) I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for Dungeons and Dragons, no matter what edition they’re on.
July 30, 2015 — 7:59 AM
Fred G. Yost says:
a) Going on the premise that Cards Against Humanity doesn’t count because you can’t “win” it, my vote is for Castles of Mad King Ludwig. Relatively quick, competitive, but doesn’t make you hate your friends after.
b) The original rules for Deadlands. Weird West where you play with dice, cards, and poker chips? All of the yes.
July 30, 2015 — 9:39 AM
Jason Sandeman says:
Always wanted to go to Gen Con, but I can honestly say it hasn’t been a priority. My favorite games?
Non Tabletop – Poker, Hold’em hands down.
RPG: Dungeons and Dragons… hands down. At least the new edition which makes the play style like the old editions that I used to play 20-ish years ago.
July 30, 2015 — 11:05 AM
Tom Bither says:
Non RPG Tabletop game – right now I’d probably go with Talisman, though Kill Doctor Lucky is a strong contender.
Favorite RPG: Feng Shui, because who wouldn’t want to have Big Trouble in Little China: The RPG?
July 30, 2015 — 4:38 PM
rowyn says:
I used to love a game called Mousetrap and for tabletop RPG I’ve got to go with Dungeons and Dragons. I’ve never tried WoD though and I have heard good things about it.
July 30, 2015 — 7:44 PM