Casting Shadows

I had wanted to use a D9 for these weekend #RPGaDay2022 prompts, but sadly they have not been adopted by a large enough sector of the gamer demographic for that to be a fair requirement, and also the use of a single die without modifiers leads to a lot of 1s rolled and that tends to take the fun out of prompts that include tagging people. As a result, today’s prompt is a classic 1D8+1 arrangement and it ties into the request to recommend a system. In your recommendation, tag 1d8+1 people to make sure they see it and perhaps to entice them to engage you in conversation about it.

Important Note: Some of you out there, such as Francois Letarte of the JdRd30 channel (see below) have been going several steps beyond and giving customized recommendations for each person the dice have asked you to tag. That is awesome! I sadly lack the time for that, but I look forward to see what those personalized recommendations are.

My recommendation

Avoiding the games that I usually discuss because in effect I recommend them all the time, the game that I wanted to suggest became obvious instantly: Corporia. Written and successfully shepherded from an idea into a successful Kickstarter project in 2015 by Mark Plemmons of Brabblemark Press. Corporia stands as one of the best examples of the PDF deployed for a game and has spawned a useful spread of clever supplements.

The main, but not only, conceit of the game is that players will adopt the roles of reincarnated Knights of a New Round Table who find themselves in the early days of a border war between a possible utopia and a seemingly inevitable dystopia filled with monsters, magic, mayhem, and mechanical miracles. The game is more open than that, however, and a person need never play as one of these Knights in Shining Armani. The game lends itself as much to intrigue and investigation as it does to combat or a mix of whatever lies in between – much like the tales of Arthur and the Round Table do. Science rubs shoulders with magic, hopes and dreams vie with bottom lines and computer code, and under and behind it all are signs that the end is near. Chaos is at hand. Things can get a whole lot nastier.

What will you do about it?

The system is straightforward and occupies a spot that allows for ease of quick learning and adoption while allowing for satisfying leverage in play. What makes some of the ease possible lies in how well the text was written, organized, and then supported by interactive PDF features and careful annotation and organization in print. There is no standard for PDF and RPG book design, but Corporia is a shining example of what it ought to be.

The setting is likewise easy to grasp and then enjoyable peel away layers from as play deepens over time. It is possible to enjoy the game as a combat-focused near-future romp of ideals versus chaos, or to explore deeper themes and broader approaches to play and to perspective. A quickstart is available to help pitch the game to a play group, and the lean but inspiring corebook provides a tremendous amount of play opportunities – including adventure and numerous story hooks within a detailed map of The City – while not requiring much time to read or learn. The game can work very well as an introduction to gaming with lead ins and hooks from lots of different media yet can be very satisfying to long-term gamers.

1d8+1 roll: 3 [1d9 roll: 8]

We will see which roll I go with in the end. The tags will appear on Twitter and Facebook.

Podcast

Would you like to hear an audio version of the responses to these prompts? Check out the Casting Shadows podcast on Anchor and other fine points of distribution.