Welcome to #RPGaDAY2023! Now in its tenth year, #RPGaDAY was originally created by RPG author and games designer David Chapman (Conspiracy X, Doctor Who, etc) as a bit of fun and to get people talking about tabletop roleplaying games. August was chosen, I believe, to coincide with tabletop roleplaying’s gaming mecca that is Gen Con – which usually takes place in the States (Inidanapolis these days) every August.

#RPGaDAY is open to everyone so if you want to join in just check out the prompts below to inspire a blog, vlog, or social media post to celebrate everything great about our hobby with the tag #RPGaDAY2023

Day 7: Smartest RPG you’ve played

A bit of an odd question this one.

adjective

BRITISH(of a person) clean, tidy, and well dressed.

INFORMAL having or showing a quick-witted intelligence.

I’m presuming the question is regarding the most intelligent RPG I’ve played (??) – but that really boils down to how the GM runs a game. You could have a very simple RPG with a fantastically clever and involved plot, or a preceived high-brow RPG which is either run badly or very simply. In either case it really depends on the group involved.

I’ve played games which have had very intricate plotlines. I’ve also played games which have been freeform but were fantastic experiences because the group played off each other, building ideas, and creating a brilliant story line that worked so well out of nothing.

For the latter I’m reminded of a session I also spoke about in a past #RPGaDAY answer a few years ago.

There was a group of four of us at my flat when I was about 19 or 20, in the early 90’s. We didn’t fancy going out, or watching a video, but hadn’t arranged anything else – so we decided to do a completely on speck RPG session. No system, no rules, completelety narrative with two GMs and two players.

We were just getting started when a fifth person turned up, so they became a third GM with each GM taking it in turns to run a scene for one of the players, building on where that players last scene left off.

It went like this:

GM 1 = Player 1

GM2 = Player 2

GM 3 = Player 1

GM 1 = Player 2

GM 2 = Player 1

GM 3 = Player 2

…and so on.

None of the GM’s communicated outside of their scene with a player, and the players character were not in the same place so had no interaction to start with.

As the story line developed it was fantastic to see the GM’s take what had gone before and weave something really interesting, indepth, and really enjoyable.

The two characters ended up in their final scenes in the same location – just by the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, but a hundred years apart.

The game had no name, and despite all of us really enjoying it we never did something similar again which was a real shame.