[forwarded] What are your "must-play" games for designers?

Ryan Macklin http://ryanmacklin.com/2012/09/must-play-games-for-designers/ made a post where he asks what three games in your opinion are the ones game designer should play. Go check out the post in link above for details.

My three games following the rules above would be:

Lamentations Of The Flame Princess
LotFP is two things. D&D 3rd edition made more simple or OD&D made more straightforward to play. But there are more. Rules are simple and extra lite. The take on monsters is different as monsters are not meat sacks you beat but unique and strange entities. There is also great Tutorial and good article type chapters from Raggi. There are also several small rules you could say are house rules or improvements but what make LotFP a little different.
LotFP makes old fresh and totally playable straight out from the box. Great read and improvement to old.

My Life With Master
I haven't read or played many indie games with focused rules for its genre and setting. But MLWM is one with a great impact on me. The rules do focus on few topics but you can still use those for almost everything an adventure and roleplaying involves. And there is end game and ending conditions. And it is a short read.

World Of Darkness
For full benefices one should be familiar with old WoD games. In nWoD rules are improved and every splat book uses the same rules as a base for a game. There are some things I don't like that much but the difference and improvements compared to old splat books with rules what are the same but still different is what makes this an important rules book. But without comparing nWoD core book to oWoD rulebooks it doesn't work right.

Games I have plans for

First game I have plans for is obviously Mutants & Masterminds. I just blogged about it, so won't do it again. Read HERE more about it.

We started to play All Flesh Must Be Eaten but didn't go further than three sessions. Actually in third session the action really just began. For some reason at that time my player wasn't that interested for AFMBE so we put it in the freezer. I really have plans for that campaign and I know how it would go and what is the ending (of course the end depends on character... if she gets that far). I wish we will continue it some day, because I have a feeling it is great.
You can find three first sessions at my ~Kronikat~ blog* here:
In Finnish: http://kronikat.blogspot.com/search/label/AFMBE%20-%20BBQ%20-%20Sessiot
With Google Translate into English (Google Translate Fin to Eng is wonky): http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=fi&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=fi&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fkronikat.blogspot.com%2Fsearch%2Flabel%2FAFMBE%2520-%2520BBQ%2520-%2520Sessiot

I also have some plans for My Life With Master. Originally I though that it would be a vampire ghoul relationship but after re-watching Saw movies I thought Jigsaw Amanda situation would be better. I did cover this also in my last post here.

One game I already have adventure in my mind is Call of Cthulhu set in 20's. I know details and how it will go, but haven't written it down. Character is already made. Point is, that character is an astronomer or something (cannot remember details, but she deals with stars somehow) and one night she finds this weird planet. Without internet whole world cannot know about it immediately. This planet is one evil monstrosity from Yer Booke of Monsters sourcebook. The planet kinda thingie. And what happens in the end? Mental asylum here I come! This is what I want to be Call of Cthulhu where character actually goes nuts. That is one main quality in CoC games and I will abuse it.

Maybe these will be the games I will run next in some kind of order. At least I want to finish All Flesh Must Be Eaten BBQ From Hell and play Call of Cthulhu Bad Moon Rising.

What should I GM for Halloween special rpg?

I am planning to run some fun one-shot for my girlfriend in Halloween. I want it to be fun, kind of old-schoolish horror, like those B-movies or some old scary story.

But I don't know what to run yet! Here are few options and ideas:

All Flesh Must Be Eaten could be one, but well, my girlfirend is not into zombies, so I quess it would be lame surprise for her. And let's face it, even though zombies are awesome it could be pretty lame. Come on. Zombies on halloween? As I might want to have some bloody zombie-action, that's not an option.

Call of Cthulhu. Well, this is real deal. Horror almost at its best. I was concidering 20's theme instead of modern age. There is something more sinister and spooky in 20's than today (today and tomorrow campaigns tend to be more equipment against monsters than "oh shi- I go NUTS over this tentacle 7-dimensional blob of eyes!!!!). So, 20's it would be. I was thinking, that I wouldn't run Mythos with great bad god and cultists (that is cool though), but something different. Here's the idea:
Fading away. So, at first main character sees people noone else sees. Later on, some people don't see the character anymore. So, for some reason (Cthulhu, it's in the title.... um no) main character is slowly slipping into the realms of the dead. Only problem is, is that a bit too slow paced, too moody, too tragic, too artsy?
Another idea is monster found in Yer Booke of Monstres (CoC sourcebook with Mythos monsters from various authors). Cannot remember the details, but there was this elder god (or something) what looks like a moon. So, character is amateur stargazer and finds this new planet/moon... what is (CTHULHU!!! Eh, no) some frikkin' huge monster! And when character finds it out, he goes nutz.

My Life With Master. Haven't played this yet, but it could be (tragic, dark and sinister) beer and pretzel (we don't have those in Finland I quess) game. It could be something in mood like Nightmare Before Christmas. Good quality is, that MLWM rules are quite easy to use. And the game supports 100% the campaign (well, you obey your master and then try to kill him!). That could be a go.

Kult. Well... no. I want to have fun in halloween. Kult has awesome setting, but it is a bit too violent, strange, sinister, dark, pervert, and so on for Halloween when you dress like witch or ghost and drink "blood" and eat "chopped fingers". So no.

CoC or My Life With Master. Which should it be.

If someone has really, really neat Halloween rpg adventure or something, shoot me with it! You can find my games I own here *klick*.

What game next?

In previous post I told that current Fading Suns campaign is nearing it's end, and now I have to start to think what will be the next game to play to do some preparations. Preparations would include making character with player, learning or re-reading rules, getting idea of campaigns concept.

There are some options I have been thinking to run next.

My Life With Master is really interesting game. Rules are light enough, you can "win" the game without deciding the conditions for ending the campaign, and you got concept what you will gamemaster. Game is also ment to be quite short, so it would be nice to play in between of next longer campaign. My player isn't actually very interested in MLWM, but I could try to get her into it. Anyways, it would be short so she could give it a shot. I have also an idea for setting. Master will be a vampire in his castle near the village and player character would be his ghoul. My idea is quite World of Darness-ish, but it could work for WoD and Vampire fan player of mine.

Another game I would love to run is All Flesh Must Be Eaten. I started BBQ from Hell campaign I planned, but player didn't like it. Not sure didn't she like All Flesh Must Be Eaten, the campaign or wasn't the time just right. If BBQ from Hell isn't working for my player, I could run another AFMBE scenario for her. She is not as big of a zombie lover as I am.

World of Darkness is my favourite setting (particulary old WoD) and I think I never get bored of it. Vampire: the Masquerade is a game we will play again. We planned that we start new V:tM campaign when the fall comes, it's dark, cold, rainy and angsty. But for now we delay our favourite game. We did try to start a campaign of Werewolf: the Forsaken, but it died because I actually never ended reading the book. So I didn't have enough background information about the setting to make it interesting. And atleast I can say I have played it. Werewolves are quite interesting, so I decided to buy Werewolf: the Apocalypse. Maybe we never got into W:tF because there is something in nWoD that doesn't work for me. So, maybe Werewolf: the Apocalypse could be great game to start new campaign with?
Other games from nWoD what are interesting are Changeling and Hunter. Haven't read either of them though, but I've heard only good about Changeling: the Lost. Could be really interesting and magical yet grim campaign. Something like Tim Burton would do. I am not that interested in Hunter: the Vigil, but Slayer seems to be really cool.

We had one shorter campaign of Call of Cthulhu and it was quite enjoyable. It was long hard road to get my player into gaming it, and I gave him not that horrific mind shattering tentacle monsters from another dimension campaign, but more horror/mystery style. She did like the campaign, and asked if we could play CoC again some day. So, Call of Cthulhu it will be in the future.

Kult is a game where is setting I love. It is terrifying. Rules I don't like that much though. I have imagined grabbing Kult again, enjoying to read it, and enjoying to scare hell out of my player. Not sure is it going to happen ever though.

One game I would like to give a try, also one game system I don't like, and genre what is not for me... yes. Dungeons & Dragons. I have read 3rd edition once so I got basic mechanics somehow in hand. Some basic fantasy adventure could be quite fun. I have to give this a try some day. I also got AD&D 2nd ed. but that is just not for my taste.

So, here's the list for potential competitors for my next campaign:

1. My Life With Master
2. All Flesh Must Be Eaten
3. Werewolf: the Apocalypse
4. Changeling: the Lost
5. Hunter: the Vigil/Slasher
6. Call of Cthulhu
7. Kult
8. Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition

Give your vote, what I could play next!