Ask Me Anything: runekyndig

1. What's your most common house rule?
2. What mechanic immediately makes you uninterested in a game?
3. What is your favorite mechanic in any game system?
4. Miniatures and battle maps: yay or nay?

(Man! Those are good questions Nezzeraj.)

Did spending time in the arctic circle change you in any way? (I mean, change the way you saw the world - I'm not asking if your toes fell off)

I see from your stats that you're playing a lot more than you're GMing. I know you GM because I was in your vignette, but do you generally prefer playing?

Good questions nezzeraj
Rule of cool
Say Yes, but... or succede with a cost instead of fail
Mechanics that forces me to play in a certain way. Like cthullu sanity loss, you have to play insane now, or you have to play a sociopath after installing this cyberware.
Forbidden Lands have an easy mechanic for expendables like food and water. In short, you are traveling and eat of your rations and drink your water. You have a food die 1d12 and a water die also 1d12. When you have camped, you roll your dice and if they roll 1 or 2, your die is reduced d12 - d10 - d8 - d6 - gone. You can fill your backpack with food and it can spoil or you can loos it ect. Its just an easy mechanic to keep track of food, water, arrows, torches and other expendables
Some systems can't work without, like D&D 4e, while others can.
I like the visual aid, so I have to say yay, but usually we do theather of mind.

I had an interesting realization: What is the biggest danger to you in daily life? Most of us would say other people. That is why we keep stranges at an arm length. In the arctic, its it nature, and that is why people help each other up there. We stand together against the elements.
The social/professional hierarchy kind of crumbles when you are digging a new latrine in the icecap with your professor, as the shitsicle is getting too high in the other one. I respect the man for his knowledge and behavior, not his title.
Yes I generally preferred playing, especially in pbp.
In real life I'm an improvisating GM, and it's easier to be that around the table and I get a kick out of it, that I don't really get with PBP.

'Sup?

What's the weirdest setting or concept for a game you've run or played in?

That is a tough one. If I just pick one, it is properly going to be The Strange where you do world hopping. The Numenera and Planescape setting also comes to mindI have tried a few World of darkness games in Seoul and old Russia, where these real-life settings were so unfamiliar to me, that I had problems navigating in them. :(

Just kidding, that old Russia bit was overly ambitious of us. I blame myself for not setting up the socio-norms of the time (even made up ones) in a background blurb for us all to glom onto.

When we talked in the summer, you indicated a long history of story-first games in Denmark. Clearly World of Darkness, while crunchy, is a storytelling game (😎). What appeals to you to about World of Darkness in particular?

People are mention spending time in the Arctic, I would like to know more about that - research expedition? what's the story?

If I wanted to make a delicious, quintessential Danish meal for my family, what should I make?

As a player, what are your favorite traits in a GM (or how they run their game)?

is there a Danish-only RPG or supplement that you think would deserve being published in other countries? The one you would proudly export!

What's the longest running game you've been In on GP or In Person?

What's one setting you'd love the chance to play in but have either never had the chance or it doesn't properly exist in RPG form yet?

What's a few of your very favorite foods?

What have you been watching on Youtube lately?

World of darkness is a rather large umbrella, where you have vampire, werewolf, mage, changeling, mummy, hunter... others.
Vampire: I never really tuned into this self-pity I am a monster bruding and gloomy vampire theme. Others love it, but I still havent figured out why
Werewolf: There is so many aspects to play on. The spirituality with Gaia, the pack hierarchy, the common mission to fight the wyrm. 10 simple laws there are ambiguous enough to bend to fit your purpose.
Mage: I really like the magic system and how it ties into the magic paradime. Its a difficult game and I think it is easy to mess up.
I have studied 11 months in total at UNIS, the university up there. There I studied geophysics and glaciology. In short, climate science. I wrote my master thesis on NEEM, where I analyzed ice cores from the Greenlandic ice sheet.
That is the short story
quintessential Danish meal, then I would with lunch. Highly coated open sandwiches on rye breadA GM (and players) who listens to the fellow players and play along with their imput
A GM who can use more than one tool for storytelling. (Use of text/images/maps/music/ect)

When D&D 5e was in Beta a friend of mine developed a game that had some very good ideas. It is a dungeon crawler, where you are rewarded for exploration, not killing monsters. The initiative modifire was based on the kind of action you wanted to take, parlay had a +0 modifier as the fastest and casting magic +7 as the slowest. Then you rolled 1d10+modifier and the lowest went first. This locked the player's action before the round was conducted. There were several other good ideas.
The system "Hinterlandet" got a lot of play on conventions as character creation could be done within 15 minutes, and the difference between 1 level and 9 level was the number of abilities, not so much power. You could use your character in several con-games.

Here on GP: For 14 monts we played Icewind Dale - Rime of the Frostmaiden. We calculated 1.2 ingame posts pr day for 14 months.
In real life: 3 or 4 years every second Monday, we played a werewolf campaign.

The 14th of august 2016 I started GMming a campaign that is still ongoing, but we don't play consistently. Coordination is a bitch and I think we have played 20-30 times these past 5 years.

Planescape! Of established settings that one is my favorite.
Now its winter, we can buy blood sausage again.
The few times my wife is away for more than 24 hours, then I eat garlic bread, with the side order of another garlic bread (there are 2 in a package). She cant stand the smell on me and refuses to kiss me, so it's a rare occurrence.

Not a question, just commenting on how cool I think your research work sounds (pun partially intended)

Do any members of your family share your interest in RPGs?

Unfortunately I could not make it a career. I am making my living as a data scientist/engineer/business intelligence/process mining consultant.
Not really

And what if I told you I'm one of these nerds who also think data science is cool? LOL

I bounce around with QI sometimes as well, it's always an enjoyable watch :)

A few more questions, some RPG related:

What is your favorite character that YOU'VE created (either as DM or player)

What is the favorite character that you've run into on Gamersplane?

What have you been reading lately and what is a book or two that you would recommend to others?

Favourite one-liner from a PbP or IRL game?

Best character death (again PbP or IRL)?

A long shot, but you don’t know anyone at the Orlik tobacco company? The won’t sell to the uk any more and I miss their Golden Sliced. No? Oh well, worth a shot.

I looked through my GP characters and have narrowed it down to Wiki. The image is telling me such a strong story about a woman with scars covered by tattoos. In the world of darkness, she awakened as a Mage.I really enjoy the reluctant relationship one of my characters is building with Droog. A simple dwarf, with simple needs. He is drunkenly stupid and charming. That is the first character that comes to mind.
I'm going to take the easy option and link to my goodreads bookshelf
PBPAssholes must die! The motto of the phenix forged, our ice maiden group
IRLYou guys are a bunch of bastards! We played at friend's house, we wrote this statement on a piece of paper and stuck it on the wall. My friend's wife found it the next day and had a delicious WTF moment. When we play there, we still point to that spot on the wall, even if the paper was taken down years ago.
PBP: In a space-rase-eberron-game my character obtained god-like power for a moment at the conclusion of the game. We each wrote an epilog for our character, the group was reunited back on Eberron ground, to my character's funeral. She had committed suicide as she would never be able to use magic again.
IRL: In a live action rollplay, my character was drowned in a bog/lake by a fellow player. We found the perfect spot that was safe and could produce a powerful scene that others could witness. I had an arm around a tree stump that hid my head from view. Then I could trash around with arm and legs while the other player held me down. It was flipping epic!

Really excited to see another Planescape fan on the boards! I'll take that as my cue to ask the following:

The creator of Troika! said he made his game because he loved Planescape for its weirdness when it came out, but as more and more supplements were published, it all became too established and formulaic. Even though you said you haven't played it yet, from merely reading it, do you share the sentiment?

- Do you like boardgames (non-RPG-focused)? If yes, any favorites? :D
- Favorite "Vampire: The Masquerade" clan?
- Your avatar intrigues me. Why did you choose it?
- What's your preferred source of inspiration for RPGs? Do you ever get inspired by music to start a game or make a character?
- May I get a random scientific fact about ice sheets? Or something else related to your profession/field; which is really cool (sorry), by the way!

Since you stated a preference for story-driven games, I'll follow some of the other people who've posted similar questions,

Where do you see the limits of story vs. probabilistic mechanics (i.e., rolling dice for conflict resolution)? For myself, dice matter for situations where success or failure will have consequences, but not for emotional content.

That being said, I visited Copenhagen years ago and the Danish capital itself would be a great setting for a game. The tension between the Christiania and the surrounding city could be great for pretty much any style of ttrpg.

What do you think?

I actually prefer that there is some structure to the unknown that we as a gaming group explores. If there is a formula to follow that we all know, both the player and the GM can tell a story. If up is down and pink tastes like bananas, then only the GM can tell the story. The players are just along for the ride

I thought of some settings where we explore the unknown but there is a formula to follow. Staring in the most formulaic to the least (in my opinion)
Star trek: Exploring the universe, but the rules of what to expect are very established. Most intelligent beings are human-like. There is even an episode that explains why this is. Everyone can communicate through a universal translator.
Star Wars: Exploring the universe. There are some intelligent alien beings that are different from humans. Langueas can be a barrior
Stargate: Exploring the universe. Lots of humans spread out over the universe. Different levels of technology. The langue barrier can be overcome.
Planescape: Exploring the multiverse. There is a cosmology that prepares you for what to expect when you go through a portal
The strange: Exploring the multiverse. When you shift world you are changed to match this new world

Nummenara and Troika seems to be borderline to random and unstructured that one can only tell their own personal story and the GM tells the grand story. Players are just along for the ride as they don't know the rules of the grand story to pitch in with.

Yes. Favorites... looks to my wall. Desert, Mage Wars, Keyforge, Pandemic are some of those with the most playtime. Mansion of madness deserves an honorable mention
Tremere/Brujah/Gangrel most. Nosferatu/Malkavian least
Have it as a T-shirt. The hourglass indicated time. One can see stars in the black, indicating space. Time & Space. Visual pun and hidden meaning. I love it
Images of characters or scenes. That can kick off a storytelling session in my head. Pinterest is a wonderful source of such imagey.
Random scientific fact about ice sheets: Ice is liquid. It flows, just very slowly. When drilling deeper than 90 meters, you need a drilling fluid of the same density as ice, to prevent the hole from collapsing. My master thesis dealt with the contamination of this drill liquid in the ice core analysis.

I really like the genesys dice mechanics that we see in Fantasy Flight star wars games. When dice can change the story path, then they have merit.
Dice should never dictate how one should react emotionally. That is why I never really like any fear mechanics that I have encountered. But I can see why fear should be mechanized sometimes as some immature players can't or won't play a scared character.
Any major city has some tension or history that could be useful for roleplay. The WoD werewolf game I mentioned was set in Copenhagen. We looked at our city with werewolf eyes and saw new and exciting story hooks all over. The big spiral in the pavement downtown. That is a portal to the black spiral dancers use ect.

Oh! Lovely picks here.

Mansion of Madness - 1st edition or 2nd?

Have you tried Pandemic Legacy? I've recently started playing with a group of friends and it's a blast!

What was your first game you joined on GP. And/Or what was your first successful game you joined on GP?

I remember my first game, was a D&D 5e game where the GM had 4 parallel character treads that he/she envisioned should join together at some point. I remember the "discovery" that I could really spend time on my descriptions and how my character reacted to drinking a healing potion. It was fun - Unfortunately, I think the GM ghosted after a while.
Please define successful
Its rare that a game really finishes, so if that is the criteria, I have had a few. Unfortunately, I can't remember what that those were. In the beginning, I left games after they were finished, so there is no history to look through. It's only resent that we have a retired game section.
I GM'ed a few D&D adventure league Eberron game that we finished and where we commented on how unique it was that we could say "The end"

I would define successful as "lasted long enough that even if it didn't finish, at least I made some good memories with it" or something like it.

Was that first game you described set in some large city with portals into different worlds? It kind of sounds like one of the first games I joined on here as well and we apparently joined at around the same time 🤔

I looked throug my email for game invites and the earliest that I still remember is @Naatkinson Dungeons & Dragons 5th game, "[5e] Ghosts of Saltmarsh"! (28. may 2019)

I remember that our group got of to a flying start where we met at an inn... to celebrate one of the group members' birthday. We established a tightly knitted group right from the get-go. That was actually the problem :)
When one of the characters died (we were first level), the drive to carry on evaporated. It was not fun and games anymore and it would be more in line with our characters to return home and bury our friend and brother. It kind of ended that game

Ah, I wasnt in that game.

That's sad that it ended like that but it makes for a good story and is a testament to your group's character play

you're going to make me blush.....

Let's talk Star Trek!

Favorite series? Favorite movie? Favorite character? Best Captain? Favorite ship design?

Also: you've done some analysis of Gamers Plane data that has been fun to read and look at. If you had unlimited time, what sort of GP data analysis would you find interesting to do?

Favorite series: The Next Generation
Favorite movie: First contact
Favorite character: Data or Gordi (from The next generation). Dr Flux from Enterprise also comes to mind
Best Captain: Picard, with Janeway as a distanct second.
Favorite ship design: Don't really have an opinion here

I have asked for direct access to the database or a copy of the database, but I asked when the development was speeding up, so...

Anyway, I would love to look at a correlation between post length and use of media (image tags, spoiler tags ect) versus the game length. Try to answer the question: Is there a statistical relationship between game length (success) and the quality of posts

Or find anything other characteristica for long games that shorter games did not have. System / players "age" on GP / suggested posting frequency VS real frequency ect.

Last chance to ask some more questions before the next AMA will start tomorrow!

What data would you need to identify this?

My current hypocrisies is that a successful game has a more or less stable posting frequency pr player throughout the lifespan of the game. There is a high frequency in the beginning, and then it stabilises as the game begin


I would imagine that it looks a bit like this. Where a failing game (red) see a drop in posting frequency and in the end the game is closed