Ask Me Anything: DarK_RaideR

Story behind your username?

Favorite thing about the planescape setting?

OK, looking at your age, who is your favourite pro-wrestler? Do you ever use them as inspiration for RPG characters?

(Macho Man would be great. Ooh Yeah!)

Original questions, coming through!

At what age and how did you get into ttrpgs? I'm quite curious, as we're around the same age.

GM, player or both? Why and in which case is which?

If you wanted to play something ridiculous, what would be its theme? Would you rather be a player at it or a GM? What kind of wacky character would you play?

What's your favorite color/kind of cat?

Do you prefer small cats or large ones?

Do you have any cats? If so, pictures?

This question had pretty good results in FlyingSucculent's AMA, so, are there any games you're planning to run soon here on GP? Or are there any systems/games that you've desperately wanted to be a player in and have been waiting for someone else to run here?

Back in the wild west days of the internet, an early teen me was using a variation of my real life name as an mIRC username (yep, that far back). Only used the program to chat with classmates and people I already knew, but then I discovered a Greek server named "ad&d". I joined and one of the admins sent me a PM to let me know that newcomers were automatically muted, but I should change my username to something more relative to the server's theme in order to show others I'm "one of them" and get unmuted. So the first image that came to mind was a Conan-esque scene of mounted raiders atop a hill, overlooking a small village they were about to raid. The "Dark" part and how it's all stylized was just me being an edgy teen. Ever since I've used it as my online handle pretty much everywhere.
How it makes players reassess their priorities and aspirations. What good is "getting rich" as your drive in such a setting? What's the point of wanting to be the greatest warrior when you can hop on a few planes and face legendary warriors of old? How's a cleric or paladin's faith affected when they can go to their deity's plane and meet them in person? That kind of stuff.
Meet Macho Goliath Andy Cabbage:

I made him for a silly one shot game.

I used to be an Ultimate Warrior fan, but learning of his ultra conservative and anti-LGBTQ+ knocked him of that pedestal. Opposite case with Bret and Owen Hart, I thought them boring but as I understood wrestling better and learned of what class acts they were backstage, Owen especially, I became a fan. Gotta respect the greats like Taker and Austin, never was a fan of the Rock due to how bad he'd bury others when he'd speak. Loved the original ECW version of Rob Van Dam, no clue what's gotten into his head these last few years since he hooked up with Katie Holmes (Pot. It's probably pot)

Out of modern wrestlers, I'd say the murder grandpa Minoru Suzuki, "Session Moth" Martina and Jordynne Grace.

1999-2000. Me and some friends knew of Dnd and it's base mechanics having played Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale, but ad&d was way too complicated by that point to get into and its local community of players was... not so welcoming. That's when 3e came out, I grabbed the starter box on a whim and we were off to the races! Which leads me to...
Since I owned the starter box, I was the de facto DM as I read and prepped until we'd get together to finally play it for the first time. After we finished those adventures (remember, not even the Player's Handbook had been published yet) I grabbed a collection of 2e adventures and a free conversion guide. Everyone looked to me as the DM due to prior experience, but another guy also wanted a go so we flipped a coin and yet again, I was the DM.

Ever since, I've broken the forever DM mold but I still have a ton of games I read and want to play so the only way to play them is to run them for others. GP has actually provided a few opportunities to avoid that, such as kalajel's 5 Torches Deep and aironfabio's Spire games where I get to be the player in a game I've been wanting to try.
If I was the GM, I'd want to run a game of Wicked Ones. It uses the Blades in the Dark engine to have players be the monsters and set up a dungeon, but it's humorous since it draws inspiration from the likes of Dungeon Keeper and War for the Overworld.

I've played various wacky characters, especially when I wasn't really invested in the game to begin with, but I'm currently going through a 5e detox phase since part of my issue with it is how it looks and plays too much like a Saturday morning cartoon, so I'm going the opposite way of wackiness.

Ha! Lucky you! I got the very same box just looking for board games. Having no experience on the universe though and since the translation was poor to say the least, it just gathered dust on the shelf.

- Favorite music album (or a musical/movie)? If none, then favorite song/track?
- Are you interested in Ancient Greek mythology? I feel like it's one of the things Greece is often associated with, but I wonder how locals feel about it.
- Do cats and motorcycles ever mix? :D If you have cats and motorcycles, do cats like sleeping on motorcycles?
- What do you like the most about Warhammer Fantasy?
- Favorite or most memorable thing you ever cooked? Or the most extravagant recipe you tried?

Yes.
Cats.
I have one, my gf has 3 before I met her and we've rescued a bunch that we've found foster homes for. I'll post pics when I'm not on my phone.
I just started a Stars Without Number game after wanting to try how an OSR mindset and sandbox approach would work in a sci fi game. Also I don't really have a game system of choice for sci fi games, so this might become it.

I'd love to give Wicked Ones a go, but doubt it'd work in PbP format due to all the "talking stuff over" mechanic involved. Might be convinced to use the forums for a crunchier game I'd like to try like RuneQuest or HackMaster. I'd join a game of Earthdawn, Eclipse Phase or Heart: The City Beneath on a whim. Those enough?

Is there a Greek RPG that should be translated in other languages because it is too cool, and everyone should know about it?

Yeah I was lucky enough to get the one in English when it was like the only 3e product around. Must have gotten rid of it at some point, likely along with the books when they released 3.5. Found an old version of the translated Greek one gathering dust on some shop shelf few years ago and grabbed it for a couple of Euros. Part nostalgia purchase, part for the hysterical mistranslation, part for the dice and tokens in it.
Can't really stand musicals, but I was raised on The Blues Brothers, which I adore. Albums and tracks are way too many to choose one. Know it sounds like I'm dodging the question, but there really are!
It captivated my imagination as a kid and I think it's an early seed of what blossomed into my RPG hobby. Unfortunately, I cringe way too much every time I see any RPG try to go there (looking at you, Mythic Odysseys of Theros) and as far as the locals go, anything ancient Greece been sadly overtaken, commodified and instrumentalized by tourist salesmen or nationalists.
Yes! Motorcycle seats were made to be comfortable, plus they often come with the benefit of warmth from a human butt that was earlier there and/or from an engine underneath, so of course cats sit on them. I'll have to look into my photos folder, I have one where we parked our bikes to find them overtaken by a swarm of at least 30 stray cats that'd turned them into a hangout.
Its sense of humor and unwieldy magic. Side bonuses include rolling for career, high lethality and not being overtaken by militarists like its 40K cousin.
Most memorable cooked, I'd say one summer that I was camping alone by the beach, I'd found an unused wok at the garage before setting off so I carried it with me, built a little stove with rocks, fired up some charcoal and made myself a gumbo. Currently, I'm going through my ground meats phase, recently made some stuffed cabbage leaves for the first time with a thick egg and lemon sauce.

As for extravagant, I've had stuff in fancy restaurants, the kind we watch on shows like Chef's Table serving x "with tiny foam bubbles on top filled with the scented smoke of y" and although most were nice, none has really stuck with me as a memory. I can tell you about weird stuff if you like, it's only been a few years since I first tried beef tongue or sheep brains (both delicious btw).

I'd say the one I'm using for my solo game on GP but its main attraction is that it's written in Greek from the start so there's no hilarious mistranslations (see the chat with Antiproduct above) and set in an implied Byzantine setting so it's easier for Greek players to tap into our history and draw inspiration from. Both qualities that would be lost in translation and not cater to a non-Greek audience, I'm afraid, take those away and it's just a 0dnd retroclone.

Sadly, most Greek RPGs are vanity projects by DMs who wanted to bring their custom worlds and homebrew rules to book format. They're also written in English anyway. Can't think of a great one to suggest, but Soulmist has a lot of hype to it and killed its Kickstarter goal so you might want to check that out.

Great, so we can see this game in action! Thanks.

I hope you did the only right thing and abandoned your bikes, gifting them to the cats forever.

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You keep mentioning horrible translations. Any particular examples that stuck in your head (and that can be explained to non-Greek-speakers)?
Are there any points of translation where you think the Greek version of some RPG improved on the original?

As promised, cat photos:


This one's my cat. In a box.


These are my gf's cats. The one up front is the oldest, has an issue with his eye and is a big ol' floof who lives to cuddle, eat and sleep (in that order). The B&W is her favourite, the middle child. He likes to be left alone and especially hates the youngest one in the background, hence the sour face. The youngest looks like some Norwegian forest cat, but is actually extremely reclusive and stealthy.


Here's a photo of the two older ones cuddling, to prove my point above.


These are a pair of orphan strays we rescued a few years ago. They were neutered and exported to the UK, where my gf's sister lives, just before covid hit. I named them Yannis and Thanasis, the Antetokoun-bros.


This guy I found outside my parents' home last summer. He was rescued, neutered and now lives his best life with his parents and his adopted black kitty sister.


This guy was rescued about a year ago along with his two siblings. He was adopted in early January.

Those cats are all so adorable! ❤

You know, I thought there were but I tried to formulate an example in my head and just couldn't, the silliness is gone once you try to re-translate stuff into English. I think the biggest issue in translating medieval fantasy RPGs is that we don't have the foundation to support stuff based in medieval Central/Northern Europe:
- The language lacks the terminology to translate weapons, for example, so any words used will usually sound extremely scientific and elaborate, giving players a hard time to understand what is what.
- The folklore doesn't include goblins, gargoyles and all that, so again you either use an elaborate word that ends up sounding silly or you just go with the name in English, which feels odd being dropped amidst all the Greek.
- Likewise, concepts like bards or druids are hard to touch upon, since there's no such Greek tradition or example to draw upon.
- Culturally, we don't do anything like Renaissance Fairs. Our medieval history is monks in monasteries, peasants toiling the Earth and imperials murdering each other to ascend to the throne. Adventuring heroes, spellcasting and alchemy, monsters ravaging the land, there's very little of that as we grow up (especially in the pre-internet days).
Come to think of it, these issues also come up when watching something like Lord of the Rings or the Witcher, subtitles are weird sometimes.

These cats are absolutely adorable. They make me wish for some quality cat cuddling, especially B&W and his friend. :D
And it's very fitting that the black cat is the one to be caught mid-motion. These tend to be wild in my experience. XD

Also, cat being in a box is a cat way; humans don't understand the meaning behind this sacred ritual.

That's a really interesting examination that I never thought about.

My theory is they like clearly defined (and easily defensible) spaces
There's a certain cultural distance inbetween, sure. I guess it's similar to, say, us Westerners trying to play a game set in feudal Japan.

I always thought that adventuring heroes and monsters roaming the land are more from the Classical period than medieval times. D&D itself has the aestethic of Medieval contental Europe, but story structure it's more Mythic heroes meet Wild West bounty hunters.

Agree on the problem with translations. Some cool names/places don't sound as cool or completely out of place in different languages.

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1. While on the topic of translation, how the name of the leader of the Argonauts, Jason in English, is actually spelled and pronounced?
2. What is the question you want to be asked but no one ever asked?

1. Ιάσωνας. It's pronounced ee- (like in "bee") -ass- onas (as in "Jonas"). Emphasis on "ass".
2. Top 3 favourite/most memorable campaigns/characters and why?

Oh! I just thought of a most brilliant question!

Top 3 favorite/most memorable campaigns/characters and why?

That's a really good question, aquafina! Congrats for coming up with that!

A.M.A.: Ask Myself Anything :P
In no particular order:

Campaigns
- A d&d 3.5 one where I threw my unsuspecting players into the Beastlands and from there to Sigil. At level 1. And then at Dis (second layer of the LE plane of Baator) at level 2. I'd made a literal underground bare knuckle fight club with representatives from all the factions and reasons for their philosophy to take them there, which was a nice way to introduce factions and some long term NPCs. But my proudest moment was inbetween. They were very videogame-esque in their approach: get the quest, do the thing, return quest, get gold and XP. I sent them into a maze to reclaim a sword for their faction. They ran into groups from 2 other factions (rule of three!) and by the time they were out, they had a moment of clarity where they debated whether instead of just completing the quest, they should haggle for a better reward, see what other factions were offering or even keep it for themselves. I felt like a proud parent, seeing them explore options.

- A WFRP 2e one, where I used Tome of Corruption and we ran a Chaos campaign. I'd hand picked 4 guys whose personalities I thought matched the 4 gods and we started with them retreating after the Siege of Praag by Asavar Kul. They had to survive some Winged Lancers chasing them, regroup the troops, gather 4 artifacts to make a banner and assemble another army to head south, more or less in the place of Archaon's 4 generals. It was a very different experience to playing as Imperials and we named the campaign "The 4 Pedestrians of the Apocalypse" because they acted mighty and thought themselves great when they had no armor or mount, so the joke was that they were marked to bring the Apocalypse but they'd still be carrying their starting gear while doing so.

- I ran 5e Curse of Strahd just before covid hit, we'd done everything except the Amber Temple and castle itself. It wasn't so much the game but the people, we had such great chemistry. Plus my gf used our gatherings as an excuse to cook foods she wanted to eat but were too much of a hassle to just make for the 2 of us.

Characters
- I've always wanted to see a wizard in WFRP but rolling for careers means chances are slim. I was invited to join a group that were running Enemy Within (they'd just finished Bögenhafen) and was told they'd be willing to let me pick a wizard class if I was willing to take the risk that comes with spellcasting. I made a College of Light (exorcists and demon hunters) wizard and had great fun playing him. He once burned down an empty farmhouse with a miscast trying to repel some goblins, then much later his second miscast saw him get possessed by a purple horror of Tzeentch, ironic given his concept.

- Two for the price of one: Several years ago, I played PbP on a different website and joined an evil campaign that drew heavily from the 3.x Book of Vile Darkness supplement. The main concept was to gather some artifacts, the Regalia of Evil, for Rallaster the Razor God, but I joined late as the party were hunting down some drow for the last bit, then collapsed as we each wanted to do different things with the artifacts. One of the players portrayed a succubus; authoritative, arrogant amd sultry to the point where I legitimately hated the player, not the character. She'd charmed another PC, a human assassin, who was her absolute pet and fiercely defended her in conversations. During the final showdown, the succubus flew up and sniped us with arrows while the assassin cast darkness and hid. My character fell and the succubus flew down for the coup de grace, only to be stabbed by the assassin who'd taken his 3 rounds inside the darkness to prepare his blow. This final act redeemed him in my eyes as the revelation of him pretending to be charmed all this time set in, then the succubus' player apologized in the OOC thread for the character portrayal and pressing any buttons. That made me separate the player for the character again and respect the rp, even as others joined in saying they loved the portrayal but would never want to play with such a PC in their party again. Masterful, both of them.

- First ever Shadowrun character I made, a sprawl ganger troll. He had run ins with human racists, which made him an antifascist and also caused him to drop out of school, combined with his mom falling ill (she also was oblivious to him having turned into a troll, that was inspired by Marv from the Sin City comics). He'd worked as a bouncer for clubs, which gave him street level connections and a love for Troll Thrash Metal and Goblin Punk, but that wasn't enough to pay for the meds so he dabbled in shadowrunning. He had a badass chopper, a sawed off shotgun under the seat, titanium bone lacing and subdermal kevlar armor. Absolute beast and so fun to play as, especially after our GM decided that one of his contacts (who I hadn't bothered to flesh out) was hitting on him. Had to drop the leather jackets and suit up for a high class meeting, so what he handed me was a pastel pink jacket with a white frilly shirt. Hilarious.

Its a bit low level to fumble around on the planes, but cool nonetheless.

Are you planning some plane walking anytime soon?

What were the first books/movies/games/... that got you interested in the Fantasy genre?

In my defence, they were all pre-made adventures for low level characters: the trek through the Beastlands was pulled from Something Wild, the one where they had to recover a sword from a mazed warrior was -I think- in Well of Worlds, they went to the Lower Planes because they played Fires of Dis and then we got up to the middle of Faction War. If anything, I tweaked that stuff to make it somewhat easier for a 2 PC party. The greatest part though was that players were as clueless as their characters.

This isn't the only online community I'm active in and I'm already GMing 3 games and playing in 3 more; sometimes life happens and I don't check in for a couple of days, then have to just rush in and say hi just so my players don't think I'm ghosting them. Don't quite think I have the capacity to run a PS game in the near future, though that would depend on 2 of the games I'm GMing here. They're in the "let's try this out as a one-off and then we'll talk about maybe expanding it" category, so if they do fizzle out, my workload might allow for a PS game. I've also been debating what non-D&d system to use for a PS game here and so far the best I've come up has been Dungeon Crawl Classics. If anything, I'll keep you in mind and PM you if something comes up.
In an earlier question I talked about mythology etc planting some early seeds. I'd say a large part of that had to do with the illustration of a specific publishing house. Here are a few samples from the covers of their books:
Mythology
Persian Wars
Hercules
Sparta
Iliad
Not quite fantasy, but certainly epic in feel.

Another major early literary influence has been Joe Denver's "Lone Wolf" choose-your-own-adventure books that someone passed me as a young teen, which I consider instrumental in me loving the idea of reader/player agency in how a story evolves.

I was also a metalhead, so swords, knights and dragons kinda came with the territory. Never really got into the likes of Manowar, Rhapsody, Blind Guardian and all the other super cheesy epic stuff though.

Pretty sure I read the Hobbit after I got into D&d and heard everyone raving about Tolkien. I liked it, but never managed to do LotR. First attempt I made it up to Rivendell, second attempt I finished Fellowship but didn't get to the other two books, so thank god they made those into a movie.

I really liked reading the LotR books (though I did skip over most of the songs 😅) But I absolutely could not get into the Silmarillion

1. Is there any kind of fantasy you don't like? Any specific worlds, guns in fantasy, etc.?
2. Which system/setting do you wish was more popular and more people knew about/played?

Just fun fact, I lived in Greece for a year when during my university days. I learned how to read and speak it ok, but it was like 10 years ago and I only remember bits and pieces, but I can still read it lol.

1. Not really, but your example was helpful in pinpointing what I don't like and that's poor execution. Case in point, guns in fantasy. The Witchfire adventure books (which would later spawn the Iron Kingdoms) did those right, 5e artificer doesn't.

2. WFRP, Shadowrun and RuneQuest come to mind, but they're not exactly unknown, just stuff I couldn't find enough people to share with. My vote is split between Midnight (a "what if the bad guys had won?" Tolkienesque world) and World Wide Wrestling RPG.

What is one thing great about Greece that you think the rest of the world doesn't know about or ignores?

As an Iron Kingdoms fan I agree. I love that setting. I enjoy SR except the rules can be overly intimidating and complex. WFRP I always hear about but it also looks very complex so I've never looked into it more. There are so many fantasy games, it has to do something "unique" that is strong enough to make me play it over something else. What about WFRP and RuneQuest make them stand apart to you that would persuade others to try them out?

That it's got a marginally shorter coastline than the entire continent of Africa? I don't know, that's actually a pretty tough question to answer.
I've answered before about what I love in WFRP, but I guess this is more about a pitch to hook in players.

WFRP
- It's actually post-medieval to early renaissance, which is a change of scenery. There's primitive firearms and an emerging merchant class that challenges the nobility.
- Magic is rare, wild, powerful, dangerous and unwieldy. Which to me preserves a sense of mystery about it, as opposed to Vancian magic systems where spells function exactly as written.
- It's built on the wargame's rules and if you've watched a bit of Fantasy Battles, you know how miniatures drop like flies. This lethality coupled with the magic system makes it supremely rewarding when you actually make a stand against all odds and still somehow prevail.
- All of the above don't sound like something unique or innovative, but remember this first came out in 1986. It was back then, and it's been refined since, on top of the setting itself having a ton of lore by now if you want to dig into it, without that being a requirement to play.

RuneQuest
- It's set in a Bronze-like Age. A nice change of scenery from the usual medieval fantasy, plus I've written before about growing up with mythology, Homer's epics and all that.
- Everyone can use magic!
- "Adventurers" are an organic part of society, as opposed to the more Wild West approach of them being trouble seekers for money.
- It uses the BRP d100 system, which I think is a bit crunchy and exhaustive but works wonders in levelling, especially since you raise what you use in a very Elder Scrolls kind of approach. It's the same base system as Call of Cthulhu d100, so knowing that one eases the transition.
- Since I brought up levelling, you get to run one adventure per season, which tends to pace a character's growth, as opposed to just going into a dungeon for a couple of days and walking out with +5 levels.
- The slower pacing means you don't hit cartoonish levels of power all too fast. Plus, downtimes make sense as you rest up and take care of your family, livestock and estate, which in turn provide a steady source of income and spare backup characters while also grounding you to the world itself so you don't become a murderhobo.
- Again, this first came out in 1978 so it was a wild deviation from the D&d paradigm. Also its creator was huge into shamanism and stuff, so all that spiritual and magic stuff is written pretty solid.

Those are good pitches! I'll see about reading some more about those games.
I'll take a stab as this from an American's POV. Siestas! The pace of life is slower in general and people took an hour or two in the afternoon to relax and rest. Most shops are also closed this time.

True, though valid mostly anywhere but the capital. I was raised in Crete, my house is a 15-20' walk from downtown so my dad would always join us for lunch and return to his work in the afternoon. Living in Athens myself now, the commute is such that most people bring their lunch to work and stay there till the evening.

I studied ancient Mediterranean history back when I was in school. It's always been a fascination of mine. Having the history it does, I would love to travel to Greece some day. Any tips on often over-looked or under-appreciated places to visit for a first time history fan in Greece? Anywhere that's the opposite - very overrated or should be avoided?

What your favorite, and least favorite thing about owning cats?
Do you have a favorite movie or book about food/cooking?
What does pop culture often get wrong about your actual culture?

- The Acropolis in Athens is a classic, well worth it as is its museum. What's usually underrated is the incline and heat from the sun, prepare for those and look for a combo ticket for both.
- Not sure of its status, but Delphi is a great option. Weird energy, great landscape and a nice museum.
- I'd say ancient Olympia and Ancient Sparta are overrated, not much of interest to see there
- If you find yourself in Crete, the Minoan palace of Knossos is still pretty nice but don't miss the city's archaeological museum. The big cities also have a lot of stuff left from the medieval occupation by the Venetians.
- Up in the North, I'd say go to Vergina and the tombs of the Macedonian kings.
Not sure "own" is the right verb and if it is, it's cats that own us. I love the fact that regardless of age, cats are always inquisitive little clowns that'll make you laugh. Least favourite is probably the cat hair, but it comes with the territory.
I have a few websites I pluck recipes from, but can't really say I have a favourite book or movie. Maybe "A touch of spice"? (IMDB link won't work for some reason)
That we're all care free and fun loving (damn you for that, Zorba the Greek). Also that we're all super welcoming and hospitable (it's only those faking it to swerve tourists out of their money).

I've studied photos of the archaeological site at Knossos, I didn't realize it was open to the public though - that would be amazing.

Haha I have a friend who tries to convince me to come to Greece and his arguments always include how hospitable the country is...now I will say it's all lies!