Ask Me Anything: Qralloq

In an attempt to get to know the community and other users on GP better, we want to allow a different member each week to step into the spotlight.
You can find more information here.

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About me:

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This AMA will run until 25 April 2022.

When I look at your profile I see that you're playing/running like millions of games. Are all of them active? If so how are you keeping up with this and can you share your secret with us? I've had the chance to play some games with you here and it's not like you're scarcely posting etc. You were very much active in all of them.

Oh sure, go right for the hard question.

Cannot say. Saying, I would know. Do not know, so cannot say. Let me say instead that I've eased into it, one game at a time, over many years. There was a time about three years ago, when I think Naatkinson and I were in a ton of games each, and we both kind of slowed off from there as for both of us, for difference reasons, it was too much. Jabes.plays.rpgs has had a similar experience.

So I'd say, that when you join a game, give it your fair attention, and solidify your character in your mind. After that, it's easy. You just play this character you've already established. I'm talking here about the personality, the mechanics of a character are irrelevant really, we can look those up when we need them. The game is grounded in your character, so once your character is real to you, you can add another. The events of the game stick better when they're so grounded.

Now repeat 35 times.

That's a good point. Character is what matters to me when playing. It's what I get attached to and what keeps me coming back to a game.

That said, what's your favorite character(s) you've ever played on GP?

You seem to be very close to the Rockies, you lucky duck. Do you hike? I imagine there are loads of gorgeous trails in that area.

You said you like speculative fiction, which doesn't surprise me. I watched some of your Youtube videos in which you mention Solomon Kane (a Robert E. Howard character) on more than one occasion. Who are some contemporary weird/speculative fiction authors you enjoy reading?

Yeah totally. Except that both Naatkinson and I have stayed at a slow(er) level of involvement. No matter, what's important is that one is comfortable and able to contribute quality posts. Which, amazingly, you absolutely nail despite the insane number of games!
I'll follow up with: What's your least favorite character you've ever played on GP, and why?

I think my favourite PC on GP was a Cypher System game, The Stars Are Fire. Jake Aeneas is a Stealthy Explorer who Works the System. What made him memorable is that even though he was from a floating city on Venus, he was a noir PI, and I monologed intensively in the game in italics. These monologs would ground and frame and add a ton of complexities to his responses, after which I'd respond properly to the scene, sometimes in the opposite way of what he just thought about. I later tried to recreate Jake as Johnny Scotch (named for a favourite noir character by the brilliant indie author John Dover), in a cyberpunk game run by BedzoneII. The first attempt was better.
I love to hike. My skyline is perpetually drawn in the jagged lines of the mountains, perhaps a 100 kilometers to my west. My town has many hiking trails, and the foothills around me, and the mountains beyond them, are brilliant for the amazing varieties of hikes. Waterfalls, galore!
I've spent a lot of the last few years exploring indie authors, as I count myself one. Three great authors I can mention are: John Dover (see above), who writes noir plus some weird horror; Spanish writer P.C. Darkcliff who just wrapped up a Celts vs. Romans trilogy, but his book The Priests of Orphagus was brilliant modern weird horror, that sticks to me to this day; and Emery Leeann, who is this kindly grandmother who writes just truly visceral torture porn (no other author has caused me to smack myself in the head to jar loose awful imagery) -- extreme R rating here.

Anything you've written that we can read?

I'll probably have to say that it was Trudy X-7 (which was a rehash of another robot PC for a short Starfinder game, Trudy Mark III). The problem with Trudy X-7 was I made him the property of another PC, but when that other player had to step back from GP for a time, I ended up with difficulty in keeping any sense of agency or independent action. Whatever plan I had for Trudy will have to be resurrected at some other date; for now, he remains only partially realized.

You can find my published works at eastontales.com. Thielindra is also featured there, and an anthology that she is published in is currently free (The Ringed Giant - science fantasy stories involving Saturn, the god or the planet) for a limited time.

You've been on GP for some time now. Which is the newbie that really made an impression on you and why is it me?

What's your favorite B-movie?

What is the thing that you do/have as a hobby that probably none of us would guess?

You know it's you. You've immersed yourself in our community so thoroughly and unabashedly, willing to try anything and helping out where you can. Also, when I found out you were from Crete, an island long admired, I was taking the characters in a game to Crete, for the first time in any game I've played or ran, at that moment. Kismet!
Howard the Duck. Fight me. Unless The Highlander counts as a b-movie, but it probably doesn't.
What would none of you guess? I can't answer such a broad question. I will say that I enjoy a modest level of home repair -- I'm not really all that good at it, but I enjoy a fair bit of woodworking and so forth. Building and fixing things.

First of all, all hail Howard the Duck.

A bit of a handyman huh? And an intellect as well. You're such a catch Q.
😂

If Anti is from Crete, does that make him a cretin?

And also, after Trailer Park Sharks, do you need access to my library of shark movies for your next game? And if not, what's your favorite shark(-adjacent) movie?

Are we having the turkey leftovers for supper, or should I make something else?

A library of shark movies begs a question of you, bowlofspinach, rather than me.

My favourite shark(-adjacent) movie would be Jaws, but if that's too obvious (but seriously, the Blu-Ray version, while long delayed, is worth it), I really loved was (I think it was called)Mission of the Shark: The Saga of the U.S.S. Indianapolis about the famed ship in WW2 (and mentioned in Jaws).
I'm eating light tonight, probably just fruit and vegetables. Tomorrow, however, used turkey sounds great.

- How did you find GP?

- What's a skill you have that we don't know about yet?

- How are you doing today?

You know, I really don't remember. I think it had to either have been Twitter or Facebook. Did you know Gamers Plane has (had) a Facebook page?
I'm a friggin rock star on Microsoft Excel. I've created workbooks that create copies of themselves, email that copy to each person on a client list, gather the results automatically from the returned workbooks, and generate reports based on that.
My eyes are itchy but other than that, tis a good day, thanks for asking!

What's a skill you don't have that we might expect you to?

Allergies? And you're welcome :) People keep asking "Who's Qralloq", but not "How's Qralloq" < insert wisdom emoticon >

People ask "How's Qralloq" all the time.

They just usually append "keeping up with all those games" to the question

I'm not a good artist, and even my miniature painting was barely passible.
No thank you, I'll pass.

LOL! :D

What is the best fantasy depiction of Canada (whole country, or a city therein) you have encountered in a RPG? A post-apocalyptic wasteland, maybe? The object of vampiric turf wars, perhaps? A sprawling cyberpunk metropolis?...

Canadians high five each other when we're remembered in any kind of media that originates outside our extensive borders. That being said, I can't recall many instances of Canadarcana in RPGs. I will say that I love the east/west portrayal in the World of Darkness. Vancouver (in Dark Alliance: Vancouver) shows a community where global politics are essentially banned from vampire power structures, and an uneasy peace is brokered between the ancient enemies vampire vs. werewolf. This is an interesting echo of early Canadian history, when British Columbia essentially existed in isolation from much of the world, separated by vast distances.

Meanwhile, Montreal by Night is as dark and gothic as all get out, one of the few books reserved for their Black Dog Press R-Rated publications. Deeply embedded ancient powers as old as colonization and as corrupt and incomprehensible as could be expected from such structures, with an underpinning in all things of art, culture and counterculture. The Sabbat church-like organization also reflected in the churches and cathedrals of Montreal.

my 'Trademark Question' ©Antiproduct: What do movies and television get wrong about your culture?
What's you favorite regional slang word or phrase?
What ingredients do you always have in your kitchen?
If you could have any job, as long as it's one that Homer Simpson also had, what would it be?
Can I hire you to make an customized Excel spreadsheet?

What’s the most important/your favorite part about character creation, and the least important/favorite part about character creation?

Spreadsheet master, eh? Have you tried EVE Online? You'd be a master at it.

Are there any MMOs that you play/have played?

Canadians aren't crazy polite. Also, we don't say "a-boot". Just stop that. Okay, maybe people in New Brunswick do, but they mostly stick to themselves.
"Lord tunderin' Jesus bye" -- not 'my' region per se, but it's a favourite.
Canned soups. They make great bases for sauces. In fact, cream of mushroon soup (without milk) on spaghetti? Lord tunderin' Jesus bye that's good eatin, wha?
I have to admit that being a Mr. Plow would be a ton of fun. Less time for GP, though, so hisses through teeth.
Yes.An avatar for PBP, a voice/accent/dialect for live gaming. It's all character. What I don't like are lame personal questions. "What was your character's first goat's stuffed penguin's brand name? How many siblings did your third maternal cousin have that didn't eat cheese?" That stuff is so tedious.
Yes, I used to play EVE Online. In fact, I dual boxed it, ran two accounts on two separate machines side by side, one for mining, and one for protection and ferrying ore to station. I made enough money to pay for the second account, and to slowly upgrade bigger and better ships. Would have stuck with it more if I could have entirely avoided PVP, which I'm not a fan of.

I've played lots of MMOs. Thousands of hours in WoW -- even earlier this year. Played Age of Conan for two years. Neverwinter Online, TERA both got lots of time in. Didn't get much into D&D Online, LOTRO, Everquest 2 (boo). Also played Momento Mori, others I can't remember.

And yes, for EVE Online, and WoW, there were spreadsheets.

We'll test your allegiances here with this first question.

As I write this, Chicago is losing to Calgary 3-2 in the 3rd, but then there's McDavid/Draisaitl and the Oilers. Both appear headed for the postseason, so come May, who are you pulling for? Why?

However, back to TTRGPs, what game would love to run as an extended campaign in? Why?

I was in Calgary during the 2004 cup run, where they lost to Tampa Bay in the final. The energy in the city was astounding, you can still google "Red Mile" or "Girls of the Red Mile" and who wouldn't want to see that again? Even still. McDavid, right? Either way, I'd be watching hockey again.
An extended campaign... drools. I want to say, Blue Rose because it seems to fit what I want from fantasy. Similarly, a fantasy game set in and using The Strange (maybe set in the Ardeyn recursion, maybe not) would be just amazing. I'd also love to run a Babylon 5 League of Non-Aligned Worlds campaign, running alongside the show timeline with opportunities to diverge, although I haven't seen a game system that really calls to me that it would match the tone of the setting -- Savage Worlds with the SWEX Sci Fi companion is close.

What I want from a campaign is a solid setting with rich definable character, and the freedom to be a little creative with how things go. Room for big ideas and grandiose plots, but a familiar sandbox to draw them in.

1. What was the RPG that disappointed you most?
2. What RPG were you surprised you liked?
3. If you were to create an RPG, what would it be?

What drives you nuts in PbP games?
A genie grants you free expertise in any skill, tool, or language - what do you choose?
If you could remove something from GP, what would it be?

Oh wow, I knew antiproduct was a fellow Greek, but never realized he was also a felow Cretan. Small world!
I'm guessing what passes as standard public behaviour in Canada or other countries, what you take as a given and might not consider as "trying hard to be extra polite", still impresses Americans given their average experience in their country. Kinda the same as public healthcare, free in Canada and Europe, not a thing we think twice about, but such a big deal for Americans. Speaking of which, is that how you manage to look this good in your 50s? :P

Please feel free to ignore the question if it seems too personal but what do you do for a living and how do you think it affects your gaming style/preferences, if any?

I would say Cortex Prime. It seems like a great toolkit, but there were key elements to understanding how it works that just weren't in the book in any accessible way. By the time I figured that out I'd wasted hour after hour looking for things that should have been explained at the start, I was already soured on the whole experience.
I'd say Lasers & Feelings. I slide toward the crunchier end of the scale, but L&F with its ridiculously simple engine really worked well, and it was fun.
This is a golden age of RPGs, there are so many games already put together. I have been working on a game, a very niche experience, with @windyridge. We just wrapped up a playtest. The game starts off as a medical drama, but through hijinx, the hospital staff get stranded on a deserted island. A survival based hex crawl phase culminates when Alien Cannibal Hybrids attack! Oh no!

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Too little or too much agency. Too little and your actions don't matter, so why bother? Too much and PBP derails into choice paralysis with days between noncomittal posts.
I would choose to be able to play guitar. It's a lifetime dream, but one I've never devoted any measure of time to.
You want to take away my preciouses? All of it is needed. If I had to choose, I'd reduce the number of sections of forums. There is too much overlap, which makes it hard to find something specific.

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Smoking, sunlight and making facial expressions age you the fastest. I avoid all of these like a boss.

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I'm in actuarial sciences, so basically blending finance and statistics. I'm sure that it does affect me, but as I gamed for nearly 20 years before entering this career path, such an effect was not formative. I'd say that I'm probably more quick to be judgmental about settings that don't make obvious economic or political sense. Like if there was a Hunger Games RPG, I would scoff, sir, I would scoff mightily.

Random question out of nowhere: What's your opinion on the Hunger Games?

What is ‘Qralloq’? And why did you name yourself after it?

A cruncher who likes Lasers & Feelings? Huh. What tempted you to try it out, and are there any other rules-light games you have liked?

I loved the books, devoured them, buying two and three when they were released. But I often say that Suzanne Collins knows less about how human societies function than the Tiger King did. The capital takes coal from one district, and fish from another, and clay from a third and voila! howercrafts! "I said, pardon?" It all could have been saved by having Snow tell Katniss. "You know what's the best part of our system? We take all of that coal, the food produced, and we just dump it in a pit. You're slaves, slaves who produce nothing of value." But nothing like that is ever said, and it seems that the capital thrives because of how they squeeze the districts.

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Qralloq was an alien NPC in an AD&D 2e game I ran in the mid-90s. He was a visitor from another universe where magic did not exist. I thought up the name Qralloq as what is more alien than two q's, no u's!! Later, when I discovered World of Warcraft, Qralloq became my main (a belf paladin), and I started using it more and more.

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I'm mainly on GP to try new things. So when a crew of people I enjoyed gaming with suggested it, I happily went along (Jabes, BedzoneII, others). Turned out to be a great game. Because the RP was so tight, the system didn't really matter.

I've played a bunch of rules light games, and as long as they don't try and mimic old school D&D, then I'm pretty happy with all of them. microRPG, Tiny D6, OneDice, Into the Odd, 2400, TriCube for a few examples, are all crunchier than L&F, but still really lightweight, and I've had some great games with all of them.

.....so when are we playing Mage?

Oooo, we should form an exploratory committee to investigate the viability.

So many questions already answered!

What was your primary paladin spec? I also ran a belf paladin as my main (protection spec since TBC)

I went holy as the one and only spec (also TBC) -- I loved the shockadin build, stacking spellpower to improbable levels and then using Holy Shock as a punch in the teeth, but also serving as primary healer for dungeons (with alt gear). Eventually dual-speccing came out and Holy Shock had been nerfed, so I added retribution as the second one.

Any system that really lends itself to fully fleshed out characters at creation?

Any system that does the opposite?

I immediately think of Legend of the Five Rings, 5th edition. Character creation follows "Twenty questions". It starts with what clan do you belong to, then what family, and school. Then it gets personal. How does your character stand out? What is their duty to their lord? What holds your character back in life? Most of the questions have mechanical affects, as well as story ones, so you can't really skip the questions. At the end of it, there is a real sense of who they are and how they fit into Rokugan society.

As much as I like simple, light OSR games, that's simply not a focus of them. In Maze Rats, you might roll that you've got a sturdy hat, and that lack of focus on your character really lends them to being little more than complicated board games. You're no more attached to them than to your shoe token in Monopoly.

Taking the third chair at this table :)

No matter how nicie what kind of game experience would you love to have, but seldom achieve?

I'm reminded of a stand-up comic who said, "Why do they advertise for Preparation H? You could hide that under a mountain and people that need it will tunnel through rock to get it."
Nice or niche? English gets the word niche from French, and France is a lot closer to you than to me. But the city Nice is also in France. Difficult. Probably niche as that makes an easier question to nail down.

I think that being a player in a World of Darkness game that lasts long enough to resolve even a single mini-plot has been challenging. If I go back fifteen years, I was in a live Vampire: The Masquerade game that lasted for a mid-length campaign (and got to play a Tzimisce, wheee!). But each time I've joined a WoD game on GP, they have all bogged down and died really early. I've run a few that have lasted long enough, but never played in one.

Not to get stuck on the "how do you play so many games?" thread, but playing/running so many games requires a lot of inspiration for characters and plots. Do you have some go to sources for such inspiration?

I tried to address this a bit in Fair Ones, which is a generally "rules light" 24XX hack that nonetheless implicates a character's affect, motive, and relationship to a key NPC.

Role master or MERP?

I really don't. I've spent my time with random generators but find the results hard to latch onto. Whatever characters I play, I tend to take a couple overriding characteristics, and then explain that. In an Old School Essentials game, I randomly rolled a fighter and rolled low on starting wealth, and low charisma. So I thought farmboy. Then, maybe I had heard Don't Take Your Guns To Town recently, so I imagined he started as a fighter as that, a tough guy. Maybe got in a lot of fights because his low charisma meant he talked himself into trouble. A character was born:

Del Marsh was a farm boy, and has always had a problem: his mouth gets him into more trouble that he is likely ready for. He had two options, shut up, or swing back. He chose the latter.

It isn't that Del is mean, but he is terrible with people, never finding the right words, and relies too much on that hard right hand to make his arguments for him. Don't cross him and he's a friendly guy, but if your words hurt, he only know one response.

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I've never played MERP and I consider this to be a tragedy. I have played Rolemaster, and GM'd Space Master (the Sci Fi variant) and absolutely loved the system. I've been hanging onto the playtest material for RMU (Role Master United) for so long that the PDFs probably require specialized software to open. So... RM?

What is RoleMaster United?

From their website:

There are a number of versions of Iron Crown Enterprise’s flagship Rolemaster system available. Each offers gamers a slightly different gaming experience. To review the differences between the various systems, please visit our Rolemaster versions page. In addition to previous versions, the brand new Unified Rolemaster is currently in the Beta Testing phase. If you are interested in taking part in the playtesting visit our New Rolemaster Playtest FAQ page.

Unified Rolemaster
Looking forward, the multiple variations of Rolemaster will be unified into a single Rolemaster system. This new edition of Rolemaster will include the best of all versions of Rolemaster as well as new enhancements and improvements to the Rolemaster system for the 21st-century.

What is the most complicate and long character creation (crunch-wise) that you still found rewarding in play?

I've mentioned Legend of the Five Rings (5th edition) already, which fits the bill, so I'll add that I'm a fan of creating characters in Shadowrun (4th and 5th editions). The choices you can make are plentiful and meaningful, and really shape/focus your character.

I've been meaning to ask this of every AMA respondent. I may go back to the others but I'll start with you. Where do you feel you lie on this spectrum?

https://theangrygm.com/gaming-for-fun-part-1-eight-kinds-of-fun/

I may have read that before, and I used to follow TheAngryGM, so could be that's where. Because I like to hear myself talk (Expression), I'll sidebar.

I've said in some of my videos that one of the big appeals of D&D in particular to me is that it includes a bunch of what I call mini-games within the game itself. Maybe those mini-games and The Angry GMs 'types of fun'. Rolling dice and looking at your book (Sensory). Leveling your character is a mini-game (much declined in scope in 5e from prior editions but still there), where you seek out new choices to grow your character. Tactical grid combat is a mini-game. Flipping through thick books for a rule or piece of info you once read. The shared imagination space (Fantasy) and acting like your character (Expression). As a DM, Expression also comes from creating your own world, or presenting the adventure to the players so it comes alive. Uncovering what's behind the next door and knowing how to react (Discovery). Overcoming narrow odds or a powerful foe (Challenge). The gathering of your friends or fellow gamers (Fellowship). Accepting that you'll be playing D&D and not another game (Submission) (just kidding).

All of those have their place and the whole is lessened missing any one. But which of those is most me? It's got to be more Expression and Discovery.

As the most prolific GPer you've been asked to organise the first GP convention. You have to make decisions and delegate tasks to GPers.

Where do we meet? Which GPer does the catering? Who designs the invites? Who chooses the music? Who decorates the venue? Etc.

(It's a fantasy convention so real life constraints like money don't apply).

We meet in international waters, as that $&%^ will get Wild! It started as a joke, but the donations toward the venue were lackluster, so we ended up renting a Tunisian commercial fishing trawler, the Caragonaklak.

@Moofsalot and @Jabes.plays.RPG volunteered to cook but again, given the small budget, they were left with creating a feast of surplus Korean War era twinkies that @Cancerman found on Ebay, and an assortment of baps and rolls brought by team UK (@Lightofmidnight), which remained in the crate for fear that they were Scottish baps and we'd all be accused of horrendous things.

@Adam designed the invitations, by way of an eighty second long posh Youtube video that somehow implied that we would be having a party at sea and would likely make port in Neverwinter.

The music was chosen by committee of Admin/redshirts, which meant that nobody chose anything and we had to suffer through @Antiproduct's mp3s which to universal chagrin were 50% Slipknot.

Decorations were done by @Keleth, who signed up for several community college courses on advanced decoupage, but didn't go so we had to hang surplus posters for Blue Man Group that @The_Librarian found last minute at a Rhode Island Army/Navy Surplus store.

Please make this happen! 🤣

Fantastic!

That's inaccurate. But I'll allow it.

They were old recruitment poster props from various scifi military movies that the guy didn't realize were props. The blue man group one came from the convention center. But at least I got some posters.

That all sounds far too organised for GPers.