I will be running a game of Troika! at this year’s North Texas RPG Con, on Saturday night (June 3rd) at 6pm.
I’m calling it The Spire of the Moth-Riders and I’m gunning for a Frank Mentzer-esque Ad-Lib adventure with this one. But what does that mean?
It means that, while I have ideas in mind for the adventure, my goal is to take a number of suggestions from the players as they roll up their characters (which is super fast in Troika!) and I’ll weave them into the game as we play. Really, as much as RPGs are already collaborative endeavors, I’m looking to turn this into a groovy prog rock jam session where I (bassist that I am) showed up with a song title and some chord progression ideas and turn the rest of the band loose on it. Well, that’s how it works in my bands, anyway.
So if you’re going to be at NTRPG Con and are itching to give Troika! a try I’ve got you covered. Just remember that game signups open this weekend (Friday night/Saturday morning at midnight), so don’t delay!
So I of course checked Troika! out, because if the Venomous Pao likes it, then it must be a wellspring of creative goodness! Interesting chargen, with 66 very specific possibilities. British RPG’s always feel a bit more evocative to me, like they’re closer to their source material and stylistic art rather than being ‘generic.’
One more reason I’m going to regret not going to the con.
Troika is pretty dang nifty, for sure. Its super flavorful without being a weighty tome of stifling fictional history nonsense, which pleases me. And I think you’re on to something about the British RPGs. I also like the author’s approach to the Fighting Fantasy system. It’s streamlined a bit and feels less restrictive on the whole.
I’m sad you won’t be at the Con this year, amigo. It’s a blast and it would be awesome to have you there. But I’ll do my best to deliver an interesting couple of games in your honor 🙂
I hadn’t heard of Troika until this post. Luckily I’m subscribed to Strange Stones so that I get exposed to something interesting going on in gaming once in a while! I’ve downloaded it and will give it a read this evening.
I’ve always been partial to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. It has weighty fictional background, but I enjoy the way it cleaves a little bit closer to history, which makes it seem even more fantastical. That and the grim and perilous tone of it all. Mmmmm, dark and gritty. Many other
(oops) games have a “wallpapery” background, but the WFRP background seems a bit more meaty.
I’ve never really looked into WFRP, but I’ve always assumed it was delicious. My snide remark on background is definitely more intended towards certain Very Large Settings® from certain Very Large Companies®. You know. The kind that people will quote exacting details from when they explain how their character fits into the metaplot and such 🙂
I’m also, historically, a very DIY kind of guy when it comes to settings. I’m pretty sure I can count on one hand the number of discrete games I’ve run in any kind of published setting or other existing milieu. So great tomes of background info are entirely lost on me. But I respect the effort that goes into them. I’d produce similar volumes myself if I weren’t so lazy and afflicted with ADD when it comes to gaming 🙂