OK, it's final! "Schools" are more misleading than useful.

I was just wondering what games I like, whether I prefer old school or new school, or something in-between.
After some deliberation, I was surprised at the number of OSR and old school games that are among my favourites.
Scarlet Heroes and DCC take the lead. Then we follow, probably, with Spears of the Dawn, ACKS, Epées et Sorcellerie, Spellcraft and Swordplay, Backswords and Bucklers, Stars Without Numbers, and arguably even Crimson Blades and Lamentations of the Flame Princess should be there.
If we include old-school games in general, we add Grunts (Fantasy Fucking Vietnam minus the fantasy part) and 43 AD/Warband/Zenobia right next to Scarlet Heroes. And arguably any edition of Traveller, BRP, Flashing Blades and Dogtown should be right there as well. And Dragon Warriors, which I happen to like, even if the system could be improved.

And then we go forFates Worse Than Death and Hoodoo Blues, which are old-school in a good way. And my wife is younger than Pendragon, so the game definitely counts as old-school to me, as far as games go!

Okay, maybe I'm an old-school guy, reading the above...
Except I love WotG and LotW, Sorcerer, Apocalypse World, Monsterhearts, Gods of Gondwane, TBZ, Houses of the Blooded, Enemy Gods, Fate and Shahida just as much, all of them being New School par excellence!
But I also like GURPS, RQ6, Savage Worlds, Artesia, Volant, TRoS, Seeker and Blue Planet, which are some kind of a middle-school. And Celestial Warriors, which is new-school in a different way. And post-GMC nWoD, which is also "middle school" in its own way...

In theory, I'm either the happy guy that can play everything (hah! Good luck getting me to play PF, just to name the example I turn down most often)...
...or we can conclude the distinction between "schools" to be absolute BS. In theory, my tastes should clash with at least some of these games, just on virtue of liking their polar opposites!
In practice, I like each of them for what they do well.
So, this is my conclusion for today. Find a game that does well whatever it does. Play it in a way that would make it shine. Laugh heartily at the idea that games come in "generations". Seriously, there is no difference, except in what was modern at the time!

Dear RPG diary...

Dear RPG diary,
What happens when an afroamerican expert thief, a Mexican medium, a field biologist, and the dean of the city university - all of them interested in the occult - decide to shoot a porn movie with the help of female students? Well, of said students disappears, and they have to save the city from a demon that's trying to escape from an amulet it has been imprisoned in, that's what.
So far, perfectly normal. But what happens then if they destroy the demon-possessed man who was out for revenge, by using the murderous spirits of dead people, and go back to shooting the movie?
Well, for one thing, then you definitely know you're playing Unknown Armies!
Even if the system is FAE.

In other news: our new GM is great. Some of the players didn't even know it's her first attempt at GMing until the end.
Now we've only got to persuade her she's good enough.

Finished Sorcerer... Next: the Sorcerer supplements

That's just a quick note about what I'm reading. I mean, what are blogs for?
So, just finished Sorcerer by +Ron Edwards (delays did, well, delay me from reading it - and the annotated edition requires critical analysis).
I've only got three notes.
1) At least, now I know what to recommend to new GMs, if I want to get them to run games I like. I call this "The Unfettered GMing style" or "Lazy GMing".
2) I'm continuing with the Sorcerer supplements without delay. And that's an achievement for the author, whether he knows it or not.
3) It's curious how similar the themes and even some mechanics are between Sorcerer, Unknown Armies, and Better Angels - and yet, they differ in subtle but important ways.

And no, don't tell me "how would you run Exalted with this". Because I'm thinking more and more about it...

Anyway.
Off to reading!

Highlights of the one-shot with Unknown Armies: 2012

So, this week was time for my RPGs of the 90ies. The group picked UA, and everybody had fun (me including, because they didn't turn it into a comedy of absurd failures this time. Talking with the main perpetrator helped).
Highlights of the session:
A WoWmancer calls for the group's help. "The Shaman in WoW told me you three can help me!"
They're not buying it, so he spends 5 minor charges - well, 30 hours of WoW are nothing to him - and shows them how he can get a menu that doesn't exist, asking a question that's not allowed by the game. His friend, the (kendo-obssessed) Otaku, falls the Unnatural check and starts staring blankly.
"Jimmy can do what???"
When they reach his time limit, though, he asks them to do what they think is best, and starts playing. It's time for his raid.
The cop shoots his laptop.
He fails the Self check, of course, and stares blankly at the ruined machine for about half an hour. Slapping him didn't help.
Also, missing a raid is violating Taboo for him. Ooops! Well, the PCs didn't know what an Adept is, so they were completely clueless IC and OOC.

Later...
Same kendo-obsessed otaku with a katana jumps up to the window of the first floor, pulls himself up and tries peeking inside. Someone inside wraps a cord around his neck, and pulls him up. Then he throws him on the nearby table, and puts something against his ribs. Iron.
(What the players don't know: it's an avatar of He Who Fights With Monsters. And he's waiting in the home of The Slut's avatar to assassinate her, as he sees her as dangerous for her dabbling into demon summoning. Well, he was right, she had managed to send Shatterer against a personal enemy, an WoWmancer who wanted to free some people from her influence!)
"What are you doing?"
"I'm practicing parcour?"
"Park-what?"
"Parcour, running, leaping, climbing obstacles."
"Why the hell?"
"I want to be a ninja!"
That, the avatar can understand.
"Do you know what a ninja is, boy?"
"Yessir! It's a killer!"
Ooops. You don't say that to an avatar of He Who Fights With Monsters! So far, he wasn't treating this as a fight... because there's been no opposition.
"So, you want to be a killer, boy?"
"Yessir! I hope to be a good one some day..."
OOOPS. The cord around his neck tightens, and he's thrown against the wall. He slams his back, and the man puts a gun in his mouth.
"Whaddoyaknow about killing, boy? Want me to show you?"
In answer, the otaku kicks him in the nuts, and he doubles up. Then the PC pulls out his katana.
I was expecting him to cut off his hand, or otherwise disarm him. But no. He cuts, and it's to the bone... of his left hand.
The Avatar gets angry. And he shifts to improve his attack.
This, in itself, provokes an Unnatural check. And he fails.
"Fight, Flight, or Freeze?"
"Fight".
OOOPS times 3.
He cuts the avatar again. Single-mindedly (if the avatar of He Who Fights With Monsters is anything, it's single-minded...), his opponent doesn't care. Instead, he shoots him.
And he deals maximum damage for his gun, collapsing a lung immediately. Fight is over.
"Tell me who sent you", the gun points at his head. "And I'm just gonna shoot you down. Or, I can shoot you there".
The gun goes down, pointing under his belt.
"Fuck you!"
The avatar makes good on his promise, then runs.

Moments later...
Outside, he runs into the other two PCs that the WoWmancer had summoned to help him survive the onslaught of The Slut. The cop tries to arrest him, while he's pretending to be a victim. She doesn't buy it.
Due to having a Gun-Bunny skill, he pulls his gun fast enough to point it at her head, before she squeezes the trigger.
Then the Catholic exorcist PC pulls her gun. The guy tries to repeat with his other hand, but loses the opposed roll this time.
"I'm shooting".
"Roll".
The Exorcist rolls 01. I blink, and describe his instant death.
Conveniently, she passes both the Violence and the Self checks. So, when the actual cop approaches her with "are you all right", she can answer with a firm "I'm fine".
After the session, I realised that the Exorcist has killed He Who Fights With Monsters... and is very much a monster himself.
You can call that applied exorcism!

Later, but at the same time...
Meanwhile, the WoWmancer is looking for a new laptop, after the cop had shot the previous one. One of the Slut's sycophants ambushes him and tries shooting him down...and manages to shoot himself in the leg. The WoWmancer, having no charges for having missed his guild's raid, runs away with a laptop. He then promptly finds a hole and starts playing.

Even later...
The PCs went to a hiding place for a couple of days, helping the WoWmancer to hide himself. They intended to talk to her to get her off the guy.
Before they can talk to her, however, the Slut solved their issues by rolling a critical failure while trying to send another Shatterer after Jimmy. Instead, it comes after her.
A single roll later, she's out, shredded by broken glass. It finishes her off.
I roll against her hardened Self notches. There was nobody she felt close to.
Hence, her death breaks the spiral of murders a Shatterer represents. I find that a worthy death.

Of course, like most UA one-shots, I had to explain to the players what has been going on. They very much approved.