Author / guyeatsfood

by guyeatsfood

Culture Clash

We’ve all got our own tastes and foibles when it comes to TTRPGs. But more than that, we’ve got established play cultures in our groups that we not only evolved to suit our own tastes, but that we assume everyone else enjoys. Recently I’ve encountered two quite different play cultures to mine, and I wanted to examine them here, and why I found them tricky.

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

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by guyeatsfood

Daggerheart : Into The Witherwild

I wanted to run Daggerheart as a one-shot, so I tried to adapt (most of) the entire Witherwild campaign frame into a 4-hour slot. It ran to 3 hours. My loose prep notes, along with some advice, are below. In terms of structure, I went with Robin Laws’ excellent Three Fights structure from Adventure Crucible – I’ve blogged about this before, and it works really well for any sort of pulpy, actiony game where combat is interesting and flavourful.

This is for Tier 1 starting characters, by the way – by all means use the ones in the Quickstart.

Curious about what Daggerheart looks like in play? Check it out on Unconventional GMs – where we’ve run the Quickstart and a Wild West-style Colossus of the Drylands one-shot!

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

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by guyeatsfood

Mid-2025 Review

It’s not exactly the middle of the year, I know that. But in February (after my unintentional gaming break in January) I decided it would be great if I could get up to 100 game sessions in 2025, and then upped that to 104. 104 is 2 per week, and that seems to be a good number. Previous years I’ve managed 90 (in 2024), 116 (in 2023), and 86 (in 2022), so I’ll be pretty pleased if I can get the 104 with only 1 January game. Expected games total currently sits at 99.7, so I need to step it up!

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

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Cover image of Boot Hill RPG module "Lost Conquistador Mine"
by guyeatsfood

Lost Conquistador Mine – for Index Card RPG

I’ve been converting quite a few ‘classic’ adventure modules for more modern systems recently (check out these Star Wars Outgunnned! adaptations), so for the CRIT online convention I thought I’d run this Boot Hill classic tournament module for Index Card RPG.

The Original Module

Let’s start by talking about the original module. There’s a frontier town, Dead Mule, and a hook to an ancient mine full of gold. There’s then 9 town encounters, 9 wilderness encounters on the lengthy and involved hexcrawl to the mine, and a short ‘dungeon’ for the mine itself. The town’s got a map to it and description of locations, which obviously are triggered in the encounters, and there’s the aforementioned enormous hexcrawl to the mine when the PCs eventually find the map to it.

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

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by guyeatsfood

Mayhem in Miquera – a One-Shot for Daggerheart

An Introductory One-Shot for Daggerheart in the Colossus of the Drylands campaign frame

Credit for the structure of this has to go to the wonderful Teos Abadia, who on his Alphastream blog (and linked youtube channel) talks about adapting the 5-Room Dungeon as a learn-to-play one-shot – using it to highlight different parts of gameplay. This is a great way to structure your one-shots to give a showcase of the system (check out my co-host Gaz doing it expertly for The One Ring on Unconventional GMs), and with a Daggerheart session to prep, it got me thinking until I came up with this, for Daggerheart’s Colossus of the Drylands campaign frame:

The Training 5-Room Dungeon for Daggerheart

  1. Arrive at isolated settlement. Assist in evacuation / repair / healing (SKILLS)
  2. Fight heralds (EASY FUN FIGHT)
  3. Resolve to fight the colossus (RP or NEGOTIATION)
  4. Showcase additional gameplay (PREPARATIONS and RESEARCH)
  5. Fight the colossus (THRILLING FINAL BATTLE)

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

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by guyeatsfood

First Look: Warhammer the Old World RPG

As many readers know, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP) will always hold a special place in my heart; and for any American readers, it’s hard to overstate the impact it had on the UK scene in the 1990s, and the shadows it still casts over Britain, let alone Bogenhafen. For many of us over here, the slightly satirical grimdark middle European vibe was what fantasy roleplay was –  D&D was just its brasher, more gonzo cousin from across the Atlantic. 

And now, Cubicle 7 has another Warhammer RPG. Along with WFRP 4th edition and Soulbound, both still continuing product lines, and Imperium Maledictum and Wrath and Glory, we’ve now got five Warhammer RPGs in print. Do we need that many? And do we need 2 of them to be fantasy, in the same world?

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

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by guyeatsfood

Convention GMing : The Basics

Running games at conventions is good for the soul; it’s also good for the hobby, as you get to play games with new people. More people should do it! But in the plethora of GMing advice that’s out there, I wonder if the audience is more for the experienced GM than the convention newbie.

With that in mind, here’s the basic structural things you should do at a convention if you’re in the reffing hot-seat. Sadly some of these still get forgotten at conventions – with experienced GMs who should know better. Do all these, and you’re already ahead of the game, and soon to become a convention legend!

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

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by guyeatsfood

The Joy of Sets – Adapting Classic Modules as One-Shots

Recently, I’ve been updating some ‘classic’ adventures to newer systems. For example, Strike Force Shantipole and Tatooine Manhunt for Outgunned. I’ve got an adaptation of Rainbow Mounds for 13th Age Glorantha to write up, too. In the past, I’ve run Village of Hommlett in 13th Age, and I’ve got a session of Lost Conquistador Mine (a classic Boot Hill tournament module) to adapt for the Index Card RPG to run in a few weeks.

Changing stat blocks and balancing encounters is one thing, but what stands out in these old adventures is the structure of them – and in some cases, the sheer quantity of them. Reading through Tatooine Manhunt, it’s easy to lose track of the many, many fights with bounty hunters the players are meant to have. I’m always a fan of inserting action scenes into investigative or background scenes, but these are relentless.

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

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by guyeatsfood

Tatooine Manhunt – for Outgunned!

I’ve been doing a fair bit of adapting old “classic” adventures for modern systems recently – this was one that I did from the old WEG d6 Star Wars system into Outgunned! Here’s the notes for it – presented, as usual, in pretty raw form – if you’re a Patron, you can get the pregens I used for it too! (They’re the same as the Strike Force Shantipole ones, if you’ve already downloaded them).

I’ve included the CATS that I did with the session – just to encourage more people to do this explicitly in one-shots; it really helps to put everyone on the same page with the game. You’ll need, as with Strike Force Shantipole, both a copy of Outgunned! and the original adventure to use this – you should be able to get away without Action Flicks for this one, as there’s no starship combat in it.

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

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by guyeatsfood

Strike Force Shantipole – for Outgunned!

I’ve been doing a fair bit of adapting old “classic” adventures for modern systems recently – this was one that I did from the old WEG d6 Star Wars system into Outgunned!

Outgunned!?

Outgunned is a game of cinematic action films – it uses a funky d6 dice pool where you’re just looking for matches, regardless of the numbers on the dice – get a matched pair, and you’ve a Basic success, a triple and it’s a Critical, and so on. It uses enemy tracks for both chases and fights, and has some neat – if a bit fiddly in an online game – reroll mechanics where you can risk successes you’ve got for better successes.

It’s available here, or in print here. It’s also got some genre packs in its Action Flicks books – including Star Raiders, which is definitely Star Wars with the serial numbers filed off. So, armed with a download of the original adventure – Strike Force Shantipole – I’ve got my conversion notes below. 

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks! For this post, patrons also receive the full set of 6 pregens that I used to run this adventure and other Outgunned! Star Wars games – as .pdf downloads.

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