Share whose inspiring gaming excellence you’re grateful for

I’ve not been entirely sure how to tackle this one. There are a lot of people who have been inspiring in their gaming.

In my groups past and present, there have been moments of sheer genius from players where they’ve done things which completely wowed me. Just recently in Night Witches, Lee in my group made a celebrity NPC part of a rival ballet company to one of the player characters. That player has started some incredibly Machiavellian plans to use their NKVD girlfriend to bring about their rival’s ruin. He’s done this before in Apocalypse World when his Hoarder started doing increasingly horrid things and I asked him if he realised he was the villain for this story. He said he’d figured and wanted to play to see what happens. That character saw the business end of another player’s shotgun and everyone at the table thought it was deserved. It was a great ending to a gloriously terrible character, although they’d sold the location of the group’s home to the bad guys, haunting them all the way to the finale. For the one of my players who’s quite shy, he can end up like Charlie from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia when he’s got a plan. Surprisingly cunning, thorough and brutal. In PbtA games where you play characters to the hilt, it’s great.

Lee from my role-playing group, basically.

As far as my GMs, I still remember my old GM Andy who was able to get players so in the moment they’d actually get up and move. In a game of Vampire: The Requiem it got to the point where Evil Stuart (a lovely guy… just really evil in RPGs) was feigning hiding behind a bush by hiding under a table. Taking cover from our enemies among crates of drug-filled plush pigs who said, “I Wub You”, showing a hostage situation on Shaun… Andy was very good at getting people riled up and in the moment. He could make initiative rounds feel like they took little time and get people ‘in state’.

Honey Heist

I didn’t realise I wanted to make RPGs, I just liked reading their lore, making stories, engaging with the mechanics and talking about them. I’ve since had a few RPG ideas which I’m hoping to put into practice. I’ve taken place in the 200 Word RPG Contest and want to do more in the field. There are too many influences I have. I love the daft whimsy of Grant Howitt and all his creations, as shown in my endless chatter on Who Dares Rolls about his work. Avery Alder makes some of the neatest, clearest uses of mechanics and has a great amount of honesty and emotion in her work. People like Jackson Tegu and Aura Belle are the people who make games which talk about things I wish I was emotionally mature enough to handle. But also weird and fun things at the same time.