Welcome to this year's TTRPG Club! I will be using this space for public-facing announcements and helpful links.
Housekeeping
Club Size
While I will maintain that 3-4 members is a good size for a TTRPG group, having all but one student be Drama majors makes it likely that we will not be able to continue once the drama production begins.
If you know of any students in other majors who may be interested in joining, the permission slips are on my door. (I won't say no to more Drama majors, but having a few students in other disciplines will allow us to continue to have meetings during the production.)
Meeting Days
Having discussed the schedule changes, it is decided that we will continue to meet on Mondays EXCEPT FOR the 2nd Monday of each month On the 2nd Monday our club meetings will be cancelled due to a schedule conflict with our mandatory staff meeting.
Upcoming Mondays (Including non-meeting days for staff meetings and holidays)
10/21, 10/28, 11/4, STAFF MEETING 11/11, 11/18, 11/25, 12/2, STAFF MEETING 12/9, 12/16, WINTER BREAK 12/23 & 12/30, 1/6, STAFF MEETING 01/13, MLK JR DAY 1/20, 1/27, 2/03, STAFF MEETING 2/10, PRESIDENT'S DAY 2/17, 02/24, 3/3, STAFF MEETING 3/10, PD DAY 3/17, 3/24, 3/31, 4/7, SPRING BREAK 4/14 & 4/21, 4/28, 5/5, STAFF MEETING 5/12, 5/19, MEMORIAL DAY 5/26, 6/2, 6/9, 6/16
Session 1 Recap
In a relatively short amount of time we made some characters and got a feel for the basics of a TTRPG by running a short session that involved time travel, cyber zombies, and a significant amount of stun setting.
Session 2 - Cypher System
Genre Pending
If it exists in a book, comic, or video, it's a genre that Cypher System can manage. Possibilities include but are not limited to Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Modern, Historical, Fairy tale, and Post-Apocalyptic. Characters can be just about anything, but I'd like to settle on a genre before we mesh those out.
Interests were everywhere when the question was poised Session 1, but more than one of you mentioned post-apocalyptic as a possibility, maybe combined with another genre. We'll be selecting something this time around, hopefully with input from our member who couldn't attend last session.
Character Creation
Character creation in most games is more involved than Lasers & Feelings, though Cypher System is easier than most.
I'll have a printed character sheet for each of you at the start of this session. I hope to get these all wrapped up in time to have a bit of actual campaigning, but minimum I'd like to have characters completed.
- Character Name
- This should not be YOUR name, as you are not your character.
- Character Descriptor
- There's lots of words that can describe characters. Picking one of the words below gives your character certain abilities in the game.
- Appealing, Beneficent, Brash, Calm, Charming, Clever, Creative, Empathetic, Exiled, Fast, Graceful, Guarded, Hardy, Honorable, Impulsive, Inquisitive, Intelligent, Intuitive, Jovial, Kind, Learned, Lucky, Mechanical, Mysterious, Mystical, Perceptive, Resilient, Risk-Taking, Rugged, Sharp-Eyed, Skeptical, Stealthy, Strong, Strong-Willed, Swift, Tough, Virtuous, Weird
- Character Type
- There are 4 types of characters that can be played in Cypher System, but each of these is highly customizable.
- Warrior (Examples: Fighters, Rogues, Thieves, Gimli, Legolas, Aragorn, soldiers, brawlers, Jedi/Sith, etc.)
- Explorer (Examples: Artificers, Mechanics, pilots, scientists, Indiana Jones, etc.)
- Adept (Examples: Wizards, sorcerers, clerics, druids, psychics, doctors, Jedi/Sith (again), etc.)
- Speaker (Examples: Diplomats, bards, doctors (again), spies, professors, etc.)
- There are 4 types of characters that can be played in Cypher System, but each of these is highly customizable.
- Foci
- Foci add an additional description and set of abilities to your character. These include the following:
- Absorbs Energy, Battles Robots, Builds Robots, Calculates the Incalculable, Commands Mental Powers, Conducts Weird Science, Dances With Dark Matter, Entertains, Fights With Panache, Focuses Mind Over Matter, Fuses Flesh and Steel, Fuses Mind and Machine, Hunts, Infiltrates, Interprets the Law, Is Idolized by Millions, Learns Quickly, Looks for Trouble, Loves The Void, Masters Defense, Masters Weaponry, Moves Like a Cat, Needs No Weapon, Never Says Die, Operates Undercover, Pilots Starcraft, Siphons Power, Solves Mysteries, Talks to Machines, Travels Through Time, Wears Power Armor, Works for a Living, Works the Back Alleys, Works the System, Would Rather Be Reading
- Foci add an additional description and set of abilities to your character. These include the following:
- Species
- Possible choices vary depending on the genre, but elves, anthropomorphic dogs, dragons, and robots have all been popular choices in the past. Of course, you can always choose to have your character be human.
- Why the characters are all working together.
- This is a big deal. If you don't have a team that wants to work together, they can end up ... not working together. A little chaos in a game can be fun, but only one person working towards the end goal is usually not fun for anyone.
Games so far: Lasers & Feelings, Cypher System