Each year we celebrate Autocratik’s #RPGaDay, where we spend a month celebrating RPGs, discussing what we love and what we love about them. Here are the responses of the TRF crew. Be sure to tweet, blog, or post your own with the #RPGaDay!

For August 13, what makes a successful campaign?
Aser – A successful campaign comes from a good story that works for the players and the characters they’ve created. The simple things are always simple: the simple things, hard. 😛
John D. – The right game system, a good hook, a solid start with a strong plan for adventures down the road yet ability to follow the path the players take, and a committed yet flexible group. For us shorter campaigns or story arcs work best, with the possibility of returning to some of our characters again.
Jonn P.  – Probably my work life bleeding in here, but running a successful campaign has quite a few similarities with managing a successful project. The initiation phase or session zero, can make or breaks the campaign. These days, I dedicate few minute to the discussion of the issue during session zero that I would have spent multiple sessions trying to resolve back when I made my first attempts at to GM.
Landan – Cooperation amongst players and GM.
Megan – Buy in from everyone. When players or the GM stop being invested it becomes hard for everyone to stay motivated and involved.
Mike G. – A cohesive group and GM who are willing to focus on challenges and fun rather than rules.
Patrick – When everyone is invested in the characters and the adventure. It may not always be sunshine and roses but there is genuine care about the campaign.
Phil – Willingness to endure – it is hard to meet week after week for a long campaign that lasts months. I guess it comes down to the GM who has to work around players being there or not, making dumb choices, building useless characters, etc. Tough job!

Each year we celebrate Autocratik’s #RPGaDay, where we spend a month celebrating RPGs, discussing what we love and what we love about them. Here are the responses of the TRF crew. Be sure to tweet, blog, or post your own with the #RPGaDay!

For August 10, what is the largest in-game surprise you have experienced?

Aser – Listen to our Wicker Man episode. I’d never seen the movie, which should be obvious from the results.
John D. – Hmm… Maybe the whole group surviving our first Only War session? Oh, successfully summoning Azathoth was definitely unexpected!
Jonn P. – The sudden appearance of a deck of many things :/
Landan – DECK OF MANY THINGS
Megan – I think it tends to be when I kill of characters in games. I have to agree with Phil, Nigel’s death was super shocking for me. Also several deaths in Pathfinder, like Merrick’s.
Mike G. – Wait, the Emperor was a [sorta] good guy (Living Arcanis)?!?
Patrick – I had a GM that liked plot twists more than M. Knight Shyamalan. My biggest surprise was when there was no twist, just a straight forward job.
Phil – Nigel exit stage right? Losing two characters in one session of Scary on the Choo Choo when we were doing so well AND had a tommygun? One of them to another PC during a fight with the actual bad guys?? A PC who was sane when he shot his comrade???

Each year we celebrate Autocratik’s #RPGaDay, where we spend a month celebrating RPGs, discussing what we love and what we love about them. Here are the responses of the TRF crew. Be sure to tweet, blog, or post your own with the #RPGaDay!

For August 9, beyond the game, what’s involved in an ideal session?

Aser – I think the biggest thing that contributes to the success of a session is a real sense of comradeship between the people around the table. The shared experience of an RPG session is something built by the built through the collective efforts of all involved to elevate this simple act of a handful of people talking into a true adventure.
John D. – Laughter, friends, some personal ‘what’s up lately’ banter, planning the next session and at least one Simpsons reference.
Jonn P. – My ideal session would start with finding the right people. Interesting and responsible people provide an environment that is focused on creativity and having fun.
Landan – General chatting over some serious and not so serious stuff.
Megan – I love food around the table, though we don’t eat when recording TRF. But talking and catching up with friends is always the best.
Mike G. – A good meal, a chance to decompress after a week of work, and of course alcohol (especially during Fiasco!)
Patrick – I like to cook when I host games at my home. I feel that rather than just snacking the whole time a good meal and a few drinks can really bring folks into a game.
Phil – Lots of banter, good people.

Each year we celebrate Autocratik’s #RPGaDay, where we spend a month celebrating RPGs, discussing what we love and what we love about them. Here are the responses of the TRF crew. Be sure to tweet, blog, or post your own with the #RPGaDay!

For August 4, what is the most impressive thing another’s character did?

Aser – There is an episode of the Firefly Podcast that for some reason took a very determinative track that I think led to a natural conclusion. I wish I could tell you more, but I thought Phil played Jake perfectly and made a good and hard choice for his character and the story.
John D.  – Aser’s Only War Heavy Gunner saved the squad and the troops we rescued by dropping a grenade on the Orks … And blowing himself to smithereens and all over the squad.  We secured the promethium refinery!
Jonn P. – Gina Tarantino, an NPC. One of my breaking points had been to find out what happened to my character’s daughter. His daughter had been a pilot for Federal Express before she had died crashed. My character had believed it was foul play. He didn’t want to accept that her death had been purely an accident, but all the evidence just reinforced that it had been.
On my characters most recent investigation he got to work with a Gina who was supposedly a psychic who had been having a nightmare about ancient vampires in the catacombs beneath the Basilica in Vatican City. During the mission, she had been kidnapped and was being forced into being an Oracle. When my character tried to rescue Gina, her eyes had turned black. As soon as I got near her, she snapped out of her revere to say my daughter’s death hadn’t been an accident. I don’t usually react much to things like that, but the way the GM delivered it shocked me and my jaw actually dropped open. After she finished basking in the glow of her accomplishment, the GM just said, “Roll breaking point?”
I told her, “No…I think I’ll just go ahead and mark off the integrity.”
Landan – Well it was a group effort but I think the end product being a Flying Enraged Tiefling Barbarian is all that needs said.
Megan – I ran Castle Bravo at GeeklyCon, and the whole party wanted to murder the person they (rightly) suspected of being the bad guy. Except the Priest, who did everything he could to stop them because it went against the character’s morals. The player obviously knew it wasn’t the best move for the party, but it was 100% true to what the character would do and I really liked that. My characters tend to just become amoral really quickly to try avoid inter-party conflict.
Mike G. –  Watching our party’s barbarian in Dungeon World rush the goblin shaman and clearing the bridge for the party.
Patrick – Back in 2003 I was involved in a game of 3.5, the party Bard ended a conflict between a large tribe of Lizardmen and a human village entirely through roleplay and a few perform rolls. He composed a ballad about peace from the top of his head on the spot and convinced the Lizardman Cheiftan that his shaman had been conspiring against him. I still try to live up to that moment to this day and have yet to come close.
Phil – Tough pick, in Firefly there are many memorable moments as it’s such a character-driven game. The apple-throwing (spoiler!) is magnifique! In TRF I particularly remember one Horror on the Orient character and his final dark walk into the embrace of subterranean waters… But Beyond the Threshold has so many great moments too, go Team Grenade!

Each year we celebrate Autocratik’s #RPGaDay, where we spend a month celebrating RPGs, discussing what we love and what we love about them. Here are the responses of the TRF crew. Be sure to tweet, blog, or post your own with the #RPGaDay!

For August 3, what is the character moment you are proudest of?

Aser – Looking back, I can’t honestly think of a character moment I’m “proud” of. The closest thing I can think of is a scenario set on an aircraft carrier when my character rode an atomic bomb as it plunged towards the spawn of an elder God. That was kind of cool…
John D. – Probably The Strange when Agent Bradley Davis was the only one to look back at the planetvore eating the enemy fortress and realized his brother’s sacrifice was worth it.
Jonn P. – I’d have to say it happened during a Hunters game. I was playing Marshall Barsoom, a retired Airforce colonel, who had volunteered at Camp Northstar in Florida. The company running the camp had drawn out a local cryptid, a skin-changer. They were using the creature to harvest fear and profit off the wealthy students by providing the leadership opportunity of rescuing the low-income campers from the skin-changer. Unbeknownst to the any of the students, the head counselor had given the wealthy students a charm to protect them from the monster. Marshall had worked out that the friendship bracelets were the protective charm and using his leadership skills he lead a group of camp kids in creating enough friendship bracelets for themselves and the other camp kids. The moment when he charged into the fray unarmed save for two fist fulls of friendship bracelets was probably one of my most memorable moments in a game ever.
Landan – The most current one I can think of is when Megan let my character Sir Eliath Guinness use his Lion’s Shield Magical Bite attack to prevent him from falling off of a cliff.
Megan – I think it might be Captain Myra Cole’s decision at the battle near Orion’s Light on Firefly Podcast.
Mike G. – This year, my Loremouse (MouseGuard) rushing the traitor with an axe and planting it right into him! Go team bookworm!
Patrick – I once had a Halfing thief that had been practice with garrotes since the beginning of the adventure and I wanted to live the dream of using a locking garrote from D&D 3.5. Our party was trying to track down a cult that was attempting to summon a demon and sent me in to infiltrate the compound and find the ritual chamber, which I did. Just after the Thorn demon had been summoned. The cultists rushed out of the room as my party made a ruckus outside in the courtyard as planned, leaving me to deal with the freshly summoned demon. Long story short after attempting to lock the garrote on the demon’s throat for six rounds I finally had done it and then promptly succumbed to the massive bleeding caused by the demon’s thorny exterior, but not before lighting his last bit of pipeweed. The rest of the party charged into the ritual chamber expecting the boss fight (I had been moved to another room for my recon job) and found a strangled demon, and a dead, smiling halfling with a lit pipe hanging from his mouth.
Phil – Jake’s poignant scenes in Firefly podcast. Or Nigel’s demise (thanks Megan!).

Each year we celebrate Autocratik’s #RPGaDay, where we spend a month celebrating RPGs, discussing what we love and what we love about them. Here are the responses of the TRF crew. Be sure to tweet, blog, or post your own with the #RPGaDay!

For August 2, what has been your best game session since August 2015?

Aser – There have been so many, it’s really hard to pick one that stands out as the best. If I had to pick though, I’d have to say it would be the Delta Green game I ran at GeeklyCon, the first time I’d ever run a game in person. I am so glad it was Delta Green, that I was able to introduce the game to a whole new group of players, and that they had fun watching their whole world come apart around them. I love it when everyone around the table buys into the particular brand of crazy the GM is selling and business was good that afternoon.
John D.  – Wow, that’s tough.  Maybe the playtest for Delta Green’s ‘The Star Chamber’ as we each had two characters and the stories kept contradicting each other. Megan GM’d that real tight too.
Jonn P. – That is a hard decision because there have been a few over the past year. I narrowed it down to two sessions and but will talk about the one that doesn’t contain Rising Awakening spoilers.
My Wednesday gaming crew wrapped up a year-long campaign called Mysterious Tavern. It was mostly collaborative storytelling game—the D&D ruleset got incidental usage. The GM had presented a whimsical setting where the is a strong sense of realism, with sudden jarring shifts towards the stylized. Khyrs is good at changing the mood and tone to warp tradition themes and challenge PC way of thinking.
I was playing Captain Morgan Roberts; a merchant-rogue turn corsair who was chivalrous but suffered from alcoholism and an irrational hatred for spell casters. During the session, she revealed that the adolescent child that he’d grown attached had hidden the fact she was skilled sorceress in addition to being the younger sister of a sorceress he had been butting heads with the majority of the campaign. The conflict created by the clashing of the relationship, his beliefs, and his motivations—not to mention the present danger—made for some great drama and memorable spotlight moment for Morgan in the campaign.
Landan – In Rise of the Runelords when Megan had a Deck of Many things pop up in the loot and amazing things happened.
Megan – I think the finale of Mysteries of the Ninth World, episode 25. It was the wrap up of the first long term campaign I wrote myself, and I put a lot of planning into the whole thing. Seeing it all culminate in a really great session was very rewarding.
Mike G. – We played a Fiasco game where we all belonged to a community theater. The way we messed with each other throughout, had to go “off script” at random moments, and just how dark and sinister the  hole thing became still makes me laugh at odd moments.
Patrick – Mostly spoiler free : It involves a Wendigo, a Bronze Dragon, and a really really good good initiative roll.
Phil – There are too many to pick one, but many of them involve beheadings…

Each year we celebrate Autocratik’s #RPGaDay, where we spend a month celebrating RPGs, discussing what we love and what we love about them. Here are the responses of the TRF crew. Be sure to tweet, blog, or post your own with the #RPGaDay!

For August 1, Real dice, dice app, diceless, how do you prefer to ‘roll’?

Aser – I like real dice, the feel of a tangible expression of the probabilities at work. Random number generators may offer a purer randomness than these little pieces of plastic, but feeling and hearing the dice tumble and roll imparts something special to the roll. Even if the randomness is more illusory given the nature of the game, isn’t that part of the fantasy too?
In another important sense, the dice I use are a constant reminder of the inventiveness and inclusiveness of the tabletop gaming community. I use Braille dice, designed by a woman who wanted her friend to be able to experience this iconic activity that forms such a major part of the hobby and brought to fruition through funding from hundreds of people on Kickstarter who thought the idea was worth making a reality. One of our players also bought me a full set of these dice and then some, one of the most meaningful and profoundly appreciated gifts I have ever received.
John D. – Real dice for the true randomness and sound but often online I have been using a free app.
Jonn P. – Real dice when the system is straight forward like fate, savage worlds, etc. For systems like 3.5/Pathfinder with a bunch situational modifiers and iterative attacks, dice apps to preserve what remains of my sanity.
Landan – I prefer to roll dice whenever possible, but in some instances I like digital rollers if it is a ton of dice to make the math quicker.
Megan – I prefer real dice. There’s just something satisfying about listening to them roll. But if I’m rolling more then 10 dice, I’m probably going to use a roller.
Mike G. – Real dice, and I prefer to roll.
Patrick – 100% real dice, forged in the fires of Hades, and kissed by Fortuna on my namesday.
Phil – I prefer a dice app for convenience (esp for dice-heavy games like firefly) but what RPG fan doesn’t like rattling the bones for real…