Some time ago, my friend and mutual Rob MacWolf aka Ajani On-the-Spot asked if I wanted to take part in a project of his.
Resident good person Sahoni recently wrapped up on the core mechanics of his tabletop RPG, Exceptionals. Inspired by X-Men, Exceptionals is “a game about community, activism, and kinetic eye beams”. (You can find out more from Sahoni’s thread here.)
From that description alone, I already knew this was going to be fun to take part in. And along with Rob, our other party members were played by Nenekiri Bookwyrm and Khaki Canidae, with Sahoni as Editor. (This game’s version of a GM.) Together, we all set a date, created our characters, and started our one-off session.
You can listen to the complete adventure in the podcast episodes below, or direct through this link:
This was some of the most fun I’ve had in quarantimes, and I was more than happy to set aside the time to take part.
Something that didn’t come through in the recording, but that I nonetheless want to call attention to, is that the rule book for the game does more than just explain how to set up and play Exceptionals. It also included a ton of tips and advice for people who may be relative novices to tabletop gaming, like me, to better create a welcoming environment conducive to playing a game with people.
I also had a very strong fondness for how, particularly in character/base creation, all of us brought in experiences and memories from our real life experiences and incorporated them into the setting of the game. Not only did that add so much flavor to what we were building, but it gave us a way to share part of ourselves with each other. That’s just tabletop gaming at it’s best.
The other thing that made me happy was seeing that every single person in the group, despite none of our characters having any combat-oriented powers, had an opportunity to “be the hero”.
I hope this is as much fun for you to listen to as it was for us to produce. 🙂
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