Table top RPGs

[ABNorman]

Anybody else fond of throwing some dice around and doing silly voices?

[ABNorman]

We've played The Quiet Year and I really enjoyed it.

Sort of macro-level world creation - you start with a map that you draw a few things on ("Over here, we have an abundance of trees with magical fruit", "down here is our drug den", etc), and then you collaboratively come up with a year's worth of history, drawing more things on the map as you go, so you end up with a neatly encapsulated summary of the session.

We also gave Microscope a go, which is a similar conceit, though over a larger time scale. It was a bit too free form for us - The Quiet Year had a few more rules in place to help guide things along.

[ABNorman]

In terms of more traditional RPGs, my group has roundly rejected Dungeons and Dragons for being too combat-heavy (and it's true, man, fights take ages).

We've played one session of Dungeon World and it seems promising - a lot more streamlined and roleplay-focused.

Tonight we're trying Blades in the Dark, which sounds awesome: you play a bunch of Cyberpunk Ocean's 11 types pulling off heists, but the whole point is you don't plan the heist in advance, you just leap in, and every time there's a complication, you can go "No, it's OK - I sorted this out beforehand", and then you play a little flashback scene where you, eg, bribed the guard, or prepped an EMP to knock out the power.

Should be fun!