Welcome to Roadworthy! Today we give another Road Crew Judge a moment to share their experience and wisdom. We hope that these profiles help provide insight into their personality and style, and maybe give up-and-coming Judges some advice on improving their game.
The Road Crew theme for 2018 is Strange New Worlds! Head out and find unique places to run games for willing participants. Get creative! Run some games at a coffee shop! Or on a plane while taking a trip! Or…wherever the urge takes you! Who knows, maybe we’ll take notice and put you up on our website. Jump on into the Road Crew program for your chance!
This time out we cross the big pond to show off Judge Glue of Valencia, Spain!
Roadworthy: Judge Glue
What’s your name, where do you live (and game), and how would you describe yourself?
Hi everyone, my name is Karim and I go by Judge Glue. I currently live and game in Valencia, Spain.
“Obsessed” should be a fair description of myself, obviously tabletop RPGs are now making the list of obsessions like hardcore punk & art. It’s a double edged sword but I try to get the most of it for my peers.
How did you first discover DCC?
My exposure to tabletop RPGs has been extremely erratic since the early 90’s (just browsing rulebooks in 7th grade) and I really started playing when joining the Pathfinder Society in Ireland in 2017.
DCC RPG came up in a few discussions with my GM and venture-agent who backed the 4th printing, my curiosity grew until I picked up the Quick Start Rules in Dublin on Free RPG Day.
Upon reading it, I felt the urge to run The Portal Under The Stars to a forgiving bunch of Pathfinder Society Ireland friends (my GM included), a work colleague and my wife (for her 1st game ever) in a loud as hell Dublin pub two days before flying to Spain. Needless to say it was exhilarating.
As of “right now,” how many Road Crew games have you run in 2017?
In 2017, I ran 5 DCC Road Crew Games and recently just ran the first game for 2018, I’ve barely scratched the surface.
What’s your favorite Road Crew game experience so far?
They Served Brandolyn Red was the adventure that engaged the players the most, with a balanced mixture of intrigue and dungeon crawling. The module was smooth to run for a new Judge like me, but so far I’ve enjoyed all the games, watching players having fun and taking unexpected routes is gold.
Tell us where you run your Road Crew games.
As of this interview, Vitruvian Games and Goblin Trader Valencia are the go-to places to run games, so shout out to Román and Guille, they make the F in FLGS and are practically allowing our RPG Meetup group to be active.
What advice would you give to other Road Crew judges?
With my tiny experience I may only give a few practical insights to new hobbyists or players hesitating to run Road Crew Games. It’ll probably come off as a surprise that I haven’t even played DCC before running it, if anyone thinks it’s a prerequisite.
The biggest challenge was to find players since I was a massive newbie moving abroad and not speaking the language, so if you don’t have any gaming group, check the local forums, create or join a meet up, chat with the staff at local game stores and scout for venues that could host public games and advertise the events there.
Then, at the table, start with a short and sweet 0-level funnel that you’re excited about and play for a couple of hours to fit everyone’s busy schedule. The players will come again if you managed to condense the fun with memorable game moments. They also can be very supportive if they know that you’re starting out—at least that’s how I felt and why I kept coming back to share this collective awesomeness.
Thanks for checking out my profile, hope it’ll inspire some of you to take the first step.
