Tabletop

2 Comments on Romancing the Monkey Man: Og Unearthed Edition

  1. Max

    I just ran my first game of Og a couple of days ago, with my wife and a buddy who was visiting from another state. It was my wife’s first RPG and she loved it. We were wondering tho, if we were “doing it right”, because the limited vocabulary system didn’t come in to play as much as we thought it would. Now, maybe the scenario I wrote just didn’t require enough table talk, or maybe when the players were allowed to talk to me, the other player was using too much of that info to inform their next action? I don’t know, we had a blast, but were left thinking that we didn’t use the “words” system as much as we should have.

    • I’m glad you have fun!

      A bit of GM input on promoting the language limitation: I’ve found that the more concrete I made the challenges, the less likely language shenanigans were to happen. I learned to purposefully keep the stage sparse to allow my players to come up with their own wacky ideas and hatch their own hilariously misunderstood in-game plans.

      For example: I’ve started every game of Og I’ve run with the PC’s nice geothermally heated cave exploding as the volcano above them becomes active. I take the reigns for thirty seconds and narrate them running away with their tribe. After the right amount of running, the players stop at the edge of the jungle and see 100 red hungry eyes peering out from the shadows. The game starts with the players being stuck between a rupturing volcano and a dangerous jungle, surrounded by their fellow tribesmen asking where their next meal is coming from. Cue a hilarious discussion as to what to do next.

      The lack of guidance and detail really sets expectations well. When the first moment of player interaction is yelling “you go water” and “bang hairy thing” with lots of gesturing, you’re in for a fun night. It’s only getting sillier from there.

      Also: stay away from the combat at all costs. Takes precious minutes away from caveman hilarity!

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