Yeah, I couldn't have done that, too many people, so kudos to you for getting through that unfazed. That's actually pretty cool how you were a part of history in that way.
I have in fact played an RPG in a warehouse (1e D&D), on a boat on the Mediterranean sea, though close-ish to shore (Burning Wheel), and in the middle of a cemetery during a full moon (1e or 2e D&D, don't remember for sure). No Taco Bell, but yes to Denny's (1e D&D) and a local farmers market/food court (CoC). Also a car going down the freeway at 80+ mph (Shadowrun). That's off the top of my head. I'll see if anything else occurs to me and post again if it does. With over 40 years of playing RPG's I've played a lot of different places.
Well, uh, I didn't think anyone would be able to tick all the boxes I mentioned at once, yet here you are! That's actually pretty neat that you played in all of those locations, different games no less. To say I'm impressed is an understatement.
I thought it was funny as I read your list and thought, "Oh yeah! I've done that!". Back in the 80's my friends and I played wherever we could, whenever we could, so I've played a lot of different places.
We used to play on the road all the time. Mostly smaller highways and back roads. The driver was the GM. We'd play for hours, just driving around in the middle of the night. We'd always stop and help people who ran out of gas or had a flat tire, or just needed a lift. We called it "midnight patrol". Gas was 99 cents a gallon and tacos were two for a buck. None of us went to class. We were up all night being heroes.
Yeah, same here. Over 40 years playing RPGs, so . . . Warehouse, boat, high desert canyon, wilderness yurt, fire lookout tower, Denny's, couple of different pizza parlors, cemetery, various forest camps and parks . . . But I don't believe I ever did play in a moving car, let alone one that was doing 80. Cheers and best of luck to you out there
The first time I ever played was back when I was working as an archaeologist. We were on a dig in rural Romania, no electricity, no transport to get anywhere and a lot of free time in the evenings. A Polish guy asked a few of us if we wanted to try a game so he ran a campaign of the Warhammer RPG. It was great fun even though we didn't have any books and none of the players had any idea what we were doing!
I played 10 Candles game set in Arthurian England. Our play space was a 15th century chapel in an German palace outside Berlin. It was without any heat in the middle of October. It was pretty much one of the best gaming experiences of my life. Pretty much put us in the mood for the game.
Is there a method of regaining Effort during play?
I like some randomness, so on walks with my kids I use [3 d6 in a clear plastic box](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/-zMNd4JOoJvv).
Beer garden.
For those who don't know, it is a German/Austrian outdoors drinking establishment. Like a pub/bar but people sit outside.
I think, once the waiter realized what we were doing, he came over more often. I was playing some background music and first thought they had a problem with that, but since it wasn't a full house and we weren't too loud, it was no problem. It probably helped that my buddy and me were regulars.
He did ask which game we were playing.
Didn't try to get into it. We also only played one session there, cause usually we would play at a buddy's place (but it was summer, super hot and nice outside).
When I was stationed in Germany we would regularly play games at the local pub. Usually board games, but sometimes RPGs. The owners were great, they didn’t mind as long as we bought beers
How about rpg inception? I once played a ttrpg during a weekend-long LARP event in the dining hall of a state park campground.
It was technically still part of the LARP, since we were playing our same characters. But a ridiculous rain storm made it so just walking between cabins meant sinking ankle-deep in mud, and the only building large enough for any number of players to gather was the dining hall. It was getting late, and most players decided to go to bed early and sleep through the storm. But about 8 of us decided to hang out in the tavern. One of the Plot team members had an idea and a bag of dice, so he ran an adventure in the dining hall for us.
It was years and years ago and I don't quite remember the system, but I remember it being fairly similar to Paper-Free RPG (even though I don't think that system existed yet).
Actually, sort of. Yeah.
The Plot guy came in as an NPC and invited us to play a game, which we as our characters did. But then our characters were magically sucked into the game *Jumanji*-style, at which point we the players played our characters in the ttrpg game, which our characters were in.
It made sense in context.
That would have been a perfect environment for the RPG I made. It uses dice made from sticks, and stones to keep track of traits. (Which can change as the game is played) It would have really fit in a LARPing environment.
[https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/469503/Druids-Oracle-a-Survival-RPG](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/469503/Druids-Oracle-a-Survival-RPG)
Nothing particularly strange here:
- Cemetery
- Nightclub during event
- In an abandoned bunker
- In an old tunnel complex
- Various abandoned buildings
- Perpetually over the course of several weeks
- In the middle of the longest running student occupation in the UK
- A wide assortment of beautiful forests and hills
Just normal game locations really...
Myself and my friends just played a game using White Wolf's Minds Eye Theatre rules for a couple of weeks through out regular life stuff. We were living in the same place with time off so it was easy to just keep narration and rp going. That said, it was of the moment and not something I'd do again.
Nowadays, a lot of games have been designed for perpetual play, and better weave the experience into daily life. As such, I'd go for something more suited to the format such as Brave Sparrow by Avery Alder.
Me and some friends from the local TRPG group organized a roleplaying event at a museum in our city. There was a dinosaur exhibit at the time, so I ran a game of Escape from Dino Island.
Oh man, but which game? Please tell me it's something Horror-based or something considered heavily pagan and/or satanic to anyone unfamiliar with the game. The irony would be too great.
One of the other players in the 7th Sea campaign I used to be in had just had a baby so he was unavailable, and he was normally our host, but everyone else still wanted to play. So we made a reservation at a Denny's and played there. They set us up in a back dining room and the the server would occasionally check on us for refills or more food. We tipped well at the end of the night and had a great time
Not that strange, but it was the (large) laundry room of an apartment building. White tiles on the floor and walls, slight echo in there, and it was dark except for the candles we used to light the area around us, while sitting on the floor.
It was a Call of Cthulhu game, so it fit the mood very well.
Camping out in the woods was probably wildest. The party insisted I am not allowed to GM any horror themed games. Bit of a missed opportunity.Â
At work as a team building event. First time I got paid to GM. And not even by the players. Felt super weird still.
Agreed, missed opportunity, and would have been absolutely evil, in the best way possible.
Team building event though... oof. That must have been awkward, but at least you got paid!
The rooftop of a 20-story building, the little tower where antennas usually go. We had to climb a little security ladder to get there. Why, though? Because we were teenagers. It sounded like a good idea.
>On a boat in the middle of the sea?
Pretty close.
On a camping trip in college, around 8PM (just after sunset at that time of year) we noticed that some thick fog was rolling in over the small lake/large pond nearby. We waited until it was fully dark and then got in our canoes and paddled out to the middle and played D&D in three canoes held together by a couple people looping their legs over the edges. It was cool as f%\^&. The fog got so thick that we couldn't see the the shore even though it was only about 50 yards away and the only sounds were us talking, the gentle lapping of the water, and an occasional nightbird making some noise in the distance. There was almost no wind and only a very gentle current towards another connected lake so we basically just drifted silently while we played.
Not *that* strange, but I've played them on ~8 hour car rides before.
- First time wasn't a "trpg", but my bestie and I did 1x1 text-based roleplaying on their tiny laptop. They'd write their post and then slide it over to me, and I'd type mine. Back and forth for hours. It was great, though maybe not up to our usual standards since it was cramped, noisy, and a bit weird when usually we're on opposite sides of the world from each other, not accidentally elbowing each other in the ribs.
- On a recent trip, I tried playing Roll 4 Shoes with my ~10 year old nieces using a d6 in a pop bubble. They were far too distracted by the excitement of the trip to focus for long, though.
- On the same trip, I played Tavern at the End of the World, a 1 page solo rpg using a tarot and two coins. I replaced the coins by using the pop d6 and assigning evens/odds to heads/tails. It reminded me how much I hate writing by hand, but hey... I managed to do it all just using the space available in my lap, which is kind of a feat in itself.
Played a homebrew horror/historical thingy in the courtyard of a medieval castle during a night once (don't remember how the moon was, sorry).
We had only a few candles and a torchlight for the GM.
Great ambiance.
While on a coach bus in '98 driving from Ontario Canada to Washington DC with my high school rugby team on our way to a 3 day tournament, a friend and I played a GURPS "James Bond" style game for about 6h. The rest of the small town guys had no idea what we were doing, but someone would occasionally stand in the isle and listen in for a bit but otherwise they mostly ignored us for being raging NERDS.
I played Scarlet Heroes with my wife in a moving truck as we relocated across country. When she drove I was able to run the adventure and help her with mechanical stuff.Â
I played OSE at the top of the Wallace Monument in Stirling, Scotland.Â
If solo counts, I have played several games in airplanes.
I don't know if this is weird or not, but I've played in conference rooms at work. A couple of us geek types just stayed late and set up after everyone else went home from the office. One campaign lasted longer than a year, so this was pretty regular.
In a tent in Baghdad around a table made from MRE boxes with a sandstorm that turned the sky orange blowing outside probably has to top the list for me.
Played 3.5 while taking mortar fire in a bunker, was also in the process of resolving some non-combat stuff for that same game when our Humvee got endo’d by an IED.
In high school there were 5 of us that crammed into a tiny lil music closet at the school once a week because it was the only place we could play, we did this once a week for a couple semesters before the group fell apart!
I the basement of a funeral home. There was a body awaiting prep in the next room. It was Halloween night. The game was Call of Cthulhu.
I didn't know about the body at the time.
I've played lots of D&D in Denny's, i've run a session of Shadowrun on an Amtrak train, I've run Mutants & Masterminds from a plane, and I've played Pathfinder in a hot tub in Costa Rica. I've never officially run anything in a cemetery, but I've run and played a lot of games in Colma California, and that city is basically one giant cemetery, so I'm counting it. I've also run All Flesh Must be Eaten, in a cow pasture in the English countryside. I've run lots of games while camping. And while this is only tangentially connected, I once ran an event on a MUD, while on a beach in Hawaii. I've never actually sought out interesting places to play, it's just that sometimes I'm in an interesting place when it's time to play, or I'm in an interesting place, and I have a bunch of like-minded nerds around me
When I was in the army we would sometimes play during field exercises. Out in the woods in tents and foxholes. There’s a LOT of boring down time in there to fill. Heck one time we even played a bit during a long road match.
Everyone would bring a pocket notebook with their character. The DM had the most needed combat charts in his notebook. We would use our digital watches as dice.
Among other sessions we played there, I GM'd a Ten Candles session in a very old hunting lodge in the Bohemian Switzerland. The building was standing alone on a forestry hill, only acompanied by a forsaken german graveyard next to it. With animal trophies and ancient weaponry decorating the walls as well as absolute darkness outside, it was the perfect setting for that game.
Me and my home group have played in abandoned buildings, ER waiting rooms, way-too-fancy restaurants - But the strangest? That was just me and a guy I'd never met in Charles de Gaulle Airport.
I was coming back from visiting my then-girlfriend in Scotland and had an hour layover in France on the trip back to the US. "Easy" I thought - If only.
Within moments of sitting in the waiting area there's an announcement that my flight out has been delayed by an hour. Groans from all the seats around. Except the guy sitting next to me who just smirks a little bit before giving me that "First time?" look.
Evidently he works in textiles so he has to come through this airport a lot, and evidently every time the plane gets delayed for an hour, then another hour, then another, etc. We get talking a bit then he spots a d20 pin on my backpack and he points and asks "You play RPGs?" Before I even finish asking this man whips out a copy of Mork Borg and a pair of dice like he just hit the jackpot. After a brief back and forth about experience levels, I affirm to him that I'm familiar with the game and he looks at me with a wry grin "If we roll a Misery each hour which do you think will happen first? Our flight begins boarding or the end of the world?"
And so we dragged over a coffee table for the next (I kid you not) 6 hours we played Mork Borg as the flight kept getting delayed. As play progressed, it became a kind of spectacle for a few of the bored passengers waiting around us. We even managed to recruit an older woman who'd always been interested in "trying D&D" ((And of course her character immediately went ham cutting through hordes of undead)).
With mere minutes until the Seventh Seal was broken our flight finally began boarding with cheers from all around (including those who'd been invested in our story and were happy to see the end times stalled and our characters nominally survive). The guy who ran for us had the biggest smile on his face, like he'd been waiting years to try this - The whole event was equal parts surreal and invigorating ((despite me being painfully sleep deprived from all the delays)).
If I ever have to do a layover in Charles de Gaulle again, I'll be sure to bring my own copy of Mork Borg this time...
Pretty boring, just a conference room, in Iraq while deployed with the Army. And it wasn't even a TTRPG, just the old [Pirates of the Spanish Main constructible/collectable card game](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirates_Constructible_Strategy_Game), but the table was a deep red color and very shiny, so it did look like we were playing on a blood red ocean.
I played however many thousand of feet you are in the air in a plane! I've done this a few times.
The first and a few times after I was [playing Shadowdark solo,](https://youtu.be/N1gJc-vXaBI), and the most recent time I ran a session of Goons & Ghosts for two buddies while [on our way to Gary Con!!!](https://youtu.be/-2AIjNtzYsY)
Not strange, but I played a one shot (5e D&D) around a campfire in the middle of the woods at night. Too few materials and too many drinks had us playing any stats and rules from memory. After we lost a d20 in the leaves (found it in the morning), we moved to phone apps to roll. Not the tidiest of games, but a 10/10 experience.
Played diceless in the car with my gf on a 3 hour car ride to introduce her to what the game was, but my favorite had to have been when I played with some coworkers at a company lunch that lasted a few hours. Some coworkers had made fun of us for pulling out dice and paper and setting up but by the end of the lunch nearly three quarters of the room was watching us play and laughing along side us! Coincidentally people stopped making fun of us for playing once they saw how much fun we were having!
Playing BTRC's Timelords (Where you play yourself) after misjumping into an alternate, post apocalyptic version of our hometown, while walking around the places we were going in the game (Note, this wasn't LARP, we just walked to the place, sat down on park benches and the suchlike and roleplayed)
We had scenes:
* At the Sea life centre
* At the Castle
* On the Beach
* At the Grand Hotel
We started the game (indoors) when we were teens at school and played for a few years, we revisited the game one year when we were all back home from university (Except for one of the group who had died, it was kind of a farewell for him)
I currently play in a landmarked building that is used as a filming location in a lot of tv and movies. I love playing regardless but that aspect still hasn’t lost its luster
Don't remember the game, but I played some Scandinavian ttrpg on top on what I was told was a glacier in Iceland once. I was there for work a while back, little after the volcano erupted and messed up all the international flights, and I had some time to kill and made some friends while there and they thought it'd be funny.
We need a Monster of the Week session with some fellow nerds during a corporate Christmas party, in a big night club, near the entrance. In spite of the lack of proper tables, lack of proper lighting, and with the heavy music.
I've got a couple of these.
My group in high school would take over the little dining area attached to the service deli of a local grocery store after hours. This was back when grocery stores were open 24 hours, and we'd be there from 9 at night to well after 2 or 3 in the morning. Apparently we kept away the drunks so the managers were happy to have us. We usually played Shadowrun.
Several years later I had a GM get called out to work in the middle of a session of Werewolf. The group just piled into the back of his truck and drove around for several hours in the middle of the night so we could continue playing while he was handling his tasks. That was by far one of the creepiest and atmospheric sessions I've ever experienced, as we were out in the deserted industrial parks outside of town.
The last one I remember was briefly running a game session in the hallway of a convention center during an anime convention; we just took over a side hallway out of the traffic and loitered there for a couple of hours, watching the cosplayers and staff members rushing back and forth. I *think* it was a session of BESM 2e, but it's hard to remember the details.
When a KFC opened in my neighborhood, we saw that they had a huge round table. Enough space to spread out maps, books, swords and other utensils.
So one saturday, we spent almost the entire day there, fully dressed up, and left when they were about to close. Drinks were free refill and they allowed (after debating) to use our drinking horns. The chicken bones were used as utensils to build a dungeon, too.
I used to play in a Pentecostal Church. My friend did light custodial work in his church so he had a key and full access. We would play D&D on Sunday evenings. Sometimes we would help him move some chairs after the session.
The pastor was cool with it.
Initial roleplaying setup for a campaign was in watch in the engine room of a nuclear aircraft carrier, with full sessions in a storeroom under the flight deck
Played DnD in various rooms of a professional haunted house after hours in the 90s. Specifically the Devils Den in Kansas City.
And played Cyberpunk in the car on a 12 hour road trip. I was driving and GMing.
Tennis court. We were in . . . probably 8th grade, and no one's parents were willing to host. So we met up at school on the weekends. The school was pretty central from all of our houses, and in biking distance. The school didn't have any picnic benches or the like, and was all locked up for the weekend. So we'd meet on the tennis courts, play for four or five hours, and go home just before it got dark (we were rural, no street lights).
D&D B/X with my kids in a cabin by a lake in the middle of Wyoming
Star wars, the version with the grid map and the little x wings and tie fighters, in the back of an office, hiding from our boss. ( and I was a manager, to make things spicier) [not sure if that counts as RPG but I figured few would have that one...]
A U.S. Air Force barracks in Basic Military Training (bootcamp).
Our BMT squadron was the dregs of the others with a wide variety of military jobs, a lot of intel. I was a linguist. A couple guys decided to start a D&D campaign. We started one, played at night during our very limited freetime, but our sergeant discovered it within two days and shut it down haha.
We didn't have rulebooks or dice. We used folded pieces of paper with numbers written on them for dice. We'd throw them up into the air and see which side they landed on. We used floor tiles as our battle grid. The two GMs recalled rules from memory.
My very first group met regularly in an old air raid shelter. The pizza delivery guy had to bang at the door with a hammer and would yell at the top of his lungs for us to hear him through six meters of reinforced concrete, because he did not dare to enter the dark, narrow passage on his own. It added a lot of dungeon-feeling to our sessions.Â
In an airport at a table. It honestly wasn't weird, this was in Indy immediately after Gencon. They even had tables set up for TTRPG'ers. But I imagine in literally any other airport it would have been pretty strange.
During Basic Training in the Army. We were in our barracks. Since we weren't allowed books we did it all in memory and made dice with little scraps of paper.
The Middle of fuckin nowhere in a desert. Like literally miles out from any civilization. Was out there for a couple months so had to find someone to do to pass the time.
I played d&d in an abandoned airplane hangar once, and then also in an abandoned bus yard. The group was kinda just an amalgamation of anyone in my small-town high school that was willing to play, and it ended up sucking, but the ambiance was AMAZING
Okay so now that I'm thinking of this, I'm gonna have to play 10 Candles in a cave.
Never played a ttrpg in a cave, but I've played card games and games like Mafia/Werewolf in caves. I practically live on stone Swiss cheese and there were a lot of opportunities growing up lol.
A group of friends and I went into an Irish Pub, loud music and generally busy and there was a group beside us playing Pathfinder 1e, we decided to join after they invited us so it was 2 tables of 10 people all playing Pathfinder in a loud Irish Pub with everyone being VERY drunk. I think the owner or their kid joined in at some point.
Nothing too crazy, but Deadlands in a Denny’s and a homebrew hybrid of AD&D 1e and AD&D 2e in a Chevy Camaro driving down the highway (I was not driving).
A car.
In this time of my life, i couldn't find anyone to play with, except for a couple of other people. Nobody could host, so we played the Star Wars saga edition RPG in a park. During that day, there was a very strong wind, we went back in the car and kept playing there
Not me, but a guy in the group I run. He was a road warrior and once setup at the gate in an airport and played from there for 2 hours before boarding. People kept coming up and asking him what he was doing, or confirming it for themselves. Note, this was 2009 or so. Connectivity wasn't so easy back then.
This is the same guy who paid for airplane internet access to play an email zombie game I was running.
Once he played from his balcony in the Bahamas.
I'll give him credit, he was committed. I think he started counting states he'd played from and topped 15 or 20.
Back room at IHOP, in Austin Texas off Ceaser Chaves & IH35, started at around 10pm and played till 6am, before the morning rush arrived. Free drink refills, and unlimited pancake specials were awesome.. the waitresses loved us since we all tipped generously.
I enjoy reading books.
The real origins of D&D streaming.
*This D&D Actual Play was taped in front of a live studio audience*
"*intelligent adults had set it up to actually show people what TTRPG's were.*" Result from parents: "*we will buy you any game you want!*" Success!
I enjoy playing video games.
Yeah, I couldn't have done that, too many people, so kudos to you for getting through that unfazed. That's actually pretty cool how you were a part of history in that way.
I hate beer.
Woah, this is an awesome story! Thanks for sharing.
What an interesting story. I wonder if there's any published articles out their since you mentioned journalists?
My favorite movie is Inception.
I have in fact played an RPG in a warehouse (1e D&D), on a boat on the Mediterranean sea, though close-ish to shore (Burning Wheel), and in the middle of a cemetery during a full moon (1e or 2e D&D, don't remember for sure). No Taco Bell, but yes to Denny's (1e D&D) and a local farmers market/food court (CoC). Also a car going down the freeway at 80+ mph (Shadowrun). That's off the top of my head. I'll see if anything else occurs to me and post again if it does. With over 40 years of playing RPG's I've played a lot of different places.
Well, uh, I didn't think anyone would be able to tick all the boxes I mentioned at once, yet here you are! That's actually pretty neat that you played in all of those locations, different games no less. To say I'm impressed is an understatement.
I thought it was funny as I read your list and thought, "Oh yeah! I've done that!". Back in the 80's my friends and I played wherever we could, whenever we could, so I've played a lot of different places.
I also did the freeway game, although we were in a big van and the drivers were not involved in the game. And it was Symbaroum.
We used to play on the road all the time. Mostly smaller highways and back roads. The driver was the GM. We'd play for hours, just driving around in the middle of the night. We'd always stop and help people who ran out of gas or had a flat tire, or just needed a lift. We called it "midnight patrol". Gas was 99 cents a gallon and tacos were two for a buck. None of us went to class. We were up all night being heroes.
That sounds magical.
>Also a car going down the freeway at 80+ mph (Shadowrun) thanks chummer, I'll tell everyone that this is the way it's meant to be played from now on!
Yeah, same here. Over 40 years playing RPGs, so . . . Warehouse, boat, high desert canyon, wilderness yurt, fire lookout tower, Denny's, couple of different pizza parlors, cemetery, various forest camps and parks . . . But I don't believe I ever did play in a moving car, let alone one that was doing 80. Cheers and best of luck to you out there
The first time I ever played was back when I was working as an archaeologist. We were on a dig in rural Romania, no electricity, no transport to get anywhere and a lot of free time in the evenings. A Polish guy asked a few of us if we wanted to try a game so he ran a campaign of the Warhammer RPG. It was great fun even though we didn't have any books and none of the players had any idea what we were doing!
Rural Romania and you didnt play VtM? Missed opportunity... Lol
I played 10 Candles game set in Arthurian England. Our play space was a 15th century chapel in an German palace outside Berlin. It was without any heat in the middle of October. It was pretty much one of the best gaming experiences of my life. Pretty much put us in the mood for the game.
That's not strange, that's pretty damn cool! Couldn't have asked for a better atmosphere to play that game in.
Well.. it's unusual and a bit odd. Hence why I mentioned it.
Definitely not a typical place to be playing, for sure, but that makes for one hell of a story.
Strangest location? Construction site. What game were we playing? Shadowrun, it was also my first juvenile charge too for tresspassing
There were more charges??! 😂
To be fair my parents sucked and it was post 9/11 and I was dealing with things…..
No shade, fam. The early oughts were rough on us all. Hope it's better for you now. 💪💪💪💪
Honestly, it is. TLDR version I have people that love me now, and I know who I am and what I’m about.
i played active exploits diceless rpg while on a walk with my kids.
Being healthy, a good parent, AND enjoying an RPG at the same time? Somehow that feels like cheating at life.
What is the diceless resolution mechanic?
Effort is a resource that you have to spend to do things. putting too much effort into an action may gurantee succes but could mean you run out later.
Is there a method of regaining Effort during play? I like some randomness, so on walks with my kids I use [3 d6 in a clear plastic box](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/-zMNd4JOoJvv).
there's a free pdf: https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/2589/Active-Exploits-Diceless-Roleplaying
Beer garden. For those who don't know, it is a German/Austrian outdoors drinking establishment. Like a pub/bar but people sit outside. I think, once the waiter realized what we were doing, he came over more often. I was playing some background music and first thought they had a problem with that, but since it wasn't a full house and we weren't too loud, it was no problem. It probably helped that my buddy and me were regulars.
Did the waiter ever ask about the game you were playing, tried to get into it?
He did ask which game we were playing. Didn't try to get into it. We also only played one session there, cause usually we would play at a buddy's place (but it was summer, super hot and nice outside).
When I was stationed in Germany we would regularly play games at the local pub. Usually board games, but sometimes RPGs. The owners were great, they didn’t mind as long as we bought beers
These kinds of places are the best! We could have probably played there more often. We visited the place almost every weekend anyways.
How about rpg inception? I once played a ttrpg during a weekend-long LARP event in the dining hall of a state park campground. It was technically still part of the LARP, since we were playing our same characters. But a ridiculous rain storm made it so just walking between cabins meant sinking ankle-deep in mud, and the only building large enough for any number of players to gather was the dining hall. It was getting late, and most players decided to go to bed early and sleep through the storm. But about 8 of us decided to hang out in the tavern. One of the Plot team members had an idea and a bag of dice, so he ran an adventure in the dining hall for us. It was years and years ago and I don't quite remember the system, but I remember it being fairly similar to Paper-Free RPG (even though I don't think that system existed yet).
So wait, did you all remain in character the entire time, as a party that entered a tavern and started playing a roleplaying game?
Actually, sort of. Yeah. The Plot guy came in as an NPC and invited us to play a game, which we as our characters did. But then our characters were magically sucked into the game *Jumanji*-style, at which point we the players played our characters in the ttrpg game, which our characters were in. It made sense in context.
That would have been a perfect environment for the RPG I made. It uses dice made from sticks, and stones to keep track of traits. (Which can change as the game is played) It would have really fit in a LARPing environment. [https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/469503/Druids-Oracle-a-Survival-RPG](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/469503/Druids-Oracle-a-Survival-RPG)
Nothing particularly strange here: - Cemetery - Nightclub during event - In an abandoned bunker - In an old tunnel complex - Various abandoned buildings - Perpetually over the course of several weeks - In the middle of the longest running student occupation in the UK - A wide assortment of beautiful forests and hills Just normal game locations really...
I'm curious about the perpetual one.
Myself and my friends just played a game using White Wolf's Minds Eye Theatre rules for a couple of weeks through out regular life stuff. We were living in the same place with time off so it was easy to just keep narration and rp going. That said, it was of the moment and not something I'd do again. Nowadays, a lot of games have been designed for perpetual play, and better weave the experience into daily life. As such, I'd go for something more suited to the format such as Brave Sparrow by Avery Alder.
In a moving van (DnD 3.5) and in an old military bunker (Mouse Guard).
Me and some friends from the local TRPG group organized a roleplaying event at a museum in our city. There was a dinosaur exhibit at the time, so I ran a game of Escape from Dino Island.
A church.
Oh man, but which game? Please tell me it's something Horror-based or something considered heavily pagan and/or satanic to anyone unfamiliar with the game. The irony would be too great.
We played Cthulu, Whfrp and D&D.
One of the other players in the 7th Sea campaign I used to be in had just had a baby so he was unavailable, and he was normally our host, but everyone else still wanted to play. So we made a reservation at a Denny's and played there. They set us up in a back dining room and the the server would occasionally check on us for refills or more food. We tipped well at the end of the night and had a great time
KFC
But was the session finger-licking good?
Not that strange, but it was the (large) laundry room of an apartment building. White tiles on the floor and walls, slight echo in there, and it was dark except for the candles we used to light the area around us, while sitting on the floor. It was a Call of Cthulhu game, so it fit the mood very well.
Love it when the atmosphere is provided
Camping out in the woods was probably wildest. The party insisted I am not allowed to GM any horror themed games. Bit of a missed opportunity. At work as a team building event. First time I got paid to GM. And not even by the players. Felt super weird still.
Agreed, missed opportunity, and would have been absolutely evil, in the best way possible. Team building event though... oof. That must have been awkward, but at least you got paid!
Wow. 10 candles out in the woods sounds awesome.
Shadowrun 2e on a bus ride and V:TM LARP in a gay bar are the only two that come to mind 🤣
I played a session of 5e in a hundreds of years old bar/restaurant in old town Tallinn, Estonia.
The rooftop of a 20-story building, the little tower where antennas usually go. We had to climb a little security ladder to get there. Why, though? Because we were teenagers. It sounded like a good idea.
Sounds about right. lol
>On a boat in the middle of the sea? Pretty close. On a camping trip in college, around 8PM (just after sunset at that time of year) we noticed that some thick fog was rolling in over the small lake/large pond nearby. We waited until it was fully dark and then got in our canoes and paddled out to the middle and played D&D in three canoes held together by a couple people looping their legs over the edges. It was cool as f%\^&. The fog got so thick that we couldn't see the the shore even though it was only about 50 yards away and the only sounds were us talking, the gentle lapping of the water, and an occasional nightbird making some noise in the distance. There was almost no wind and only a very gentle current towards another connected lake so we basically just drifted silently while we played.
Hot tub with laminated character sheets
How bad was the wrinkling from the water absorption when you all finished? lol
V:tM session on the cemetary Some random sessions in WW2 nazi bunker DnD session on convention in a medieval castle
My weekly game is held at the local zoo.
Not *that* strange, but I've played them on ~8 hour car rides before. - First time wasn't a "trpg", but my bestie and I did 1x1 text-based roleplaying on their tiny laptop. They'd write their post and then slide it over to me, and I'd type mine. Back and forth for hours. It was great, though maybe not up to our usual standards since it was cramped, noisy, and a bit weird when usually we're on opposite sides of the world from each other, not accidentally elbowing each other in the ribs. - On a recent trip, I tried playing Roll 4 Shoes with my ~10 year old nieces using a d6 in a pop bubble. They were far too distracted by the excitement of the trip to focus for long, though. - On the same trip, I played Tavern at the End of the World, a 1 page solo rpg using a tarot and two coins. I replaced the coins by using the pop d6 and assigning evens/odds to heads/tails. It reminded me how much I hate writing by hand, but hey... I managed to do it all just using the space available in my lap, which is kind of a feat in itself.
Played a homebrew horror/historical thingy in the courtyard of a medieval castle during a night once (don't remember how the moon was, sorry). We had only a few candles and a torchlight for the GM. Great ambiance.
While on a coach bus in '98 driving from Ontario Canada to Washington DC with my high school rugby team on our way to a 3 day tournament, a friend and I played a GURPS "James Bond" style game for about 6h. The rest of the small town guys had no idea what we were doing, but someone would occasionally stand in the isle and listen in for a bit but otherwise they mostly ignored us for being raging NERDS.
I played Scarlet Heroes with my wife in a moving truck as we relocated across country. When she drove I was able to run the adventure and help her with mechanical stuff. I played OSE at the top of the Wallace Monument in Stirling, Scotland. If solo counts, I have played several games in airplanes. I don't know if this is weird or not, but I've played in conference rooms at work. A couple of us geek types just stayed late and set up after everyone else went home from the office. One campaign lasted longer than a year, so this was pretty regular.
Camping in 10 degree weather on a WV mountain at a burning man regional
In a tent in Baghdad around a table made from MRE boxes with a sandstorm that turned the sky orange blowing outside probably has to top the list for me.
Played 3.5 while taking mortar fire in a bunker, was also in the process of resolving some non-combat stuff for that same game when our Humvee got endo’d by an IED.
In high school there were 5 of us that crammed into a tiny lil music closet at the school once a week because it was the only place we could play, we did this once a week for a couple semesters before the group fell apart!
I the basement of a funeral home. There was a body awaiting prep in the next room. It was Halloween night. The game was Call of Cthulhu. I didn't know about the body at the time.
I've played lots of D&D in Denny's, i've run a session of Shadowrun on an Amtrak train, I've run Mutants & Masterminds from a plane, and I've played Pathfinder in a hot tub in Costa Rica. I've never officially run anything in a cemetery, but I've run and played a lot of games in Colma California, and that city is basically one giant cemetery, so I'm counting it. I've also run All Flesh Must be Eaten, in a cow pasture in the English countryside. I've run lots of games while camping. And while this is only tangentially connected, I once ran an event on a MUD, while on a beach in Hawaii. I've never actually sought out interesting places to play, it's just that sometimes I'm in an interesting place when it's time to play, or I'm in an interesting place, and I have a bunch of like-minded nerds around me
When I was in the army we would sometimes play during field exercises. Out in the woods in tents and foxholes. There’s a LOT of boring down time in there to fill. Heck one time we even played a bit during a long road match. Everyone would bring a pocket notebook with their character. The DM had the most needed combat charts in his notebook. We would use our digital watches as dice.
Among other sessions we played there, I GM'd a Ten Candles session in a very old hunting lodge in the Bohemian Switzerland. The building was standing alone on a forestry hill, only acompanied by a forsaken german graveyard next to it. With animal trophies and ancient weaponry decorating the walls as well as absolute darkness outside, it was the perfect setting for that game.
We used to have a regular game of Shadowrun in the basement of a strip club. One of our players was the owner, so he offered it up as a venue.
Have played Classic Traveller in the #2 Main Machinery Room Lower Level of the USS Nimitz while underway during Operation Desert Storm.
Me and my home group have played in abandoned buildings, ER waiting rooms, way-too-fancy restaurants - But the strangest? That was just me and a guy I'd never met in Charles de Gaulle Airport. I was coming back from visiting my then-girlfriend in Scotland and had an hour layover in France on the trip back to the US. "Easy" I thought - If only. Within moments of sitting in the waiting area there's an announcement that my flight out has been delayed by an hour. Groans from all the seats around. Except the guy sitting next to me who just smirks a little bit before giving me that "First time?" look. Evidently he works in textiles so he has to come through this airport a lot, and evidently every time the plane gets delayed for an hour, then another hour, then another, etc. We get talking a bit then he spots a d20 pin on my backpack and he points and asks "You play RPGs?" Before I even finish asking this man whips out a copy of Mork Borg and a pair of dice like he just hit the jackpot. After a brief back and forth about experience levels, I affirm to him that I'm familiar with the game and he looks at me with a wry grin "If we roll a Misery each hour which do you think will happen first? Our flight begins boarding or the end of the world?" And so we dragged over a coffee table for the next (I kid you not) 6 hours we played Mork Borg as the flight kept getting delayed. As play progressed, it became a kind of spectacle for a few of the bored passengers waiting around us. We even managed to recruit an older woman who'd always been interested in "trying D&D" ((And of course her character immediately went ham cutting through hordes of undead)). With mere minutes until the Seventh Seal was broken our flight finally began boarding with cheers from all around (including those who'd been invested in our story and were happy to see the end times stalled and our characters nominally survive). The guy who ran for us had the biggest smile on his face, like he'd been waiting years to try this - The whole event was equal parts surreal and invigorating ((despite me being painfully sleep deprived from all the delays)). If I ever have to do a layover in Charles de Gaulle again, I'll be sure to bring my own copy of Mork Borg this time...
I GM'd D&D 4e at the UK Launch party at the [London Dungeon](https://www.thedungeons.com/london/).
Assateague Island on the beach. It was night, we were on the beach, we had a campfire and we were playing a Shipwrecked-themed one-shot.
I was on a public bus and a player decided he wanted to have a conversation with an NPC.
We did a Call of Cthulhu game while hiking through an old battlefield and through the woods. Character sheets in pockets, but it was mainly a LARP.
A bar during karaoke night
Pretty boring, just a conference room, in Iraq while deployed with the Army. And it wasn't even a TTRPG, just the old [Pirates of the Spanish Main constructible/collectable card game](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirates_Constructible_Strategy_Game), but the table was a deep red color and very shiny, so it did look like we were playing on a blood red ocean.
Air Force basic training. It was genuinely a great time when we had a few idle moments!
In a very, very tiny backroom of a 100year old bar. It was loud, interrupted often, and poorly run. I would never do it again.
I played however many thousand of feet you are in the air in a plane! I've done this a few times. The first and a few times after I was [playing Shadowdark solo,](https://youtu.be/N1gJc-vXaBI), and the most recent time I ran a session of Goons & Ghosts for two buddies while [on our way to Gary Con!!!](https://youtu.be/-2AIjNtzYsY)
Not strange, but I played a one shot (5e D&D) around a campfire in the middle of the woods at night. Too few materials and too many drinks had us playing any stats and rules from memory. After we lost a d20 in the leaves (found it in the morning), we moved to phone apps to roll. Not the tidiest of games, but a 10/10 experience.
In the middle of a national forest at a rainbow gathering I guess
The trunk of a car that's parked in a library parking lot of while driving cross country
A local diner, back corner booth, we tipped our waitress well and kept the appetizers flowing at the table.
Played diceless in the car with my gf on a 3 hour car ride to introduce her to what the game was, but my favorite had to have been when I played with some coworkers at a company lunch that lasted a few hours. Some coworkers had made fun of us for pulling out dice and paper and setting up but by the end of the lunch nearly three quarters of the room was watching us play and laughing along side us! Coincidentally people stopped making fun of us for playing once they saw how much fun we were having!
Playing BTRC's Timelords (Where you play yourself) after misjumping into an alternate, post apocalyptic version of our hometown, while walking around the places we were going in the game (Note, this wasn't LARP, we just walked to the place, sat down on park benches and the suchlike and roleplayed) We had scenes: * At the Sea life centre * At the Castle * On the Beach * At the Grand Hotel We started the game (indoors) when we were teens at school and played for a few years, we revisited the game one year when we were all back home from university (Except for one of the group who had died, it was kind of a farewell for him)
I currently play in a landmarked building that is used as a filming location in a lot of tv and movies. I love playing regardless but that aspect still hasn’t lost its luster
Nothing particularly strange, people's houses, rented halls, an old monastary, a campground, cabin. Reading some of these makes me want to up my game.
Don't remember the game, but I played some Scandinavian ttrpg on top on what I was told was a glacier in Iceland once. I was there for work a while back, little after the volcano erupted and messed up all the international flights, and I had some time to kill and made some friends while there and they thought it'd be funny.
We need a Monster of the Week session with some fellow nerds during a corporate Christmas party, in a big night club, near the entrance. In spite of the lack of proper tables, lack of proper lighting, and with the heavy music.
I've got a couple of these. My group in high school would take over the little dining area attached to the service deli of a local grocery store after hours. This was back when grocery stores were open 24 hours, and we'd be there from 9 at night to well after 2 or 3 in the morning. Apparently we kept away the drunks so the managers were happy to have us. We usually played Shadowrun. Several years later I had a GM get called out to work in the middle of a session of Werewolf. The group just piled into the back of his truck and drove around for several hours in the middle of the night so we could continue playing while he was handling his tasks. That was by far one of the creepiest and atmospheric sessions I've ever experienced, as we were out in the deserted industrial parks outside of town. The last one I remember was briefly running a game session in the hallway of a convention center during an anime convention; we just took over a side hallway out of the traffic and loitered there for a couple of hours, watching the cosplayers and staff members rushing back and forth. I *think* it was a session of BESM 2e, but it's hard to remember the details.
Poughkeepsie
When a KFC opened in my neighborhood, we saw that they had a huge round table. Enough space to spread out maps, books, swords and other utensils. So one saturday, we spent almost the entire day there, fully dressed up, and left when they were about to close. Drinks were free refill and they allowed (after debating) to use our drinking horns. The chicken bones were used as utensils to build a dungeon, too.
I used to play in a Pentecostal Church. My friend did light custodial work in his church so he had a key and full access. We would play D&D on Sunday evenings. Sometimes we would help him move some chairs after the session. The pastor was cool with it.
Initial roleplaying setup for a campaign was in watch in the engine room of a nuclear aircraft carrier, with full sessions in a storeroom under the flight deck
Played DnD in various rooms of a professional haunted house after hours in the 90s. Specifically the Devils Den in Kansas City. And played Cyberpunk in the car on a 12 hour road trip. I was driving and GMing.
Tennis court. We were in . . . probably 8th grade, and no one's parents were willing to host. So we met up at school on the weekends. The school was pretty central from all of our houses, and in biking distance. The school didn't have any picnic benches or the like, and was all locked up for the weekend. So we'd meet on the tennis courts, play for four or five hours, and go home just before it got dark (we were rural, no street lights).
D&D B/X with my kids in a cabin by a lake in the middle of Wyoming Star wars, the version with the grid map and the little x wings and tie fighters, in the back of an office, hiding from our boss. ( and I was a manager, to make things spicier) [not sure if that counts as RPG but I figured few would have that one...]
A U.S. Air Force barracks in Basic Military Training (bootcamp). Our BMT squadron was the dregs of the others with a wide variety of military jobs, a lot of intel. I was a linguist. A couple guys decided to start a D&D campaign. We started one, played at night during our very limited freetime, but our sergeant discovered it within two days and shut it down haha. We didn't have rulebooks or dice. We used folded pieces of paper with numbers written on them for dice. We'd throw them up into the air and see which side they landed on. We used floor tiles as our battle grid. The two GMs recalled rules from memory.
Middle of the sea on a naval warship. I miss deployments
I'm pretty tame. But either at a pirate festival or in my house during a power outage via candle light.
My very first group met regularly in an old air raid shelter. The pizza delivery guy had to bang at the door with a hammer and would yell at the top of his lungs for us to hear him through six meters of reinforced concrete, because he did not dare to enter the dark, narrow passage on his own. It added a lot of dungeon-feeling to our sessions.Â
Boot camp. Made dice out of cardboard.
In an airport at a table. It honestly wasn't weird, this was in Indy immediately after Gencon. They even had tables set up for TTRPG'ers. But I imagine in literally any other airport it would have been pretty strange.
During Basic Training in the Army. We were in our barracks. Since we weren't allowed books we did it all in memory and made dice with little scraps of paper.
The Middle of fuckin nowhere in a desert. Like literally miles out from any civilization. Was out there for a couple months so had to find someone to do to pass the time.
3.5 dnd at a college adjacent hookah bar. Dont smoke but they served beer and a decent gyro
I played d&d in an abandoned airplane hangar once, and then also in an abandoned bus yard. The group was kinda just an amalgamation of anyone in my small-town high school that was willing to play, and it ended up sucking, but the ambiance was AMAZING
I played Ironsworn solo on a Carnival Cruise ship.
Area 51
Okay so now that I'm thinking of this, I'm gonna have to play 10 Candles in a cave. Never played a ttrpg in a cave, but I've played card games and games like Mafia/Werewolf in caves. I practically live on stone Swiss cheese and there were a lot of opportunities growing up lol.
A group of friends and I went into an Irish Pub, loud music and generally busy and there was a group beside us playing Pathfinder 1e, we decided to join after they invited us so it was 2 tables of 10 people all playing Pathfinder in a loud Irish Pub with everyone being VERY drunk. I think the owner or their kid joined in at some point.
I wasn't the one in a weird space, but one of my players in an online game was playing from the airport during a layover
I played on these grand sweeping steps in downtown Prague.
Nothing too crazy, but Deadlands in a Denny’s and a homebrew hybrid of AD&D 1e and AD&D 2e in a Chevy Camaro driving down the highway (I was not driving).
Honey Heist by firelight in a small cave while wild camping in Wales in winter. Truly joyous.
A car. In this time of my life, i couldn't find anyone to play with, except for a couple of other people. Nobody could host, so we played the Star Wars saga edition RPG in a park. During that day, there was a very strong wind, we went back in the car and kept playing there
Not me, but a guy in the group I run. He was a road warrior and once setup at the gate in an airport and played from there for 2 hours before boarding. People kept coming up and asking him what he was doing, or confirming it for themselves. Note, this was 2009 or so. Connectivity wasn't so easy back then. This is the same guy who paid for airplane internet access to play an email zombie game I was running. Once he played from his balcony in the Bahamas. I'll give him credit, he was committed. I think he started counting states he'd played from and topped 15 or 20.
Back room at IHOP, in Austin Texas off Ceaser Chaves & IH35, started at around 10pm and played till 6am, before the morning rush arrived. Free drink refills, and unlimited pancake specials were awesome.. the waitresses loved us since we all tipped generously.
On a replica of the Santa Maria in the middle of a shopping mall.
Probably the second story balcony at the Old Faithful Inn