The first time I played Far Away was at SHUX in 2018. My friend and I had a scavenger hunt of sorts for the event which included the following activity: play a game with its designer. I had previously met game designer Alex Jerabek at a function in Seattle through some mutual friends, so he seemed like a great candidate to fulfill the scavenger hunt goal.
Catalyst has been a part of my life for over ten years. My mind has been drifting into the apocalypse for all my adult life. I rarely went a week without playing a session from late-2011 until the last campaign guide was released in mid-2015. I still play Catalyst regularly, though not with the same frequency. We wrapped up my first Roll20 campaign. All this play forces me to compare the five-year old RPG against both the current gaming ecosystem and my own design knowledge. With the anniversary at hand, I wanted to share some thoughts that have been percolating alongside visions of demon hordes razing cities and the badass heroes trying to stop them.
COVID-19 has forced all of us to change how we play games. Although the intimacy of sitting around table has been replaced with the glare of a screen, there’s still joy in gaming over an internet connection. Besides video games, we have services like Board Game Arena to revisit our favorite classics and Zoom to share our purely analog sessions. My personal favorite is Roll20, which gives everyone a toolset to play a game, while still allowing the flexibility that is fundamental to a tabletop experience. I want to share some tips I have after GMing a few sessions of Catalyst through Roll20. If you’re looking for advice on how to handle Conspire and its hidden roles in Roll20, check out this playthrough we did with Eric Vulgaris.
