Running Hunter

I haven't run a game since uni, and only ever run a handful of sessions. But I want to introduce new people to TTRPG's and I want to run games for them that might bring them the same pleasure playing brings me.

I don't know if it will work. I haven't the experience to bring the skill to running games as yet, and also playing is one of my biggest Special Interests, so I'm not sure other people can even get as much out of these games as I can. 

I'm going to try, though. I'm going to run Hunter. I feel confident in White Wolf systems; I like rolling all those dice, and I like the flexibility of creating dice pools. I have played in Hunter before, but a long, long time ago. This gives me an idea of how it can feel (although we were playing within a wider World of Darkness where we were also werewolves and vampires).

I've got a good setting in mind, my take on a town called Aberrheidol (a name that may be familiar to some of my uni friends). It's a coastal Welsh town, with a ruined castle and a pier and hills and woodlands and all sorts of cool things. I'm transplanting a few landmarks from other places too. It's a location I know well, so I think that will help.

I've got a few ideas for NPC's, and I think a plothook for the first adventure, but I'm not especially set in stone there. I'm looking forward to the book arriving to do more on this. On which note, I never treat myself but I looked in my PayPal and it was the exact right amount for the book so it was a great justification to treat myself and I'm so excited.

No idea how we're going to organise when we're playing, or even a full list of who I'm inviting. They need to want to play the way I want to run and also have free time when I do. However, I refuse to let this be a pipedream; I insist on bringing it to reality.

There will be more to follow...

#RPGaDay2018: Day23 - Which game do you hope to play again?

This is a tough one, because a lot of the games I've played before and loved were very specific to the group and the way we played. For instance, I'm told the way my Awesome Uni WoD game went, we played Werewolf far more and Vampire far less politically than they're "meant" to be played, but I enjoyed both. I've played (and enjoyed) political Vampire since, but most people I know who are interested in playing Werewolf want to play fighty-smashy games with little interest in inter-player pack dynamics or how that pack fits into wider Garou society and how all of that impacts on the fight against the Wyrm.

I'd like to play Hunter again - or even run it. Of the 3 World of Darkness systems that made up the Awesome Uni WoD game, that was the one I ended with the least emotional attachment to, which meant I spent years not especially interested in it, but now feel more free to shape it to my will than the others because I feel like I have slightly less to live up to.

I want to play Shadowrun again. There's a very good Shadowrun GM locally, currently running other games, who'd like to run Shadowrun again. Problem is, he doesn't have as much time as he did, what with having a new baby and all, and I don't think I'd want to play with several members of his normal groups, and I'm told he can fall into the trap of only seeing one way out of a scenario and penalising players who try to take a different route (though I think his side of it was rather different). Also, Shadowrun's another game where I've got a fairly specific idea what I want, which makes it much harder on the GM (and I've tried running it, disasterously, which means I'm not prepared to try again until I have some real GM experience).

Heading back to my uni days again, my uni had an unusually high proportion of women in the Wargames and RolePlay Society, which meant someone organised a huge, female-only game of 7th Sea. It unfortunately only lasted one session and the only thing I remember is that my character was called "Crow's-Nest Jen". I'd like to try the system/setting again, as it sounds fun. 

The question specifically says "hope", which makes me a little reluctant to include my next pick: Dockyards, a setting created by my friend Monty and which I talked about for Day 11 of the very first #RPGaDay (here). I like interesting dystopian settings, and this fits the bill! The action taking place on a floating island enhances the sense of place, to me, and I can picture areas vividly. However, the chances of me actually getting to play again are so slim it's a wish rather than a hope. Still, if Monty does decide to do more with it, I'd love to write some accompanying fiction...

What about you? How did you answer today's question? What games have you loved and now miss? Tell me or add a link below!

#RPGaDay2018: Day 19 - What music enhances your game?

Just listen to the open few bars of that. I'll explain in a bit.

My GM's have used music to inspire sessions or set scenes for pretty much as long as I've been gaming. I remember being in a room in the Renraku Arcology in the Shadowrun game right back at the start, with all these dolls who turned their heads to me and sung my name in creepy voices "Kamayaaa, Kamayaaa", a scene presaged when the GM started the session by playing the intro to a metal track he enjoyed. I'm not sure which song it was, but the intro was a bunch of kids singing about how they were going to get you...

The game most inspired by music was the World of Darkness campaign I played in at uni. I will always think of that game when I hear "The Final Countdown" by Europe, and The Pixies "Where is My Mind?" is the song for Malkav for me, but it's REM's "End of the World" where the GM took the most effort. He went through the song, making sure each line showed up somewhere in the Werewolf, Vampire or Hunter game. I'll never forget the NPC hunter we met as he paddled into Hudson Bay in a small dinghy to face down the Godzilla-monsters (Mokolé in their archid forms): we were nervous for him, but Lenny Bruce was not afraid.

There's been plenty of others, but not many other uses of music that have stuck with me so directly. 

Which brings me back to the video at the top. This is The Emissary's theme song, the mysterious NPC from our Exalted game - the Anathema Taji and Kito first befriended that caused them so much trouble (though not as much trouble as their presence causes him...)

The fifth paragraph of this episode is the pertinent one. Rich had established the character's theme song by having it play whenever we saw him give the laws, something we witnessed a few times at a great distance as we settled into Nexus. We then got on with the various troublemaking we liked to get up to, eventually detouring to the White Tower - the tallest building in the city and one which would give us a good view. As we stood on the path debating how to gain access, we heard the opening bars of the track and turned to the GM, eyes and mouths wide with horror. We'd completely forgotten this was where The Emissary lived, and sure enough, he was walking towards us...

For me, it was hands down the best use of music I've ever experienced in a game.

What about you? How has music enhanced your gaming? Let me know below!

#RPGaDay2018: Day 17 - Describe the best compliment you've had while gaming

Firstly, this question makes me realise how rarely I compliment others in games. I mean, really compliment them. I'll say when I like something they've done, or think they've got a clever solution, or whatever, and implicitly I'll compliment a GM by the extent of my engagement, but I don't often give good compliments. I'll look at what other people say for today and try to learn how to do this from that.

Anyway, the best compliment I've received. I certainly felt complimented when I was invited to the Awesome World of Darkness Game I played in at uni - its players were so fond of it it felt like a really big deal to be invited, and it was a wonderful game.

When I was invited from Buffy to Shadowrun, the Shadowrun GM complimented me for the details I gave when designing my character, but I was a voracious reader and they were the sort of detail I'd expect to see. The character was very clear in my mind. It was a great compliment because it encouraged me to consider my characters' backgrounds and appearances, shaping the way I like to play.

The best compliment - the one that really stays with me - was for the same character, from the same GM, and had the same long-term impact in that it affected how I play.

I talked about Tark's death on Day 4, and on Day 9 commented that this was the first time I really felt with my character, so it might not surprise you that this is where that best compliment was received.

Kamaya's best friend's head exploded in front of her. She knew it was Ares, knew she should take steps to get herself and her other friends safe, knew she should start plotting revenge, but instead got drunk. I was 17, maybe 18, and hadn't ever really been drunk, not the way she was getting, and had never wanted to be drunk the way she did, but I knew how she felt in that moment.

The compliment wasn't just in what the GM said, which I forget but was along the lines of how impressed he was that I was doing this in character rather than doing what was smart from a player point of view, but also in his face as I described her actions, which I remember precisely - the surprise and pride, I guess, in his normally cheerful or passive expression.

Yeah, I've never forgotten that. It's made it a lot easier to want to react in character rather than sensibly in subsequent games, which has led to more character-driven games, and more interesting stories.

What about you? How did you respond to today's question? Share a link below!

#RPGaDay2018: Day 11 - Wildest Character Name

One of the things I love about Exalted is the character names. Bells is very good at these: Cathak Kito "Resplendent Blade Resonating Eternal" and "Quiver of Arrows Tipped with the Sun" (which is actually short for something even longer); I'm less so: Cathak Taji "Dawn's Dancing Butterfly" and Amaryllis "Blazing Shield of the Sun".

It turns out, I'm not particularly one for 'wild' names. I like Kismet as a name: it suited the character (a wild, bipolar young woman who'd grown up in the Dockyard, learning from books with no concept of which were fact and which fiction, and little regard for the lives of others - you can read more about her here).

I think the 'wildest' name has to be my werewolf, Plays in Shadows. A homid, she was born and raised on a hippie commune as "Starlight Moonbeam Acorn Rainbow", which I think shows why she generally went by her Garou name!

Taking part? Share a link to your response below!

#RPGaDAY2017: Day 21 - Describe a moment of wonder that arose in play

Eeee! I was feeling all stressed because I didn't have a good answer for today's question - Which RPG does the most with the least words - and I was feeling frustrated that I kept going back to previous years. I was getting already to revisit 2015 (Favourite Setting) and talk about Shadowrun again (can you tell I've got a yearning?) when I went over the the alternate questions just in case, and saw this topic - exactly the sort of thing I'd been hoping for and love talking about.

Which actually makes this really hard! Which story do I tell? I've shared so many already - do I retell a favourite, or find one you've not heard before? Ooooh, exciting decisions!

I'm sorely tempted to go to Aberrant the last time Chrissie saw her parents. It was a very intense scene I enjoyed a lot, but 'wonder'... not so sure. Staying with Chrissie, Mark Knight's comment on this post was wonderful, really made my day to read - but arose as a result of a game, not within it.

I've mentioned the Amazing World of Darkness game I played in at uni, and my Werewolf character, Plays in Shadows, was very good at seeing the wonder in everything. I joined the game when it was already in full swing - the rest of the group had played through from the Roman era, playing descendants in different time periods (to pair up with their Vampires, but everyone enjoyed being Werewolves more so it moved ahead faster: I joined modern day Werewolf and Dark Ages Vampire). My pack had been working together for a little while, and were all born to kinfolk families, either human or wolf, (apart from the metis). My first session, I created a Child of Gaia Theurge (to no one's surprise). 

We started with me in the hippie camp I'd grown up in, living in a caravan with my mother, who'd given me the delightful name of 'Starlight Moonbeam Acorn Rainbow' (I enjoyed that). One evening, I wandered off by myself - and shifted for the first time! This was when the rest of the pack, who by some mighty coincidence happened to be near by, leapt into action. They ran with me as I tore around as an angry crinos, then stayed with me as I shifted back to a confused, naked human. They took me back to the werewolf camp and explained everything to me and helped me through it all.

One of the first orders of business was a spirit quest to find my tribe. They taught me to step sideways (and caught me playing by a pool in the Cairn, using the pool's surface to jump to the umbra and back, chasing shadows of the trees, earning her werewolf name "Plays with Shadows"), and away we went. 

I don't remember the quest well (it was over a decade ago!), but there was a huge mountain that I was very excited to be climbing. It was all a bit... normal for the others, who'd grown up knowing about this sort of thing and who'd been through this sort of thing before, but for me it was all new, all thrilling - all wondrous!The others were (in character) starting to get irritated at my wide-eyed enthusiasm, and had all been through tough initiations with the totems of their tribes, so were looking forward to seeing me knocked down a bit.

Ah, but they forgot I was a Child of Gaia. Eventually, we found a cave with a fire, and there was Unicorn. We chatted for a bit, then Unicorn got me to stare into the fire. Any reason? The others asked, as I stared with complete concentration. I just wanted to shut her up for a bit, was the response. And that was my trial!

The pack's totem was Bear, with whom we all developed a close relationship, but especially me and the other Theurge, Mel's Black Fury. We played through the Apocalypse. Unicorn was killed - in fact, Starlight was the only known Child of Gaia to survive, as we were running around another dimension at the time. The horror she felt on returning to Earth and learning this was squashed to one side while they dealt with the Apocalypse, but it enhanced her bond with Bear, promoting Bear to Child of Gaia Tribe Totem.

The final scene had Mel's character and mine sat next to each other, the only ones of our pack to survive. Lunar approached and explained our work was done: she no longer needed her warriors. All surviving werewolves reverted to their birth form, except me - I'd spent so long in wolf form during the game, it seemed more natural to make me a wolf. So it was left with Mel and I sitting by a pool, and walking away, and a strange pact forming between the people of the village and the wolves who lived nearby, that lasted far beyond anyone remembering the two of us who had caused it.

That was pretty wonderful.

~~~

RPGaDAY was started by Dave Chapman and is currently curated by RPG Brigade. To join in yourself, follow the questions in the graphic and blog, vlog, tweet, or otherwise share your responses with the hashtag RPGaDAY2017.

#RPGaDAY2017: Day 18 - Which RPG have you played the most in your life

The first RPG I played for any length of time was ShadowRun, for a couple of years. Then I wandered off to uni, where I played a World of Darkness campaign for the best part of 3 years - I played other games too, but none for as long. (Actually, that was pretty great: I got to try loads of games, while still getting the long-running, in-depth games I particularly enjoy.) One was Aberrant (though I didn't know it at the time), mentioned now as we'll come back to that later, because this is RPG played most, not campaign.

Then I came home and played a mix of games, usually only for a few months at a time (this included some ShadowRun, but not enough to give it the topspot). We played a bit of Deadlands in preparation for The Flood, the campaign we're currently playing in, but before starting the campaign proper, we moved on to Pathfinder. We're now playing The Flood, but I think it's been around a year.

Then Rich also started running Aberrant for me and Bells, and we played for a good couple of years, but even adding the couple of months I played at uni doesn't do enough, because we then switched to Exalted, which we've been playing for a couple of years - so that doesn't get to win either.

It's going to be Pathfinder. It's far from my favourite system, but I love my main character.

 

~~~

RPGaDAY was started by Dave Chapman and is currently curated by RPG Brigade. To join in yourself, follow the questions in the graphic and blog, vlog, tweet, or otherwise share your responses with the hashtag RPGaDAY2017.

#RPGaDAY2017: Day 9 - Campaigns: do you prefer set length or open-ended play?

I looked at today's official question - what is a good RPG to play for about 10 sessions - and didn't have an answer because that simply isn't the way I play, so I needed to look to the alternates list. I was sorely tempted to go back to 2014 again, because today was "favourite die/dice set" and I love talking about my dice.

So many pretty dice

But there on the alternate questions list is a really good question to explain why I'm hard pressed to answer the official question: do you prefer set length or open-ended play?

And my answer is kinda neither. To me, "set length" sounds like "you have 10 sessions to complete this in", and "open-ended" sounds like "this will meander forever with no real idea of where it's going".

I love the homebrew one-off sessions my uni friends run for us when we visit (such as the Cyber-Doggies game from New Year a few years back), and the Pathfinder one-off I created Kally Hopebringer for (that I intend to write up at some point maybe, because it was cool and gave us some answers about a Deck of Many Things Svetlana once handled...), but I prefer campaign play - I like to really get into the skin of a character, until I'm thinking as she is, and feeling her emotions (I love reaching a point where I'm crying in character with real world tears - as long as there's happy emotion too - too exhausting otherwise!), and that's easier to do if you're playing for a while.

I like to have as much time, as many sessions as it takes to follow the story - but I want the GM to have an idea of what that story is, where the major points are and where it's going to end: I love a satisfying conclusion (see previous discussion on the World of Darkness and Final Fantasy Noir games I played in at uni: these had a huge impact on me and both had these powerful, intended conclusions).

And that's great for the games I'm in at the moment. The Pathfinder campaign with Svetlana, Alexei et al has got an end point that Rich, as GM, has had in mind since the campaign started. Our actions in the campaign are shaping exactly how it's going to pan out, and I have sought (and been given) reassurance that Svetlana at least will get a "happily ever after" (one of the problems of becoming too attached, and something I started to expand on as a footnote until I realised I've really got enough to say for it to need a whole post), but we don't know the full details as yet.

Deadlands, we're running through The Flood, so we've got a pretty good idea where the campaign's leading us and what the ending will be, and similarly once we've done that we'll be genning new characters to run through the other campaigns in the series, with the idea being all our characters will be legendary by the end and we can pick which to use for the final confrontation.

Aberrant and Exalted I know even less about than Pathfinder, but again there's epic plot - and an intended ending in the recesses of Rich's mind. I think the Exalted one is due to be especially epic, as fitting the setting. I hope so anyway. I'm really enjoying playing Taji. And that's where I come back to wanting to have as much time as it takes to reach the ending: I don't want to rush things to fit a predetermined real world timescale: I want to be allowed to meander and take side routes and turn things on their head and get back to the main plot and slide away from it again and explore the world until I'm satisfied.

I've enjoyed open-ended play, such as in the ShadowRun campaign that was my first 'serious' roleplay. It worked well for what we had: a mixed group of people who couldn't all make every session, so Tom would give a Run to whoever was available and wanting to play, and there would be dribbles of larger plot feeding in, but it just ran as long as people were interested, and I've always felt a bit sad that there wasn't something more structured to that - especially when I wanted to retire my main character and he realised there was some plot he didn't want to miss out on that required her so he tried to thrust it on us and it all didn't work very well and that's when real life got in the way and I didn't have so much time to play and drifted away. I do regret that - she was a cool character, but I wasn't happy with where the game was heading.

It's like remembering someone who's died: whenever I think of my amazing Grandada, I remember that last time I saw him, when he was fading as the cancer ate him away. Give me a satisfying ending, and I'll only remember the love. (Sorry, overly dramatic; and especially sorry if that comes across as trivialising the death of a loved one. 2 decades on, I'm still cut up by the death of my Grandada, and the fading out is a lot of why. He was a fantastic storyteller and such a loving grandparent.)

I like to have a conclusive ending because life doesn't give these out often. I'm a big believer in Terry Pratchett's Pan narrans description of humanity: "the storytelling ape". We think in stories, tell our lives in stories - but as I get older, I realise more and more that isn't the way life works, and I find it depressing and frustrating. So let me have it in a game.

~~~

RPGaDAY was started by Dave Chapman and is currently curated by RPG Brigade. To join in yourself, follow the questions in the graphic and blog, vlog, tweet, or otherwise share your responses with the hashtag RPGaDAY2017.

#RPGaDAY2016 - Day Four: Most impressive thing another's character did?

I like this question; I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone's responses.

It's really hard to pick.

There's a particular scene from the end of the Werewolf: the Apocalypse game I played at uni that remains vividly in my mind. The two theurges (Mel's Black Fury and my Child of Gaia) were joining all the other theurges in some massive ritual to save the world, while all the other werewolves (and thanks to our efforts, all the other changing breeds) distracted the evil forces (both Wyrm and Weaver's, as I recall) on a battlefield. As we knew they were all going to die, the battle was handled cinematically and it was Boyd's Get of Fenris Ragabash's death that stays with me. He was lupus (wolf-born) and, for the most part, was hugely critical of anything made by man but did own an enormous bonded daiklave-type weapon (or possibly a lance or spear or something. Feckin' huge, anyway). He didn't use it often: our preferred pack tactic was to fight in hispo (direwolf) and mob an opponent, but for this fight he was in Crinos form. The battlefield was thick with fighting, when a great beast reared itself from the ground. The Get paused, swung his blade to behead and opponent, and ran towards the gaping maw of this dark creature. Ran its throat and planted the blade within. He died as the beast collapsed around him.

It was a powerful image for me, and a fitting end for him: the rest of the group had played various ancestors of their characters, and this mirrored how one of his had died - with the same blade.

Or what about the Initiativemobile(s)? Adam started creating these when the team were dropped into a warzone without their powers as a 'training exercise' - this was nominally to retrieve a particular nova, but (Chrissie and Adam suspect) really to build on their suspicions about Team Tomorrow and Project Utopia and to show them how strong they really are. Super tough speedfreaks that they are, they were finding it frustrating getting round Tblisi sans powers, so Adam (who'd been training as a mechanic and working as a getaway driver before erupting) started turning cars and vans into tanks, using whatever other cars, vans and shopfronts were lying around. This came in particularly useful when we went to help rescue a kidnapped girl. She was being held in a gated area surrounded by well-armed and well-trained KGB guards. So we set up for the Initiativemobile we were currently in (the mk2) to wait behind the compound as our getaway vehicle, while Adam built the mk3, including an inflatable raft, well-armoured sides and underneath, and huge suspension improvements. Adam's plan was simple and insane: we were going to drive off the top of the neighbouring multi-storey car park into the centre of the courtyard of our target building. The raft was to cushion those of us in the back of the van and allow us to slide out, guns blazing.

It was hilarious in its insanity and created an incredibly fun moment for us, that we still talk about.

Finally, Husbit's character death in Pathfinder Interlude was very cool. You can read it in his words here (second reply in the thread).

 

Musical A-Z - R

Hello new people who've started reading since RPGaDay! Whilst I mostly blog about roleplay stuff, a mini-project I've been enjoying has been sharing my music tastes. We're up to artists beginning with R. Hope you enjoy :)

Rage Against the Machine

Having recently ended up with my own car and started driving regularly, I've really enjoyed listening to all my old cd's again. This track was on one I'd made up for dj'ing RocSoc at uni. I was stuck in traffic so whacked the volume up and rocked out. With care and respect to my surroundings.

I love RAtM. Again, a band I discovered as a teenager. I respect that they support the political charge of their lyrics with their acts.

I was going to pick the obvious Killing in the Name so I could share an anecdote about an old job. I may have shared it before, but never mind. I worked in a pub with night club attached. The night club was predominantly a metal club and had a main bar at the front and a small bar at the back that was only really big enough for one member of staff - usually me, because I could handle it even in a crush and very rarely had mistakes in my till.

The boss also headed up security, so he'd wander round from time to time to make sure I was ok - and he always came by when Killing in the Name played so I could scream "Fuck you I won't do what you tell me!" in his face. We had a great relationship: he really looked after any member of staff who worked hard. I'll miss him for a long time yet. 

Rammstein

When I was little, I learnt a tiny bit of German before visiting family there. And I really hated milk. Then years later, I (mis)heard this and was amazed to discover a song had been written about me! The confusion was dispersed when it was explained the lyrics are "You have me" and not "Du hasst milch".

Rancid

  
Remember the friend I mentioned whom I met when he accidently thwacked me in the face with spikes? His name's Arthur and everyone should be lucky enough to have a friend as awesome as he is. Anyway, he's well over 6ft (I think 6'4") and I had another friend (Boyd) of similar height, and they used to stand either side of me in mosh pits and when skanking at uni, and this song in particular always makes me think of them.

Red Hot Chili Peppers

This was another band where it was nearly impossible to pick which song to go with... but this is beautiful. The Chili's were my favourite band as a teenager; each album having its own style meant I could find something to suit nearly any mood. 

Regina Spektor

A friend at uni introduced me to Regina Spektor as "she's weird, but good. Everything about her is weird but good." I don't listen to her often enough to be able to pick a song, so just grabbed one from Youtube. I wanted to include her, though, because she always makes me think of driving with Lou.

Refused

My brother introduced me to these guys, starting with The Sound of Punk to Come. This is one of his favourites, and I rather like it too.

REM

Do you remember me mentioning that Awesome World of Darkness I played in when I was at uni? End of the World was one of the theme songs for that. But this is a song I sing to myself whenever I'm having a bad day, and it always makes me feel better.

Rihanna

This is another one that stands out... I don't actually like Rihanna's music (although she has an incredible voice), but I couldn't talk about Steve (my Late boss) without this song coming to mind. His girlfriend at the time he died  had very different music tastes to the staff and regulars, and used to put this on the jukebox over and over again to wind him up. It was a bit of fun but meant it was a long time before I could listen to this without crying. So I don't like it the way I like most of the music I share, but it has become a part of me.

Rob Zombie

 
I want this played at my funeral. Also, having recently watched The Cabinet of Dr Caligari  for the first time, I really enjoyed this video!


I may have made the mistake of asking Husbit and our friend Mazz (of Clockwork Wargaming), both former DJ's, for suggestions and they've pointed out many fantastic artists I've missed. Rose Royce, Rolling Stones and Richard Cheese nearly appeared, but I realised I was going to never end this post if I wasn't careful! There were many other music memories brought forth from their chattings.


Have I missed a favourite of yours? Any recommendations? 

#RPGaDay2015 - Day 28, Favourite game you no longer play

ShadowRun or Werewolf? Werewolf or ShadowRun?..

Both were incredible games and I miss both, but part of me is terrified to play either again because they were so great and I don't think a new version could live up to my nostalgia for those campaigns. 

Only I'm a bit older now and would like to play them again. I've played a lot more games and could probably cope better with the fact different groups can play the same game in different ways.

I'm really struggling to pick between the two - I love the spiritual aspect of Werewolf, and the intimacy of the pack creates a close bond between the player characters that leads to fun roleplay when everyone is invested in the game. Meanwhile, ShadowRun combines fantasy with cyberpunk and creates something wonderful. Again, you can create groups who are tight-knit and reliant on each other, or you can focus on the mistrust and suspicion. You can also play at the extreme ends of ability and danger, and I like that flexibility in a system.

I think I miss ShadowRun as a game more, because I think it's my pack I miss most about Werewolf.

 

#RPGaDay2015 - Day 27, Favourite idea for merging two games into one

Would it be completely cheating to pick ShadowRun? Cyberpunk meets fantasy in a shiny pre-packaged format.

Or should I be thinking more along the lines of cross-over shows, where Jessica Fletcher ends up solving Magnum PI's crimes, or Sam and Dean save Mulder and Scully from fairy-aliens. Or something.

Hmmm.... If you wanted to combine two D&D games, you could always pitch both parties into the misted realm of Ravenloft. You'd need both sets of players to be willing and understanding of the setting in order to have real fun with it.

But there are so many more exciting games you could bring together.

I loved the World of Darkness game played at uni: same players, different characters in Werewolf, Vampire and Hunter. Different agendas, of course, but it meant we got a better look at the bigger picture as the world ended.

Actually, back to ShadowRun and the first time I played it the GM really wanted to run the Renraku Archology adventure. He ran it with us, his main group, and then after my character had escaped with an NPC, he used our desire to get back in to rescue the others as the method to get a group of his old uni friends in too - earning me xp in my absence, because the NPC & I were being so cautious and suspicious his other friends nearly killed us!

The game had many players and each session would be a run based on whoever was free. It gradually fell to a few key players, but the idea of multiple players not always present still appeals. I'd like to run my own ShadowRun or Hunter game that way: I have ideas for both. But I'd also like to take it even further: if there were two groups running in the same setting and the same time, with their GM's in contact with each other so the actions of one group could be seen by the other. I'd love for the players to not necessarily know the games are affecting each other, but I'd love to do one massive session where the two groups are sent on the same run by different fences. At least to begin with, they'd need to be in separate rooms but they might end up working together and then the GM's could combine forces...

I'd love to take part in that!

 

#RPGaDay2105 - Day 15, Longest Campaign Played

I thought I'd have to think quite hard about this because I tend to play long campaigns, but it turns out Pathfinder wins fairly easily - even if you take the Interlude characters we're currently playing as seperate from the main Pathfinder game, I think it's still just in front.

The Awesome Uni World of Darkness campaign I played definitely needs a mention. I was still in the first year of my three year degree when I joined - I'm not sure how long it had run before that, a year or more, maybe? The game wrapped up before I finished uni, though I forget exactly at what point. I certainly played for at least 2 years, probably nearer 3, and if we were taking game world time this would be the one that won hands down because I joined Vampire in the Dark Ages - Sabbat styley. The others had played generations in both Vampire and Werewolf from Roman times and had recently played through Dark Ages as Masquerading vampires and reached Modern Day in Werewolf (we all much preferred Werewolf - something about the intimacy of the pack versus the mistrust of the cotierie, I suspect). Once Vampire reached Modern Day, we added Hunters to the mix, including some players who weren't involved in the other games and that was a lot of fun.

After uni, we had a regular roleplay group that fell to pieces and reformed in various forms on various occasions. We'd settled into a fairly steady pattern of alternate Sundays and running short campaigns in different systems when Rich took the reigns with Pathfinder. He wanted to run the Kingmaker campaign, so we created Brevic characters and went with it. I'd recovered from the aversion to D&D-type games my very first roleplay group had inflcited on me (it was something they all agreed on: D&D was too clunky and too overpowered and I should never bother trying it because it was just rubbish); their influence still colours my opinion (it is clunky), but I've found the right group and/or the right storyline means this is not insurmountable (maybe this is why I'm more forgiving of 4th Ed than D&D fans seem to be?)

And the Pathfinder game turned out to have a very powerful storyline, even if 3 or 4 years on (or longer...) we still haven't technically completed the first book of the campaign we were meant to be on. We got to a suitable stopping point - defeating the Stag Lord - and Rich offered up his seat, knowing Husbit wanted to run some more Deadlands or 'Punk and there being a few other games being mooted - but we were enjoying this game and the other games weren't quite ready so we carried on and sort of forgot about switching...

In an ideal world, I'd love enough free time and disposable income for me and my gaming network to play, prepare and run all the games we want. There would be a lot more long campaigns - and I think a lot more fiction flowing therefrom, from several members of the group. 

 

RPGaDay Days 30 and 31

#RPGaDay

Day Thirty – Rarest RPG Owned

It’s not rare per se, but I don’t know anyone else who owns Abney Park’s Airship Pirates. It looks so shiny and pretty and I really want to play!

Day Thirty One – Favourite RPG of All Time

Ooooh, this is a hard one. Let’s face it, I am loving the Pathfinder campaign I’m in, but it’s the campaign rather than the game. And that’s true of many games – the game, the GM, the players are more important in making something enjoyable than the system.

That said, I think the old World of Darkness Werewolf is probably my favourite. There are certain people I wouldn’t play it with because I think their style would distress me because it’s not how I picture the game, but the game I played at uni was amazing.

So, can I explain why I love it? For a start, it’s a game where I get to role handfuls of dice at a time, which is always nice. It’s a game in which you are very powerful – again, something I enjoy. I need that escapism sometimes (it’s why I’m loving Aberrant – to be so powerful. It’s fun and freeing).

I think maybe because it’s a game that encourages teamwork. A werewolf pack has to work together, to defend each other’s weaknesses and support each other’s strengths. I don’t know many other games where that feels as important. And I’m not saying I need it in a game, either – sometimes a bit of inter-party conflict or mistrust can be fun (I love Vampire, too).

A lot of my love for it is down to the amazing game I was in at uni, with my lovely Starlight. Playing a character you can really get into helps. It was a wonderful story, very intense. That helps too. The other characters were fun and interesting and complimentary. We worked well together.

The background and fluff also catches my imagination – I’d love to play with the other changeling breeds. I want all the supplements and books and a few weeks to just curl up with the Puss and enjoy them.

So that’s it then. 10 days late, but I’ve finished. I’ve really enjoyed the challenge and having some structure to write to. Look forward to taking part on time next year.

With thanks to Autocratik.