I tend to play in long campaigns - there's nothing wrong with one-off games, but I really enjoying getting my teeth into some good character development, and (for me at least) that really takes a bit of time. Combined up with working full time and having other hobbies (circus, Blood Bowl and writing in particular) means I don't have as much time to dedicate to RPG's as I'd prefer. Which is my roundabout way of saying I've not played any new games in the last 12 months...
Or at least, none published in the last 12 months. Our Aberrant campaign has reached the end of an arc (I will get around to writing it up, I promise. I'm just not sure when I'll have enough time) and our GM wants a bit of a break from it so he can properly plan the next stages.
So instead we had a go at Exalted, which is new to me. One session in, and a beautiful, dark intro. As with the start of Aberrant, we're playing normal mortal humans rather than Exalted characters, and in this case we're playing children. 8 year old twins, in fact. The session gave us a good sense of a happy life in a poor village (and probably featured the only use of a conviction role for a game of hide-and-seek: I botched my search role and walked into a tree but managed to suck up my tears and play on). Then, the village was wiped out - all the men killed and all women and children missing. We alone survived because we'd been hidden outside the village by our parents. Our GM did a fantastic job with this, turning what could have been a tired trope into something, as I said, both dark and beautiful. Very emotional: he and I both nearly cried.
D'oh - I must move to England and gate crash these awesome games...
ReplyDeleteI'm really looking forward to writing Exalted up, but keep putting it off because I'm worried I can't do it justice.
DeleteAnd if you ever make it over, I'm sure can find room at our table!