I’m going to be running a 3.5e Iron Kingdoms campaign in a few weeks. Most of my group has only played 4e so this will be an interesting change of pace for them.
Played Grimm a couple of nights ago, and it was great fun! Only two players could make it to this one, and the game is really suited for a group of kids, since everyone specializes. Classes basically fit the Breakfast Club model. So I played a jock, and the other guy was playing an outsider (juvie). Fantastic setting. It’s a mix of Disney fairy tales with the actual Grimm style. We went from being chased by the ugly duckling (grown up into a duck-man beast of some sort) to finding ourselves in the house of the three bears (where we were attacked by a boiling pot of porridge!) to a nice little village where a little girl fed us while her foster father explained where we were (we started in detention in the Real World) to the Clock Tower, where a gnome tried to take out our hearts and replace them with cogs so that we would run his machines for him. All in all it was brilliant fun. Highly recommended. And the system is quite simple, while still allowing for interesting character progression.
I never really got into pen and paper RPGs as I never really knew anyone that was interested. However, the one that I did get to play a couple of games of was Chill, the horror game. Loved it so much I ended up buying a lot of the campaign books. I also have an Aliens RPG - never got to play it but was also great reading.
my noobie game was pretty amazing. All the player characters are total paranoid sociopaths. it’s very entertaining to watch them do everything they can to avoid opening doors.
i am hoping they grow out of this, but a few of them, they really only have fun when they’re rolling the dice and killing things. which i am happy to have them do, but I’m trying to convince them that having a bit of foreplay is better than to just bang away.
Thanks.
I know of Viking Con, but it’s the one con I’ve never been to (back in the day I even helped organize a few). I probably should go… but the aversion I have about advertising for random strangers to play with also extends to the kind of people, you meet at cons - most of them are wonderful, but some of the worst nutcases manage to hide it until they’re in your living room eating your snacks, which is another thing my gamestore job taught me.
But I appreciate the effort.
I should also make an account on BoardgameGeek, whic Lorini adviced me to, last time I kwetched…
I’ve played with a lot of people like this, and the trick is to ease them into the RP end of the pool with baby steps.
Start out with pure hack and slash. Give them some vague plot point to go clear a dungeon of baddies or whatever, and then give me them a few very vanilla fights. Then try and transition to an experience that still lets them focus on fights, but gives them some reason to think about a larger context. Perhaps an NPC that needs protecting, and is present in the fights or an enemy that is clearly too strong too beat (be careful about never-surrender players here) but can be talked around to a peaceful resolution. Always reward any effort they make towards roleplaying even if it was a silly idea. If the barbarian with the INT and CHA of 9 wants to try to cleverly talk circles around the NPC then let him. Once you’ve got them used to roleplaying there’s plenty of time to make them start trying to play a particular character faithfully.
So, I am currently running a Red Dwarf game. (great system in this one)
I thought of a really cool idea for each play session. We call each session an Episode. And at the end of the episode, we vote on what it shall be named.
Right now we have
4th Episode: The Schilling Joke
5th Episode: Double Up for Safety
6th Episode: A New Hop
Our 4th game introduced my players to the overall story arc of the game. They found an abandoned shuttle, and after some CSI work, they found that the occupants had been killed by baseballs and bats. They also found a Curt Schilling rookie card in a locker. (In the better than life episode, our Dog got into a fist fight with Curt Schilling)
Game 5, was a trip to the past through a woman’s locker. They went to the day before the drive-plate failed. They did everything they could to change the future… to no avail. Our Hologram character tried to fix the drive-plate by strapping another one on top. “Double up for safety” he said. The 2nd drive plate is what ended up causing the failure. (In the Red Dwarf game, your game starts 300 million years in the future, after the drive-plate fails on your ship irradiating everyone and everything, and only 300 million years later, the crew is able to leave stasis.) The hologram was able to successfully argue with himself to get him into the stasis pod… saving his life, and making his character human.
Episode 6
Bob (me) the AI created a new device called the Bob-hop drive. Allowing the crew to travel anywhere in the universe they like. Through a miscalculation, they end up at earth. Which was taken over by all of the species. They were all at war, and segregated. The crew landed in DC, and after a re-enactment of the Day the Earth Stood Still, they met with the Squirrel president. Turns out the Squirrels were at war with the dogs, and the crew (who has a dog member) were in trouble. One character did a dance, and was seen as being the “chosen one” to lead the squirrels in exterminating the dog menace. After a crazy escape, the crew headed to france. (Where the dogs lived) They ate bacon, and had fun. Then… the squirrels attacked. Using their ship, they were able to help route the squirrel normandy invasion, and all got medals. (It was very reminiscent of the end of star wars, I even played the song as I handed out medals) (Hence the name, A New Hop)
I’m tentatively considering a future game, but it’d have to address the problems that have killed games in the past. In other words, I’d want to do something stripped-down, simple, fast, short-term, and with a flexible cast. Previously I’ve had elaborate setups that involve learning a new setting and making a complex character before ever playing. That’s not the best way to do it.
Maybe an abridged version of Cold City.
Edit: I have a couple of ideas for a quick-and-dirty Mass Effect RPG system too.
Red Dwarf is great because the rules are so flexible. It leads to many hilarious moments and situations.
All these stories are awesome, makes me want to play. I don’t think I had the best D&D experience. Although the DM and one or two of the players were fairly enthusiastic about the game, few tried to actually act their characters out or do anything to add to the immersion, so our sessions usually devolved into a dice throwing game.
I have a question for D&D 4 players. Given that the rules are more streamlined, how does that affect immersion in your sessions? Does the game become more of a boardgame or wargame than an actual RPG, or does it work with good players and a good DM?
3e and 4e are a wash in that respect, as both really require a map to play properly. Once everyone is staring at figurines on a map, the roleplaying aspects tend to take a back seat and instead everyone is in boardgame mode. 4e has a more streamlined tactical battle system, but it’s still a tactical battle system that required staring a map and thinking in mechanical terms instead of roleplaying terms.
It works with good players and a good DM, but the new rules certainly don’t help borderline role players develop their character.
In our current game we’ve been handling a lot of the social/character development stuff away from the table, via email and such. The actual face-to-face sessions are mostly dungeon/site exploration and combat.
We’ve gotten some good stuff out of this setup. A lot of the players have written extensive background stuff for their characters which gets posted to our campaign wiki, and we’ve had some neat “scenes” play out away from the table. The drawback is that sometimes it doesn’t feel like these developments come out at the table, but that’s not really different from other DnD versions I’ve played.
Neither did the old rules in my experience. D&D has always done just about squat to really encourage roleplaying. The books suggest it’s a nice thing between fights, but the system doesn’t do anything to encourage it. That’s an observation, not a criticism. D&D is a game with a lot of tradition and success and some of that can be attributed to appealing both to those want a rich roleplaying experience and those who want a wargame with some context to thematically bind the fights together.
A system that really wants to strongly encourage RP can do a lot more in terms of tying rewards to roleplaying. D&D rewards players for killing things.
What a great system. I had never played anything like this before, and I am absolutely loving the story-telling aspects.
The character generation for SotC was also about the most fun I’ve ever had in an RPG.
Do it. :-)
Yeah. I’ve played some systems that really encourage interesting character development and moral decisions and so on and so forth. Unknown Armies springs to mind. But D&D has never been that sort of system. Which is totally fine, I don’t need systems to be all things to all people. D&D is still about killing things, and taking their stuff.
Already done, and thanks for mentioning it or I would have missed it completely. I’ve been in board game mode for more than a decade now and haven’t even looked at the RPG market since the 90s. I have a group of five (including me) who are all either professional or closet writers with families who wanted to start something that focused on role-playing instead of endless combat, and after reading the sample rules for SotC I was instantly sold. The setting is absolutely perfect as we all love pulp fiction and the FATE/FUDGE system is simple enough for everyone to learn. The only problem I’m having now is trying to get other things done after reading the rulebook because I’m fighting a desperate urge to read old Doc Savage books while listening to 20s and 30s radio on Shoutcast.
I’d bought D&D 4e because they all said they wanted to play it, but when it came down to it nobody wanted to read through all those rules and spend half our gaming sessions dealing with crunchy combat. I ordered the latest edition of Warhammer the other day hoping it will sate our fantasy RPG craving. It looks like it focuses more on role playing and abstracts combat to precisely the degree I want.
I also ordered the Mouse Guard RPG just because it looks so damned awesome.
If SotC goes well I’ll likely grab Diaspora because it looks to bring all the coolness of SotC into a hard sci-fi setting. The latest Call of Cthulhu RPG looks great as well. Why did all this amazing stuff have to come out after I had kids?
I love how character generation has other players guest star in a series of your previous pulp-titled adventures, then ties each story into the game mechanics. Beginning characters end up with much more life and connection than other games, and it doesn’t take much time either.
I’ve started porting this mechanism to every RPG I run.
If you do pick up Diaspora, I’d be curious to hear your impressions. I’ve been eying it for a while myself.
Which Cthulhu RPG are you thinking of, The Trail of Cthulhu? I picked that up a while ago and like the way clue investigation is handled, so that everyone gets a chance to shine, and missed clues are dealt with smoothly. Haven’t had a chance to run it yet though. Definitely better than the klunky RuneQuest derived Cthulhu rules of yore.
It’s a good idea, problem is denying it to players when you don’t want them to know each other. People get annoyed that there’s no free stats.
Mongoose Traveller has it built into it as well.
I just won an adventure book for Mongoose Traveller, might play it later in the year.