Friday, July 20, 2012

My Mind At Warp

Hmm...no responses to my previous post on the intro to my new BattleTech Reborn campaign are a bit discouraging. I was hoping someone out there would tell me if I was hot, luke warm or just plain cold with the lead in to the game's setting and main premise. -Sigh-

The problem with me is that sometimes, when I don't see any reaction or enthusiasm to my ideas, I start to get distracted and drift toward other ideas in hopes that they may wow where the previous one has perhaps failed.

This is especially true when other things are occupying my mind and double-plus-so if they were lurking in the gray matter before the current project even got started.

No, I am not dumping my BattleTech Reborn idea but I am in the 'lull before the season starts', not as excited about it as I was when I came up with it or as I will be when I am ready to start running it. And I will be excited when I am ready to go, of that you can be certain. Right now I am in a holding pattern, trying to complete our current Champions game and prepping for BR but not quite set to launch.

Other things bouncing around the padded room that is the inside of my noggin' are Star Trek-like games and Vegan Pancakes.

When I say Star Trek-like games, I include Star Trek itself of course but what I am really thinking of is
Starships & Spacemen (especially E.T. Smith's variant, which I played at RECESS some time back) or my Galaxy Quest games or any number of other alternate 'Trek' themed settings, systems or campaign ideas. I recently read Redshirts by John Scalzi and while I didn't end up liking the book very much, I liked the initial premise and it definitely inspired me to start toying with a pet project I started a while back but haven't looked at again in a while.

I had this idea of mixing the aforementioned Starships & Spacemen game with the resource management elements of
Meikyuu (Make You) Kingdom, the Japanese TRPG where you play the ruler and court of a small nation who go adventuring in dungeons to build up the coffers and expand your country.

One of the neat ideas in Meikyuu Kingdom is that each PC has a number of minions, little more than pips on his or her character sheet, that serve the sole purpose of adding bonuses to certain rolls the PC makes or dying in the PCs stead. For example, if you are attacked for 5 hit points you can put three of these minions in front of you and shave the damage done to 2.

Imagine that in a Star Trek-like setting. Each PC can beam down with a number of extras that are pretty much there just to die when the group is caught in a cave in or attacked by an Altairian Flint-Eel or whathaveyou. Perhaps a system could be put into place that differentiates them as Science Extras, Security Extras, etc. Maybe you can use your experience points to bump one up from Extra to Reoccurring Character and get a more useful henchman.

I really like this concept and I think I'm going to put some work into it on the side while I force myself to work on BattleTech Reborn...ooh...did I say that out loud? I didn't really mean it. I just...so...Vegan Pancakes...

By Vegan I don't mean the pancakes originate on a planet orbiting the star Vega. Those are much more difficult to make and digest if you are not a solinium based life form. No, see, my girlfriend is Vegan and I love to cook and I make awesome pancakes so now I want to make ones she can eat and enjoy. This may be a tougher task than getting my current gaming group to agree on a single course of action but then again I have never been one to take the easy route when it comes to creative problem solving.

Wish me luck...in all endeavours. Hey, if you're already wishing you might as well...

AD
Barking Alien





3 comments:

  1. "Other things bouncing around the padded room that is the inside of my noggin' are Star Trek-like games and Vegan Pancakes." LOL. Planet Vega called - they need a chef.

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  2. I am so there! lol

    Thanks for being the subject of my mad experiment...er...I mean...um...for trying out my recipe. ^ ^;

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  3. a Galaxy Quest game sounds like fun... Star Trek without all the canon baggage weighing it down.

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