Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Adventure Time

It's June and a new month (the true start of summer no less), signifies a renewed sense of purpose to get my game blog on, as it were.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Artitificial Intelligences and Non-or-Trinary Sexual Species from the Andromeda Galaxy, It's...ADVENTURE TIME!




Trying to maintain a theme these last two months has not done well by me so I think I am going to skip that approach for now and go back to the tried and true method of spilling out whatever weird concoction fills up in my head.

Ewwww.

I do it to cleanse the palette in a sense, as I have a pretty awesome theme month planned for July. It's one I've been wanting to do for some time and I think next month is the perfect time to (try to) pull it off.

In the meantime, I want to address the 'State of Gaming' for yours truly and also discuss a few ideas I have regarding a project that may allow you (Yes YOU loyal Barking Alien fans!) to join in on a game run by my moi. How's that for incentive to check back!

Why do I hear crickets?

Anyway, the status quo fo yo gaming bro is as follows:

Traveller: Operation Paladin

Run once a month, usually the 2nd Saturday, at The Compleat Strategist, New York City's FLGS.

We have 5 regular players, with 2 on again off again players for a full ensemble cast of 7. The campaign is a science fiction sandbox using a kitbash of the classic Traveller and MegaTraveller rules.

The setting is my personal take on the classic Traveller canon. Very story heavy and character driven. There have been no PC deaths thus far. Almost no combat has actually occurred honestly. A lot of politics, secret agendas, diplomacy and trading however.

This is going very well and is up to the 5th session I believe, with the 6th coming up this weekend (update for prosperity - the session run on June 15th was actually the 7th session of the campaign). I am liking this one a lot.

Champions: New Age Heroics

Run once a month, usually the 4th Saturday, at a public space in NYC. At this point, it looks like we'll have 4-5 players.

The system is Champions 4th Edition, though considerations will be given to adjustments or added material from 5th if the player can convince me its worth using.

The campaign will be set in my previously used Champions Earth Alpha Delta-1 universe, which was based on the nearly 11 year campaign created by my friend William. Part of the draw is that it will be set in the same 'universe' as my every other week campaign and could feature a crossover somewhere down the line. The main premise is a sort of Justice League-Lite or Avengers on the cheap. The PC team will be a B List superteam trying to reach A List in a world where there really isn't an A List superteam outside of those who work for UNTIL / Project: UNITY and Britain's Watch. The USA has no Avengers or JLA anymore. Can these guys be THE team?

This campaign has not yet begun.

Champions: Dark Champions NOW!

Run every other week or so, at a public space in NYC. There are only two players other than myself but I hope to add some more down the line.

This campaign will also be using Champions 4th Edition, with considerations given to 5th edition material based on player input and cajoling.

The campaign is a slightly above street level game focusing on gangs, organized crime and low level supervillains in Chicago. The setting is interesting. We have essentially gone back to Champions Earth Alpha Delta-1 (the setting of our previous campaign 'The New Age of Champions'), but we are pulling the camera in a little tighter on one particular city. It's kind of a new status quo (like Marvel's Marvel NOW) crossed with a darker, grittier Dark Champions outlook. Just started. Literally one 4 hour session so far.

Players liked it, I liked it and their characters are pretty cool. I hope this continues at least for a while. I am curious as to how I am going to cross this over with the other Champions campaign.

Marvel Heroic: Avengers Initiative: The Rookies

The campaign at the learning center where I teach on Sundays is approaching the end of its Marvel Heroic Event Series, designed and destined to finish up in time for the Summer Program to begin in July. At this point the kids, ages 10-13 for the most part, are in dire straights after a mysterious villain attacked them while they were aboard a SHIELD Helicarrier by dropping a Celestial on them from near orbit. If that sounds like it would hurt, you're right. It did.

What am I running next for the kids? Well...I do have an idea but I am going to save the details for another post. Stay tuned.

Trek Tuesdays

As I mentioned in my last post, I am currently in a Google Hangouts Star Trek game (actually two alternating campaigns) every Tuesday night and its been a real blast. Played again yesterday with my alien science officer taking even more of a command role aboard the USS Odin. I may switch my shirt from Blue to Gold.

***

Whoah Nelly! That's a lot of gaming going on don't you think? It doesn't even address the game I am working on for the younger kids class for summer and my Star Trek adventure planned for RECESS. I mean, I couldn't possibly take on another game.

Or could I?

Thinking very seriously about running a Google Hangouts game of my own set either in the Star Trek universe or in my homebrew Galaxy Quest game. I haven't decided anything yet but the ideas are germinating pretty quickly.

Would any site visitors be interested in joining in?




Lots more to see, show and tell on the next episode of Barking Alien!

AD
Barking Alien





4 comments:

  1. Expanded and Updated.

    No comments yet? Sad green dog is sad.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You really sound like the type of GM I'd love to play with, but a 6 hour time difference, variable working shifts and the language barrier make it unfeasible for me :/ . But, hey, you can't complain about the number of games you play!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, I surely can't but the rest is indeed to bad. Would've loved to have you join in.

      Response to this in general has been really low, so perhaps it's a project for a later time anyway.

      Delete
  3. In theory yes! In practice, probably not, unfortunately - time difference and just too much on at the moment.

    ReplyDelete