Welcome to the first Barking Alien post of 2018!
I apologize for taking so long to get started this year. I've been incredibly busy of late. All good I assure you.
I apologize for taking so long to get started this year. I've been incredibly busy of late. All good I assure you.
I am now technically in my 41st year in the Role Playing Game hobby.
Wow. Can you imagine?
So what am I going to be working on this year? What's my current 'State of Gaming'? What is my next big game project (or projects)?
I know you're all waiting, gripping the edges of your respective seats in anticipation. Well, some of you are. That guy is. You know who I'm talking about. Yeah you. This one's for that guy.
Where are we now?
At the moment, I am playing in two games, and running one. The other game I was running has ended, at least temporarily.
On Wednesday nights, I am involved in a Kapow! Superhero campaign that has been going strong for about three years now. I've been getting a little frustrated with it lately due to no fault of the GM, or the other players. The group is the thing I enjoy most about the game. It's me. I'm a little bored with the Superhero genre right now. Even I find that a strange statement coming from me, so I can only imagine what you're thinking dear reader. I attribute it to too many Supers games in 2017.
The second game I'm playing in, which has been hiatus for some time now, is an in-person Hogwarts/Wizard World of Harry Potter game run using a homebrewed variant of Apocalypse World. The game is has traditionally been run on alternating Friday nights, except when the GM is unavailable (such as this past holiday season, and into the new year), or when more than two of the players can't show (as there are only four players in the group).
I like this game a lot, although the tone of the last several sessions shifted too dramatically for my personal tastes. Our PCs are in their third year, but the situations and antagonists felt like they were more appropriate to Book 5 (The Order of the Phoenix). This wouldn't be a big deal except Book 3 (The Prisoner of Azkaban) was my favorite book, and Book 5 my least favorite. We all had fun, but I felt a little shorted, or cheated thematically. Still, I am very much looking forward to this games return in the coming weeks.
On the alternating Fridays I mentioned above, I am running Star Trek: Prosperity, a Star Trek Adventures campaign set in the late, Original Series era. Our campaign begins a before the U.S.S. Enterprise under Captain James T. Kirk has completed its 5 year mission, and is now approximately a year, and half in to its own 3 year mission. Our campaign has a number of influences from The Animated Series, as well as various Star Trek comic books.
I was running a Superhero game with a homebrew system that was based on the Japanese Anime/Manga series, My Hero Academia entitled My Hero Academia: American Ultra. I completed the campaign's 'first season', which went well, but I began to feel that aforementioned weariness with Supers that I mentioned. I felt it necessary to end the game while I was just jazzed about it. It could certainly be optioned for a second season at some later date. .
Kapow! continues, as does Hogwarts, and Star Trek: Prosperity, but a new year means new games, and I have several concepts I want to explore. The question therefore is...
Where are we going?
The two ideas that are foremost in my mind right now are:
The Orville
A traditional Science Fiction/Space Exploration campaign set in the universe of the Seth Macfarlane's TV series of the same name.
In addition to really liking the show, I love that idea that the players will have the kind of familiarity they would have with a Star Trek game, but without having to worry about all the continuity, and elements they don't know. There have only been 12 episodes. We've all seen the same 12. Not hard to keep things straight.
I also like that although the show is not really the comedy that everyone expected, there are more relaxed and light hearted moments than you might be on other Sci-Fi shows. This milieu is one of serious Science Fiction, but it doesn't take itself too seriously.
As noted in some earlier posts on the subject, I am adapting Star Trek Adventures for this. Expect to see a lot of The Orville Adventures in posts throughout the year, but especially within the next couple of weeks.
Travellin' West
A working title, with another possibility being Western, or Westward, Traveller. Essentially, a Wild West RPG campaign using a variant of classic Traveller.
Now, when I say a variant, I am talking about the kitbashed, house-ruled version of classic Traveller I've been running for many years now. Basically it's classic with some updated rules from MegaTraveller, and an optional 'Death During Character Creation' system that can result in some very neat background material, plot hooks, and even special abilities, and items on occasion.
I've been toying with the idea of returning to the rather unusual approach to running a Western I took when I was very young, and still a relative newbie with RPGs. You can find references to both the original game, and my desire to revisit it here, and here.
While considering and turning down a number of options for a new campaign for this year, the Western idea kind of crept up on me out of nowhere, but stuck in my head even as others came, and went. While trying to find a system, it occurred to me how relatively simple, and effective it would be to adapt Traveller. It has an ideal balance between simplicity, and mechanical crunch, features a combat system where a pistol can kill an unarmored man, and PCs don't get more hit points as they improve in other way. A bandit's bullet can take you down in session fifty, as easily as it can in session 1.
There are other elements I think also translate over well, including the Character Creation, with Career rolls, and the building of the PCs history as they're being generated.
I am pretty excited about this endeavor. I will keep you all posted regarding my progress. I hope to get it down, and working, and not drop the project as I did Star Wars Traveller.*
Alrighty now...we've got the ball rolling!
Let's see where it bounces...
AD
Barking Alien
*Star Wars Traveller is on the back burner, and has been for some time. With my feeling less than impressed with the latest film, and far too many other ideas going through my head, Star Wars Traveller is not my concern at this time. I may get back to it at some later date, but right now that later date seems to be much, much later.
Wow. Can you imagine?
So what am I going to be working on this year? What's my current 'State of Gaming'? What is my next big game project (or projects)?
I know you're all waiting, gripping the edges of your respective seats in anticipation. Well, some of you are. That guy is. You know who I'm talking about. Yeah you. This one's for that guy.
Where are we now?
At the moment, I am playing in two games, and running one. The other game I was running has ended, at least temporarily.
On Wednesday nights, I am involved in a Kapow! Superhero campaign that has been going strong for about three years now. I've been getting a little frustrated with it lately due to no fault of the GM, or the other players. The group is the thing I enjoy most about the game. It's me. I'm a little bored with the Superhero genre right now. Even I find that a strange statement coming from me, so I can only imagine what you're thinking dear reader. I attribute it to too many Supers games in 2017.
The second game I'm playing in, which has been hiatus for some time now, is an in-person Hogwarts/Wizard World of Harry Potter game run using a homebrewed variant of Apocalypse World. The game is has traditionally been run on alternating Friday nights, except when the GM is unavailable (such as this past holiday season, and into the new year), or when more than two of the players can't show (as there are only four players in the group).
I like this game a lot, although the tone of the last several sessions shifted too dramatically for my personal tastes. Our PCs are in their third year, but the situations and antagonists felt like they were more appropriate to Book 5 (The Order of the Phoenix). This wouldn't be a big deal except Book 3 (The Prisoner of Azkaban) was my favorite book, and Book 5 my least favorite. We all had fun, but I felt a little shorted, or cheated thematically. Still, I am very much looking forward to this games return in the coming weeks.
On the alternating Fridays I mentioned above, I am running Star Trek: Prosperity, a Star Trek Adventures campaign set in the late, Original Series era. Our campaign begins a before the U.S.S. Enterprise under Captain James T. Kirk has completed its 5 year mission, and is now approximately a year, and half in to its own 3 year mission. Our campaign has a number of influences from The Animated Series, as well as various Star Trek comic books.
I was running a Superhero game with a homebrew system that was based on the Japanese Anime/Manga series, My Hero Academia entitled My Hero Academia: American Ultra. I completed the campaign's 'first season', which went well, but I began to feel that aforementioned weariness with Supers that I mentioned. I felt it necessary to end the game while I was just jazzed about it. It could certainly be optioned for a second season at some later date. .
Kapow! continues, as does Hogwarts, and Star Trek: Prosperity, but a new year means new games, and I have several concepts I want to explore. The question therefore is...
Where are we going?
The two ideas that are foremost in my mind right now are:
The Orville
A traditional Science Fiction/Space Exploration campaign set in the universe of the Seth Macfarlane's TV series of the same name.
In addition to really liking the show, I love that idea that the players will have the kind of familiarity they would have with a Star Trek game, but without having to worry about all the continuity, and elements they don't know. There have only been 12 episodes. We've all seen the same 12. Not hard to keep things straight.
I also like that although the show is not really the comedy that everyone expected, there are more relaxed and light hearted moments than you might be on other Sci-Fi shows. This milieu is one of serious Science Fiction, but it doesn't take itself too seriously.
As noted in some earlier posts on the subject, I am adapting Star Trek Adventures for this. Expect to see a lot of The Orville Adventures in posts throughout the year, but especially within the next couple of weeks.
Travellin' West
A working title, with another possibility being Western, or Westward, Traveller. Essentially, a Wild West RPG campaign using a variant of classic Traveller.
Now, when I say a variant, I am talking about the kitbashed, house-ruled version of classic Traveller I've been running for many years now. Basically it's classic with some updated rules from MegaTraveller, and an optional 'Death During Character Creation' system that can result in some very neat background material, plot hooks, and even special abilities, and items on occasion.
I've been toying with the idea of returning to the rather unusual approach to running a Western I took when I was very young, and still a relative newbie with RPGs. You can find references to both the original game, and my desire to revisit it here, and here.
While considering and turning down a number of options for a new campaign for this year, the Western idea kind of crept up on me out of nowhere, but stuck in my head even as others came, and went. While trying to find a system, it occurred to me how relatively simple, and effective it would be to adapt Traveller. It has an ideal balance between simplicity, and mechanical crunch, features a combat system where a pistol can kill an unarmored man, and PCs don't get more hit points as they improve in other way. A bandit's bullet can take you down in session fifty, as easily as it can in session 1.
There are other elements I think also translate over well, including the Character Creation, with Career rolls, and the building of the PCs history as they're being generated.
I am pretty excited about this endeavor. I will keep you all posted regarding my progress. I hope to get it down, and working, and not drop the project as I did Star Wars Traveller.*
Alrighty now...we've got the ball rolling!
Let's see where it bounces...
AD
Barking Alien
*Star Wars Traveller is on the back burner, and has been for some time. With my feeling less than impressed with the latest film, and far too many other ideas going through my head, Star Wars Traveller is not my concern at this time. I may get back to it at some later date, but right now that later date seems to be much, much later.
I think The Orville could be a lot of fun! Well, one of my players recently asked if I would be u[p to running a WEG D6 Star Wars game, as he had heard good things about the campaign that I had run several years ago. I am now in the process of working on a background, set in the same time as the Rebels TV show.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah! Do it up!
DeleteI would love to hear about your experiences with Star Wars D6, as it is one of my all time favorite RPGs. I absolutely love the system, and Star Wars rocks (or can...see The Last Jedi).
My last few attempts to make Star Wars work has not gone too well. Star Wars, once an intrinsic part of our make-up, has become this fractured thing that no two people around my way can seem to agree on.
I wish you luck, and again, I'd be very excited to know what you and your players come up with.
May The Force Be With You!
The Orville sounds fantastic! Can't wait for the development.
ReplyDelete