Sorry for the long delay in getting out posts. Summer has been kicking my butt between an ever changing work schedule and the rather intense heat. I exist in two states lately: Totally revved up and unconscious. No middle ground.
I still have a lot of Japanese TRPG related subjects I want to talk about but it's taking me longer than intended to get my sources and thoughts together. Fear not, my next entry in my 31 Days/31 Characters project is coming soon(ish). I'm sure the anticipation has been keeping you all up at night.
At present I am involved in a number of online TRPG campaigns and between playing, prepping, and running, a lot of spare time is taken up there as well. I am really enjoying all the games I'm in, so no regrets in that area. Let me give you a brief 'State of Gaming' update:
The longest running campaign I've ever gamemastered continues. Our Star Trek campaign entitled 'Star Trek: Prosperity' using the Star Trek Adventures system by Modiphius games, keep going boldly. Mentioned on this blog numerous times in the past, the campaign in now in its eighth year and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. I've got a lot of stories yet to tell. Although a Second Edition of the game is on its way, we are still using First, largely because I've made a few adjustments and houserules and said changes are tied to First. Not sure if I need a Second Edition. We'll see.
I am also running a weekly classic Traveller campaign I call 'Second Survey' in which the PCs are part of the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service's Grand Survey II in the Imperial Year 1024. Their mission is to visit the worlds in the Solomani Frontier Sector of Daibei (specifically starting out in the Outback Subsector) and make sure the information in the Imperial Library Data on these planets matches the reality of their present conditions. Due to the Solomani Rim War that occurred two decades past, much of this info is roughly twenty years out of date. Updates to things such as resource and trade potential, changes in population and/or government, and the like earn the PCs extra pay from their Patron, which is the IISS itself.
As for playing, the other really long running game I'm involved in is the [roughly] biweekly Hogwarts/Wizarding World of Harry Potter campaign using a homebrew system. The campaign's 'official' title is 'Hogwarts: A Mystery' and is run by my friend Alex, who serves as First Officer and Chief Engineer Bhoth in our Star Trek: Prosperity game. I've mentioned this Hogwarts campaign a number of times in prior posts and it is now in its sixth or seventh year of real time. We, the PCs that is, are Fifth Year Students in House Ravenclaw. My character is Francis 'Frank' Pellgrove and he ranks among the most enjoyable PCs that I've ever played.
Lastly, I am both playing and running in a Star Trek Adventures campaign set in the time of Lower Decks (roughly), the early to mid-2380s. Entitled 'Star Trek: Copernicus'; the game features rotating Gamemasters, with each of the players serving a turn as referee. It has been interesting to say the least. Overall the adventures have been quite good, even great, though I feel my own have been kind of hit and miss (more miss). For some reason I'm finding it hard to motivate the other players to engage with the type of stories I want to explore. It may be that my more 'Original Series' approach isn't jiving with their 'TNG-DS9-Voyager'; mindsets.
We are presenting going through the 'Season 1 Finale' adventure. After this we may take a break...literally. One of the players wants to GM BREAK!!. It might be a one-shot or it might be a short series. After that, who knows? Could be Star Trek: Copernicus Season 2, could be a short stint of something else...we shall see.
I am generally really happy with the gaming I'm participating in, though as always my thoughts leap to stranger and less traveled roads. I really want to run some sort of Horror game (though no idea what kind), wouldn't mind exploring a period such as 17th Century Pirates or the Wild West, and hope to get back to Ghostbusters at some point. All the while Anime/Manga influenced Japanese TRPGs call to me with their J-Pop siren songs. I also really want to run a Fantasy RPG - I know, I know - but more on that another time.
Sigh.
Man I don't like the Summer. Is it Autumn yet?
AD
Barking Alien
Sounds very active BA and that should be a good thing - want to share a little more about that Traveller campaign? How much trouble are they getting into in between sensor sweeps?
ReplyDeleteNot nearly enough. As with most of my games over the past 10 years, the players are practical, efficient, and largely against any undo heroics.
DeleteTheir job is to survey a planet, get as much scientific information as they can, corroborate the social, political, and economic details with the locals, and then move on to the next planet.
So that's what they do.
Investigating further into what's happening on a world occurs but only thanks to some concentrated effort on my part and that fact that at least two of the players are curious to dig deeper.
Even then though, they are rather cautious about taking action. Hopefully they'll get bolder as we go.