Thankfully, it's over now, and this month is bound to be better. Plus, no themes, no challenges, nothing of the sort to distract me from just saying whatever it is I want to say. At least none I'm planning on participating in.
So what do I want to say? Well for starters...
I have a new plan going forward in regards to my gaming schedule. I have decided that I will not be running any other campaigns outside of my ongoing, monthly Classic Traveller game (Operation: PALADIN, its 30th session was played on Saturday, April 18th), and my (very) roughly, monthly Last Unicorn Games Star Trek game (Star Trek: Prosperity).
Basically, there will be no secondary campaign for my main group until Operation: PALADIN has concluded. Once the Traveller campaign has ended (and it will end), I will be ready to do the final preparations for a new game.
What I would like to have happen though is for pre-production on our next campaign to begin soon. Preferably, I'd like to get the ball rolling this month. If I can start my prep for the next campaign now, I will likely work out most of the kinks, and have oodles of material ready for when it begins.
I have no idea what I am going to run as of this moment. I hope to come up with something soon, obviously, so I can follow through with my aforementioned plans.
I know I want to avoid the genre of Superheroes, which simply hasn't worked for us as a group. I'll probably avoid Science Fiction too close to Traveller, although a desire to run Star Wars is nagging at me something fierce.
True, Traveller, and Star Wars can be very different, but they can easily fall into similar styles, and patterns. Our last Traveller session for example, had a very Star Wars-y, last minute escape at the end.
The thing of it is, while this is definitely one of the best campaigns I've ever run (see an upcoming post updating the status of things in our Traveller campaign - Coming Soon! - this post has a lot of 'soon' doesn't it?), I would like to take try something different to prevent stagnation. The last thing I want to do is be viewed as a one trick pony, or suffer from genre/game burnout.
It may seem like I am back to square one, still unable to conceive of a game for my group other than Traveller, I don't see it that way. I've made progress. I know I need to finish my current campaign before I start another. I know what kind of games I don't want to run. I am getting a better idea of what works with the group, and far more importantly why. I see the pitfalls, and I am compiling tools to fix, or get around them.
An answer is on the horizon. I sense it.
AD
Barking Alien
I can understand not wanting to do a genre the group doesn't manage well, like superheroes (mores the pity). But why avoid a genre that both you and the group do manage well? I can understand burnout, but worrying that you're a "one trick pony" sounds like you are showing your home movies on their screen. They seem to be having a good time, not thinking you are limited in scope.
ReplyDeleteBesides, you can do Star Wars a lot different than Traveller. For one thing, you could avoid the whole "merchant marine" thing that seems to be the staple of most of the Traveller/Star Wars/Firefly stories and do something different. I'm reading the "Princess Leia" comic series right now, and it is a rollicking adventure centered around finding refugees from Alderaan in between Episodes IV and V. I also got the impression that you did a slow-build Kaiser Soze villain from the Traveller campaign. You can make the black hats blacker in Star Wars.
I would just hate to see you cutting off your nose to spite your face, gaming-wise. Just my $.02.