Woe, Is Me - I Want to Run Fantasy

So, there's this guy I know...

He really doesn't like Medieval Fantasy of the type you see in Fantasy RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons. He really doesn't like the game mechanics the majority of Dungeons and Dragons style RPGs use to facilitate running campaigns in that genre. At the same time, he really, really wants to run a Medieval-ish / Sword & Sorcery-esque Tabletop Roleplaying Game campaign.

Me. I'm that guy.

Beginning next year, I plan on running a [vaguely] Medieval Fantasy RPG campaign with the intent of making it a fairly long term mainstay for one of my groups. 

No, you read that right. No, this isn't a practical joke, I haven't gone mad, nor am I a Parallel Earth doppleganger of Adam from some twisted Mirror Universe. I just...let me explain..

I am Feeling Inspired

There are a lot of reasons for this including but not limited to: 

• I haven't run an ongoing Fantasy campaign for a while and I’m feeling nostalgic.
• I've been inspired by a blog project I am working on to appear early next year.
• I've been inspired by other bloggers discussing Dungeons and Dragons and it makes me what to do something different.
• I've been inspired by various Fantasy Anime, Manga, and RPGs. 

I Love a Challenge

I've had a great year running and playing Ghostbusters, the Wizarding World, Smurfs, Star Trek, Star Wars, and various Superhero games. All things I'm [generally] good at. I can reliably, more often then not, create a good time for my friends and I playing and Gamemastering these genres, settings, and games. 

Fantasy is not so easy for me. It requires a lot more thought, creatvity, research, and patience. Patience with the game, the genre, the players, and myself. The toughest part is always keeping myself interested. 

I really want to give it a go though. It's been a while since a have in a long term, open world fashion the way I once did.

I also want to find or create a system for running this type of game that I don't despise*. 

I Have Some Ideas

I actually have some thoughts on what would make for good 'adventures' or rather, NPCs and happenings going on in a Fantasy world. Many of my ideas are still in the early stage and will need some fleshing out before 'going live'. 

I also need to see what kind of characters the players come up with, as I usually try to intergrate the PCs into the world, the world into the adventures, and therefore the adventures into who the PCs are and what they're all about. 

I'm Driven By Spite (In a Good Way)

I must admit that I have a negative personality trait that makes me want to do a thing after encountering or experiencing that thing and thinking 'that could have been better'.Few things get me as fired up about running a particular game as finishing a bad game and believe it could have been really good.

That said, its not like I've been in any bad Fantasy games lately. In fact, I participated in a short, good one not long ago. Fun as it was, it ended up feeling just like every other Fantasy game and the rule mechanics of the RPG, while functional, eventually felt a little flat. I also vastly prefer running Fantasy to playing it [unless we're talking Smurfs, which I find really fun to play]. 

Then there are all the blog posts out there talking about the various incarnations of D&D. Each one I read makes me want to do it differently, do it my way, and to veer away from the kind of things that made me grow to dislike D&D in the first place. 

I know, it's a terrible reason to want to run a game but sadly it often works for me.

That's it for now. I'll probably be discussing this on and off again as we approach 2026 and the launch of whatever this ends up being.

Later days,

AD

Barking Alien

*OK, that's a little hyperbolic. I don't despise all Fantasy games. Just ones with Classes, Levels, Hit Points, Miniature/Wargame Based Combat, Treasure Based Experience, and Inflexible and Uncreative Magic.

So...a lot of them.