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Author Topic: Creating my own desert island scenario IRL.  (Read 803 times)

Idinsinuation

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Creating my own desert island scenario IRL.
« on: April 06, 2009, 07:53:33 PM »
TLDR Version:  I've got a mind to leave my RPG collection behind for a time and allow myself one book when I move in a month or two.  I'm thinking about going generic!  *Gasp*

I've got the future of my hobby on the brain.  Lately I've noticed I have way too many choices when it comes to RPGs.  Specifically when I decide to GM.  Recently I had a player I know from a previous group declare me the best game master in town.  It's thrown me a bit because he hasn't played in any of my games for a long time.

If I were to evaluate my own performance I'd be honestly disappointed in how easily I bounce from game to game with reckless abandon.  In any given day I'd say I have 2 or 3 ideas for a game session using an equal number of different games.  I think I'm actually overwhelmed by all my options.  Instead of focusing on a great game session next weekend I'm already thinking about the how to make my next new game great.

Right now my focus fluxuates between:

Dark Heresy (Chainsaw Swords!)
WFRP (It's "new" to me but feels comfortable like my favorite shoes.)
Wild Talents/Godlike (Castle Wolfenstein Inspired)
Deadlands (Been watching a lot of old Clint Eastwood movies.)
AFMBE (Aliens style game)
and others from time to time.

The problem is that while I like each of these fine, none of them stimulate my brain enough to stay with me long term.  I'm not saying it's a flaw in these games mind you, and I've perfected the art of the one-shot game but honestly I feel I've lost the ability to craft anything more than a series of set piece encounters.  I'm missing the depth in between and I'm having trouble finding it again.  The picture is out of focus and instead of tuning it in, I keep buying new cameras to see if the picture changes.

My thought is to make the trek with a naked laptop (devoid of any RPG product/map/art/etc.) and a copy of Chaosium's BRP book.  I need to get grounded and let lightning strike me.

Since I'm sure I'm not the only one who's felt like this, does anyone have any advice or care to relate their own similar experiences?
"A thousand fathers killed, a thousand virgin daughters spread, with swords still wet, with swords still wet, with the blood of their dead." - Protest the Hero

Kyle Aaron

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Creating my own desert island scenario IRL.
« Reply #1 on: April 06, 2009, 07:59:58 PM »
Sure. Once I wanted to run everything with GURPS. Then I realised that the players would never buy or read the rules.

So now I want to run everything with SixLetterSystem, it's only a dozen pages, the rules there they can absorb without reading in a session or two.
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Idinsinuation

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Creating my own desert island scenario IRL.
« Reply #2 on: April 06, 2009, 08:59:46 PM »
It's not even so much that I want to run "everything" with one system.  I just want to run one thing for a while period and I want it to be reliant more on my own mind rather than published ideas.

My goals here are to:

* Spend more time exploring why a character is cool rather than the trappings he uses to express that cool.  I can have Dirty Harry in a fantasy world with a really big sword.  I can have King Arthur in a modern world with a really big corporation.  My goal is that when I watch a movie I apply inspiration to my current game/setting rather than a new game/setting.

* Learn to appreciate house rules and total flexibility as far as they enhance the RP.  I'm honestly a hater of house rules preferring to keep the system static and the RP malleable but it's led me to hop systems for my variety rather than learn to solve the round hole puzzle with only my square peg.  Want to explore a classic knight in my modern horror scenario, we create a soldier with a code of honor.  Rules flexibility just helps us do that without needing a new game.

* Spend more time watching characters develop, instead of developing new characters.
"A thousand fathers killed, a thousand virgin daughters spread, with swords still wet, with swords still wet, with the blood of their dead." - Protest the Hero

stu2000

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Creating my own desert island scenario IRL.
« Reply #3 on: April 06, 2009, 09:30:17 PM »
BRP is a great choice. Easy to play. The other thing--if lightening strikes in a way you want to exploit later, BRP is so intuitive and straightforward that any material you generate will be easy to convert to something else. Should that become necessary.
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Imperator

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Creating my own desert island scenario IRL.
« Reply #4 on: April 07, 2009, 02:51:15 AM »
Go BRP, mate.

I've feeling a bit like this of late. Recently, after a big cull of my collection, I still had more than 80 games. I'm not sure if I can enjoy all of them for a significant period of time before I die.
My name is Ramón Nogueras. Running now Vampire: the Masquerade (Giovanni Chronicles IV for just 3 players), and itching to resume my Call of Cthulhu campaign (The Sense of the Sleight-of-Hand Man).

Idinsinuation

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Creating my own desert island scenario IRL.
« Reply #5 on: April 07, 2009, 10:37:05 AM »
Quote from: Imperator;294705
Go BRP, mate.

I've feeling a bit like this of late. Recently, after a big cull of my collection, I still had more than 80 games. I'm not sure if I can enjoy all of them for a significant period of time before I die.


Yeah I've got a pile of White Wolf books and two piles of 3.5 stuff sitting on my bedroom floor waiting to be traded in or sold to friends.

I'm still mulling over the one book but BRP is definitely the fore-runner.
"A thousand fathers killed, a thousand virgin daughters spread, with swords still wet, with swords still wet, with the blood of their dead." - Protest the Hero

David R

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Creating my own desert island scenario IRL.
« Reply #6 on: April 07, 2009, 11:52:31 AM »
Quote from: Idinsinuation;294566

The problem is that while I like each of these fine, none of them stimulate my brain enough to stay with me long term.  I'm not saying it's a flaw in these games mind you, and I've perfected the art of the one-shot game but honestly I feel I've lost the ability to craft anything more than a series of set piece encounters.  I'm missing the depth in between and I'm having trouble finding it again.  The picture is out of focus and instead of tuning it in, I keep buying new cameras to see if the picture changes.


Sounds like you have something to say. Maybe you don't really need a system.

Edit: I'm just sayin' maybe you are concentrating too much on the games you have.

Regards,
David R
« Last Edit: April 07, 2009, 12:04:00 PM by David R »

Drohem

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Creating my own desert island scenario IRL.
« Reply #7 on: April 07, 2009, 12:34:11 PM »
If you were only going to pick one system for a while, BRP would be in the top three list for me too.  IMHO, you can't go wrong with BRP, especially the latest edition which complies the various Chaosium/BRP games subsystems from the last 20+ years.

Idinsinuation

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Creating my own desert island scenario IRL.
« Reply #8 on: April 07, 2009, 04:34:50 PM »
Quote from: David R;294765
Sounds like you have something to say. Maybe you don't really need a system.

Edit: I'm just sayin' maybe you are concentrating too much on the games you have.

Regards,
David R

Perhaps write my own?  The thought has crossed my mind a few times if that's what you mean.  First things first I will have to cut myself off from the bulk of my existing distractions.

I'll have something to break the ice with a new group and then perhaps spring on them the chance to be lab rats for my new experiment.

Quote from: Drohem;294770
If you were only going to pick one system for a while, BRP would be in the top three list for me too.  IMHO, you can't go wrong with BRP, especially the latest edition which complies the various Chaosium/BRP games subsystems from the last 20+ years.

It is good, I've skimmed my copy of the BRP book and own both CoC and Stormbringer.  I've also got the option of Savage Worlds slim and sexy Explorer's Edition and my own stripped down One Roll Engine variant.  I'm not rushing myself since I have some time to decide.

Plus I won't be completely isolated, I'll likely be playing in a 4e group a couple times a month if all goes well but I'm not going to be buying the books anytime in the near future.
« Last Edit: April 07, 2009, 04:49:16 PM by Idinsinuation »
"A thousand fathers killed, a thousand virgin daughters spread, with swords still wet, with swords still wet, with the blood of their dead." - Protest the Hero

Drohem

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Creating my own desert island scenario IRL.
« Reply #9 on: April 07, 2009, 04:45:07 PM »
Yeah, I hear what you are saying.  I do the same thing myself; I become very focused on one thing for a while, and then move on.  I'm a flighty Gemini though.

David R

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Creating my own desert island scenario IRL.
« Reply #10 on: April 07, 2009, 07:38:12 PM »
Quote from: Idinsinuation;294863
Perhaps write my own?


Not what I meant. From what you have written I get the feeling that you want to say something - explore characters etc. I don't think system or the variety of systems that is availbale to you is the problem. I think (and I could be wrong) it's the lack of discipline on your part or the lack of ideas. Confining yourself to one system in the hope of getting that idea/maintaning discipline may not work.

My suggestion is, forget about system but pick a genre that interest you and work from there, picking a system/game later. This way, the system does not become the focus but your idea/concept is the driving force behind "your" game. If you can't come up with anything, ask your players what they would like to play - not game/system - but rather their ideas.

Regards,
David R

Idinsinuation

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Creating my own desert island scenario IRL.
« Reply #11 on: April 07, 2009, 07:42:28 PM »
Quote from: David R;294906
Not what I meant. From what you have written I get the feeling that you want to say something - explore characters etc. I don't think system or the variety of systems that is availbale to you is the problem. I think (and I could be wrong) it's the lack of discipline on your part or the lack of ideas. Confining yourself to one system in the hope of getting that idea/maintaning discipline may not work.

My suggestion is, forget about system but pick a genre that interest you and work from there, picking a system/game later. This way, the system does not become the focus but your idea/concept is the driving force behind "your" game. If you can't come up with anything, ask your players what they would like to play - not game/system - but rather their ideas.

Regards,
David R

Ah yes, that is in fact the bulk of my issue here.  I'm not narrowing systems so much as I need to shrink the amount of setting options I have.  System just seems to be a natural result of doing this.

That is half the reason I aim to only take one book with me.  The other half is more about forcing myself to create what I need for the game I end up taking.  If I need a new monster I'll make one myself rather than delve through a pile of books on the subject.
"A thousand fathers killed, a thousand virgin daughters spread, with swords still wet, with swords still wet, with the blood of their dead." - Protest the Hero