Just what it says on the tin; whatcha doin' for your current or next campaign? For my part I've found in the process of rebuilding lost notes a desire to do the next game in more of a gonzo'ish sword n' sorcery feel as opposed to leaning toward historica authentica per usual. I'm thinking conan but ratchet up the magic/fantasy aspects a little, but not as far as, say, he-man. Toward that end I've re-made a slightly different version of the character sheet I had made earlier and lost (will try to attach pic) and also began formulating a setting idea to include an early base map that i'm still trying to decide which way to go with.
Drawing upon the book of Enoch, I think a setting shortly after "the watchers" (presumed to be fallen angels that lay with human women to spawn the nephilim) are imprisoned, and yet long before the flood or even rise of Atlantis, captures my imagination enough to ask and answer questions about such, which is for me how creation occurs anyway.
There is great room for embellishment here; let us say these watchers lived as gods among men, taking man from cave dwelling animals to roman tier civilization by any and all means to include slavery. Virtual god-kings who create new races and animals as they see fit, invading other worlds with magic gates and slave armies for amusement...until the archangels strike them down and imprison them. Which leaves civilization without its creators; no one to guide many magic-dependent processes that may now run amok, constant power struggles between former slaves and vassals...and the nephilim that see themselves as rightful heirs to a divine right to rule mankind. This certainly sounds to me like a backdrop where one can readily envision a conan type character re-living what sort of looks like the sarlacc pitt scene from return of the jedi but against demons and the barge needs a mage to drive it.
Anyhow, thats where i'm presently at game wise...hope you're getting your satisfaction out of the hobby too. I'd be glad to hear what you've got going on and just as happy to draw any inspiration from it. I'll try to attach the CS i customized and the present state of a map that might become the red sea in 30k years or so, who knows. Still undecided on whether to try the modern looking satellite view type terrain or the old school hand drawn kind, and whether or not to even use color instead of going for a parchment-prop look.
https://ibb.co/SxTrKQQ (https://ibb.co/SxTrKQQ)
https://ibb.co/2cMVPGV (https://ibb.co/2cMVPGV)
1) Book of Enoch is interesting for inspiration. I'm sure there's even more to draw out there. Worth the research because its a different take on "biblical fables" and instantly fits into a bronze age setting.
2) Player maps should be sparse and general and only good locally. Sages would have better maps, and maps should be a commodity of value. The only person who has a satellite image map is the GM.
3) Are you using D6 Fantasy? Very interested how well that works for sword & sorcery RPGing, both from the player end and the paperwork side for the GM.
Oh yes, D6 Fantasy with a few custom mods. I agree players should eat the map so to speak. Having color in the map rather than the tolkien hand drawn style is actually giving me pause because it's a lot more work in gimp, so that might get kicked back to the drawing board.
As to how D6 will do in sword & sorcery, I can tell you that making custom advantages/disadvantages that all together effectively mimic the restrictions and abilities of classic D&D classes can go a long way; for example, a disadvantage that limits worn armor by causing attack & defense rolls to default to attribute rather than using full skill dice if armor above the given weight class (light medium heavy) is worn...or an advantage that allows you to spend a fate point to have your single melee attack applied to all foes within reach.
I always use a variation of the dueling blades chart that was published in D6 magazine at one time, and nerf fate to render max roll rather than double die codes. Several little tweaks like that to suit my tastes. Allowing creatures to have a base of 1 fate per healthy (uncursed) mind body or soul if they have such qualities, which regenerates with a full rest (only up to 3 and only if below 3) and then attaching a fate cost to things in a sort of action economy for example.
The magic rules is where the most love is needed; there i make the default magic skills be specializations of a new skill, spellcraft, and add binding-channeling-alchemy as extranormal skills. I allow multiple spellcasting rolls across actions or rounds to build to the needed spell total and attach a fate point cost. I allow the use of channeling (drawing on stored magic, roughly equivalent to sense from d6 star wars) or binding (projecting magic, roughly equivalent to alter in d6 star wars) for minor free-form magic again with a fate cost.
I don't think the system itself actually needs much of this beyond a fate nerf, per say, but these are my little tweaks i insist on in making the system my own.
I'm testing out some new players (and confirming whether I want one returning player) and a new game (Torg Eternity--I'll be running a few of the "Day One" one-shot scenarios). I have minimal commitment to it right now; if the players don't make it enjoyable for me to run it, it can die.
Hate to be the debbie downer. I tried playing online, and didn't much like it. so my gaming is on pause, and has been all summer. WA just initiated another round of stay-at-home, and my gaming was limited to a few guys showing up for X-Wing Miniatures.
We do plan to play some 80's Basic D&D with my nephew during Thanksgiving. That's about it.
My players (all two of them - hard to find players with this lock down shit) are space marines assaulting my fantasy world. It should be great fun!
I'm using the new High Colonies by Colombia Games as the system, but as of right now I don't have a magic system for it. I might need one eventually if the campaign lasts long enough.
I'm playing in a friend's Fate Accelerated powered anime fantasy game through Second Life.
It started out with her wanting to run D&D 5th Edition. But she owned none of the books. And after we talked, it became apparent that she wanted a game system she could rip apart and make her own. So I showed her Fate Accelerated. And she really took to it like a duck to water.
I'm both a player and an observer for the game. Acting as a coach to help her overcome the beginner GM issues. It's been working well. And she hasn't really needed much guidance at all. So I mostly get to kick back and enjoy the game.
She has really made the game her own. Redesigning core elements to match her storytelling style. She's also had some truly wicked puzzles to solve along the way. Some people are just naturals. And I'm glad I was able to help her out.
All games online, England is in lockdown again.
My 5e D&D Princes of the Apocalypse game is about to end, last session tomorrow; the 14th level PCs defeated Prince Yan C Bin last session and the surviving PCs are fighting Air Prophetess Aerisi Kalinoth.
My D6 Mini Six Primeval Thule game is running fortnightly, PCs are in The Lichway & just met Dark Odo.
My 5e D&D Faerun Adventures sandboxy game set in Damara 1359 DR (1e era) is running weekly, PCs are attacking a Temple of Chaos dedicated to Tsathoggua.
Will likely take a GMing break in December until the New Year.
I ended my d6 Star Wars game due to Player breakdown. They couldn't choose a direction for themselves and stay with it long enough to get anywhere, group goals would change every game. This coupled with in game actions for te lulz, like buying a "pet" Kowakian Monkey-Lizard and letting it escape into their ship to wreck havoc, started a contest to see whose character could do the stupidest shit in order to derail the game. I stopped having fun, spent a month trying to get the group to work, then just gave up and ended it.
I'm doing a lot of writing and prep work for the time being while also getting ready to get married and move.
I'm finishing prep for a new campaign that I'll launch next week. We are online and will play Esoteric Enterprises, set in the Baltimore undercity. This is a new gaming genre for everyone involved. At seven players, it's also the largest group I've ever tried to run online. Well, I do like a challenge and I'm looking forward to it.
Lemmee see... I got a group that will meet every too weeks, but the half the table that insists on that attenuated schedule also don't show up for... reasons. This week its a corona-virus lockdown for one player and the other won't show up without her (they are both girls, for whatever that's worth). I do have a new player that insisted he was familiar with RPGs when I invited him, but when he made a character he admitted he'd only seen people playing it at the game store, but he didn't show because he had car troubles and my phone held his text asking for a ride for about 16 hours before delivering it.
So my Unisystem Armaggeddon campaign, which I am surprisingly unethusiastic about despite setting it up, is in week three of character design and pre-planning, which is way too long.
Meanwhile, I'm juggling an issue. I've discovered Hero-Forge (I even ordered a full color model at absurd cost from them, its gorgeous by the way), as a means of getting players (and myself!) to visualize characters (I don't require they buy a model, just design one and send me the link). How hard do I push this passionate idea I have for expanding the imagination... particularly with players who 'play against type'?
So far I've got one character model that was exactly perfect in telling me what my player wanted to play, along with a line of character biography that allowed me to spin his role in teh setting to our mutual satisfaction. I've got my new player who made a... unique... model after makign his character that is bare bones but functional, and a generic D&D thief in greyscale that not only tells me nothing about the character but is also wildly inappropriate for the game in question, and my two unreliables, both of whom love to make (useless to me) cartoon art of their characters who have given me nothing at all.
Great tool, in my opinion, but I get the strong impression that I had hit that too hard, like I used to hit Q&A sessions with players too hard years ago, and it will just irritate the players who just don't care.
So... yeah... the state of my table is, at the moment, wrack and ruin, just waiting for the red dawn.
Finished a playtest session of my current system effort. That went mostly well. However, this time of the year is always a difficult schedule for our group, and various work concerns are making it even tougher than normal. So probably won't get another game in until early next year.
As I mentioned in an earlier topic, the system is a hybrid mix of BEMCI/RC, 5E, and a few other quirks. It's closer to BEMCI/RC than 5E, but not entirely old school. Using an adapted Barrowmaze as a test bed. I'm a bit ambivalent about that--it's a good adventure for the style of game I'm wanting to test, but not so good for quick playtest sessions during a time of difficult game scheduling. It might work better if I try an online version, but I'm stilll completely underwhelmed with the online options.
My game is up to Book 4 of 6 of the Age of Ashes adventure path. We are currently playing irl with one or two players dialing in via discord.
My alternating weekly Stars Without Number games went online back in March. Then I joined a D&D5e game and Savage Worlds (Slipstream) game. Online gaming has been pretty fun, all things considered. I was playing or running in 3 games a week, which I hadn't done since the mid-90s!
Then I got my teaching load, and now I'm teaching Mon-Thurs evenings until the end of term. My wife, bless her soul, has encouraged me to run a game every other week on Fridays. One of my SWN games is on hiatus until January, the other meets online once a month because every other Friday was seen as too onerous a burden by a couple of players. I'm not bitter. :P
Anyways, when not running SWN, I run one-offs of games I've either never played before, or haven't played in eons.
Last Friday was Twilight:2000 using the game mechanics from Modern Warfare (Cepheus Engine). Pretty fun. I've also run Heavy Gear 2nd edition, which was a blast from the past. I'm thinking of running Honor + Intrigue for the next one-off. But Stars Without Number is next up. That'll be fun.
I'm hoping to go back to teaching during the day in January, that should restore my weekly gaming. I'm jonesing.
We're alternating (weekly) a Savage Worlds Rifts game, and a D&D 5E game. I'm running the 5E game from the GMG revision of 'In Search of Adventure' (Aka 'The Caverns of Quasqueton'). It started out as a one-shot for shits and giggles, and suddenly we all decided 'Eh, this is fun, let's run with it.'
Covid, holidays, visitors, and our host's two young lads have inconvenienced us but not stopped us (the boys are now playing in the 5E game).
I suspect the Rifts game might sputter out though, we spent last session doing more relaxed chatting than dice rolling. Not a HUGE thing, as we all get along, but it doesn't bode well if we can't keep focus :)
Quote from: jeff37923 on November 22, 2020, 07:42:05 AM
I ended my d6 Star Wars game due to Player breakdown.
You don't unlock the last achievement until you bail a guy out of jail because his character's plight is so integral that the others will not gather w/o his resolution :p
Quote from: Slipshot762 on November 22, 2020, 04:27:14 PM
Quote from: jeff37923 on November 22, 2020, 07:42:05 AM
I ended my d6 Star Wars game due to Player breakdown.
You don't unlock the last achievement until you bail a guy out of jail because his character's plight is so integral that the others will not gather w/o his resolution :p
The character playing a protocol droid with a 1D+2 in Pick Pocket went off on his own trying to rob people, he was switched off and locked in a Mos Eisley law enforcement evidence locker for a whole session because the rest of the players did not know where he went or what had happened to him.
We're playing in-person again.
I'm taking over GMing when I get back from vacation which starts 12/1. I'll be running my first Savage Rifts Campaign. During vacation I'll be reading a bunch of Palladium Worldbooks for setting fluff.
We started a Basic Fantasy campaign months ago, but COVID put it on hold. We probably won't resume in-person play until sometime in 2021. When I get the band back together, I'm not sure if we'll continue with Basic Fantasy, or try something else. I want to test out my Knave hack, possibly with Tomb of the Serpent Kings. After we kick the tires on that a bit, I'll see if my group wants to continue with it, or maybe re-start Basic Fantasy, or maybe try another old school system, possibly OSE or Labyrinth Lord.
We played D&D 5e a bit, but most of my players prefer the older D&D systems that we grew up on. And I'm totally fine with that.
Got a game running now that is part live (three of us meet at one house) and part remote (the three other players skype and roll20 in), but it's been that way since before covid (even though we are older, most of us aren't particularly afraid). We just stopped a SW Deadlands and a Slipstream campaign because we came to an agreement that Savage Worlds was just not a system that we enjoyed. Some of the reasons we took a break from various iterations of D&D turned out to be exacerbated by SW rather than solved by it. So we're back to D&D (giving 5e another whirl, as quite a few changes and new options have come about since we last tried it. We normally rotate DMs, with one of them running a converted 4e module, and me running a homebrew world and adventure. So far, returning to D&D has been the right move. I figure that, when the group gets system wanderlust again, I'm going to see if I can talk them into Mini D6 or something similar, but that won't be for a long while, I think...
I'm currently playing in an AD&D1e version of Pathfinder's Kingmaker campaign. Very monty haul.
I'm about ready to playtest Conflict, the adventure game of modern warfare. I've got a few things usually absent from these games, but we'll have to see how it works in play.
Initial stages of a campaign-starter module (1E/OSRIC). When I finish the first draft, hopefully next year, I'll probably playtest it online. Should be good.
I'm currently running a game of Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells every two weeks. On the off week, I am playing 5e Grim Hollow. I'd like to be running Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea and Cyberpunk RED also, but don't have time to start an online game yet. I'd play either one online as well, if I had the time.
Chicken ranching and dog training are pretty time-consuming right now. Trying to figure out the best way to drive off a red tailed hawk stalking our flock.
Looks like my Traveller game will most likely be starting up this weekend. We did character gen sessions and some practice combats over Zoom, but have waited until we can gather in person to get the actual game underway. We did do some boardgaming over Tabletop Simulator during the hiatus.
Quote from: jeff37923 on November 22, 2020, 05:15:48 PM
The character playing a protocol droid with a 1D+2 in Pick Pocket went off on his own trying to rob people, he was switched off and locked in a Mos Eisley law enforcement evidence locker for a whole session because the rest of the players did not know where he went or what had happened to him.
Sorry you had to deal with stupid shit. But, that right there: that's funny as hell; a logical outcome; and something the player well-deserved, IMO.
All of my games have been online for the past several years, so now it is pretty much the same (maybe with the change that I know if I need to I can find other tables more easily as so many people are online playing these days). I have been trying to play as a player more regularly, and as a GM I have been focused more on one shots----was doing longer term campaigns before. Kind of enjoying this as I get to relax a little more and I get to put more prep into sessions I do run. Will probably go back to something more long term soon though. I like one shots but I enjoy the fun of an organic and evolving campaign over a longer period of time.
Currently all my gaming is virtual. Three campaigns use video conferencing along with Roll20, one uses videoconferencing (with a different app) and file sharing, and a fifth campaign uses audio conferencing and shared files. Since I'm only running two of those campaigns and one of those meets infrequently, I'm also preparing for a new Runequest: Glorantha campaign which looks like it will be a sequel to the last Runequest campaign though with mostly new players and PCs.
Quote from: Spike on November 22, 2020, 01:35:39 PM
Meanwhile, I'm juggling an issue. I've discovered Hero-Forge (I even ordered a full color model at absurd cost from them, its gorgeous by the way), as a means of getting players (and myself!) to visualize characters (I don't require they buy a model, just design one and send me the link). How hard do I push this passionate idea I have for expanding the imagination... particularly with players who 'play against type'?
So far I've got one character model that was exactly perfect in telling me what my player wanted to play, along with a line of character biography that allowed me to spin his role in teh setting to our mutual satisfaction. I've got my new player who made a... unique... model after makign his character that is bare bones but functional, and a generic D&D thief in greyscale that not only tells me nothing about the character but is also wildly inappropriate for the game in question, and my two unreliables, both of whom love to make (useless to me) cartoon art of their characters who have given me nothing at all.
Great tool, in my opinion, but I get the strong impression that I had hit that too hard, like I used to hit Q&A sessions with players too hard years ago, and it will just irritate the players who just don't care.
I've seen several really nice Hero Forge models that were perfect for a specific player character and it seemed like those gamers really enjoyed designing their own models to match or expand on their character's look. For myself, I've tried it a few times and have found it more frustrating than useful as I can't seem to design a look that matches what I think the character looks like and I don't enjoy spending a bunch of time fooling around in design only to end up with a model that doesn't really match the character.
Quote from: Kyle Aaron on November 23, 2020, 06:22:33 AM
I'm currently playing in an AD&D1e version of Pathfinder's Kingmaker campaign. Very monty haul.
I'm about ready to playtest Conflict, the adventure game of modern warfare. I've got a few things usually absent from these games, but we'll have to see how it works in play.
Does this game require AR-15's and lots of expensive ammo? Because in the next few years it might be one very popular game! :)
Early this year we had just started a cool RQ3 pirate campaign set in Glorantha, on a small archipelago off the coast of Pamaltela. We were having a lot of fun and then covid and lockdown happened. Since then we have switched to online gaming with another GM, who is again running a Star Wars campaign with HeroQuest that we had left unfinished years ago. I have also been playing some one-shots at some online cons. :)
Quote from: tenbones on November 23, 2020, 03:50:56 PM
Does this game require AR-15's and lots of expensive ammo? Because in the next few years it might be one very popular game! :)
No, we don't do LARPing.
But it'd be good for people to play through to discover just how short-lived they'd be in a guerilla conflict :)
Quote from: Kyle Aaron on November 23, 2020, 06:00:50 PM
Quote from: tenbones on November 23, 2020, 03:50:56 PM
Does this game require AR-15's and lots of expensive ammo? Because in the next few years it might be one very popular game! :)
No, we don't do LARPing.
But it'd be good for people to play through to discover just how short-lived they'd be in a guerilla conflict :)
But our lawns will be lush and fertile.
We are playing The Night Below converted to run in Castles and Crusades. So far, we are having a great time. We plan to move to Old School Essentials after we finish this campaign.
Right now, I've got a coffee maker and some plates on it, ready for thursday!
But, you mean - Gaming Table, right?
I lost mine a few years ago, right before the 2016 election. I'm solo now. :( Been reading my old B/X and 1E stuff, and working on a solution to the OSR problem.
Sad, I know! :D
Running a 5th Ed ongoing campaign on Wednesdays, an episodic Cthulhu game on Sundays, playing Star wars and 3.5 (will swap out star wars for something else after New Year) . All online at the moment, but at least 2 will revert to FtF as soon as lockdown ends properly and the pub can give us a room again.
Quote from: consolcwby on November 24, 2020, 11:33:02 PMBeen reading my old B/X and 1E stuff, and working on a solution to the OSR problem.
I'm curious. What's the problem that you are trying to solve?
Quote from: Bren on November 25, 2020, 01:27:07 PM
Quote from: consolcwby on November 24, 2020, 11:33:02 PMBeen reading my old B/X and 1E stuff, and working on a solution to the OSR problem.
I'm curious. What's the problem that you are trying to solve?
Well, it's a problem that I discovered in the early 1990s that seems to emanate from the original LBBs, namely it's combat. D&D's origins is in miniature battles, however Blackmoor and (to a lesser degree) Greyhawk would be considered more as Skirmish battles. That's why there was never any real fusion between skirmish rules and larger scale rules. I'm not as harsh as Jim Dunnigan has been on the maths, but I do find OD&D to be problematic when it comes to a single ruleset. I believe for OSR to grow and not just be a fad or a 'rules for the over-the-hill' folks, a NEW ruleset needs to be developed to fix this problem.
Of course, most people take it for granted that single-man combat rules/to-hit tables cannot transfer to larger non-skirmish battles, but I'm not one of them.
You could say, we can do Fellowship of the Ring, but not the War for the Ring - if that helps to clarify what I'm saying. I am currently trying to find these rules.
EDIT: I should add that I played wargames before I played RPGs. That's why I am currently looking into Rulebooks from the late 60s-70s from SPI/Avalon Hill and comparing them to B/X and 1E's combat rules for group/mass combat (including some Dragon Articles, although I am woefully information-poor with the magazine angle). BECMI provides the evolution, but I'm trying to reverse engineer the manner of thought behind this in relation to Chainmail. I have some tables I've made, but overall, I keep finding myself being led back to interviews about Wallenstein. Which is to say, NO REAL INFO on mechanics.
Quote from: consolcwby on November 25, 2020, 10:06:30 PM
Quote from: Bren on November 25, 2020, 01:27:07 PM
Quote from: consolcwby on November 24, 2020, 11:33:02 PMBeen reading my old B/X and 1E stuff, and working on a solution to the OSR problem.
I'm curious. What's the problem that you are trying to solve?
Well, it's a problem that I discovered in the early 1990s that seems to emanate from the original LBBs, namely it's combat. D&D's origins is in miniature battles, however Blackmoor and (to a lesser degree) Greyhawk would be considered more as Skirmish battles. That's why there was never any real fusion between skirmish rules and larger scale rules. I'm not as harsh as Jim Dunnigan has been on the maths, but I do find OD&D to be problematic when it comes to a single ruleset. I believe for OSR to grow and not just be a fad or a 'rules for the over-the-hill' folks, a NEW ruleset needs to be developed to fix this problem.
Of course, most people take it for granted that single-man combat rules/to-hit tables cannot transfer to larger non-skirmish battles, but I'm not one of them.
You could say, we can do Fellowship of the Ring, but not the War for the Ring - if that helps to clarify what I'm saying. I am currently trying to find these rules.
EDIT: I should add that I played wargames before I played RPGs. That's why I am currently looking into Rulebooks from the late 60s-70s from SPI/Avalon Hill and comparing them to B/X and 1E's combat rules for group/mass combat (including some Dragon Articles, although I am woefully information-poor with the magazine angle). BECMI provides the evolution, but I'm trying to reverse engineer the manner of thought behind this in relation to Chainmail. I have some tables I've made, but overall, I keep finding myself being led back to interviews about Wallenstein. Which is to say, NO REAL INFO on mechanics.
got a cousin that still runs a game in his town using just basic-companion boxes; for mass combat he essentially takes the axis&allies rules (the strategic world war version not the tactical scale battletech-like version) and adapts fantasy units to those mechanics. Not the most elegant thing but handles huge month long invasions with about 10 minutes of rolling dice and choosing casualties. giants become tanks dragons become bombers etc...roll for inflicting casualties, remove the dead, repeat or retreat.
eta
in case you are unfamiliar with A&A; it has a large degree of abstraction, a bomber mini is not a single bomber it represents a bomber wing or squadron, a single infantry represents perhaps a whole division, a single round of both sides rolling during a battle represents days or even weeks of fighting, a destroyer mini might represent an escort fleet based on destroyers but with a handful of other ships attached with, a single carrier represents a battlegroup and its escorts or whatever....this is implied rather than official, if you adapt such to fantasy mass combat its worth keeping in mind so that five first person rpg giants do not get counted as 5 giant units but rather as 1; wouldn't want fantasy units to be too OP compared to normal troops.
Running a 2+ year DCC campaign. Moved to online (with Fantasy Grounds and Google Meet) at the start of the COVID. I miss playing with figures and terrain, but it can be quicker to develop a session with VTT materials.
I refuse to play online so I have only been able to play once a month with my BX group.
Almost found a new group, but unfortunately they re-ramped up the lock down restrictions where I live.
Maybe one day I'll be able to run a weekly game.
Most excellent. I'm running two original D&D games online along with a Classic Traveller game (also online... Covids, Yo!), ...and this is keeping me very busy. PM to receive an invite to observe, or play!
A bi-weekly Sunday Afternoon 0D&D game - full
A bi-weekly Wednsday evening 0D&D game - 3 slots open
A bi-weekly Friday evening Classic Traveller game - 2 slots open
Lately my group has been playing a lot of board games. None of us really feel all that into running or playing anything since our last 5e experience, and since getting > 2-3 players together at once has been hard (changing work schedules). I've still got the Torg Eternity "Day One" scenarios ready to go, but I'm not really pushing it all that hard.
Running a 5e Dwimmermount campaign online weekly with 6 players - mostly coworkers. Google Meet & shared documents, owlbear.rodeo for sharing maps thrown together in dungeonscrawl.
I'd recruited 8 expecting a rotating table, but two canceled & so we have a consistent group averaging more than 5 out of 6. Since it's only 2.5 hours on a weeknight I've not been forcing them back to town at the end of every evening, and we're just being relaxed about which characters are present - but if you don't stay back in town, you don't get downtime actions for the week you aren't present.
We're getting a hint of the oldschool feel I wanted by making sure there are about as many experience points for exploration, discovery, and treasure as there are for combat; the players know combat is dangerous and have been willing to negotiate. I don't think they've put the hints together to realise their latest ally is a demon. :)
My group is online due to everyone working out of town for as while. My state has closed dine in restaurants and theaters. Most public gatherings are forbidden unless it is the lunatic fringe.
Quote from: dungeon crawler on December 01, 2020, 09:06:54 AM
Most public gatherings are forbidden unless it is the lunatic fringe.
Where are you that they make exceptions for the lunatic fringe?
Michigan.
Concluded a Fantasy Craft campaign, nothing going on at the moment since I ended up running things because I couldn't find anyone else to run the system and I can't imagine me starting over with strangers to run again. Group just fell apart so I'll be out trying to find something new here shortly but I'm interested in games that hardly ever show up on Roll20 and the like so I don't see myself making much headway.
Finished my 5E game in a Epic battle,they lost but only because the dice turned against them. Was very good though frustrating to see it come so close to a awesome winning end to only falter and fail due to the dice but them's the breaks. The only time ever I have heard a player complain about my roll all dice in front of the party rule lol.
Now I am starting up a Old School Essentials game. I hope to keep it going for at least as long as I did my 5E one(since it came out). We will see.
All virtual. All 5e. Playing in a homebrew game (9th level) and in Descent to Avernus (still in Baldur's Gate). I'm running Dungeon of the Mad Mage as a version of Survivor complete with all the game elements of that (they won their first immunity challenge so no Finger of Death surprise yet -- although I might do it as Edge of Extinction). I was on Table Top Simulator for DotMM but moved it to Roll20 where the other games are.
Our weekend game is Fragged Empire. We're about 7 months into it right now and I'm not sure how much longer we'll go. Not for any lack of fun, we're all having a good time, but our games tend to dip around this far in and people start looking forward to giving something else a go. Probably going to follow it up with a BESM 4th Edition campaign.
The smaller weeknight group is closing in on the end of an L5R campaign. We're using the new Fantasy Flight edition and the consensus is that it's fine, but we prefer the old 3rd Edition Revised. The clans felt more distinct with all the different schools and their abilities. Once it's over we're moving on to The Dark Eye.
I had an 11-player regular game of 1e AD&D going before the COVID crap killed it. Since then, my table has been empty and I haven't gamed. I don't enjoy the online thing (if you do, great, I'm happy for you -- just not my cup of tea). I've been focusing on other things, and I'm content with that. I'll resume gaming once the COVID situation resolves.
Players too lazy to use D6's advantage/disadvantage system to build their ideal of a D&D character class are pestering me to do so or graft over a bunch of 3e such as class/level because they feel they need rails to ride on I guess. I will cease mapping, writing, and note recovery to check into it I guess.
Quote from: Naburimannu on November 29, 2020, 01:27:15 PM
Running a 5e Dwimmermount campaign online weekly with 6 players - mostly coworkers. Google Meet & shared documents, owlbear.rodeo for sharing maps thrown together in dungeonscrawl.
I just discovered dungeonscrawl, what an excellent tool! Not every little feature works perfectly yet, but for making a dungeon map I've never used anything easier or more intuitive.
I was a big fan of owlbear.rodeo as well, but lately I can't seem to get it to operate properly. Nothing seems to display ... is it just me?
Quote from: S'mon on November 22, 2020, 06:01:13 AM
All games online, England is in lockdown again.
My 5e D&D Princes of the Apocalypse game is about to end, last session tomorrow; the 14th level PCs defeated Prince Yan C Bin last session and the surviving PCs are fighting Air Prophetess Aerisi Kalinoth.
My D6 Mini Six Primeval Thule game is running fortnightly, PCs are in The Lichway & just met Dark Odo.
My 5e D&D Faerun Adventures sandboxy game set in Damara 1359 DR (1e era) is running weekly, PCs are attacking a Temple of Chaos dedicated to Tsathoggua.
Will likely take a GMing break in December until the New Year.
I now have 2 fortnightly groups in the 5e Faerun Adventures sandbox (levels 5-6 and 6-8) mostly online, online 5e Primeval Thule at level 17, and tabletop fortnightly 5e Odyssey of the Dragonlords at level 4. Playing some online 5e and online BFRPG.
I used to mostly GM at the pub, but after the covid lockdowns have never gone back to pub gaming, instead either online or at the kitchen table.
Rickety, increasingly so every time it's been moved...and the finish is in dire condition
from years of shenanigans. It's about time to buy a new one... (sigh)
As for gaming, i've got a small group of 2-4 players who show up once a week for some
1e AD&D, currently they are traipsing through a particularly desolate stretch of Oerth
attempting to ferry a magic stone they PC's were sent to retrieve, wondering why they
keep encountering goblins who demand 2cp in tribute at bridge crossings. Of course the
band of goblins in question are working for a local Copper Dragon who's bullied them into
helping him collect a massive pile of copper pieces in order to attract a mate.
Throw in a gynosphinx and a rust monster or two and it's 1981 all over again. Bliss.
Never really played online, it's always been face to face, have an interesting mix of older
1e players and new blood from the 5e (though one has an old players handbook, bequethed
by his father). So far, been going well, despite the constant lockdowns and crime waves
in my city that make getting players over consistently somewhat difficult.
The last real campaign I ran was 1e AD&D around a table, but COVID stopped that. However, that group started back up again within the past few months with my eldest son running games (I was pretty busy with some work projects at the time they started back up). He ran a Dark Heresy game for them, and now they've moved on to Call of Cthulhu (he's running Masks of Nyarlathotep). They've been playing weekly here at my house. (It's about a dozen high school and college aged players, which can be pretty noisy...)
They've been asking about resuming the AD&D game, but I think that will wait until they finish Masks of Nyarlathotep. I've been working on a few other things, here and there (a D&D variant for fourth age Middle Earth, and a BRP-based zombie survival horror thing). But like I said, I haven't run anything in quite a while.
I've tried online gaming, but it's just not my thing. I like my gaming to be face-to-face around a table. Not knocking online for those who enjoy it; it just isn't for me.
I stopped playing when my son was born in 2015 and haven't been active since. I could probably start a group with my kids, now they're all over 5, but not sure I'm ready for that yet.
Oh boy, I'm on several games, so here it goes
- My 5e game that I DM is on pause right now, and we are looking to move to pf1 (because I'm already tired of WOTC's bullshit and with 5e in general). They rescued the rogue, who was being experimented with some psychic stuff by an elven scientist, and now are moving to move westward through the desert to recover a dragon egg. Each character is having their own stuff, but in short: the rogue has a dryad as his left arm, and she gives him power, the bloodhunter is starting to develop feelings (and doesn't suspect he is not human, but a chunk of GOO flesh with his soul and mind transplanted into it, his "alchemy" is nothing more than a placebo that activates the GOO abilities), the dragon bloodrager will met her (evil dragon) mom, and face her and acept her dragon blood, the wizard is being stalked by Orcus and his lackeys, and is planning on how to deal with that permanently. The dancer and the cleric are there, still hasn't occurred much with them.
- My PF game I DM, the party is trying to repel a goblin and orc invasion to their hometown. They will learn that they were seeking a fragment of a key that their mayor has (but isn't aware of that), that supposedly leads to untold power... in reality it's the key to a sealed dragon, who's lackeys have created that legend to free their master. And they will be tasked with exploring the kingdom and find the fragments of that key (with a nasty surprise in the form of a dragon final boss at the end). We started a few weeks ago, so there isn't much to say really.
- Now as a player, I'm on several games. I'm in a custom 5e campagin, playing as a yuanti that wants to become an Anathema (classic), while trying to find the door to the "new world", because in a year, the apocalypse will come and we have to get out of here. Currently on the way to an island habitated by dragons to rescue some friends, learning the meaning of friendship, trying to man up a fragment of the current anathema (that wants to kill my PC, and viceversa) so he helps me, trying to give more ambition to the tabaxi warlock and not die, because the situation is fucked up.
- Another custom 5e game, we are pursuing a noble with psionic powers because he tried to use as literal puppets and may or may not be planning to unleash a psionic abomination to further his ambitions. My rakshasa (that hides her true race passing as a tabaxi) is having an important mental crisis ad every day her true identity is coming more and more to the light, and doesn't know how her friends (aka the current party) will react. Currently we are in some kind of fire hell dimension, pursuing one of the noble's allies.
- And my most "cringe" game, a Spyro ttrpg game. As odd as it sounds, so far has been my longest running game, and I've been having a lot of fun, obviously much more light and simple than the others, but still fun. Currently we are doing the trials of one of the antagonists, that if we pass them, she will abandon her life and join us. My character isn't happy with this, and wants her to truly change her views, as he doesn't see that as truly changing. She is an "absolute order" kind of bad guy, but instead of the usual tyranny, she just robotizes everyone that defies her. Quite the nutcase, really. Meanwhile in another zone it seems my attempts to make the 3 antagonists of that place (a white snake kaiju triplets) are back to causing trouble (and being kaijus... it's BIG troubles), and it seems we'll have to return and fix that once and for all. And to make it worse, my PC is in love with one of those kaijus... so we'll have interesting times ahead for sure.
I like this thread. I like to hear about folks' games.
For me. I'm running 5e for my kids and some other family members. Not my favorite edition but it's what they like. It's set in 2nd edition era Forgotten Realms, not this....this....whatever it is. We're having fun enough.
Mongoose Traveller 1E is underway in the Foreven Sector Frontier. I'm keeping the number of players down to 6 maximum so that I can stay sane while running. We have 4 so far and a possible 5th (depending on his schedule).
Two of them are Knights of the Honorable Order of the Arrow both sent to settle a new world, one is just a Dame (SS A) and the lover/bodyguard of a Count (SS E) who were assigned this Knightly Order because they are both embarrassments to their respective families (and Out Of the Way places are good for putting people Out Of The Way). The other 2 are a scientist with the AAB and a scout with a Detached Duty scout/courier, the scout has reluctantly agreed to ferry the scientist and the nobles to their new home. Knights of the Honorable Order of the Arrow are granted a budget of MCr 1, transport for 100 tons cargo and 100 low berth colonists, and a world survey including a Type E starport built for their settlement. There was already a settlement that failed there, so they are the second one.
Now, their first challenge is building the initial colony site for their settlers.
Second challenge will be the settlers themselves. Some owe some serious debt that they were trying to escape from and Hortalez et Cie wants their money. Plus one of the colony transports will have 200 transportee convicts instead of 100 volunteer settlers (mainly because Countess Cheyenne Grace Impanema who is leading the colonization effort in Foreven Sector doesn't want competition).
Third will be the Vargr raiders.
Then some perfidious Zhodani.
Then since they are near Alenzar, there will be Chamax!
All in all, it should be pretty fun!
I'm starting to take off with my own system testing. Got 2 separate campaigns going, adding new players, have successfully done two major updates to streamline the game, and have most of the player materials up-to-date with those changes. Starting to edge into mid-level testing, which, naturally, found some issues. Got at least one major update to address those. Meanwhile, the GM side of the rules--up until now mostly fluid documents only I've seen--are ready for a clean write up to start presenting to the players.
Of probably more interest for those reading this topic, the actual games are getting better. Putting together my own adventures instead of having to tinker with the rules all the time, and thus am starting to get the game to work the way I envisioned. We've had some really tense moments with rat folk and their traps.
Started a new The Dark Eye campaign last night. Entirely virtual, sadly, but not on any cloud solutions. Just Zoom and a camera positioned over the table with my flip mats, etc. Veteran players who have played together for a few years now, so I've got that going for me...
Pretty good. About to hit level 6 in the SWN campaign. Playing virtual has its limitations, but I'm out of state now so there isn't really a choice there. It helps that we all knew each other before hand.
My 15yo son is just finishing running his first campaign ever.
5e's Rime of the Frost Maiden.
He's taken some cues from his dad:
-Modified stats for monsters.
-some NPCs and some scenarios written entirely from scratch.
-some monsters entirely from scratch.
-not afraid to kill off a PC now and then. (4 so far, but we're in the home stretch)
-asks the players "what are you planning on doing next?" so he knows what to prep for, but can improvise as needed.
I'm wasting my time reading other rpg systems when I should be getting ready to run my thing when I take the DM screen back.
I'm giving serious consideration to Tiny D6 mechanics. A 5 or 6 on any one die equals a success. A typical die roll uses 2d6. Advantage uses 3d6. Disadvantage uses 1d6. Now a first time player quickly understands how to play. It's as simple as eating pie.
Just going for fast and simple. Trying to catch modern potential players, who wouldn't sit through an explanation of AD&D. Cell phones have conditioned people to have much shorter attention spans.
The first attachment shows where the PCs started in our Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells campaign. Outlaws, on the run after a prison break. The game started in September of 2020. They fought hard to become respectable business creatures, treasure-seekers and scavengers, and escape the ire of the law. They deposed a tyrant, brought a slaver ring to its knees, opened trade lines and escaped the wrath of two Galactic Overlords. All the while, they ignored the signs of growing corruption in the sector they took residence in, and worked for the main corrupting influence numerous times, shrugging off signals that perhaps those jobs might be A Bad Thing. The second attachment shows how they ended up coming full circle at the close of the campaign.
My group hasn't played a game in a long, long time.
It happens when your GM is a med student and everyone has a life.
Not running any person to person RPGs at my place or anywhere at this time.
Not sure when it will happen.
The paranoia with the Covid has killed of RPGs clubs, Boardgame clubs etc.
I am going to a gaming festival in a couple of months, to run something hopefully, if it goes ahead.
Not sure what the turn out will be like though.
I have been running RPGs online using Roll20, but not that recently. We took a break for Xmas and haven't got back together again yet.
Quote from: horsesoldier on February 03, 2022, 01:57:15 PM
Pretty good. About to hit level 6 in the SWN campaign. Playing virtual has its limitations, but I'm out of state now so there isn't really a choice there. It helps that we all knew each other before hand.
Oh nice. I like SWN. Care to share any misadventures?
I really miss the old story hours on the good enworld back in the day.
My son tested positive for covid yesterday morning and I had to cancel live tabletop Odyssey of the Dragonlords game.
8 hours later I had it set up on Roll20, and we all got a good 3 hour session in there - feeling pretty pleased with myself and my players. ;D
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