Hey Kyle,

Just curious, and not to derail, but what about CineUni sucked for your group? I ran a few sessions of Buffy for my group, but they had complaints.

Played: our ongoing D&D3.5 kill 'em and take their stuff fest.

Rocked: the DM, Gordon, has really prepared. He buys pre-painted minis from Borders with his book club points, and now has a huge tackle box full of monstery goodness. He combs the rules for new and intersting threats to throw at us. He doesn't let the game bog down with rulings, and keeps the pace lively.

Sucked: Railroad City. "The sage tells you the only way to stop the evil druid is to get a plant from the nursery. (rolls out a map of the nursery on 1" square paper, sets up miniatures) What are you doing?" Rules-lawyers-R-us. A lot time in combat is spent by players looking up rules.

Ran: QAGS one shot.

Rocked: Prep was easy-peasy. I used the "Holy Shit, I Gotta Run A Game!" planning sheet, and came up with a space opera plot to find a missing archaeological expedition.

Sucked: Rules-lite, free-form leads to a lack of focus in our group. The YumYum mechanic, essentially fate/ luck/ mulligan points, proved unpopular with my players. And they hated the word "YumYums". A lot.

Last Played - Dark Heresy.

What Rocked? The obscene power of the psychic power firestorm. Necrons withered before the combined psychic assault of biomancer and pyromancer. The warp smiled on us and despite the throwing of many dice we suffered only minor warp inspired misfortunes. Despite the necrons getting the drop on us with their porting porting powers we were able to battle our way through the metallic hordes and get word of their insidious presence to the Inquisitor.

What sucked? The blatant disregard the noble houses seemed to have for the duly appointed representatives of the Inquisition. We got no respect. We warned them that the underhive was off limits by order of the Inquisition but they went ahead and sent in their private armies anway. They got what they deserved.

Ran Labyrinth Lord last Sunday using B3 the Silver Princess.

What was good:  Emailing out rumors to the players before hand was lots of fun, and the players made good (and bad) use of them during the game.  One player had never played an rpg before as far as I know, and they did a great job thinking up creative ideas that others missed.  The PC cleric used animate dead to turn a fallen comrade into a zombie.

What sucked: One player played his pc as a complete coward.  Which is funny for a little bit, but creates a bit of tension when other pc's are getting killed while the coward hides in the next room.  Teamwork between the players/pc's was basically non-existent, which lead to the deaths of 3 PC's and the withdrawal of the other 2 from the dungeon, and us calling the game to do something else.  

Right now I'm trying to come up with a session idea and perhaps a different game that will fit the group of players a little better for next time.

Last played: D&D 3.5, Paizo's Age of Worms adventure path.

What rocked: High level 3E brings the metal. It's awesome to fly down the center of tunnels and use solid fogs to stop giant worms from swimming up at you & walls of force to block crossbow bolts from an invisible sniper.

What sucked: I didn't bring the setup for digital projection. Having the maps readymade & purty woulda been nice, and  'handout' pics were awesome back in the first D&D I ever played (Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan) and are still more awesome projected in full color.

Last ran: D&D 3.5+houserules, Paizo's Savage Tide AP

What rocked: The flexibility of working with some prepared material. I've always been a roll-my-own DM, but I find I like having a well-prepared path as the launching pad for player- and event-driven improvisation. Last session used ideas, monsters, & themes from the AP to deepen an 'off-the-path' quest springing from the players' backstories for their PCs. Having prepared stuff in one direction covered me to develop in others. Also, the players were happy to go XPless and tie level advancement to story milestones, which is a godsend for sidetreks, game balance, etc.

What sucked: I looked up a rule. Our collective understanding of how things ought to work is tight enough that I shouldn'ta been insecure enough to need 'official' support.

Is there a quick primer to the Paizo-adventure hate I've noticed around here? 'Cause, you know, I'm always eager to learn why it's stupid for me to like the things I like.

Quote from: Leo KnightHey Kyle,

Just curious, and not to derail, but what about CineUni sucked for your group? I ran a few sessions of Buffy for my group, but they had complaints.

I presume you mean "they had no complaints"

It'll derail - let's be nice to jrients, go and start a new thread and I'll discuss it.