We did it - we roleplayed. A veritable weight has been lifted off my shoulders as the hobby future of five adults seemed to be based on that one session of seat-of-my-pants gaming. But it worked.
I have to take my hat off to the guys for being very very flexible as I literally converted the Buffy version of Unisystem from a modern-day game into an Sci-Fi game, on the fly. Rules were being created on the spur of the moment, especially the ship-to-ship combat rules!! It sounds like hell, but to be perfectly truthful it's the sort of thing that I GM for! It was great.
So what happened? We have four characters - and I mean 'characters' - who form the crew of the Ship The Khanjar. In some ways, the ship is the fifth character!
The Captain is a minor noble of the Celestial Caliphate and sits firmly in the Sinbad/Han Solo role. The Pilot is a former Confed cyber-pilot who was rescued in his battered fighter along with his cybership controls...and it's attendent AI. The Engineer is apparently the most normal of them all, a former Imperial officer (but we all know that looks can be deceiving). The Enforcer is a mysterious woman dressed in the trappings of an ancient monastic order. Oh you know she kicks all kinds of ass. And the ship, well, thats a retired old frigate from a now defunct system navy thats been ... altered. Some things are hot on it, and some things are poor. Like I said, it's one of the characters. Add to that the Captain's faithful retainer, Tanner, and you have the crew of the Khanjar - ready for action and adventure on the Fringe of space.
We started in the middle of the action, with the Khanjar being flown down by some pirate fighters and a cruiser after nabbing a stranded Guild Tyran House Factor (a vip). They took a few licks, knocked out a couple of the fighters and then jumped out to their base at Point Damascus.
Upon arrival, they received note that their letter of marque had been activated and that they were needed for a recon job by the Empire to a system called Haxxar V recently conquered by the Confed. The Captain and the Enforcer delivered the Factor back to House Tyran where they met with one of the Guild Elders, Manson Tyran and received his boon, which they immediately cashed in to provide a legitimate reason for entering Haxxar V space.
Meanwhile the Engineer consulted his criminal (yes, like I said, more than meets the eye) and Naval contacts about the situation on Haxxar V, whilst the Pilot noticed some strangers eyeballing the ship.... and then those self-same strangers attacked the Engineer! Alone in a crossfire, he was in deep trouble until The Enforcer arrived and downed the oncoming attackers with ... well, professional finesse and grace under fire.
The team then left for Haxxar V to discover a couple of Confed Battlecruisers (one staffed by a relative of the Enforcer, from Guild House Decados - a stunning reminder of her former life) and a tight feed transmission showing slave capture and slaughter on the planet.
To be continued....
Doesn't seem like a lot does it? It FELT like loads! The establishment of four very different characters to a point where each of them could firm up and finalise their characters was a huge step forwards. Different elements, some of which were thought up there and then based on some of the wrinkles that the characters had brought into the game were blended together well. And the pace... there was pace a plenty! And more combat than I have had for a long time - including what could have been a meaningless combat (at the beginning) that just SO PERFECTLY set the tone for the entire game.
I was very pleased and indeed so were the players apparently, from the amount of feedback.
More later - but it would appear that the Good Ship Roleplaying is well and truly afloat again!
Hurrah!
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Pulsars and Privateers: Vision On
One of the things I enjoy most about GMing any roleplaying game is the preparatory aspect of the entertainment. I love sitting down with the players and knowing that I have thought my way around a setting to a degree that I can react on the fly to whatever they do and make it exciting and exhilarating rather than stale or mundane.
And it takes time and a lot of inspiration and stimulation to do it. Luckily, I have a half hour journey on a train to and from work and that suits me fine.
I usually start off my settling my arse down on a comft seat where I am not being crushed by some other passenger and then I select my topic. Usually it will be something quite specific, but other times it can be vague.
Yesterday, it was the notion of orbital spaceship shipyards. Oh yes, that specific and that obscure. Why? Well, I know that the first session is going to take the Aegis to Point Damascus, an orbital space facility owned by the Celestial Caliphate. It's a Babylon-5-esque neutral port around a desert planet - not wholly unlike good old Freeport from the Crescent Sea game. However, I knew that getting this setting right will be crucial to the entire structure of the game.
After all, this is going to be the first time that the players 'see' the technology and the infrastructure of a P&P planet as I see it - it is the money shot on the massive vista side, for their imagination.
So I had to think what I wanted. PB is like a floating golden arabic city in space, like the Cloud City in Empire Strikes Back, but with a bottom that mirrors the top. Lots of spires and floating platforms and air cars and such.
Around the station there will be a lot of commerce and a lot of different styles of spaceships. I was sketching some ship designs a couple of nights ago and well .... it all became rather generic. So I delved into my collection of Full Thrust games supplements and found the fleets books - winner! I now have the sweeping curves of the Caliphate ships, the stern regulated blocks of the Confed cruisers and the classic aeroplanes in space style of the Imperial ships
So I started thinking beyond this - I started thinking about planetary defenses and communications arrays, hydroponics to maintain the food supply to the desert planet and the obvious hub of commerce that is PB. Thats a lot of traffic. So there must be some sort of air-traffic control - that will be in PB.
Oh and then we had to have the shipyard, at least for some repairs to the Aegis. That allows for some of those oh-so-cool scenes from the Star Trek films to take place. Oh and it means that the crew will be on the station... which means a bar fight, and a chase through crowded aisles...and leaping off suspended walkways. Yes, thats always good. Note to self: Watch the start of SW E2 again.
And then I had the idea of tugs pulling an massive iceberg to the planet. Hey, that would work. And what if the tethers snapped. Oh, that could be good...and the berg got caught in the planets gravity...oh!!!!
And it just rolls from there. Tons of ideas from thinking about one simple concept. Now I find myself doing it all of the time. I think about fighter engagement patterns and how to represent a competent navy without obliterating the PCs. I think about the character of Merchant House Factors and how to make them more than just annoyingly intransigent NPCs. I think about visual effects - the bangs and booms and explosions. I think about duels...duels with swords!
If that woman across from me on the train knew what was rumbling through my part closed eyes as she reads her Catherine Cookson novel, she would be amazed and probably a little worried!!
Neil
And it takes time and a lot of inspiration and stimulation to do it. Luckily, I have a half hour journey on a train to and from work and that suits me fine.
I usually start off my settling my arse down on a comft seat where I am not being crushed by some other passenger and then I select my topic. Usually it will be something quite specific, but other times it can be vague.
Yesterday, it was the notion of orbital spaceship shipyards. Oh yes, that specific and that obscure. Why? Well, I know that the first session is going to take the Aegis to Point Damascus, an orbital space facility owned by the Celestial Caliphate. It's a Babylon-5-esque neutral port around a desert planet - not wholly unlike good old Freeport from the Crescent Sea game. However, I knew that getting this setting right will be crucial to the entire structure of the game.
After all, this is going to be the first time that the players 'see' the technology and the infrastructure of a P&P planet as I see it - it is the money shot on the massive vista side, for their imagination.
So I had to think what I wanted. PB is like a floating golden arabic city in space, like the Cloud City in Empire Strikes Back, but with a bottom that mirrors the top. Lots of spires and floating platforms and air cars and such.
Around the station there will be a lot of commerce and a lot of different styles of spaceships. I was sketching some ship designs a couple of nights ago and well .... it all became rather generic. So I delved into my collection of Full Thrust games supplements and found the fleets books - winner! I now have the sweeping curves of the Caliphate ships, the stern regulated blocks of the Confed cruisers and the classic aeroplanes in space style of the Imperial ships
So I started thinking beyond this - I started thinking about planetary defenses and communications arrays, hydroponics to maintain the food supply to the desert planet and the obvious hub of commerce that is PB. Thats a lot of traffic. So there must be some sort of air-traffic control - that will be in PB.
Oh and then we had to have the shipyard, at least for some repairs to the Aegis. That allows for some of those oh-so-cool scenes from the Star Trek films to take place. Oh and it means that the crew will be on the station... which means a bar fight, and a chase through crowded aisles...and leaping off suspended walkways. Yes, thats always good. Note to self: Watch the start of SW E2 again.
And then I had the idea of tugs pulling an massive iceberg to the planet. Hey, that would work. And what if the tethers snapped. Oh, that could be good...and the berg got caught in the planets gravity...oh!!!!
And it just rolls from there. Tons of ideas from thinking about one simple concept. Now I find myself doing it all of the time. I think about fighter engagement patterns and how to represent a competent navy without obliterating the PCs. I think about the character of Merchant House Factors and how to make them more than just annoyingly intransigent NPCs. I think about visual effects - the bangs and booms and explosions. I think about duels...duels with swords!
If that woman across from me on the train knew what was rumbling through my part closed eyes as she reads her Catherine Cookson novel, she would be amazed and probably a little worried!!
Neil
Monday, January 09, 2006
Pulsars and Privateers: The New Beginning
Roleplaying is back on the agenda. Not Buffy this time, but a unisystem space opera game. A new playing time as well - Sunday evenings. Which has a kind of subtle irony for me, because life has moved full circle and I am back gaming at the time that I did ten years ago, before hellish demanding jobs and children forced change after change after change.
Interesting birth to this game. I placed the idea for a game at the feet of the players and they returned a decision of D&D3e and our old campaign world. I shrugged and tried to put some ideas together but it became readily apparent that I was not enthused about this at all. It then struck me, hammer blow-esque, that maybe my GMing had drifted a little too far down the consensus-storytelling path and that I had been, in some way, emasculated within the role of GM. When I was younger, there was no great debate over the 'internal character logic' of the group or the placement of story hooks. The GM would present a game, the players would make characters and it was the responsibility of the GM to craft something wonderous with those characters.
So thats what we're going to do. We'll stick with a system that is easily adaptable and that we sort of accept suits our play style best. We will cobble together the new rules as required. We will have a setting and we will make characters and then we will away into the depths of space.
Oh but if it were that easy.
In any of my games, I need the bedrock of facts that underpin the world. Buffy had them provided. Crescent Sea (our 3e shared world) had it's internal mythology, pantheon and a map with which we could work. P&P will have to have something, but deciding on that something is another matter altogether.
For many years, my yearning has been to develop a militaristic game along the lines of the Honor Harrington books by David Weber. However, whilst I am rather passionate about this style of writing (and it's historical contemparies in Horatio Hornblower and Sharpe) I doubt that my group shares that same passion. I do like the idea of the 'Navy' - be it the good guys, the bad guys or the bumbling ciphers, being all 'Yes Sir, Prime Missile Tubes, Stand down Mr!" olde worlde tradition. That has to stay.
I'm also not a huge fan of aliens. And in fantasy games, I'm not a great fan of 'other races' like elves and dwarves. I think that they provide the wonder of the setting rather than the norm. I also like to think that there can be enough diversity within humanity and the way that it is presented to account for a lack of aliens.
However, that does provide a problem. To do that, you need to have different representations of humanity and that takes you down some rather sticky paths. The prevailing methods of differentation tend to be race, religion, social ethos and politics. A decision needs to be made therefore which is fundamental to the development of the game. Earth or no Earth.
If you have Earth you can grow the divisions quite easily, but they are tied to their relevance to the here and now. If one of the your galactic 'players' is a massive Muslim state in space, then you are automatically linked to the actions of todays politik. If I represent 'Her Majesty's Navy' I may as well dress them up in the uniform of the Royal Manticoran Navy and be done with it. And God forbid that I should delve into the nomenclature of these alternate powers - Republic (done), Federation (done), Alliance (done), Empire (done) - hand me a thesaurus, I want to get off!!!
So my first draft had the following:
The Golden Caliphate: A straight up oppulatent 'arabian' empire based on strong ties with merchant houses and a monopoly of the hyperspace beacons that make FTL travel possible (thank you Mr Herbert). Non-aggressive in space, ruthless in the media.
The Magellan Confederacy: Or 'The Confed' for short. Rapidly growing space power with a voracious appetite for new members (whether they like it or not) to consolidate power and fuel it's ship-building program. Yes, it has echoes of the People's Republic of Haven but without the OTT revolutionary France trappings. These guys are essentially the initial 'bad guys' although I am tempted with a mid-campaign bait-and-switch to keep things interesting. Certainly, at the start of the game these will be the people causing all of the problems for the PCs.
The XXXX Empire: So well defined, it doesn't even have a name! I wanted the idea of an Immortal Empress - a shadowy power who lived seemingly forever on HomeWorld and dictated her powers fortunes throughout the Galaxy. God, when I read it like that it sounds so lame and passe - and images of Miranda Richardson will not stop popping into my head. These are the British at their colonial best, I suppose, if an analogy was to be drawn.
Well, thats the first draft in my mind. It will change as my idea-bouncing-board-man is yet to return his verdict. It just feels very mundane and normal - not the stuff of fantastic adventure! Maybe I need to put my history books down and watch Star Wars again!
Neil
Interesting birth to this game. I placed the idea for a game at the feet of the players and they returned a decision of D&D3e and our old campaign world. I shrugged and tried to put some ideas together but it became readily apparent that I was not enthused about this at all. It then struck me, hammer blow-esque, that maybe my GMing had drifted a little too far down the consensus-storytelling path and that I had been, in some way, emasculated within the role of GM. When I was younger, there was no great debate over the 'internal character logic' of the group or the placement of story hooks. The GM would present a game, the players would make characters and it was the responsibility of the GM to craft something wonderous with those characters.
So thats what we're going to do. We'll stick with a system that is easily adaptable and that we sort of accept suits our play style best. We will cobble together the new rules as required. We will have a setting and we will make characters and then we will away into the depths of space.
Oh but if it were that easy.
In any of my games, I need the bedrock of facts that underpin the world. Buffy had them provided. Crescent Sea (our 3e shared world) had it's internal mythology, pantheon and a map with which we could work. P&P will have to have something, but deciding on that something is another matter altogether.
For many years, my yearning has been to develop a militaristic game along the lines of the Honor Harrington books by David Weber. However, whilst I am rather passionate about this style of writing (and it's historical contemparies in Horatio Hornblower and Sharpe) I doubt that my group shares that same passion. I do like the idea of the 'Navy' - be it the good guys, the bad guys or the bumbling ciphers, being all 'Yes Sir, Prime Missile Tubes, Stand down Mr!" olde worlde tradition. That has to stay.
I'm also not a huge fan of aliens. And in fantasy games, I'm not a great fan of 'other races' like elves and dwarves. I think that they provide the wonder of the setting rather than the norm. I also like to think that there can be enough diversity within humanity and the way that it is presented to account for a lack of aliens.
However, that does provide a problem. To do that, you need to have different representations of humanity and that takes you down some rather sticky paths. The prevailing methods of differentation tend to be race, religion, social ethos and politics. A decision needs to be made therefore which is fundamental to the development of the game. Earth or no Earth.
If you have Earth you can grow the divisions quite easily, but they are tied to their relevance to the here and now. If one of the your galactic 'players' is a massive Muslim state in space, then you are automatically linked to the actions of todays politik. If I represent 'Her Majesty's Navy' I may as well dress them up in the uniform of the Royal Manticoran Navy and be done with it. And God forbid that I should delve into the nomenclature of these alternate powers - Republic (done), Federation (done), Alliance (done), Empire (done) - hand me a thesaurus, I want to get off!!!
So my first draft had the following:
The Golden Caliphate: A straight up oppulatent 'arabian' empire based on strong ties with merchant houses and a monopoly of the hyperspace beacons that make FTL travel possible (thank you Mr Herbert). Non-aggressive in space, ruthless in the media.
The Magellan Confederacy: Or 'The Confed' for short. Rapidly growing space power with a voracious appetite for new members (whether they like it or not) to consolidate power and fuel it's ship-building program. Yes, it has echoes of the People's Republic of Haven but without the OTT revolutionary France trappings. These guys are essentially the initial 'bad guys' although I am tempted with a mid-campaign bait-and-switch to keep things interesting. Certainly, at the start of the game these will be the people causing all of the problems for the PCs.
The XXXX Empire: So well defined, it doesn't even have a name! I wanted the idea of an Immortal Empress - a shadowy power who lived seemingly forever on HomeWorld and dictated her powers fortunes throughout the Galaxy. God, when I read it like that it sounds so lame and passe - and images of Miranda Richardson will not stop popping into my head. These are the British at their colonial best, I suppose, if an analogy was to be drawn.
Well, thats the first draft in my mind. It will change as my idea-bouncing-board-man is yet to return his verdict. It just feels very mundane and normal - not the stuff of fantastic adventure! Maybe I need to put my history books down and watch Star Wars again!
Neil
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Flogging a dead Scapegoat
Well, Christmas is over, as is New Year - and where are my gaming dilemas at the moment?
Well, over the festive period I decided to stage a grand experiment. I was going to test myself and World of Warcraft to destruction. These were the rules.
(a) My target was, between 17/12 and 02/01 I was going to try to level Gortessa, my Tauren Shaman from 43rd level to 56th level, so that she could legitimately enter some of the guild instance runs.
(b) To do that, I would pretty much have to play WoW as much as was humanly possible during the holiday period.
(c) However, I was going to temper that by ALWAYS being on call to my family - even if it meant dying in the middle of a battle
I played and I played and I played - I pulled in some 12 hour days at the PC. I used every quest stacking trick in the book. I even resorted to a small amount of emotional blackmail to get some L60s to ease my way through some of the instances, just to clear the quests. And, lo, on the afternoon of New Years Day, Gortessa dinged 56 in the middle of Silithus. Huzzah!
And miraculously, I'm still married and I had a wonderful time with the kids, even though they totally own me at every board game in their arsenal...
So, what were my discoveries?
(1) Yes, you can play too much WoW. Oh boy, can you play too much WoW. There were days when I literally could not face sitting in front of the computer again, but I stayed with the plan of the great experiment and forced myself. It became very obvious to me that I am 'content done' with the game at the lower levels. I did consider levelling a priest to bolster the ranks of the guild in that area, but in the end the thought actually turned my stomach. I could not face doing that same content again for the third or fourth time. No. No. No. It's not a challenge anymore. I know exactly where to go, what to do and how to do it - it's now just a very very long series of processes and that is nowhere near fun.
(2) Interactivity is everything. I -always- had more fun when I was grouped with people rather than when I was questing solo. It's as simple as that. Soloing, whilst it can be productive in terms of xp and loot, sucks in terms of entertainment value.
(3) Even raiding can become repetitive. I discovered something else in my long haul, and that was to do with my 'relationship' with my main Gorthaal. Raiding is cool and can be exhilaratingly fun (our latest UBRS run was stunningly good) but in the end, the only roll that is really of any consequence is the one from the end boss - does your Tier 1 item drop? If not, well, you can always try again. And again. And again. And again. Oh boy, does that sound familiar? I think it does...
So what did I do last night? I logged onto WoW and looked at what was being done... possible Strat run (done it dozens of times now), possible UBRS run (doubtful) or some farming for leather to get an epic necklace. I applied my new filter - what can I do constructively? The answer was nothing.
So I made some armour for a new guildie, delivered it in person to him (which in itself was funny, as the epic kodo trots into the newbie area and delivers a Guild Entrant Care Package in the midst of the new players...) and then logged off.
When the computer fan turned off, everyone in the house looked a little stunned. What happened next was sheer magic.
I watched a DVD (Brothers Grimm...OK ish) whilst sorting out my Raw Deal cards one more time into some sembelance of order. After that I registered with the new efed that I have hooked up with and then I caught up on some emailing and wrote a RD to-do list. Hell, I was just about to dive headlong into the world of fanfic when I realised that it was 12.00 and time for bed!
But I was buzzing because I had achieved a load of tiny little things that I had forgotten to do, or indeed had been hanging over me for some time. It was great.
So this means WoW is bad right?
In my mind, couldn't be further from the truth. To scapegoat WoW is to fall into the same sad trap that has people blaming teenagers shooting each other on a Marilynn Manson album. Lets see the honest truth here - the person who is the blame is me.
Why do I not write fanfic anymore? Is it really that I don't have the time...or is it that I'm really just not interested anymore?
Why do we find it so hard to roleplay? Is it because we are all glued to our PCs or is it because we are adults with busy lifestyles that find a post-work time commitment taxing to the extreme?
Why do I not play Raw Deal as much? Is it because WoW as overtaken it as our groups #1 pre-occupation or is it because ... no actually, that one is true.
In the end though, it's nothing malicious. World of Warcraft and all the things that surround it is just a hobby that has found it's position in my hierarchy of priorities and that hierarchy is controlled by me. By actively taking control of my hierarchy and managing it, things can move forward.
So - more structured play would seem to be the order of the day and less faffing about. Whether this works, we shall see.....
Neil
Well, over the festive period I decided to stage a grand experiment. I was going to test myself and World of Warcraft to destruction. These were the rules.
(a) My target was, between 17/12 and 02/01 I was going to try to level Gortessa, my Tauren Shaman from 43rd level to 56th level, so that she could legitimately enter some of the guild instance runs.
(b) To do that, I would pretty much have to play WoW as much as was humanly possible during the holiday period.
(c) However, I was going to temper that by ALWAYS being on call to my family - even if it meant dying in the middle of a battle
I played and I played and I played - I pulled in some 12 hour days at the PC. I used every quest stacking trick in the book. I even resorted to a small amount of emotional blackmail to get some L60s to ease my way through some of the instances, just to clear the quests. And, lo, on the afternoon of New Years Day, Gortessa dinged 56 in the middle of Silithus. Huzzah!
And miraculously, I'm still married and I had a wonderful time with the kids, even though they totally own me at every board game in their arsenal...
So, what were my discoveries?
(1) Yes, you can play too much WoW. Oh boy, can you play too much WoW. There were days when I literally could not face sitting in front of the computer again, but I stayed with the plan of the great experiment and forced myself. It became very obvious to me that I am 'content done' with the game at the lower levels. I did consider levelling a priest to bolster the ranks of the guild in that area, but in the end the thought actually turned my stomach. I could not face doing that same content again for the third or fourth time. No. No. No. It's not a challenge anymore. I know exactly where to go, what to do and how to do it - it's now just a very very long series of processes and that is nowhere near fun.
(2) Interactivity is everything. I -always- had more fun when I was grouped with people rather than when I was questing solo. It's as simple as that. Soloing, whilst it can be productive in terms of xp and loot, sucks in terms of entertainment value.
(3) Even raiding can become repetitive. I discovered something else in my long haul, and that was to do with my 'relationship' with my main Gorthaal. Raiding is cool and can be exhilaratingly fun (our latest UBRS run was stunningly good) but in the end, the only roll that is really of any consequence is the one from the end boss - does your Tier 1 item drop? If not, well, you can always try again. And again. And again. And again. Oh boy, does that sound familiar? I think it does...
So what did I do last night? I logged onto WoW and looked at what was being done... possible Strat run (done it dozens of times now), possible UBRS run (doubtful) or some farming for leather to get an epic necklace. I applied my new filter - what can I do constructively? The answer was nothing.
So I made some armour for a new guildie, delivered it in person to him (which in itself was funny, as the epic kodo trots into the newbie area and delivers a Guild Entrant Care Package in the midst of the new players...) and then logged off.
When the computer fan turned off, everyone in the house looked a little stunned. What happened next was sheer magic.
I watched a DVD (Brothers Grimm...OK ish) whilst sorting out my Raw Deal cards one more time into some sembelance of order. After that I registered with the new efed that I have hooked up with and then I caught up on some emailing and wrote a RD to-do list. Hell, I was just about to dive headlong into the world of fanfic when I realised that it was 12.00 and time for bed!
But I was buzzing because I had achieved a load of tiny little things that I had forgotten to do, or indeed had been hanging over me for some time. It was great.
So this means WoW is bad right?
In my mind, couldn't be further from the truth. To scapegoat WoW is to fall into the same sad trap that has people blaming teenagers shooting each other on a Marilynn Manson album. Lets see the honest truth here - the person who is the blame is me.
Why do I not write fanfic anymore? Is it really that I don't have the time...or is it that I'm really just not interested anymore?
Why do we find it so hard to roleplay? Is it because we are all glued to our PCs or is it because we are adults with busy lifestyles that find a post-work time commitment taxing to the extreme?
Why do I not play Raw Deal as much? Is it because WoW as overtaken it as our groups #1 pre-occupation or is it because ... no actually, that one is true.
In the end though, it's nothing malicious. World of Warcraft and all the things that surround it is just a hobby that has found it's position in my hierarchy of priorities and that hierarchy is controlled by me. By actively taking control of my hierarchy and managing it, things can move forward.
So - more structured play would seem to be the order of the day and less faffing about. Whether this works, we shall see.....
Neil
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