Skip to main content

#RPGaDay2018 Day 16: Describe your plans for your next game

The next game I'm not running is a first-time game from a friend of mine using the 5E ruleset in a SciFi setting. We're doing character creation during the first session, which is next month, and I've already got a half-dozen different ideas for characters. I may end up coming up with an idea for each class.

The next game I'm running is a more complicated question. I just came off of a series of games I storyran over the last couple of years, so I'm a little burnt out on the storyrunner role right now. Which of course hasn't stopped me from brainstorming a bunch of game ideas, none of which feel particularly innovative or original. I always try to find a little spin on the concept that gives people a reason to get invested, and I don't feel like I've found that spin in these ideas yet.

For instance, I have an idea about the players being a group of first-responders in a cyberpunk-dystopian retrofuture, a la "DocWagon" from Shadowrun (but without the magic). I haven't quite figured out what the spin is on that one, though. Gary Montgomery on G+ suggested I use Blades in the Dark as the system, in order to hew to my five-act-structure for each session. I'd also be interested in trying out the new Over the Edge system.

The other idea I had was a game where the entirety of the play time at the table was the team dealing with interpersonal fallout and social interactions after / before adventures. Like, all of the adventuring / combat would happen offscreen, maybe even in a narrative way via forum / email, but the play time at the table would be taken up with the characters interacting and reacting to stuff that happened "in the field". Think "Barney Miller in a Tavern". I'd probably want to use something heavy on the interpersonal systems like Cortex+ or the like.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Experience of Diversity (and the blindness of privilege)

Last year I made a vow to myself that I would only read books written by authors who were not straight white men. By and large, with two explicit exceptions, I was successful in my goal. And I learned a bunch of things. The first (and most important) thing I learned is that my reading habits were already moderately diverse; I made a list of ten of my favourite authors and nine of them were women, so I didn't really have to give up on anyone that I was particularly invested in. The second thing I learned was that my "historical read" list is actually pretty white/straight/male, though; I often go back and read a book again for comfort's sake, to go over familiar territory and comfortable writing and try and find something new or at least interesting. That means I haven't been doing a bunch of rereading and that led to... The third thing I learned, which is there are a LOT of non-cishetwhitemale writers in SF, both historically and especially currently. Just l...

Organizing And You: Lessons from Labor History

    I made a joke on Twitter a while ago: Do I need to post the Thomas M Comeau Organizing Principles again? https://t.co/QQIrJ9Sd3i — Jerome Comeau says Defund The Police (@Heronymus) July 15, 2021 and it recently came back up because a member of my family got their first union job and was like "every job should be offering these sorts of benefits" and so I went ahead and wrote down what I remember of what my dad told me. My father had many jobs, but his profession was basically a labor union organizer, and he talked a lot about the bedrock foundation items needed to be serious about organizing collective action. Here's what I remember.    The Thomas M. Comeau Principles of Organizing -- a fundamental list for finding and building worker solidarity from 50 years of Union Involvement. This list is not ranked; all of the principles stated herein are coequal in their importance. Numbering is a rhetorical choice, not a valuation. 1) Be good at your job. Even in...

So that happened.

I couldn't resist, and didn't really want to. So I bought an iPad. First Gen, but they're on significant sale right now, so I can use this one until July or august, when I'll buy an iPad2 and give this one to someone else. I named it "conspicuous consumption" because it seemed like truth in advertising. FYI, this blog post is coming from inside the tablet!