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

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!

#RPGaDay 2017 -- Day 12

Which RPG has the most inspiring interior art? This is another one of those 'define your term' questions, because inspiring to whom? Inspiring to what? Are we talking about me wanting to build a cool-looking character? Then I'm not sure anyone can beat Paizo's Pathfinder work, or the 4E core rulebook art. Inspiring to really get into the tone of the game itself? Then the particular aesthetic of the powered-by-the-Apocalypse games (notably No Rest For The Wicked , Dungeon World , and the core Apocalypse World book) are on-point for that, as is the incredible Flat Pack and Maschine Zeit . Inspiring to me as a player about the experience of playing RPGs? Then Fate 's core rulebook, with the gamers of colour and the disabled gamers is really inspiring to my heart about the hobby, as well as Breakfast Cult . What about you? What are you inspired by?

#RPGaDay 2018 Day 19: What music enhances your game?

Again, this really depends on the game and whether or not I'm playing or running or what have you. The RIFTS game I just storyran leaned heavily on Tell That Devil by Jill Andrews and Neko Case's Hold On, Hold On  for mood and setting. Sometimes, I think about themes for my characters. I had a dwarven knight that used to ride around humming Shostakovich's 5th . And there's a good chance that my newest character will hum chiptunes to themselves, since they're a robot.