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Game ideas | |
July 25th, 2018 | |
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There's a new Kickstarter fund going called Your Best Game Ever, | |
by Monte Cook [0]. He's done a ton of RPG writing in the past, | |
including the D&D 3rd Edition DM's Guide and about a thousand | |
others. His most recent work was on Numenera, which is pretty cool | |
if you haven't checked it out before. This new fund is to create | |
a book which will help you run a game and a gaming group and get | |
the most out of the experience. It's not about the rules, but | |
rather about all the other stuff that's not in the books. Sounds | |
pretty cool, right? | |
[0] Kickstarter - Your Best Game Ever | |
As I was backing that crowdfunding campaign I started thinking | |
about my own games that I've run in the past, want to run in the | |
future and the infinite abyss of lameness that is my time NOT | |
playing an RPG with friends. Ugh, it's awful! | |
I want to run a game, but I think I need a new format. My local | |
crew can't manage to do an in-person game reliably, and it's | |
really not the same working online. It's too easy for the quiet | |
folks to stay quiet and the active players dominate. It's too easy | |
to get lost browsing new skills and spells instead of getting into | |
the session. It's too easy to do anything other than play. | |
That's the heart of the experience for me, too. The play. The role | |
play, in game, in character voices and in their heads; making | |
decisions that your character would make, not that you would. | |
I miss that part terribly, even in the games I'm playing now. | |
So I was thinking about running something different. Screw the | |
system. Screw all the rules. Screw everything that isn't the | |
role-playing around a table. When I first started RPGs seriously | |
it was in a setting like that, with my next door neighbor. We | |
never bothered to crack a book or worry about skill points or | |
levels. We let the character explore and become someone new, and | |
told the story together. I would describe my actions and he would | |
describe the outcome. Battles weren't about hitpoints. They were | |
about good tactics and planning. | |
I also don't want to worry about telling an infinitely open-ended | |
story. This game is not going to be a richly created world that's | |
free to explore. It will have a setting that hooks the players | |
from the start and pulls them along the adventure. They will | |
change the outcomes, they will change the world, but not by | |
galavanting off to the next town on a whim. I'm thinking the | |
setting won't even have another town! I'm thinking of something | |
otherworldly with a mist of unknown descending upon a remote | |
hamlet. Adventure is survival in the face of mystery. | |
And what fun it will be to create a real mystery, or series of | |
mysteries, for the characters to figure out and explore. If my | |
plotting works it will take planning, notes, and active work on | |
the their part to figure things out in time. "In time for what?" | |
you ask? Well, that's part of the stakes! In this case, time will | |
be a major factor in survival, and a major limitation in the | |
choice of action. | |
Yes yes... lots of plans coming to me. I'll need to start writing | |
it all out, mapping out all the ideas, and then find the right | |
group to explore it with me. Hopefully I can run this one soon. | |
I really miss role playing. |