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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.