A browse through the pages of this blog should give the reader a clear impression of the games I really enjoy running or playing. Certain themes and styles keep coming up. I do make an effort to try different games with different groups too to get exposure to different approaches, and also to get a feel for the different systems. You don't know till you try!
That being said, there are sometimes when I run a game or play in one where I'm just left feeling flat. I know there are various factors in every game....the setting, the system, the GM, the group composition and the location all contribute. In my case I can say that there are two aspects that leave me cold, even with a great GM and group.
The first is when the focus of the game is combat and there is a strong tactical emphasis. I've experienced this in Pathfinder, Shadowrun and Twilight 2000. The game sessions have been essentially one huge combat setpiece, with grids and miniatures laid out. Initiative, distance, position and range all matter. This just isn't for me and I'm aware that it's the major approach in most roleplaying groups. I often feel that I'm the only one at the table not having a great time in these cases, and that it's exactly what the other players were looking for. I guess I'm looking more for mystery, investigation and story....the undeniable influence of "Call of Cthulhu", where a long combat situation is a sign that something is wrong.
The second is a high level of "crunch". "Crunch", if you don't know the term, is the level of complexity in the game mechanics. High crunch games will feature a lot of rules to consider in resolving conflicts, numerous combinations of dice to roll, lookup charts etc. Some games put more of this in the character generation phase, some in the actual gameplay...some both. I don't mind it in character creation, but in gameplay it frustrates me. I do like the random component that rolling the dice introduces, and I do like some lookup tables here and there, but I don't like having to know a lot of rules just to be able to play my character.
Obviously these are purely personal preference and I'm certainly not in step with the majority of gamers out there on this. This is another good reason though to get exposure to a wide variety of games and groups, especially when you're a GM. It helps you to understand what different players are looking for in a game, and how important it is to have their expectations line up with your approach and what you plan to deliver.
Monday, July 29, 2013
Monday, July 22, 2013
Apocalypse World - The Hocus and the Maelstrom
The second part of +Tony Reyes "Apocalypse World" campaign wrapped up last week, and as I've come to expect from this game, you can expect the unexpected regardless of who runs it.
I'm playing a "Hocus", often characterized as a cult leader, though a read through the playbook offers many more angles and options. The real essence of the Hocus is that the characters abilities are derived from their followers, the psychic maelstrom and their own personal charisma.
Having played alongside this class in the past, I wanted to push deeper into the possibilities that this character has, especially with the maelstrom. The beauty of the maelstrom is that it's an open concept for the group to define...it's a "thing" that we can all tap into with our minds. Is it "the Force", the collective subconscious or microwaves? All are valid. In the case of my character, it's seen as the remains of a shield built with advanced technology to keep us imprisoned. Now it is broken and contains pieces of communication channels. I can interact with this mentally, and did so in two major ways.
The first was rather than just interpreting the things I could "see", I pushed the information the opposite direction, to implant information into the maelstrom. The message was that a new character, the "Driver", was an emissary of sorts and totally unaware of his true role. By putting this information in, other people channelling the maelstrom would have an impression of this message, a potent way for the Hocus to shape his own prophecies.
The second was even more mindblowing and came at the session finale. After a disastrous confrontation (I'll swing back to this shortly) which left an entire village slaughtered, I was left looking for my main rival in the game, another leader named "Aristotle". I channelled the maelstrom and with a major success, literally pulled him through the maelstrom itself to our location in a bolt of lightning, where we swiftly disposed of him. It gave a great end to the chapter as all the characters were left to ponder the extent of the Hocus powers...and if he's been telling the truth all along.
As for that confrontation? That was a direct result of another Hocus power, the ability to rile up a crowd. In this example, it was the main gang in our town. They were out of control and my character managed to harness those emotions, inspiring the crowd and redirecting their anger to my rival,Aristotle. We marched on the other town where I attempted the same thing again with the local population, only for it to backfire completely! The result was carnage.
This all happened in the second half of the game session and it was amazing to experience the sheer havoc and destruction that a Hocus can inspire,very quickly and very easily. It's a challenging character to play and well worth it.
I'm playing a "Hocus", often characterized as a cult leader, though a read through the playbook offers many more angles and options. The real essence of the Hocus is that the characters abilities are derived from their followers, the psychic maelstrom and their own personal charisma.
Having played alongside this class in the past, I wanted to push deeper into the possibilities that this character has, especially with the maelstrom. The beauty of the maelstrom is that it's an open concept for the group to define...it's a "thing" that we can all tap into with our minds. Is it "the Force", the collective subconscious or microwaves? All are valid. In the case of my character, it's seen as the remains of a shield built with advanced technology to keep us imprisoned. Now it is broken and contains pieces of communication channels. I can interact with this mentally, and did so in two major ways.
The first was rather than just interpreting the things I could "see", I pushed the information the opposite direction, to implant information into the maelstrom. The message was that a new character, the "Driver", was an emissary of sorts and totally unaware of his true role. By putting this information in, other people channelling the maelstrom would have an impression of this message, a potent way for the Hocus to shape his own prophecies.
The second was even more mindblowing and came at the session finale. After a disastrous confrontation (I'll swing back to this shortly) which left an entire village slaughtered, I was left looking for my main rival in the game, another leader named "Aristotle". I channelled the maelstrom and with a major success, literally pulled him through the maelstrom itself to our location in a bolt of lightning, where we swiftly disposed of him. It gave a great end to the chapter as all the characters were left to ponder the extent of the Hocus powers...and if he's been telling the truth all along.
As for that confrontation? That was a direct result of another Hocus power, the ability to rile up a crowd. In this example, it was the main gang in our town. They were out of control and my character managed to harness those emotions, inspiring the crowd and redirecting their anger to my rival,Aristotle. We marched on the other town where I attempted the same thing again with the local population, only for it to backfire completely! The result was carnage.
This all happened in the second half of the game session and it was amazing to experience the sheer havoc and destruction that a Hocus can inspire,very quickly and very easily. It's a challenging character to play and well worth it.
Monday, July 15, 2013
My Life With Master - "The Countess"
When an unexpected gap in my schedule appeared, I decided to offer a "one-shot" or "demo" game. I really like doing that because it's a great chance for me and prospective players to try something out without having to commit to any further sessions.
Some games are especially well suited to this format, which is why you often see them played at conventions. This time, I returned to one of my favorite games of all-time, "My Life With Master" by +Paul Czege . It's billed as "a roleplaying game of villainy,self-loathing and unrequited love", and it certainly lives up to that. The game is about the Minions (think of characters like Igor), who are servants of a terribly evil Master. They have miserable lives and are trying to find a way out.
We had a small group of four players, the ideal size for this. Three were experienced players with a taste for dark games (yes, +Tony Reyes was one of them), the other was a total newcomer to roleplaying, and she handled it brilliantly.
As a one-shot I spent the first hour on creating Master and the Minions (the player characters). Creation of Master and the setting are done collaboratively, Minion creation is done by the player.
We then jumped into the game, which is played in "scenes",each owned by a player,giving the game a cinematic feel. I also altered the game balance and math to make it feasible for someone to trigger the "Endgame" in a single session. All "Master" games lead to this, culminating in the death of Master. To do this, a character must accumulate enough "Love" points to overcome their own weariness and fear of Master and successfully stand up to him/her.
The scenario that we created was one where Master was "Countess Elizabeth", an old crone living in castle ruins who wanted to act out fairytales. The actors in the play were special "toys", human beings captured from the nearby village and surgically altered to fit their roles. The Minions were a tailor (also the surgeon), the kitchen girl, the overseer of prisoners and a pretty girl who would lure victims from the village. The Minions made their attempts to protect or woo ("Overtures") the objects of their love with mixed results, some of which,in true "Master" fashion, were disastrous, sparking a village revolt.
In the end it was the soft-spoken tailor who rose up to protect a young boy,and killed the Countess. He went on to make a new life for himself in the village, two minions were killed and another took his own life.
All in all, everyone had a great time and were genuinely surprised at how dark this game really was. Having run this before, I can honestly say that the level of darkness we reached was fairly typical and to be expected in this! It really is a game like no other and I love running it. You do need a group that can deal with very dark,mature themes with a good dose of black humor.Next time I will run this for several sessions to play it out as it's meant to be played, and I look forward to seeing what the returning players will come up with second time around.
Some games are especially well suited to this format, which is why you often see them played at conventions. This time, I returned to one of my favorite games of all-time, "My Life With Master" by +Paul Czege . It's billed as "a roleplaying game of villainy,self-loathing and unrequited love", and it certainly lives up to that. The game is about the Minions (think of characters like Igor), who are servants of a terribly evil Master. They have miserable lives and are trying to find a way out.
We had a small group of four players, the ideal size for this. Three were experienced players with a taste for dark games (yes, +Tony Reyes was one of them), the other was a total newcomer to roleplaying, and she handled it brilliantly.
As a one-shot I spent the first hour on creating Master and the Minions (the player characters). Creation of Master and the setting are done collaboratively, Minion creation is done by the player.
We then jumped into the game, which is played in "scenes",each owned by a player,giving the game a cinematic feel. I also altered the game balance and math to make it feasible for someone to trigger the "Endgame" in a single session. All "Master" games lead to this, culminating in the death of Master. To do this, a character must accumulate enough "Love" points to overcome their own weariness and fear of Master and successfully stand up to him/her.
The scenario that we created was one where Master was "Countess Elizabeth", an old crone living in castle ruins who wanted to act out fairytales. The actors in the play were special "toys", human beings captured from the nearby village and surgically altered to fit their roles. The Minions were a tailor (also the surgeon), the kitchen girl, the overseer of prisoners and a pretty girl who would lure victims from the village. The Minions made their attempts to protect or woo ("Overtures") the objects of their love with mixed results, some of which,in true "Master" fashion, were disastrous, sparking a village revolt.
In the end it was the soft-spoken tailor who rose up to protect a young boy,and killed the Countess. He went on to make a new life for himself in the village, two minions were killed and another took his own life.
All in all, everyone had a great time and were genuinely surprised at how dark this game really was. Having run this before, I can honestly say that the level of darkness we reached was fairly typical and to be expected in this! It really is a game like no other and I love running it. You do need a group that can deal with very dark,mature themes with a good dose of black humor.Next time I will run this for several sessions to play it out as it's meant to be played, and I look forward to seeing what the returning players will come up with second time around.
Monday, July 8, 2013
Mage: The Ascension - A Retrospective.
Back in 1993 I was still living in Liverpool,England. My spare time was spent primarily in pubs and rock clubs (I was still very much in a Goth phase) with the other nights dedicated to tabletop RPGs. I was running "Ravenloft" back then but also found time to play in some other games. One of them was the first edition of "Mage: The Ascension" by White Wolf.
"Mage" was the third major gameline produced in the classic "World of Darkness" series, the first being "Vampire: The Masquerade", the second was "Werewolf: The Apocalypse". Each had its own feel and metaplot, though they all had a buildup to a great "something". This was the 90's and popular culture was full of pre-millenial fears, everything from Nostradamus' predictions to the "Y2K Bug".
White Wolf did follow through and publish official endings for each line, which cleared the decks for them to reboot the games later on, minus the metaplot.
I had never played "Vampire", a game which was massively popular with my Goth friends, though the popularity was firmly on the LARP side of things rather than tabletop. I had played "Werewolf" and while I loved the rich setting, I struggled on a personal level to play it. The animalistic aspect was too much of a challenge for me. "Mage" however, was perfect.
The central concept of the game is that reality is consensual.It is maintained,powered and reinforced by our combined beliefs about what is possible and what isn't. A Mage is someone who has an awakened Avatar (like a higher self) and understands the nature of reality from a particular perspective ("Paradigm") and can alter it. Reality,like a rubber band, will stretch when manipulated but will snap back into it's original shape, albeit slightly looser than before. This is the real goal of the Mage...to gradually tweak reality so their magic becomes more acceptable and believable to the masses, and thus easier to do. If the Mage pushes too hard, then reality hits back hard in the form of "Paradox", an unpredictable punishment.
The main opponents of the Mages are the Technocracy, an organization seeking to enforce their own vision of reality. The Mages are organized into Traditions, schools of magic and mystical paths. I really liked this as at the time I was reading a lot of Occult and New Age material. The "Verbena" tradition for example, were representative of Wiccans and Druids, all about nature. The "Dreamspeakers" were Shamen. "Cult of Ecstasy" were like a Dyonisian cult and "The Order of Hermes" were the classic Hermetic group, a nod to the games predecessor, "Ars Magica".
Magic itself is described as "Spheres", of which there are nine. Each of the nine Traditions specializes in one of the spheres, though you can learn any of them. Combining the powers of the spheres is where the fun really is, and what I liked was how the sphere would be interpreted differently depending on your Tradition. The "Life" sphere, for example, would be interpreted by the "Sons of Ether" as the elecrochemical jolt that starts your heart, whereas the "Akashic Brotherhood" see it as Chi. The other spheres are Matter, Correspondence,Prime,Forces,Time,Entropy,Spirit and Mind.
What made this special, and still to this day my favorite game, was the way this all translated into gameplay. We were playing very powerful characters, people who could tear reality apart with our thoughts, yet the threats to us were just as powerful, in terms of the antagonists and the consequences of creating paradoxes.We were also lucky to have a GM and group of players who thoroughly understood the game. "Mage" can be a hard game to understand or explain, so group composition is a major consideration if you want to do it justice. With the right group,it's something special.
"Mage" was the third major gameline produced in the classic "World of Darkness" series, the first being "Vampire: The Masquerade", the second was "Werewolf: The Apocalypse". Each had its own feel and metaplot, though they all had a buildup to a great "something". This was the 90's and popular culture was full of pre-millenial fears, everything from Nostradamus' predictions to the "Y2K Bug".
White Wolf did follow through and publish official endings for each line, which cleared the decks for them to reboot the games later on, minus the metaplot.
I had never played "Vampire", a game which was massively popular with my Goth friends, though the popularity was firmly on the LARP side of things rather than tabletop. I had played "Werewolf" and while I loved the rich setting, I struggled on a personal level to play it. The animalistic aspect was too much of a challenge for me. "Mage" however, was perfect.
The central concept of the game is that reality is consensual.It is maintained,powered and reinforced by our combined beliefs about what is possible and what isn't. A Mage is someone who has an awakened Avatar (like a higher self) and understands the nature of reality from a particular perspective ("Paradigm") and can alter it. Reality,like a rubber band, will stretch when manipulated but will snap back into it's original shape, albeit slightly looser than before. This is the real goal of the Mage...to gradually tweak reality so their magic becomes more acceptable and believable to the masses, and thus easier to do. If the Mage pushes too hard, then reality hits back hard in the form of "Paradox", an unpredictable punishment.
The main opponents of the Mages are the Technocracy, an organization seeking to enforce their own vision of reality. The Mages are organized into Traditions, schools of magic and mystical paths. I really liked this as at the time I was reading a lot of Occult and New Age material. The "Verbena" tradition for example, were representative of Wiccans and Druids, all about nature. The "Dreamspeakers" were Shamen. "Cult of Ecstasy" were like a Dyonisian cult and "The Order of Hermes" were the classic Hermetic group, a nod to the games predecessor, "Ars Magica".
Magic itself is described as "Spheres", of which there are nine. Each of the nine Traditions specializes in one of the spheres, though you can learn any of them. Combining the powers of the spheres is where the fun really is, and what I liked was how the sphere would be interpreted differently depending on your Tradition. The "Life" sphere, for example, would be interpreted by the "Sons of Ether" as the elecrochemical jolt that starts your heart, whereas the "Akashic Brotherhood" see it as Chi. The other spheres are Matter, Correspondence,Prime,Forces,Time,Entropy,Spirit and Mind.
What made this special, and still to this day my favorite game, was the way this all translated into gameplay. We were playing very powerful characters, people who could tear reality apart with our thoughts, yet the threats to us were just as powerful, in terms of the antagonists and the consequences of creating paradoxes.We were also lucky to have a GM and group of players who thoroughly understood the game. "Mage" can be a hard game to understand or explain, so group composition is a major consideration if you want to do it justice. With the right group,it's something special.
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