One of the problems that I'm sure I share with many players and GMs is finding time to get through all the games that I've spent a fortune on over the years.
For the last few years I've been running games on a monthly basis,and more recently, two saturdays a month. That's been good in terms of being able to plan campaigns and allows for plenty of preparation time. The drawback is that it can be hard to maintain a flow in a story, and this tends to hit players harder if they miss out on a session. Still, it works well in the current format (two parallel games in six month campaigns) but I wanted to expand. I've been playing in additional saturday evening sessions (more on that in a separate post), but it was time for tuesday night weekly games.
The initial plan was to alternate two games every tuesday and just run them for as long as it makes sense too. It's also a great chance to do demo's and oneshots without having to plan as much or require a commitment from a group. I did have concerns about burnout, but if anything this schedule and frequency has unlocked my creative side and I find it refreshing.
I've done three sessions so far, two of which were "Dungeon World". I've played this several times and wanted to experience it as a GM, given that I'm on an "Apocalypse World" binge right now. It has been really great fun, easy to run, with the story growing from the players decisions.
The other session I ran was "Numenera" which I'd posted about previously. I love the game and the setting, but I just didn't connect with it as a GM when I ran it. Part of it was adapting to a different system, part of it was running a published scenario (something that I'm not good at) and also I think I simply didn't understand the game in the same way the group did. I came away with the feeling that I wasn't really running "Numenera".I think I'd rather be a player in that game.
Going forward, "Dungeon World" will wrap up soon to make way for "Eclipse Phase", in which I'll be a player. I will be starting "Apocalypse World" next week, with "Nephilim", "Nights Black Agents" and others on my roster for the future.
Showing posts with label Numenera. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Numenera. Show all posts
Monday, April 14, 2014
Monday, March 17, 2014
Numenera RPG - Early Impressions
I recently bought the "Numenera" RPG by Monte Cook, a weighty tome that is beautifully produced and loaded with fascinating ideas. It is a science fantasy games that celebrates all things weird.
There is real buzz about this game from what I can see online, and also among my fellow local gamers. The premise is interesting...a billion years from now, our planet has passed through different phases and is now in it's "Ninth World". It resembles 1000AD in many ways, though there are remnants everywhere from the previous worlds.
These remnants are the numenera. Some can be used by characters to augment themselves temporarily ("Cyphers"), more complex items that can be used for longer periods ("Artifacts") and objects that have no game mechanic advantage, but add flavor to the game ("Oddities"). The general thrust of the game is find the numenera and make good use of them.
Character creation is easy and innovative. It's based around a statement, for example, "I am a charming Glaive who howls at the moon". The first adjective is selected from a list determines who the character is, what they're really about. The next word,in this case "Glaive",is the character class, chosen from three options: Glaive (warrior),Nano (scientist/mage) and Jack (all-rounder and rogue)...this is what the character does. The last part of the sentence,again chosen from a list, gives the character unique qualities. This all translates into stats,skills and abilites for the character. In the example above, I'd be a charismatic warrior who changes into a beast five nights a month.
Just reading through the various combinations that this leads to is exciting and should make for some great games.
The system itself is easy too, with everything based around a difficulty scale from 1 to 10. You multiply the difficulty by three, and the resulting number is what the player needs to match or exceed on a D20 to succeed. This is the case regardless of the task, whether it's combat or climbing a mountain. The difficulty number can be reduced in a number of ways, with the right equipment,skills or effort. Also, the GM never rolls the dice...this appeals to me as I'm coming to this as a GM who is used to that arrangement from "Apocalypse World" games.
I'll be doing a one-shot of the game at my local club later this month to see how it plays and there's already a lot of excitement about this. If you haven't checked this game already and are looking for something fresh and full of ideas,I strongly recommend taking a look. I'll post a review of the demo session in a few weeks time.
There is real buzz about this game from what I can see online, and also among my fellow local gamers. The premise is interesting...a billion years from now, our planet has passed through different phases and is now in it's "Ninth World". It resembles 1000AD in many ways, though there are remnants everywhere from the previous worlds.
These remnants are the numenera. Some can be used by characters to augment themselves temporarily ("Cyphers"), more complex items that can be used for longer periods ("Artifacts") and objects that have no game mechanic advantage, but add flavor to the game ("Oddities"). The general thrust of the game is find the numenera and make good use of them.
Character creation is easy and innovative. It's based around a statement, for example, "I am a charming Glaive who howls at the moon". The first adjective is selected from a list determines who the character is, what they're really about. The next word,in this case "Glaive",is the character class, chosen from three options: Glaive (warrior),Nano (scientist/mage) and Jack (all-rounder and rogue)...this is what the character does. The last part of the sentence,again chosen from a list, gives the character unique qualities. This all translates into stats,skills and abilites for the character. In the example above, I'd be a charismatic warrior who changes into a beast five nights a month.
Just reading through the various combinations that this leads to is exciting and should make for some great games.
The system itself is easy too, with everything based around a difficulty scale from 1 to 10. You multiply the difficulty by three, and the resulting number is what the player needs to match or exceed on a D20 to succeed. This is the case regardless of the task, whether it's combat or climbing a mountain. The difficulty number can be reduced in a number of ways, with the right equipment,skills or effort. Also, the GM never rolls the dice...this appeals to me as I'm coming to this as a GM who is used to that arrangement from "Apocalypse World" games.
I'll be doing a one-shot of the game at my local club later this month to see how it plays and there's already a lot of excitement about this. If you haven't checked this game already and are looking for something fresh and full of ideas,I strongly recommend taking a look. I'll post a review of the demo session in a few weeks time.
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