Shifting Gears, or Altering the Gravitas

After running a string of relatively high concept games which deal with heavier themes, I think it’s about time that I take a break from the super-serious stuff and come up for air.  One thing I’ve learned to avoid burnout is to switch gears now and then, taking a moment to break out of your established conventions to try something new.

While this doesn’t necessarily mean a comedy-type game for me, there are other genres with lighter, but no less entertaining stories to tell.  My first HERO campaign was like this, with young heroes dealing with everyday problems with school and life along with occasionally kicking super villain butt.

And so I’m considering my options.  I’ve got the rest of the L5R campaign to play through, and a continuation of my “Exalted for People Who Don’t Like Exalted” campaign after that but once both of those are over, I’d like to think that I have a clean slate by which to explore something new.

Of course changing the usual campaigns I run to something less than standard is always a gamble.  Pitches have to be done carefully on my end, as anything that doesn’t elicit a “Hell Yeah!” from the players will mean that there won’t be enough player driven momentum to keep the game running.  That said, there’s got to be a few games ideas from my old notes or work-addled brain that should be worth a shot:

• Spycraft is a definite contender.  A small team of specialists on rogue missions for fun an profit is always a good idea, though I’ll hold off until Spycraft 3.0 comes out before I give it a spin.
• D&D 4e is another option.  I had a good experience with D&D 4e, as long as expectations are appropriately calibrated, and the fights not drawn out to forever it might actually work.
• A Supers Campaign is always a good thing in my books.  Whether it’s DC Adventures or HERO 6th is up in the air, but I should focus on something a lot lighter in tone.  Up to the DC Animated universe level of seriousness is good… but Batman: The Brave and the Bold might be too much.
• Metabarons is an oldie but definitely a goodie.  Thanks to the fact that it’s actually D6 Space Opera, there’s a wealth of information I can skim from in other D6 products (Starwars D6 I’m looking at you.)  Just add a ton of sugar to my double power expresso and I should be able to run this no problem.
• 7th Sea is a game that is just begging to be ran.  I’ve had the books for years now but I’ve only run them in convention one shots.  This error has to be corrected.
• Deadlands is another good choice.  I enjoyed the Crew of Nine campaign I ran before, when I was learning the ropes of Savage Worlds.  It was a fun campaign with lots of laughs, so I’d mark that as a winner in my books.

All of these campaign options are fun, with systems that don’t necessarily get too complex (oh, except for maybe Spycraft and HERO, but their complexity is often a good thing)  but most importantly they can provide a good, fun time without having to go high concept.

[How Do I: Fantasy] #2 7th Sea

Sylvia Etalon du Etoille by April Lee

Well, this is a campaign long coming.  I’ve had the books for several years now (just the 2 corebooks, alas) but I’ve always been fascinated by the setting for this rpg.  While I’ve been made aware of the downsides of some parts of the metaplot that a lot of people railed against, I’m willing to make use of my ignorance of these details and run it as I understand it right out of the box.

That said, 7th Sea posits a fantasy take on Europe as a setting with different names, the presence of magic, and a whole bunch of interesting mysteries.  Being a non-historian, and non-resident of Europe, I’m blissfully unaware of where some of the NPCs are drawn from and can enjoy it with the unabashed excitement of fools and children. :p

However, much like L5R, the variance in the groups, and the fact that they’re technically all aligned against each other makes for a massive setting that usually doesn’t work with the United Nations of Theah approach where everyone comes from one nationality or another without a really good reason.  (In L5R the default reason was that they were Magistrates.  I can imagine that you could do something similar with 7th Sea using a secret society as an excuse.)

Roleplaying Games I’ve Yet to Play (But Desperately Want To)

After the past week of taking a vacation and stressing over two Typhoons that decided to visit the country one after the other, I find myself struggling with something to write about.  I think this is just inertia at work, and my brain desperately needs to get warmed up before I can start churning out good articles again.

That said let’s do something quick and easy:  Lists!

And for today, let’s take a quick look at Games I’ve yet to play (but desperately want to):

• Mage: the Awakening – But wait, pointyman, don’t you already run a Mage game?  Well yes, but I’m eager to actually be on the playing side of things for once.  I’ve had a chance to play the new Mage once before, but that wasn’t a very long campaign either.
• Changeling: The Lost – Ever since I’ve had the chance to play Changeling: the Dreaming under (the now Canadian) Zugzugtheorc, I’ve fallen in love with the concept of changeling.  The new title’s excellent writing, provocative themes and sheer amount of awesome crammed into the book doesn’t hurt either.  For kicks, I might actually translate my old Sluagh from C:tD to C:tL to see how well it translates.
• Geist: The Sin-Eaters - White Wolf’s latest intrigues me.  With a new kind of supernatural that hasn’t been done before (like Promethean), this “Storytelling Game of Second Chances” strikes me as a remarkably positive tone as opposed to the defaults of some of the others like Vampire: the Requiem.  Definitely something I’m curious to play.
• Spellbound Kingdoms - I was intrigued when I first saw this game, and even now I find the ideas espoused to be original and possibly quite fun… now if only I can get someone to run it for me.
• Deadlands Reloaded! - I’m a sucker for Westerns, and pulp supernatural stuff.  Deadlands is chock-full of both.  I’d play this at a drop of a hat.
• Fantasy Craft - I’ve been all over the system up down and sideways of this game.  All I need now is a GM to come up with a good campaign setting, and I’ll have a character within hours.
• HERO System Supers – 5th edition, Revised or 6th Edition, I don’t really mind either way.  The last time I’ve actually played in a Supers campaign was so long ago that I’ve forgotten most of the plot.  Time to rectify that situation.
• Eclipse Phase - I don’t know a thing about the system of Eclipse Phase, but the idea of Troubleshooters for Transhumanity has my interest piqued.
• 7th Sea – Talk about late to the party. This game came, conquered and went out of print long before this blog even started, but I’m still stoked to trying this game out.

Each and every one of these games offers something different, and something interesting for me as a player.  Each one of them inspires me to build characters (something that I might be doing again soon with more Play This Character! articles on the horizon.)

Teach a Filipino to Swashbuckle! (or how do I fake Culture?)

Let’s face it, one of the more constant issues of being a Philippine Gamer is the solid fact that well… we’re fundamentally -not- westerners.  I’m technically a third-generation Chinese Immigrant living in the Philippines, and most (if not all) RPG games are written, published and played in the western hemisphere.  Given that fact, there are certain games in which I solidly hit a brick wall when it comes to anything but genre emulation.