What are you currently playing?

Honestly, I'm currently playing nothing as I've been in some kind of development mode for a year. I did entertain my 12 year old nephew a few weeks ago with an AD&D session after endless prompting (he's a LOTR nut) but as I said before playing with kids is really excruciating for me (bringing it down to a "G" level the entire time wondering if this or that is "PG" or "PG-13", etc. Ack! It sucks.)

My door is still open to anybody and everybody if they just ask but they have to be into Gary Gygax's Sword & Sorcery TSR POV at least as a solid seminal baseline otherwise forget it*.

*I'm not into unimaginative people who are junked into whatever is coming down the pipe and want to integrate it into the rules or play as if I'm not aware then browbeat me into putting it in HOWEVER if you can sell me something in the right flavor you can do whatever you like.

 

I'm starting a new B/X campaign with my kids tonight.


Just need to decide if I want to run them through B1, B2, or B4.

 

I'm getting ready to run a Castle Falkenstein game for my one local group. The other group is in a long term 3.5 campaign (I still don't like the system, but I play it in that group since I've gamed with them for going on 15 years now and they're good guys). Also working on a AD&D 2e PBEM for a friend of mine.

JediSoth, if you're a Star Frontiers fan or thinking of getting back into it, you should join the SF listserv over on Yahoo ([email protected]). Also worth checking out the SF sites on the net - starfrontiers.com, starfrontiers.org, starfrontiers.net (yeah, those domain names got coevered pretty well!) as well as starfrontiersman.com. The last one has some great reformatted versions of the rules as well as a net zine with a lot of good stuff.

Andy

 

I absolutely love Castle Falkenstein. Fantastic setting, well produced and huge in it's structure. I briefly ran one adventure that kind of stagnated due to lack of players after the initial game, as well as my own burnout. I'd like to do it again at some point but I'm pretty engrossed in our current setting for the time being.

I have a massive amount of Babylon 5 books I'd like to put to use at some point and once I ran All Flesh Must be Eaten, a great setting for the creative GM, which I'd like to run again.

 

Since the current AD&D game recently had a near TPK (one survivor), I think I'm going to put it on hold and run a short Mythus scenario. I'll see what the players think.

 

I played in a Castle Falk campaign back hen it came out in the 90's (same group as this time, I'm returning the favor). Loved the system, especially since at the time it was completely counter to the angsty White Wolf vibe prevalent in RPG's.

This campaign will include some genre mixing, with the players working with a variant of Marvel's SHIELD called AEGIS. Aegis (no relation to the USN antimissile system!) is a secret anti-crime organization founded by France to work against criminal Masterminds and sorcerous threats to mankind. It is of course run by Nicholas Fourier, a hero of the Crimean War <g> Standing in for the helicarrier is a Robur the Conqueror-style airship operating out of the Atlas Mountains in North Africa. Should be good fun.

Big fan of both B5 and AFMBE as well (hooked on zombies since I saw the original Dawn of the Dead as a kid). Haven't learned AFMBE's rules - how are they on the crunchiness/complexity scale? Also, if you are a AFMBE fan, have you ever ready any of the "Walking Dead" graphic novels? Excellent grist for the zombie mill, those.

Andy

 

Hm. Sounds to me like someone should run Castle Falkenstein at GaryCon.

As far as AFMBE is concerned, the rules are pretty basic. It's very similar to the skill based system of Cyberpunk 2020 although there are variations. The system is easily ported to different settings -- the first time I played it we were on a spacecraft and dealing with a sentient, "killer" computer. The zombies were almost window dressing. The most amusing aspect are the character archetypes and even those are just ideas you can run with rather than "classes." It's most malleable to play in.

I have read "Walking Dead" since it's first issue. I have a fondness for zombie comics going all the way back to Deadworld!

 

Well, played my first session of Pathfinder on Sunday. I must say it felt just like 3.5 so I wasn't very impressed with it as a "new" system. Yes, there are some changes but those changes did not seem to be very different from just getting a "splat book" that added in some class changes. (Yes, skills changed somewhat but I didn't find that a huge difference either.)

My game group, from what I've been told, has talked about moving up the time they get together on Sundays from 3PM to 2PM and that would effectively keep me from meeting with them. It would not give me enough time to leave church, have lunch with the family and then drive 40 miles to the game shop. (I might could do it but then I'd have no time to stop...it would be like I'm going all day.)

With that said, it really looks like I may have to end up running a Basic/Expert game on Sunday evenings. I've got at least two people willing to play and may have another one wanting to come.

So, we'll see what happens. I'm still not sure if I'm going to use Basic/Expert or the Basic Fantasy Roleplaying Game clone simply because these players all have D20 experience. Any comments or advice is highly appreciated. (BTW, if we play on Sunday evenings we may play at the church. How's that grab ya?)

 

The new, zero level adventure took off in stride last night... or at least a staggering, plodding execution in near forward movement.

I have 11 PCs to contend with, 7 humans, one gnome, two elves and one half-elf. All have varying skills and knowledge and their backgrounds run from son of a highly successful merchant to a beggar. There is one NPC in an elven "courtesan" (to be kind) hired to administer to the son of the successful merchant. Only three PCs have any sort of weapon skill and even that proved to be an amusing factor in their first conflict with 6 (yes, SIX) marauding goblins.

The goal of the group is to go to a northerly town (they're leaving from Stoink) and discover why the miners there have not answered any communication from the guild in Stoink. As this mission isn't seen as being particularly dangerous, this group of rookies is being sent by various guilds, merchants and a temple as more fact-finding than anything else. The repeated objective told to the supposed "leader" is "don't do anything stupid."

After the first day of travel, three of the party return to Stoink to retrieve a carriage that was promised to the group but never materialized... and which they then left the city without anyway.

Two days later and the carriage brought to the rest of the loud, obnoxious party, they continue on north. Three uneventful days later they arrive at a fork in the road with signs pointing the way. Luckily, three of the party can read common and follow the sign to the town they are directed to go to.

On the second night after reaching the fork in the road, the party is attacked by the aforementioned six goblins. One watch member is sharp enough to catch sight of them, alerting the others with a shriek of fear. It takes some time before the entire group is roused and gets involved, though they eventually dispatch the goblins before too much damage is done.

One party member is felled but not killed, though they have no means to staunch the bleeding completely. If they don't reach the town quickly, he may die from sword wounds.

That was pretty much the first night of chaos, not including the long, drawn out scene of someone being accused of putting horse manure in their sack.

Aren't you intrigued now?

 

I travel to the Boston area for business once in a while and had the pleasure of making contact with a bunch of people from Dragonsfoot who invited me to join them. Sir Allen and Charles Bronson from that site hosted the game at Sir Allen's house. They have an awesome Greyhawk campaign going that has been quasi documented over on DF; in particular, a massive BattleSystem war between the Snow Barbarians and the Elves of a nearby forest.

The link is here: http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=38420

In short, my wife was really worried about me going to "some strange gamers house". It's funny because Sir Allen's wife felt the same way... In any event, we played a great game and I am looking forward to playing again. I will be in the Boston area on and off over the next several months and am really looking forward to joining their Wed. night game on occasion. I have been informed that the current game may be over by then and the next session will likely be a Gamma World game. I can't wait! Those Massachussetts fellas are very hospitable!

 

Hm. Might consider doing a Castle Falk game at that. Have only played it in campaigns, would be a challenge to run as a tournament. Definitely would need more structure than most games. Pregens probably necessary, otherwise probably would suck up too much time in character generation.

Pretty cool about that AFMBE game - sounds like "2001" meets "Dawn of the Dead" : ) Wonder if that movie Pandorum might be similar that's coming out Friday..

 

For what its worth, if they have played Basic/Expert before I'd lean towards using Basic/Expert again, unless they really loved D20 and just want to try something old school while not really changing gears too much.

If they have only played d20, I would strongly recommend using Basic/Expert rather than the clones. They will be familiar enough with D&D to not have too many issues with the mechanics, and they will get exposed to a different (IMO better) approach to the game from a mechanics POV. If nothing else, they will not have to slog through a thousand pages of rules to get started - love those 64 and 128 page booklets. And character generation will take maybe 30 minutes (excluding background) instead of hours of plotting out what feat they need to take now to get that prestige class 8 levels later. Not that I've seen players have to do that with d20 ; )

Andy

 

No newbies, all are "experienced" in one way or another. I think the least experienced in the group has gamed with us for around 4 years or so. Stats were done in order -- strength through comeliness with 4d6, removing the lowest die. They only got to roll one set -- sometimes I allow for multiple sets. I gave them basic backgrounds and a place in society, some basic skills and allowed them to choose race. As they gain experience, I'll let them figure out which class they'll wish to get involved in (some are already figuring that out) so by the time they get to zero xp and the base of first level, they'll be classed and have trainers.

Yeah, I enforce training until characters hit 4th level, they they're free of that, unless they want a specific skill no one in the group can teach.

I'm not that cruel -- except to the poor shmoe who ended up being the son of a beggar woman. No shoes, no money, no skills... and he ends up rolling hot through the battle. Go figure.

 

It was pretty cool. The girl who GMed it really had us poor saps going. I think only one made it out alive and one was made a mind-slave of the computer. Someone aspirated in their spacesuit and died that way -- gruesome.

For some reason, with the unforgiving feel of that particular game, I felt I was playing Call of Cthulu.

 

A few weeks ago: A character was eliminated from rot grub.

Last night: Stirges killed two party members and nearly eliminated another.

Who says you can't have fun in the Monster Manual?

 

Chello!

New to this particular forum, but most assuredly not to gaming and many of the handles here are familiar to me from Dragonsfoot.

I'm currently running a Palladium Fantasy set in the Eastern Territory and am modifying Goodman Games "Saga of the Rat King" for use in the setting. After the New Year, I'm taking over the GM duties of my other gaming group and running Mutant Future and running "My Favorite Module of Any Game Evah" (tm), GW1 The Legion of Gold. I'm using mutant future most because it's more readily available in pdf for the players who have never played Gamma World before. Hehehe.

Tony

 

Welcome to the boards Aemmel! I hope you will be a regular around here.


Just watch out for those couple of Post Whores we have. They might lead you down the wrong path in life.

 

Legion of Gold is certainly one of the great triumphs of western civilization. Or at least the Gamma World corner of it : ) One of these years I'll finally get around to finishing my Barony Of Horn Gazetteer.. If you get a chance, post some of that Legion of Gold goodness when you start running that game! And welcome to the forums!

Andy