My 4 years long Pendragon Campaign. Were >120 sessions in, on our third generation of characters and the end of it all is in sight. It is hard to explain how much this game has meant to me. I’ll absolutely be running it all again with 6th edition coming out.
Starting up a Firefly RPG game. I did a one shot of this cortex plus gem and fell in love again and excited to dive deep into the space western vibes.
Starting up Stonetop RPG. I did a 5 shot of this a year ago and reaaaallly liked it. Now I’m trying again but committing longer term and starting fresh with new people.
Playing:
Battletech (stars without number previously MechWarrior Destiny). This is a battletech/Pendragon inspired mashup where we play nobles in space going to war in our mechs and planning and politicing at the annual Kerensky Ball. It’s cheesy and melodramatic in all the right ways. Like if Yellowstone and Top Gun had a baby who was a mech.
I had a similarly short-lived run of Stonetop (for out-of-game reasons) and really enjoyed it, but the game gives you so much in setup that’s kind of a shame not to play it longform. I also hope to play it again sometime. Lots of fascinating stuff in that game.
I come back from a residence/summer convention of RPGs and board games called CrocoCon Relax.
I’ve played the following titles as one-shots across 8 days.
The Pool with my scenario “The Siege”
Trollbabe
Circle of Hands
Sorcerer
The Mountain Witch
In a week and half, my usual campaigns of Apocalypse World and Fantasy World will start again. Finally, we should begin also a campaign of Runequest Classic.
I’d like to play more OSR/old-school D&D games like Lamentations of the Flame Princess and Vaults of Vaarn plus The Clay That Woke. Unfortunately, I don’t have time and must wait. Maybe I’ll play two of the titles at a couple of conventions this fall.
Starting a game of Bushido, tonight. I’ll be the gamesmaster and there are two players: one playing a Bushi Ronin and the other a Shugenja from an artisan background (a family of shipbuilders, in this case). We’re setting things ~ mid-15th C on Kyushu, and are drawing on material related to the heavy pirate activity that was going on in that area in that era. A feature of Bushido is that thought character creation gives a very compelling portrait of your character, there’s still a lot of open space that the GM needs to fill in about the starting situation in order to orient the characters so that they aren’t simply portraits but rather are dynamically in motion (or ready to be in motion). We’ll see how it goes!
I’m very curious about that - if you find time, I will be glad to read an AP. You are the first person I know playing this game (I have Circle of Hands, but I never had the chance to play it with my group).
Recently I’ve been playing a lot of S/Lay W/Me with my girlfriend. I think we started getting it at the third session, which I really enjoyed. The Lover/Monster was this lady who transformed in a golden dragon.
My character, the protagonist, came into town to steal dragon eggs. But he was discovered and punished by the lady above, and apologized, understanding the error of his ways, and asked the dragon lady to let him stay with her. The Lover/Monster forgave him, and allowed him to stay there, as her servant. It was really touching in the moment.
This might be something we do in the future. I’m not ready for a new campaign yet, but after my Sorcerer game is finished, I might want to play Circle of Hands.
And apparently, I’ll be starting a Fabula Ultima series around October, set in a world where mage-lords govern citadels that protect people from the perilous arcane forces outside.
Tomorrow I’ll start the Runequest Classic campaign as Referee.
In the meanwhile, I’ll bring to the DragonRole convention On Mighty Thews and maybe Lamentations of the Flame Princess at the local “GdR al Buio” (i.e. an event when you sit at a pub, gaming club or shop and play a random tabletop RPG).
A few days ago, I got in my mail Vaults of Vaarn Deluxe volume. Hope to play it in the forthcoming future.
We created characters for this Fabula Ultima series yesterday! I think I’ll write something regarding it soon. I felt we managed to make the world/character creation very functional, and did everything in 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Cool, @Judd. Can you tell us more about the program in the library?
I saw the 3-death mechanic by following your link and I find it a really fascinating to deal with death in a way that’s permanent but also allows to retain a character for a little bit longer.
I’ve played a visual-novel, choose-your-own-adventure videogame recently called The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante that has a similar 3-death rule, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s inspired by Wildermyth as you’ve been in the blog post. I think videogames have been really creative with mechanics recently and it’s good to borrow where it makes sense.
Can you tell a little bit of how you’ve seen it used in play?
The gimimck of this new campaign I’m doing is that I’m reimagining and remixing classic dungeon crawls into sci fi death traps for our marines to explore and get some. What started out as a nonserious loveletters to dnd has morphed into an increasingly cogent setting full of references.
To give a taste, we’re the 5th Expeditionary Corps (The 5E) on a ship called The Borderlands. The ship’s mainframe assistant is called THAC0, the conglomeration of aliens hunting for the ancient alien weapon sites called “The Forge” are the One Religious Covenant (ORCs). Pirates and Bandits are obviously terrorists affiliated with the Outer Systems Rebellion (The OSR).
Stay Frosty is exceeding my expectations and I’m thinking about expanding the rules for this game some more. Also I’m actually still looking for players for this open table game if anyone’s interested. Task Force Gygax are EU friendly time slots and Task Force Arneson are my NA friendly times on the weekends.
This is pretty wild, and very catchy! I’d love to hear more about this, and the references, as well as the “conversion” process. Would you consider making a thread about that?
thanks! Well my next game is tonight and I’m converting The Moathouse from The Village of Hommlet. I’ll make a thread about tonight’s adventure and my behind the scenes process when it’s completed.
Besides current campaigns like Apocalypse World, Runequest 1979/Classic, and Fantasy World, I’m going to play the following as oneshots or small campaigns of 2-3 sessions.
Regarding the open-table hexcrawl to bring TTRPGs to non-gamer audiences at the local pub: for now I have replaced it with Vaults of Vaarn. I haven’t had time to fill all the hexes and stock the megadungeon I have in mind. It is not an abandoned project, but need more time. Also, I guess I’ll play it using D&D B\X instead of Fantastic Medieval Campaigns.
Vaults of Vaarn and Electric Bastionland were successful cases of play. I’ve nejoed the setting and themes of Blood Feud, but more I think about the sessione, more I’ve doubt that I appreciate the fact that the game lacks any sort of chaotic confluict resolution system (i.e. it has a token-economy system).
Meanwhile I’ve begun the already cited D&D B/X Moldvay-Cook open table monthly at the pub and local gaming club. I’ve played with mostly 5e players or newcomers to the hobby, and they have enjoyed and craved for more! This time I’ve stricly followed as written the B/X procedures to stock dungeons and wilderness
Small breaks with Runequest and Fantasy World, while Apocalypse World still continues. And I look forward to read and play Fantastic Medieval Campaigns.
