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Sci-2

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Could people who have GMed original campaigns talk a little about their planning process? I've been discussing my idea for a Paranoia campaign with Schneeble and we've got a lot of it fleshed out in broad strokes, and I'm well pleased with its ridiculousness, but I've never written a campaign before and I've got no idea where to begin at a nuts and bolts level.

I follow one of two principles:

1) Plan in-depth, with regular reference to the rulebooks and perhaps seeking advice online about the campaign and its components. Take advice from fellow GMs on if an adventure is too hard or not. Spend 3-5 hours planning for each evening of the campaign, taking account of all possible variables. Come up with in-depth backstories for all major and most minor NPCs.

2) Wing it.

Both approaches have their advantages and disadvantages. 2) is generally only possible if you've been DMing for a while in a system you are really happy and familiar with, though :)

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  • 1 month later...

Not sure if we had any fans here of the independent RPG Riddle Of Steel, but the guys who made it just released a new game called Blade of the Iron Throne. It takes a lot from Riddle but adds some new things. It's available for free download but you have to register on the site to download it. Here is the URL:http://www.ironthronepublishing.com

I'm planning on running a Blade adventure at a local gaming convention in March so if anyone plays it before then let me know how it goes.

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I'm a big fan of the "wing-it" philosophy. In my view, an RPG is a cooperative effort, not one in which the GM labors to provide entertainment for the players. One of the best GMing experiences I ever had was with a group of very competent, active players who were eager not only to engage with the beginning I provided, but to make a story of their own. I spent a good deal of time just watching them interact, which was great fun!

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Oh, I missed Ini's request for advice from people who've run a bunch of games...

I like to wing it within an incredibly fleshed out setting. I typically will generate a list of NPCs and their powers, motivations, etc, going into more detail for the more important characters. I draw a distinction between "setting" characters -- characters who inhabit the setting across multiple campaigns -- and "campaign" characters, who may just be moving through the setting as part of the plot. Since I run primarily White Wolf Mage and Vampire, I've created a few campaign settings -- Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, basically the cities I know best. I've got a lot of intellectual capital built up in my three World of Darkness cities, and so I am pretty familiar with them and can roll with it pretty easily if the characters decide to do anything unexpected.

With my cities well fleshed out, I create a plot for each campaign. Usually the plot is born out of a mix of whatever interests me and elements that will tie in to the background of my PCs. So, for example, I had a Mage campaign set in Los Angeles. I wanted to run something involving the infamous corrupted Helekar House of the Euthanatos. Among my players' characters, we had a Euthanatos and an Akashic Brother. So I started weaving plot threads from the Helekar House stuff into the backgrounds of the characters. I absolutely try to build this in during character creation. I am all about steering my players in a particular direction if I think it'll serve the plot. "Oh yeah, it would really help me if you took the Twisted Upbringing flaw." Or "Hey, if you spend an extra dot on Mentor your mentor can be this really bad-ass archmage..." who may well be tied in to Helekar House.

There's a lot of overhead when I run a game, but because I've developed my settings, it doesn't take much now except coming up with a new plot that I want to hook into my chosen setting. And players have surprised me enough that I've given up trying to script a session. Sometimes they accomplish something in one session that I'd expected to take three. Or sometimes they spend so much time noodling around side stuff that I have to nudge them in a direction. But as long as I have a good handle on the ins and outs of my setting and campaign world, I can roll with whatever the players throw at me.

Man, I want to plot out another Mage game now.

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Does anyone remember a West End game from the 80's called The Price of Freedom? It was set in an America which had been occupied by the USSR and the PCs were guerrillas resisting the invasion. I still recall that one of the pre-generated characters was essentially a Bruce Springsteen analogue. This was a wet dream for us little Cold Warriors who loved Red Dawn, bought survivalist books and magazines, ate up Tom Clancy, etc. I ran a very open-ended campaign which turned into a mixed blessing - my guys had trouble adjusting to the sandbox nature of the campaign at first but eventually I found ways to guide them without railroading.

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I have the core books for about a dozen different RPG systems. Almost all are from my big RPG interest back in the early '80s, but last year I did buy the Pathfinder core book, and the core set for War Hammer role play 3rd Ed. I like to keep aware of modern RPG design.

I am a mature/serious player and would be interested in an online campaign if there is a method allowing tactical combat and a minimum of hassle. Ineterested in SF, horror or fantasy. Not so much cyberpunk or steam punk.

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Werthead mentioning the second spiritual sequel to Torment got me to the Numenera website.

Monte Cooke raised $500,000 for this so it has already generated a lot of interest. Science-fantasy is a strange beast, not sure it is my cup of tea but as a collector of RPG campaigns the art heavy book will likely find its way to my shelf.

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  • 2 weeks later...

this thread has filled me with lament.

why?

one of my absolute favorite settings of all time was dark sun.

over the years, via original buys, ebay and trades i owned every single original dark sun product. from the original box set, to the novels to the minis, i had it all. hell, my box set was signed by the artist brom.

in the midst of moving out of the former marital abode i was distraught, broken and listless. i cared so little about anything. i threw all of these things away. i did not even have the mind to give them to someone who would want them. i threw them away.

what a buffoon.

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in the midst of moving out of the former marital abode i was distraught, broken and listless. i cared so little about anything. i threw all of these things away. i did not even have the mind to give them to someone who would want them. i threw them away.

Ach!

Actually, my partner saved me from a similar fate. When I moved in with him, I was prepared to give away the load of 2nd Edition AD&D stuff I owned...and I owned a bunch. He's not a particular guy but that time he put his foot down, and today I am quite glad he did.

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@DanteGabriel and anyone else who played Mage the Ascension:

Did they ever explain what the Euthanos idea of Ascension was?

I doubt it was ever very unified -- "every Mage has a unique Paradigm" blah blah blah... But if the stereotypical Euthanatos paradigm was based on Hindu beliefs, then I suppose Ascending would be... Nirvana? I can go poking through my sourcebooks and see if it is addressed.

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We still do a weekly 3.5 D & D every week. One realm that we have jumped around in and done different characters and perspectives. Everything from Epic heros, a theives guild, settlers, we have gotten quite the fleshed out story after 4 years :)

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I doubt it was ever very unified -- "every Mage has a unique Paradigm" blah blah blah... But if the stereotypical Euthanatos paradigm was based on Hindu beliefs, then I suppose Ascending would be... Nirvana? I can go poking through my sourcebooks and see if it is addressed.

I remember asking on the mage mailing list and even discussing it online with the guy who claimed to have played Dudley on Royal Tenenbaums strangely enough.

I don't know if it was ever addressed. The Nirvana thing seems like the Akashic Bros Ascension IIRC.

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I love table top rpg's. Been doing them since I was 16( 19 now). Played with basically the same group every time. We did a Star Wars rpg where we switched who was GM each time. (it was just for fun, no real story.) Then we did Dragon Age for a long time with still no story. We recently just started a serious campaign with Dragon Age (my older bro is GM), and loving it. We are also doing a serious campaign where I'm the GM with AsoiaF table top rpg; and gotta say, it's hard GMing. Lol. We are also starting a Mutants and Masterminds game where my friend is GMing.

It just sucks trying to get everybody together. We all have different schedules. One person works a lot with night classes because his work is understaffed. My bro has a part time job where he works opposite times as me. I have school and part time, and a friend who works all evenings. So its hard trying to manage everybody and do 3 rpg's.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

1) An early review for 13th Age, the indie 3E & 4E mash up.

13th Age is, hands down, the most exciting modern D&D variant I have encountered. It sits at the nexus not just of 3E and 4E – which has engendered much discussion from D&D fans – but also of the “story games” movement. It brilliantly melds the approaches of these three games into a cohesive, and fascinating, whole.

Then, on top of all that, it adds a new and compelling take on an RPG setting – defined by the game’s 13 icons – that provides dramatic conflict, ample room for GM and player input to the story, and makes the PCs themselves prominent. This treatment turned what seemed (to me) a liability of the game – the baked-in setting – to a strength.

In this review, I aim to describe the ways in which 13th Age achieves these goals. I’ll assume at least a passing familiarity with the d20 approach – as the game also does – and focus mostly on the themes that 13th Age brings out in d20 games.

2) Shadowlands Kickstarter already brought on Forgotten Realms' Ed Greenwood, adds Planescape's Colin McComb to help with an "Inception" type region.

We're teaming up with gaming great Colin McComb who will join the Kickstarter to help us design the region known as Barzakh, the “Place that is No Place”!

Barzakh is a combination of alternate universes, different quantum states, dream realms and simulated realities. Barzakh takes its inspiration from films like Inception,The Thirteenth Floor, and Dark City; it will excite and delight fans familiar with (or fond of) the Planescape setting. Which is why we are so excited to have Colin on board!

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needs more Dark heresy love.

I played in a Dark Heresy campaign and it was alright, but lately we have been playing Rouge Trader, and it is fan-fucking-tastic. Probably my favorite campaign I've ever played in.

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Since we are on this topic I thought I would ask everyone's opinion. A couple of friends and I are organizing a Tabletop Gaming Convention. Think board games, rpgs, minitures, CCG's, etc. We are doing it on a shoestring budget but we want it to be awesome. To those of you that have been to gaming conventions what did you love/hate about them?

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