Skip to main content

The Revival, Postponed

Shortly after publishing my previous blog post, I had a major curve ball thrown at me: the company that employed me sold their book of business in the state I work in. I was given the opportunity to take a position at the company that was doing the buying, which I of course took.

I didn't have any other options lined up and the job market is pretty rough, to be honest.

So, I moved to the new company and it's been a mess. A fun mess, to be sure, but a mess. It is a brand new program and I'm helping to create its shape. No one else at the company can do what I do. For the moment. So, I have a lot of responsibility.

A lot of responsibility means a lot of time. I've been dedicating more time and energy to work, which means I have less time and energy for other pursuits. But, I don't see this as a bad thing. For the first time in my life, I'm focusing on my career, really trying to build it into something more than I've ever had, something that could fulfill the goals I've held onto for years. And, I think it's working! I like the direction it's heading!

Because of this, I've had to put my play by post games on hold. I was sad to do it, but there's just not enough hours in the day for work, and family, and gaming as I was doing it. I'm still making time for my in person games, because those are close friends that I need to spend time with, and spending time with them allows me to deal with the increased stress. Friends are important! Don't let anyone tell you otherwise!

So, I suppose the purpose of this post is to explain what happened. I just disappeared! Now you, dear reader, know why. I'm still a GM. I still have lots of stories to tell. I have little time to indulge in that.

I have been working on a modern western Werewolf the Apocalypse game. It was a rather offhanded comment I threw at one of my game groups and they got excited about it. So excited, in fact, that they tell me about character concepts they think they might like to run. Or asking questions about what a modern western actually is. Their questions have made me think about it a lot more.

A Modern Western is a story that has themes from traditional Westerns, but in a modern setting. We'll have cell phones and the world wide web, modern medicine and modes of transportation. We'll also have that lawlessness, that frontier feel where you have to rely on yourselves because no one's got your back. We'll have those big open spaces where anything goes, and borders that mean safety or danger. There will be people who've come to escape the big city, and others escaping their past.

My plans are still not as advanced as I'd like them, but I have enough ideas that as soon as we start making characters, things are going to click into place and the story is practically going to write itself. I'm looking forward to this game like I haven't looked forward to a game in quite some time!

Rules-wise, I'm going to be using Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition. Woah, I just felt a disturbance, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and demanded why I don't use Werewolf 5th Edition. The simplest answer is that I don't want to. I like the Classic World of Darkness rules. I like having multiple dials to adjust the difficulty of a roll. I like the simplicity of the base system, and the complexity of the sub-systems added to it.

And, I'm familiar with it. I've played/run it enough that I can make reasonable rulings on the fly without having to stop the game and refresh my memory of how something works. That's a comfort level as a GM that helps the story flow. And, I'm more familiar with the way the world is built in W20. There are just enough changes in W5e to make me pause and try to figure out if I'm doing something right that I think the flow will suffer.

And, the players are fine with it. We ran Orpheus with Classic World of Darkness rules. They enjoyed them. Are the rules perfect? Of course not. Are they fun? You betcha!

This game's not going to kick off until we finish our play through of Scion 2e. That's a fun game and I'm enjoying playing a character. I have experienced a little fatigue with the game, since I ran a game from Origin to God with another group before this group started playing, but overall it's been a lot of fun.

Anyway, that's all for my rambling thoughts for now. If you read through this post all the way to the end, I award you a gold star. Put it on your forehead and wear it proudly. You're awesome no matter what anyone else says.

Labels:
Location: Las Vegas, NV, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Flash Fiction - Finish Line

The neon lights flashed and flickered, giving the crowd surrounding the starting line the look of a rave. They were loud and staring, staring at the two machines crouched just behind the white line that had been hurriedly sprayed across the street. A light drizzle fell on the whole scene, making the dark pavement reflect the lights and faces, distorting them as the water trembled in time with the deafening music. Laach gripped the steering wheel as his vehicle rumbled beneath him. Though the night was cool, sweat beaded his forehead and he nervously glanced to his left, to the vehicle sitting next to his, to the driver inside. The other driver caught his glance and smiled at him, a mocking, arrogant smile. Kurt looked confident. Of course he did; he’d won every single ’scraper race he’d ever competed in. Laach jerked his head back around to face the front, nervously twisting his hands where they gripped the wheel. He had to win this match. If he did, the money he’d win would pay his...
Post a Comment
Read more

Reading Review - Claim the Sky

  This post contains affiliate links for DriveThruRPG. If you use one and make a purchase, I will earn a small percentage of that sale, and it will cost you nothing extra. Thank you for your support! For the TLDR rating, click here! It’s no secret that I am a big fan of tabletop role playing games. Also, I’m pretty sure I’ve written that exact sentence on this blog at least once before. I play a lot of games. I read a lot of game books. I think that my reading time is likely evenly split between game books and fiction books. Non-fiction is thrown in there, too, but I read a lot fewer non-fiction books than I do fiction and game books. Okay, getting out of the weeds, there: I recently picked up Claim the Sky , which is a superhero supplement for the Cypher System by Monte Cook Games . I read through the book, slowly and bit by bit and… I gotta say that I really love it. The Book Image from MonteCookGames.com Like all of the Cypher System books I have, it’s a beautiful book. The ...
Post a Comment
Read more

System Found for Orpheus

Some months ago, I made a post about a little game called Orpheus, and my desire to run it. And, I pondered what system would be a good fit for it, as I didn't want to use the rules as presented in the actual game books. I ended up going with Fate, creating rules for the characters and their myriad powers and ran it for more than 9 months, and more than half of the adventure with those rules. Boy, was that the wrong call! I admit, we had fun with the game! Some great stories were told and we all enjoyed the time we spent at the table. But, it started to feel flat after that long. The system didn't support the length of play, or the growth we wanted. I eventually mentioned to the group that I wished we had gone with another system, and they enthusiastically suggested we just use the core rules. So, we did. I scrapped the session, last minute, and we sat down to create characters using the old World of Darkness rules, as they are presented in the core book. That, was the right  c...
Post a Comment
Read more