Idle Thoughts

[atolnon]

I've been wanting to run a game for a group for a while now, but I really haven't had the time. I don't really know if more time is going to open up in the future (though I imagine it would almost have to), and besides, I really don't know what to run, but I still think about it from time to time.

I don't really want to run anything where I'd feel like I want to kludge too many mechanics together to repair a game engine. There are certain games with aspects I'm very fond of that I really couldn't run without tweaking - Kindred of the East, for example, really can be problematic. All the classic WoD games run on a game engine you pretty much had to be there for when it was created to enjoy (especially if you were just playing WoD or never actually paid attention to the rules at all in the first place). Some were brilliant settings with terrible mechanics. (The beautiful Engel, which was badly translated to d20 during the boom without really any attention to mechanical rigor at all.) Some are just fucking difficult to run at all. (Wraith.)

Several years ago, I stopped buying new game lines. I already have a shitload of books, and I wanted to run or play the games I had to justify my old purchases. I've already played a lot of D&D, Ascension, and Exalted. I've run straight WoD, Changeling, and Mage : the Awakening. If I ran a game, I don't know what it would be, at this point. What, to my mind, is ready to be run that I own and haven't played yet? Maybe Vampire : the Dark Ages or Wraith. I don't know that I'm really prepared to run either of those games, to be honest. I wasn't 100% happy with how I did my Changeling and Awakening games, and I could always justify a new purchase with a new game plan...

Comments

I'm not sure I agree...

[sciphi.livejournal.com]

And I think we might posit that I have quite a bit of experience running games. Obviously you've played with me more in LARP settings, but I've run quite a few tabletop games as well.

Admittedly, I was *there* for most of classic WoD, but the games vary greatly when evaluated by the ever elusive "playability" standard. Vampire remains the simplest and best game for actors ever made -- you can run a great V:TM game without ever rolling the dice, and I think that's a feature, not a bug. People like Mage (in whatever form) because of its pseudo-philosophical nature*, but it has the absolute worst gaming engine.

Wraith is a beautiful game, both in concept and execution, but it requires that none of your players are jackasses. Part of being a GM is picking your players correctly.

On the flip side, Werewolf is a very good gaming system, but I haven't ever enjoyed playing Werewolf because the setting is so godawful.

(I only played in a few Changeling games almost 2 decades ago, so I don't feel competent to comment on that one.)

I'd worry less about the game, and more about the story. I decided to run a game based upon the last years of the Roman Republic, and folks convinced me to use Pathfinder. I've read through the Player's Guide, but I haven't worried too much about the game mechanics, and instead focused on the story. I think it's going well.

Don't worry about the game. What story do you want to tell? Who do you want to help you tell it? Those are the important questions.


*Vampire is a much more philosophical game, but people prefer to feel deep rather than think deeply.

Re: I'm not sure I agree...

[atolnon.livejournal.com]

I've played in several of your games, and I've seen that dynamic pretty often. Especially what you're talking about with Mage and Vampire. The new Changeling is really nothing at all like the old one, so you'd probably have to check it out first. I personally think the new one is one of the best things to come out of the new WoD cycles, and I happen to love Mage : the Awakening.

Running different titles is fun for me, but it's irrational. I see the books sitting on my shelf - I don't need to run them all at the same time even if I can, but I do kind of want to spotlight them eventually. So, I ask myself, 'there are a lot of good stories to tell, but which one works well with this one'?

Otherwise, I appreciate your advise. I think it's well said.