For the past two days I've been trying to put together four cool pre-gen PCs to use for my Lords of Creation one shot coming up on Sunday. So far I've got the character concepts down, but statting them up to my satisfaction has been elusive. I think part of the problem is that LoC is so clearly designed for ongoing campaign play. PCs aren't meant to be constructed at higher than 1st level, the intent is for them to organically grow towards those lofty heights. Mechanically it is certainly possible to put together a 5th level PC, as I have been trying to do. But the results are a lot less awesome than if those PCs had gone through 4 levels of adventures.
You see a similar problem with starting a D&D 3.x outing at a high level. You end up with a lot of builds that make no sense from a historical perspective. A pre-fab 20th PC might have a +7 ECL race even though no sane player would play such a character at level 1. Thinking back to my last PC, I never would have planned for Osric the Slayer to be a barbarian/warblade/rogue, but the character is much cooler for having grown into that set-up.
So, anyway, part of me wants to run Lords of Creation as an ongoing campaign. I've felt that way for a while, but Tom Moldvay's death really brought that yearning to the fore. The whole point of LoC is to be able to run any kind of adventure set in any place or time. It's really hard to play to that breadth of scope in a single afternoon's outing. Not that I need another ongoing campaign right now. Beyond Vinland is still finding its groove, and I intend to try to ride that game out to 20th level. I'd like to run New Bronze City at some point in the future. And then there's Traveller. If T5 isn't a trainwreck I'd really like to run a campaign of that when it is released.
A Return to the Stars
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After a veeeeerrrryyyy long, and mostly unplanned, hiatus, Stuart and I got
together to play more Stargrave in recent days. It was good! It was also a
bit ...
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Posts
The true Gamer's dilemma: so many games to run/play, so little time.
ReplyDeleteI seriously feel that were I indepednently wealthy, I could easily game 4 or 5 nights a week...for a bit, anyways.
Beware the Gamemasters pitfall my friend. A wise man once told me:
ReplyDelete"In my experience offering a wide choice of games to run sometimes can be counterproductive. Pick something you can be totally awesome with and put it out there with enthusiasm."
I try to follow that advice though it is a hard road.
I think you have the workings of something good with Vinland- focus there for awhile.
My own approach to the tyrrany of choice in gaming works like this:
ReplyDelete(A) I'm always running a single campaign, as close to weekly as schedules permit.
(B) I'm always running one-shots, for as many different games as possible, for as many different _gamers_ as possible.
The results of (B) determines both the party composition and game-choice for the next (A), and keeps me going mad from choices.
Sadly, since a bad bit of net vandalism destroyed my Austin Gamers Mailing List a couple of years back, the (B)s no longer have quite the frequency or variety they once did, but I'm slowly edging back into regular one-shot form using other means of snagging new gamers. Generally, if a month goes by and I haven't gamed with at least 1 new person, I feel I've failed in my role as a community-builder (since I also try to act as a local hub to hook gamers up). This is a long drop from the old days, when I'd game with 15-20 new gamers in any given month (but in those days I was at a lot of east-coast conventions).
I think you have the workings of something good with Vinland- focus there for awhile.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm not planning on starting any new campaigns soon, with the possible exception of Dungeons & Ninjas. Speaking of which, I should probably blog about D&N at some point.
Dungeons and Ninjas?
ReplyDeleteI am still really digging your Vinland Campaign. Keep at it. I think you're going to really enjoy how it develops.
ReplyDeleteI have to echo a lot of what has already been said:
A) Have the steady campaign + regular oneshot excursions
AND
b) Dungeons & Ninjas? COOL!
Let's hear more on both fronts.
~Adaen of Bridgewater
I really ought to log on when I visit.
ReplyDeleteAdaen