In my previous post I’d started a campaign journal for a post apocalyptic setting. The first session went great, the players enjoyed it and then…
The campaign died.
Like most campaigns that die, the fatal blow was struck by scheduling. Between time zones, work, parenting and everything else it proved impossible to get the same group together to progress the campaign.
While I’m pretty sad to see a system and setting I worked on (and my chance to run a hex crawl) go to waste the silver lining is that due to getting a random selection of 2-4 players we decided to run some cyberpunk one shots, set in the cy_borg setting. This quickly gained momentum thanks to the episodic nature of the sessions which allowed players to drop in and out easily, without affecting the verisimilitude of the world.
This was a super power of our blades in the dark campaign that I’d largely forgotten, and probably the main reason we managed to run that for over 2 years and 2 GMs. Simply being able to say: So long as we’ve got 2 players we’ll run every week at a set time seems to guarantee that sessions just happen.
As a result we’re now four sessions in to a campaign which has got me as a GM hooked. I’ve been wanting to run a cyberpunk campaign for a while and all of the banked inspiration and thinking I’ve done about it seems to be resurfacing.
I’ve also become active in the cy_borg discord server, which has a ton of great channels for inspiration and game discussion. Though I feel a little bit like an impostor since I’m not running the official cy_borg system - but hey, cyberpunk is definitely not about conforming.
To conclude, if you’re finding that life is getting in the way try and episodic campaign/open table. Give up on the idea that you’ll always have the same players each week and just enjoy the variety that different numbers of players gives you.
rpgs homebrew journal
In my previous post I’d started a campaign journal for a post apocalyptic setting. The first session went great, the players enjoyed it and then…
rpgs homebrew journal
The other week I ran the first session of a post apocalyptic hex crawl TRPG I’m calling, for lack of a better name, Dominion of the Sword. I transplanted some of the lore I’d written for a post apocalyptic wargame to come up with the seed for a setting and then fleshed out the local area and set the players loose.
osr rpgs review
Mausritter is probably the cutest TRPG I’ve ever encountered, players take on the role of mouse adventurers on a quest for treasure in the giant and dangerous world. I picked up a copy of the boxed set, primarily because I thought it would fit with some of players wishes for a more light hearted and fantastical game. However, once I’d read through the rules I realised that this is one of the best written systems I’ve ever read and played.
rpgs
Prophecy and destiny are fairly common tropes in many fantasy settings, and they can produce very compelling storylines. However, weaving them into a TRPG requires reconciling the forgone conclusions that prophecy implies with player agency, and the often random nature of a games mechanics.
alien rpgs review
Chariot of the Gods is the introductory scenario for Free League’s Alien RPG, it comes as part of the starter set and is a relatively lengthy cinematic scenario that casts the crew in a similar situation to the crew of the Nostromo in the original Alien film. I’ve run this scenario for two different groups and have a few thoughts about what I think it does right and what I think could be improved.