Excelsior!
Last night I had a great gaming session, not because the group hit a ton of great plot milestones but because in addition to some good in-character roleplaying, there were just a couple of moments of pure hilarity that literally brought tears to my eyes.
But when it was all done, I needed to have a conversation with my group and tell them the truth: I'm burned out on D&D. I've been running it, roughly speaking, for several years now. The only change I have had really is the annual EOW event, and that's just a couple of days. Now it's been good and I've gamed with a lot of great people and I've had a lot of fun, but I'm tired of the game and more broadly the genre. I told the group that either someone else had to take over running the game, or I needed to change the game.
With the other GM in the group already running another game on another night, the group readily agreed to a different game, but wanted to discuss options. After kicking around ideas like Serenity or Star Trek, the group settled on one of my favorites, Marvel Heroic Roleplaying.
If you stuck around here through December, you know I created 24 villains from scratch for that game. I also have a fairly roughed-out world called "Earth 3" which is a bit of a hybrid of the two major comic book companies' worlds, albeit with no IP-infringing characters (Doctor Strange became the basis of "Mystic," for example). Even in the first few minutes of discussing the game I could hear the players' horizons expanding as they were told that there were no character-creation guidelines--just come up with a reasonable concept.
One of the players talked about how interested she was in the possibility that as a player she could have an impact on the story. She's talking about the abilities of players to create assets and resources that affect gameplay in a tangible manner.
The thing I like about MHR is that the focus isn't so much on stats and feats and working the angles. It's about being able to come up with a interesting story together. I think that MHR Events that have been published are railroad-y in the extreme, so I'll be looking at how to lay out something different. I don't think it'll be hard.
I'm so pumped about this, it's more than I can say. Champions was my game in the halcyon years of college, and now I'm getting a second bite at the superhero apple. I'll keep you up on details as they come around.
But when it was all done, I needed to have a conversation with my group and tell them the truth: I'm burned out on D&D. I've been running it, roughly speaking, for several years now. The only change I have had really is the annual EOW event, and that's just a couple of days. Now it's been good and I've gamed with a lot of great people and I've had a lot of fun, but I'm tired of the game and more broadly the genre. I told the group that either someone else had to take over running the game, or I needed to change the game.
With the other GM in the group already running another game on another night, the group readily agreed to a different game, but wanted to discuss options. After kicking around ideas like Serenity or Star Trek, the group settled on one of my favorites, Marvel Heroic Roleplaying.
If you stuck around here through December, you know I created 24 villains from scratch for that game. I also have a fairly roughed-out world called "Earth 3" which is a bit of a hybrid of the two major comic book companies' worlds, albeit with no IP-infringing characters (Doctor Strange became the basis of "Mystic," for example). Even in the first few minutes of discussing the game I could hear the players' horizons expanding as they were told that there were no character-creation guidelines--just come up with a reasonable concept.
One of the players talked about how interested she was in the possibility that as a player she could have an impact on the story. She's talking about the abilities of players to create assets and resources that affect gameplay in a tangible manner.
The thing I like about MHR is that the focus isn't so much on stats and feats and working the angles. It's about being able to come up with a interesting story together. I think that MHR Events that have been published are railroad-y in the extreme, so I'll be looking at how to lay out something different. I don't think it'll be hard.
I'm so pumped about this, it's more than I can say. Champions was my game in the halcyon years of college, and now I'm getting a second bite at the superhero apple. I'll keep you up on details as they come around.
Very interesting turn of events. That is to say, I'm excited to hear of someone trying to run Marvel Heroic as a campaign.
ReplyDeleteI've enjoyed the few times I've played the game and had an AMAZING session the one time I ran it but as I look toward starting a new Supers campaign myself, I just don't know that my more traditional players would get behind a campaign in which their characters don't really improve and combat it less hard core tactical.
I for one would love it but it's a tricky sell among my regulars.
Curious to read your experiences with it. Good luck!
I thought it would be a tricky sell as well, and frankly I think there is going to be initially a fairly steep learning curve. I basically got them to agree to trying it out for a few sessions. If people really don't like the game mechanics, I could switch it to M&M or Champions.
DeleteAs for PC's not improving, I've wondered about that as well. I don't know how hard-wired in the notion of always having to get better is for people. I'll talk to my group about it.