Summertime Gaming, Part One
Wow, it has been six weeks since my last post. Well, a lot has been going on. A ton of person transitions, some vacation time, etc. But that's not what this blog is about.
Over the last six weeks, my friend John wrapped up his West End Games Star Wars campaign. I'll admit that I wasn't in as many sessions as I might have liked--another consequence of my many responsibilities these days. This campaign started as a closed game with a limited number of players but slowly creeped up to around seven or eight. That's on the high side, and a lot of overlap between certain characters started to show (e.g. who flew the ship).
In the final episode the GM decided to split the party. This is always a gamble, and I'm not sure if it paid off. This wasn't the fault of the GM, but rather the fickle hand of fate (and some decision making on the part of the players). The first half managed to handle their scenario in a very brief period of time, but the second half took a long time--almost an hour. That was a long lag time for the first group, who ended up getting restless, looking at their phones, wandering off, etc. As a person in the first, group I can say that I felt for everyone involved, including the GM who was clearly trying to move the second group along as best he could.
But now that campaign is over and one--another one in the books. I really enjoyed the way that the GM used the stunt system from Fantasy AGE as an alternative to just boosting the success on the Wild Die. I also just love the old WEG system. It's relative elegance and ease of play reminded me of why the game was so important in the development of RPG's. I do know that it is breakable by people intent to break it (and being a Wookie with a vibroaxe certainly had its advantages).
In the meantime, I'm trying to get my Bash game back on track. I can see it going at least four more sessions, which at this rate will take us well into the end of summer. I have to say that Bash continues to be a game I like but don't love. The system is sort of just there, not really adding anything to my enjoyment of the game. It certainly doesn't inspire me. And I'm not exactly sure if the game has a clear sense in-and-of-itself sometimes about how it is played. By that I mean it isn't always clear if the game should be played with miniatures, without them, etc.
Finally, my local gaming store is closing this summer. After 25 years, the store was struggling to make ends meet. If I had to hazard a guess, the expansion of a local popular comic book store getting into games and gaming was the death knell. But I did manage to pick up in the fire sale a fun stuffed owlbear who currently needs a name. So feel free to make suggestions in the comments below.
More later, and thanks for reading!
Over the last six weeks, my friend John wrapped up his West End Games Star Wars campaign. I'll admit that I wasn't in as many sessions as I might have liked--another consequence of my many responsibilities these days. This campaign started as a closed game with a limited number of players but slowly creeped up to around seven or eight. That's on the high side, and a lot of overlap between certain characters started to show (e.g. who flew the ship).
In the final episode the GM decided to split the party. This is always a gamble, and I'm not sure if it paid off. This wasn't the fault of the GM, but rather the fickle hand of fate (and some decision making on the part of the players). The first half managed to handle their scenario in a very brief period of time, but the second half took a long time--almost an hour. That was a long lag time for the first group, who ended up getting restless, looking at their phones, wandering off, etc. As a person in the first, group I can say that I felt for everyone involved, including the GM who was clearly trying to move the second group along as best he could.
But now that campaign is over and one--another one in the books. I really enjoyed the way that the GM used the stunt system from Fantasy AGE as an alternative to just boosting the success on the Wild Die. I also just love the old WEG system. It's relative elegance and ease of play reminded me of why the game was so important in the development of RPG's. I do know that it is breakable by people intent to break it (and being a Wookie with a vibroaxe certainly had its advantages).
In the meantime, I'm trying to get my Bash game back on track. I can see it going at least four more sessions, which at this rate will take us well into the end of summer. I have to say that Bash continues to be a game I like but don't love. The system is sort of just there, not really adding anything to my enjoyment of the game. It certainly doesn't inspire me. And I'm not exactly sure if the game has a clear sense in-and-of-itself sometimes about how it is played. By that I mean it isn't always clear if the game should be played with miniatures, without them, etc.
Finally, my local gaming store is closing this summer. After 25 years, the store was struggling to make ends meet. If I had to hazard a guess, the expansion of a local popular comic book store getting into games and gaming was the death knell. But I did manage to pick up in the fire sale a fun stuffed owlbear who currently needs a name. So feel free to make suggestions in the comments below.
More later, and thanks for reading!
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