The End of the World, Day Two
The second EOW game was also science fiction, this time a more "hard sci fi" story. Earth has been wracked by a ecological cataclysm and abandoned in favor of colonies throughout the solar system. Two centuries later a team of scientists and soldiers are sent back to earth to locate the plans of an FTL drive which will allow humanity to leave the solar system.
This time around I was playing the corporate supervisor, and I played his low-charisma self to the hilt. Think Paul Rieser in "Aliens.". Playing someone so disagreeable was a nice change of pace.
The game got hung up in what I think are two classic RPG pitfalls. The first is what I call the "carte blanche" scenario. When you are on a high-priority mission (save the solar system) from a high powered patron (a system-wide government), wouldn't you be given anything you wanted: gear, troops, transports, etc.? And a sufficient amount of tactical support can allow a group to pretty much steamroll any obstacle, which is largely what happened..
The second hangup was that the game seemed to have more background than foreground. The GM (excuse me, "judge") had an incredibly elaborate universe in which ot operate, things like timelines, a history of the cataclycsm, and so on. But he lacked detail when it came to where the PC's were actually tromping about, like a map of the city or the building we were exploring, and so the game seemed, despite all the obvious work, to lack focus.
I am not always a fan of "Monday Morning Quarterbacking" but if I had to run this scenario again I would tackle the first problem by eliminating some of the power and scope of the patron. Instead of the government sponsoring the project, make it an unpopular but well-intentioned government official whom everyone thinks is crazy, or make the plans be near a volcano that is going to erupt in a few days, so there isn't time to mount a big offense. That way the players feel more threatened when natives come over the horizon and there is more drama to the story.
Second, find a way to introduce more of the backstory to the PC's. After the game the GM presented us with a "journal" of the cataclycm. One of the other players said, "why couldn't this be on [one of the NPC's encountered in the game]?" This adventure felt like it wouldn't made for a better campaign than a one-shot, and a good one at that.
In other news, after each gaming session we usually have dinner and watch a movie or two. So far we have seen "Gamers: the Dorkness Rising," "Zombieland," and "The Book of Eli."
This time around I was playing the corporate supervisor, and I played his low-charisma self to the hilt. Think Paul Rieser in "Aliens.". Playing someone so disagreeable was a nice change of pace.
The game got hung up in what I think are two classic RPG pitfalls. The first is what I call the "carte blanche" scenario. When you are on a high-priority mission (save the solar system) from a high powered patron (a system-wide government), wouldn't you be given anything you wanted: gear, troops, transports, etc.? And a sufficient amount of tactical support can allow a group to pretty much steamroll any obstacle, which is largely what happened..
The second hangup was that the game seemed to have more background than foreground. The GM (excuse me, "judge") had an incredibly elaborate universe in which ot operate, things like timelines, a history of the cataclycsm, and so on. But he lacked detail when it came to where the PC's were actually tromping about, like a map of the city or the building we were exploring, and so the game seemed, despite all the obvious work, to lack focus.
I am not always a fan of "Monday Morning Quarterbacking" but if I had to run this scenario again I would tackle the first problem by eliminating some of the power and scope of the patron. Instead of the government sponsoring the project, make it an unpopular but well-intentioned government official whom everyone thinks is crazy, or make the plans be near a volcano that is going to erupt in a few days, so there isn't time to mount a big offense. That way the players feel more threatened when natives come over the horizon and there is more drama to the story.
Second, find a way to introduce more of the backstory to the PC's. After the game the GM presented us with a "journal" of the cataclycm. One of the other players said, "why couldn't this be on [one of the NPC's encountered in the game]?" This adventure felt like it wouldn't made for a better campaign than a one-shot, and a good one at that.
In other news, after each gaming session we usually have dinner and watch a movie or two. So far we have seen "Gamers: the Dorkness Rising," "Zombieland," and "The Book of Eli."
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