Mi gran sueño de aficiones
My Grand Dream of Hobbies. Despite the fact that my Marvel Heroic Roleplaying "campaign" is kicking ass in four different colors, I began to see the cracks in the wall Friday when one of my players began asking me about how to increase his powers. He was almost immediately rebuked by two other players, who said "it isn't that sort of game" but I could see that he was upset that he couldn't get a d12 power because I hadn't allowed them at the time of his character creation, but I had allowed a player whose powers were pretty weak generally to crank up to a d12 at the expense of three plot points (a sort of mega-blast that also left his power set depleted).
The fact that characters don't develop in ways that are reflected in abilities, but instead gain contacts, reputations, etc. is as I've said before a big weakness of the game, and I suspect that the cracks will eventually open into fissures.
So, building upon an earlier post, I'm still thinking about what I want with a game. It's easier I think for me to categorize what I want and try to either find or make that game, rather than look at a bazillion games and then settle for that. One thing that I have been thinking about is wanting a game where I could easily incorporate someone who has never participated in an RPG before. I'm imaging some hypothetical friend from outside the gaming community. He or she is not unfamiliar with a particular genre, maybe has seen the Lord of the Rings movies or The Avengers. Gets the general idea of how a group of people sit around and collectively participate in a game/story/adventure.
Why do I want that, when I've got six established players who are great and great together? Because I think that one of my hobby-related talents is being a good guy to bring people into the hobby. I'm somewhat normal in appearance, have a decent job, and my own semi-finished basement in which to game. I like to cook dinner. I have very solid social skills, given that I deal with people on a daily basis as part of my job. On a good day I'm halfway creative. I'm not bragging, I'm just thinking about how the owner of my FLGS refers to RPG's as the weakest part of his store (and superhero RPG's as the weakest part of that weakest part). It's going to stay that way--no, it's going to get worse--unless we really start to think about deliberately expanding interest in the hobby. Mi gran sueno de aficiones is to have a game where I have a rolling crowd of people who can drop in and out of the same gaming universe, mix and match players, and in the process meet new people. I envision some sort of thing where I run a game session every Friday night and just see who can show up. Or just let in the first six people who reserve a spot each week. Maybe even say "hey, you can play three out of every five sessions" and let the chips fall where they may, even if that means I have ten people one session and three the next.
When I re-read this, it sounds a little chaotic and messy. What do you think?
The fact that characters don't develop in ways that are reflected in abilities, but instead gain contacts, reputations, etc. is as I've said before a big weakness of the game, and I suspect that the cracks will eventually open into fissures.
So, building upon an earlier post, I'm still thinking about what I want with a game. It's easier I think for me to categorize what I want and try to either find or make that game, rather than look at a bazillion games and then settle for that. One thing that I have been thinking about is wanting a game where I could easily incorporate someone who has never participated in an RPG before. I'm imaging some hypothetical friend from outside the gaming community. He or she is not unfamiliar with a particular genre, maybe has seen the Lord of the Rings movies or The Avengers. Gets the general idea of how a group of people sit around and collectively participate in a game/story/adventure.
Why do I want that, when I've got six established players who are great and great together? Because I think that one of my hobby-related talents is being a good guy to bring people into the hobby. I'm somewhat normal in appearance, have a decent job, and my own semi-finished basement in which to game. I like to cook dinner. I have very solid social skills, given that I deal with people on a daily basis as part of my job. On a good day I'm halfway creative. I'm not bragging, I'm just thinking about how the owner of my FLGS refers to RPG's as the weakest part of his store (and superhero RPG's as the weakest part of that weakest part). It's going to stay that way--no, it's going to get worse--unless we really start to think about deliberately expanding interest in the hobby. Mi gran sueno de aficiones is to have a game where I have a rolling crowd of people who can drop in and out of the same gaming universe, mix and match players, and in the process meet new people. I envision some sort of thing where I run a game session every Friday night and just see who can show up. Or just let in the first six people who reserve a spot each week. Maybe even say "hey, you can play three out of every five sessions" and let the chips fall where they may, even if that means I have ten people one session and three the next.
When I re-read this, it sounds a little chaotic and messy. What do you think?
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