Currently, I'm leaning towards trying my hand at something "old school", in the fantasy genre, simple to prep and easy to run. This approach seems to be in vogue right now, so I do feel like I'm hopping on the bandwagon a bit, but I'm not going to let that stop me from exploring something in which I'm genuinely interested. I own a few games that potentially fit the bill:
Dungeons & Dragons (Rules Cyclopedia version). I like the RC a lot, and obviously have been spending a good deal of time thinking about D&D lately. This particular version of D&D has plenty of compatible supplemental material. It's a familiar system that would be relatively easy to tweak. The problem with that idea is that players have certain expectations of what they're going to be getting when they play D&D, and I think my tweaks and play style might not be in line with those expectations. Also, I have a feeling most people wouldn't get why I picked "basic" D&D over AD&D, v3.5, or 4e.
Dungeons & Dragons (Rules Cyclopedia version). I like the RC a lot, and obviously have been spending a good deal of time thinking about D&D lately. This particular version of D&D has plenty of compatible supplemental material. It's a familiar system that would be relatively easy to tweak. The problem with that idea is that players have certain expectations of what they're going to be getting when they play D&D, and I think my tweaks and play style might not be in line with those expectations. Also, I have a feeling most people wouldn't get why I picked "basic" D&D over AD&D, v3.5, or 4e. 
Tunnels & Trolls (5.5 edition). I'm currently playing a character in Scott's play-by-post T&T game and having a good time with it. It's a neat game, but a little too cutesy for my default approach to fantasy, at least as written. I guess you could say it falls a little too far on the Otus side of the Erol Otus-Dave Trampier continuum for me. There's lots of support for T&T, though I'm not a huge fan of how it handles combat - I prefer a bit more granularity than just saying "add up the dice on each side, roll, and see who wins."
Dragon Warriors (Magnum Opus Press version). In case I hadn't already made it clear, I love this freakin' game. The rulebook is simple yet comprehensive like the Rules Cyclopedia, the setting is right up my alley, the published adventures are pretty cool, and there is a modest (but growing) amount of fan support available online. I've been wanting to run this game for years, but nobody I've shown it off to has seemed particularly interested, so I'm not sure how easy it would be to recruit players.All right, so it seems like I've pretty much made up my mind to run Dragon Warriors. Now I just need to figure out the logistics of when/where/how/with whom I'll be running it.
We need to do a world tour after Rick Dakan (spelled out fully so his Google-alert will catch this[Gotcha, Rick!]) is done with his campaign. Spend a month to a half on different systems.
ReplyDeleteI agree, but hopefully we won't be wrapping up D&D 4e for a while, and I am impatient.
ReplyDeleteThe "cute" part of T&T doesn't bother me that much, because in my case it provides a nice counterpoint to the weird "dark" stuff in my settings. I can also see T&T-combat-as-written being too abstract for many tastes, even mine sometimes.
ReplyDeleteThere are times I miss the familiarity of D&D ... I've run things with it for so long that the mechanical side of things requires little thought. I'm not there yet with T&T, so I'm not as comfortable tinkering with the default system yet.
Eventually, assuming I stick with T&T 5th, I'd like to assemble what I've got for OD&D -- a typed-up compendium of the important rules and the stuff I've bolted on.
I hope you run Dragon Warriors, as I found the books kind of neat and would love to hear about how a campaign plays out.
The "cute" part of T&T doesn't bother me that much, because in my case it provides a nice counterpoint to the weird "dark" stuff in my settings. I can also see T&T-combat-as-written being too abstract for many tastes, even mine sometimes.I certainly don't mean to imply that T&T can't be warped to suit most campaigns. It's just that it would take more work than it would probably be worth, for my purposes. And yes, as somebody who's used to the strike-parry-dodge mechanics of Palladium Fantasy, T&T combat as written is almost maddeningly abstract.
ReplyDeleteThere are times I miss the familiarity of D&D ... I've run things with it for so long that the mechanical side of things requires little thought. I'm not there yet with T&T, so I'm not as comfortable tinkering with the default system yet.Yeah, this is an ongoing concern of mine, too. Part of the reason I want to get back to running games (and get good at it again) is so I can get over that kind of mental block. I like DW a lot and would like to be familiar enough with it to write for it, since the call for fanzine articles and professional submissions has begun. Unless, of course, I end up running it and hating it...
Eventually, assuming I stick with T&T 5th, I'd like to assemble what I've got for OD&D -- a typed-up compendium of the important rules and the stuff I've bolted on.I would be very interested in seeing that. There's a simplicity and ease to T&T that appeals to me (that and a badass weapons list)... it's just that presentation does matter to me, and it's presented in a way that doesn't suit my tastes. (Nice interior art, though.)
I wholeheartedly support your choice (and don't you just love it when you find yourself making up your mind over the course of writing a blog post?)
ReplyDeleteIf all goes according to plan, I should be receiving DW for my birthday next Monday. At that point I plan to get furiously to work melding the DW rules with the world of Magnamund and finally realize my long-held dream of running a Lone Wolf campaign.
And I wholeheartedly support your idea of running Lone Wolf with Dragon Warriors. I love Magnamund, and I think you will find DW will run it handsomely with only a little tweaking. Hell, you could make a pretty serviceable Kai Lord by mashing up the Mystic and Warlock professions, I bet.
ReplyDeleteDude, I want to play in your Lone Wolf campaign.
It's funny--the idea first occurred to me shortly after reading about DW last year, so I Googled "Lone Wolf Dragon Warriors" and found this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=38055
There are others...
Needless to say, I'll be using those posts as my starting point.
I need to check out the Mongoose forums more often. This is good stuff.
ReplyDeleteI should mention that over on RPG.net a few people are discussing a PDF Dragon Warriors fanzine, tentatively to be called Ordo Draconus. Two of the artists from the new books (Jon Hodgson and Andy Law) are offering to pitch in, which is pretty cool.
I got hold of Dragon Warriors the other day after your recommendation. Haven't had a chance to read it properly yet but I'm excited.
ReplyDeleteI got hold of Dragon Warriors the other day after your recommendation. Haven't had a chance to read it properly yet but I'm excited.I hope you like it, or I'll feel bad...
ReplyDelete