Chewing What I've Bitten Off.

Recently started sketching all I need to read and convert in order to run Fading Suns in the Savage Worlds system ...

*whimpers*

Still, it will be a great game, damn it! I mean, come on! A delightfully weird mix of SF, fantasy, space opera, planetary romance, dying earth (dying universe?), and horror genres and subgenres, with liberal dashes of Dune and Warhammer 40,000, and just a sprinkle of Babylon 5's epic beauty. Action! Adventure! Romance! Heroism! Saving the universe! You just can't beat it!

*stars in my eyes*

*deep breath, exhales*

Now, to work!

Fading Suns ... Savaged!

Well, I suppose it's time I used this space for something other than the equivalent of a webspace bookmark.

So what am I going to do with this LJ space?

If you guessed "something having to do with role playing games," give yourself a gold star.

Well let's see ...

I'm going to begin working up a campaign for my regular gaming group, as I am the next GM in the rotation and I'd like to have something substantial prepared before I take the reigns. To this end, I will be rereading the Fading Suns RPG, Revised Second Edition Rulebook once again to resolidify the campaign world / universe in my brain.



However, I don't particularly like the core system that the game uses, so I'll be converting and overhauling as much FS material as I can to the Savage Worlds system, one I'm particularly fond of.



I'm fairly notorious for pairing game universes with alternative systems, so I figure why spoil a good record?

When I ran the FS 2e system so many long years ago, I found it to be clunky and cumbersome. SW, on the other hand, lives up to its motto of "Fast, Furious, Fun"--it has sufficient crunch for those who really enjoy the actual game part of role playing game, with a variety of aspects to integrate and master. It includes cards, dice, and chips / counters in play, as well as a host of options, all of which boil down to a thankfully fast game in actual play, with a remarkably quick combat system that lets the gamers play with toys ... I mean, features fast tactical combat with miniatures. Yes, that's what I meant.

Best of all, SW reduces GM prep time and record keeping to a bare minimum, easily keeping pace in this area with a host of "rules-lite" games. This allows me to get on with other GMing essentials, rather than spending too much time statting everything out.

And all that for $9.99. That is a bargain for me!

Over time I'll probably use portions of this journal as a place to post campaign logs to keep everybody updated / reminded of what happened at given sessions.

But hell, I should also likely start posting book reviews and other stuff, just to keep it active.

For those interested in learning more about the Fading Suns universe, or are interested in getting a quick preview and Test Drive of the Savage Worlds system, click the links and enjoy.

That's it for now.

SF Campaign: Player Responses

Recently, I emailed my players with the following question:

"What is one thing--one element, one feature, one theme, one *whatever*--you absolutely want to see in my campaign?"

Two answers ...

... out of 5 players--*AHEM*! ...

... and my commentary, follow.

"Lots of anthropomorphic aliens, AIs (but not necessarily sentient robots), beam klaives (light sabers), xenoarchaeology. (Well, I couldn't pick just one, so any of these would work.)"

This response tells me that the player wants the trope of ancient alien civilizations and technology to be a part of this game, and more, that he wants this element to play an active part of the campaign, as opposed to just being setting color. Thus, I may need a rules system that scales easily for dealing with objects of great power.

I'll also need rules for constructing a variety of alien races (preferably, quickly and easily). If I'm dealing with AIs, I'll not only need rules for them, but setting-wise I should also start to consider why THEY haven't taken over ... or, if they have, what the ramifications are.

And hey, who wouldn't want laser swords?!

"Space suits, space ships, and other ways to breathe in the great beyond."

(Well, I think we can accomodate you here. Otherwise, it's likely to be a very short campaign. :-)

I found this response interesting because it implies that, yes, she expects the characters to be going someplace. This is important, because "space opera" is a pretty broad subgenre, and some examples of space opera don't actually show people in space, flitting about from planet to planet. Then again, some nitpicky types (like me) would consider planet-bound stuff as more space fantasy / sword and planet / planetary romance, so there you go. It also tells me that I will likely need: a vehicle system; a system for vehicle combat; and fiddly bits for dealing with little details, like "what happens to a character whose suit is leaking oxygen?"

SF Campaign, cont.: Addendum to Previous SF Campaign Post

... unless, of course, I and my gaming group create a setting that's even more fun than that found in Fading Suns.

A worthy challenge, that, and a worthwhile endeavor.

...

MOO-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!

SF Campaign, cont.: Humbling Advice

I've been rereading Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering by (duh) Robin D. Laws, a book that I consider a good refresher on the important basics of Game Mastering, and I was reminded of something very important:

"There is no shame in using an established setting." (13)

To which I will add:

"... especially if several of your players have requested that setting by name."

Fading Suns it is.

(Hey, I've already expressed my admiration of the creators' work on that world, so what the hell--I'm going to have a blast with it. Never let it be said that I'm too stubborn to listen to others.)

Towards a Science Fiction Campaign, Part 01

As is usual on Friday nights, I went to game with my friends. We're about to switch campaigns soon--next week we're wrapping up a D&D 3.5 campaign and embarking on an Exalted game. (We rotate among 4 GMs.)

In any event, the conversation turned toward what I'd be running next, and I think at least 2 of the 3 people then-present (I could be misremembering--it might have been all three) pressed upon me to run a science fiction / space opera campaign the next time I GM.*

Far be it from me to not give my players what they crave. While it's going to be a while until my turn comes up in the GM rotation--I'm guessing February to March at the absolute earliest--I have plenty of time to consider what I'm doing.

So how to go about it?

Well, if it's one thing I've learned over the years it's this: I really hate playing in other people's back yards. While I own a whole host of RPGs--enough to start my own RPG lending library, in fact--I really don't like running in prepackaged settings designed by others.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy RPGs. I enjoy reading them and playing them. I enjoy figuring out their systems and monkeying around with them.

But overall, I've discovered that it's rare that I purchase an RPG and end up actually playing it.

Yeah, that doesn't sound strange or anything.

I really enjoy buying generic RPG systems, and I actually get a lot of use out of them. I like systems with a toolkit design the best. I'm not a system designer; rather, I tend to read an RPG system, then monkey about with it, improve and tweak it. I don't build engines, I just enhance them for performance.

But I don't have the time or patience I had when I was younger and just discovering RPGs. I have a full-time job. I have a family. I have responsibilities. I don't have the time to invest in systems that are clunky or require voluminous amounts of reading. D&D, Hero, GURPS, all of these may have been options for me at one time, but no longer. I like my systems sleek, streamlined, and ready to run right out of the box. These days, I like BESM, D6, FATE, and Savage Worlds, and I'm curious about True20 and the reissue of HeroQuest (QuestWorlds).

As far as settings go, I notice that I tend to read RPG setting stuff for inspiration and entertainment rather than with any real desire to run a game in a given setting. I prefer to design my own settings, with their own tone, feel, and flavor.

So where is all this going?

I've been GMing and playing RPGs for 26 years now, but my first love, before fantasy, sf, horror, wuxia, literature, films, before all of that good stuff, is comics. I've been reading comics for 32 years now.

My good friend Tony sent me an interesting email recently, and I haven't been able to get it off of my mind. The email was an anecdote referred to by comics writer Matt Fraction, about the legendary comics creator Jack "The King" Kirby.

There's an anecdote at the end of the new Jack Kirby Fourth World Omnibus where Mark Evanier relays the story of an artist coming on the CAPTAIN AMERICA and announcing he intended to carry on in the Kirby Tradition. And then, Evanier tells us, Jack quipped in the raspy, apocryphal way he would quip about such things, that "The kid doesn't get it-- the Kirby Tradition is to create a new comic."

To me, that pretty much says it all.

I'm not dissing anybody else's creative efforts; far from it. I have thoroughly enjoyed the time I've spent reading about the events that occur in the Fading Suns and Tribe 8 universes, for example. But if I'm going to run something, if I'm going to put all that time and creativity into something, I want it to be something that I created, something that my brainmeat gave birth to, something that I'm invested in.

Moreover, when I design settings, I try to be sure that the players have input into the setting as well. In the RPG sessions, they are cocreators along with me in playing a game and spinning out a story. I figure that they should be in on the game creation, particularly the setting, from the ground floor.

So here's how it's going to be. I'm going to be building a setting step-by-step, getting input from the other group members, and putting it together here piece-by-piece. Then, when I've got a nice general idea of the setting, I'll choose a system to run it in.

Too many times (and I'm thinking of D&D as I say this, though there are certainly other systems that have the same problem), I've seen GMs feel that their game is constrained, even strangled, by a given system, that they have to bend and warp their settings and their games to fit a certain system. I'm a firm believer that the setting and the game you envision running should be of paramount importance, and that the system should fit the game and setting you want to run, that it should be flexible, adaptable, and easily modified as necessary to fit the game you want to play. And yes, this flexibility has to include the creativity and imagination of the players as well. Because the system, the game engine, is only one part of the game as a whole.

So once I've got the beginnings of a setting, I'll start fitting it onto the frame of a system, and figure out how to work all the nifty bits I and my players envision in the terms of that system.

I figure that if we're successful then we'll have created a game worth playing.

You know, in the Kirby tradition and all that.

*The two other players were out picking up food at the time--I should ask them what they think.