Greetings people who read this blog (i.e. me)! It's been a few months, so here is an update on all the game goodness taking place in my sad and pathetic exciting life:
-I am on session nine of a Castles&Crusades campaign with three players (Dennis, Dan, Ed). They are level two. I have set it in Blackmoor (northern Greyhawk) and sandboxed the whole thing. When I was home on leave for three months, I had a lot of time to work on my games, so I created a bunch of encounters, NPCs, a few factions, and keyed a bunch of encounters. So far, so good. The system works well. Unlike 5e, it feels dangerous, and the game is evolving as we play it. Me like. C&C doesn't have a ton of support on Roll20, but I am resisting moving over to Foundry simply because I don't want to have to learn an entirely new VTT (more on that below).
-We did play a short Star Trek campaign with Dennis as GM on Foundry. We used a 2d20 system, which was new to all of us. It was based on dice pools; the more d20s you rolled, the higher the likelihood of your success. It was fun. A little crunchier than I like, but we had a good time playing. Unfortunately, about 2/3rds of our players treated it like D&D instead of Trek, so it went a bit off the rails. I think Dennis was a little frustrated. Star Trek is pretty niche, and if you aren't into it, the game doesn't work as well as it could.
-We are currently playing DCC with Ed in the GM's chair. It's a funnel, and it is quite funny. Running 20+ 0-levels on a VTT is no joke, but Ed is rolling with it (and believe me: we have significantly less than 20 guys left right now!) DCC is a fun, crazy game. We laugh a lot, which is great. I don't know that I'd use this system long-term (although I did run a Sword&Sorcery game for about six months), but it's always a good time.
-Dan is preparing to return us to the world of Middle Earth using the modified Free League 5e rules. There are limited races, very limited classes, and virtually no magic available to players so it feels quite different than normal 5e. The action economy is still the same (reaction, action, bonus action); the skills are basically the same, and the whole thing works well with all of the superhero shit sanded off. Dan is great at running Tolkien's world, and we are all looking forward to playing again. The stakes got pretty high at the end of our last campaign in Moria, so I am curious to see where it leads us going forward.
-I have been kicking around different systems, seeing what I like and what I don't like. C&C is a good sweet spot between 'not too hot' and 'not too cold' regarding crunch. It is pretty flexible; you can add or subtract certain things (critical hits, for example, have a wide variety of possible mechanics) and the siege engine is both elegant and simple. Very good game. I do find the monster stat blocks to be overly complex (not near what they are in 5e!) but so far we are having fun, and will continue to do so. As I said above, my victims players are only level 2, and they are adjusting to a more OSR-style of play (like retreating when they are too injured or getting their asses handed to them).
-I am currently looking at Old School Essentials and Shadowdark, two recent systems with the later being the sexy new beast on the block, while the former takes the old B/E/X game and updates for modern play. I like them both a lot, and they are supported on Foundry (OSE is on Quest Portal as well). The longer I play these games, the more rules systems I read, the more I want simplicity, and both of these games are much more simple than C&C or 5E (or BRP, really). I have found that setting up on a VTT is a tedious, and it often gets pedantic with tactical combat. I may move toward more narrative games in the future, but I'm not sure all of my crew will like them.
So that's me, State of the Nerd in May 2025. As I tell my wife, think how much money I'd be spending if I was playing golf!
No comments:
Post a Comment