Sunday, December 24, 2017

12 for 12 #12

Whoo-hoo! The finish line! And I only had to play catch-up once.



Name an RPG, setting, or adventure you haven’t run or played before, but really want to try out in 2018. What particularly appeals about it?

I've got a trio of possibilities here and don't feel like picking just one. Deal with it.

Blue Rose couples a setting I really like (but never got to play in) with a system I've played a few times and really enjoyed. Green Ronin's AGE System is terrific for fast, cinematic style play. The Blue Rose setting is, to my eyes, the Star Trek of fantasy, namely one where the ostensible good guys are fairly enlightened and noble in intentions, but still flawed. Plus, it seems really suitable for swashbuckling intrigue in a fantasy millieu.

Godbound is basically OSR Exalted. I've always been fascinated by the themes of the latter game and setting, but really hated the game system and the directions the official world-building went in later editions. Godbound provides a much simpler (though to me an actually more evocative) system and a world that's painted in broad strokes, with plenty of room for the PCs to put their mark upon it. My one concern about GMing it is that the game is really set up to be run sandbox style, with a host of (magnificent) tools to assist in the process. Even so, I've never been comfortable with sandbox play. But maybe I just need the right sandbox.

Dungeon Fantasy (Powered by GURPS) may seem like an odd choice. I've certainly played GURPS before (though not since second edition), but DF is enough of a departure from what I played in the past that I'm counting it as something different. As to why I want to play it, I've always liked seeing when a third or later generation games (per my definitions here) shoehorn themselves into earlier styles of play. Part of this fascination is in seeing how designers play with the mechanics of their tried-and-true systems in order to fit the tropes of dungeon-crawling, and some of it is to see how the dungeon-crawling experience looks through their eyes. Also, I really like the idea of coupling a gritty tactical game system like DF to the dungeon-crawling experience. It means a very different style of resource management and encounter creation.

So, there you have it. Twelve questions, twelve answers. Thanks, Paul! I enjoyed it.

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