Friday's - Opportunities to Game
Note - I haven't talked to any of the Friday group about this, but these are just my ideas on our Friday night games as they currently stand!
So, I'm not attending tomorrow night's final Deadland session. Why? Because my character - Gabriel 'bit the big one'. It was a good and, as I wrote on the wiki that was created for the game, fitting end for a character so wracked with indecision, nightmares and personal demons. Still, I’m a little sad I’m not getting to see how the story as it pans out, but look forward to hearing the story from my lovely wife.
But with Deadlands at an end, it is time to think about what else is coming up for our Friday nights. I have to say that having Mash run, and Sam join us, has been great! The group has always been quite casual and open, and of late I’ve really enjoyed not having the pressure of having to be the guy who creates and runs the game (especially as I was writing the last Night Creature story as we went along).
Going Forward, my initial inclination is to run an Interface Zero campaign (a Savage Worlds transhumanist cyberpunk setting). The reasons for this are manifold - a) It uses the Savage Worlds system, which means the group is now familiar with rules b) It’s a step away from the 19th Century settings we’ve been exploring for a good year now (Last year’s Kapcon playtest, Night Creatures, Deadlands) and c) I had a pretty good idea for a campaign arc that would likely sit well within any party dynamics the players might come up with.
However, a couple of things have dampened my enthusiasm for this after I initially suggested it.
- All the writing I’ll have to do to create a good storyline. The only little bit of criticism I can level at the Deadlands game is - we still don’t know what the hell is going on after 6 sessions! I really want to avoid this by introducing levels of knowledge that can be revealed as the party investigates the core mystery. Of course, this takes a considerable amount of work, and can be the most frustrating aspect in the game management (how many clues are too many, or not enough, etc.)
- We are cracking onto Christmas. Last year, availability of players interrupted the flow of the game quite a bit (as to be expected) over this period. I rather have a clear, more or less, stretch of time to run the sort of story I have in mind.
- Sam has indicated that she’s not that interested in the cyberpunk and would sit this one out. She also sighted the travel and effects of looking after the kids is at fault (I know how that is). However, a little bit of me - SORRY Sam!! - feels that it might be by GMing (be it style or attitude) that could have also influenced her decision - even though Sam assured me that it isn’t! Still if it would keep her with the group, I’d happily not run this game (or even GM)! And no, Emma, I’m not getting ‘down’ about my GMing… just stating a fact :P
More over, I’d be interested to see if anyone else would be keen on running. Mat has said he’s run Cthulhu in the past, so I’d definitely be keen to see how he approaches one of my fav games. I think both Liz & Emma have mentioned that they could be convinced to run a game or two - so many we should ask them?
I guess what I’m trying to say is that we are full of opportunities for our Fridays going forward (which seeing as the majority have young children is likely to remain in place for a while yet!), and I don’t want to close anything off!
One final comment - I don’t know if I can express how much I really enjoy our Friday games. There is an openness and atmosphere that reminds me very much of my old group (well, collection of groups really!) back in Auckland, and this is exactly the type of gaming I enjoy the most; where there feels that the connection goes a bit further than just the game at the table.