D&D 1: Mustaches and Englishmen
Our Geek Club has a great system in place. As I think I already mentioned, every DM gives a pitch for their campaign, then players get to choose which game to join. Furthermore, each game's default lifespan is one academic quarter. If you're having a blast, the group can choose to continue into subsequent quarters, but games that have died end at the quarter. Also, individual people ca choose to leave a game they're not enjoying, with no hard feelings. At that point, new DMs take over with their own games. Assuming two or more games have died (or, I suppose, come to a natural conclusion), the groups get mixed up a little as well. I don't know if this system naturally evolved or was crafted by the club's founders, but what it means is that no person is ever tied to a game they don't like.
So I decided not to DM for this quarter. There were already 9 DMs, and even though the club has a massive membership, that seemed like enough. The games I got to choose from were as follows:
1. D&D for Beginners: Basic Dungeon Crawl in which new players can learn the rules.
2. Intermediate D&D: The DM actually didn't give us any idea of what the game would be about.
3. Call of Cthulhu: Set in New Orleans in the 1920's, very little combat.
4. Ravenloft: D&D's classic horror setting. Very little combat.
5. *The really enthusiastic guy gives the best pitch. His game is basically zombie postapoc. The catch: you're playing yourself. The game starts at UCSD, in the building in which we were holding the meeting. You have to fight your way out through increasing swarms of the undead. "I'm not running a horror campaign. The two people before me are running horror campaigns. I'm running a campaign where the goal is fuckin' survival!" Etc.
6. Firefly campaign.
7. I'm forgetting at this one.
8. One-shots. Various published adventures. No obligation to show up every day.
9. Board games. No obligation to show up every day. I imagine these last two groups will grow as other games die mid-quarter.
You'll note that none of these descriptions got anywhere near as detailed as I was planning on going, with the possible exception of #5. I'll probably simplify my description somewhat, if I decide to run my game in a future quarter.
At any rate I decided to join #3, the Call of Cthulhu game. We managed, in the first session, to get through character creation and much of our first adventure. We did character creation in what might be the best way: with no knowledge of the rules (we weren't using the d20 system). Thus, our abilities are based on our character choices, not the other way around. On the other hand, we didn't know quite what sort of characters to make, or which skills would turn out to be important ("spot hidden" turns out to have been a sound choice). Here's a rundown on the characters, and the people playing them.
-An Italian barber known most commonly as "the Mustache," being played by an un-serious jokester type who often distracts and is distracted from the game. He is almost certainly going to be the problem player.
-A black cook known amongst the group as "Cookie." A friend of the above, and though not quite as bad, I have to try hard not to make him guilty by association.
-A somewhat-displaced British laborer, dropped out of Oxford for unknown reasons to work on the streets of New Orleans. The player is Pershing, a fellow I've befriended partially on the basis that he looks like a somewhat more South Asian version of Ian. One of the only other people in the group who appears interested in actually roleplaying.
-A dancer. Our group's token female, both in- and out-of- game. The player obviously hasn't roleplayed ever before, and is doing what everyone does for their first session: sits quietly and doesn't talk unless directly addressed.
and me...
-A New Jersey-native Professor of Anthropology. An elderly, blunt, not very appealing individual (though he has wound up doing much of the talking...). Because somebody needed to have the knowledge skills.
And the DM
-Spends most of her time railroading the plot (possibly, though, because she's starting us off on a pre-published adventure). An example: so we're talking to a guy who has a trumpet which apparently turns recently dead people into zombies. He tells us he got his horn from Luis Armstrong himself, and a sense motive check equivalent tells us he's not lying. Armstrong, however, was apparently looking a little strange, as his eyes were sort of black pits in his head (obviously, thinks the group, something demonic). We try to buy the trumpet from the man. He won't sell it. There's a pause of about a second around the table, then the DM says "Do you try to contact Luis Armstrong?"
Blank stares ensue.
Still, for what it's worth, I got to play going slowly insane over the course of the session, which was fun. I imagine this campaign will die if it doesn't pick up soon, but now I at least know some people to avoid.
So I decided not to DM for this quarter. There were already 9 DMs, and even though the club has a massive membership, that seemed like enough. The games I got to choose from were as follows:
1. D&D for Beginners: Basic Dungeon Crawl in which new players can learn the rules.
2. Intermediate D&D: The DM actually didn't give us any idea of what the game would be about.
3. Call of Cthulhu: Set in New Orleans in the 1920's, very little combat.
4. Ravenloft: D&D's classic horror setting. Very little combat.
5. *The really enthusiastic guy gives the best pitch. His game is basically zombie postapoc. The catch: you're playing yourself. The game starts at UCSD, in the building in which we were holding the meeting. You have to fight your way out through increasing swarms of the undead. "I'm not running a horror campaign. The two people before me are running horror campaigns. I'm running a campaign where the goal is fuckin' survival!" Etc.
6. Firefly campaign.
7. I'm forgetting at this one.
8. One-shots. Various published adventures. No obligation to show up every day.
9. Board games. No obligation to show up every day. I imagine these last two groups will grow as other games die mid-quarter.
You'll note that none of these descriptions got anywhere near as detailed as I was planning on going, with the possible exception of #5. I'll probably simplify my description somewhat, if I decide to run my game in a future quarter.
At any rate I decided to join #3, the Call of Cthulhu game. We managed, in the first session, to get through character creation and much of our first adventure. We did character creation in what might be the best way: with no knowledge of the rules (we weren't using the d20 system). Thus, our abilities are based on our character choices, not the other way around. On the other hand, we didn't know quite what sort of characters to make, or which skills would turn out to be important ("spot hidden" turns out to have been a sound choice). Here's a rundown on the characters, and the people playing them.
-An Italian barber known most commonly as "the Mustache," being played by an un-serious jokester type who often distracts and is distracted from the game. He is almost certainly going to be the problem player.
-A black cook known amongst the group as "Cookie." A friend of the above, and though not quite as bad, I have to try hard not to make him guilty by association.
-A somewhat-displaced British laborer, dropped out of Oxford for unknown reasons to work on the streets of New Orleans. The player is Pershing, a fellow I've befriended partially on the basis that he looks like a somewhat more South Asian version of Ian. One of the only other people in the group who appears interested in actually roleplaying.
-A dancer. Our group's token female, both in- and out-of- game. The player obviously hasn't roleplayed ever before, and is doing what everyone does for their first session: sits quietly and doesn't talk unless directly addressed.
and me...
-A New Jersey-native Professor of Anthropology. An elderly, blunt, not very appealing individual (though he has wound up doing much of the talking...). Because somebody needed to have the knowledge skills.
And the DM
-Spends most of her time railroading the plot (possibly, though, because she's starting us off on a pre-published adventure). An example: so we're talking to a guy who has a trumpet which apparently turns recently dead people into zombies. He tells us he got his horn from Luis Armstrong himself, and a sense motive check equivalent tells us he's not lying. Armstrong, however, was apparently looking a little strange, as his eyes were sort of black pits in his head (obviously, thinks the group, something demonic). We try to buy the trumpet from the man. He won't sell it. There's a pause of about a second around the table, then the DM says "Do you try to contact Luis Armstrong?"
Blank stares ensue.
Still, for what it's worth, I got to play going slowly insane over the course of the session, which was fun. I imagine this campaign will die if it doesn't pick up soon, but now I at least know some people to avoid.