Campaigns I have Run.
Goal: figure out what makes a fun game. So, I have listed my current games playing, now for a list of games run:
- Star Wars Boy Scouts. My first campaign. The game was Star Wars by West End Games (still the best) run for the Boy Scouts. It always short-term and never had much plot but I did manage to diffuse a few real personality problems. This game in its various forms usually included some form splatter-tastic Kennedy bullet or critical hit. It was like sugar, sweet but unfulfilling.
- Star Wars High School. My first real campaign with any sort of significant planning or real story, again Star Wars WEG. There was a reboot or two, and I was alternating with Justin on running in study hall. This was my first taste of dealing with on-going problem players. The would-be rapist played by the 15 year old and my friend Travis smoking like a chimney were lowlights. I recall it most for the lofty goals of ongoing story and actually reaching a few. I generated a lot of custom materials; maps, races, characters, ect. but I had more time back then. Or at least more ambition and less money.
- Star Ani-Crack. Loosely Star Wars WEG, this was a goofy game that started as a one-shot. It grew a beard after I was pestered into making it an ongoing game. For reference, the main enemy was The Man in Black.....Pajamas, ellipsis required for proper spelling. There was an ongoing plot but it was really just for me, the players had more fun screwing around. This was my first campaign with a clear ending chapter, it was also my largest at 14+ players. I pulled in players who weren't even in the game. John's strange self-insert will always be remembered fondly by me.
- ShadowRun Epic. My best game, I believe. The setting was more post-apocalyptic than standard Shadow-Run. It went to the giant-mecha level in scale as well. The true turning point was when a player decided to own the game and told the raiders that she was their royal leader and I went with it. I avoided the common problems that come with one PC being an official leader by adding an obstructive council and leaving the refugees she was leading very independent-minded. There were real romantic sub-plots, a complete story with ending and serious NPC deaths, including a PC-run funeral. I also made PC leader Ellie cry. In many ways, I've been trying to re-create this game ever since.
- ShadowRun Fail. My directed attempt to create the game above. This time, everyone had to have a dark secret and the plot was based around a powerful NPC blackmailing the PCs into protecting a young girl for a longer term. Set in the same world as epic, there was less fantasy and more punk in this game. The forced dark secret were my undoing. The final straw was the repeated attempted murder of one PC by another.
- ShadowRun Sad. My second attempt to recreate Epic. This one lasted longer, with some base building and some repeated characters but the running plot was mostly lost to memory. I ended the game with a "rockets launch, you die" after not eating and one too many arguments from Jason as to what is "realistic". It is sad not for this but for the real-life love polyhedron and following suicide I unwittingly facilitated. I still wonder if I should apologize to John and/or Mike for my role.
- Foundations: Airship. D&D 3.0, this was also called Final Fantasy: Salter's Quest. It was steam-punkish and fairly episodic, but there were some genuinely good recurring story characters like Marth. It was good, even if the PCs all died in the end. Overall the death(and resurrection) rate was too high especially toward the end. They still shaped the world.
- Foundations: Empire. This was a direct sequel to Foundations:Airship, converted to D&D 3.5, and picked up on the aftermath. They fought a fairly full-scale war and built their own nation. This was favorite use of permanent spells and recurring characters. John Preston was my favorite NPC of all time. Not for being bad-ass, he could hold his own. He was magnificent bastard that used money and influence to work toward a goal that wasn't bad, just opposed to the PCs, and the players even liked him. His final sacrifice in an epilogue one-shot was both poignant and ironic.
- Foundations: Thief. Another sequel, this time with character theming. I enjoyed the evil mastermind as skilled chess-master who used both the PCs and devils to achieve his goals. The scale was down from the past two but the adventures were more episodic and interesting. John Preston was continued here and still interesting.
- Mutants and Masterminds: Invasion. This was a 3-part one-shot adventure I put together to try to invigorate a flagging game I was playing in. The other GM was offended when my one-shot was more popular than his campaign. His complaints ultimately convinced me it wasn't worth it.
- Swashbuckler! A D&D 3.5 game focused the Book of Nine Swords, it was a flop mostly to moving and not understanding the players. Never again will I call the Mac Guffin a Mac Guffin, especially with a literature major at the table.
- D&D 4e. I can call this a flop as it ran for several month and the players reached 9th level. Ultimately, I lost interest in the MMO style of play.