Campaigns I've Played: Update
A couple of years ago I made a list of completed campaigns I've played and picked the top 5. That list hasn't changed, I'm sad to say, but there have been more games with their own high and low points. It's time for a new list:
- Quest for the Omelette This is my name for Brian's 3.5 home-brew game attempting to reach epic levels. I was greatly bothered by what amounted to "because I want to" rules from the DM. Discovering we were on a quest for eggs and then finding amazing ingredients and implements for omelettes was amusing.
- Curse of the Crimson Throne Dan ran a fairly soft-balled game but he ran it completely and with heart. He like the villains and the Paizo module writing was top notch. This is the game were I discovered why the Book of Exalted Deeds was renamed the Book of Exalted Cheese. Vow of poverty monks were just silly.
- Second Darkness Where Dan had heart, Vic was lazy. Where CotCT was well written, Second Darkness was choppy and poor. It deserved to be canceled early.
- Ebberon Spies Don tried Ebberon again, this time in 4e. Supposedly it is still running but I couldn't go on when everything I liked was intentionally thrown out. I was told to knock it off and all my input was ignored. He shouldn't be surprised I left, but he was.
- Rob's Waterdeep Game This game exemplified every reason people don't play Forgotten Realms: overpowered NPCs who run the plot, too much history with no easy starting point, and disconnected adventures with all the world-hopping. Pile on pacing clusterfucks and 4e stupidity and this is what you get.
- Living Forgotten Realms Everything generic and soulless that is the RPGA was exemplified in LFR. I played or ran for years and I can't tell you one good story. It was worse than bad, it was boring and tedious.
- Maddness at Gardmore Abby The D&D 4e rules were designed for tactical combat, which gets boring in an RPG. This isn't too much of a problem if you never can get past one combat and only sit together for 3.5 hours at a time. When a TPK comes, however, there is little reason to go back.