Gamin' talk
So I'm probably playing about four different tabletop RPG games right now. Here's the lowdown:
- We just started up an attempt at a Green Lantern Corps game with Nunboi, Edgar, Wolf, and Bryan. We played very briefly, but it seems like it might have promise. Very different personalities, not heavy on the combat.
- Also just started playing my first 4th Edition D&D game at the Monster House. The way it is structured, we are already at a higher level, but we are having flashbacks to earlier adventures in our past to catch us up. An interesting concept. Unfortunately, the first game was just a dungeon crawl. It used a projector and a computer map program to show us what was happening, but it was still just combat. I'm pretty sure it's going to be more role-playing when we finally get the game going properly...pretty sure. I'll see how it goes then. As for 4th Edition...yes, it is indeed like playing WOW. Simple fun. Didn't have a way to handle me (a gnome) riding another player as a mount (Master Blaster style) into combat, though...need to fix that, guys!
- My second-favorite game, and second-longest running, is a Star Wars RPG. Set 25 years after Yavin, it is a fun romp through post-Lucas Star Wars. I reluctantly made a Jedi thinking no one else would...then we had two more. Ah well. One is very combatty and focused on his lightsaber fighting (he is also, coincidentally, the GM for the 4th Ed. game), while I am more about force powers and role-playing. It's a good combination of both, but definitely a lot of combat. I'm trying my best to fit in relationships and intrigue when I can, though. And there is a lot of fun interaction with everyone's characters. Me likey.
- And then there is our Game of Thrones RPG: Song of Ice & Fire. It is also both combat and intrigue, but the intrigue is played like combat through dice rolls (following a scene of role-playing). There is even warfare (I partook in leading our cavalry against a mercenary army just last week). But the best part of the game that gets me excited is the role-playing itself. I swear we went through a session recently where not one dice was rolled (someone may have seduced a member of higher House, now that I think of it). We basically revel in screwing with each other's characters and trying not to be killed. I cock-blocked our Lady when she tried to get a position as Ambassador to the King by pointing out how she's always saying how much she hates him...in front of the man who was going to appoint her. She threatened to hire an assassin, so I took the White Death (our elite cavalry, who I command), and snuck away after our last war meeting.
But I didn't let any of the actual players know. I sat there the whole game and interacted maybe twice, but they were such important decisions that I got joy just watching everyone scramble and threaten to destroy me. They thought I had gone off to defend another castle while our house was besieged by the mercenaries. In between games, I used Google Wave to fight the aformentioned mercenaries and free the house. So when the other players, and the Lady, arrived there this past session, I was waiting with a ceremony and reconstruction of our castle. It's stuff like this that makes this by far my favorite game. It's probably why I enjoyed Vampire so much back in the day...the interpersonal role-playing with other characters to drive the story.
/nerd
- We just started up an attempt at a Green Lantern Corps game with Nunboi, Edgar, Wolf, and Bryan. We played very briefly, but it seems like it might have promise. Very different personalities, not heavy on the combat.
- Also just started playing my first 4th Edition D&D game at the Monster House. The way it is structured, we are already at a higher level, but we are having flashbacks to earlier adventures in our past to catch us up. An interesting concept. Unfortunately, the first game was just a dungeon crawl. It used a projector and a computer map program to show us what was happening, but it was still just combat. I'm pretty sure it's going to be more role-playing when we finally get the game going properly...pretty sure. I'll see how it goes then. As for 4th Edition...yes, it is indeed like playing WOW. Simple fun. Didn't have a way to handle me (a gnome) riding another player as a mount (Master Blaster style) into combat, though...need to fix that, guys!
- My second-favorite game, and second-longest running, is a Star Wars RPG. Set 25 years after Yavin, it is a fun romp through post-Lucas Star Wars. I reluctantly made a Jedi thinking no one else would...then we had two more. Ah well. One is very combatty and focused on his lightsaber fighting (he is also, coincidentally, the GM for the 4th Ed. game), while I am more about force powers and role-playing. It's a good combination of both, but definitely a lot of combat. I'm trying my best to fit in relationships and intrigue when I can, though. And there is a lot of fun interaction with everyone's characters. Me likey.
- And then there is our Game of Thrones RPG: Song of Ice & Fire. It is also both combat and intrigue, but the intrigue is played like combat through dice rolls (following a scene of role-playing). There is even warfare (I partook in leading our cavalry against a mercenary army just last week). But the best part of the game that gets me excited is the role-playing itself. I swear we went through a session recently where not one dice was rolled (someone may have seduced a member of higher House, now that I think of it). We basically revel in screwing with each other's characters and trying not to be killed. I cock-blocked our Lady when she tried to get a position as Ambassador to the King by pointing out how she's always saying how much she hates him...in front of the man who was going to appoint her. She threatened to hire an assassin, so I took the White Death (our elite cavalry, who I command), and snuck away after our last war meeting.
But I didn't let any of the actual players know. I sat there the whole game and interacted maybe twice, but they were such important decisions that I got joy just watching everyone scramble and threaten to destroy me. They thought I had gone off to defend another castle while our house was besieged by the mercenaries. In between games, I used Google Wave to fight the aformentioned mercenaries and free the house. So when the other players, and the Lady, arrived there this past session, I was waiting with a ceremony and reconstruction of our castle. It's stuff like this that makes this by far my favorite game. It's probably why I enjoyed Vampire so much back in the day...the interpersonal role-playing with other characters to drive the story.
/nerd