Game #1: Thursday Night
This is the long-running campaign which I talked about literally years ago.- Game System: Hero System, 6th Edition
- Players: 2 consistent, 3 on-and-off
- Characters: Standard superhero level; 400 points plus 75 points in Complications. And a good bit of experience at the top end.
Overall Situation
This campaign is all over the place. Superpowers first became prominent in 1963. More recent events (that the PCs were privy to) introduced magic in such a way that it had always been around. They have deduced that I plan on doing that with aliens too, but don't quite know what shape the transitional element will take yet, so I still have at least one element of surprise.Latest Situation
They had gone to another city to investigate a hospital where an NPC they had dealt with in the past had disappeared. They managed to uncover a plot against her, into which she was a captive, and spring it loose. Actions by other NPCs they called in led to perhaps a less-than-satisfactory ending.Future Plans
They have the "gondola" and the control mechanism for an ancient Greek time machine (!!), and are looking for the power source. What they'll do with it once they put this all together, I don't think even they know yet. (I believe one person has an idea, though. And I doubt he's thought it all the way through.)Game #2: Thursday Night Alternate
This is a pick-up game, run only when nobody really has anything prepared for their own games or we don't have enough people for them. It's taking influences from (and a few liberties with) In Nomine, Don't Rest Your Head, and perhaps a skosh of some version of Changeling.- Gmae System Fate Accelerated
- Players: 2 consistent, 1 on-and-off
- Characters: Standard starting level; [+3, +2, +2, +1, +1, +0] among Approaches, up to five Aspects, three free starting Stunts, three Refresh.
Overall Situation
The PCs are dream figments, semi-prototypical characters that have gained sentience, escaped the ethereal realm, and come to Earth in 1930s Chicago where they're currently embroiled in the makings of the grand jury investigation of a prominent mafia figure. As hectic as the media circus might make that situation, their presence and that of other figments might make it even worse.Latest Situation
A little investigation and shoring up their positions resulted in them finding out about two o the reporters who will eventually be dogging their heels, and a third figure, a nightmare dream fragment not unlike themselves who was masquerading as a reporter. They sent him away temporarily, but odds are good he'll be back.Future Plans
They're just waiting to see what comes up next, really. I'm about ready to introduce some plot elements and heat this pressure cooker up.Game #3: Weekend Nights
For a group that loves its superhero RPGs enough to keep bringing up Marvel, they sure seem to suffer a lot of Campaign Collapse Disorder. I sought to introduce an alternative, and they seem to like it despite balking initially at the size of the rulebooks.- Game System: Hero System, 6th Edition
- Players: 2 consistent, 3 on-and-off
- Characters: Standard superhero level; 400 points plus 75 points in Complications.
Overall Situation
The mayor of Seattle, frustrated by the mounting crime situation, reactivates a base that had lain fallow for a decade and invites a new team in to occupy it and fight local crime. The city, some folks, and the base itself have ugly memories of the former team, though.Latest Situation
They've been made aware of two detectives staking out their base. With their base computer's forensic analysis of the detectives' computer's hard drive's contents, they have an approximate idea of who they're looking for, but they don't yet know who they're working for or why the person they seek is important.Future Plans
At the moment generally protecting the city and establishing themselves as the new team, separate and distinct from the old team, even as they occasionally stumble upon the old team's old issues.Game #4: Sunday Afternoons (on hiatus)
Following the wildly successful Kickstarter of Fate Core (and Fate Accelerated), this was the first campaign I put together to put it through its paces, a sort of "cyberpop" future of printed body parts, driverless cars, mind-controlled machines (and occasional machine-controlled mind), artificial intelligence, and proto-transhumanism.- Game System: Fate Core (very slightly extended)
- Players: Currently 3 regular, 2 on-and-off.
- Characters: Above-average starting characters; standard pyramid of 10 skills (out of a pool of 20), five Aspects, one free Cyber-Aspect, four free Stunts, four starting Refresh. And they've had a good deal of time to build on those basic characters.
Overall Situation
Everyone had their start in the tri-city area of Chicago, Gary Restart, and Manteca in the 23rd century. Space flight still isn't terribly common, but when you can go shopping at a virtual mall in your underwear and have a suit for the next day printed to order, who cares? In this otherwise idyllic future, there's an organization, which sometimes engages in data-terrorism and sometimes engages in actual terrorism, called the Bankshot Weasels. Their relationship to that organization is ...unknown, come to think of it.Latest Situation
A murder discovered on a train platform led them to take that train back down toward Los Angeles. They'd gotten off at Las Vegas to recover a historical document, an academic document on the creation, maintenance, and some of the ultimate issues surrounding human-level artificial intelligence. They have that wrapped up, so they might want to spend a few days in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, or if they're feeling really adventurous, back in Purified Lake City.(Bright as this future is, there are still some dystopic elements to it, obviously. That "salt lake" for which the town was named was desalinated to the point they had to change the name.)
This game is currently on hold while I chew through some of the other stuff above (mostly #1 and #3 above). Make no mistake, though, I fully intend to weasel again.
Future Plans
A certain amount of defense against what they see as mounting threats against them, but otherwise taking each day as it comes.And Yet...
I look to other games, like Hillfolk or Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, and think I'd like to run some other things too. While I have to keep a game on hiatus, that's out of the question, but if I can get pared down to one game, I might consider the possibility.As a wise person once put it, "I'm not indecisive—I'm greedy."
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