What games are you planning to run in 2024?

[Saberfan]

On 1/11/2024 at 5:26 PM, cailano said:

Ooo... as a BECMI player from way back, I will always have a warm spot in my evil GM heart for Mystara. I'm curious about why you want to go with Pathfinder for that game. I'm not criticizing that decision, but I always associate Pathfinder with Golarion and I have a hard time imagining it in other settings.

Mostly because Pathfinder is my preferred ruleset, simplistic and reductive though that answer may sound. I use it for nearly everything these days unless I'm trying out a new system or playing in one of the rare games that I prefer other rulesets for (primarily mecha games like Lancer or Mekton Zeta,) but those are quite rare.

A lot of people associate Pathfinder with Golarion and it's easy to see why, considering the setting was made for the ruleset. Ultimately though, Pathfinder is no more intrinsically linked to to Golarion than, say, 3.5 D&D is to Eberron or AD&D is to Greyhawk.

If I may meander off on a tangent, I've used Pathfinder in a great many settings. I've used it in classical fantasy games, hard sci-fi settings using non-magical classes and psionics, horror games inspired by the likes of Bloodborne or Ravenloft, anime-styled martial art tournaments, and even a magical girl game for my Sailor Moon-obsessed cousin, among other things. It's all about reskinning or refluffing certain options, banning others, and either using the rules to facilitate whatever you want or, failing that, creating rules that can help you bridge the gap using the system's framework. The system is quite flexible as long as both GMs and players are willing to think a little outside the box and put in a little work recontextualizing things.

[KingArthur]

I have been planning a D&D 5E campaign of episodic journeying through wilderness roads to the sea and then onward to Camelot, with the players joining to roleplay famous characters like Galahad and Mordred and Morgana le Fay, or obscure characters such as the werewolves and half-giants that became knights of the Round Table according to various medieval records and traditions, or invent an original character that somehow has been omitted from history and legend or even worse was remembered by bards and minstrels only as a bad tipper.

4th level emphasizing mounted combat & magic in conflicts, with fights to the death possible but more likely until either side yields and surrenders. Adventure, romance, mercy, redemption, betrayal, enchantment. Centuries of lore that rarely fails to contradict itself but remains iconic. The map is based entirely on real world geography but there are additionally invisible extraplanar castles and time-distorting quasi-real lakes and weird unmappable islands, often by inhabited by faeries and by magicians otherwise.

Set in the high summer some months after Merlin disappeared, the quest for the grail has not yet been formally announced though there are many reports of visions, a questing beast rampages across the lands, and the dragons and giants that had retreated from Camelot at the height of its glory have already begun to return.

Party would all ride horseback with wealth befitting aristocrats and beware attacks by adversaries and monsters. Twas apparently most fashionable in those days to travel in small groups without guards or minions because self-defense is more courageous.

Edited February 6 by KingArthur
My reasons are mine own. (see edit history)

[farothel]

I'm going to keep up my Warhammer game I run here and I'm planning a Star Wars D6 game for my tabletop group. If we start this year will depend on the other campaigns we currently have running, so it might be 2025 before we start, but I'm already reading up on the system (it's been a very long time since I played in it) and getting ideas put together.

[RedRajah]

The 5e D&D game I've been tasked to run for the hubby's niece & nephew has yet to start thanks to Real Life Scheduling Conflicts... :p

[OzzyKP]

On 1/14/2024 at 6:55 PM, Saberfan said:

If I may meander off on a tangent, I've used Pathfinder in a great many settings. I've used it in classical fantasy games, hard sci-fi settings using non-magical classes and psionics, horror games inspired by the likes of Bloodborne or Ravenloft, anime-styled martial art tournaments, and even a magical girl game for my Sailor Moon-obsessed cousin, among other things. It's all about reskinning or refluffing certain options, banning others, and either using the rules to facilitate whatever you want or, failing that, creating rules that can help you bridge the gap using the system's framework. The system is quite flexible as long as both GMs and players are willing to think a little outside the box and put in a little work recontextualizing things.

I agree with this completely. There is quite a lot one can do with Pathfinder. Much easier to tweak a system that many people already know then to learn and adopt an entirely new system for each setting/theme.

[cailano]

I'm having a crisis regarding this thread topic, even though I started it. I thought I had my two games picked for the year, but in reality, PbP campaigns take a long time to complete, and I'm all about completing them these days.

My personal commitment to doing my part, however small, for both the general Myth-Weavers community and its OSR sub-community, is added to that. To keep our space here viable we need regular game recruitments, so I'd like to have a couple of those per year. That means I can't let myself get tied down in a multi-year campaign unless it will be one of many that I run, and I only have so much bandwidth.

So, I need to think of relatively short-term OSR modules that would make awesome PbP campaigns.

I threw out the Marvel Superhero Game I was thinking of because it just didn't sound as interesting to me as some of the fantasy campaign ideas I had cooking. I also need to throw out my Castles and Crusades game because it would be a multi-year effort and because the more I looked into converting a D20 module series into C&C, the more of a pain it seemed.

So, then, what to run?
 

I'd really like to run Barrowmaze or Rappan Athuk. I love the idea of a megadungeon-focused campaign. Unfortunately, there's the multi-year problem. So I guess I can't do those, at least not without committing to running shorter secondary games as well.

That leaves me with two ideas:

1. A series of highly-regarded modules from Old School Essentials. These are "New OSR" adventures with some really cool ideas married to OSR rules.
2. A couple of classic D&D modules for the BECMI Basic System. These have a high nostalgia factor but come with the game-design limitations of the era.

Do I want to go with high nostalgia and run something like Keep on the Borderlands, or do I want to showcase some of the creativity and design that's been going on in the indie OSR community over the last few years? If so, I could run something like Hideous Daylight.

Or should I just cave and run one of my dream megadungeons??? I might need an intervention to resist that temptation.

These are the things that keep me up at night, guys.

 

 

[OzzyKP]

I hear Rappan Athuk is pretty quick to run, doesn't everyone generally die in the first room or two?

[cailano]

32 minutes ago, OzzyKP said:

I hear Rappan Athuk is pretty quick to run, doesn't everyone generally die in the first room or two?

LOL. I considered that! I thought, "Well, I mean, everyone is going to die all the time, so I could probably run plenty of recruitments."

People would be like, "There's Cai again, asking for more meat for the meat grinder."

[Kuri_kun]

Ive got 4 that I dont know if I will run but Im slowly working on them

1. Pathfinder 1st edition/Untitled: A nobleman hires the PCs upon discovering some old journals from an ancient ancestor showing the way to a lost province of the immortal principality of Ustalav, Deep in the county of Virlych, a place no one willingly lives. The journal speaks of an old gold vein, perhaps the only one in all of Ustalav and such a boon could help him revive his noble house and become one of the wealthiest families in the province. However when the PC join and cross the border into these ancient lands they find the land is cursed. What little people exist are downtrodden, barely scrapping by. Little supplies can be gathered from these cursed lands as most food turns to ash in their mouths and water provides the smallest sustenance. Even in daylight the copper colored rays of light are muted and the realm has a dark and oppressive atmosphere that covers it like a weighted blanket.

2. Pathfinder 1st edition/The God in the Lake: A red star streaks across the sky landing on the edge of Lake encarthan right by a small town in Ustalav's versex county. The PC's reported scholars and explorers go and perhaps are hired to investigate the rumors of the strange starstone. They arrive to find a sleepy little town with its villagers quite awake, nearly all spending their days mining the strange stone. However something is not quite right as the villagers are bereft of any personality or soul. They speak of serving a great master as they gather in the church by the shore every evening, only to leave, eat, and sleep to do it all over again. Even some of the knights from Versex county have taken up a military presence saying they are seeking out a dangerous monster yet they never leave their posts. What is going on in this sleepy little town and what is this strange star stone that has appeared there?

3. Pathfinder 1st edition/Untitled Viking game: In the far arctic north, in the land of the Linnorm kings King White Estrid has been a remarkable king deluding the line between the old traditional ways and new technology, agriculture, and ship construction. Her realm is one of the more racially diverse with great effort made to maintain farmland and new ship types that are faster and can carry more cargo have become the norm. However the great King also has problems in her realm and needs capable hands to solve them. Thus she has recruited a group of newly named Thanes to her court, adventurers sent out to solve problems with predators, destroy the kingdoms enemies, and to sail to the furthest reaches of the world to explore, raid, and plunder in her name. This sandbox game is for people who want to live the viking way! To sail to far off lands to explore and perhaps raid other civilizations! To face the greatest foes and write ballads and legends!

4. Werewolf: The Forsaken/Eternal Winter: It has been an especially cold winter in the city this year. The snow fall is so heavy it exceeds any records since the US started keeping records. Transportation throughout the city stops, fuel becomes scarce, food and running water are becoming scarce and theres no telling on when the weather will let up. In the other world, the Shadow, spirits are both empowered and desperately trying to survive. Those spirits aligned with cold and winter are thriving, however spirits of warmth struggle for every moment. Transportation choirs of spirits have also become desperate as many spirits have begun to cross the border between worlds, urging or possessing mortals to try and get the transportation networks going again. Even spirits of death suckle the essence as people freeze to death in the streets. Why though? Why is such a massive winter freeze staying for so long? The truth is not any amazing or unheard of meterological event, the truth lies in the land of spirits, The Shadow. It is up to one pack of werewolves to discover how and more importantly why before the Shadow is filled with spirit wars and the city is torn apart by the inevitable spirit ridden

 

 

 

[Saberfan]

On 2/6/2024 at 6:15 PM, cailano said:

LOL. I considered that! I thought, "Well, I mean, everyone is going to die all the time, so I could probably run plenty of recruitments."

People would be like, "There's Cai again, asking for more meat for the meat grinder."

Well, if you ever put up a Pathfinder 1E Rappan Athuk game, I'll gladly add a character to the meat-grinder. Actually, I'd say that also applies to just about any of the Frog God Games megadungeons like Rappan Athuk or The Slumbering Tsar. It's been a few years since I've ran either for my old group, so my knowledge of the various traps and ambushes has probably faded enough to where I could enjoy the game as a player.

[Melkar]

Having learned my lesson the hard way that trying to run multiple games at the same time is a "very bad idea", I am focussing my efforts on one game only. I don't see a lot of love for it on the site, and definitely don't recall seeing a game advertised for it in the past, but I am going to run the 5E version of Free League's Ruins of Symbaroum. I have a lot of love for the dark and gritty celtic flavour of the setting and its adaptation of the 5e ruleset lean to the sort of games where the journey is more important than the destination.

[cailano]

6 hours ago, Melkar said:

Having learned my lesson the hard way that trying to run multiple games at the same time is a "very bad idea", I am focussing my efforts on one game only. I don't see a lot of love for it on the site, and definitely don't recall seeing a game advertised for it in the past, but I am going to run the 5E version of Free League's Ruins of Symbaroum. I have a lot of love for the dark and gritty celtic flavour of the setting and its adaptation of the 5e ruleset lean to the sort of games where the journey is more important than the destination.

Which can be a great way to run a long-standing campaign. My only issue with those is that they aren't even complete, almost by definition. And I like completing games. It allows me to move on to something new, and I like the feeling of having finished what I started. I know that I wasn't one of those GMs who just abandons a campaign.

The players may (and probably will) want to continue on with a new adventure, but at least they got to finish what they set out to do.

[Lwmons]

Once I can stop waffling on it, there's a Digimon campaign using M&M that I'm hoping to get off the ground, ideally in time for the 25th anniversary of the original film next month.

Had the original idea for it back in 2016 and it's remained on the backburner even since. I've only recently really gotten into Digimon as a franchise, so I've only really started putting in all the work and planning the past couple of years. Might need to take the time to binge Ghost Game and play through Cyber Sleuth before I actually open things up to the public, though. Want to make sure I have as much frame of reference as possible

[eltorin]

On 2/6/2024 at 11:32 PM, cailano said:

I threw out the Marvel Superhero Game I was thinking of because it just didn't sound as interesting to me as some of the fantasy campaign ideas I had cooking.

Oh, I'm truly sad to read this, now with Jedaii seemingly gone, there are no new superhero game ads on the site. :(

[cailano]

3 hours ago, eltorin said:

Oh, I'm truly sad to read this, now with Jedaii seemingly gone, there are no new superhero game ads on the site. :(

I do like the supers genre, would be fun to see more ads around here. If only I had more bandwidth for games!