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Post by Dominic on Oct 12, 2010 5:17:27 GMT -9
It occured to me that the gaming style (for lack of a better term) of my group differs from that of others around here. Let me elaborate. We started roleplaying two years ago with D&D3.5 with, well, a campaign. In between, we switched to 4E, and the campagin is now nearing it's conclusion. We're going to follow up with a new 4E-campaign set in the same campaign world (it was a bugger to design, after all). We tried Star Wars (3.5 and Saga Edition) but we shelved it for lack of time (one player is in need of some serious time-management, hence the 2 years per campaign).
Anyway, I read here how people try out new systems, do a bit of fantasy and then some pulp there, maybe yet another game the week after that...
Are you that much better at grasping rules and remembering characters to handle many campaigns at once, or do you play one-shots mostly? Do you fight (and use mechanics) or roleplay?
I'm asking because I don't really see switching games with my group. I know it's not a bad thing, I'm just curious as to how it works for those who do.
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Post by onemonkeybeau on Oct 12, 2010 6:24:16 GMT -9
I tend to system hop One shots are the way we go for sure... I find that getting together a group regularly is really tough (family, work, real life...) So when we play it's usually small one shots or maybe a few linked adventures. onemonkeybeau
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Post by sammo on Oct 12, 2010 6:33:54 GMT -9
In our group we play for 4-6 hours once a week. We play the same game/character/GM for about 8 weeks and then switch.
Often we come back to the same game campaign. For instance I prefer a longer campaign when I GM so I plan out chapters of the story that can be played over two months and then shelved for a while. After an alternate game we dust of the campaign and pick it up again. It tends to work out well for us for a few reasons.
One it builds some excitement/tension if there are some cliffhanger elements to the campaign we are pausing. Second, some of the guys in my group want to GM, but aren't interested in being behind the screen for months on end, they get to run a shorter story. Third, if someone finds a cool new system they want to try out it isn't too hard to work it into the rotation. Finally as a GM it prevents burnout. I get time off from behind the screen (I am the primary GM, usually running every other 8 week stint). It gives me a break to work on upcoming adventures without having to be stressed about time so much.
As for grasping things and keeping track of more campaigns, usually a GM will only have one active campaign at a time, though all of us have several characters at any given time. The first week of rebooting an old campaign can be choppy, but then we all fall back into the campaign/character and its pretty smooth sailing.
Of course three of us (with a few others that have come and gone over the years) have been gaming together for a dozen years, so we all have fallen into a pretty good rhythm with gaming.
Combat vs. role playing....we run the field from one extreme to the other and everywhere in between. It just depends on the GM, players, game system, etc.
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Post by mruseless on Oct 12, 2010 9:45:46 GMT -9
My group varies in age from 35-42, so we are in that time period where it's difficult to take a break from families to play. We normally game the same system for a long time, and like you, it takes us years to complete a campaign.
We recently switched to Savage Worlds for a few reasons:
1) it was new and fun and easy, so we don't have to spend as much time searching the rule book for a rule we forgot 2) combats are quick 3) you can play almost any setting with the rules, which makes it easier to switch GM's 4) PlotPoints are great. It makes the GM's job a lot easier.
Sorry if I sound like a commercial! We just like it a lot.
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Post by Dryw the Harper on Oct 12, 2010 11:58:38 GMT -9
We've tried just about anything that came along, from D&D to Runquest to White Wolf to Earthdawn, and many others inbetween (too many to list). For the past few years we've been using a modified version of Savage World. We usually get together on Saturday nights, starting around 8:00pm and playing until about 1:00am. The current campaign started over two years ago, and 330+ years of game time (the game started in the Aethoric Year 999, was played until the end of the year 1002, started up again in 1021 and played until 1023, and started again in 1333 and still going).
The game itself is a mix of combat, problem solving, and roleplaying, the players are always glad to see old NPC contacts and often learn many interesting things while socializing.
Dryw the Harper
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Post by arkhamresident on Oct 12, 2010 13:30:07 GMT -9
Back in the halcyon days of gaming we would bounce between GMs and let them run whatever they felt like. Campaigns didn't happen with any of the GMs so we had a few mini-campaigns and a lot of one shots. Since I've moved to GA I've had horrible luck finding any gaming groups outside of Atlanta. It's gotten so bad I've decided to start a Pathfinder game and recruited a bunch of my noob friends to play.
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Post by glennwilliams on Oct 12, 2010 15:55:51 GMT -9
system hop . . . solo . . . and I cheat against myself.
Truthfully, I don't get enough time to play as much as I want, and Halo 3 and Halo Wars are untouched--and I'm only about ten minutes into ODST.
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Post by Mike H "Chugosh" on Oct 13, 2010 7:47:49 GMT -9
I find I play with the same group for the last three years, some of which are remnant from a previous group. While I enjoy different rule sets, the group at large has little time to digest new rules and dislikes changing overmuch. They have settled nicely into Savage worlds, and we play two or three settings at a time. I GM Slipstream, a pulp scifi setting, while the other GMs run Deadlands Reloaded and Dragon Age (the DA GM has decided she prefers Savage Worlds and converted the setting over. of course, since DA is limited in its first box to level 5, that works out better in the long run.)
At the moment, due to busy schedules and burnout, the games are all on hiatus till after the new year begins.
I am thinking about getting a new group together and running a Sword and Sorcery type game, based on Savage Worlds and Legend of Steel. However I really have no idea what my schedule is going to be, so....
In short, I seem to think and write and play more about gaming than actually having a roleplaying game. When I am playing I like a good mix of roleplaying and combat. Puzzles are fine if I don't have to come up with them and if I can watch someone else solve them.
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Post by nikloveland on Oct 13, 2010 14:04:52 GMT -9
Our gaming group has stuck it out with GURPS but really I think we could go to any system since we just like getting together. That's how it's been for the last 10 years. We don't do a whole lot of rolling dice (we save that for the miniatures games!) Our game group has had to dissolve (at least no scheduled meetings) due to work conflicts. I like reading rules so I might try to get a different group (or as many as possible from the old group) and try to run something new.
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Post by enpeze on Nov 2, 2010 6:04:58 GMT -9
We played for 20 years RuneQuest 3, then some months D&D4 and now since 2 years Savage Worlds. (which is a genius game system btw) We use the Warhammer setting and Pathfinders Golarion setting and convert everything. And now I am preperring a traveller scifi game with SW.
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Post by Sirrob01 on Nov 3, 2010 0:38:01 GMT -9
We tend to hop around on wargamming rules more than rpg rules. The players prefer D&D whatever the latest edition is so that tends to be what I GM for. (I'll get lynched for this comment) But I've found after reading through a pile of RPG rules and trying most out, at the end of the Day the players and the GM shape the game far more than ruleset you play under...Just my experience...
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Post by cowboyleland on Nov 5, 2010 18:17:26 GMT -9
I've got to agree, people are what really matter BUT we have house-ruled Savage Worlds into practically a new game and it is an AWSOME system for recreating an adventure movie feel (which is what we want to do). My GM is a semi-retired game designer and he always wants to tinker, but I really think it is nearly time to leave well enough alone.
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Post by okumarts on Nov 5, 2010 18:48:14 GMT -9
I've been running rpgs since.. oh, 1981 and I find that it's important for me to keep things fresh and change systems once and a while. I started with Gamma World, then Basic D&D, Runequest, Traveller, then Top Secret ,(then a superhero campaign using the GW rules), Call of Cthulhu, AD&D, Palladium, Champions, Fantasy Hero, Justice Incorporated, James Bond, Danger International, Mekton, Teenagers From Outer Space, Cyberpunk, Fasa Star Trek, Vampire (then a modern Arthurian campaign using Vampire rules) and now we find we are back to 1st ed. D&D, Pathfinder, Microlite d20, Hero Games 5th ed. and a strange homebrew miniature skirmish system I made up in 1991. I would say that the most enduring system has to be the Hero System. It has provided the most bang for the buck for all the systems we have played and after 28 years it's still going strong and continues to inspire me as a GM and my players as characters.
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Post by Dominic on Nov 6, 2010 1:30:51 GMT -9
okumarts: . We're still having trouble distinguishing between rules from D&D3.5 and 4E, and we switched when it came out... Then again, we're playing an evening every two weeks these days, and by that I mean 2-3 hours tops, with a break for getting the little one in bed.
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Post by roguetrader on Nov 20, 2010 10:47:05 GMT -9
Wargames: In the name of the glory (Napoleonic), Age of reason (XVIII century), Spearhead (WWII), Red Baron (WWI, air), Bajo el sol de África (colonial), Comand Decision (modern), WH40K (sci-fi), No Quarter (fantasy), ...
RPGs: Shadowrun, Mutant Chronicles, Stormbringer, Hackmaster, Goblins & Grutas, DELI, Zombies miniRPG, Warhammer RPG, Fanhunter, Paranoia, ...
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Post by Parduz on Nov 20, 2010 11:27:54 GMT -9
Comand Decision (modern), No Quarter (fantasy) ... Would you like to write here a short "review" of them? What strong points they have, what flaws, and maybe a comparison against the Song Of... serie?
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Post by roguetrader on Nov 20, 2010 14:20:38 GMT -9
Comand Decision (modern), No Quarter (fantasy) ... Would you like to write here a short "review" of them? What strong points they have, what flaws, and maybe a comparison against the Song Of... serie? No problemo... I will prepare it.
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