Day #12 What Game is Your Group Most Likely to Play Next and Why?
We are ever so close to finishing Masks of Nylarathotep! And before I started some Play-by-Email to better coordinate the big finale, I set up a poll on my blog and gave descriptions to some possible post-Call of Cthulhu games to cleanse the palette. Not too many voters, but between those votes and my players who don't read the blog (heresy!) I've made three determinations.
#1 Gaming with the Gnomies was originally meant to be, and continues to be high traffic for, the Gnome Wars wargame and miniatures. The Number One selection was the continuation of our Great War campaign game in German East Africa. We had about half the group direct group express interest in wargaming, the other half wanted nothing to do with it, so this can fill in those spaces when our disinterested parties are unavailable.
#2 Savage Rifts - The much ballyhooed Kickstarter marriage between Rifts and Savage Worlds has ignited my passion to play in some gonzo butt-kicking adventures. I'll be introducing both Savage World and Rifts to the group at the same time, so I can ease in dispensing the rules and setting information.
#3 Hackmaster, 4th Edition: It's not a Mission from God, but the group is dedicated to getting the band back together to resume our Hackmaster campaign, The Burning Trogs Rule! In this next chapter, simply named The Burning Trogs Redux, the adventuring party is reassembled twelve years after they "saved the world" as well as twelve years real-time since we last played. The party never had a cohesiveness, but there is one thing that would make the Trogs want to re-unite: A chance to finally destroy the Slavers of Roark.
In a moment of campaign disharmony, when a number of players needed to drop out due to work, grad school, and real life, the remaining Trogs were waylayed by slavers a la A1-4 and only two managed to escape with their lives.
Revenge is a dish best served with a well-financed expedition, and the Trogs were too busy saving the world, their adopted homeland, and themselves to launch one. As the campaign wrapped up, most of the Trogs went back to lives they were more accustomed to. Some became merchants, some became leaders of dominions or secret societies, others just sat on the beach of their newly granted estates, glass of wine in hand.
But for Zorin Redrock, Gnome Titan Fighter, Hero of Frandor's Keep, Warlord of the Imperial Expeditionary Force of Barthey, retirement was never a long-term option.
Two years after the war ended, he left his estate for the final time and travelled to the Gnomish City States. He convinced the City-States military to sponsor a pirate and slaver-hunting expedition throughout the Mer Kasp. Unfortunately, Zorin wasn't much of a sailor, as are most other types of gnomes, and the slavers secret bases have remained hidden.
Six years on the sea taught Zorin a lot about sailing, and an utter disgust for human and gnome sailors. Despite the finest armament on the Mer Kasp, his lack of naval tactics results in more than a few crews nearly getting wiped out from pirates. The City-States decided to recall the ship and its crew from the mission.
Zorin sank his small fortune into three new ships and tried to outfit them with proper crews, but his reputation for confusing independent merchants, and sometimes naval frigates, for pirate ships preceded him. After a few disasters, a few sunken ships, and a couple of replacements along the way, his two remaining ships are crewed by a swarthy, gung-ho band of halflings.
This year, the twelfth since he "retired," his haphazard networks of contacts, spies, and informants have finally uncovered information as to the possible where about of the secret slaver city of their ire. A tiny cove that's almost impossible to navigate has been rumored to harbor slavers or pirates.. Only the skilled, or the well-organized could get through, so that means only a treacherous overland march is required to reach it, and possibly even rappel down some cliff faces. Even worse, this information could be time-sensitive, and Zorin's flagship, is far, far away. His second ship is nearby, and it's up to its scrappy halfling crew to do the recon, and possibly assault the pirates there.
We are ever so close to finishing Masks of Nylarathotep! And before I started some Play-by-Email to better coordinate the big finale, I set up a poll on my blog and gave descriptions to some possible post-Call of Cthulhu games to cleanse the palette. Not too many voters, but between those votes and my players who don't read the blog (heresy!) I've made three determinations.
#1 Gaming with the Gnomies was originally meant to be, and continues to be high traffic for, the Gnome Wars wargame and miniatures. The Number One selection was the continuation of our Great War campaign game in German East Africa. We had about half the group direct group express interest in wargaming, the other half wanted nothing to do with it, so this can fill in those spaces when our disinterested parties are unavailable.
#2 Savage Rifts - The much ballyhooed Kickstarter marriage between Rifts and Savage Worlds has ignited my passion to play in some gonzo butt-kicking adventures. I'll be introducing both Savage World and Rifts to the group at the same time, so I can ease in dispensing the rules and setting information.
Truth be told, I absolutely hate the player organization that is provided by the Tomorrow Legion thus far, so I'll be taking things in a completely different direction. I'm pondering a session or three of generic Rifts goofiness to warm everybody up, but I picture a campaign that varies from Logan's Run, to the defense of Zion in the Matrix, with a little bit for everybody in between.
Plus, somebody's gonna play a Glitter Boy, and that makes the teenager in me happy.
#3 Hackmaster, 4th Edition: It's not a Mission from God, but the group is dedicated to getting the band back together to resume our Hackmaster campaign, The Burning Trogs Rule! In this next chapter, simply named The Burning Trogs Redux, the adventuring party is reassembled twelve years after they "saved the world" as well as twelve years real-time since we last played. The party never had a cohesiveness, but there is one thing that would make the Trogs want to re-unite: A chance to finally destroy the Slavers of Roark.
In a moment of campaign disharmony, when a number of players needed to drop out due to work, grad school, and real life, the remaining Trogs were waylayed by slavers a la A1-4 and only two managed to escape with their lives.
Revenge is a dish best served with a well-financed expedition, and the Trogs were too busy saving the world, their adopted homeland, and themselves to launch one. As the campaign wrapped up, most of the Trogs went back to lives they were more accustomed to. Some became merchants, some became leaders of dominions or secret societies, others just sat on the beach of their newly granted estates, glass of wine in hand.
But for Zorin Redrock, Gnome Titan Fighter, Hero of Frandor's Keep, Warlord of the Imperial Expeditionary Force of Barthey, retirement was never a long-term option.
Two years after the war ended, he left his estate for the final time and travelled to the Gnomish City States. He convinced the City-States military to sponsor a pirate and slaver-hunting expedition throughout the Mer Kasp. Unfortunately, Zorin wasn't much of a sailor, as are most other types of gnomes, and the slavers secret bases have remained hidden.
Six years on the sea taught Zorin a lot about sailing, and an utter disgust for human and gnome sailors. Despite the finest armament on the Mer Kasp, his lack of naval tactics results in more than a few crews nearly getting wiped out from pirates. The City-States decided to recall the ship and its crew from the mission.
Zorin sank his small fortune into three new ships and tried to outfit them with proper crews, but his reputation for confusing independent merchants, and sometimes naval frigates, for pirate ships preceded him. After a few disasters, a few sunken ships, and a couple of replacements along the way, his two remaining ships are crewed by a swarthy, gung-ho band of halflings.
This year, the twelfth since he "retired," his haphazard networks of contacts, spies, and informants have finally uncovered information as to the possible where about of the secret slaver city of their ire. A tiny cove that's almost impossible to navigate has been rumored to harbor slavers or pirates.. Only the skilled, or the well-organized could get through, so that means only a treacherous overland march is required to reach it, and possibly even rappel down some cliff faces. Even worse, this information could be time-sensitive, and Zorin's flagship, is far, far away. His second ship is nearby, and it's up to its scrappy halfling crew to do the recon, and possibly assault the pirates there.
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| The Hoped Revenge on the Slavers, Although the Men Would Be MUCH Shorter. |
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