Saturday, March 30, 2013

Crit-Failed Craft (Blogposts)

Apparently this is a thing!  Who knew?
My last post was way back in February and I'm rather embarrassed about that.  I'd like to pin it on the demon of not getting enough time to game, but I've actually had the chance to play pretty consistently since then and am on my way to a TableTopDay game with my old home crew.  My plan is to begin posting again in a more focused way as I've now got several things I'd really like to talk about.  For now though, I just want to make a quick recap of recent gaming to kind of center my thoughts.

The game I've been playing the most has been using Pathfinder rules with the game world of Ecletia that I've partially described.  It's been fantastically steampunk-y and quite a lot of fun so far.  I'm still working out a couple of kinks (such as deciding whether having a player Skype in is useful or distracting) and getting a good working schedule.  The main structure I've been using is a plot-line (which unfortunately has been a little railroady to start) which culminates each session in an interesting battle of some kind.  I'm really not sure how this hasn't been something that I've done from the beginning.  There's really no excuse for the Boss Encounter at the end not to have something cool or interesting to change the flow of combat.  The first session of Ecletia I put the battle on two airships careening down out of the sky which worked very well, but I think I dropped the ball on the second.  I simplified an element at the last minute to being just a boon for the players instead of the threat/boon I'd originally planned.

I'm now about to head over to a friend's to play a one shot of some kind.  We're looking to use the Wushu rules to keep things simple but haven't actually decided upon a genre to play in.  In all honesty, this plan came together approximately two hours ago total so not a whole has been discussed at all.  I'm realizing that although I spend quite a bit of time and effort planning plots and ideas for my ongoing campaign, I'm just about never totally ready if something unexpected comes up as a chance to play something.  It won't do any good for today, but I'm thinking it could be worthwhile to write up some interesting genre-generic plots that I think I can cover in a single session for times when I don't get the chance to plan things.

In any case, happy Easter and wishes of good gaming from Culture Loot!