the_gneech (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
the_gneech) wrote2002-12-24 01:23 pm
the_gneech) wrote2002-12-24 01:23 pm
Entry tags:
Gaming Geekery
I've been pondering what I want to do about gaming. As much as I would hate to abandon Kyriela, Jaer, Dragor, and Tateland in their current predicament, I fear that I have become rather disenchanted with the idea of continuing my current D&D campaign. Not that there's anything wrong with it, particularly, but there's nothing about it that particularly captures my imagination, either.
I think the last session -- an enormous battle that lasted forever (stupid trolls!) when I expected it to be actually rather quick -- sorta soured me on it. That, and having both![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jamesbarrett and Camstone playing two characters each. Originally I did that to beef up the party a bit, since 3rd Edition D&D assumes a party of four, but if I were going to do it again, I think I'd just go with two PCs and two NPCs.
I'm not sure what I'd run instead, but I'd like to run something. I tried a Deadlands one-shot, but we didn't do more than one session of it. It's a case of something I'd really enjoy playing, but I'm not as excited about running.
I have picked up d20 Modern and have been toying with a kind of "Shadow Chasers" idea (there is hostile weirdness out there, and the heroes are all that protects a defenseless and unsuspecting humanity, etc.); not sure if I'm going to move forward with that or not.
I think that some of the problem boils down to dissatisfaction with the d20/D&D system. Yes, it's light-years beyond the monstrosity known as Advanced Dungeons and Dragons ... but once you get beyond 5th level or so, NPC character creation becomes a big pain in the tuckus. You have to go through every level of the character's career and figure out what skills they took when, what feats they gained at what level, where their stat increases went when, and so forth. And since E-Tools only supports Core D&D, you can't even kludge it to do a d20 Modern game.
This is one place where, for all of its complexity, the HERO System really shines over just about any other system. To build a character -- any character -- you simply give them the abilities you think they should have, and pay the points appropriately. A very experienced character isn't any more complex than a neophyte -- they simply have a lot more abilities.
But, as I've commented in the past, my players aren't exactly keen on HERO, and even if they were, there isn't any decent ready-to-go-off-the-shelf source material for HERO -- I'd have to come up with everything from scratch.
Hmm, I dunno. I'll just have to keep pondering, I guess.
-The Gneech
I think the last session -- an enormous battle that lasted forever (stupid trolls!) when I expected it to be actually rather quick -- sorta soured me on it. That, and having both
jamesbarrett and Camstone playing two characters each. Originally I did that to beef up the party a bit, since 3rd Edition D&D assumes a party of four, but if I were going to do it again, I think I'd just go with two PCs and two NPCs.I'm not sure what I'd run instead, but I'd like to run something. I tried a Deadlands one-shot, but we didn't do more than one session of it. It's a case of something I'd really enjoy playing, but I'm not as excited about running.
I have picked up d20 Modern and have been toying with a kind of "Shadow Chasers" idea (there is hostile weirdness out there, and the heroes are all that protects a defenseless and unsuspecting humanity, etc.); not sure if I'm going to move forward with that or not.
I think that some of the problem boils down to dissatisfaction with the d20/D&D system. Yes, it's light-years beyond the monstrosity known as Advanced Dungeons and Dragons ... but once you get beyond 5th level or so, NPC character creation becomes a big pain in the tuckus. You have to go through every level of the character's career and figure out what skills they took when, what feats they gained at what level, where their stat increases went when, and so forth. And since E-Tools only supports Core D&D, you can't even kludge it to do a d20 Modern game.
This is one place where, for all of its complexity, the HERO System really shines over just about any other system. To build a character -- any character -- you simply give them the abilities you think they should have, and pay the points appropriately. A very experienced character isn't any more complex than a neophyte -- they simply have a lot more abilities.
But, as I've commented in the past, my players aren't exactly keen on HERO, and even if they were, there isn't any decent ready-to-go-off-the-shelf source material for HERO -- I'd have to come up with everything from scratch.
Hmm, I dunno. I'll just have to keep pondering, I guess.
-The Gneech