the_gneech (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
the_gneech) wrote2022-11-24 10:26 am
the_gneech) wrote2022-11-24 10:26 am
When Lots of Things Are Good, But Not Right
So while my body has been out doing stuff all week, my mind has been busy chewing on what I want out of gaming. And as interested as I was (and still am) in running some PF2E, I think what I really want is to try a more narrative approach, specifically using the "Powered by the Apocalypse" approach. The only problem there is, none of the ready-to-go, already-have-a-module-on-Roll20 PBtA games are really what I'm looking for. Generally speaking, they're either too grim or horror-themed (e.g., Monster of the Week), or too "rainbow sprinkles" to work with the group (e.g., Glitter Hearts or Thirsty Sword Lesbians). The closest one in tone to what I'm looking for seems to be Masks: A New Generation, but that is hard-locked into "teenage caped supers finding their identity".
Now I can and have run supers games; I had a CHAMPIONS campaign in Richmond that ran successfully for several years (and was heavy on the feels). But supers is not my native genre, and I suspect that only one or two of my players are really into it as its own thing. Everyone else will play it if that's what's going, but are likely to treat it more as a high octane urban fantasy rather than The Incredibles.
Contradictory as it may sound, what I'd really kinda like is a "generic" PBtA engine that I could easily customize, pulling a playbook from MotW here, a condition from TSL there, etc., but of course that's inherently not how any of it works. PBtA is a philosophy, not a mechanic, so the closest I could come to that is "translating." What would "The Beacon" look like in TSL? What would "The Beast" look like in MotW? How could Dungeon World's Bonds work with TSL's Strings?
Foundry has a "build your own PBtA" module, so, I mean, I could do that. But if I'm already skirting the edge of burnout, do I really want to put in that kind of work? XD I don't even know if my players would get into it, most of them seem to be fine with killing monsters and taking their stuff. It's no secret that what I really want is to play something like this more than actually run it, but that's literally true of everything I have ever run, ever. So. I dunno.
There's no urgency to the question; it'll be January or later before I come back around as the group GM, so I can let the issue simmer—assuming my hyperfocus will let go. I do have more urgent things to deal with, after all! In fact, I should be drawing instead of even making this post. But, y'know, the old brain problem.
-TG
Now I can and have run supers games; I had a CHAMPIONS campaign in Richmond that ran successfully for several years (and was heavy on the feels). But supers is not my native genre, and I suspect that only one or two of my players are really into it as its own thing. Everyone else will play it if that's what's going, but are likely to treat it more as a high octane urban fantasy rather than The Incredibles.
Contradictory as it may sound, what I'd really kinda like is a "generic" PBtA engine that I could easily customize, pulling a playbook from MotW here, a condition from TSL there, etc., but of course that's inherently not how any of it works. PBtA is a philosophy, not a mechanic, so the closest I could come to that is "translating." What would "The Beacon" look like in TSL? What would "The Beast" look like in MotW? How could Dungeon World's Bonds work with TSL's Strings?
Foundry has a "build your own PBtA" module, so, I mean, I could do that. But if I'm already skirting the edge of burnout, do I really want to put in that kind of work? XD I don't even know if my players would get into it, most of them seem to be fine with killing monsters and taking their stuff. It's no secret that what I really want is to play something like this more than actually run it, but that's literally true of everything I have ever run, ever. So. I dunno.
There's no urgency to the question; it'll be January or later before I come back around as the group GM, so I can let the issue simmer—assuming my hyperfocus will let go. I do have more urgent things to deal with, after all! In fact, I should be drawing instead of even making this post. But, y'know, the old brain problem.
-TG