Not what you think
I have an easier time writing about the games I am GMing or the ones I am going to GM in the future, compared to those I play in. I think the reasons for this are pretty obvious, right? I have an a behind-the-scenes view of the games I GM, I have read widely on the games, maybe I have home-brewed the world, I probably have a better handle on the rules than most others at the table. As well as that, I set up the game, I send out the invites, I normally host the game, so, it makes sense.
As for the ones I play in, I am still invested in them, or at least in my character, I have usually made some effort with a backstory and personality and I want them to experience cool stuff in the game world with a bunch of other weirdos. There are probably a couple of my characters that I could spend an entire post discussing (and probably will, now that I think about it) but not before they are even made.
Anyway, that’s why I am taking the last few games from my Games I want to Play this Year list and pop them all into this one post.
Old School Essentials – campaign I think
My friend, Isaac of Black Sword Hack fame has been working his way steadily through all the OSE books he could get his hands on. He’s almost ready to kick off that campaign! Very exciting! It will be my fist time playing this system and having been a part of Isaac’s Black Sword Hack game for the last couple of years, I know how he likes to construct a grubby, fun, weird campaign world for us to muck around in.
I am not all that familiar with the ruleset of OSE, but from what I understand, it took the rules from Basic D&D and some of those from AD&D and took out all the stuff that people tended to ignore. I know it does have a race-as-class idea that is similar to the way DCC does it but, overall, it gives me much more old school D&D vibes than DCC does.
I might just go and roll up a few little guys using the OSE rules to get an idea of how it works and get in the mood for it.
Heart: The City Beneath – Open Hearth campaign
This game technically already started; I am achieving my goals, dear reader! We have only had a session 0 in which I created my aelfir Incarnadine, Forgotten-Frost-Remembered. He is called to the Heart in search of adventure (also he had to flee the City Above due to his crass and embarrassing obsession with money, not to mention his astronomical levels of debt.) He and his fellow delvers are on a mission to help a haven that we created together using the rules from Sanctum, a sourcebook for Heart that is meant for this very purpose. The haven has no name as it was deleted by a Deadwalker some time earlier. The aim is to build it up while pursuing more selfish goals before we all blow up in a conclusion of zenith ability fuelled glory.
All credit to our GM, Mike, for having the presence of mind and session 0 nous to figure out our group’s haven-based goal and get us to create it together in under an hour.
Can’t wait to start getting weird in the Heart.
Call of Cthulhu – Masks of Nyarlathotep – campaign
This one is probably a long-shot. This is actually an ongoing campaign but has been on semi-permanent hiatus since, I want to say 2022? Not sure. Anyway, this is another of Isaac’s campaigns. It was one of those things, playing with adults can mean that sometimes, real life stuff takes precedence and there’s not much you can do about it. Since then we got into other games and other campaigns and Masks has been on the back burner for a long time. Every time we get to chatting about Call of Cthulhu, we end up saying we would love to get this classic campaign started up again.
Last we left our intrepid investigators (I was playing a gangland boss from London named Grant Mitchell) they had faced down other worldly terrors in the basement of an occult shop and proved the innocence of a man falsely accused of murder. They also uncovered some evidence and information that drew them to various other places around the world in their pursuit of answers to the question of who was responsible for the murder of their good friend, Jackson Elias. Anyway, they had concluded their snooping in New York and were on a slow boat to London. It has been a very slow boat at this stage…
Magus, Pike and Drum – Playtest
It’s Isaac again! This time with an early playtest for a game that he is very much still developing. I don’t want to go into any detail here but I think I can say at least that it is a semi-historical setting and it will be using the Resistance system, created for Spire. Can’t wait to try it out. What I have read of the character classes and abilities so far makes it sound very fun and interesting to play.
OK, that about wraps it up for today. See you tomorrow with more from the Dice Pool.
The Dice Pool 