caramida: (starwars)
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So, I walked into my FLGS (Engdame, btw) with tasty birthday gift cards buring a hole in my pocket (thank you to [livejournal.com profile] jenderqueer and LA&B!), looking to see what I might find.

I was tempted to pick up The Great Pendragon Campaign, as I really want to run a King Arthur Pendragon game sometime in the nearish future (mebbe next spring, on Thursdays?), but [livejournal.com profile] name_redacted has admonished me not to read the book, since I am playing in a GPC game right now on Sundays. Despite a fair bit of logical gymnastics 1, I asked the guys at Endgame to reassure me that the book would still be available in the spring and then looked around for other neat toys in the game store. I perused through the new RPG books (lots of stuff on the nice to have, but no time to read list). I skimmed across the used RPG books section (occassionally there's a nice find, like Forest Perilous for $2). Next to the used RPGs I saw something that looked familiar, and surprised me a little.

I had forgotten that it was coming out this fall, but there it was. A nice wide box with colorful artwork depicting a desperate battle against overwhelming odds, and a window on each end of the box showing the flashy part of the content. Beneath the window on the left side was a menacing multi-toned grey dagger shape. I examined the box further. Beneath the window on the right, there was a cream and dun colored loaf shape with nobblys on it, somewhat like a beignet, but also resembling the curves of a whale with the fins removed. The middle of the box proudly proclaimed:
"Contains 2 exclusive miniatures—-Super Star Destroyer Executor and Mon Calamari Star Defender Viscount."
Oh.

I took it to the counter and asked about the price. Chris named a number a little higher that I would have been willing to pay, but then he said, "I've got an open box, would you like to see what's inside?" Inside his box were not only the two behemoths visible under the plastic, but also 8 other ships of varying size, including a Llamda-class shuttle, and other spacecraft harking back from my impressionable youth. Damn.

I hope to use the stuff I picked up in a Star Wars RPG game sometime. As the minis are packed randomly, I am stuck with some prequel stuff I'd just as soon do without, but I'm definitely interested in getting my hands on some more of the original trilogy stuff. Now that I've got the Executor, I definitely need to fill out the set with a couple of Victory-class SDs, an Interdictor, at least one Imperial-class SD, and multifarious TIE fighters, just for the bad guys, and the gamut of Mon Calimari cruisers, Nebulon-B frigates, Correlian corvettes and gunships, and A-, B-, Y-, or X-Wing fighters for my Rebel/New Republic collection. I have always enjoyed the extra zing that a well-placed visual aid can give to an RPG, and suddenly I'm brimming with ideas for stories.

Of course that makes two campaigns I'm suddenly itching to run... d'oh! Maybe late spring or early summer2 I can persuade the Sunday group to turn their eyes from the semi-historical Arthurian past to a game set a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away....

1Mental gymnastics like:
  1. Maybe I could buy the book, and lock it away somewhere until the campaign is over. Not really feasible.
  2. Maybe if I only read up to the year before the year we're currently playing. NO! There's sure to be information in there I oughtn't know yet.
  3. If I do buy the book, I could run the game for a long time in the Uther period, thereby avoiding the knowledge I shouldn't have, I could stay a generation or two behind [livejournal.com profile] name_redacted in the timeline, but still get my KAP GMing freak on.
2 And finishing before fall semester starts, as (if I get in) I don't know that my Junior year at Cal will allow for me to expend a lot of energy on preparing for GMing.


N.B.: In the Star Wars Imperial Sourcebook, by West End Games, there is a neat diagram of ship silhouettes showing relative sizes of ships in the Imperial fleet. There are little 7 milimeter silhouettes showing the kind of craft that players might encounter on a personal level, and the Imperial-class Star Destoyer takes up a significant part of the diagram. In the background, in grey, is the diagram of the rearmost portion of the Super-class Star Destoyer. It's pretty impressive, as it dwarfs everything else in view. But when you turn the page, a faint grey mass is still visible behind the text, spearing its way across the two-page spread, and onto the next... and onto the next. In the sidebar of each page is the legend: Silhouette of Super Star Destroyer continued from previous page.
Music:: Imperial March, by John Williams
Mood:: 'goofy' goofy
location: arbeite (where my boss is an imposing figure in black)
There are 8 comments on this entry. (Reply.)
ext_369699: (evil eye)
posted by [identity profile] name-redacted.livejournal.com at 07:44pm on 06/12/2006
This is not the time of year to engage in impure rationalizations like this - you're going to end up on SOMEONE'S "naughty" list...

Besides, you've got an enormous backlog of campaigns to FINISH before you can start a new one. Go run Dogs. Or GURPS Traveller. Or Star Wars. Or Ars Magica. Or TORG. Or start GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars. But leave my shiny candy alone! :-P
ext_40143: (Default)
posted by [identity profile] caramida.livejournal.com at 07:54pm on 06/12/2006
<point taken>
ext_369699: (monster)
posted by [identity profile] name-redacted.livejournal.com at 08:12pm on 06/12/2006
Don't get me wrong - I'm saying that with love ;-)

And I'm assuming that my GMing is part of the reason that you find KAP appealing, for which I'm flattered.

But, do you REALLY want to spoil the surprises in store for you? Do you REALLY think you'd be able to resist peeking ahead - or that you could run a campaign properly without knowing what was to come? It'd be one thing if I'd been running it for a few years and we were WAY far from the beginning of campaign. But given that the clock's going to slow down shortly, we just wouldn't be that far ahead when you started running (which would probably be about the time I'd be ready to take a break).

Although, to be fair, I know that, historically, you're only good for about 6-10 sessions before you lose interest and wander off to find something else ;-)
ext_40143: (Default)
posted by [identity profile] caramida.livejournal.com at 09:11pm on 06/12/2006
Yes, your GMing is a large part of what makes KAP so appealing. I'm having a great time playing.

No, I don't want to spoil the surprise. Although I do think I'd be able to resist peeking ahead, I don't think I could run the game well without having an idea what is coming ahead, which is precisely why my mental gymnastics went nowhere, and I ended up diving into SW inspired mania instead.
ext_369699: (Default)
posted by [identity profile] name-redacted.livejournal.com at 11:39pm on 06/12/2006
Yes, your GMing is a large part of what makes KAP so appealing. I'm having a great time playing.

Uh huh. That and three more manors will make you a banneret ;-)

To be honest, I have my doubts about Star Wars. The system (assuming you're using the old WEG d6 version) is pretty whacky, and it's hard to capture the right tone. And obviously, we'd have to start all over, campaign-wise (not a bad thing). And I think we'd need to be clear about the campaign direction before we started, and have a group chargen session, to avoid some of the mistakes from last time.

Personally, I was really intrigued by Interstellar Wars and had my hopes pegged on that (assuming that Heart & Sol was lost like a misjumped far trader)
ext_40143: (Default)
posted by [identity profile] caramida.livejournal.com at 12:02am on 07/12/2006
When done right (alas, I have yet to consistently do it, but I've seen it done), d6 WEG is the best system I've seen for capturing the feel of the game.

Interstellar Wars is a great idea, and I'd even have fun re-examining Heart & Sol, but I've not been able to come up with a good solid story arch to make a good campaign of the former, and I've not yet figured out how to revive the latter in any way that is meaningful. I do regret the last bit, because I know that players had a good time with it. It is unfortunate that the length of time a campaign lasts with me running is inversely proportional to the amount of time and energy I have invested in said game. :-/
 
posted by (anonymous) at 12:07am on 07/12/2006
er... a story arc, that is...
ext_369699: (Default)
posted by [identity profile] name-redacted.livejournal.com at 12:25am on 07/12/2006
I understand. It's tough to recreate a cinematic pace of events around a gaming table, and it's tough to willingly suspend your disbelief to recreate some of the dopier aspects of Star Wars, particularly when there are powergamers at the table...

Given that I don't think we ever really hit the main arc in H&S, I'm not sure that I can offer much advice on salvaging it. As much as I loved playing Don Francisco, I have to be realistic about it.

I'd be happy to sit down with you sometime over the hiatus/school break and hash out story ideas. But the best suggestion I can make is, as much as possible, rely on professionals! It's hard enough to write a single, coherent adventure, much less a whole campaign. And it's just too damned much work for those of us trying to also balance jobs and/or school, friends, sigots, and other interests.

That's why I stole liberally from Masks and a few other places for Southern Exposure, and why GPC is going so well. Given that we've already gotten around 50 hours of gaming out of GPC, and are maybe 10% of the way through it, $50 is a real entertainment bargain!

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