I’ve been quite busy at work lately, hence the lack of posting here over the past month. But thankfully, I’ve managed to keep up with my gaming (more or less).
1. It looks like the Mythras campaign I’m in, Beyond the Mountains of Madness, will soon be reaching its climactic conclusion – and my character, the palaeontologist Dr. Klaas Klassen, is running dangerously low on tenacity (only 5 out of 14 points left)!
2. The Greyhawk campaign I’ve been running for the past couple of years has concluded. I’m very happy with how this campaign went. It was a lot of fun! But that fun was due to the colourful player characters, non-player characters, adventures (mainly T1 and surrounding areas), and ‘Gygaxian’ Greyhawk setting. The system itself – 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons – is one that I plan to never use again* (despite drawing heavily upon its superior ‘old school’ variant, Into the Unknown). It’s hard for me to put into words how much I came to dislike this system while running it (although I would still take it any day over the horror that was 3e D&D). But I still had a blast with the campaign, which just goes to show how important it is to game with fun people. I plan to finish up the log posts for the campaign over the next month or so.
3. My sporadic Against the Darkmaster (VsD) campaign set in Third Age Eriador (Middle-earth) is still going. (It’s the “alternative” game for my Mythras group.) Hopefully we will have our second session tonight.
4. I’m still working on my Ukrasia setting for my forthcoming VsD campaign. I should have some additional posts about this setting in the very near future.
Game on!
* Note: Despite my dislike for the “standard” D&D 5e system, I remain quite fond of the Adventures in Middle-earth system based upon it (and ran a great campaign using it). The updated version, Lord of the Rings RPG, looks even better. I would be happy to run a campaign using the LotR system in the future. So, I will not be unloading my 5e rulebooks quite yet…
Have you ever played MERP? Is there any reason to use Against the Darkmaster instead of the original game?
ReplyDeleteYes! See: https://akraticwizardry.blogspot.com/2021/09/merp-resurrected-against-darkmaster.html
DeleteWhat is it about 5e that makes it so dislikeable for you to run?
ReplyDeleteIn previous posts I've mentioned my dislike for the 5e magic system (https://akraticwizardry.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-unmagical-magic-of-5th-edition.html) and its system of 'rests' (https://akraticwizardry.blogspot.com/2023/06/rest-and-recovery-in-into-unknown.html).
DeleteTo those complaints I'd add that I'm not a fan of the 5e combat system. 5e D&D is structured in a way that presupposes frequent but (normally) non-risky combats. And the combat system itself is not that flavourful. I prefer rare but risky and colourful combats -- something you find in "Mythras" (and BRP games in general) and "Against the Darkmaster" (and RM-derived games in general). While not nearly as bad as 3e was, 5e combats can be slogs. Although the TSR/OSR versions of D&D don't have overly exciting or flavourful combat systems, at least they are fast (and usually more risky).
All that said, I think that "Into the Unknown" greatly ameliorates the problems I had with 5e, so thanks very much for creating it! And perhaps I would more enjoy running a "pure" ItU campaign with some of the "gritty" options it provides. (The campaign I ran ended up being a hybrid "standard" 5e and ItU one, as I didn't want to take away the special abilities, etc., that the characters already had acquired by the time I decided to switch).
I also very much like the version of 5e that is realized in the "Adventures in Middle-earth" and "Lord of the Rings" RPGs. Of course, they incorporate a version of the "gritty realism" option ("long rests" are possible only in safe areas, and even "short rests" require full nights) and wholly replace the D&D magic system. So AiME/LotR feel entirely different than "standard" 5e D&D. (I ran a AiME campaign a few years ago and really enjoyed it.)