I've been writing this blog for almost seventeen years now. Yet I've rarely addressed any questions to you, the human beings who look at these posts from time to time. But I'm curious about who actually visits this place (aside from the bots). I'm interested to know what game(s) you play.
As I explained in my previous post, the roleplaying games that I've been playing have shifted over the past two decades. Early on, I was focused primarily on "Old School Renaissance" games like Swords and Wizardry (and developed some house rules for it, many of which were later integrated into Crypts & Things, which I also played back in the day) and 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons/OSRIC. I also occasionally ran Call of Cthulhu.
Then, in spring 2011, I started playing in a "Young Kingdoms campaign" that used the Runequest II (MRQII) rules. (How could I refuse? The Gamemaster was one of the co-authors of the system!) This started a long period -- continuing to this day with Lyonesse -- of playing versions of the game that is now called Mythras (MRQII and Runequest 6 were the immediate ancestors of Mythras -- all written by Lawrence Whitaker and Pete Nash). I also continued to run Call of Cthulhu from time to time (winding up a sporadic campaign in 2017). And in 2017-2018 I ran an Adventures in Middle-earth campaign.
For a few years I ran a campaign using Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition in the "Gygax version" of the World of Greyhawk. (I eventually switched to the 5e-based Into the Unknown system, but ItU is close enough to 5e that I regard the whole campaign as my "5e" one.) I wanted to properly "try out" the current version of D&D and we ended up continuing until the characters reached 6th level. While that campaign was fun, I realized by the end of it that I had no desire to ever run 5e D&D again, at least for an extended period of time (I did run a couple of sessions of 5e for some kids last fall -- one of my few "charitable acts" as a RPGer).
Over the past few years, as GM, I've primarily run Against the Darkmaster. One campaign, set in Middle-earth, wrapped up a few months ago (although I have a "epilogue" set of adventures planned for the same characters sometime in the future). The other, set in my homebrew world of "Ukrasia," is still going strong.
So these days, I mainly GM Against the Darkmaster and I mainly play Mythras (I'm leaving out various "one shots" of different systems here). I would like to try out Dragonbane sometime, as it strikes me as similar to Mythras in many ways but is much "lighter" in terms of both rules and tone (the similarity shouldn't be that surprising, since both games are descendants of the "Basic Roleplaying" system created by Chaosium almost five decades ago).
What about you? What games do you play these days, either as GM or player? What game(s) do you want to play?
I've now run several sandboxy year+ campaigns in 5e with varying levels of houserules; I'm hoping the players in the current game can accelerate their progress somehow.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to be starting up an Imperium Maledictum game at the behest of a friend very soon; not committing to more than 3 months, though.
I want to be running a West Marches / Open Table game using something very different - OSR, maybe NSR, maybe custom rules, maybe even something BRP-ish like Dragonbane (but not heavier Mythras); waiting at least for some work changes in ~6 months, if not for the 5e campaign to conclude.
Occasionally playing various light NSR games online but don't find most of them satisfying; Castle Kelpsprot is the current exception. I would like to play more often and more games but don't make the time or the social contacts for it.
VsDM has me curious for nostalgia's sake, and I've enjoyed reading some of your play reports, but I haven't got a handle on how hackable it is for less-Tolkien worldbuilding.
I have a 1e AD&D campaign I run, that I recently put on hiatus (got behind in my writing). I'm currently playing 1e Gamma World and 2e Fading Suns. I'd love to also be playing 1e Warhammer Fantasy, 2e Runequest, and Classic '81 Traveller, off the top of my head.
ReplyDeleteMy group plays once a week, online. We're a few weeks into a Pendragon campaign, which has been quite fun.
ReplyDeleteAs for things I want to play, I have a short list of games I own but have never played, and I want to get through all of them in the next couple of years. First up is the One Roll Engine version of Delta Green, Nemesis, which has been sitting on my hard disk for years.
Man, I ran FS 2e for a few years: somewhat cumbersome rules, but all the wonder Classic Traveller lacked (and I say that having run more '77/'81 CT than anything the last decade). I would also love to play Runequest 2e, just not in Glorantha.
ReplyDeleteFumbled my comment roll, but whatever: meant to reply to Baron Greystone. In any case, I'm currently playing Forbidden Lands, since that's what my group is doing (and I don't have to Ref, which is the exception). Would love to play DragonQuest 2e, WFRP 1e, Harnmaster (but not in Harn), Runequest 2e (but not in Glorantha), Runequest 3e (in Fantasy Earth) or Stormbringer 5th/Elirc! (in any setting). As a Vance fan Lyonesse is so appealing, but for some reason I just bounce off Mythras, which is weird.
ReplyDeleteI've been running Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, Mutant Crawl Classics RPG, and Ghostbusters 1st edition. I'm planning to add Shadowdark RPG to the mix, and I really want to run some Teenagers from Outer Space and The Savage World of Flash Gordon. I'm also planning to run some Star Trek using a D6 System variant.
ReplyDeleteI started out running D&D 4e, in high school, and moved to 5e when I went to university. Burned out on it until covid, when I ran an online 5e campaign for my now-wife and her friends, then started looking at other systems.
ReplyDeleteMy last GM'd campaigns were an Ars Magica 5th ed mini-saga set on the Isle of Man, and then a Mythras game using Mythic Constantinople. Between those I played in a Dungeon Crawl Classics episodic game.
Now gearing up to play in a GURPS 19th century pulp campaign. Variety is the spice of life! Ars Magica and Mythras remain my favourite systems, however.
I'm the GM. My group is on a break from both a long running Pathfinder 1 megadungeon campaign and a homebrew Gamma World one. We are currently playing MERP, and had the occasional single session game of Call of Cthulhu and Paranoia last year. I'd like to go back to Pathfinder, if only to finish off the campaign neatly, and play some more GW. I want to do a Dark Sun session (d20, set in 'Dune'), play some Shadowrun, and try Mythras in a custom setting. I'm also tempted to go back and run some AD&D2 (with some house-rules) but its hard enough getting most of my players together now for one campaign!
ReplyDeleteRunning
ReplyDeleteKnave 2e: bi-weekly since September 2024
13th Age 1E: bi-weekly since June 2023
These are both games I’m running for kids 7th-12th grade at the local library and they are about as different as you can get. The Knave game is entirely sandbox play treasure hunting while the 13th Age Game is big damn heroes trying to stave off the Orc Lords invasion.
WEG Star Wars: quarterly since February of this year (we have only met once to date but plan more). This is something I threw together because I knew of several people in my town who either wanted to learn to game or weren’t getting enough play time. First session went really well.
Playing:
D&D 3E: play by email since spring of 2025, restarting campaign that had been on hiatus for a decade after 4 years of original play. We are currently fighting some hook horrors in abomination-filled caves that used to hold a dwarven city before someone breached the underside of a lake and flooded it out.
Running 5e in an 11 year(ish) campaign, but that will likely end soon. Thinking of giving Nimble or maybe Daggerheart a try after that for a similar feel, but less crunch to have to work with.
ReplyDeleteI used to run this on alternating weeks with another game where I got to try out different systems, which I miss, but on the other hand, I it's nice to have a break.