My old gaming / wargaming buddy Darkwing created a flow chart for adventures a number of years ago, and sent it along to me today as a contribution to the T&B. With all the discussions I've had here and on Dragonsfoot about RPG sessions that tend to lose focus and wobble off the rails, this chart seems very appropriate.
A warning though - some of the humor might be a little too dry for some people...
Darkwing and I have been gaming together for over a decade, and although we have our disagreements on a lot of things (he's not so much into the "cheese" or the "camp" stuff as I am), we are of a like mind on a lot more.
The three Rolemaster campaigns he ran for our gaming group back in the day are why I maintain that RM is a viable gaming system despite it's nickname of "Chartmaster", with the caveat that you have a well-prepared and extremely well organized GM at the helm. Darkwing was such a GM, and as a result, the games flowed smoothly and without a lot of page-turning, chart-consulting, and rules-arguing. We also had a regular gaming group of 6-8 players, and with frequent combats (although they weren't "hack 'n slash" campaigns), keeping everything moving along nicely and all the players pretty happy was an impressive feat. Over about three years of gaming time, we were able to run and complete three separate (but related) campaigns totaling around 60 sessions.
Such accomplishments, during a period of time when some of us were undergraduates, some were graduates, some were working full time, some were getting married, etc., is pretty impressive in my mind. I tend to think that the archetypal gaming group of 5-8 people who all regularly get together on a weekly basis and game for a weekend afternoon (or weekday evening) is a lot less common than people realize, especially when we all start to get older and have more (and more serious) responsibilities. Thinking back to those days when it was a lot easier to pull off, I'm glad that we had such good gaming going on to make the most of it while we could.
A warning though - some of the humor might be a little too dry for some people...
Darkwing and I have been gaming together for over a decade, and although we have our disagreements on a lot of things (he's not so much into the "cheese" or the "camp" stuff as I am), we are of a like mind on a lot more.
The three Rolemaster campaigns he ran for our gaming group back in the day are why I maintain that RM is a viable gaming system despite it's nickname of "Chartmaster", with the caveat that you have a well-prepared and extremely well organized GM at the helm. Darkwing was such a GM, and as a result, the games flowed smoothly and without a lot of page-turning, chart-consulting, and rules-arguing. We also had a regular gaming group of 6-8 players, and with frequent combats (although they weren't "hack 'n slash" campaigns), keeping everything moving along nicely and all the players pretty happy was an impressive feat. Over about three years of gaming time, we were able to run and complete three separate (but related) campaigns totaling around 60 sessions.
Such accomplishments, during a period of time when some of us were undergraduates, some were graduates, some were working full time, some were getting married, etc., is pretty impressive in my mind. I tend to think that the archetypal gaming group of 5-8 people who all regularly get together on a weekly basis and game for a weekend afternoon (or weekday evening) is a lot less common than people realize, especially when we all start to get older and have more (and more serious) responsibilities. Thinking back to those days when it was a lot easier to pull off, I'm glad that we had such good gaming going on to make the most of it while we could.
2 comments:
That was fantastic!
Best part:
Mission is
Not Time Critical -> Leave Immediately!
Time Critical
[do stuff] -> Haggle over price
Too funny!
Michael
Yeah....I got to about that point, my smile turned into a laugh, and I just decided to print a copy for my binder.
Swank!
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