Thwarted campaign ambitions

[Thomas Shey]

Since I was a bit terse earlier, having various people who either want nothing to do with cyberpunk (or anything that smacks of a crapsack world in general, really), are at least leery of post-apocalypse, and are all getting super fussy about systems just makes a lot of things hard. The fact I have no great interest in running a couple of the systems the different groups like doesn't help either.

 

[MarkB]

If I ever did Jurassic Park the players would be playing the dinosaurs.

 

[aramis erak]

It may be time to end the marriage. The two of you seem hopelessly incompatible.

Nah, we're good. It was a case of getting her moved down from Alaska. She cut her RPGing teeth on Hero System 4e...
And every group has players that limit the choices.

Is that the Rifts scenario?

Not quite. The Rifts version is a rework. The original trilogy (The Mechanoid Invasion, Mechanoids: The Journey, and Mechanoids: Homeworld), and the later standalone The Mechanoids (which is an expansion/revision of The Mechanoid Invasion). Rifts: Mechanoids is a rework to make them from an SDC setting to merge into the RIFTS SDC/MDC setting. In fact, the trilogy lacks even personals SDC, only having SDC for armor, vehicles, and mechanoids. I've not read Rifts Mechanoids, and am not certain whether or not I ever bought Rifts itself in dead tree. (Roommates and close friends had them, so I borrowed from them routinely.)

I do have the trilogy and the standalone in dead tree, And while playable, I don't like the non-combat portions of the Palladium mechanics, and generally prefer non-lockstep skill advancement. I've been tempted to simply use the palladium char gen only for level 1, then using the advancement mechanics in Justifiers.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I have several thwarted campaigns involving the D/FW- based group I’ve been part of since the late 1990s, mostly because I wanted to run them in HERO, and the majority of the group are not fans or are ambivalent at best.

The 2 most notable ones:

1) I ran the best campaign of my life in Austin in the early 1990s- a supers game set in 1900, using as its core the campaign setting of Space:1889 but using HERO 4th as the system. I wanted to run another game set in the same setting for my group here, moved to 1914 and using the prior campaign’s lore as the background for the new group. However since nobody wanted to learn HERO, I changed the operating system to Mutants & Masterminds 2Ed as something more familiar to them. (3.X Ed was pretty popular in the group.)

But we only played about 6 sessions. One (but not the ONLY) reason was that certain changes in the M&M version of the D20 system really rubbed players the wrong way. As in, complaints were raised each session.

2) Most of us were bumping fans of M:tG, even participating in some of the bigger tournaments. So for my own enjoyment, I started working out how to run a M:tG campaign using Fantasy HERO. Coincidentally, one night, a couple of the guys mentioned how cool it would be to play in a M:tG FRPG. This met with near universal approval. So I mentioned that I had started working on just such a thing, When I subsequently said I was using HERO to do it, the enthusiasm was snuffed like a candle. (So was my desire to complete what I had started.)

 

[MNblockhead]

The two things that have kept me from running campaigns in the past few years in settings and systems I really enjoy reading are:

1. Lack of time and interest in mastering a new, complex system
2. Deep lore of well-known and beloved settings

The best example of #1 is Magic: The Gathering. Love the idea. But after two sessions I appologized to my players and said I just didn't have the time to learn the systmem well enough or create the campaign world and adventures. I loved the idea and started with enthusiasm, but just wasn't enjoying actually trying to prepare for and run the game sessions. I would love to play in a MtG campaign, but I don't want to create and run one.

I have many more examples of #2: The Expanse, any game based on Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who. Happy to play in campaigns in those systems and settings, but I don't like being weighed down by so much lore.

 

[Thomas Shey]

2) Most of us were bumping fans of M:tG, even participating in some of the bigger tournaments. So for my own enjoyment, I started working out how to run a M:tG campaign using Fantasy HERO. Coincidentally, one night, a couple of the guys mentioned how cool it would be to play in a M:tG FRPG. This met with near universal approval. So I mentioned that I had started working on just such a thing, When I subsequently said I was using HERO to do it, the enthusiasm was snuffed like a candle. (So was my desire to complete what I had started.)

I've had at least two campaigns I did full work ups on--A BRP campaign derived from the old Future*World mini-RPG that came with the old Worlds of Wonder boxed set, and a sequel to my old Claves post-apocalyptic mecha campaign, originally done with a mix of Mekton and Cyberpunk 2020, the new version using Fuzion and some Mekton material--only to discover after I was done that they were nonstarters for either of my groups for one reason or another.

 

[Eltab]

Well, that's another thing. Jurassic Park isn't really about fighting dinosaurs. Giving the players weapons kind of goes against the spirit of the IP. So is it all just a bunch of chases then? That might get old quickly. I fear the tension of JP simply might not translate well to tabletop roleplaying either.

In my view, a JP campaign should not be a dino shoot 'm up, but about survival amidst unpredictable tech problems and a slight bit of corporate espionage.

One of the Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft Domains of Dread - the hostile jungle - might be a place to start.

The Mists moved you from a nice walk in a park to ... this place.

 

[MGibster]

I have several thwarted campaigns involving the D/FW- based group I’ve been part of since the late 1990s, mostly because I wanted to run them in HERO, and the majority of the group are not fans or are ambivalent at best.

I lived in D/FW for years! Why the heck didn't you run anything for me?

I've had a few ideas over the years that my friends just never wanted any part of.

In the late 80s or very early 90s, I tried getting one of my friend's to run the Delta Force RPG, but with the twist that we're dealing with a zombie outbreak. Every else thought it sounded stupid, but with the release of All Flesh Must be Eaten in the late 1990s as well as the popularity of zombies in the media I think it's clear that I've been vindicated.

The Great Pendragon Campaign: I've just never found a group interested in a group made of knights and human ones at that.

I pitched a Kung-Fu campaign where the PCs were supposed to use the power of Kung-Fu to achieve civic goals for their city including education, clean water, lower city corruption, etc., etc. A few takers, but not enough for a viable campaign.

Traveller: For whatever reason, this one hasn't happened yet. Got a great idea for a campaign, but it doesn't seem to interest my players very much.

 

[James Gasik]

I've been considering another Twilight 2000 or ALIEN game, but the wife isn't interested in either.

I've been considering a MYZ game but hadn't actually acquired my own copy... but the Humble Bundle cured that. ($43 for all 4 cores: M:YZ, M:E, M:GLA, and M:M) plus a bunch of sectors, and two campaign books... I went overbudget this month... but... the wife is interested in MYZ, vaguely. I might be able to get a bit of loopy mutant action in.

For 4 of the last 5 years, I never had to consider her tastes, because we weren't RP gaming together... but she's back in my Wed. group, and I do need to keep her tastes in mind. Which rules out a BUNCH of games. Including Alien and T2K 4E. She's not thrilled about Blade Runner coming up, either.

Justifiers has the hangups of it being a largely serious anthro setting, and people not being able to play anthro games without assuming it's supposed to be a Looney Toons special knockoff... instead of the moderately hard (harder than Traveller, but not much) Sci-Fi setting with Anthros. It also has the issue that the PC's start out as indentures for the lab expenses in their creation.... The anthro willing players I've got won't touch it because of the slavery issue. The players who wouldn't mind the "working ourselves out of bondage" angle won't touch it because it's an anthros game.

Albedo has similar issues with Justifiers. But it's also got the hardest SF ships of any RPG I own Fusion Torches, combats are single pass, and preprogrammed before engagement, PC's just have to ride it out as their programs get executed by the ship's AI during the pass, and the best weapons are KKMs...

I've long considered a Batlleforce 1E + Mechwarrior 2E campaign. The players I had who wanted me to run Mechwarrior hated Battleforce. The players I had who liked Battleforce hated Mechwarrior 2E. (Battleforce 1E is a much faster, simpler, and somewhat more abstract combat system than Battletech itself.)

Jovian Chronicles... Get to the point about mechs, and the hard SF fans say "No Way!" Get to the "Hard SF with Spin Grav and newtonian movemet" and the Mecha Players tend to bolt. I've got this idea for a CEGA assault on one of the cylinders in the trojan asteroids. Was thinking of PC's as residents thereof. (Inspired, of course, by the Gundam novels.) WHich, being on the defensive chases the last of the willing players right out the door.

I've considered a Mekton Empire game for YEARS.... Wife isn't even vaguely interested, and I have lost my love of Interlock as a system.

I'd love to run the setting/scenario from The Mechanoid Invasion, but I'm way too lazy to convert it to a decent system. It's such a rich potential as a setting. I could easily pastiche it with Alien... but...

I also get half a dozen harebrained campaign ideas a month... but most just drop off once I think about who would be willing to play.

Wow, I haven't thought about Albedo or Justifiers in years. Speaking of Justifiers, I remember playing a demo of Guardians when I was in or just out of high school, which uses pretty much the same system.

Which brings me to my thwarted campaign ambitions- Superhero RPG's. It doesn't matter which one, be it the old FASERIP Marvel Superheroes, Guardians, TORG, GURPS Supers, Aberrant, TRISTAT, BESM, or Champions- any time I sit down the run a superhero game, it falls flat. The players make characters, they're all very creative, and completely mismatched in power level. I try to run a few scenarios, and either one character is overpowered and can deal with just about any threat single handedly, or one character is completely worthless due to no real fault of their own.

Because it turns out, most superhero characters in comics have their own "niche" and there are few threats that everyone can tackle together. Usually what I end up doing is having side objectives, so the team splits up to handle different things, leaving one group twiddling their thumbs while I resolve what the other group is doing (kind of like Shadowrun's "Decker problem").

It's very disheartening, because I have a love for the genre.

I have similar problems with Star Wars, because it's either everyone has Force powers or no one has Force powers- I hate to say "no Force powers", since it's one of the coolest parts of the setting, but they quickly get out of hand. And if one person doesn't play with such powers, they quickly become "the guy that flies the ship" as the Force users dominate every aspect of play.

 

[James Gasik]

I have two. Planescape, as mentioned up thread, is a great read but lousy at trying to give a gm insight on how to run a campaign about ideas. That said I think you still make an interesting and fun planescape game based on traditional fantasy campaign tropes. It just wouldn’t satisfy.

Number two: Earthdawn. I used to have the entire 1e run of the game and currently have the entire 4e run. I love the setting but don’t think I have it in me learn another heavy crunch game. And the game mechanics are intrinsically tied to the setting. Trying to run the setting in another system I feel, would fall flat.

I would love to run Earthdawn, the system is amazing. But I can't seem to get anyone interested in even trying it...