Help - My group is looking for something new.

[Stormborn]

If you want somethign REALLY different try Unknown Armies. But, you've got to have the right players, people who can get into the world view, other wise it can fall flat.

My group, up until recently, played an adventure at a time for about two years. Taking characters through small story arcs with one setting/system and then having someone else DM a different setting/system. Now we are basically trading off between an ongoing long term camapign I am running and whatever else someone wanted to run for a few weeks so I can take a break. We just rolled up Pendragon characters for this purpose.

Whenever someone mentions a round robin campaign I always go back to an idea for a Sliders/Exiles/Quantum Leap/multiple-other-pop-culture-sources game in which the PCs are travelers who go from world to world, typically without any real control over it, with or withour a specific mission in mind. Essentially everyone would roll up characters in your favorite d20 System, although I would suggest Grim Tales or d20 Modern for adaptabilities sake and decide on a framing narrative. The Exiles (From Marvel Comics) are heroes who have become dislodged from their home reality and must repair the multiverse so they can get to go home, otherwise they will meet some horrible fate. This story telling frame works allows for a great variety of both characters and worlds. It has the perfect DM device, a braclet that gives a short cryptic goal and occasional nudges of advice. It allows for new players or new chracters to be introduced easilly - "Your old team mate reparied enough damage, her world is fine now, here is your new teammate(s)."

Once characters are made and the frame work is set each week (or maybe even every two weeks or whatever) the DM fo the week chooses his favorite setting or world and zaps the players into it with just enough info to achive some limited objective. If they do so the survivors go to the next world, if they don't their replacements are called up and sent to fix the mess the last group made. One week you could be in play Freeport, the next Greyhawk, the next Sidewinder, then Gama World, after that Fung Shui.... you get the idea.

Sure, it means some degree of work on the DMs part to make things fit, but if you are only running one session every month or so thats not to bad. It gives a chance for each PC really be stretched to their limits. And if one week you land in that world with no magic and your sorcerer's only contribution is his personality, well next week you will be in a world filled with magical constructs that the monk just can't handle or something.

I have never tried this, and I am sure that factors of personality, not to mention choices of PCs and settigns, will play a big role. But I think it could work, and I think it could be fun.

 

[der_kluge]

Whenever someone mentions a round robin campaign I always go back to an idea for a Sliders/Exiles/Quantum Leap/multiple-other-pop-culture-sources game in which the PCs are travelers who go from world to world, typically without any real control over it, with or withour a specific mission in mind. Essentially everyone would roll up characters in your favorite d20 System, although I would suggest Grim Tales or d20 Modern for adaptabilities sake and decide on a framing narrative.

The idea of stand-alone "vignettes" was discussed, but we all agreed that we'd rather have a continuous story.

Someone in my group described it as "Babylon 5 versus Star Trek."

 

[hong]

Too much combat.

No such thing.

More story elements. Non combat encounters.

Trash talking NPCs. Cans of whupass.

Three word sentences.

Lots of shouting.

 

[ThoughtBubble]

I can't really say this is a suggestion, but a similar question came up with my gaming circle. "Do we always have to play fantasy?"

So, aside from the main game, we've gotten one session of spycraft in, which was highly enjoyable. We're going to try a 3-4 shot of a D20 Modern game, and then we've got Star Wars on the horison.

Good luck with the Round-Robining. I have to admit that if I could get my players to take turns, I so would.

 

[Whisper72]

To get some fresh air two things:

If not really sick of fantasy, simply start a brand new campaign, with low level characters

If some diversion is called for, try a few sessions of Paranoia, TMNT or Shadowrun. Simple systems, lots of fun, especially Paranoia.

 

[Shallown]

I did this once in 1st edition so give it a think.

Start the characters at say 6-7th level. This is their level period. No more gaining levels and such. this will make them competent professional adventurer's But take away from a lot of problems of more powerful play.

The world is built around a top ending for characters. No one really gets above that level except in extreme circumstances.

You have some choices for magic.
1) Either higher level magic and such exist but becomes rituals with high cost to perfrom
2) They don't exist at all
3) they exist as is but require some other nasty things to boost ones level. Blood sacrifices ancient artifacts etc that let you cast higher level spells.

Characters getting better/learning new things wiould have to be dealt with. How does a person learn a new skill when they don't advance. New feats and such may also have to be dealt with. Perhaps you can make simple rules that cover training and cost for skill points and feats. I would make the caps the same class skill and CC skills would max the same.

There are some rules things to consider, like making magic item creation, character wealth etc.

But some exciting things happen. Some of the mythical beast are still scary. Manticores, wyverns, trolls and other creatures can still be a challenge. You don't have magic capable of reshaping the landscape/society as much.

Its an idea that needs fleshing out but would be fun for an occasional game and for short campaigns.

later

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

I can't really say this is a suggestion, but a similar question came up with my gaming circle. "Do we always have to play fantasy?"

So, aside from the main game, we've gotten one session of spycraft in, which was highly enjoyable. We're going to try a 3-4 shot of a D20 Modern game, and then we've got Star Wars on the horison.

One of our group's DMs has a Saturday game (which is always D&D of some type), and a Sunday game. The Sunday game (which is on a different weekend) was Shadowrun, and it then went into Wheel of Time, where we learned this one important fact: We wanted guns. So, current Sunday game is Star Wars, and we're fixing to move to something else.

Brad