What are you working on? (Playing, GMing, desigining, etc)

[S'mon]

I'm GMing three campaigns. I'm not sure I like to talk too much about how I prep them, it's like the old adage about eating sausage, you don't want to see how the sausage is made.

In general, the main priority is to be flexible and respond to PC input - what PCs do in game - and to a lesser extent player input - expressed player preference. I seek to maximise sense of possibility and player/PC freedom.

I'm using Blogger extensively in all campaigns.

4e 'Loudwater' Forgotten Realms game - I'm using published adventures, FR and other. However I have a whole bunch of them available, and the ones I actually use depend mostly on PC actions and player expressed preferences. The game centres around the town of Loudwater and I have tried to give a bit of sense of the community. I'm also trying to use FR tropes, successfully for the first time - previously FR was always way too twee for me, but post-spellplague there's a bit of a sense of desperation and darkness that makes the 'niceness' a lot more palatable.
Campaign blog: Loudwater

4e 'Southlands' Wilderlands game - this is a hex-based swords & sorcery Heavy Metal campaign, so it's a mix of wahoo comic-book hack & slash with sandboxy hex-crawling, I try to make it very atmospheric and thematic, though I could do better with at-table description. With its open design, prep work mostly involves trying to stay one step ahead of the players, and I've rarely got to use any published material - one Dungeon Delve is it, so far. That is even though I have a bunch of potentially usable stuff. One of the PCs is very dynamic and proactive, he seizes the campaign world and really does what he wants with it. That fits the theme I wanted perfectly, so that's great. I worry about the game being too dependent on the one PC though.
Campaign blog: The Southlands Campaign: 4e D&D in the Wilderlands

My third campaign is my online 1e AD&D Yggsburgh sandbox. Gary Gygax did a great job setting up the Yggsburgh/Eastmark sandbox and providing both tons of content and the tools - including wonderful random tables - to generate my own material. Prep work is mostly developing additional NPCs (lots of damsels and femme fatales - not many female NPCs in the book), detailing existing ones (EGG gives brief notes on pretty well all Yggsburgh's major male NPCs), the relationship webs between them, plus stuff like filling in blanks in less detailed areas like the sewers or the College. Really easy to do between sessions by extrapolating from the provided material, it often feels more like playing a 'sim city' type game than actual 'work'. I have a lot of fun with this one, it's a bit raunchy in a 'Carry on Dungeoneering' sort of way, lots of references to '70s tropes - there was a jacuzzi party a few episodes back.
Blog, including session logs: S'mon' s Yggsburgh Blog

I'm also looking at running some Pathfinder Beginner Box in the Yggsburgh setting. Mostly been looking at Pathfinder adventures and tweaking their intros to fit better.

 

[Quickleaf]

Wow. Those are some impressive lists! ENWorlders rock

I play in a friend's Mystara B-series campaign, and just began DMing a Planescape sandbox - both are 4e. I've started a thread on my prep for the Planescape game in the 4th edition forum.

I'm also writing a Wild Hunt submission for Dungeon, and a mini-article for KQ about governing a beleaguered keep.

And I need to buy two copies of Caliphate Nights to give as gifts to game friends. Of all the strange feelings, buying a copy of your own book must rank up there.

 

[Zelda Themelin]

Dm

Pathfinder game Council of Thieves part 6 starting, changed many things there
Planning new AD&D back to roots game thanks to en-world waking call
Some one shots, varies
Solo game about dimension travel and Dungeon but more like the Dungeon books
One long running gm where pc:s are now gods or something like that gets occacional love

Play
Many to be finished (maybe) games when dm gets back from work hell
One new game about characters stolen from arcane times of FR to stop something badass, but magic has changed, their epic powers are now mid-level stuff, and whole world seems so different. Interesting this far.
Conjuction "epic" game, hasn't been D&D for long time, occacionally, many character have been "retared" as npc:s for that storyline. This has been running 20+ years now

 

[Bedrockgames]

I am working on a bunch of projects:

Servants of Gaius: Just finished all the major design and put it into layout while the final artwork comes in. Basically an alternate history Roman setting. It begins in 38 AD and the twist is Caligula is the hero (if a little misunderstood) and not the villain. Heavily inspired by I, Claudius.

Sortorius: This is a long term project. Won't be released until 2013. A magic heavy fantasy setting.

Slayers: This is a PDF only project. Basically a simple fantasu game with gritty mechanics and subdued, but dangerous magic. Think excaliber and dragonslayer. I hope to have this out in a month or two. Doing playtests right now.

That is all the stuff I am directly designing and writing, there are also a few projects I am handling through other writers.

 

[Lwaxy]

After someone talking about Sundered Skies on here I am now also putting together a Sundered Skies campaign. No idea where to fit it in but it is fun to plan out.

 

[Weregrognard]

Running: A 4e Neverwinter campaign.

Working on: Injecting more old-school, previous edition feel/stuff into the above campaign.

Playing: Skyrim, which interferes w/ the above

 

[Argyle King]

Playing

- Ned Smith. A villainous wizard in a Heroes Unlimited game. He is slightly insane. He's working with a team of villains (the other PCs) who are members of a Cthulu Cult. Their goal is to awaken Cthulu. Ned's particular brand of insanity is being a hardcore Christian who believes he is doing the work of the lord by helping to bring about the end of times. He believes Cthulu is the instrument through which 'The Lord' will wipe clean the sins of humanity.

- A Knight in a GURPS Dungeon Fantasy game.


DMing

- D&D 4th Edition campaign which I've described elsewhere as having some science fiction elements. By this I mean "hover bikes" powered by residuum. The story started with the party each receiving letters asking them to come to a black pagoda in the middle of a wasteland. There -the original party- learned they were all believed to be part of a legendary bloodline of a hero who had lived a long time ago. Solid details on what he looked like and such meant that virtually anybody could be part of the bloodline; thus, it was not strange that a wide variety of races were believed to be part of the bloodline.

The only one to survive the pagoda was Pwent, the dwarven fighter PC. As such, he was deemed to be the only one worthy of claiming the birthright. I was not trying to kill the party; I simply had insanely good rolling during a session. The fight in which the rest of the party perished wasn't even supposed to be difficult. New PCs were brought in via the NPC who sent the letters hiring a group to aid 'The Chosen One' in his journey. The NPC had expressed that many groups would be making an effort to stop The Chosen from claiming his destiny.

During a train ride North, a new PC was introduced to the group. After a train crash (long story,) the party discovered a Woem -race I created; think small cat people in the vein of Puss'N'Boots- who had been buried up to his neck in sand. This eventually lead to a series of side quests in which 'Chesh Ireland' (the Woem) had a criminal past which came back to haunt the party.

Somehow, the game then veered off into a quest to find a hat. I did not mind. It was nice to see players get involved in a minor element of the campaign so heavily. Without going into a lot of detail, I'll simply say that a local haberdasher became a prominent NPC.

After losing a battle against a Drow PC's family member (background related encounter,) the party was taken prisoner. This led to a story arc which veered away from the main quest (which I was fine with,) and explored that PC's background. I was pretty happy with the side arcs because I wanted a chance to shine the spotlight on each PC instead of them feeling as though they were simply sidekicks in the story of 'The Chosen One.'

Fast Forward a bit... They are currently level 10, and they have reached a complex where The Chosen One's birthright is located. The details of what it is are vague. A good aligned group barred their path at the entrance; a reformed orc in the service of Pelor explained that -while Pwent was indeed the blood of a great hero- the villain from whom the great hero of old had saved the world was himself (the hero of old.) As the details of the story are unclear, there was some concern that great evil could be brought to bear on the land once more if The Chosen One embraced his destiny. The party engaged in diplomacy to convince the orc that great good could also be brought to the land; one of the other PCs is a good aligned priest who promised to make sure the group stayed on the straight and narrow.

When we left off, Juan Derland (the Woem formerly known as Chesh Ireland- the player has roleplayed him in such a way that he is constantly changing his name) had his hand replaced with a stone hand which turned out to be the key to opening a door. The party engaged in the first encounter inside the destiny complex. They survived, but it went somewhat poorly. (Again, I seem to have really good luck when rolling for monsters.)

Currently the party consists of Pwent - dwarven fighter with a few Warlord elements granted as background benefits*; Alejandro - Drow cleric who has no specific deity (instead he just wears a bunch of religious symbols and hopes that one of them will answer his prayers when called,) Fernando - Shardmind Psion & haberdasher's assistant; Dwarven Invoker of Moradin - his name escapes me at the moment, and Juan Derland - Woem Rogue Mc Bard.

*Based on character background, I gave out various extra perks to each character.


Working On

- still tweaking some of my houserules for D&D 4E

- converting a lot of my D&D 3E library into GURPS 4E mechanics.

- brainstorming for a homebrew campaign setting. Right now I have too many ideas; I need to find a way to trim down my vision.

 

[Zireael]

Playing/DMing: Nothing - lack of time. University is time-consuming.

Working on:
- my own world
- my own mechanics (there's a topic somewhere on the forums here)

 

[delericho]

Bit of a quiet spell at the moment - have cut right back on gaming in the run-up to my wedding in April. Still...

Doing some preliminary prep for the next part of my campaign "The Eberron Code". The party are leaving Sharn for the Frostfell, to find a missing skyship...

Prepping a Star Wars Saga Edition one-shot for next month. It's set in a Star Wars "Mirror Universe", around a time equivalent to Episode One. I'm toying with giving one player Jar Jar as a character; in the Mirror Universe, I'm sure he's awesome!

Reading "Mutants & Masterminds" for a one-shot I'll be running later in the year (hopefully).

Putting together a Pathfinder Beginner Box-compatible mini-adventure to run at our local con at the start of May - something I can run in a couple of hours suitable to interested newbies.

I'm kinda working on a new campaign setting, "Life Under the Wheel", and also musing about better ways to design adventures; I may need to write an adventure module to test things out.

And I'm gradually considering restarting work on my not-quite-retroclone; I had thought to abandon it in light of 5e, but DDXP may have convinced me otherwise...

(Yeah, that's a quiet spell! )

 

[chaochou]

Currently playing:

- A Scorpion Clan bushi in L5R

Working on a few things:

- A conversion of the Fiasco playset 'Operation Zebra' to the Dread rules for a one-shot

- A sketchy outline situation to kick off a Burning Wheel game, possibly involving a murdered aristocrat.

- Designing my own game of internal politics, conflict and treachery in the world of organised crime. A long-term and ongoing project which tends to take one step forward and two back.