gothwalk: (hope springs eternally from my fist)
( Jan. 7th, 2009 11:20 am)
So, with all the year reviews, etc, out of the way, let's look at something I'm really interested in: games.

2008

I got in a good amount of gaming last year. I wound up Locksmith's Folly, continued A Thousand Ships, started The Living & The Dead, and have continued with some mini-campaigns in Davon, mostly around a vague theme of examining the long-term effects of historical events. I played some WoW, early in the year, a good bit of EVE (though not, I feel, enough - more on that below), and some WAR, late in the year when it came out. I also tried a few other online games, but nothing really grabbed me. There were a fair few boardgames, and I even got to play some tabletop games - I never really got started in [livejournal.com profile] evilrobotshane's short-lived Cyberpunk 2020 Silhouette game, but the newer and hopefully more sustainable Spirit of the Century got off to a good start.

2009

Looking forward, A Thousand Ships is going very well indeed, once we get past some scheduling issues. I'm starting to think that three schedules are the maximum you can really expect to be able to convene on a regular basis - that is, couples who are living together can be treated as one 'schedule', and once you get past three, you're starting to run into problems with other regular activities, be they evening classes, other games, other hobbies, or work requirements.

The game itself is well underway, with one long section (a season, if you like) completed, and the second going strongly. There's a lot of plot engagement, and the players are driving events very well. I'm not sure they quite believe me when I tell them that the massive pilgrimage that made up the bulk of Season 1 was wholly their idea, but it really was. I'd love to see more player-driven events like that in games ("Let's invade Burgundy!") but it's hard to make things like that available while avoiding railroading - which of course is exactly the opposite of what you want. I reckon Fate lends itself more to this than more traditional rulesets, but I also think we could make much more use of the player-control aspects of that than we currently are.

The Living & The Dead has just started, really, and is coming up on the second 'Episode'. It's not at all clear yet how that's going to shape up; we've three experienced players and one complete newcomer, and a very developed setting. I need to work more on matching game events and plotlines to characters, but that takes time, and really can't be rushed.

I have, as usual, lots of games I want to run, and almost certainly won't have enough time for. Here are four current concepts.

One concept, which is fairly well-developed in my mind, and which I've been doing research and reading for, is an Arthurian game, set in a fairly dark age early in the Old High Kingdom (for those who know the campaign setting). I'd really like to run this, but the overlap of interested players and available timeslots isn't working out very well.

I'd also like to run a short 4th Edition D&D game ("short", for me, is 6 or 8 sessions). I have a setting in mind for this too, with which I'm fairly pleased, at least in concept. It's not connected at all with my established world/continuity.

I'm also mulling over the concept of a long-term 'simulationist' game. This would be one in which the interest is not in a grand long-term plot, but more a sandbox-style, what-will-happen-if situation. It would still involve a lot of politics and secrets to be discovered, etc, but wouldn't have the actual GM-provided core plot. This might possibly be merged with the next idea.

And that next idea is a space-opera game, set in a huge, galaxy-wide, Vingian- or Banksian-style crossover of cultures and species. I'd like to run this in Fate, although if it's also the Sim game, I might possibly opt for something a bit crunchier. Maybe. I'd also like to start this off with characters who don't know much about the setting, so that it can be a whole discovery thing for the characters as much as the players; this has been something missing from recent fantasy games as either the players or the characters know the setting very well.

Online, I'm going to be continuing with EVE, which is entertaining me a lot at the moment for sim/sandbox thinking, and WAR, which is excellent for toe-to-toe PvP action, and adequate in PvE. EVE is getting most of my online game attention, because the more I play, the better it gets, which is not a curve that always happens in MMOs. I'm concentrating on manufacturing and trading on Atrakus at the moment, which is going well, and have got a second account (Artemisia) to train up for missioning (some) and PvP (hopefully lots). Atrakus is currently skilling up for invention, and after that, he's going to be working on maxing out his trading skills.

I'm aware that the PvE game in WoW is much improved in Wrath of the Lich King, but the more I see the game community I know there obsess over raids, the less interested I get. Mass-effort high-organisation gear-dependent PvE is right at the very bottom of MMO features, as far as I'm concerned, and might even be on the list of bugs instead. RP efforts have more or less vanished, and the only real interest left in the game is the PvE levelling (which I'll grant looks good, insofar as single-player-with-other-people-around stuff goes) and the crafting/trading aspects, which are interesting indeed, but not enough to pay 35 quid plus 15 quid a month for. Not to mention that Blizzard keep messing with the trade aspect, and completely resetting it with every expansion. So for now, I'm leaning heavily on the side of can't-be-bothered with regard to WoW.

In small bits: I am watching the news about Darkfall Online with interest, but don't really anticipate buying it unless the one-month-in reviews are very good indeed. I'm poking Wizard 101 when I want some overly cute stuff (although I have to admit, the gameplay is actually VERY good). I bought Civ IV Complete, and have played maybe three hours of it. I'm playing no CCGs at all, really, although I'm hanging on to my EVE cards for future games, and in boardgames, I have Game Of Thrones and Arkham Horror, both unplayed, and in need of playing sometime this year.
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