serenissima (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
serenissima) wrote2007-03-16 11:41 pm
serenissima) wrote2007-03-16 11:41 pm
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My first foray into boxed role-playing games
I've been to four role-playing games now, held by the gaming society I found on Meetup.
Game #1: D&D 3rd ed. (I think), Eberron, Xendrik expeditions
I was part of a group of adventurers being paid by one company to locate a shipwreck belonging to another company and retrieve its cargo. The ship was haunted, and we had to fight off the undead sailors and captain, of course.
We managed to squeeze this entire game into one 3 to 3.5 hour session. The gameplay seemed to consist mostly of tromping through the jungle to find the shipwreck (it was beached) and of "I move two squares forward and shoot my bow" at the nasties encountered along the way and on board. I got about as much fun out of it as from my PS2 game "Gladius." Which isn't bad; but it isn't great either.
Game #2: D20 Modern, 1942, "The Life Tree of Tefnakht", Part I
I was part of a group sponsored by the U.S. sent to investigate an archeological dig in Egypt, of interest solely because the Nazis got there first and we wanted to find out what had caught their attention. It turned out to be an underground city on an underground lake, and we got a hint about some kind of method to gain immortality hidden there. What was definitely there were giant spiders, and the group of Nazis. Very Indiana Jones-esque.
We got about half way through the game in this session. It was considerably more fun than the first. I think there were a few more opportunities to do things other than walk and fight, such as search for puzzles, and the fights themselves seemed more interesting.
Unfortunately, the man who GMed this game had a falling out with the Meetup group organizer and left the group, so I guess we won't be playing the second half.
Game #3: Serenity, "Brown Coat Payroll," Part I
The game universe was based directly on the movie/TV series, at a time a few years after the end of the movie. We hadn't all seen the TV series, but we had all seen the movie. The setup was a town on a mining planet, wherein the Miner's Guild and a corporation with ties to organized crime were together trying to pressure a cooperative group of independent miners to sell their ... what's the word .. claim. I played a Companion who was brought in (paid for by the Guild and the corporation) to negotiate a settlement between the three parties. The rest of the group was the crew of the ship employed to bring me safely to the dirty little gravel pit of a world, keep me safe while there, and return me safely home.
During this session -- in fact during a single afternoon in-game -- I was poisoned, the building in which negotiations were being held was bombed, and the town doctor I was taken to attempted to poison me more. The action consisted in escaping these complications and figuring out which side was guilty of what. The figuring out part involved a little bit of forceful persuasion. It was a fun and exciting game, despite the fact that my character was an unwilling participant in the excitement.
Game #4: Serenity, "Brown Coat Payroll," Part II
At the very end of the previous session, the first mate of the ship had discovered someone claiming buried war treasure (the unpaid wages of those who lost the war) was hidden under the building that had been bombed. He set about recovering the treasure. A lot of time was spent working out the details of how to get potentially very many crates of gold out from the building and onto our ship without being caught, especially by the mobsters guarding the building. When the first mate actually reached the very many crates (having killed the guards), he discovered they held not gold but canisters of what turned out to be chemical weapons: lethal gas. So then a lot of time was spend discussing how to dispose of the crates such that A) they could not be used, B) they wouldn't kill the entire town, and C) we wouldn't get ourselves in trouble. We did eventually reach an awkward conclusion but one that satisfied all our requirements.
This session was kind of boring for me. My character didn't have much to do, not being the sort to go sneaking into a damaged building past armed guards. There were twice as many players at this session than at the last, which may have bogged things down.
I've been enjoying myself at these games, and I'm going to keep attending. I hope I get better at figuring out what to do with my character. I feel I haven't contributed much to the party as a whole. Maybe practice will help.
Game #1: D&D 3rd ed. (I think), Eberron, Xendrik expeditions
I was part of a group of adventurers being paid by one company to locate a shipwreck belonging to another company and retrieve its cargo. The ship was haunted, and we had to fight off the undead sailors and captain, of course.
We managed to squeeze this entire game into one 3 to 3.5 hour session. The gameplay seemed to consist mostly of tromping through the jungle to find the shipwreck (it was beached) and of "I move two squares forward and shoot my bow" at the nasties encountered along the way and on board. I got about as much fun out of it as from my PS2 game "Gladius." Which isn't bad; but it isn't great either.
Game #2: D20 Modern, 1942, "The Life Tree of Tefnakht", Part I
I was part of a group sponsored by the U.S. sent to investigate an archeological dig in Egypt, of interest solely because the Nazis got there first and we wanted to find out what had caught their attention. It turned out to be an underground city on an underground lake, and we got a hint about some kind of method to gain immortality hidden there. What was definitely there were giant spiders, and the group of Nazis. Very Indiana Jones-esque.
We got about half way through the game in this session. It was considerably more fun than the first. I think there were a few more opportunities to do things other than walk and fight, such as search for puzzles, and the fights themselves seemed more interesting.
Unfortunately, the man who GMed this game had a falling out with the Meetup group organizer and left the group, so I guess we won't be playing the second half.
Game #3: Serenity, "Brown Coat Payroll," Part I
The game universe was based directly on the movie/TV series, at a time a few years after the end of the movie. We hadn't all seen the TV series, but we had all seen the movie. The setup was a town on a mining planet, wherein the Miner's Guild and a corporation with ties to organized crime were together trying to pressure a cooperative group of independent miners to sell their ... what's the word .. claim. I played a Companion who was brought in (paid for by the Guild and the corporation) to negotiate a settlement between the three parties. The rest of the group was the crew of the ship employed to bring me safely to the dirty little gravel pit of a world, keep me safe while there, and return me safely home.
During this session -- in fact during a single afternoon in-game -- I was poisoned, the building in which negotiations were being held was bombed, and the town doctor I was taken to attempted to poison me more. The action consisted in escaping these complications and figuring out which side was guilty of what. The figuring out part involved a little bit of forceful persuasion. It was a fun and exciting game, despite the fact that my character was an unwilling participant in the excitement.
Game #4: Serenity, "Brown Coat Payroll," Part II
At the very end of the previous session, the first mate of the ship had discovered someone claiming buried war treasure (the unpaid wages of those who lost the war) was hidden under the building that had been bombed. He set about recovering the treasure. A lot of time was spent working out the details of how to get potentially very many crates of gold out from the building and onto our ship without being caught, especially by the mobsters guarding the building. When the first mate actually reached the very many crates (having killed the guards), he discovered they held not gold but canisters of what turned out to be chemical weapons: lethal gas. So then a lot of time was spend discussing how to dispose of the crates such that A) they could not be used, B) they wouldn't kill the entire town, and C) we wouldn't get ourselves in trouble. We did eventually reach an awkward conclusion but one that satisfied all our requirements.
This session was kind of boring for me. My character didn't have much to do, not being the sort to go sneaking into a damaged building past armed guards. There were twice as many players at this session than at the last, which may have bogged things down.
I've been enjoying myself at these games, and I'm going to keep attending. I hope I get better at figuring out what to do with my character. I feel I haven't contributed much to the party as a whole. Maybe practice will help.