Saturday, September 7, 2013

The True Bride

Sometimes the love of your life is right there in front of you, staring you in the face the entire time and you don't even realize it.

Such it was with my new beloved and old, dear friend...



 
 
A melancholy need to run something of a fantasy nature has stayed with me from the dawn of late Summer onward until now, not one bit frightened off by the coming spectre of Autumn.
 
I have given it respect and indeed been rallied by it in the form of inspiration and activity toward my own little work of passion and vanity, 'The StoryTeller RPG'.
 
While progress on the StoryTeller continues, it has not satiated my hunger for a long term game I can run with my regular group.
 
I looked back at my posts for the month of August and I noticed something.
 
I listed only two commercial Fantasy RPGs that I've ever really liked and one of them I have never run. I played it some 25+ years ago but never ran it. I've run the other one, Ars Magica, to varying degrees of success (OK, mostly lots of success, one time recently mediocre success). So why try a campaign of one and not the other?
 
Why indeed?
 
 

 
One of my favorite pieces of role playing game art ever.
By Lisa A. Free.
 
 
My thoughts are that with this game, which directly combines the concepts of actual medieval history with folklore and legend (for such is the very nature of its source material), I will have a better chance of evoking the kind of fantasy setting I am longing for while still giving my genre-challenged players the opportunity to battle enemy forces, slay monsters, hunt for ancient and possibly mystic treasures and gain wealth and notoriety, a major driving force for at least one member of the group.
 
For the majority of the players, the chance to do all of the above while exploring interesting characters is easily facilitated by the system and subject matter. The rules governing Passions and Traits will go along way toward helping one or two of them visualize their character beyond what skills they have and what weapon they use.
 
Most interestingly, its my now veterans who seem to have the most difficulty thinking outside the box when it comes to fantasy and genre-troupes in general, where as my newer players are pretty open-minded and flexible as they've had fewer years of D&D pounded into their heads. Well, two more new players maybe coming into the mix. This could get very, very interesting.
 
 
King Arthur as a Boy: "What's the best thing for being sad?"
Merlin: "The best thing for being sad is to learn something."
Camelot, The Broadway Musical, 1967


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4 comments:

  1. Pendragon is a great game. If you can get ahold of a copy, I suggest checking out Pagan Shore (the Ireland book for Pendragon). It has a lot of interesting expansions to magic, geasa, creatures (all with a strong folkloric flavor). Great art, too.

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  2. Pendragon is by far my all-time favorite fantasy game and setting. Such a solid set of rules built for the setting. You don't see that much anymore. Seems like companies like MWP recycle rules with the idea that one rules set with minor tweaks works for every setting. never felt that was the case.

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    1. Well sometimes a tweak here and there is all you need but yeah, I tend to agree with you. The right tool for the right job and all that.

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