I just got my PDF copy of Masks: A New Generation. It's gorgeous, and I cannot wait for my physical copy. I absolutely need to run it for my superhero-loving sister.
● The set-up is so charged. It's these two close-knit Viking families (and a priest and foreigner caught up with them), with a lot of layers of love, history, agreements, and uncertainty between them. An exiled son returns and all of that blows up. They have to confront the past, the present, and their dreams for the future all at once. Sometimes, everyone ends up dead. Sometimes, it comes to a surprisingly beautiful conclusion. Always, it is interesting.
● It's replayable! Even knowing some spoilers! I've played 3 of the 9 characters and helped facilitate it a couple of times and it's different every time. I would love to try the other characters and would even consider playing the same one again. The characters have a lot of nuances and it's possible to emphasize very different aspects of them and to sacrifice or refuse to sacrifice things that are important to them, which will completely change their trajectory.
● Oh my gosh do I love the characters. They are well-rounded and interesting. They have powerful and varied motivations and talents. They have Viking annnngst. They love, they hate, they stew with resentment. They want to see the world, they want what's best for their kids. They want to be honorable. They want to make their parents proud. They want forgiveness, they want revenge. They want what can never be. The characters are old, young, married, interestingly single. Literate, illiterate. Poets. Warriors. A witch. A priest. Some practical, some scheming, some dreamers.
● There are many paths to getting what they want. Blades & blood. Poison. The law. Lies. Earnest conversation. Partnerships. Betrayal.
● There are a few scenes (a funeral fire, a feast, etc.) that give some structure, and the rules are few and easy to follow, like a gesture to make when you're eavesdropping but not right there. And there's a matrix to quickly solve what happens when blades are drawn or poisons ingested.
● The only tough requirement is that it really needs a full cast of 9, plus the facilitator. Though if you have an additional person or two, they can run around as thralls or servants. That said, you don't need costumes. Or props beyond what's included in the set (or if you're getting the PDF, the props aren't anything fancy). You really just need a big room and about 3 hours from start to finish. Unless there's a blood bath. Then it'll probably be shorter. That said, you could totally enhance the experience even more with costumes and a real feast - I would love to do that sometime.
● In one my favorite non-spoilery stories, one of the characters I played conspired with someone else to poison another, and in the confusion of the evening ended up drinking from the poisoned cup myself, realizing in horror what had happened as the poison began to take effect. It was suuuuuuuuch good tragedy.
Same. Of the handful of other people I can think of off the top of my head who would play this, the majority of them will definitely own a copy. I am kicking for $1 to follow the updates and will probably raise before the project ends if I decide I really want my own copy, depending.
Non surprisingly fall is the time when the rpg club I'm at gets most new people and so has been this year. Surprising thing was that this year we had multiple new people saying that they are familiar with tabletop rpgs, not by personal experience, but through actual play podcasts and videos.
Not a bad thing at all, mind you, but interesting newish thing.
I still haven't gotten around playing Apocalypse World or any powered by Apocalypse games.
Pitched super hero campaign with Worlds in Peril, that's Apocalypse World based game, on the rpg club, but didn't get players for it, so I ended up playing basically D&D. Have been looking at Dungeon World and The Sprawl as potential games to run.
I think it's kinda funny and kinda sad that Dungeon World seems to be the most popular of *world games. Here we have this super cool system than can and has been bend to do all kinds of genres and holds endless possibilities. And then people play D&D with it, because basic fantasy adventures is the only thing people know to do in table top gaming.
Not saying that Dungeon World is bad though. Haven't played it myself, but just reading the rulebook it clearly has lots of love put into it, way more than some other World games I've read and is definitely a good game. Probably.
As a someone who started with Shadowrun and holds some nostalgia towards it still The Sprawl makes my mouth water. It doesn't have the fantasy elements of Shadowrun, but those were always secondary for me. The cyperpunk and the "group of professionals are hired for missions against megacorporations" aspects are in and look good.
I, for one, am more interested in dungeons than in fantasy settings. I've put some small amount of thought into like, cyberpunk dungeons. Very low on my list of things to actually work on, though.
I think now would be decent time to actually talk about what we each mean with dungeons. For me dungeon is a collection of rooms, monsters, traps and treasure where characters go in and within manage their resources and weight the risk against the rewards in order to get out of the dungeon with as much loot as possible and with as little bodies and broken bones as possible.
And that kind of stuff doesn't interest me that much and is not the stuff I prefer in my games ether as a player or as a gm.
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Returning both with a stern letter, because what the fuck.
I gave $5 just to follow the updates, though.
Not a bad thing at all, mind you, but interesting newish thing.
Pitched super hero campaign with Worlds in Peril, that's Apocalypse World based game, on the rpg club, but didn't get players for it, so I ended up playing basically D&D. Have been looking at Dungeon World and The Sprawl as potential games to run.
Dungeon World is an easy sell to pretty much any more traditional group, and a good way to trick them into playing good roleplaying games.
Not saying that Dungeon World is bad though. Haven't played it myself, but just reading the rulebook it clearly has lots of love put into it, way more than some other World games I've read and is definitely a good game. Probably.
As a someone who started with Shadowrun and holds some nostalgia towards it still The Sprawl makes my mouth water. It doesn't have the fantasy elements of Shadowrun, but those were always secondary for me. The cyperpunk and the "group of professionals are hired for missions against megacorporations" aspects are in and look good.
And that kind of stuff doesn't interest me that much and is not the stuff I prefer in my games ether as a player or as a gm.
Running 3 tests of New Frontiers and one of 5 Across the Heart.
Fuck.