I just read this over on Chronicled Scribblings of the Itinerant Overlord and it struck a nerve with me today.

"Most DMs simply do not have time to tend their creative garden well.  Life calls with more urgency and frequency.  So they buy, and buy, and buy some more.  DMs read for inspiration; isolated players often read for the daydream of games not found and characters not played.  The hobby pulls so strongly on unmet or unmeetable desires of our subconscious that, even if only vicariously, consumption of its offerings takes precedent as much as our bank accounts allow."

Time for something a little different

I've been thinking a lot about the time I actually spend gaming lately. My usual group has been playing pathfinder in various modules and AP's (though never finishing an AP) for a couple of years with the occasional dip in to something like Dungeon Crawl Classics (due to my poking and prodding). 

Being honest with myself I'm sick to death of running and preparing for pathfinder games. Its too much work, too many rules, too much optimization, and too slow. I've been enamored with OSR games lately and have been dying to get more involved in one of those systems. My group however seems pretty happy where they are. That's fine! Everyone should play the game they want to play! I'm not about to system shame anyone, i'm speaking solely of my own personal preference. No one anywhere has to give a shit about what I think or prefer! 

I'll still happily sit down and play Pathfinder with those guys any time they want to! I love that group and I love hanging out with them. I just don't want to GM it anymore, at least not for a while. XCrawl could tempt me back to Pathfinder though, that looks fun to run..

So it seems i'm left to either explore Solo-RPG's which, I have a little and have had some fun with them. I prefer a social experience though and would really love to get around a table and throw some dice. Well, COVID-19....

Online gaming has been kind of fun. I've played several Pathfinder sessions and run a Crawling Under a Broken Moon funnel. Once the kinks were worked out we had a good time. So an online game then. 

An OSR online game with new people. I'm thinking I'll either run DCC or MÖRK BORG  .

I'm looking for a system that someone totally new to RPG's can learn in a night and something with a lot of character. I want it to stand out from any typical D&D or Pathfinder type game on its own merit before I start getting my hands into it. 

DCC is great for this, the funnels are a perfect introduction to the way the game plays and make you really love your character (when and if they survive). The setting lends itself to a little more of a "Gonzo" kind of game (expect to see wizards with laser guns, etc.)

Mork Borg is a really rules light system that would be super easy to teach and the game mechanics are so cool. Its a super dark setting, which is fine by me, and totally cool as long as everyone knows that going into it. 

That's where I'm at. I started a Discord server for it and posted in there hoping to start a discussion about what to play. Now I just need some more people to show up and want to game...

                                                                            best lich ever

Progress report --MORE BRAINSTORMING--

     I've decided to go with the DCC rule set for my upcoming campaign. As much as my table loves Pathfinder, I can't imagine trying to use it for this. The one thing that totally took it off the table for me was the stat blocks. I want to have original and weird monsters for them to fight! I don't want to have to create a whole page of stats for every new thing I throw at them.

     So, we're going to start with a funnel. I'm thinking i'm going to have them wake up on the forest floor after some pre-dungeon binge drinking. (hey, those zero levels need to get their courage from somewhere)

      They'll wake up having their eyes pried open by someone who then shines a bright lantern into them before feeling a sharp sting on the back of their necks. This will probably be played up as a  dream or hallucination.

     The idea being that this group of villagers got all worked up to go and right some wrong they are mad and and got sidetracked by whiskey on the way to the big bad. They wake up while being examined by extra-planar travelers (or aliens?). I'd like to treat this as a potential nightmare or hallucination. I should have all of the PC's make a roll and give that information to one of them. After letting that digest the mission should begin. I was thinking about starting with a heavily modified published funnel just to make things easy for myself and to give us a solid start before i start fucking things up.

     I'm still trying to figure out which funnel to run. No matter what its going to get a slightly sci-fi over haul. The plan right now (at least until i think of something better) is to have them at the end discover a door where there shouldn't be a door which will lead to a very technological hallway. They should then realize that the funnel they were just in was actually a simulation room that they have now begun to escape from.

     So from funnel to dungeon as they will try to escape the lab? ship? (not sure yet). Then I'll have to set up a base of operations for them while they figure out where they are. I'd like to have some kind of means to transport them to all kinds of other locations.

     I'm going to borrow a lot from a bunch of different sources here to take them on a pretty wild adventure. I'm looking at "Beneath: The Inverted Church", "Cha'alt", "Hubris", and "Crawling Under a Broken Moon" so far and i'm sure i'll be borrowing from more along the way!

For real.

Oh you better believe i'll be purchasing a set or two of these tonight. I've been calling  my daughter "Lil' Bean" since she was born! I'll get one set for me and one for her!! 100% of the proceeds go to a great charity too?!? Total win!

Keeping notes for an upcoming adventure.

I have a ton of ideas flying around in my head for a home brew adventure for my RPG gaming group. I'm going to use this as a spot for me to organize thoughts and get things together for writing this thing.

I'm going for a gritty sci-fi/fantasy mash up kinda thing. Swords and laser guns. Robots and dragons. Magic fueled computers?? why not!

So far we've been playing Pathfinder and Dungeon Crawl Classics and right now i'm totally torn on which system to run this in. I'm leaning towards DCC right now though, the fluidity of the system works well with my style of GMing these games. Honestly too, thinking about making and finding monsters in a long pathfinder home brew is already giving me a headache. I love that DCC stat blocks are so small and malleable.

Maybe DCC with some extra crunch? It kind of kills the vibe of DCC to do it though. I'll have to check out the added stuff in the fanzines. Maybe just adding extra stuff from the zines will give my players the crunch they want...

I'll try to keep up with this occasionally as this comes together.

Its probably about time I did this too. Everyone needs a place they can write things they'd rather not forget and feel important while doing it. Here is my lame placeholder first post.