#12rpg

#12: Name an RPG, setting, or adventure you haven’t run or played before, but really want to try out in 2018. What particularly appeals about it?

Can I confess something? Just between us? Sit a little closer.

I’m feeling a little…unenthusiastic about roleplaying right at this exact minute. I don’t know what it is! I’m not hating on it, not at all. And when I’ve escalated my physical activity in the past, it’s always meant a reduction in mental and emotional energy for gaming. My gaming and physical lives have always been a zero-sum equation.

Some of it comes from a change in my local group’s makeup this year and headed into next year. One of my longest-run regulars moved away last year, which honestly has been a net positive because there was a lot of unhealthy history there. Time went by and the longer they’re gone, the more clearly I can see literally a decade-or-more of passive-aggressive nonsense that everyone’s play conformed around.

We added a couple new people this year and that has been 50% awesome. The other 50% has, unfortunately, just replaced my old problem child with a new one. I’m thinking through how to deal with that, in such a way that our good and healthy play culture doesn’t conform around the problem child. In a perfect world we’d find a way to bring the problem newb into our culture, but it doesn’t seem to be happening.

We’re also losing one of our best people in February as they head off to the Peace Corps. I say best because they’re also my very newest player. It’s so great to take a blank slate, especially when they’re eager to learn, and fill it with best practices and attitudes and not have to stumble around old, bad, ingrained habits.

Lots of changes. I’m feeling unsettled. So maybe that’s why 2018 doesn’t fill me with excitement today. Ask me again next week, you’ll get a different answer I’m sure.

That said, I do have some specific 2018 RPG goals:

My secret project is getting rolled out in force in 2018, and yes yes I’m looking at the full Kickstarter thing. It’ll probably come near or after the PbtA bubble bursts (which I predict happens in 2018), which is totally typical of my relationship with small press gaming. I love a lot about it but my naturally conservative, contemplative approach means I’m nowhere near the bleeding edge. So my big answer is: lots of gaming about knights who are also monsters.

We’re gonna wrap up our Apocalypse World campaign as soon as everyone’s post-holiday schedule settles out. I see it being 3ish more sessions. I haven’t tried restarting a campaign after such a long break so I have no idea if it’ll work or not. It might not! I’ll write about it. Love letters seem like the right way to go. I’ve never used them before.

I feel like AW2 has been heavy going so our next game will be a total space adventure romp: Coriolis. I’ve been legit jazzed about the setting and game and vibe since it arrived.

After Coriolis I’m pretty sure it’s The Veil. I’d actually go with it next but I try to break up my PbtA-style games with other stuff. Not sure if my players care or not. Just a thing I do, mostly for my own brain space.

Beyond that is a vast darkness. I have no idea what will catch my fancy. The newest iteration of Kult is coming, but horror is hard with my specific mix of players. Soth is coming as a 2-or-3 shot at some point. Lots of convention gaming. Paladin might maybe arrive in 2018 and my players have all been making noises about how much they enjoyed King Arthur Pendragon so that might be fun to get back to. I’ve been threatening a Wrath of the Autarch game for a while, and that might be interesting if we’re not feeling a strong pull toward heavy make-believe.

Hope y’all have a great holiday break/season/whatever.