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Post by HourEleven on Aug 2, 2014 13:32:11 GMT -8
As some of you probably know, I GM a large number of campaigns for various combinations of my main gaming group (usually 3 regular schedule campaigns and 3-5 irregular schedule campaigns). I have GMed for this group for almost 8 or so years. I have had the luxury of choosing which of my players to invite to a new campaign, based on the types of games I know they like. I have had consistent players in all my games who are fantastic, on time, and love the RP - we have had more sessions where dice never even came out of the bag than sessions where they did. I think my group has disbanded. It's a long story why, and not really pertinent to the problem. Previous to this group, I didn't GM at all in college (too busy smoking and drinking while listening to hardcore bands in basements). And before college was those teenage games we all had... So now, I'm a GM with no players. A couple of things worry me about what happens next. - First, I need to start a new group. Adding players wasn't a big deal before, we would invite someone and if they didn't fit with the rest of the group, they just didn't get invited again (but we didn't tend to invite people we didn't already think would mesh well). This is going to be a crap shoot for quite awhile.
- Second, I have GMed all women players (specifically ones that are into supernatural romance novels) for the past 8 years and haven't had a dude at my table in 20 years. Nothing against either sex, but I worry that my games (as my skills have developed and been practiced towards a certain genre and style) will not be all that interesting to the typical male player (the bulk of the available gamers I will probably find). Choosing and writing games and story-lines for a different group will probably be a rude awakening and quite a bumpy path.
- Third, my area is a dead zone for gamers. My FLGS is exclusively Magic:TG and 40k kids. They pulled the RPG books from the shelves and replaced them with comics quite awhile ago. It's going to be a long time, I think, before I can build any sort of player base again.
So, I went from being an over worked GM having a great time running 5-7 campaigns, to completely out of the job. It's very strange... I feel like that newly divorced guy who hasn't had to go on dates in decades and doesn't know how to do it anymore...
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Post by Malex on Aug 2, 2014 15:00:37 GMT -8
Could ask for some of the people here to join in an online game of your creation.
Sent from my LGL55C using Tapatalk 2
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Post by HourEleven on Aug 2, 2014 16:34:49 GMT -8
I'm still on the fence about online games. Also, the idea of running for strangers super creeps me out. However, online games might be my main option in the coming months.
I think I might try my Annalise game again (it didn't make last time, 2 people short) and it should give me an idea about how online GMing works and GMing strangers.
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Post by Kainguru on Aug 3, 2014 1:12:57 GMT -8
I wouldn't be overly concerned about male gamers - there will be just as many makes who suit your mindset as not, just as there are just as many females who suit the mindset that gives you trepidation. It's about selecting players that suit your style, of either gender. To illustrate, you have a whole community here that, that by and large, is in accord with Roleplaying an entire session with nary a die rolled. True, the small population you have to draw from makes it difficult. Small groups, for exactly the same reasons (small population, smaller population of gamers and an even smaller population of like minded gamers), led to groups if 2 or 3 being standard when I was younger. I found that in itself was a good filter - people who tended to game with a different ethos were the ones who tended to judge gaming groups by size (like people who collect friends on FB as a matter of status rather than friendship) - small groups were of no interest to them so our paths rarely crossed (except at the FLGS where they were obvious by their loud declarations about their army of players, which were normally followed by exhortations of their +8 sword of everything etc etc <cue exit FLGS stage left and return later>). Aaron
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D.T. Pints
Instigator
JACKERCON 2018: WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY June 22-July 1st
Posts: 2,857
Currently Playing: D&D 5e, Pathfinder, DUNGEONWORLD, Star Wars Edge of the Empire
Currently Running: DUNGEONWORLD, PATHFINDER
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Post by D.T. Pints on Aug 3, 2014 5:31:36 GMT -8
Regarding online concerns...that's one of the reasons I started Jackercon. I think you can suss out rather quickly who would be agreeable to your style of gaming and those that don't fit as well. With one-shot online games I readily found a group of people that would be willing to try unusual or complex systems, enjoy creating and playing interesting characters, and aren't adverse to shooting each other in the face with lasers and than laughing about it.
But I'll have to disagree with Aaron a bit...I think having women in a gaming group generally alters the tone. Certainly you can achieve those tonal shifts without having gender differences but overall I have found rather massive play style differences in an all "ladies" (Tappy voice) group and an all Cocks and Socks group. Though I'm aware of the severe number of double entendre's I have just allowed into this post...my point is still the same.
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Post by Kainguru on Aug 3, 2014 6:16:08 GMT -8
"Cocks and socks!!!!" - ROFLMAO (that's new one to me that I shall add to my vernacular). Though to clarify - in our current group there are two ladies and they're more 'kick arse and chew bubblegum' than me. ie: while I try to assess an outcome that minimises combat they're already rolling for initiative - screwing up any hope I had for a 'considered approach' (though it is my first time playing a paladin and I'm trying to prove that paladins don't have to be dumb by default).
(At risk of being labeled a hipster the group is composed of menfolk who are 'sensitive' to more contemporary PC concerns - we're self confessed liberal douches )
Aaron
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Post by HourEleven on Aug 3, 2014 6:29:40 GMT -8
I did want to clarify that I wasn't saying ladies were more into RP, but that by and large, more ladies are into the drama romance games I've been running (much much more "Vampire Diaries" than "Blade,"). There is definitely combat monkey ladies out there, but I'd wager there is more of them than there is dudes showing up to the table saying "I can't wait to find out if Charles knows that Devon and Becky are secretly together!"
EDIT: I guess I should have said originally: not so much that they are women, but that they were an entire table of girly girls.
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Post by HourEleven on Aug 3, 2014 9:46:27 GMT -8
A quick example of what our games are like: my monster hunting game, because it's the one I was working on most recently and the one I've posted about the most (looking for monster ideas).
!!Skip if game stories and walls of text aren't your thing.!! It was the first campaign branching off our main WoD(very not cannon Vampire/Werewolf urban fantasy political campaign - that may or may not be mostly focused on a vampire/werewolf/werewolf/werewolf/mage/vampire love hexagon) game. I wanted to keep it in WoD mechanics for familiarity (humorously enough, we ended up moving it to Fate - which no one liked but me - and then to Gurps which everyone loved) and pitched the Hunters: The Vigil game as it was written. /////////
"Nope."
They responded with: "How about if it was like the Supernatural TV show?" followed about a 20 minute derail about Jensen Eckles amazing-ness (I couldn't argue, the man's unreal hot).
Them: "What if it was that crossed with Buffy and Practical Magic?" "Yeah! That's perfect!"
Me: OK. I think I can do that...
///////////
What we wound up with was a monster hunting game that was actually very little about hunting monsters (in the way that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is about slaying vampires...). It's primarily an investigation and research game with, at most, one combat at the end of each episode. Really. it's a game about a big ass love triangle and relationships with our parents. Because combat isn't the focus (and isn't really what is at stake, they will kill the big evil if they find it - it's the Buffy principle: they will be fine and will win the fight, but who else will get hurt in the process) we use a very not deadly (for hunters) tweak of Gurps (normal people are still very squishy).
Because it's episodic, we have 2 main characters a few people who hop in and out depending on schedules and lives. Here's the (currently most important ones):
Main PC1, Luke. The ex-jock raised by a single mother. He learns she was knocked up by the man who drove the poltergeist from her house - who moved on the next morning to continue his mission. This man was the greatest and most famous (amongst other hunters) hunter in the region. Luke desperately wants to live up to the reputation of the man he never knew and to deserve the last name he has taken on when he became a novice hunter himself. (I have complete and total carte blanche to create Luke's father and his story).
Main PC2, Ginger. The daughter of the forbidden marriage between a hunter and a witch (any magic be a sentencing offense as far as hunters are concerned). Her father Jack had hidden her mother's lineage while fighting the good fight (her mother hiding from witch society as well). He recently died in the line of duty and she found his journals. She is slowly learning that despite growing up with him, she knows less about him than Luke knows about his father. She chooses to become a novice hunter and to hide her witch lineage as well.
2ndary N/PC1, Han. The tiny gargoyle familiar that has been passed down mother to daughter throughout Ginger's family. Han is actually a powerful native american healer and protector, who has had his powers bound to this family line. He doesn't have access to any magics (or his gorgeous human form) except when death is imminent for a member of her family. Ginger is the first member in almost a century to have seem him as a human - and he was able to tell her that she must find a way to free him.
Main PC3 is a bit too complicated in how she fits in, lets just say she's immortal and was sort of raised by/protected by/saved by/in love with Luke's dad.
What it became is a love triangle in which Luke will find out Ginger is a witch, and it will challenge every belief he has held his entire life about what it means to be a hunter - the only thing he ever valued. The more Ginger uses here powers (risking getting caught), the closer her mother's side of the family comes to finding her (think, "Bewitched" but dangerous). One day, she will have to choose between the witches and hunters (losing her connection to her father, or losing her powers - and Han - forever).
A game about the previous generation, about familial obligation, about love, about sacrifice, and... occasionally some monsters get hunted.
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radzap
Apprentice Douchebag
Up the irons!
Posts: 64
Preferred Game Systems: AD&D 1st Ed.
Favorite Species of Monkey: DK
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Post by radzap on Aug 8, 2014 10:08:34 GMT -8
Go back to your FLGS and ask if any of the "cleaner" player would like to play in a Rogue Trader game or other 40k styled campaign. You'll find that there's tons of source material on the subject and the fans of it are as ravenous about it as your SuperNat Fic players were. Passion is what counts when trying to get a group together. 40K players have in bucketloads...Ork players have it in dice bucketloads.
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Post by HourEleven on Aug 8, 2014 10:22:38 GMT -8
For a minute I thought by Rogue Trader you were referencing 1st edition 40k - which is the only edition I still play - because it's about telling a story in war game form.
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radzap
Apprentice Douchebag
Up the irons!
Posts: 64
Preferred Game Systems: AD&D 1st Ed.
Favorite Species of Monkey: DK
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Post by radzap on Aug 8, 2014 10:26:34 GMT -8
But you get my gist. Poll some guys down at the corner store and see if there are any takers. Take your pick of the systems because the RT RPG is really teh suck. Since you're no stranger to the world this should be hand in glove. Let your players be whoever they want to be...they didn't seem to have a problem teaming a Master Inquisitor with an Ork Freeboota in the last Dawn of War game.
Best of luck to you!
[edit speeling]
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Post by HourEleven on Aug 8, 2014 15:32:24 GMT -8
Definitely a good idea.
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