Thursday, November 02, 2006

The Unmistakable Taste Of The Bullet

So...as I noted before, I just don't get to game much. My wife and I agree on this, and since we both love this stupid hobby to death, we've decided to do something about it.

Actually we're doing something about a few things, but this is a blog about games and not my personal life, and that's why you're here. One of those things is going to be a game run at my Local.

The idea is for me to get out of the house now and then, and run a game with folks outside of my usual group. Here's the thing, though: the most popular games at the FLGS are called "D" and "D".

I'm not interested in playing D&D, at least not with the current rules, because I'm not really a fan. They bug me. No harm, no foul, but no spooning on a cold winter night, either.

Luckily the manager is one of my best friends, and he clued me in to the local gamers' tastes: they'd like a SF game, but they want to bust heads and make broken characters, so I should be ready for that. A nice game of Traveller might appeal to them -- eventually.

They need to grow up a bit, these guys. Need to learn to play roles, not just stats.

Obviously running something that the store actually sells, but their non-d20 selection is slender.

Fine, fine. Okay. I'll play ball.

I have the D20 Mondern and D20 Future SRDs, and since I like D20M a little more than I like 3.x...and it's closer to what the yoots dig... D20 Future it is.

And I'm applying some of the new flava I've talked about here -- hell, I'm stealing names, locations and even situations with the shamelessness of a horny monkey. Thus the inception of Free Company, a D20 Future campaign based nigh-plagiraistically on Iain M. Banks' novel "Consider Phlebas" as well as the original anime Sol Bianca and with a little dash of R. E. Howard's Conan stories. Interstellar mercenary mayhem, lasers, starships, GFS and desert moons inhabited by reclusive monks with supercomputers. They'll get to bust asses hither and yon, get into and back out of big trouble, and generally tear it up.

The catch?

Every player must present his character to me, first, in the form of a one-line character concept.

Hmn. Lead doesn't taste so bad...