When I first packed all of my gaming books away, it was because I was too focused on them. I was spending all of my free time, and a significant chunk of my work time, thinking about gaming. I was creating adventures I would never run, characters I would never play, and I was memorizing rules that I would never use so that some time in the future, after the sky turns yellow, if I ever was in a place where someone wanted me to run a game, I would have enough of a grasp of the rules to do so.
This created a sort of gaming… umm… onanism. I was thinking about gaming all the time, and fooling myself into thinking that I was gaming (“I’m prepping the next game!”), but everything I wanted – the puzzle solving, the friendly chatter, using it as something my wife and I could share – was absent.
So I put them away. I’ve done pretty well since I did this back in March. I haven’t pulled them back out, and I’ve deleted a lot of files from my computers related to the games.
The one thing I can’t get out of my head is Arc Dream Publishing’s book, Monsters and Other Childish Things and the expansion sourcebook, Dreadful Secrets of Candlewick Vale. The mystery creation in Candlewick and the social/physical conflict integration that Benjamin Lee illustrates in Monsters are both very appealing to me, and I think I could have a good game if I ran either game.
Unfortunately, I can’t justify setting aside the money to buy either game (pdf or dead-tree) until after I have run a game. Yes, this means I’d have to run one off-the-cuff first, and get enough positive feedback to justify the purchase.
Not like that will ever happen, anyway. Which is a shame, because the mechanics are very attractive, and it (Candlewick) allows the players to play a very mystery-oriented game quickly. Not to mention that characters without backstory are not only acceptible, they’re required by the “Echoes” mechanic.
Even then, it’s a slippery slope: Monsters to Candlewick to Wild Talents to This Favored Land etc. etc. etc. I could very easily get hooked on a different game with a different mechanics set, and then I’m back to square one, buried in books (or PDFs) from which I will gain no enjoyment.
Just one, for old time’s sake:
| Jim is a short boy, with toes and fingers like a squirrel’s. He spends as much time above the ground (in the Manor’s rafters or in the skeletal trees outside) as he possibly can. He’s pretty smart, and he talks so fast that people end up agreeing with him before they realize what’s happening. | |
| Feet 3 |
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|---|---|
| Guts 2 |
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| Hands 2 |
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| Brains 4 |
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| Face 4 |
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| Echoes: The word “exasperating” 2 The smell of oak leaves in autumn 1 View from Above 3 |
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Jim isn’t the best fighter, but he can excape if there are walls or trees he can reach. When he’s attacked, he can roll Feet+Squirrel Feet, and his Awesome extra lets him set one die to anything he wants after the roll. This climbing defense also acts as a set one wider than reality, so if he rolls 3×8, he acts as though it was 4×8. This makes his defense better, because it’s more likely to get out of the way.
His View from Above Echo means that when he is above the person he is taunting, he can theoretically roll 9 dice to taunt or put someone down. If he gets hurt while he’s using it, though, he could forget about his bird’s-eye view completely.
July 12, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Do you have a local gaming con? They’re always looking for people to run games.
July 16, 2008 at 5:17 pm
I can’t find one locally (< 1 hour drive), and travel is hard, with gas at insane levels and a 4 year old to wrangle.