Boxing Things Up and Beyond in December

 The day after Christmas, Boxing Day, the second of three Christmas Days in Germany, my RPG clique has pulled it off. Despite some fatigue from video facing because of the Viddos over the last few months, we've finished two of 2020 campaigns and "piloted" one for 2021. The vid-face syndrome was occurring because lack of real life tabletop outlets from our normal conventions. Mind you, we are very used to on-line events-- where we don't need a lot of formatting and still use manual dice and draw maps and pictures.

I was able to conclude my Killing Hitler for my Red Bat die-hards last Tuesday (22.Dec). My agents of SEWA 66 (Society of Extra Weird Affairs 1961-1970), traveled through southern France and into Gambia chasing aging Nazi mad scientists. They encountered old men in wheelchairs that could turn into werewolves and chased WWII submarines down the River Garonne. The climax involved lasers glancing off of glittery purses and exploding space ships. 

Iron Curtis wrapped up his ICONS campaign in the alternate universe, The Black and White World, just tonight. Sadly the Crew, not the Scrap Pile, destroyed the whole thing using that world's very own cataclysmic plot device, the Chrominator of Doom, on itself. If you've never seen a moon made of cheese suck in its colonies and a flat world of the Map of Earth crumble upon itself to form a sphere, you should game with this GM to get a taste of it.


About two weeks before either of these, I started my '21 Icons-Supernatural campaign, Scraps of Magic: Mythos. I have written about how our gaming group was really developing the mystical superhero hero milieu, well it's starting to coagulate and shape into some serious high urban fantasy here. Hopefully the trend of curious bypassers stopping in to play continues. They helps avoid the Vid-Face during these Viddos.

As we, well me at least, will be breaking for the month of January because of the big life move and all, I hope to get started on my Mythos in earnest and get my Gonzop  dabbles running as a lively campaign. And Iron Curtis has not satisfied his thirst for something Scrap Pile for our superhero RPG subculture.

13-Page Worlds now 50 Cent Wonders

 Yes, Trent-Vor. Yes. I am still working on Red Bat: Playtested settings and T&T scenarios. I have six lined up, even roughly formatted, while I decide on how much help like say for editing and illustrating. Now I know most Batty buyers don't mind if it's just me doing the post production, but when it comes to illustrations I suck. When it comes to editing, I can barely type in English despite my creative affliction. I am still trying to up my game and if failing thinking of outside ppl to help while budgeting for them.

I have six of these so far needing refinement. See. I am working.

 
The "13-Page Worlds" has evolved into "50-Cent Wonders" as I usually can't keep the settings down to thirteen pages. And there is this currently amorphous need to revamp a web page just for Red Bat. Sorry they're taking so long, but things are going.

Older, Lazier GMs: Comic Book RPG and Rule Debating

In the days where the Rona wolves savage our lands for their dark Viddo bat-kings by attending family Thanksgivings, my play-groups have boiled down to close and familiar friends. I haven't had the chance to lay bear-traps at conventions where hapless attendees get dragged into my events, giving me the exercise of dealing with strangers and invigorating my somewhat shotgun-pellety creativity. Before of late. I have been a guy that often writes entire worlds for single shots as well as campaigns. Since then, my notes for a scenario in practice has turned into a the background for entire campaigns.

Using other people's systems, like our ICONS groups, is advantageous for this. Before, I compiled pretty complicated "Yes/No" charts to follow as to not be narrative-driven but to maintain a pace for the session. Screw pacing among friends, my friends will wonder if I have a fever. Well yes, I do, but not yet hallucinating. I am kind of sitting back and letting rules and PC tangents take up sessions.  People arguing about mechanics has allowed me to single-line in a few NPCs, some vocabulary (items, groups, and external factors). 

Is it all X-Mas Fudge? Naw. But there is cocoa.

What I worry about is the tone of the events of the session not the action per se. When my players get to some place when some narrative is required, that is when I bother to do the bedazzlement. I just go into more detail on my one-line entry in my notes, often typing the new details into the notes at the breaks in play. Still pacing is important, despite what OSR fans say, the convention tried and true form of "Intro-Event-Recoup or Event-New Obstacle-Climax-Outro" works just fine.

Efficiency from experience; or expedience because of exhaustion?  That is the question and the answer is both. But a good game is still it's own reward for me as a GM and the players around me.