I missed last week's game because of hols but apparently it hadn't gone particularly well. Some fun things had happened but it seemed to me that the diagnosis was "Bad Form" something which is covered towards the back of the rule book. Actually this should be at the front, and possibly even on the character sheet.
It's a section which says what kinds of things are not swashbuckling. It doesn't rule things out but says if you have too much killing major characters, double dealing with your mates, attempting to destroy the social order, and so on, then you're not playing the kind of game for which these rules were designed. This is a good thing to say because many gamers imagine that because they have some rules, their character should be able to do anything under them. So we have Ninjas in Call of Cthulhu, or Dogs in the Vineyard. No! Play something else if you must play against the spirit of the game.
So this week, we had a mission and we all went for it in our different ways. It was pretty chaotic in that mad ideas were coming from all quarters, GM included but what we ended up with was a gloriously heroic tale of survival against the odds, culminating in the destruction of a giant floating wooden fortress, der Todesstern*, through dropping a cigar down an unguarded chimney whilst strapped in hang-giders.
Other moments of note were lighting our powder store during a boarding engagement then deserting our ship for theirs under the cover of a smokescreen, and then attempting to catch the big gun from our blown up ship, only for it to crash right through the decks of our new ship and out and glance our archenemy who was flying around below, and Gentleman Jeff finding out that he is the son of our evil dwarf enemy which lead to a mid-air duel and a touching death scene.
It was only our GMs 5th or 6th game in charge so it was a credit to him that he made it all hang together and provided us with the opportunities for mad derring-do.
More Cthulhu Apocalypse next week but I've greatly enjoyed our dalliance with S7S.
*It should have be Todesmond but none of us could remember the German for Moon, and hey, why mess with the classics?
It's a section which says what kinds of things are not swashbuckling. It doesn't rule things out but says if you have too much killing major characters, double dealing with your mates, attempting to destroy the social order, and so on, then you're not playing the kind of game for which these rules were designed. This is a good thing to say because many gamers imagine that because they have some rules, their character should be able to do anything under them. So we have Ninjas in Call of Cthulhu, or Dogs in the Vineyard. No! Play something else if you must play against the spirit of the game.
So this week, we had a mission and we all went for it in our different ways. It was pretty chaotic in that mad ideas were coming from all quarters, GM included but what we ended up with was a gloriously heroic tale of survival against the odds, culminating in the destruction of a giant floating wooden fortress, der Todesstern*, through dropping a cigar down an unguarded chimney whilst strapped in hang-giders.
Other moments of note were lighting our powder store during a boarding engagement then deserting our ship for theirs under the cover of a smokescreen, and then attempting to catch the big gun from our blown up ship, only for it to crash right through the decks of our new ship and out and glance our archenemy who was flying around below, and Gentleman Jeff finding out that he is the son of our evil dwarf enemy which lead to a mid-air duel and a touching death scene.
It was only our GMs 5th or 6th game in charge so it was a credit to him that he made it all hang together and provided us with the opportunities for mad derring-do.
More Cthulhu Apocalypse next week but I've greatly enjoyed our dalliance with S7S.
*It should have be Todesmond but none of us could remember the German for Moon, and hey, why mess with the classics?
Comments
Other moments of note...
Good Form, sir!
Especially the waste not want not of trying to catch your old big gun!
Edited at 2010-03-12 05:17 am (UTC)
Very high praise Steve, I really enjoyed running it but I am looking forward to playing again.
John