7th Sea gets a 2nd Edition and its on Kickstarter

Those of you who have gamed with me in the past or read this blog know I adore 7th Sea, and despite its demise and abandonment I am really happy to see it return to life with the original author back at the helm, John Wick.

He now holds the record for the fastest backed Kickstarter campaign for a role-playing game, and things just keep getting better.

Running a game for Two Players - By Design and Unexpected

Running a role-playing game with a limited number of players has some challenging problems. If the game was designed from the outset to be played by just two players, then that is fine because the adventure will be keyed around the duo's personality, limitations and the playing style of both the GM and players, there may even be an element of rotation amongst the players and GM. Players need to be aware that with limited players it will require full input from everyone.

Of course if its an accident or bad timing that turns a six player group down to two, then this will also need to be discussed with the players too. have had experience of running games with reduced player numbers in the 7th Sea campaign setting, and in both instances the experience was different. Essentially the game can go one of two ways. (a) either one or both characters take the lead in creating their own story and entertain themselves with the GM acting as the 'bounce' or (b) where the GM entertains the players and has to be prepared to burn through tons of material each session. If found the best way is to announce to the remaining players of the situation and ask them what they wish to do. Carry on with the story (b) or (a) create their own little private adventure to laugh about while the other players have gone away. I find (a) can be very self indulgent and hard to bring to a satisfactory conclusion, but (b) whilst serving the story, prevents the other players from learning of the plot movement, but its the amount of written material this can get through. One way to avoid this is to slow the pace down and become more descriptive.
 

In a two player designed game, both the characters and adventure needs to be tailored to the players and GM, whereas an unexpected two player game will require careful amendment to the adventure to ensure they don't get caught out. I.e. a big fight suddenly becomes a sneak and hide session.

One final observation is when a small group of a DM and two players (especially those two who have decided to multi-class and thereby reduce the speed at which they progress their character) expands to a larger group, usually through invitation etc, suddenly these multi-classed characters will fall foul of the other players who rise rapidly through the levels and have the potential to overrun the main original two heroes.

There is a final 3rd variant to this, which I do not recommend, I have tried it once and it didnt really work (oddly I love Ars Magica for this very reason, and my own developed Dune game uses this a foundational point) which is whereby each player has 2 or more characters, either as part of the party of as secondary or supporting characters in other locations.

Penultimate MERP Session

This Sunday sees the penultimate session of my MERP campaign before we head back to Legend of the Five Rings.

Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves as well as wanting to return to it.

One of the problems Ive battled with is maintaining the Tolkien feel of the game which on a personal level I think I have failed on. I canvas the players to get their opinions regularly as I often find out that my perception of how the game is going rarely matches up to the players opinion.

For instance, when I ran my 7th Sea game quite often Id have what I would class as a bad session and the players said they have a great time. And when I ran what I thought was a good session, they said that it was incredibly enjoyable.

With this MERP campaign I have sown seeds of foreshadowing and set up story elements for later in the story. Im pleased that 2 or 3 of the 5 players are keeping detailed notes, partly at my suggestion, but mostly because of the rich nature of the game there is a lot going on.

I have managed to get the players used to low atmospheric music, and candlelight to enhance the mood, as well as encouraging the players to not debate their actions for hours at a time, but rather to act. Because if they don't act then the enemies act anyhow. This way I found that the characters and heroes' nature comes out. That heroes leap into battle and defense of the weak, whilst cowards slink to the back.

John Wick's Dirty Words

I am unashamedly a fan of John Wick (wickedthought). Both as a GM and as a games designer. He is, afterall, responsible for 2 of my favourite role-playing games, 7th Sea and Legend of the Five Rings. He has also written Orkworld, a game which I treasure.

Well now he has started doing video blogs on youtube which he links to on his Livejournal account using the "Play Dirty" tagline. In it he gives out words of wisdom which I recommend to any GM. Yes he is opinionated, and some people have a real problem with him, but invest just 10 minutes and see if it is worth your time checking him out for the future.

John Wick - Play Dirty

John Wick's Dirty Words

I am unashamedly a fan of John Wick (wickedthought). Both as a GM and as a games designer. He is, afterall, responsible for 2 of my favourite role-playing games, 7th Sea and Legend of the Five Rings. He has also written Orkworld, a game which I treasure.

Well now he has started doing video blogs on youtube which he links to on his Livejournal account using the "Play Dirty" tagline. In it he gives out words of wisdom which I recommend to any GM. Yes he is opinionated, and some people have a real problem with him, but invest just 10 minutes and see if it is worth your time checking him out for the future.

John Wick - Play Dirty