Circling Back to Online Campaign Manager

 In an earlier post I talked about my use of an online campaign manager for my games. At the time I was running a fantasy game and a supers game. I also set up three others for my solo roleplaying. My reason for liking them was a permanent record available as long as I have an internet connection.

For the fantasy game the campaign was coming to a conclusion so my entries were more of a way to clean out some three ring binders and touch the history one more time before shelving. The supers game I need to have a place for stats and rules I needed to access quick because I was using Champions and there are to many rules for me to effectively adjudicate and maintain interesting banter. The solo stuff is perfect for the online campaign manager. I play at these so seldomly it saves space on my shelves and if I pick one up in three months all the details of what was going on are at my fingertips. Once again I can play these games on the road.

My current game, my only game I am running, is a continuation of my supers campaign but with the DC Heroes rules. Specifically the Blood of Heroes Special Edition rule book. 

As this has been going on I have been using three ring binders less and less. Has nothing to do with the use of a campaign manager though. I believe I have just settled into my "minimalist" approach to world building and game notes. 

I love these compact, hardbound notebooks for all my brainstorming and upcoming adventure building. The one in this photo has the Rom'Myr fantasy campaign from the time the PCs arrived in Zeu Orb to the finish and the Champions campaign which has now morphed into a MEGS campaign. The other book is a blank drawing pad. I have soft cover and hard cover books of these drawing pads and here I put down my drawings of the games action when inspired to do so. And this is all I'm using except having a hard copy of a games rulebook nearby. I'm not even writing things up on my computer anymore. My file folders for games are now just a repository for pictures I scanned, pics from the internet and character sheets so I can print out a villain's profile I need before a game. I sometimes write a session report, but I would rather draw some pictures of the action then write down the action. Besides I record all my game sessions so I have an audio record which is the best session report you are ever going to get. 

When I got back into gaming in 2012 I started with my USR Sword & Sorcery campaign and I have three to four thick three ring binders of the whole damn affair. Same for my second campaign Clockwork and Cthulhu. My shift to a minimalist approach began when I stumbled on means to record game sessions. And it has steadily refined into a not-time-consuming means of game prep and organization behind the scenes of my other overt attempts at taming the beast which is DM'ing. 

The point of all this is I don't use an online campaign manager. I take that back, I have a MeWe group for the game but this is just to post when the next game is and a quick way for anyone to get a hold of anyone else. I look at this as a continuous refining of an artistic process. I love to put pen to paper, to sketch, write and think. Compact size of notebook restrains going on and on with text. I hesitate to put anything down which isn't immediately relevant. A good way to stay in the meditative state of "the action is where the players are!"

I have come to the conclusion I have no use for online campaign managers, go figure.

How to find out if you are cut out to be a GM

 I know, sounds like I'm being a blowhard asshole. We are all good Game Masters if we have been at it enough and are willing to learn from our mistakes and you remember everyone else is there to play a roleplaying game also and don't want to be railroaded.

No, I'm talking about reaching back in time and figuring why when I first heard someone describe a roleplaying game to me (1976?) I had no idea what they were talking about and at the same time I knew I had to get down on this roleplaying game stuff. And why did I go straight to Game Master without considering being a player? What is burnt into my synapsis which makes me think about gaming and the games I'm involved with ALL THE FUCKING TIME? Even when I wasn't gaming from 1993 till 2012 I had a Elric! always by my side and I would rather speculate on what adventure to write as opposed to reading all my fantasy books again? Like for realzies. Not, "oh I'm a creative person, that's why". Everyone is a creative person. Even the ones who say they are not. 

This past weekend I was at a dinner party and the four of us, and this was not my idea, completed the Briggs-Myers personality test. A coupley thing to do with your coupley friends. I'm sure this has been done as a party game like a bagillion times and I was familiar with this test in a pop-culture sort of way. Never took it though. I did take an ADHD test years ago, but I knew what the results were going to be before I took it. Off the charts (passing?) grade! So the test is supposed to identify what of 16 different personality types you are. That is all I knew about it, don't know what the types are, don't know what the definitions of each type are. I was intrigued immediately. You mean I have a class? I love classes. I'm even fine with race as class. Except I don't want to be pigeon holed. I got to be free man, I'm not one thing. This has got to be a crock of shit. 

I landed on ENTP, the debater. Per the game rules, once you came up with your personality from completing the test you turn the laptop over to someone else and they read it out loud. Then you talk about why you think so and so are together. Lot of oohs, awws and of course laughs. 

If you are looking for someone to be game master you might want to ask them if they are ENTP because there is a shit-ton packed into this type which make for excellent traits in a Game Master. It also answered for me my speculations on why there are far to few Game Masters out there compared to players. Or why there are more folks looking to be players as opposed to being a Game Master. One, it is a never ending thankless task of staying in genre and put forth interesting and original ideas for people to dig into, give back and complete the circle. Second the ENTP represents only 3% of the population! We are rare birds indeed. 

I also found out why my wife will never be interested in playing rpg's. She landed on ISFJ, Defender. Protective, warm and caring is not what you want in a Game Master. 

Deluxe USR Sword & Sorcery

 First part of the book is done! This includes all the rules, magic and spells, carousing and a bestiary. Now the second half of the book; World of Xoth setting and three new adventures. Shrine of the Keepers will be included as well, but has been circulating for a while. This shit is coming together, love it.

Even Heroes Bleed Issue #5 part 2

Even Heroes Bleed Issue #5, part 1

 

Anchor Update

 

Battle of Arras 10th April 1917 - Wargaming Continued

 

The morning of the 10 saw a thin layer of snow on the ground, but otherwise the rain had stopped. Word from the top is the offensive was a success and substantial gains had been made the very first day. The horizon to the west trembled under the ceaseless thump of Third Army’s artillery and the ever-burning black clouds of war. Now more than ever the RFC needs to provide the offensive the vital intel it needs to sustain the drive.

Therefore, XIII Army Wing orders two Fe2’s on each photo-recon mission. With no time to spare every mission must come out a success! Lessons learned from the first day are shaping the squadron’s tactics in real time! The RAF spotter planes have had their best success flying low to the deck and leaving before the enemy can dive from 4K and intercept them. More to the point, the Germans couldn’t intercept both of them before they reached the safety of the Canadian lines.

The Mission Board for Tuesday the 10^th looks the same as yesterday. 3 Photo-Recon missions and a bombing run. Same sector, most likely same opponents, Jasta 11. Rumors fly like mosquitoes among the aerodromes on where the “Bloody” Red Baron is in action. It seems the legendary Ace is in five places at once. Truth is the front has not seen the fearsome red Albatross and its deadly operator for two days now. Could he be dead? And the German High Command is covering it up?

Bomber 8, the Phoenix and 9 Shockwave are assigned Linwood and his Hellfire Horde. More photos of the German road networks behind the front are needed. The sky is once again overcast, but the rain has not resumed. Karl and Ezekial lead in their Fe2s while Linwood watches their six from 4,000m.

The Huns are not sleeping in today and the Allied pilots stiffen up when the grey fighters of Rote Spinnen are spotted at 4,000m and closing. Two of them. Reinhardt and Norbert open the throttle all the way and go at the Allied bombers a thousand meters below them. The Fe2s hold formation and start their defensive dive. They are counting on Linwood to fly down and shake one of the bombers free from attack. It once again begins a battle of speed and space. The Ab/d3s, two of them, gain on the slower FE2s one hundred meters at a time while Linwood can already tell he is falling behind as the German planes out dive him. He decides he will have to let the battle come to him. He banks the dive right in the familiar wide-sweep preceding a fighter’s attack. Knowing the 11ths flight path Linwood plans on surprising the enemy. But the Albatross dives too fast, too far for Linwood to close the gap. He would have to risk a wing-tearing nosedive to match their rapid descent. He squirts bullets at the German’s tail trying to force a challenge, but the nervy fighters ignore him. They strike wingtip to wingtip at the tailing Allied bomber. Its Karl’s Phoenix. The German flyers ease off on their throttles and a second round of firing obliterates the Allied bomber-craft. But the stratagem worked. The other bomber plane was now out of reach of the attackers. Only Linwood remained engaged. He corrected the situation immediately and turned west.