I want a new game and so do you!

[Yakumo]

So I'm tired of the fact that the board has grown stagnant in games. We have only a few open and players dropped out, the few that are open have huge back stories that are daunting to catch up on possibly scaring new players away.

The fact of the matter is, I am bored and want a new game up. Anyone who is up for a new game should definitely post here so we can see who is open for playing something. And if someone had a hankering to DM something come forward.

Frankly, I've tried my hand at running a game several times and it has always kind of tapered out. Once due to board depression, another due to character loss, and another due to loss of interest. I fear some of these are definitely my fault. But alas I am not completely disheartened.

I want to run something, it would take up the extra time I have now that mid terms are over and I'm living on easy street. The fact of the matter is, and I'm sure some of you have noticed, but I have such limited experience with D&D that the idea of running anything other than a simple low-level game scares the crap out of me. I mean for goodness sake, I can't even wrap my head around how Hit Dice work or bonus spells and the like and I'm in College, so that is sad.

I don't have access to most of the rules, but if I needed them to run a game, I'm sure I could get a copy.

I simply don't know what people want here. So chime in!

I'm willing to run a game, either:

1. A D&D Short - probably something from the Academy Jobs that are posted in the Shorts' handout section. I'd have to figure out what is what there since I believe those are just story ideas, so that would take a little more work to set up, but all the character creation is done since you'd be using the academy characters. Character creation is half of the fun though so I wouldn't be against just swiping a game idea from there and starting a separate game.
this would be 3.5 not 4th edition because the 4th edition just seems too technical for my tastes.

or

2. The short introductory Call of Cthulhu module - This is a system I'm very familiar and comfortable with. I know only a small handful of players on the boards have played, including myself, but I have to say we have all had a great time with it. If you are looking for a new system to play, CoC is a lot more simple than it looks and relies on Roleplay and quick thinking. I'd be really excited to put on a game for people especially if even one new person was involved. I swear I'll finish it come hell or high water, even if only one poor sap is left playing.

If you are interested in either reply and I'll run whichever is more popular. I'll argue for more CoC since our last two games just flatlined, but I won't be against D&D.

So let me know what's what, I'd really like to get on this and hopefully renewed interest will help pull the boards into an upswing.1.8.1.20

[VemuKhaham]

Good topic! If we lack the individual initiative to set something up, we should set something up together with what resources are left on these boards. I myself won't DM any other game than the one that's already keeping me quite busy, but I could offer playing if something would really spark my interest. What I'd be most interested in would be something fresh, new, easygoing. If people have little time to dedicate to a game, don't expect them to want to learn new systems or read up on a lot of rules all the time. An easy system, lots of free-form even, quick character creation and heavy roleplaying would ideally suit me at this time. However, I've been rather picky as of late about what themes catch my interest, but I usually love epic stuff (not necessarily high fantasy/magic though), long campaigns, and campaigns that seem to promise that there will be an end with many of the players left that started it. Sorry for having to be so specific, but that's how I feel at the moment.

[at]

I always have the free time to post up - have to say I was tempted to throw something 3.5 up with a 3/week update schedule and a series of losely thrown together challenges : chase the evil guys, explore the lost cities, thwart the evil gods, that kind of thing.
- but my DMing sucks

Anyway i'm always up for a little DnD, not so familiar with CoC.

There is also Kman's Ravenloft game which is just about clinging to life at the moment - if you have the time it could use an extra party member.6

[Japic]

There are days where I have extra time; time enough to run a few things... but then there's days that I don't even look at my computer. Regrettably, that schedule changes day to day, week to week. I'll give some thought to running two Gladiator matches simultaneously, but it would need to be ok with folks that the schedule would be hectic. I don't think that as a DM I could give any more than that at the moment.

Playing in a game would follow the same availability rules. Daily posts, troublesome, several times a week, doable. I'm certainly proficient with 3.5 D&D, though have familiarity with CofC as well; both the old BRP system and the newer D20 system. If my posting schedule is ok with the DM, I'd be willing to play that again.

[Yakumo]

Well now that you mention it Vemu, I've been kind of thinking about combining the free form storytelling and plot lines that Shakes does for Idiots guide to being evil and the Roleplay rewarding system that you have running for Rena.
I think it would be best for roleplaying (and different for people as players) to be limited to the npc classes. I personally find it very satisfying whenever I accomplish something in Rena because the characters are far from the 'hero' of your fighters wizards and rangers.

I'll think about it for a bit, see if I can't come up with some story ideas. I don't necessarily like high fantasy myself, but I'm a bit stumped at how to take it out of a game. So if we bounce some ideas around maybe I can get something of a story idea together in my head and an idea of what sort of system and style should be played. I'm not adverse to doing something of a homebrew.

[Yakumo]

Japic, honestly with the amount of games we have going, If I was Dming, I would take any players I could get no matter what their posting schedules. I often feel like the peopel who DM a lot of games very rarely get to play in many at all.

[VemuKhaham]

What we need isn't per se players who can post daily - though that can be a great thing, it all depends on the weakest link: if three players post daily and one can't, it doesn't matter at all what the other three do. That's not necessarily a problem, given that I've long ago given up the idea that there will be games again, like there used to be, in which all players posted almost daily. Life is life, you know.

What we need is players, and a DM, who will stick to the end of a campaign, no matter how long it takes to finish it. Getting many players at the start isn't even a guarantee of a good end: if a few players start dropping out, it becomes contageous: things become irregular, other players get dissappointed, the DM gets discouraged, the game closes. Something like that I think was what happened to Dragonlance. So even if there's just a few players that are longterm posters, you can have a good game. The unfortunate thing is that, though we're always trying to recruit newcomers, the thing about newcomers is that they come and go.

As for the combination you're trying for, Yakumo, that sounds like a good idea (though I'm not familiar with IGTBE, I know from the guild game that TZS can make original plotlines).

I'm still working on a world just meant to be epic (the merger of two worlds that have been in the making for years now), and in fact did a lot of work this week on it, but I won't use it until I think it's ready, and that certainly won't be before Rina finishes, which isn't anytime soon yet. After that, I'm hoping to launch that game, but that's not for now to discuss. In fact, don't know why I brought it up, guess it's in my mind a lot right now.

Anyway, perhaps nice, fresh themes to work with and that I like are (just to bounce ideas as you call it):
- the combination of freeform/rules-easy, advanced plot and roleplay-dependant character building, with heroes that feel less like supermen than like average movie heroes.
- Perhaps a space setting, as it's been tried on here before but somehow never made it for long.
- Or...
I've always felt sorry about my old game Fantasy Kingdoms online failing. I realize now its design was unpractical, but I like the concept still. The impracticalities were that there were too many rules, many of them unclear even, but more important: running as many kingdoms as players was not just way too much to handle, but also not fun.

So, say, somewhere in some primitive world, there is a nomadic tribe, preferably two if there are enough players. The tribe(s) settle and their ruling family forms the royal dynasty. Now, the players make up as many members of the ruling family as possible, the others are NPCs. The king, the queen, the princes, the king's wizard adviser, the knight desiring the princess, and such figures, they're all preferably players. Each player will develop its own life and possibly agenda and the court of this fantasy kingdom will come to life. The prince may need to go with the king and the knight to defeat a rival band of warriors/army, the queen may want to put the knight up as king as the knight will be more easily manipulated, etc. Now, all this is probably enough already, but if there were to be a second such kingdom, things would of course definitely get interesting.

All this of course must be done not with complicated rules and a lot of pressure on everyone involved. It must be done with as few rules as possible, starting out as simple as possible, perhaps with only a few pcs and just a tiny tribe, going on a journey to find a good place to settle. Their first challenge might be to unite the people, face a rival tribe or a monster harrassing the region, to claim the region for themselves - in other words, the brave people of the tribe go on an adventure, and from there it all continues. The great benefit of this kind of approach would be that the DM can build his world inside-out, as the players at first will only know about a small region and only, if they do well, create a world empire after a very long time.

Alright, that's just another proposal, though perhaps a more elaborate one. ;D It's not something that I'll be able to run anytime soon, but I'm willing to support it and play if anyone takes the lead and others are also interested.

[Yakumo]

I agree, even if a game only has 3 or 4 players posting once maybe twice a week, as long as it is fairly consistent I think it is good. I know we are always trying to recruit new players, but personally I would like to have a game for the long term players that I know will stick it out.

I really like that idea of players starting as a part of a nomad tribe starting out. I'll fiddle around with that. Do you think that NPC classes are discouraging to players? I think we could pull that off with little problem, and I think that your system with rena makes for a very average-movie hero sort of character rather than super heroes who are unstoppable.

[VemuKhaham]

I hope they (NPC classes) don't discourage players, as there's no need to be, but I guess that many D&D fans do like much of the flavor of super heroes. It just depends on taste, and it must be said that people on Kman's have greatly varying tastes, despite of course their common love for roleplaying.

Glad you like the tribe idea. I think it could work well with the other ideas you have for the system, etc. Let me know how the fiddling is going or if you need help.

Oh, and if you're going with the tribe game, do keep in mind that players may regularly die, if not by combat, than by ageing, as time would probably move fast at certain intervals between episodes, given the kingdom-building aspect of the thing. That means players dropping out would be less of a blow, new players can come in at any time, and characters probably wouldn't advance in power too far, though that depends on many things, as you could also handle it entirely different.

[Rojito]

First off guys, i am glad this thread was made, seeing all of you put your ideas together and come up with some more amazing things is good. A few things i want to address... NPC classes... at first i did not like the idea at all, i mean your character never really evolves in them... Then Vemu gave us our first "Reward" or whatever Special Levelup it was, and man o man that was amazing, the idea he used in that campaign still blows my mind and makes me want to play in more games like it. So even if it may deter some players a little bit, if they got but a taste of it, i believe they would become quickly as enamored with it as i am. Second the tribe idea... i really like this idea, really easy, really free-form, yet where each character is an important person, even if something untoward happens to them. Then allowing it to spread out like has been suggested would be an amazing accomplishment... well anyway i just wanted to throw my support behind all these ideas and show my willingness to join any ofthem... cept the CotC, sorry, i've tried that system a couple of times, its just not for me, not sure why yet, i just cant get into it as much...

[Yakumo]

The more I think about it the more I like the idea of a free-form game.

I have a good idea of how I'd like the game to start: The game will start within a city with a ruling family, but the city has numerous problems, in-politics and economic and the players will strike out (hopefully) with some of the townsfolk looking to begin anew elsewhere as a more equal society. I was thinking more of a representative council sort of thing so that players wouldn't have to coordinate their back stories to be related and what have you. Knowledge of the world would be very limited and it would be humans only in NPC classes. The game would start either with the plan to leave and the gathering of resources to literally strike out into the unknown.

The players would choose where and how they will go about beginning their new lives, making decisions about how their new settlement would be run when it is established, how they will deal with new and old peoples and branch out from there as everyone will have their own parts to play in the society.

As for creation, I think I would stick to vemu's rena. campaign creation: a 25 point buy-in, NPC classes and so on. I don't mind magic in the game so an adept would be okay, but I want to think of the knowledge as controlled - like a shaman or wise man type figure. Humans only. Won't be any elves in my game.

The game would go in sections I think with periods of development in between every so often. Sections would be marked with one or two major goals and any of the requisite minor events that happen in the time between their accomplishment. Level up system I think will be handled like the Rena. game as well with unique rewards based on roleplaying, what it is you actually did during the section, and what your character does to develop in between sections.
- so for example a section is ending and say the next meeting of the council (thus start of the next section) is in three weeks time. Say in that time one of the characters who is a farmer by trade decides to volunteer for town watch and undergoes a crash course in combat, he might have options available to him based on that - perhaps he has ideas to make the town guard more efficient too. These would all be reflected in the development of the new settlement.

Since the game would develop according to each players own agenda (thus the council) there may be several plotlines going at once. Anything from dealing with domestic thievery to attempting to create a trade route or open diplomatic channels with another city.


This is just my very base idea. Any thoughts/comments/suggestions/interest?
1.9.0.6

[at]

Feb 28, 2009 17:58:44 GMT -5 Yakumo said:

Any thoughts/comments/suggestions/interest?

Peasant's quest might be a hard sell to new players


One thing that kind of stood out - on the one hand you have the characters farming and dealing with petty theft, and on the other you have them striking out into the unknown, or building their own town, or working elsewhere as a diplomat.

- I guess it just sounds fragmented.

[Yakumo]

Haha I don't mean like actively farming and when has petty theft ever just been petty theft in dnd? I just gave that as examples of domestic issues. Things would obviously lie directly in the hands of the players. Other things that need development for the settlement of a town would happen, even if the players were doing something else. I mean it isn't as if there are only going to be the players living in said town.

But Like I said, if someone's character is a farmer, maybe they want to spend most of their attention on the agricultural side of the settlement, and as things progress he as a player would probably have more and more of a say in the way things are run in a town due to the importance of the aspect he has control of.

I'm pretty willing to work with whatever seems to interest the players the most while setting foundations for my own quest or event ideas. Frankly at this point I'm not concerned about new players, I'd rather that the people who are already here have a game they are interested in.

[VemuKhaham]

Hey, your idea of a group leaving a city in search of building a more equal society strikes an interesting parallel with the puritan colonists of New England. So, you want a small group of refugees to leave a big socially unequal, trouble-ridden city into terra incognita? There's nowhere to do so better than accross a great ocean. What peoples or kingdoms or races we will encounter accross the great sea should be kept a great surprise. All we know is that there is this huge land accross the sea, and we want to get there, so we build us a small, hardly seaworthy Mayflower vessel and sail out to the brave new world... Of course, the ship gets tossed out of the intended direction and eventually is lost in a storm. The only survivors are the players and some thirty others. Literally, ANYTHING can happen there. Just be sure not to give any spoilers - don't rule out elves, monkey-people, or anything else yet. The only thing we need to know about is that our aim is eventually to build a great new society, whatever that might become.

But yeah, the game design may appear fragmented, and to some degree it undeniably is. After all, the main strength of the game would be that each character will have its own agenda, and therefore, inevitably, seperate storylines will evolve, but these storylines must regularly be brought together to keep things from literally falling apart and to keep things interesting and possible to handle. That's why I like Yakumo's idea of a central "forum", whether that is a court or a council, a village square or a temple, where all the players regularly come and meet each other. Such meetings can indeed become the dynamics of the game, between which episodes are seperated.

Besides character interaction, individual storylines, various missions (individual and collective), and building a society over the generations, another thing that must be an important feature in the game is to handle things like what will the society develop into? Will we become extremely militaristic, will we worship trees or something, will we build great palaces? Such things I hope will organically come about as each player puts his own agenda and influence into the new society, and the society faces various challenges from outside.

[Rojito]

I must say... i am already caught, i would love to join this type of game, even have a few type of ideas on lowly 'peasants' i wouldn't mind playing, a farmer did happen to be one of the first lol but there are so many types of people needed in a new world, farmers, archetects, guards, leaders, religous people, so on and so forth, and if we were to take a ship of course there would be captain and his crew for other options. The options are almost infinate... Even nobles might want to start anew somewhere, you never know.

[TheUdjat]

Good thread, good ideas, but I think you guys might be getting a little carried away. Yakumo/Rojito/Vemu--you all seem to be on solid ground together and pretty on-target with what you guys want, which is excellent, but I think it's going to take a lot more than just you three to get something of this magnitude going. And, ignoring everything else, I think that's the biggest problem with the 'Civilization in Roleplaying Format' idea--magnitude. This is an enormous undertaking--multiple plotlines, multiple characters for each player, taking place over generations. I think this is a lot bigger than you realize.

Big isn't necessarily bad when you've got the people to support it, but Yakumo started this thread under the premise of starting something easy. This is not easy. This is daunting. Rewarding, perhaps, but daunting. And cool though it sounds, I can already tell you I don't have the energy for something like this--which is odd, because I have the energy to run another game, but not play in something like this. Even if it's strong based on Rina. (Don't get me wrong, I like Rina a lot, but I'm already playing in one of those games. That's plenty).

All of the above said, I am interested in another game around here. It is enormously dead around here, and maybe part of that is my fault for killing Dragonlance. Maybe it could even be resurrected--it's not like it involved a lot of work on my end, being based on a book campaign and all. I think I even still have most of the players around here--Menat, Vemu, Shakes, at, Yakumo, and Bad*. If there is prevailing interest in this, I could do it, and even take on another couple of players.

On the other hand, there is the idea of something fresh and new. But the trouble with this, again, is getting a decent number of folks on here devoted to something new, to see it through. I always have thousands of game ideas, and I could put some of those forward if people would like me to do so. But if I'm going to join something, it has to do a few things:

• It has to promise a good story. I don't just do this for the fighting or the character creation, I'm here for a story, and if it's not something I'm interested in, there's no point. Sadly, the Fantasy Kingdoms hybrid fits into this category--I don't want to play a league of characters. I want to play one. If I wanted to play a bunch, I'd GM. Or work on my novel.
  
  
• It has to have a good system. Rina almost got disqualified for this reason, but it had Landsknechts, so I jumped in. NPC Characters are NPC characters for a reason, and much as I enjoy Vemu's game and unique leveling up, there are many times I feel we should've been dead with a more logical rules system. Rina feels like it wants to be True20. It's now at a point where it's so firmly entrenched with the story that changing would be silly and unnecessary, but if we're going to start something new, why use the same system? There are better ways to do the same thing.
  
  This is still a pretty tricky requirement, no matter how you look at it. You want simple and easy, but you want functional and accurate. The two aren't always complimentary.
  
  
• I have to trust the GM. This is... hard to quantify. I've been in a lot of games with a lot of GMing styles, each of them with strengths/weaknesses. I feel like I'm starting to have a grasp of what I like and what I don't like, and what sort of game I'd play with each of you around here. I'd have to feel that the game matched the GM.
  
  
• I have to trust the players. I like interaction, development, and consistency. Consistency is key. If a game doesn't update, if players don't post, I lose interest. If I don't feel the cast is up to the task, I'll feel less inclined to burn my time on the game, whatever it is.

I know, I'm picky. I've gotten moreso as my time has dwindled. I just have too many things going on, too much to do, to jump into every game that seems the slightest bit interesting. And, not to be too harsh a critic, but I have a feeling the 'build a society' game will probably sink. Please understand that I want it to succeed, but I just don't think it's practical in our current situation.

Anyway, I'll stop rambling and being a bad critic. To summarize--I could run something. I could even resurrect Dragonlance, if all my old crew is still up to the task. I'd also play something--provided it strikes that right balance. But so far in this thread we haven't hit that point.

CofC was close, though. I just don't know that I trust investigation-heavy games on a board anymore. Players seem to get distracted with them very fast.

I do miss Tabloid Truths, though.

[VemuKhaham]

Hm, I don't think I got carried away, I'd call it enthusiasm. First of all, you're mistaken about each player playing multiple characters. You play just one, and everyone else is NPC. Otherwise, I also realize it would be totally impossible.

Second, three people in one weekend day to be enthusiastic about a game is actually not bad at all. It's a start, but a good start. Also, these are 3 consistent posters, and with just a few more, we'd have a good game, with the possibility of running for a long time.

So I don't think this build-a-society idea is impractical, especially as we will start out so small; it will hardly take more energy from the DM than any other game, and it absolutely won't take much more energy from individual players than might be expected in another game.

I realize the merits and faults of the system of Rina, and if I were more familiar with True20 or another system like it, I'd probably use it, but that's just the thing: I'm feeling to lazy to learn more systems, as to me learning systems is just the opposite to getting fun out of my roleplaying hobby. Though I don't think Rina lacks logics in its system (it's simply D&D with a slight homebrew touch), it does perhaps lack a rules-wise DM at times.

The thing about the Dragonlance game was that it started very promising, but I was especially dissappointed when Jolith's character Sebastius got dropped. It felt very unnatural especially to me to redefine Thièron's place in the group after that point, since we were supposed to have such a strong bond. Still, the game holds great potential and with enough enthusiasm (or people being carried away, you decide ) I'm more than willing to continue it.

And of course, the fact that the three of us so far have been considering one possible idea doesn't mean I'm not interested in hearing alternatives. So please do give us your game ideas!

Finally, I feel very much like you: time's been scarce for me too and that tends to make me more picky. For example, I really liked Bergin's proposal for his game but I finally decided not to go with it. But since I've been mourning FKo ever since it closed, it really is something I'd like to blow new life into, even though entirely remodelled.

[at]

Actually when I first (mis)read your thoughts on a council of players solving the problems of a settlement it took me back to my first long-term game - the players were representatives of different factions who didn't normally work together, but would pool their resources for tasks that they could not individually undertake.
It was mainly set in the old Blacksands port city, and the group's actions would change the balance of power between the countless factions, result in changes of the law, and influence the general day to day activities.

It was pretty surreal good fun, things like an alchemist's house vanishing in a puff of green and purple smoke, or the epic city-wide chase of a jewel stealing monkey...

I'm sorely tempted to write another adventure for that setting, though i'll miss the bit we played with a stopwatch on a burning ship full of black powder.


A little off topic, couldn't help reminiscing

Civilization building I might be tempted to try priest/architect type.6

[Yakumo]

I would be up to play Dragonlance if it were ever resurrected, I invested a lot of time and thought into Dawn to make her more than just an annoying Kender, and during the mean time grew very attached. And I think that Masks was working pretty well on a board and I think maybe you mistake distraction for difficulty, because it was quite hard for us to come to decisions in that game.

But I do see how you could see the game idea we have as too ambitious, and I'm inclined to agree somewhat. I think it would be hard to put together on a whim and would sink definitely if that were the case. But I do like the idea enough to tinker with it on my own time and make it into a game that could work at a later point in time. Something I would investigate the true20 system for.

As for trusting a DM though, you are right, I would want to be playing a game that involved with a good DM, one who is rules-wise, and who is consistent. I haven't DMed a single D&D game so even I'm hesitant on the idea. But I do want to get my Game running chops up if I were to embark on a longer and more difficult game. The one thing that always scared me away from doing it was not being able to think on my feet if someone threw a curve ball, PbP kind of takes the edge out of that. The thing is, if you want an amazing and grandiose story, I wouldn't be able to run that, not right away at least, because I simply am not confident enough, and I don't know enough of the rules of the game. So I would definitely have to start out small. Like I do like the academy idea with Shorts, but it feels very impersonal to me so I couldn't bring myself to play one, but the idea behind it is very good and has a lot of potential to grow into something bigger even if that takes quite a lot of time.

But yeah, just because we are enthusiastic about this doesn't mean we are set on it.

Personally I'm willing to learn any new system so ideas shouldn't be limited to just D&D.
So yeah, throw some suggestions out, I'm willing to play anything, even if it is just a module that someone wanted to give a try.

[TheUdjat]

Mar 1, 2009 7:02:26 GMT -5 VemuKhaham said:

Hm, I don't think I got carried away, I'd call it enthusiasm. First of all, you're mistaken about each player playing multiple characters. You play just one, and everyone else is NPC. Otherwise, I also realize it would be totally impossible.

Perhaps you're right. I'm liable to be pessimistic, just due to the way things have been around here lately. I do genuinely like to see enthusiasm, I guess I was just worried it was getting too narrowly focused.

I must have misunderstood the bit about multiple characters. Though, that said, I realized after my last post that I've been in favor of multiple characters before for game ideas, particularly I notion I had of running Ars Magica some time ago. For those not familiar with it, this is a game set in Mythic Europe (historical middle ages, but with real monsters/demons/faeries) centered around a group of old-style wizards, and it really does take place over generations. So... it can be done, and it can be done well, and in such a way that I'd leap at the opportunity. My apologies.

Second, three people in one weekend day to be enthusiastic about a game is actually not bad at all. It's a start, but a good start. Also, these are 3 consistent posters, and with just a few more, we'd have a good game, with the possibility of running for a long time.

So I don't think this build-a-society idea is impractical, especially as we will start out so small; it will hardly take more energy from the DM than any other game, and it absolutely won't take much more energy from individual players than might be expected in another game.

This is also true. In fact, truth be told, you guys seem to be the core active members around these days, moreso than even our administrative staff. Well, excepting the Moonhaven Inn guys, though I'm saddened that they don't appear to be very interested in the rest of the stuff going on around here. Maybe they're just quiet.

Anyway, yes, three people is good for enthusiasm, and I think it reassures me that something new is even possible. I was toying around with the idea of calling for a game a week ago, even drafted up a bunch of material for it, and then I thought... is this really possible? And I got all pessimistic and gave up. Perhaps I was hasty.

However, the idea of 'build-a-society' starting out small still seems... stunning to me. Can such a concept ever really start out small? It almost seems to me that it'd start big and later get more manageable. I guess I still have some misgivings, but to be fair, it does have potential, especially if you guys are all for it. I'll wait and see. Maybe I'll jump on board.

I realize the merits and faults of the system of Rina, and if I were more familiar with True20 or another system like it, I'd probably use it, but that's just the thing: I'm feeling to lazy to learn more systems, as to me learning systems is just the opposite to getting fun out of my roleplaying hobby. Though I don't think Rina lacks logics in its system (it's simply D&D with a slight homebrew touch), it does perhaps lack a rules-wise DM at times.

True20 is a beautifully elegant system--flexible and applicable to pretty much any game I can think of. If you've played d20 you're already familiar with most of the concepts, but it cleans up the old D&D so nicely.

But that's having not tested it yet--I'd love to take it for a drive, just haven't had the opportunity to do so.

If it'd be easier, maybe running a short with True20 for those interested in it would be a prudent thing to do. You guys could get some firsthand experience without having to commit too much. And while we're doing the short, we can continue to discuss a long-term plan for starting a game. I don't know, it's a thought. Let me know.

The thing about the Dragonlance game was that it started very promising, but I was especially dissappointed when Jolith's character Sebastius got dropped. It felt very unnatural especially to me to redefine Thièron's place in the group after that point, since we were supposed to have such a strong bond. Still, the game holds great potential and with enough enthusiasm (or people being carried away, you decide ) I'm more than willing to continue it.

Dragonlance ending saddens me a lot. I had such big plans for that one. And yes, all of you did so much work on characters that it kills me to lose them. I'm just so angry that Jolith and Deekin both dropped off without a trace! I can't just have him vanish, so I was NPCing, but it upset me to NPC such an important character. Ugh.

Anyway, I got depressed about seeing it fall into inactivity, but maybe that was a mistake. I could still run it--would still run it, and would welcome any replacement players, even if they can't post every day (Japic, Rojito, I'm looking at you guys).

Maybe Yakumo's right and Masks is also in this boat. Something to consider. But I do know that Dragonlance catered to more peoples' interests, and that it's much easier to run. Heh.

And of course, the fact that the three of us so far have been considering one possible idea doesn't mean I'm not interested in hearing alternatives. So please do give us your game ideas!

I'll get more into it in the week, maybe. I have some ambitious ideas and some not-so-ambitious ones. I tend to favor the former, but maybe those are out of place in this discussion. Let me think on it.

Finally, I feel very much like you: time's been scarce for me too and that tends to make me more picky. For example, I really liked Bergin's proposal for his game but I finally decided not to go with it. But since I've been mourning FKo ever since it closed, it really is something I'd like to blow new life into, even though entirely remodelled.

I feel your pain. I hate seeing games of mine fall, and often think of ways to revive them. I also liked Bergin's proposal, I think I'm just not ready for that bold and adventure yet. I was hoping others would jump on it.