The Campaign Builder's Guild

So, an offhand comment in the Tavern set me to cogitating, and that's never a good thing.

Here's my idea: what if we, as a community, formed a regular online gaming group based around running short games in our respective worlds? We'll use IRC or similar instant chat software that happens to support dice-rolling functions, we'll get a weekly timeslot that works pretty well for most folks, and we'll set up a list of who wants to run what and when to rotate with.

I figure we could all use a casual venue for playtesting things, and we could certainly all enjoy some gaming with each other (considering how much we enjoy collaborating together on our projects and just virtually hanging out and whatnot.) And I don't know about you, but I have definitely got a long list of other people's settings on this site that I'd jump at the chance to play in.

I'm thinking we could come up with some ideas for very short games-- gaming vignettes, if you will-- that could be played in 1-2 sessions. That way, we can rotate around freely. That is, I'll run a game in my setting one week, and the next week I'll play as a character in another game run by somebody else in their own setting, and the week after that it'll be a different person running a game in a different world, etc. This is nice for people with weird schedules, because if you can only make it to the game once a month, you don't have to feel like you need to sit out the whole thing. You can miss Game X in World X one week, and still jump in for Game Y in World Y the next week.

The plots themselves would be nice and brief; just little things to whet our appetites. Since they'll (most likely) be confined to one location for time reasons, this is a great thing to do with unfinished settings, where only one city or one nation is complete enough for you to run it comfortably.

Post if you're interested, I guess. We'll hammer out the minutae and come up with a timeslot and a list of who is running what and when, and who is playing in which games. I figure it can't hurt to have a list ahead of time so we can have a few weeks of lead time to figure out characters, read up on pertinent setting information, and familiarize ourselves with setting-specific game mechanics, if any.

pooooooooooooooost

Sounds interesting. I'd be up for it. (I'd have to do more work on Derunas, though)

I think your ideas are great.  Always.
(hugs for LC)
Can't wait to see what folks do, and I think it could allow for a lot of play testing, which is vital.

But I don't do one-shots.  A short campaign for me is 4 years.  No Joke.

But your consistency here and the enjoyment I get out of the CBG has set me to trying to convince the wife to let me add 2 more IRC/AIM sessions a month (which is what think it would take).  Says the arrogant bastard old fool.

Sounds good, except for possibly getting bogged down with making characters. Maybe whoever is running it would provide a selection of pre-made or partially-made characters, to keep things moving on a relatively quick clip. (And also to focus play-testing on specific areas that need it.)

Yeah, I was thinking about the character- creation process... Ideally, I imagine (assuming we're using this vignettes for playtesting things) the game master of the particular game would have some stock characters made up for testing purposes?

Oh, and I'm in, I have a few things to test.

yeah.
Hypothetically speaking, character creation is a full 1.5 sessions for us Guildschool folk.  I think either premade, partially premade, or some kind of an understanding would have to be made.

I'm really surprised you're going to attempt this once again LC. Good luck. You remember what happened when we tried a IRC last time.

I would think you'd have better luck with PbP, only thing is things will be slow and I mean slow.


Either way, great idea. Good luck.

I'd be up for it, depending on timing. It sounds interesting, and good chance to get more familiar with more settings.

Quote from: PoseidonI'm really surprised you're going to attempt this once again LC. Good luck. You remember what happened when we tried a IRC last time.

Yeah. I hate that the old IRC game never really got off the ground, but I really had bitten off much more than I could chew when I set that one up.

You had one experience with an IRC game, and it was a flop. It's understandable that you want to write them off entirely. On the other hand, I've had many experiences with IRC games, and most of them were amazing, and one was a flop. I've got a different perspective, so it's also understandable that I want to keep on trying. :yumm:

Also, this sort of rotating system will be less vulnerable to scheduling difficulties than our last game, because there won't usually be continuity from one week to the next. There's a different game each week, so the players can be different as well, which means that it's no problem for people to have to bow out.

That sounds like a really fun idea (to get in my D&D fix) and a really good way to playtest parts of settings and stuff.  Talk about total stroke of genius.  I'm in if we can get timing worked out.  Unfortunately, in like 3 or 4 weeks my schedule will be flooded in a completely unpredictable way.  So I don't know how long I'll be able to keep up with it.

[blockquote=LC]You had one experience with an IRC game, and it was a flop. It's understandable that you want to write them off entirely. On the other hand, I've had many experiences with IRC games, and most of them were amazing, and one was a flop. I've got a different perspective, so it's also understandable that I want to keep on trying.  [/blockquote]

I agree with LC here.  SOme of my best gaming from my PC's has come online over the last few years.  Things are a bit slower, etc, but in some ways, it makes for a more concentrated game.

Quote from: LordVreegI agree with LC here. SOme of my best gaming from my PC's has come online over the last few years. Things are a bit slower, etc, but in some ways, it makes for a more concentrated game.

The pace takes a little getting used to, especially for a game like D&D, where combat includes so many little details and die rolls that it takes absolutely forever even under the best of circumstances. Still, if I had to name the five most awesome memories I have from gaming, four of the five happened in IRC.

I like this idea. I have found that pbp doesn't really work all that well and jsut recently finnally put my pbp game to rest, but i have yet to try a irc game. i also like the idea of short games for testing stuff and there are lots of settings i have been interested to try out.

the pre-made character made by the dm seems very neccesary to me. that would cut out a lot of time and allow for better focus on the elements of playtesting you are going for.

Quote from: Luminous CrayonSo drop in for a week here and there, when you can. That's the beauty of the vignettes-- you can participate even if you are unwilling or unable to block off the same time every week for the next four months

And there lies the beauty of this system.  Thus, why I love it so much.

Quote from: Luminous CrayonYeah. I hate that the old IRC game never really got off the ground, but I really had bitten off much more than I could chew when I set that one up.

I blame Crit for being so dashing.... :P
And it wasn't a bad experience. I just know getting people in different time zones together is difficult. (I have no RL group because I now have a hectic schedule.). My previous post wasn't suppose to be such a downer, I was really just saying I hope you guys have better luck this time around than we did for JS (which was fun when we had a game)

Quote from: IshmaylYeah, I was thinking about the character- creation process... Ideally, I imagine (assuming we're using this vignettes for playtesting things) the game master of the particular game would have some stock characters made up for testing purposes?

Depends on what you want to play test. If it is a creature/monster/npc or system change then yeah stock characters will work.

However if you are play testing a class or race, then you want players to build the characters. It will tell you how easy is it for a person to build the class, possible interaction problems you hadn't thought about when designing it, and other things. What I suggest for games like this is that the DM makes a thread for character creation a week (probably two) in advance for character creation. This way the characters are done before the session begins and any questions/concerns a player might have can be answered and addressed ahead of time (leaving more time for playing during the session).



I expect narrative play logs from each of the games. :P (I probably won't be able to participate)