[poll, game, saturday, posting] Get out of bed, you lazy doofs!

[Lmns Crn]

Okay, so on second thought I can't seem to post a poll?? Anyway, doesn't matter, screw it, moving on.

Hey: it's time for Luminous Crayon to run a game.
(Because if I don't get some kind of creative/social outlet pretty soon I'm going to feel sad or something I guess?)

It's going to be happening Saturday mornings, because that's when I have time nowadays. So get out of bed and let's play! We will probably be using one or more of the following: threads, the wiki, IRC, Skype (text) because mixed media.

It's been a long time since I've run a game, and I'm hoping to build up some momentum. So I probably want to start with something relatively easy and low-prep, or one of my never-ran ideas that has a lot of the prep already done. So I'm not using an established custom setting for this first game. Because this is the community that it is, I think that's a great excuse to run the sort of game that, in one way or another, lets you define the world you're in.

That's where you come in, naturally.

Here are some of my top contenders at the moment. Feel free to suggest alternatives if you have something good, but I probably want to stick with something I'm familiar with!

Apocalypse World - Survive, secure your shit, be the baddest ass. I'm thinking maybe a frozen kind of global-winter apocalypse? Maybe a tidally-locked Earth with a thin strip of habitable twilight between horrible deadly Day and horrible deadly Night? I dunno, something cool, maybe you come up with it.
- Theme: Friends Close and Enemies Closer

Amber Diceless - Because this system is weird and it intrigues me, and because it's easy for characters to explore and find new worlds (to their own specifications, often) during play, and maybe you want your own little realm off in Shadow? I've got this idea kicking around to treat Chaos, pre-Pattern, like the latter days of the Roman Republic-- we can vie for control of the dominant empire of the multiverse as it disintegrates under the weight of decadence, treachery, and attack by strange new powers from beyond. If you didn't understand any part of that last sentence, you can still be a petty vindictive upper-class nobility transdimensional shapeshifting demon lord. Something for everybody!
- Theme: End of an Era, Cosmic Chaotic Power Corrupts Cosmic-Chaotically

Mage: the Awakening - Obligatory World of Darkness tokenism here. Do you love gnosticism and theosophy? Because God hates you, reality is broken, and you've almost got access to Phenomenal Cosmic Power except for that The Man is Keeping You Down. In this lustre-lost Asheville, you've got the fading ember of humanity's creative spark, beset on all sides by smothering apathy, ignorance, and bland corporate sameness. Maybe the most sandboxy of the options, so be prepared to have bighuge plans and be proactive. (This is probably the thing I'd need the most prep time for, but that's okay if people want to play it.)
- Theme: Hidden Signs of Spiritual Truths, Paved with Good Intentions

Scion: the, uh, Scioning - Fair warning: we are probably going to blow up the Earth.
- Theme: Blowing Up the Earth

Post if you're interested. Say what you're interested in.

[sparkletwist]

Why not FATE? You like FATE. I like FATE. Everyone likes FATE!
(Well, that guy over in the corner doesn't, but he doesn't count.)

Anyway, the big problem with Mage and Scion is that they are cool fluff-wise but the rules are a giant mess of awful. Something about gnosticism and theosophy and blowing up the Earth but using FATE might be swell, though.

Then again, don't listen to me. I can't commit to anything on Saturdays anyway. :(

[Lmns Crn]

Asura would be my fifth option except that I don't quite get the system yet.

I'm down with FATE but I don't have a ready-to-go setting for FATE right now that really grabs my attention, and part of the point of running a game for me is to just run something that doesn't require me to build it first. Suggestions welcome, obvs.

[Llum]

Token guy over in the corner, 3, 1 and 4 seem cool, my preference in that order. As much as I love Amber (and Zelazny in general), not a huge fan of the mechanic behind diceless, what I know of it anyway.

Couple questions, what time saturday mornings? I'm on mountain time atm, so if you were thinking like 8:00 am EST, I'm out. Not getting up at 6:00 am on a saturday :P Secondly, how soon would this start? My plate is pretty full for the next couple weeks for sure, what kind of timeline are we looking at?

[Lmns Crn]

My personal ideal time is 10 AM EST, but that bit's negotiable.

Game will start whenever we all get our act together. I want to do character creation as a group, or at least talk about concepts as a group, so we're all on the same page.

I would rather do a deliberately short-run game with a definite end, than do an open-ended game that goes on until we lose interest and fizzles out.

[sparkletwist]

Asura would be my fifth option except that I don't quite get the system yet.

Well, if you had questions, I would certainly try to answer them, for whatever that's worth. :D

[Rhamnousia]

My vote is definitely for Apocalypse World.

[Lmns Crn]

AW is my top contender, too. I think these are mostly presented in order of my preference, sort of, mostly.

[Lmns Crn]

Still looking for players. Nobody else? Is it the timeslot?

[SA]

Ooh! Ooh! Me! I'm down. Amber plz. Or any of the others. Except scion. Scion sucks.

EDIT: ohwait. We're going to blow up the earth? I'm cool with Scion.

[Seraph]

I think right now the game I am currently running is taking up too much time for me to commit to another.  I may have to play some of those sessions on Saturdays too, though, and possibly overlapping your times, depending on how long your sessions run.

I would like to be a player in a game again, though....
If we were to work something out time-wise, I'd be interested in Mage and Apocalypse World.  (Never played in either of those before, though, so I'd need some coaching)

[Weave]

I would also love to be able to commit to this but I run a game and play in another, so my time is pretty crunched.

I'm sad to see Jade Stage is absent from the list of choices :(. I love me Jade Stage something fierce.

[SA]

I love me Jade Stage something fierce.

You and me both.

Where's the love, Lume?

[Lmns Crn]

I had a long post and my browser vommed all over itself. :(

re: expressions of interest,
Awexome. Good to have any and/or all of you onboard. One nice thing about pitching a game to this community is that I know that alla ya'll can bring the sorts of chilling, terrific creativity that keeps me inspired, so,

re: I haven't played any of these games before,
That's okay, I haven't run most of them before. This will be a learning experience for both of us. Part of why I'm doing this is to get a gaming experience that's outside of my usual habits, to try to dislodge some kind of buried chunk of creativity from a new direction. Having it be unfamiliar is part of the point.

Apocalypse World sounds like a strong possibility, since multiple people have highlighted it (AW game mechanics joke, haarrr) and since it is pretty simple to learn and teach and manage.

re: why is there no jade stage on the list,
See above. I'm flattered by the interest, but we're currently in Phase One of Operation Run Some Goddamned Games Already, Jesus Krishna, so I'm trying to cover a bit of new ground I haven't recently trod. If it works out, we'll eventually retire one game and move on to another (from the same list or not, who knows?) and we'll cover all the ground we need to eventually.

[sparkletwist]

I'm just going to be contrary and vote against Apocalypse World.

No, really, I have reasons, which I'll go into if anyone's interested, but you can probably just envision a typical sparkletwist rant about bad math and player empowerment and you'll be close.