Classic Horror

     As I slowly pull together a new gaming group (or resurrect an old one, in a way), the ideas for the new campaign have started to drift in. I like to try new things when it comes to storytelling, and this seemed like another good opportunity to do so.
    
    I've been playing a lot of The Secret World lately, and I've really been enjoying the locales and setting as a whole. I love the feeling of pervasive dread it inspires. It's as if, even though you are clearly the hero, it doesn't care that you might lose. The forces arrayed against you leave little doubt that you are a small fish in a very large and disturbing ocean. As I entered the Transylvania zone, I was reminded of the old Ravenloft campaign setting from AD&D. In a time when vampires sparkle and werewolves are just tens with anger problems, it was nice to be reminded just how terrifying these beasts were in their original incarnations.

     This got me thinking for other sources of inspiration along these fronts. I knew I was hooked on the concept of Gothic horror; but where did I go from there? First thing first, I dug up my copy of Heroes of Horror, a 3.5 sourcebook for exactly these things. It's a wonderful tool for setting a tone and coming up with ways to challenge your players while maintaining suspense. I've actually used it in my regular campaigns it's so chock full of player killin' goodness.

    I'm not sure how I'm going to run it mechanically speaking. Pathfinder/3.5 has an absolute wealth of options and material specifically designed for this, but it is an pain to run. I'm toying around with the idea of 4E, but that doesn't sit right either. It's too combat oriented for a good suspense, intrigue-driven story. My prior gaming group tried several times in this regard, and it never really seemed to stick. So where does that leave me?

    Dunno. I think I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and run it in 3.5.

    Sigh. I hate the encounter system so much. Adjusting monsters for different encounters can be tricky, particularly with the rules for combat being moderately complicated. That said though, the level of customization is staggering for characters, and I think that's the reason players keep coming back to it as a system. Even more so than any other edition of Dungeons & Dragons, 3.5 is just where so many hearts reside.

    I just hate making those encounters. Maybe Pathfinder has a more streamlined way of doing things. We'll see.

Asian Fusion

     Okay, so I had a little bit of a tornado of hectic scrambling last week, and wasn't able to post because of it. Now I'm back on the wagon and here to talk about a couple of different games I've been looking to play.

    The first is Big Eyes Small Mouth, a game I was cajoled/conscripted to play as a part of the podcast that I record with. The Wicked Anime crew consists of most of my former gaming group, and during one of our post recording talks, the idea of running a BESM campaign came up. Everyone thought this was a wonderful idea, as we could each pick a genre we really loved for our respective characters. Or have a genre foisted upon you like plague. In an effort to avoid having to play the magical girl (because for some reason, as the tokusatsu and sentai fan, they wouldn't let me be a Power Ranger or Kamen Rider. Which was just cruel.), I volunteered to DM the shenanigans.

    We held a poll on the what time of campaign it should be, and the fans chose the ragtag crew team-up. What a wonderful windfall.This has let to some really neat avenues of thought because this isn't really a defined genre in terms of setting. I can run the whole of time and space with this, as long as the characters are using there disparate abilities and natures in overcoming the obstacles. So, look forward to ninjas, spaceships, giant robots, magical girls and just a touch of high school drama. Should be fun.

    Moving on to my personal gaming, The Secret World hasn't slowed down in its ability to keep me interested. My cabal consists of some pretty cool guys, and I've even run my first dungeon. DPS is a new experience, but I totally get why people chase those big critical hit numbers now. I'm slowly branching into a more support/dps playstyle, and I might even begin to pick up some tanking abilities, just to round things out.

   On the tabletop front, I've got the backbone of a Pathfinder campaign that seems like it might be fun. I think I might take cue from the old 3.5 setting Ravenloft and run some traditional gothic horror for my group. Vampires ruling cities hidden in the mist, werewolves terrorizing villagers, ghosts keening balefully in the night. It's different from my normal high adventure style and kind of refreshing.