I just wrapped up a 6 year campaign...

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Tommy Brownell

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...and damn, I'm gonna miss it.

But it was time to move on to other stuff, for sure. I felt like we had done the damage we were going to do in ETU (East Texas University for Savage Worlds). But it's one of those campaigns that just hit different. We ran 52 adventures over 4 in-game years. We had a few breaks due to real life stuff and playing other games here and there (we fit the entirety of Curse of Strahd into a break in ETU)...but it feels weird now that it's over.

Anyway, needed to share that.

Now to figure out what we're playing next.
 
Awesome, Tommy! How did you close it out with the characters? Was it climatic? Lots of resolution?
 
Awesome, Tommy! How did you close it out with the characters? Was it climatic? Lots of resolution?

I feverishly worked the tie up a lot of loose threads by the end (and I think I got them all!)

In the end, they had to venture into the netherworld to stop the convergence of the ley lines over Pinebox, Texas. 8 went in (3 PCs, 5 NPCs), but only four made it out.

One PC was more or less a borderline Paladin (she was carrying a straight up Holy Avenger for the last couple of years game time) and she got wiped out by a demon prince on the other side, but they managed to take her unconscious body out when they left.

The end was a race to the portal to escape the Netherworld after stopping the Convergence, and our non-combat magic using PC used the Parley Adventure Card to force the chasing demons to stop and hear him out, giving the rest time to run to safety. One of the PCs - a werewolf - made it through...but his NPC girlfriend stumbled before she could make the portal, which completely took him by surprise.

I let them narrate out "what happened next". The werewolf PC was also the star quarterback of the football team. He got drafted to The Detroit Lions and his NPC best friend, who was the star wide receiver, got drafted by the Dolphins, then got cut, and wound up on the Lions. They became a huge ratings smash as part of the new season of "Hard Knocks".

The PC knight reconciled with her demon hunter father figure who had previously had a falling out with her over her allying with werewolves and magicians and the like. She and the football guys had a huge rift form between them over their friends being left behind, and she struck out with her demon hunting Daddy hunting monsters, and looking for some signs of hope that they could save the ones left behind.

We used the ETU Degrees of Horror Plot Point Campaign, but I made lots of embellishments of my own (as I do) to mold the setting and plot elements to the characters.

I always said that Necessary Evil was the best campaign I've ever ran, but this may well have beaten it.
 
Congrats. That's quite the feat. How did you keep the gaming going for so long? Were each session in person? How did the coronavirus pandemic affect it?
 
Congrats. That's quite the feat. How did you keep the gaming going for so long? Were each session in person? How did the coronavirus pandemic affect it?

Honestly, we would probably have finished sooner, but we took breaks here and there, as noted in the OP...but as far as interest went, that was easy: Everyone was super invested in both the setting and the characters (PCs and key NPCs).

We started face to face but migrated to Roll20 when half my group (married couple) moved...so the pandemic didn't really impact it, as our group was already set up for long distance gaming.
 
...and damn, I'm gonna miss it.

But it was time to move on to other stuff, for sure. I felt like we had done the damage we were going to do in ETU (East Texas University for Savage Worlds). But it's one of those campaigns that just hit different. We ran 52 adventures over 4 in-game years. We had a few breaks due to real life stuff and playing other games here and there (we fit the entirety of Curse of Strahd into a break in ETU)...but it feels weird now that it's over.

Anyway, needed to share that.

Now to figure out what we're playing next.
Congratulations, man! That's an achievement right there!

Now I just have to figure out what to run next. And no, it's probably not going to be Mythras.
Have you considered Mongoose's Legend:thumbsup:? It's got some nice S&S setting supplements, and a demon summoning supplement to boot...:devil:!

Just kidding, the real questions are:
What kind of society are you in the mood to interact with? Antiquity, pre-modern, modern, SF, space monarchy, something else?
Do you want PCs to all have powers, none having powers, only the "learned ones" having them?

And we can go to recommendations from there.
 
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We started face to face but migrated to Roll20 when half my group (married couple) moved...so the pandemic didn't really impact it, as our group was already set up for long distance gaming.
I'm really interested in the logistics of how you pulled this off.

Did the group keep the same people throughout?
How did you settle on times and game length that worked for everyone?
 
I'm really interested in the logistics of how you pulled this off.

Did the group keep the same people throughout?
How did you settle on times and game length that worked for everyone?

Players or PCs? If players, then yes. I game with two of my best friends and one of their wives. We do have an open invitation to another close friend and his husband, but they haven't taken us up on it (his husband isn't a fan of online gaming).

PCs? One player lost his character and made a new one. Then the group ventured into the netherworld and brought the first PC back. This resulted in the player running two PCs until the 2nd PC was tragically killed fighting aliens. Otherwise, yes, same PCs until the end.

Scheduling was easy. Had to be Saturday or Sunday due to work schedules. We did Saturdays for a while, because they were driving out to my house, but settled on Sundays because with online gaming, having a session running later into the evening on the night before work wasn't so bad, because we could just log off and go to bed.

My next campaign, whatever it will be, will be with the same group/schedule.
 
What are you thinking? Any settings or systems you’re leaning toward?

My main ideas have been:

Necessary Evil Breakout
Savage Pathfinder (either Rise of the Runelords or adapting something)
D&D 5e (either homebrew or Temple of Elemental Evil, most likely)
Heart: The City Beneath

But then I get the inkling to run short campaigns of something like Blades in the Dark or Leverage or something.

The things I'm sure on:

Staying away from modern monster hunting/urban fantasy, because we just did that, more or less...
And I want a smaller game or two in place before we aim for something epic again.
and whatever it is probably won't be sci-fi, because sci-fi's not really my thing.
 
Now I just have to figure out what to run next. And no, it's probably not going to be Mythras.
I would go for Savage Worlds, easy to understand, chargen, and easy to play.
Alternatively a Lords of Gossamer game.
 
I would go for Savage Worlds, easy to understand, chargen, and easy to play.
Alternatively a Lords of Gossamer game.

Always an option (I did just finish a 6 year Savage Worlds campaign)...but I'm also partially ready for a big break from Savage Worlds for a while.
 
Always an option (I did just finish a 6 year Savage Worlds campaign)...but I'm also partially ready for a big break from Savage Worlds for a while.
Lords of Gossamer so you can take the power levels up a notch.
Or go for broke, use M&M rules for a LoG game - supers walking the Eternal Stair.
 
Heart: The City Beneath

I’m currently running Spire, and reading Heart. Part of me is so eager to get to Heart that I want to run concurrent campaigns. But I’m really enjoying Spire and I’m a bit nervous about disrupting that in some way.

I’ll probably let Spire run its course and then do a bit of Heart. It seems suited for a relatively short campaign.
 
Lords of Gossamer so you can take the power levels up a notch.
Or go for broke, use M&M rules for a LoG game - supers walking the Eternal Stair.
Assuming M&M is Mutants & Masterminds...I hate Mutants & Masterminds. Zero chance.


I’m currently running Spire, and reading Heart. Part of me is so eager to get to Heart that I want to run concurrent campaigns. But I’m really enjoying Spire and I’m a bit nervous about disrupting that in some way.

I’ll probably let Spire run its course and then do a bit of Heart. It seems suited for a relatively short campaign.

I liked reading Spire a lot more than I thought I would (Heart got me into the line)...I can see the appeal of running both, for sure.
 
Assuming M&M is Mutants & Masterminds...I hate Mutants & Masterminds. Zero chance.
Or just swap it out for another Supers system to run LoG?
Prowlers and Paragons, Mythic d6 are two possibles....

Achtung Elder Godlike, and kind of have a Weird War vibe kind of like Werewolves of the Reich on Netflix.
Or maybe pick a DnD setting you all like? You could easily use Savage Pathfinder / Savage Rifts to run it.
 
Congratulations, man! That's an achievement right there!


Have you considered Mongoose's Legend:thumbsup:? It's got some nice S&S setting supplements, and a demon summoning supplement to boot...:devil:!

Just kidding, the real questions are:
What kind of society are you in the mood to interact with? Antiquity, pre-modern, modern, SF, space monarchy, something else?
Do you want PCs to all have powers, none having powers, only the "learned ones" having them?

And we can go to recommendations from there.
My main criteria is I'm planning something relatively short term (in comparison to ETU) and something not at all involving modern monster hunting. Too close to what we just did.
 
My main criteria is I'm planning something relatively short term (in comparison to ETU) and something not at all involving modern monster hunting. Too close to what we just did.
Then let me make an argument for Mongoose Legend if you don't mind...:thumbsup:
1) The corebook is $1 in PDF. It's one of the few non-free cases where I'm comfortable just saying "see for yourself if you like the rules" (d100 based, but then, that's me that's recommending the game - d100/2d6 is the majority of the games I play*, with various dicepools being the next most common...and I don't even pick them by what dice they use, it's just a trend I've noticed:tongue:).

2) There are rather cool settings that fit your criteria. From Historia Rodentia (animals at war in a pseudo-19th-Century-Europe&Middle East), to Land of Ice and Stone (pre-historic/Stone Age fantasy - and I can't think of anything that would be further from the ETU...:shade:) to Sheoloth - the Sprawling City (filled with dark elves) to generic Vikings, Pirates and Heian Japan supplements (not to mention the demon summoning supplement)... I can recommend the Vikings one, BTW:grin:!

3) There are adventures as well, if you prefer that, like The Spider-God's Bride (which is a series of linked adventures, and also has a follow-up adventure, AFAICT - haven't read it, but it seems to be firmly in the S&S tradition).

So that's my 0,02BGN. Whatever you decide to run, good luck recharging the batteries before the next multi-year campaign.



*If you hadn't said you dislike SF, I'd have recommended Zaibatsu by Zozer Games:gunslinger:!
 
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And it looks like we're going to play Tiny Taverns (at least for a few sessions).
 
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