Playing with game creators

[AsenRG]

I hear Bill Reich always plays with at least one game creator on the table, same for Certified and Lofgeornost S SfgTAT !

 

[Lofgeornost]

I hear Bill Reich always plays with at least one game creator on the table, same for Certified and Lofgeornost S SfgTAT !

Yeah, not me, unless you count homebrews; there was a time in the 1980s I only ran my own designs, crappy as they were. I can't say that I've ever played with a game creator, though a couple of my players did publish things in the Dragon or Strategic Review, if your memory goes that far back.

 

[Bill Reich]

I hear Bill Reich always plays with at least one game creator on the table, same for Certified and Lofgeornost S SfgTAT !

Well, C.J. and I are always there and we've both created games.

 

[Majestic]

I've played with a number of game creators. Most enjoyable was a weekend long event playing Villains & Vigilantes alongside the game's creators (Jeff Dee and Jack Herman) with Bill Willingham (Fables, Elementals) as GM. I've also played with Jack and Jeff as GMs at a separate event.

I also played Top Secret (the new version) with its creators, with Merle Rasmussen watching, and Aces & Eights (in a bit of a bait and switch game) with the Kenzer & Company crew, sitting next to Jolly Blackburn (Knights of the Dinner Table) and his wife.

Not all encounters like this are great ones, though. I'm not going to name the creator or system, but my housemate once played in a premium event where he got to play in one of the oldest RPGs with the game's creators and for him it was a nightmare. This particular creator (who I'm not going to name, but it's a well-known system that has been around for decades):

a) Spoke with a monotone voice the whole time; he apparently seemed like a bored college professor reading the most uninteresting text

a) Refused to even run things per the game's rules. He decided that no PC could ever roll things based on a stat until you had rotated through and used all of the other stats ("you used Strength to knock down the door, so this time when you lift the portcullis, you'll need to figure out how you can do that using your Charisma"). This for no story (or other) reason

b) Had the PCs wander around and basically do (and accomplish) nothing during like a 4 or 5 hour session

I'm sure some will be curious who this fellow would be, but I don't see much good in naming him (or the system; examples above have been changed to disguise what it is). The point is that not everybody who might be brilliant at creating a game is necessarily also a good GM.

 

[Ravenswing]

No, of course not: GMing is one quarter preparation, one quarter quickwittedness, and one half performance art, IMHO.

Heck, there's a difference even across mediums. There was a woman I met in a large text MMORPG. Brilliant, charismatic, quickwitted, a comet across the game's landscape; we played a father-daughter team for years. She moved to my area, and joined my tabletop campaign. Washed out in four sessions, in which she was flat, colorless and disengaged. She just couldn't translate to face-to-face.

 

[AsenRG]

No, of course not: GMing is one quarter preparation, one quarter quickwittedness, and one half performance art, IMHO.

Heck, there's a difference even across mediums. There was a woman I met in a large text MMORPG. Brilliant, charismatic, quickwitted, a comet across the game's landscape; we played a father-daughter team for years. She moved to my area, and joined my tabletop campaign. Washed out in four sessions, in which she was flat, colorless and disengaged. She just couldn't translate to face-to-face.

I've had a player like this, too. But she's striving to improve her face-to-face playing the same way I did at the time: by running her own game!

Yeah, not me, unless you count homebrews; there was a time in the 1980s I only ran my own designs, crappy as they were. I can't say that I've ever played with a game creator, though a couple of my players did publish things in the Dragon or Strategic Review, if your memory goes that far back.

Yeah, sorry...I went to check who's the OP of the Black Spear thread. Then after posting I remembered that it wasn't started by the creator!
My mistake, I got distracted at the time!

Well, C.J. and I are always there and we've both created games.

And that's why I started with you, and specified "at least one" game creator. It's hard to avoid having one at your table when that person is you!
So what is playing with you two like?

 

[Bill Reich]

I've had a player like this, too. But she's striving to improve her face-to-face playing the same way I did at the time: by running her own game!


Yeah, sorry...I went to check who's the OP of the Black Spear thread. Then after posting I remembered that it wasn't started by the creator!
My mistake, I got distracted at the time!

And that's why I started with you, and specified "at least one" game creator. It's hard to avoid having one at your table when that person is you!
So what is playing with you two like?

Pretty smooth, really. We've done it for years. He will rely on me for technical system knowledge if he doesn't it right at hand, because we are playing the system I wrote, but he feels free to alter things and I don't give him crap about it. He's the one who started calling the Goblin Spider Goddess in my setting Charlotte, which is now the standard name for her among humans and dwarfs, so he adds some fun touches to my setting.

I'm much more protective of my setting than my system, really. My late friend Jack ran Glory Road in the setting for whatever that Robert Jordan series was and having me in the game was no problem. Then he tried to run in my Lake Country setting and found me really annoying. Hey, I made the setting in 1976, playing original D & D; I know where all the rivers rise and where they flow. Run in your own damn setting. That is not how he passed away.

 

[K_Peterson]

I played 1 session with a game creator back around 2002. It was for the Donjon Rpg, written by Clinton Nixon of The Forge fame.

I got an introduction to "indie" Rpgs through a fellow gamer. From my recollection, The Forge was taking off around then, and Seattle was starting to become a hotbed of Indie Rpg discussion and play. (Gamers I knew were talking about them, and there were regular, local meetups for enthusiasts). I was curious about this new style of play, answered a forum post, and showed up for a game session at the author's apartment. I figured, what better way is there to learn about the playstyle than from a designer deeply immersed in the experience? Maybe this will be a direction I can take my gameplay?

The session consisted mostly of chargen, discussion about the game system, and a brief intro to the adventure. PC concepts were all over the place, and there wasn't much effort to tie the PCs together; the game system was pretty lite - but that didn't bother me since I was familiar with lite Rpgs, like Over the Edge; the adventure started with some wilderness travel. I remember creating a bullywug tracker/ranger PC. After 30 minutes of actual play we wrapped things up, and the designer was going to work on a short campaign and schedule us for the next session.

Unfortunately, that was the end of it. A couple of days later, the designer emailed everyone to say that he couldn't come up with a campaign (or wasn't inspired to - I forget), and the next session was cancelled. So started and ended my experience with, and exposure to Indie/Storygames.

The experience was odd, looking back. I was expecting the designer to have more enthusiasm and drive for his own product, and to push the game, and the play experience more.

 

[urbwar]

K_Peterson's post reminded me that I have played Burning Wheel a few times with Luke Crane. He had some scenarios that he'd run at conventions in the NYC area. One was called (iirc) The Gift, where a group of Elves visit a Dwarf stronghold to welcome their new leader, and forgot to bring the gift their leader wanted to give them. So now we're in the middle of a Dwarf stronghold, surrounded by upset Dwarves, and one of our own hates them. My character was this war weary older Elf who had been brought back to protect the Elf King's son. The new Dwarf leader wasn't really leader material (he liked to gamble and carouse), so he kept holding off on his people just slaughtering us. In the end, I came up with a solution no one else had ever thought of before: We made the Dwarf leader an Elf-friend, which is the highest honor a non-elf could be given. Luke thought that was pretty cool (given no one had thought of it before), but it fit my character's personality. He had long since tired of killing, and felt it was the only way to avoid a bloodbath (because it would have to led to war between our two kingdoms). I'm not the biggest fan of Burning Wheel, but I can honestly say all my play experiences with it have always been positive ones. Especially when Luke ran the scenario.

 

[Voros]

K_Peterson's post reminded me that I have played Burning Wheel a few times with Luke Crane. He had some scenarios that he'd run at conventions in the NYC area. One was called (iirc) The Gift, where a group of Elves visit a Dwarf stronghold to welcome their new leader, and forgot to bring the gift their leader wanted to give them. So now we're in the middle of a Dwarf stronghold, surrounded by upset Dwarves, and one of our own hates them. My character was this war weary older Elf who had been brought back to protect the Elf King's son. The new Dwarf leader wasn't really leader material (he liked to gamble and carouse), so he kept holding off on his people just slaughtering us. In the end, I came up with a solution no one else had ever thought of before: We made the Dwarf leader an Elf-friend, which is the highest honor a non-elf could be given. Luke thought that was pretty cool (given no one had thought of it before), but it fit my character's personality. He had long since tired of killing, and felt it was the only way to avoid a bloodbath (because it would have to led to war between our two kingdoms). I'm not the biggest fan of Burning Wheel, but I can honestly say all my play experiences with it have always been positive ones. Especially when Luke ran the scenario.

I'm not a fan of Burning Wheel although it has some cool ideas in it worth stealing and book itself is gorgeous but I've read several people online mention how good a GM Crane is at the table.

 

[urbwar]

I'm not a fan of Burning Wheel although it has some cool ideas in it worth stealing and book itself is goregous but I've read several people online mention how good a GM Crane is at the table.

Luke is a really good GM. It also helps that his demo games were not typical adventures. I have an older version of the game, but passed on Burning Wheel Gold. It's not something I'd ever run, and people around here tend to stick to D&D/PF for or DW.

 

[ffilz]

I'm not a fan of Burning Wheel although it has some cool ideas in it worth stealing and book itself is goregous but I've read several people online mention how good a GM Crane is at the table.

Burning Wheel is clearly fine tuned to Luke Crane's way of GMing. If your style is different, or you can't quite grok how he does things, Burning Wheel looks cool, and looks really unapproachable. I keep it in my go to list but honestly, I'm not going to be running it anytime soon.

 

[ffilz]

Luke is a really good GM. It also helps that his demo games were not typical adventures. I have an older version of the game, but passed on Burning Wheel Gold. It's not something I'd ever run, and people around here tend to stick to D&D/PF for or DW.

I started a campaign right as Adventure Burner came out (and rode on the excitement of that to get players). We still had a group when Gold came out so I picked that up and some campaigning was done with Gold.

 

[Voros]

I started a campaign right as Adventure Burner came out (and rode on the excitement of that to get players). We still had a group when Gold came out so I picked that up and some campaigning was done with Gold.

Checking now I realize the edition I have is Gold as well. Such a nicely produced book.