My New Game for the New Year! (& Other Stuff)
So I launched my “Santa as a Villain” contest on Gnome Stew and Martin Ralya (the Gnome-in-Chief) contacted me to see if I wanted to use some of the Gnome Stew funds to pay for the prize. I declined, but we got to talking about contests and I tossed out this idea for a “New Year, New Game” that had been buzzing about in my head. Martin liked it so much that he decided to build a whole web site around the idea, and here it is!
All of us who contribute at Gnome Stew had a part in shaping the “New Year, New Game” (NYNG for short) concept into what it has quickly become. The site and the idea is already gaining momentum with its challenge to GMs to run a new game setting or system each year. There will be a contest on Gnome Stew this January from the 9th to the 23rd as well. This is all great, and it coincides with my own…
Star Trek RPG Campaign Starting This Month!
I was already planning this campaign, but now I am even more psyched to run it than even before thanks to the launch of NYNG. This campaign is designed to challenge me as a GM, and I have decided to do things very differently in order to stretch my boundaries. These are the ways in which I am stepping out of my comfort zone:
- I will not be using the Fudge RPG system or a derivative of Fudge. Instead I will be starting off with the MicroliteD20 RPG system.
- I will be designing the campaign not to require a regular cast of PCs, and I will be running this game in public at my local game shop or library with a “first come, first serve” open seat policy.
- I will be trying to avoid improvising the game plot and will focus on preparing material that is flexible enough to accommodate the unforeseen twists and turns that players might throw my way.
- The campaign will be designed to take the characters from their beginnings as rookie cadets to retired or high ranking Star Fleet veterans. I want to try and tell a tale of careers and not just adventures.
I am actually a bit nervous to run this game as it will be like nothing that I have done recently as a GM. That is how I know that what I am doing is a good thing as a GM.
And the Other Stuff?
Well I am going to be posting more frequently about more topics in general on this blog. I will begin to share my opinion on matters of atheism and skepticism, because those are two topics that matter a great deal to me. I will also post more about political issues that I feel strongly about. I will post about RPGs and GMing as well. I just want to see this blog move from being a gaming blog to becoming my blog. This is something that I never felt was “appropriate” for some reason, but I think that is because I have always secretly judged this blog against other blogs.
Judging my personal blog by comparing it against other blogs is just plain fucking stupid. I am not going to do that anymore.
One More Thing…
My campaign planner project will be entering the prototype stage soon. I will be looking for people to test the first version in the very near future. The product is meant to help GMs focus on the emotional arc of the game instead of just the rules and details. This is not to say that rules and details are not incredibly important. This product is my attempt to help GMs balance all of the important aspects of a campaign, and I hope that it is well received.
That is it for now. Happy New Year!
Im wondering how your going to pull off not requiring a regular cast of PC’s but still make it about the PC’s careers. Maybe you can do it, but to me it sounds pretty contradictory.
@dwashba: Not at all. I just need to understand where a PC entered the game, exited the game, and what their goals were. Television series do this sort of thing all of the time, and Star Trek: TNG and the series that followed did it very well with familiar guest stars who were not part of the regular cast but who still progressed off screen towards goals.
I’m excited to see how your campaign planner is coming along. Something like this would be excellent for my role playing game club at school. We have a library that members can access, having this alongside Eureka and Masks will be great for our budding GMs.
[…] Sinister Forces: My New Game for the New Year […]
[…] My New Game for the New Year! — Sinister Forces is the personal blog of Gnome Stew author Patrick Benson, and he used this post to share some details about the approach he’ll be taking when he runs Star Trek later this year. […]
[…] My New Game for the New Year! — Sinister Forces is the personal blog of Gnome Stew author Patrick Benson, and he used this post to share some details about the approach he’ll be taking when he runs Star Trek later this year. […]
[…] for quite a while now. This game will be slightly different from the New Year/New Game that I have written about in the past, as this game will have a regular cast and will be using a variation of the D6 system in order to […]