Ok, so last night was the first actual play night of my new fantasy campaign, and I am still surprised by the fact that I was able to convince the group to try out a new system other than DnD. What I am I using? You probably guessed by the title. I’m using the Fate system as represented in Spirit of the Century, modified by the work that Mick and I are doing on Vegas After Midnight (http://www.vegasaftermidnight.net/). The armor and equipment rules specifically, along with a slightly reduced power level from the standard SotC. (Less skills, only seven aspects)

Overall, I have an awesome group that I play with. We’ve been playing for several years now, with a few players leaving and a few new ones coming in, but in general a very stable group. I was worried about the game on several levels, the characters gelling being one of them, since they didn’t last game with another GM. It looks like most of that was due to people having shifting schedules and not a change in the group dynamic itself. *whew*

So, the game. As I said, it went quite well, the players only stumbling a little on the rules here and there. Once they got the hang of one though, we didn’t need to revisit it. Magic is going to be interesting for a while. The setting was formerly a DnD setting, so right now the stunts are more or less patterned after the levels in DnD. Oh, the characters are about 10th level in DnD terms as far as power level goes. The Fate system made for a much more cinematic style of play. I started them out with a combat and not so heavy on the roleplaying, since it would teach the crunch in a quicker manner. The combat and spellcasting was excellent! There is one player in my group who always plays a caster, but has always interpreted spells in his own way and never the same way twice. Fate has allowed him to do what he wants with spells, and not to worry about some description somewhere. It totally worked.

My big surprise of the night was another character who was also playing a caster, this one a mage, and his description for his spells were awesome. I found myself realizing halfway through the night that I was still in DnD running mode and not in cinematic SotC mode, but he totally got it even though it was his first time playing. Casting spells that would put aspects on the scene like “Portal to the realm of earth” and at the same time another one of “Sucking Vortex” so that they could push the elemental creatures they were battling into the portal and get rid of them, but also using the Sucking Vortex aspect to help them do it. 100% recycled SotC awesome!

Whew, ok, that’s enough for now. Next game is next Wednesday, and if it relates to VAM playtesting and design I might post more about it. Unless you comment and ask for more anyway.

So I said I would try out ScribeFire from the train, and I am. I thought I would add in some interesting information for those who are following the development of Vegas After Midnight as well, just to make things more interesting to you, the reader.

I’ve been working on a few things to get the alpha documents ready, and frankly I got sidetracked. Life sped up for a while, and I got distracted from VAM. I was working on a guide to the Factions, a re-written version of Dylan’s Guide to Vegas After Midnight, written by her brother Vic. Mick and I decided to do this since Mick’s vision of the Factions had changed since he put out the original Guide a while back. I’m doing the re-write so Mick can do some crunchy things with the system, and I can do some of the fluff. I was enjoying it, but as I said earlier, got sidetracked. I should start up on it again soon.

I was also working on the equipment section of the rules. We know we want equipment, more than the Spirit of the Century games we have played in recently, but not so much that the game becomes “How much stuff can you carry after Midnight.” So I’m keeping it lighter, but still interesting, and giving a reason for why characters would want equipment in the first place.

So… before I go on more, and possibly lose it all, I’ll end the experiment here. If it works, and I don’t lose this whole thing, then you can expect more from me, more frequently.

Well, things haven’t been going as well as hoped for in this new year of 2008. I have been thinking a good deal about Vegas After Midnight, but work, yeah mostly work, has prevented me from feeling creative enough to actually write much.

I write when I can on it, but I feel that the thoughts I put down are disjointed and fragmentary. Nothing really solid or worthy of going into the game. I write them though, because if I don’t the good stuff won’t work itself to the surface.

Like yesterday, I finally got to talk with Mick on the phone for a while, and he and I came up with some cool ideas that might make it into the game. They are very Story Game-esque in their feel, but I think that the ideas add to the feel and flavor of the game. That didn’t come out quite right, so let me back up. I like immersion in my gaming, the kind where you become the character as much as you can in a tabletop game. Story Gaming breaks that for me, but it trades that for a movie or book style immersion, where you watch the characters and enjoy the story.

The two styles are not mutually exclusive in my mind, but they will take some finesse to get them to work. Ok, so what we came up with was a way for people playing VAM to not only play their characters, and for the GM to craft adventures for them, but to also have the players (GM included) have a say in how the overall story goes. With the players on the Hope side, and the GM on the Despair side, each side ends up playing poker for the fate of the story. Depending how the game is set up at the beginning of the campaign (since we want it to be run in several sessions at least, not just a one shot), the game could last a predetermined number of hands, or it could end when one side goes all in, and loses. Each hand would determine how ultimate outcome of the last set of games went, and it will flavor the next set of games until the next hand is played.

There is still a great deal to work out, and depending on how it fits with the rest of the feel of VAM, it may or may not even make the final cut. I’m not cutting it until we’ve tested it a bit though.

I got a little off track from where I started, but that just seems to be the way this year is going. I am hoping that I have some control over where it is headed, and I intend to try my darndest to get it going where I want it to go.