Shores of Night

 After my 'favourite games' post I started to think about the various things I could run and, more importantly, what I wanted to run. These are my initial 'sketches' where I start working out what I could do with the games I've chosen, potential problems and flavours.  I've no idea which of them will fly, but intend to work the ideas a little bit before settling on one to 'push' to see if I can find another group. They're a bit rough and ready at the moment but I'd love to hear your thoughts. Gaming Stuff Notes on Terminology Mode – the setup of the campaign overall, which I divide into three categories. Epic – one long story Chronicle – short stories that build into a single story Mission – single stories Campaign Ideas Victoriana: Small Shadows Mode: Mission/Chronicle Location: London initially, thereafter travelling; I especially want the characters to travel to India Tone: Mystery, slight tinges of h...

I've ended up writing a lot of fairly critical stuff about gaming and very little that celebrates the hobby. I thought I'd talk about five games I really like and what makes me like them so much. Vampire: the Masquerade:  This isn't the first game I played but it is the game that made me interested in gaming. The fact that it was set in our world, or a close facsimile rather than some sort of never-never land meant it felt like the kind of thing that could happen outside my window, that it mattered (there’s a reason my first adventure – it was too short to be a Chronicle – was set in Coventry and featured Setites trying to get revenge for the way the Iraq super gun affair had gone down; the idea that the World of Darkness could be fuelled by what you read in the news was cool). The political nature of Kindred society and the ever shifting sands they build their society on was something that, as someone who'd studied politics at A Level and was undertaking it at...

I've spoken a lot of analytical stuff about gaming lately and feel as if I'm going around in a bit of a spiral, heading towards a kill or cure situation where I either embrace the hobby fully again, or walk away and don't come back (for far too many reasons to go into here). One reason for this is that I've become increasingly aware of the hobby's limitations. Gaming, for me, always seemed to be an activity that was ripe with possibilities; something where you could do anything if you set your mind to it, whether that was neighbourhood defenders, small traders on a star ship; military squads or navigating the corridors of power. It is only lately that I've come to the conclusion that, in fact, the space that gaming and games can exist in is pretty small; occasionally cripplingly small. The hobby is beset with limitations and barriers that come from all sorts of directions, groups, styles and the nature of the past time itself. Let me clear here that I’m...