Monday, November 4, 2013

Long Running game

I guess TL:DR No more short arc games, just long game and experimenting and trying out new things within that game. 

I realized I should tell my players that I intend to run this game as long as possible. Basically until the more extremes of reasons prevent the game from being fun anymore or plausible. Of course there would be some seasonal hiatus since jobs and personal lives can be affected by the season. I forsee December would require a hiatus for everyone, maybe until Feb. 

I think a long running game is important because it adds to the value of the rewards of a game and does not tax the players to much. Once' you've made a character in GURPS you've invested a LOT of sunk cost. Anything granted as a reward is only as valuable by the amount of pay-off the players can get out of it. So when you get a Kingdom in the end of a game, it's not that valuable as a +1 in a long running game. 

This was a lesson I learned back in the day, but I realized there really is not much of a market for one shots or short arcs. Long arcs are nicer, especially when players and GMs can both play many different ways. Kitchen sink settings allow such a flexibility, especially in a Game System that can accomodate all the weirdness a Kitchen Sink can come up with as well as all the "simulations" people would want to try in such a situation. 

Also I got a lot of practice and learning with Kitchen Sinks from past traumas. I've run and played a lot of Rifts and played a few high powered GURPS games (plus Epic munchy games), so I'm pretty aware of the loop holes and dangers. Still, the bottom line is trust and coordination, in such a game even newbies in anygame system won't be too overshadowed by optimized PCs. 

So Kitchen Sink and Traveller are the kinds of games that I feel like can take on many forms, even Magical or Fantastic to players.


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