I've been pretty quiet on my postings for the Shared Sci-Fi game that I spoke about a while ago. Which is a shame, as I was really excited about this concept, and a number of folks have done some really cool things with it. For me, though, it wasn't working. I think, for a couple of reasons.
The first was the narrative approach I was taking. While certainly fun, and a break from how I normally do a Solo game, it was causing difficulties. It's hard to both WRITE well and GAME well, at the exact same time. As a result, I think it failed as both a story and a game.
Secondly, the system. I was using the old Cyberpunk 2020 system, which I'm not terribly familiar with, so I had to teach myself what I was doing while playing, and it honestly isn't a game that works for me, as a Solo experience. Now, learning a game is one of the great reasons for doing a Solo game, but honestly I don't have a driving interest in learning CP--it's a cool game, and I'd love to play it for real some day, but I don't have enough people around me interested in it to make a real go of it.
So, the game kind of came apart even while I was doing it. I was tossing around various other systems that might work better--Palladium, Shadowrun: Anarchy, GURPS, D6, etc. None really worked for me. And then, it happened.
I got an email from Pinnacle, that the Savage Rifts books that I backed almost a year ago were finally shipping! I was incredibly excited for this Kickstarter when it first came out, but I've allowed my enthusiasm to damper over the months. I think that Savage Worlds is a great fit for Rifts, and I of course had the PDF's, but PDF's aren't really my "thing." They're wonderful for system prep, and even for quick look up while running, but I really can't use them to learn or dig into a system. I'm still something on an analog guy--I like have the books, and being able to flip back and forth with actual paper. So, I was waiting.
Now that they're on their way, I decided to wait until I have them, and do the Shared Sci-Fi thing with a game I actually WANT to learn and play with. I'll probably keep some of the elements of Krakatoa--I might just declare that this isn't happening on Rifts Earth, but instead on Rifts Phase World (their Space Opera setting), but other than that it will be a fresh start. I'm also going to do the game first, and then worry about writing it up all nice later on. Well, that's the plan of course.
The first was the narrative approach I was taking. While certainly fun, and a break from how I normally do a Solo game, it was causing difficulties. It's hard to both WRITE well and GAME well, at the exact same time. As a result, I think it failed as both a story and a game.
Secondly, the system. I was using the old Cyberpunk 2020 system, which I'm not terribly familiar with, so I had to teach myself what I was doing while playing, and it honestly isn't a game that works for me, as a Solo experience. Now, learning a game is one of the great reasons for doing a Solo game, but honestly I don't have a driving interest in learning CP--it's a cool game, and I'd love to play it for real some day, but I don't have enough people around me interested in it to make a real go of it.
So, the game kind of came apart even while I was doing it. I was tossing around various other systems that might work better--Palladium, Shadowrun: Anarchy, GURPS, D6, etc. None really worked for me. And then, it happened.
I got an email from Pinnacle, that the Savage Rifts books that I backed almost a year ago were finally shipping! I was incredibly excited for this Kickstarter when it first came out, but I've allowed my enthusiasm to damper over the months. I think that Savage Worlds is a great fit for Rifts, and I of course had the PDF's, but PDF's aren't really my "thing." They're wonderful for system prep, and even for quick look up while running, but I really can't use them to learn or dig into a system. I'm still something on an analog guy--I like have the books, and being able to flip back and forth with actual paper. So, I was waiting.
Now that they're on their way, I decided to wait until I have them, and do the Shared Sci-Fi thing with a game I actually WANT to learn and play with. I'll probably keep some of the elements of Krakatoa--I might just declare that this isn't happening on Rifts Earth, but instead on Rifts Phase World (their Space Opera setting), but other than that it will be a fresh start. I'm also going to do the game first, and then worry about writing it up all nice later on. Well, that's the plan of course.
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