Game stuff I wanna do soon

[prog]

Since starting to reclaim some life-space due to paring away extraneous projects and applying some long-overdue organization to what's left, I've been feeling the urge to move my game-playing life in new directions.

Here is some stuff I wanna do soon. Not really making plans yet, but I reserve the right to link back to this post later. If you're totally into any of these ideas (or wish to tell me how wrong I am), feel free to make your interest known!

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After listening to podcasts about them for years, I am hell-bent on trying one of the latter-day crop of storytelling RPGs. Finally picked up a copy of The Shab Al-Hiri Roach, and decree that it shall be the one I finally try first. I appreciate both its tone (which sounds like it plays out something like an R-rated Toon game[1]) and the fact that it has gamey framing elements like cards, scoring, and a win condition.

Role-playing games that are basically audience-free improv theater, or grown-up versions of "Let's Pretend" (and I mean that in the best possible way) do not appeal to me, and that discounts a wide swath of the otherwise really cool-sounding games I keep hearing about. Even though you can lose a game of Roach by an unlucky card draw, I still appreciate just having something to aim for.

[1] Really, I want to say "It sounds like Monty Python at its best and bleakest", but, sadly, "Monty Python" is such a loaded term, especially when we're talking about RPGs. It unavoidably invokes the image of some Cheeto-stained wretches sitting around a table barking "Bring me a shrubbery!" and giggling. No, that is not the game I am trying to describe.

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I wanna host a Race for the Galaxy tournament, maybe in the brief slice of time between classicaljunkie's spring and summer semesters (rather soon). She and I are both absolutely apeshit-bonkers for this game, and so are lots of our local friends. I think everyone I know who loves games loves this game, except for, like, misuba. (What the hell, dude.) UPDATE: ok, ok, several of you don't like Race! I still name it a overall rare phenomenon in my game-playing social circle.

I have never hosted a tournament of anything before. I've barely even played in any. I am not entirely sure what a "bye" is, that's how ignorant I am on the concept. So this is a novelty-driven desire, too. (Which I can sell for two cards, plus applicable trade-phase bonuses. HA HA HA.)

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One of the Gameshelf eps I wanna shoot this year is "The Diplomacy show", an idea I've been kicking around since the Gameshelf started. Both taskboy3000 and I now live in nice roomy houses, and I need something to kick-start my excitement about working on this show again, so now's the time.

The idea is that we shoot a complete, face-to-face game of Diplomacy, but direct and edit it like a reality show. There'll be cameras rolling continuously in the map room, and camcorders following people around during the discussion phase. Players must dress in costume appropriate to the Major Power they represent.

I recognize that this will be... logistically tricky. I've written my crew about it, and await their opinion. I've also written Wizards of the Coast asking if they'd like to get on this action.

Comments

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I haven't yet fallen for Race (though I've placed a couple of times and even managed to win once), but I am willing to give it another go. Something about it just hasn't clicked for me. I'd like to play it more since people whose tastes I generally do mesh with love it so much.

(Dominion, on the other hand, I loved at the first.)

[prog.livejournal.com]

I like Dominion a lot, but I don't think it'll ever get up to the always-up-for-a-game quality that Race has for me (and for many of my friends). It may be a tactics-versus-strategy thing; because of the deep common draw pile, Race has you constantly in the mode of making the best of what you're dealt. Sometimes you'll stumble into supreme luck, and sometimes you get into hopeless dry spells. I happen to love this, probably because I love always being able to blame the random number generator...

In Dominion, even though you have no control over your deck's card order, you still quite literally make your own luck by having total control over what goes into it. It is more likely to reward skillful planning.