Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Location, Location, Location

UPDATE: my desktop is dead. Blown mobo, blown chipset, probably going to have to replace the power supply too. And the RAM. And the video card. At least I can salvage the capture card and the modem card.

I've been deciding where to run my planned campaign. Part of me was leaning towards a sandbox world, but knowing what an anal retentive goof I am, this wouldn't have worked (well, not for right now). Since I have EVERYTHING for Greyhawk, I decided to use Greyhawk as my sandbox. My plan is to run a modified version of Return to the Keep on the Borderlands, and I also have In Search of the Unknown that I can throw in, and a few other ideas. I am becoming less attached to my "big story" idea, and thinking of letting the chips fall where they may. I might still be able to use elements of my big story, but I won't force it as much.

Anyway, it looks like I'm going to use the Yeomanry as my starting point. I perused some of the Living Greyhawk materials I could find, to get ideas of locales, but I wasn't terribly motivated. Then I started thinking that there's a lot of dangling plot threads and REALLY over the top locales I'm not interested in using. So, my Greyhawk is going to be pretty sandbox, with LOTS of new open exloring ideas.

Come to think of it, the more I think about this, the more I start thinking maybe I should run the campaign using D&D B/X rules. I haven't read them in years, but I have.... ahem, *copies* of the Mentzer B/X/C/M rules, the Rules Cyclopedia, the Moldvay/Cook B rules, and I think I have OSRIC and white-box S&S that I would have to read. It's kind of daunting, in a way... in the old days, you played what you played, because often, that was all you could find. Now, there's so much choice, it's almost paralyzing.

Still wondering what would be the better system to run virgin RPGers through... 2nd Ed AD&D (with which I am most familiar), B/X D&D (which I used to know quite well, but would need to do some refreshing on), or something like OSRIC (which I'm sure is fairly compatible, but I would still need to read up on first).

Thoughts?

3 comments:

  1. If you decide to go B/X, you might try Labyrinth Lord, as it's free to get and easily available to your players, assuming that's an issue.

    Otherwise, unless you're really jonesing to try the older game, I'd stick with the one you know so well. Especially if you find yourself attempting to graft non-weapon proficiencies onto B/X and stuff like that. ;)

    But from my own experience, the more familiar I am with a game, the better I tend to run it.

    Best of luck,
    Brian

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  2. Yeah, I think I'm going to go with 2nd Ed, do some house ruling and tweaking, and roll. There's already a lot of converting I'm going to be doing with converting D&D modules to AD&D (because, quite frankly, I find the old B/X modules to be far more interesting than a majority of the old AD&D mods... but that's a discussion for another post 8), so I think this will work. I'm finally starting to get excited. 8)

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  3. Glad to hear it. :) Here's a suggestion, if you're feeling brave:

    Stay loose, and if your players are brand new to RPGs, don't be afraid to let them transform the way you play the game. Players who come at the game from a fresh perspective tend to think a lot more "outside of the box". This is one of those situations where "say yes or roll the dice" can really serve you well.

    Best of luck with it, and keep us informed of how it goes. :D

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