...why there's been no post for over a month and a half, I have a couple of answers.
First of all, last month was busy for me, real-lifewise. On the professional front, we're training a new coworker and we were dealing with a large wildfire in Central Washington State. So I've had to work more hours at my day (night & weekend) job in emergency management.
On the personal level, my girlfriend's son got married less than two weeks ago. While this wasn't on the same scale as a Royal Wedding, a lot of planning and preperation was conducted to set up the chapel and reception area--and to clean up afterwards. Dancing with my girlfriend for the first time made all the hard work worth it.
The second issue dealt directly with this Star Wars RPG campaign I've been running. Out of the five players that signed up, three of them; representing the player characters (PCs) Cad So Billes, Thege Kli Klotaz and Sei'do Avari; decided to leave the game.
After several e-mail discussions, two prime reasons for their departure were made apparent to me.
First, due to my rotating work schedule, it's impossible for me to run this, or any campaign, on a fixed day of the month. So it was hard for the players to maintain their enthusiasm about the campaign on such an irregular schedule.
The critical hit of this campaign was: The players felt they were mere spectators in my campaign.
They were not incorrect in feeling this way either.
My rational for my game mastering style was, that I set this game up as a military campaign. Military life tends to be directive in nature. An armed force can't have its soldiers galavanting hither and yon all over the realm/planet/galaxy. In this game, our heroes would be assigned a mission and once they neared their Area of Operations (AO), how they achived their objective, was left up to them.
Apparently, I've been too directive, despite my best intentions otherwise.
So the RPG aspect of this campaign is, at best, in hiatus. Our heroes are currently en-route to the TAg Market Islands, to warn the inhabitants of an impending attack by Bongolaan. We'll tie-up any loose ends of this RPG story arc and come to some form of conclusion.
Since two of the players expressed a keen interest in the wargaming aspect of this campaign, I hope to continue the story as a "Star Wars military history." I also have plenty of material for a series of graphic novels, based on the adventures so far.
So stay tuned Redshift Chronicles fans, there's more to come.
Thank you for your time, support and interest.
I'm a bit confused... I debated on responding to this or not, but the confusion is overwhelming and I decided to say my piece.
ReplyDeleteFirst, it wasn't your rotating schedule with lack of set weekend per month that drove our enthusiasm away, it was the "one game day per year" that drove enthusiasm away.
Second, it appeared that the game was carrying on between our annual game sessions. In the interim, you would act out our characters part in the story as you saw fit. Not that you were being directive in a militaristic point of view, you were playing out our characters for us.
In a Role Playing Game, fantasy, futuristic, modern, what have you, the game is about character development. Little or no development can happen if the players aren't able to 1) play the game, 2) play as they would like to play, 3) participate in the game.
Yes, at least one encounter in the last game session was played out between you and your NPCs while we sat back and watch, for the 30 minute encounter.
So as far as my confusion, was I at the same games you described above? My experience in the Red Shift say I was nowhere near your games.
Seth, this post was not meant to confuse you or any of the other players reading it.
ReplyDeleteThis post is my attempt at explaining to the non-player readers the reason for the long delay, what happened and where I was at fault.
The "one game day per year," was (and still is regarding any other game I'm involved in), a direct result of my work schedule. When I'm on duty, I have no opportunity to do any of the assundry things other folks might be able to accomplish during the weekdays. So all my errands, chores and appointments have to be conducted on my days off. This leaves me tiny windows of opportunities to schedule a game, which in turn, would need to be coordinated with other scheduled games.
As to the game itself, specifically, playing out your characters: I'm assuming this was overreach on my part, based on the directive nature of a military-style campaign. I never intended to deliberately run your characters. This was the best explaination I came up with.
Regarding the interim periods, this blog merely presents snippets of information in the form of news briefs and intelligence reports, most based on the exploits of the characters. In each post, I merely wrote a synopsis of the action, or discussed issues that may, or may not, involve the player characters. It was my attempt at creating a larger world for your characters to learn about and interact in, much like your Pathfinder Vaults of Zukat on the Obsidian Portal site.
The graphic novel, on the other hand, is and will be, a detailed narrative based on these adventures. However, please keep in mind, only the first four chapters of the very first adventure have been posted--and all of it takes place before the initial adventure actually started. So in a sense, they are preludes. I haven't started Chapter 5 yet, which will bring the story up to the initial encounter of this campaign.
As to the last encounter, reinforcements were available for you to even the odds in the battle. I apologize if it turned into a session played between myself and my NPCs.
I'm sorry for running the campaign the way I did and any ill feelings this may have caused.
My posts on the Obsidian Portal site are direct results of the gaming sessions. What the players say and do are recorded there.
ReplyDeleteThe encounter to which I was referring was where the Sith antagonist fled into the park then stopped to slice and dice the hoodlums ... this was before the other Sith marauders entered the scene along with the local police.
Bottom line is, whether the OP was for non-player readership clarification of your activities in Red Shift Chronicles or not, it did not meet the same experience I had in game which was the cause of my confusion and my comment.
I understand you have a story to tell. I understand you have a busy schedule to work around. I bowed out because my participation in the story seemed moot and infrequent. With that said, I'm not wanting to get in the way of your story telling. By all means, finish your story.
Nice work on the blog, Ted. Guess you're still working on those fires too. Best, Dean
ReplyDeleteThanks Dean! Yes, we're still busy dealing with all the fires. I'm also trying to finish up my recaps of the writers conference I attended back in July for my Stern Rake Studio blog.
ReplyDelete