Steller Advice

I stumbled across a great post on practical GM'ery which I think is just great. It explains so much.

I'll come clean and say that I'm a very changeable GM. I have the habit of wanting to jump to a new game every now and then. More often "now "then "then" actually.

There is a reason for it however. I'm not, as has been explained before a Fantasy rpg fan as a rule. My tastes in this regard are more outre then most of my gaming-mates. When it comes to Fantasy I'm a fan of Talislanta, and Jorune, even the myth driven RuneQuest. However my first love is Sci-fi gaming. Followed by Pulp followed by Horror and finally of all things Supers. So when I get backed into a corner as a GM I used to run FRPG's - I mean D&D, as a sort of - "ok if I must" type of  proposition. I'd rather have something on then nothing when it comes to gaming.

Lucky I'm now - after many years - starting to understand OD&D and I'm on a bit of a Labyrinth Lord kick. So we have done some OD&D type one shots but we all want a campaign, its positioned as the back up game, but even so I wish it was the excellent Stars Without Number as our OD&D type bash. Seriously.

The funny thing is I'm not sure what my favorite game or game-system is. I've had lots of fun with Traveller in the past but I cant think of the last time I have a good sci-fi campaign. Back in my 20's maybe.

The last great campaign -2009-2010 - I ran was Hollow Earth Expedition. I do like most everything about the game but it gets to a point once the players are sufficiently advanced, that things become ridiculously easy. Honestly as a GM this is my biggest problem; character experience systems.       

To top it off I find myself in the "thinking-I-should-switch-games" situation now. I'm running Shadowrun for my game group. Look it is an ok game but its not what I really, really, dig doing. How did I get myself in this situation - Well I tried to introduce my players to the "awesome" which is FATE3.0.

Long and short of it is that it was not our fate to play FATE... too many subsystems in which the players felt they had to become versed. That game was  meant to be a Transhumanist sci-fi game sort of Eclipse Phase, meets Cthuluh Rising powered by FATE3.0. Somehow one of the players just had to buck convention and play a mage (long story and the wrong call by me). So when the system didn't work out the step to Shadowrun was set by this precedent. 


So I'm left with the problem of dreading trying to do Shadowrun every week for the players who are really keen on it or doing a "shifty" and making us do a "new" game.


I have a plan on how to make Shadowrun a fun game for me. Maybe this could work...

Step one: Make Seattle a Sandbox - What does that really mean? It means nominating some sights in Seattle which are Locations of adventure/interest/curiosity
Step two: Add in factions - The Megacorps, Gangs and other factions in Seattle
Step three: Add connections between the things in the setting, the factions etc.
Step four; Add some connections outside the city of Seattle these are simply the same as the Seattle locations but are more broad
Step five: Add the players and some hooks into whats going on 

The AI's are one of the factions I'll focus on
Evo and its holdings are another

I wonder if this can keep me interested in the game....