Serenity Today - Changing my Approach

Been about a month since I last updated my blog, merely because I have been spending more time on Facebook rather than updating my blog. Since today is the next Serenity session, I figured I'd comment on some changes I am making. I have learned much on how I should run the game after having ran one module. Here are some changes I am making to my approach.

Pacing for one Act per session
One of the things I am grateful for is that the players have a tendency to cover a lot of ground per session. When it comes to the published Serenity modules they have averaged one or two, sometimes three even, acts every session. So speed isn't a problem. Well, it isn't so much a problem except when it comes to prepping. Unlike the first module, I read the entirety of the second module before running it. Problem is I still felt stilted while running the first act. Why? Because I hadn't given enough preparation and thought to the first act. In many ways that was the same with the first module. So far I hadn't been able to give proper attention to what I running for every session. My solution is to borrow an approach used by a WOTC staffer. I am only going to plan for one segment each session. Once the players reach the end of that prepared segment, the session will be over for the most part. For the current module, that means one act per session. Which happens to work out rather nicely as the module has three acts and an epilogue.

Not running a game of Vampire the Masquerade
Sigh. Everything was going well among the players until this last session. A player that missed the previous module but character was still present did something questionable. Several players were upset about it. Furthermore, I didn't know the player had done that until it the player revealed it in dialogue. To compound matters another player was passing secret notes. I am not running a game of inter-party intrigue ala Vampire the Masquerade. As Jayne's betrayal was hinted at on camera so shall it be with this game. No secret notes. No surprise actions that happened without GM notification. Everything that happens will occur 'on camera'.

If you are not there, your character isn't
I felt that by keeping the non-present PC's with those actually playing would help foster an in-game connection. Last session, I learned that all depends on the player. No more.

The need for a rules helper
Honestly, I haven't been able to devote as much time to both prepping the module and learning the rules as I would like. Today, I plan to appoint one or two rules helpers. On a related note, the assignment idea never happened as I either forgot to assign or no on volunteered.

That's about it for now.

Next Serenity Session is Tomorrow

Well, tomorrow is the next Serenity game session. In this session, our batch of greenhorns will conclude their attempt to escape from prison alive or not. Right now things are mighty hairy for them with two of their number knocked out. Granted, two of the remaining PC's are Fighting Types but one of them is more of a medic than a fighter. Another one is a non-combatant while the other two will be taking their cue from the movie the GAMERS cause the actual players won't be there.

So with some more combat and possible tense negotiating ahead for our wannabe crew, you can say things are looking very shiny for them indeed. Even if they manage to .... become acquainted... with the ship Freedom's Flight, they have to worry about a little security measure they were told about. Why nothing other than patrol boat that blasts uncleared ships out of the sky. Some fancy flying may be needed. Only then will they escape.

Decided I'd shakes up a little bit and include a teaser for the next session. Once again, the session is going to be ran very rules light. Provided the game gets that far, I won't be using the full space ship rules. Just some simple skill rolls. Afterwards, we'll either have finished the module Freedom's Flight or it'll be time for either new characters or game.

Serenity: Stun, Shock, and Second Wind

At the moment the biggest problem that Serenity game has is Stun and Shock. While the rules in and of themselves aren't bad, the current situation game leads to those rules hindering the flow of the game. Currently, two PC's are out cause of shock. Normally, that wouldn't bother me. However, the PC's are in the middle of a prison break and every character counts especially the pilot.

So what to do? First, I am making a house rule that because game sessions are so short tracking second wind usages is tedious. My house rule is that they'll be once a session. That way stun isn't quite the game killer. Second, I am going to allow the removal of shock points through story manipulation via plot points. Basically, the PC administering the "first aid" spends a significant amount of plots points and makes a token first aid check. If said PC doesn't have any Medical Expertise that player has to spend the upper bracket amount. Then the receiving player gets to make a d12 roll plus second wind if they choose. Any negative happenings will depend on the dictates of the story...

For this module, I'll allow the shocked/stunned PC to gain a 1 to 2 recovery of stun via d12 plus second wind. Shock recovery will be one for one on a d12 plus second wind roll. Granted this only if a player chooses to use plot points to manipulate the story. I hope this ruling not only helps the flow of the current adventure but future mods as well.

Serenity RPG: Assignments...

After Tuesday night's Serenity session, something dawned on me. Learning the rules as we play is working... but its not. While everyone seems fine with the pace that we are learning the game, afterwards, I discover/realize tidbits that might have helped. Then we get to the next session and I forget all about what I planned on mentioning. To compensate, I plan on borrowing a concept that I thought of during my Shadowrun 3rd edition campaign. I'm thinking of 'assigning' specific section of the rules that individual players should familiarize themselves on. That way I can concentrate on running the game more.

So next session I will bring this idea up. Those that peruse this blog feel free to voice your opinion.

Another Serenity RPG Cram Session Tuesday

On Tuesday, August 4th, I am running another session of my Serenity campaign. Once again, its another cram day. Why? The same reason I haven't updated this blog in awhile. Lack of motivation and concentration. Not from lack of desire. I look forward to future modules and stories both published and homebrew (ie my own creation). My mind contemplates future possiblities, that are also personal for each of, the crew of the (name withheld). Likewise, I have plenty blog about. So why? Cause I haven't. That's the existential reason. Kind of the same reason why this particular blog exists. I chose to.

Enough with rambling anyway. The point is that I have less than 24 hours to prepare for the Serenity session. I reckon I have day's worth of work and only a couple hours to do it. Oh well, it worked last session. Yep, that's right. The second session was overall an enjoyable time. The fine GM tradition of little preparation continues.

Serenity: Give, or Don't Give, Me Four Secrets

The next Serenity session, this Tuesday, has one major bottleneck. Our crew will have a chance to bond by sharing an event. They get be interrogated together. Here's where we get to the bottleneck. You see the interrogator is not just interrogating them for basic information. Rather, he wants information. Secrets that is. Four of them to be precise. These four secrets should be valuable to the PC. Both valuable and secretive, ie not easily given up, to the PC and interrogator alike.

Normally I wouldn't broadcast this ahead of time. Its a matter of time. I don't want too much session time consumed by players coming up with pertinent secrets of their PC's. So at the beginning of the session, I plan on having the players come up with four questions that there PCs would not easily part with the answers to. For those of my players who read this blog, consider this an advance spoiler.

Serenity: A House Rule or Two

Since my Serenity game session are roughly three hours long and consists of Greenhorn characters going through Veteran level adventures, I have decided to make a house rule. Instead of excess plot points converting to advancement points at the end of a session, conversion occurs at the end of the adventure. That way the players will have access to more plot points for such challenging adventures.

On a related note, character advancement occurs at the end of the module. Unless it situations warrant, it doesn't make much narrative sense for characters to all of sudden improve during a situation. The Serenity crew didn't advance during the course of a story. Not because of their skill level. Half the crew were awful at combat and had plenty of room to improve in that regard.

Furthermore, I am making a modification to the advancement rules. After the first two modules, two skill can be learned or improved instead of only one. That way the characters can improve a little bit faster.

Distractions

Been meaning to post more especially in regards to my Serenity game. Instead I keep getting distracted. Some are things I normally wouldn't comment on while others I have been meaning to comment on. So I figure I'd just list them as that would be cathartic.

Here they are:
Politics, the economy, and workplace drama - don't want to discuss why on this blog. Suffice it to say I haven't been in the mood to post Serenity stuff all week. Especially today...

The Mishler ramblings on the industry - This occupied a night or two of my time. Spent last night read all three threads on ENWorld. Meant to comment but I have decided against it as it would pointless now.

There's another negative reason, or two actually, why I haven't been in the mood to post more; but I'm not going to mention them here.

Other more blog related reasons:
1) I'm reading X-page previews of comics online again. I used to check out the preview pages of the next week's comics all the time. Stopped doing that for a couple years. Only recently have I started reading comics previews on Newsarama. So yeah I have been reading some comics, albeit only five or six pages. Its been reinvigorating.

2) Been working on storing my comics as well as figure out what trimming my pull list. Hit a bottleneck on the former. That has prompted me to focus on what to cut from my comics pull list. I admit that its funny that not keeping up with everything that I purchase doesn't discourage me but storage issues does. That may or may not lead to future post.

3) Worked and turned in my July-September Previews order at my LCS. Took a lot of time. Plus I had to resist the urge to add a lot of stuff. May actually comment on the comics/books I decided not to pre-order.

4) The 50% off Criterion Collection at Barnes and Noble has drawn a lot of attention. Fellini's 8 and half served as a major influence on LARP I ran several years ago and thus has been an item I have wanted for awhile now. Ditto Seven Samurai - although that didn't influence any game I ran, directly anyway. Because its a major influence of Star Wars, Hidden Fortress has been on my radar. Only now have I found a copy available. While browsing the sale, other Criterion Collection movies have grabbed my attention. Sigh...

Serenity RPG: Missed something in char gen

Just recently, I poured through most of PC's character sheets when I noticed something. Granted I didn't notice it right away. When I read the Athletics asset description, I realized two things. One, the asset requires the player to pick a specialization. Two, the description of the major version requires a GM adjudication.

Murphy's Law being what it is I didn't realize during character creation that the two players who chose the Athletics asset didn't pick a specialty. So those two will have to do so. The real problem is that I didn't make judgement call on the major version. That's one of the problems that stem from the fact that the game is still new to me. One of the players did in fact buy the major version. Hence, I need to make a ruling. Fortunately, such a ruling is simple. I am ruling that the major version applies only to the chosen skill specialty. Why? Cause otherwise it becomes a very powerful asset. Otherwise, why pick the minor version?

Serenity character gen was today

Today, mostly everone made characters for my Serenity game. I'll provide details slowly between now and the first session in July (first Tuesday).

Why?

Cause its cooler that way.

Annoying thing about published Serenity Modules

I've flipped through Out in the Black and Serenity Adventures; and I have noticed an annoying trend in the published modules so far. Unless the module is written with the Serenity crew in mind, the module doesn't seem to take companions and readers into account. The modules don't acknowledge what would happen if a player desires playing one of the two unique concepts that the setting contains. Makes me one very frustrated gamemaster. What makes it worse is that the module I want to run first is the worst offender.

Sigh.

Serenity RPG Char Gen date correction

In an earlier post, I said that character creation for my Serenity game would be on the 22nd. I errored. I mistakenly thought that was a Tuesday. There are no plans to create characters on Monday. Character creation will occur on Tuesday, June 23rd. After all, the game will played by the Tuesday Night Game Group.

Serenity RPG: Starting in July

Found out on Tuesday that James Mishler is putting his AD&D 1E game on hiatus until at least after Gen Con. Now I have been meaning to start my Serenity game in July and this fits my plans perfectly. In the meantime, this Tuesday is going to be a board game day since I am not ready yet. During this week, I decided I didn't want to do character creation in July. So I have decided that we shall do character creation on the 22nd of June.

Speaking of character creation it is very important that I decided what experience level they'll be. For awhile I have been leaning towards a Veteran crew. However, I changed my mind this evening. All along I wanted the players to have a say on whether they'd be greenhorns or a bit more heroic. Until now, no one had cared one way or another. This evening a potential new player suggested that the group be a bunch of inexperienced greenhorns trying to make their way through the 'Verse. I am perfectly fine with that. Greenhorn it is.

Tentative start for my Serenity Game

I have decided on a tentative start date for my Serenity game. My current plan is to start during the month of July. That way I have a little over a month to familiarize myself with both the rules and modules. Also my brother may be able to play by then. It all comes down to whether or not the Tuesday group wants to start then. And whether or not I have actually prepared...

Serenity RPG: Greenhorn or Veteran?

One question that I have pondered is what level should the PC's in my Serenity game be. Big Damn Heroes is out of the question. So Greenhorn or Veteran. The six modules I have Heroic, or Veteran, as the default setting. None of the stats or difficulties will change if I allow Veteran PC's. On the other hand, Greenhorn level characters provide a sense of starting from scratch. The players will have a chance to play their characters from the beginning as opposed to "in the middle". The group could also have the captain emerge during play. That is something that should all ready be hammered out at Veteran level.

Fortunately, I have plenty of time to gather player input and decide. Personally, I'm leaning towards Veteran cause I don't have to do as much work. However, a bunch of Greenhorns is appealing...

The next game I'll run (due to PointCon '09)

A while ago, I commented that I was itching to run a game. My choices were either D&D 4E, Palladium Fantasy, and Other. Before and shortly after I spent a lot of time following D&D 4E. Purchased the books and considered running a game. Either a 'sandbox' H1-H3 campaign or a Punjar-based campain are my choices for a 4E game. Problem is that one of the fellows at the Tuesday night game would be a definate no. So that makes a 4E game doubtful. Palladium Fantasy is one of my favorite settings. I ran my Rifts game instead because of two reasons. One, I didn't want to mess the setting up. Two, Palladium Fantasy is another fantasy setting. Unfortunately, when I have brought the topic up at PointCon to a couple individuals, I received a lukewarm response. Other is a various games and settings.

This last weekend at PointCon '09 I decided to finally purchase a copy of the Serenity game along with the three other books available for it. After displaying my purchase, at least two from my Tuesday game expressed interest. Therefore, the Serenity RPG is the next game I run.