Observations of the Fox

Scene 1: In which our characters awaken in a large room. Lying on cold metal tables, they have vague recollections of who they might have been but they have no idea of why they are here. Scene 2: In which our characters are escorted to their private quarters, where they are given free reign for the night. Scene 3: In which the premise of the game is described, and our characters have their circumstances explained. Scene 4: In which our characters start their first investigation and have their first chance to properly explore the setting. Scene 5: In which our characters reach a climax within their investigation, and start to define how they will work as a team. Scene 6: In which our characters face their first deep moral decision. Game concludes with the players really thinking about where they'd like to go. These days, that's about as strict as my planning process gets. As I said in a previous post, we're playing D&D. Old School D&D. It's not so much that I hat...

I've been itching to run a decent campaign for a while. The last few starts I've made have all lasted a couple of sessions at best. More oftren than not, some kind of real-world issue causes a fight between players...who then take it out on one another's characters...then the resentment comes back out of game. It's frustrating and one of the reasons my regular gaming group fractured over a year ago, then gradually crumbled away. We still socialise together, but gaming just has a way of bringing up old wounds within that group. For the last 18 months, the only games I've GM'd or played have been at conventions. I've spent more time analysing and designing, less time playing or GMing. It's probably led to a bit of detachment from the physical/social act of gaming. Then came a double hit to solve my problems. First a trio of Norwegians, then a distress call on Nearbygamers . The Norwegians had come to Australia for Arcanacon in Melbourne. While passing thro...