Reading, gaming and my attention span.

I bought the Dresden Files RPG book/PDF bundle from Evil Hat and was stoked that I'd be able to start reading instead of impatiently waiting for the mail.  I've noticed that reading on a computer versus a book I'm not paying as much attention, and my comprehension of the text goes way down.  I find myself rereading passages more often then when I read books.

What I like about DFRPG so far: the collaborative nature.  The book opens with a fairly detailed overview of the game, and characters.  The second section is not on character building, but city building.  The GM and players work together flushing out a setting they want to game in.  As a GM you get ideas of what the characters want in their game.  I like the idea that character buy in to the setting from the get go.  Characters are then created with built in hooks (aspects) for the GM to build stories with.  I'm getting jazzed to start running this game.

Back to my reading and a suggestion you are not the worlds next Gygax so your 35000 word blog post is probably 95% crap.  Edit the idea and get to the point.

Random thoughts on WOD

So I've now played in two WOD games, a nWOD humans game that was a disaster, and a Dark Ages: Vampire game that has gotten much better in the three or four sessions we've played.  The nWOD game failed not because of the system, but an inexperience storyteller could not control a to large table.  I was looking forward to the game the storyteller is a good player in an AD&D2e game we are in.  I spent a good deal of my precious time writing my characters background and had high hopes for the game.  The storyteller then let a bunch of his friends make characters on the spot, no background, juvenile concepts; all they wanted to do was kill shit.  One of who did kill another character (the 2e DM).  The storyteller attempted to get the seven players integrated into his setting lame chaos ensued.  Not much else to say.

The Dark Ages: Vampire game has been much more enjoyable.  The first scene was almost entirely read from the module by the storyteller (not just a railroad, but a subway) after which I considered not going back.  However by our last scene the group was jelling, and the story unfolded in a satisfactory manner, although as a characters there was no way to alter the outcome the folks at white wolf wanted it to happen which is a let down.  When I read the book I thought well this should be cool, opposing dice pools that makes sense, and it should go quickly ... not.  It astounds me how long it takes a player to shake a hand full of dice.  It's painful how long it takes for a player to count successes.  Why wait to be told to roll damage, just grab the dice again a throw them out there.  A little direction could help, but I doubt someone who has to shake his dice for thirty seconds could be coerced into helping the game move along.

20 pages

I've been asked to run a game, any game I want, by the group I'm playing with and while I can do AD&D in my sleep I know myself.  I am an ADHD gamer I see some thing shinny and new and I want to try it out, I read some thing and I want to play it, I see a movie and the cool part in the end right before the hot chick loses her top, that's GOT to be in the next game.

I love the AD&D, I am perpetually interested in all things post apocalypse, supers have been some my favorite game I've played in.  I could go on.  So I want to have some consistency for the players I thought wouldn't it be great if they could make one set of players that could work with want ever my whim is at the moment.  So google and me did some looking FATE/FUDGE, GURPS, Palladium, PDQ, SW, D6, True20, Hero System ... and on and on.  I subscribe to game geeks so I spent some time watching Kurt get excited about Savage Worlds, Unisystem and Cortex and mentioned FATE.  SW seem the most flexible (there are books for supers,  fantasy, P.A. etc) to me so I thought what the hell 15 bucks for a PDF I can afford it.  Then Christian at destination unknown mentioned he was looking for  Dresden Files RPG and I thought to myself, self that sounds fucking cool, and it looks like there are people writing books that will suit my interests for this FATE system.  Will it all work together who knows.

What I do know is after reading 25+ pages of the Savage Worlds Explorers Edition this morning and 20 pages of the Dresden Files RPG this after noon I offer this insight.  If I fall asleep reading the book (SW) I'm probably not going to play the game or spend any more money on your products.  If I don't get how to play the game pretty fucking quickly I'm not interested in playing the game.  If I can't figure out how to make a basic character (like a magic used for a fantasy game, a fighter type looks doable) after reading the character creation section why in the hell would I spend the time to play the game.  Let me say that I really wanted to like SW, it sound like the kind of system I want to play flexible and quick.  Now the DFRPG on the other hand has me salivating for more.  Who knows after I read the character creation rules I might throw my lap top out the window, but at this point I see a clear leader in this race.

Destination Unknown

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