The Campaigns. Made Men: Episode 5 – Full Circle

Hello All,

Here is Episode 5 of Made Men. Full Circle. This is the last 50 minutes or so of our initial Saturday, All-day, gaming session which was originally supposed to be a one-shot DnDNext Play test. As we’ve already discussed, the game was a hit, so much so, that we decided to scrap the original story line and continue on using these characters.  As was also covered in the last episode, despite the fact we were having so much fun, as the game drew on, we got tired and the game got sloppy.  This last bit really, really shows that. I had to cut out a lot of side conversations, as well as more of that odd “who’s moving the Micro-phone” sound.

********************SPOILERS******************* I suggest you listen before you read below!!************************

My original intent with this game was to give the PC’s (Marcus, Rook, Sampson and Jared) a glimpse of the City they were headed too. Eventually I wanted to the two groups to meet up. I thought that would be a fantastic Role-Play situation (or *COULD* be), so my goal was to wrap up the night with the Players (not the PC’s) knowing that their original characters would be targeted by the Play test characters.

So, at the end of the session when Gradon tells Zaine that he can come back into the good Graces of the Crimson Claw Crime Syndicate and all transgressions will be forgotten, and all he has to do is track down the killers of the Princess and Sir Acues, that was designed to tell the Players that their characters had been framed for murders (i’m sure they assumed I didn’t actually have their PC’s kill those NPC’s) and that Zaine, Yomi and Grexxil would be after them.

In-game I don’t think it had the affect I wanted, looking back at it, that is likely because none of the Players had any where near the attachment to their old characters that they had to their new ones. They weren’t afraid that their old PC’s would have to face their new ones and might not survive (The new play test PC’s were a level higher and overall tougher).

I’ll most likely go back and do a regular post about why I think that is, going into some detail, but the short version is that I was trying so hard to keep the original story’s big mystery a mystery (that the PC’s had traveled ahead in time about 1,000 years) that I had to keep them from knowing too much about *WHERE* they were as well as *WHEN* they were and that kept them from becoming attached to the story or their characters. In a story, I think the reader would be able to think back and go “Ahhhh, that’s what that was?” but as Players, it put up a barrier between them and their characters.  I tell myself all the time, “A good story and a good game are not the same thing,” but it’s still hard to separate the two.

I’m going to start work on editing episode 6 and hope to have posted next week.

As always, thanks for listening. We always appreciate feedback and opinions.

Thanks!!
Michael – AKA Mumbles.

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