Welcome, Guest
Username: Password: Remember me

TOPIC: Too many continuation games?

Too many continuation games? 6 years 8 months ago #2270

  • Andy Boyne
  • Andy Boyne's Avatar
  • Offline
  • Heroic Character
  • Posts: 149
I would like to raise a concern regarding the number of continuation games going on.

When we changed our approach as a club to have 8 week rotations, we did so to encourage people to mix things up - both in terms of the number and variety of games and in terms of playing with different groups.

By posting as many continuation games as we do, we are limiting our ability to fulfill these aims. All of the games posted for the next rotation so far are continuations.

Could we consider limiting the number of continuation games each rotation to encourage more new games and better socialibility within the club?

Thoughts please........
The topic has been locked.

Too many continuation games? 6 years 8 months ago #2272

  • mikeawmids
  • mikeawmids's Avatar
  • Offline
  • Platinum Member
  • Sadly, life can't be all gimps and mayonnaise.
  • Posts: 1092
I believe there was a very vague and unpoliced decision to limit it to one continuation game per rotation. I assumed that would be the first one posted.
Last Edit: 6 years 8 months ago by mikeawmids.
The topic has been locked.

Too many continuation games? 6 years 8 months ago #2273

  • Sprite_goblin89
  • Sprite_goblin89's Avatar
I'm thoroughly enjoying playing in andy's game as I'm playing with guys I've never gamed with before; so the social aspect for playing in a new game has been great; were this a carry on game, I wouldn't have been able to join in. Carry on games are of course an issue when we're limiting all potential players, but equally, it could encourage those who don't GM to dabble.

Mike mentioned in his last game that he was feeling "GM burnout" (paraphrasing I think?) as he'd had to run two games in a row due to no new games appearing. Adam was nice enough to take over half way through, but if he didn't, Mike would have been forced to soldier through.
I tried the GM gig once and my pure lack of understanding of the rules really shone out and it made for an unexciting, poorly executed game for my players. But then, my first ever RPG experience was back in September, so I'm very inexperienced and was expected. Could we perhaps encourage other members who have been playing for much longer to create a new game?
I don't want to sound like I'm moaning or passing the buck; I only did a very simple pre made game and was amazed by how difficult it was to GM and appreciate people don't want that pressure.

On a side note, many people don't want to wait around for us magicers to finish our 2 hour long lifelink game. I know I'm exceptionally guilty of this myself so I hold my hands up high and take blame. Perhaps if we reduce the numbers in our magic games to a 4 vs 4 maximum, more people would welcome new games as they know they won't be forced to wait around for people?

Just my two pence, hope I've not offended anyone, it's genuinely not my intention; I'm new to the club so I've got little understanding of forum etiquette.
Conner
The topic has been locked.

Too many continuation games? 6 years 8 months ago #2274

  • Andrek
  • Andrek's Avatar
  • Offline
  • Elite Member
  • Posts: 224
Hi everyone,

I agree that there are too many continuation games present in any one rotation at the moment. I must also confess that most of the games I have GM'd in the last few years have been like this, so I have been as bad as anybody else. Technically the problem is that games like these are usually closed to new members, denying others the opportunity of playing in them.

It was suggested that continuation games should be limited to ONE per rotation, but to my knowledge, no consensus was ever reached about this. It was also suggested that continuation games be submitted two rotations ahead rather than just one.

I do believe that the current situation is highly undesireable, and something should be done about this.

Maybe GMs, shoiuld be asked to make a commitment that one of them should run a completely fresh game, open to all players, each and every rotation, possibly months in advance. Preferably using a simple, popular game system.

Maybe some continuation games could be open to all players upon submission. A "League of Superheroes", or a "Bureau of Occult Investigation" game might work like this. Each Rotation would have to finish at a conclusive end point. Leaving the table clear for the start of the next rotation.

Sometimes games get oversubscribed, so I think that GM's should observe a table limit of five players, at least at the time of submission.

Also more should be done to encourage new GM's, because it is a daunting prospect to submit and run a game when you have never done it before.

So those were my initial thoughts, I'm bracing myself for the flak!

Andrew Challis
The topic has been locked.

Too many continuation games? 6 years 8 months ago #2275

  • mikeawmids
  • mikeawmids's Avatar
  • Offline
  • Platinum Member
  • Sadly, life can't be all gimps and mayonnaise.
  • Posts: 1092
While that is the ideal solution, it is also impractical for a number of reasons.

Reason the First: It’s not always that simple to get a game to end at the point you want it to. You might have crafted a satisfying and definitive ending to an 8 week story arc, but if the player characters spend two hours shopping for gear or getting side-tracked by inconsequential NPCs, you’re not guaranteed to get there.

Reason the Second: Not all groups want to run/play an episodic campaign. It’s the nature of the hobby that players get invested in their characters and want to see them advance to god-like levels of awesomeness – which you’re probably not going to achieve in an 8 week window (unless you’re The Braw). :p

Reason the Third: D&D5 has taken the club – and the wider roleplaying community – by storm, but all Wizards has put out are great, big adventure books that will take months/years to complete. It’s much the same with Paizo’s adventure paths or the monolithic campaigns written for Call of Cthulhu. It’s the nature of the hobby that players want to run their characters through epic sagas spanning tens of levels and multiple rotations.

Saying that… there do seem to be very definitive cliques forming. As a club, we promote a variety of play styles across multiple groups, but people ultimately have friends they prefer to play with, or certain GM’s who’s playstyle they do not enjoy as much as others. This is a tricky nut to crack, as we can hardly force people to play with people they would rather not play with.

The prevalence of continuation games also causes the issue with large groups to resurface, as we previously decided that group size should be limited to 5 players – except in the case of continuation games where more players were already invested in the campaign.
The topic has been locked.

Too many continuation games? 6 years 7 months ago #2280

  • Viggi
  • Viggi's Avatar
  • Offline
  • Heroic Character
  • Posts: 111
I know I haven't been around, but I do pop on here from time to time, pleased to see this subject come up. The increasing number of games put up already full, for whatever reason, leaving the rest to scrabble about to put something, anything on, results in a poor experience for those players, as the game was perhaps cobbled together last minute rather than lovingly prepared(!).

There seems to be a tendency in the club to gradually coalesce into groups that stop intermixing and thus become a club of their own, as before, this is fine if that is the aim. Also, there seems a limited number of game systems played. As I am not much of a fan of 5th edition or savage worlds, I gradually stopped coming, also lack of mixing up groups contributed too. We are currently in a golden age of RPGs with many new and exciting systems and genres, I can think of several games I would love to run, but I don't think there would be much interest, thus my interest wanes, and there are better things I can be doing on a Thursday evening etc etc.

As ever, I have no answers to this, as has been posted above, the club has always resisted telling people how to enjoy games, and I certainly would not.

Anyway, hello again and happy gaming
Last Edit: 6 years 7 months ago by Viggi.
The topic has been locked.
Time to create page: 0.158 seconds
Powered by Kunena Forum
MellyMel - Fri 29 Mar - 09:50

gary - GARTOPA - please resubmit user request - it is gone.

MellyMel - Thu 28 Mar - 16:30

i fancy mothership if there is space (get it?) - no actually i really do

Sarge - Thu 28 Mar - 15:00

Galleons players. Sant is running a Mothership RPG one shot tonight as Coriolis is off, come join the fun!

mikeawmids - Thu 28 Mar - 14:37

Perhaps Charlie Rumble will reach Cook Island after all....

Temrane - Thu 28 Mar - 13:07

galleons folks, no game tonight, work calls unfortunately! back next week

MellyMel - Thu 21 Mar - 15:38

i believe some new user(s) are awaiting authorisation. if so please recreate request as i've just deleted the russian bot swarm and your request might be spotted this time.

Inept - Thu 29 Feb - 17:07

Apologies decent guys... Hell has obviously inflicted itself on my van... It's broke. Won't be there tonight.

rhodsey - Tue 27 Feb - 09:09

I can't accomodate two sorry but I'm happy if they want to come and observe for a bit at least then see if there's a game while they are here.

The shoutbox is unavailable to non-members

No events found