GACKS AAR: Week 13/Post Mortem

GACKS AAR: Week 13/Post Mortem

In the last post, I mentioned that my campaign was approaching an organic conclusion and specified that it wasn't going to collapse. I lied. It did collapse prematurely, so it's time for a post mortem. I have to analyze what worked and what didn't work, and try to understand why it didn't work. In addition, I'll share some fun stuff that wasn't public knowledge.

GACKS AAR: Week 12/Session 10

GACKS AAR: Week 12/Session 10

Now that was an intense week with lots of activity on the faction level. Let's see the SEEN posts first.

GACKS AAR: Session 9

GACKS AAR: Session 9

This week's session started exactly where the previous one left off despite 1:1 time, as last time the PCs went just far enough into the future. The situation was quite dire - four adventurers, one of whose was under 1/3 HP, stuck on the 3rd level of a barrow mound dungeon after a difficult fight against 5 wheeps. Initially, I was planning to manually create the rest of the dungeon, but didn't have enough free time for that, so we continued with Appendix A. Will the PCs find a way out, when there is only 1-in-20 chance to get a staircase on the periodic check table, and then you have to get lucky to get a staircase that goes up? They only had ~4 torches left, so they had to do it within 4 hours or be eaten by a grue in pitch blackness.

GACKS: Week 11 and GURPS BrOSR Flaws

GACKS: Week 11 and GURPS BrOSR Flaws

First, let’s list the SEEN posts for the last week, then quickly discuss what happened, and then I will have a lot to say about what needs to be done for the game to run more smoothly.

GACKS AAR: Week 10/Session 8

GACKS AAR: Week 10/Session 8

Let's see what happened last week on the faction level and what happened during today's session. As usual, I'll list last week's SEEN posts firsts, then provide some commentary, and then go over the session recap.

GACKS AAR: Session 7

GACKS AAR: Session 7

Let's see how the week went. Below is a compilation of SEEN posts, for the most part caused by faction players, and a session report.

GACKS AAR: Session 6

GACKS AAR: Session 6

We've reached the point where statistically most of the conventional games fall apart - session #6. We had a short hiatus in terms of in-person sessions due to lack of free time, but after two weeks we gathered again for a session. These two weeks between the sessions were dense with faction-level events, so let's dive into what happened there first. Note that only public events are posted below - there was a lot of secrecy behind the scenes.

GACKS AAR: Session 5

GACKS AAR: Session 5

We had not one, but two sessions this week. The previous one ended on something of a cliffhanger, where the party was preparing defenses near the entrance to a dungeon overrun by undead.

GACKS AAR: Session 4

GACKS AAR: Session 4

Due to health reasons, there were no sessions the next two weeks. However, the game world wasn’t standing still. Isn’t that wonderful? Here’s what happened during these two weeks, at least what is known to the public, because there was plenty of hidden actions. What follows is, basically, a compilation of SEEN posts. And then you can read what happened in today's session.

GACKS AAR: Session 3

GACKS AAR: Session 3

Between session 2 and session 3, I recruited eight players to control the various factions in the game. I wrote up some order resolution and rumor-posting rules, such as GOSS and SEEN, and while diving headfirst into running this sort of game without proper preparation felt daunting, I think I'll be able to handle this. Let's see what happened in the world both faction- and PC-wise. I will avoid giving out any information that isn't public.

GACKS AAR: Session 2

GACKS AAR: Session 2

Between the sessions, I recruited a faction player to run the goblins. Certain events transpired that I will not elaborate much here to avoid revealing non-public information to the players. However, we had another session with the players, and it was a hilarious trainwreck.

GACKS AAR: Session 1

GACKS AAR: Session 1

All right, now that the groundwork is all done, I began my in-person GURPS game that borrows a lot of ACKS procedures to see if GURPS can support a BrOSR-style game. It has been a long journey (that still isn't complete), and I've been very excited to give it all a try. I have five players whose only TTRPG experience is D&D 5e and one GURPS game that I ran for them to showcase the system. Despite this, they seem to have had zero problems understanding how 1:1 time works, and all the other BrOSR concepts as well. So, it's time to bring receipts!

Solo GURPS: Moises Ramirez, Session #2

Solo GURPS: Moises Ramirez, Session #2

Let's continue the adventures of Moises Ramirez, an archeologist/geologist/carpenter on an alien world. In other news, a new version of Mythic GME is going to be released this month!

Session #1 - link

Arena: Hook Swords and Macuahuitls

Arena: Hook Swords and Macuahuitls

Long time no see! In this arena installment, we're going to test out some exotic weapons - hook swords and macuahuitls.

Solo GURPS: Moises Ramirez, Session #1

Solo GURPS: Moises Ramirez, Session #1

All right, it's time to do another solo game, but this time not in a fantasy setting, but in a soft-ish sci-fi setting. I do have a setting writeup, but there are some things and aspects that I would like to polish, change, or remove. Maybe this game will be also a worldbuilding exercise!

Session #2 - link.

Solo GURPS: Alas Mirayra, Session #3

Solo GURPS: Alas Mirayra, Session #3

Let's continue the journey of Alas Miraya, the still not-very-healthy fire elf bloodrager.

Session #1 - link.

Session #2 - link.

Solo GURPS: Alas Mirayra, Session #2

Solo GURPS: Alas Mirayra, Session #2

Let's continue the journey of Alas Miraya, the almost-dead fire elf bloodrager. A short session.

Session #1 - link.

Session #3 - link.

Solo GURPS: Alas Mirayra, Session #1

Solo GURPS: Alas Mirayra, Session #1

The previous solo game didn't go far, so let's try another one. This time, I might create some more setting-specific and system-specific tables to roll on. Let's see how it goes this time.

Session #2 - link.

Session #3 - link.

Solo GURPS: Agor Widepalm, Session #2

Solo GURPS: Agor Widepalm, Session #2

Let's continue to story of Agor Widepalm.

Previous sessions:

Session #1 - link.

Solo GURPS: Agor Widepalm, Session #1

Solo GURPS: Agor Widepalm, Session #1

I bet that many of you have heard about solo roleplaying, but not many have tried that. The most well known "GM emulator/oracle" probably is Mythic GM Emulator, but there are many others, such as the Adventure Crafter. They all have their upsides and downsides, so it's up to you to decide which one to use. It's your game after all. Here, I am going to use MGME with one of its modifications - Variations 2, and maybe use additional toolkits. Hopefully, this will show people what this entire thing looks like.