#RPGADAY2020 - 13 - Rest

Day 13.

Rest.

Although this will appear on the 13th's entry, I've had to take a 'rest' before writing this as I've been finishing off work before taking some time with the family.

Since the Guvnor moved further North, my gaming has mainly been at conventions and online. I'm happy with that, as it allows me to catch up with friends from across the country. At the start of the UK lockdown, online gaming went bonkers, with everyone starting to take to it. For balance, I have always tried to keep to a game a week (often two alternating games on different weeks) to minimise the family disruption.

Once COVID-19 hit, I found myself in three games; First Age's Coriolis, Dr Mitch's Liminal and Jag's Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Liminal was the surprise hit for me; we'd agreed to it as a throw-away, played a mini-series, and then came back a month or so later for another run. And we plan for another. We used Google Hangouts and then Google Meet for this.

Coriolis has been running since March when Curse of Strahd went on a break. We've played two of the scenarios from the adventure collection and then moved into the start of Mercy of the Icons. I love the setting, I love First Age's GMing and the players are great but it didn't quite come together until the end of the sequence we're playing through. I think that was partly our fault, as we weren't taking note of what was going on well enough to manage a fortnightly gap between games. I found it came together for me once I started a shared Google Keep file which has notes we could all add too. I'd struggled a bit with my character, who is meant to be a Han Solo type but is not that competent. He felt a bit like a spare wheel to start with (especially as the first two games were planet-side rather than on ships or at Coriolis station). When your main skills are about piloting ships, it can feel hard to shine in the game, especially when your secondary skills are someone else's primary thing. I had a good hard look at the character, and in the end, decided to stick with him as he was. I'd have liked to see a higher flow of XP during the game so we can grow, but I enjoyed playing and am looking forward to this coming back. We used Roll 20 for this.

The final game I was playing was Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4e, ably run by Jag using the Foundry VTT. We were playing the first instalment of the Enemy Within, 'Shadows over Bogenhafen'. I have to say that I really didn't like the WHFRP engine; the level of crunch and faff, and the general level of incompetence of our characters, left me cold. However, the way that Jag spun the tale, and the quality of the other players (two of whom I'd never played with before) kept me coming back. I will join in this when it restarts, but part of me really wishes it was being run using Warlock!

Anyway let's draw these back to the topic of the day; these have all finished, so I'm now on a 'rest' between games. I'll be returning online in September with Curse of Strahd and playing Vaesen. I'm missing my weekly catch-ups with friends. Perhaps I need to drop into the Mitchener Arms for a roleplaying fix.

13 August 2020