While I was listening to Gamerstable this week, they mentioned the Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition kickstarter. This really got me excited about role-playing again, as I remember “the good old days” of the World of Darkness, and having time to get together with friends and play a good, solid, storytelling game.
To start, it’s not really fair to say that the W20 kickstarter was what started getting me excited about role-playing again, but it really cranked my excitement up to 11. Specifically, after moving into our new place, I unpacked all of my gaming books into my new role-playing shelf in my game room. This gave me a place to put all of my role-playing books: from my second edition Dungeons and Dragons books to the Iron Kingdoms RP (probably my oldest and newest books, respectively).
Buying the Iron Kingdoms role-playing book came on the curtails of having Rick and Aidan down for their first Dungeons and Dragons game a while back. This was especially neat for me, as I was able to DM for some people who had never role-played before, and entertain in my new home (a double-bonus). For this game, I used Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition because it seemed like a new enough edition that I (and more importantly Rick and Aidan) wouldn’t be heckled too badly for starting there. Still, after the game, I wished I had used 2nd edition because I was much more familiar with how everything worked. I’m not much for miniatures (something I would find out that 3rd edition really wants), and I basically dropped feats on the floor for this introductory game, as they were more complicated than they were worth. Conversely, 2nd edition runs relatively smoothly without miniatures, and proficiencies are so optional I could have ignored them and no one would have noticed.
Iron Kingdoms looks like a neat game, but it also really wants miniatures, and combat is very much in the vein of a table-top miniatures game, rather than more traditional role-playing games. This is an interesting idea that I would like to explore further, but… …Well, it didn’t really fill my need for a storytelling game. However, I really enjoyed reading about the history of the Iron Kingdoms, and I got a number of ideas for some games set in that setting. This is a boon for me, because it has been a while since I have had any really good games for a fantasy setting – good inspiration is good.
Still, I was looking for a storytelling game. It’s no surprise that White Wolf games fill about half of my gaming library, but I never really jumped in with the new World of Darkness games. I won’t say anything bad about them (I never really played any of them), but at the time, I was moving away from my gaming group, and never really felt like jumping on the bandwagon. The re-emergence of some classic World of Darkness material though, is cool for me because it constitutes a low-barrier of entry for me to get back into storytelling gaming. First, it means that I don’t have to learn a whole bunch of new rules, setting, and game framework – it’s all the old stuff, with some tweaks and polish. I like this because it means I can be nostalgic and feel like I am getting a new game. Second, it means that I don’t have to pick up a bunch of new books – I can use the old books I have for extra content as needed, without feeling like I need the new material to integrate correctly. This is good, as I don’t really have a want to break the bank. Finally, it means that I can return to some of those old characters, places, and ideas and see about fleshing them out again. This is exciting to me as there are a couple of people that I have really been meaning to take a second look at.
I’d like to start a storytelling game again soon, maybe before my new W20 book arrives, maybe not.