Various Short Adventures

A series of short adventures in a variety of different game systems, each designed to last 3-6 sessions.

The Goal

The intent of these short adventures is two fold.

First, to have a collection of games that are mostly ready to play whenever we have a break from our regular campaigns.

Second, as an educational experience. To learn how the different system mechanics effect how different games play, to experiment with different styles of GMing and to just generally try new things that we may not have done with our games before.

The Adventures

DnD 4e - Commandos

The Commando Adventure is focused on combat with characters who are sneaky and capable of high first round damage. As I'm developing the world, other skills and character traits/backgrounds are becoming more important.

RIFTS - Megaversal Legion

The Megaversal Legion adventure is a higher powered game focused on a special squad of the Megaversal Legion who gets cut off behind enemy lines while on a scouting mission in the South American Jungle.

For this game I'm trying to put an emphasis on the cool stuff that the different characters can do within the RIFTS system, while reducing the emphasis on the clunky combat system. Unfortunately I haven't been able to streamline character creation very much, so it'll still take a while to put characters together, however once that's done things should run quite smoothly.

As a GM I'm going to be working on saying Yes as well as my improvisation skills, and my ability to run a game where the PCs are dumped in a situation where they have to figure out what's going on, something which ended poorly the last time I tried :'(

I would like the players to work on Building characters as a Group and creating some interesting party dynamics. As well I'd like to see people try new types of characters. For example if you usually play a introverted speedy character, try a boisterous demo-man. Or perhaps you usually play dark outcasts who are really good guys at heart, perhaps a optimistic kid that just kinda fits in would be a different change. Of course if you've already tried something and didn't like it, there's no need to try that again, but if you can think of something new and exciting, give it a shot.

RIFTS - City Rats

The City Rats game is all about the characters. It's a lower powered game in which most of the player characters will have a large array of overlapping skills. This will force the emphasis onto personality and back history for creating unique characters.

The adventure will build on the group character creation concept from the Megaversal Legion adventure, this time with a group purpose being something that the players will have to come up with. Something new that I'll be trying for this game is a semi-collaborative setting design. I've got the general layout and a few key factions semi-detailed, but the rest of the setting will be developed based on the backhistory, relations, skills and needs of the player characters. I hope to make great use of the wiki for this game, as wikis are designed with collaborative work in mind.

Burning Wheel - Collaborative Game

The Collaborative Game, which needs a new name, will be building on the collaborative setting design of the City Rats game. This time the entire setting will be built together as a group, with everything from the level of magic and the inclusion of non-human races to the geography of the world, to the name of the local taverns being pieced together throughout the course of the game. Character backhistory will be very important in this game as every bit of plot will be drawn from said backhistory.

Due to the nature of this game, the wiki section for it will be quite empty until it actually begins, but should fill up quickly after that point.

Burning Wheel - Death Row

All the players started on Death Row and were given a second chance, if they pledge their service to a mysterious lord. This game ended shortly, as the players didn't care for the system.

DnD 4e - Unnamed

The Unnamed Campaign was a short adventure run in the summer of 2011 involving a significant set of house rules.