What I'm Playing Right Now

Hey there, readers!

While I do seem to be cursed to run games until the day that I die, I do get to play every so often! This has been happening a lot more lately since my current life situation has separated me physically from a lot of my real-life groups. I've been getting my playing fill thanks to the wonderful people I've met over the Margaret Weis forums, Roll20, and Google+.

So, as a companion post to the last one, I'll go over what games I'm involved in as a player right now and in the near future.

What I'm Playing Now:

X-Men (Marvel Heroic)

I've got two confessions this time.

First.

I fuckin' love the X-Men. They are, by a fairly large margin, my favorite team in Marvel comics, maybe comics in general. Sure, it's usually a flawed series plagued by an incredibly large cast, Mary Sue/emo characters out the whazoo, and plot lines that seem to fly in the face of the rest of Marvel's continuity, but I love it anyway. The characters that are well written are amazing, their plight always seems to be culturally relevant, and they actually have a reason to be a team other than "Well, we're all good superheroes with sub-par rogue galleries; let's team up to sell more comics!"

I'm lookin' at you, Avengers.

Second confession.

I fuckin' love Rogue.

I'm serious. She's my favorite Marvel character. I've got her action figure on my wall, still mint in box. A Rogue figurine is dangling off my phone, showing everyone my heart-throb every time I get a text. I could create an entire post about why I adore this Southern Belle, but I doubt you guys want an in-depth character analysis. If you do, let me know, and I'd gladly share why this girl has taken my number one spot.

Anyway, back to the game. I'm currently in a new group that is running an X-Men game based off of an old TSR module. It's a small group, which I love, and I finally get to play Rogue, which I also love. We've only had one session so far, but I'm looking forward to more!

What I'll Be Playing Soon:

Civil War (Marvel Heroic)

Last August, I got involved in my first Marvel Heroic game over Google+ run by a rather talented GM. We were playing through Breakout, which is the introductory scenario in the back of the Marvel Heroic book. However, our GM was clever enough to extend it by an extra act and even throw in a few twists to make sure that this was the Breakout we would remember. While I know some of my readers were actually involved, for those who aren't in the know, you can watch the entire game on Youtube!

I played none other than Wolverine, which is another character that I'm quite fond of. It's not often that I get to take on the gruff, macho, bad-ass role, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Starting in June, we're going to be doing Civil War, the first full-campaign module put out for Marvel Heroic, in the same universe as our Breakout game with all of the same people, plus a few more!

I'll be taking on the role of Wolverine again, and I get to pick one another character, but I'm a bit stumped on that avenue. I want someone that is different than Wolverine in both personality and play-style and someone I'm somewhat comfortable portraying. Ergo, no brooding gruff bad-asses. Not a scrapper (For those of you who have every played City of Heroes). No one too obscure. I've still got some time to make a decision, so, I'll come up with something.

While I am looking forward to the game immensely, I am a bit concerned about the number of players. If we are going to have, what looks like, eight players and the GM, I'm not quite sure how that's going to fly. I've ran for and played in large groups, and it's not easy. Not to mention that having the video feed for nine people is going to wreak havoc on certain internet connections.

But, I hope for the best!

And that's pretty much it! I was in a New Warriors campaign that sort of fizzled out, but if that comes back, I'd be willing to play again. Also, a group I played Escape from Mos Shuttaa with may be delving into The Long Arm of the Hutt, so that's another possibility.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed my brief foray into my current playing schedule. If you didn't, here's a funny picture.

-Wes

What I'm Running Right Now

Hey there, readers!

So, if you read my last post, you would know that I have a bad case of Perma-GM syndrome with all of the real-life groups I've created in the past five years or so. It's not a huge problem, as long as I have some sort of outlet for my playing desires every couple of months or so.

Besides, I'm a much better GM than I am a player! At least, I think so.

Unfortunately, due to my current life situation, I'm not running much, but that is due to change! In this post, I will be explaining what I'm running currently, and what the immediate plans are for the summer. Expect play reports in the future from these things!

What I'm Running Now:

Teen Titans Modern

I have a confession.

Ahem.

There are a lot of things about the DC Universe that I think are stupid.

There are also a lot of things I like, but the stuff that irks me almost spoils the bunch. Almost.

Therefore, I've taken it as a personal project to reinvent the DC Universe to a point where it is tolerable to me. Throughout this process, I've changed the origins of many heroes, entire histories, swapped around powers, sources, toyed with iconic images and made them unique. It's one of my many pet projects, and one I'm rather proud of.

I call it DC Modern.

In order to explore one aspect that was mostly left underdeveloped, I decided to run a game in this universe centered around teenage heroes using Marvel Heroic. I gave my players the choice to create unique characters or adapt existing Titans to fit in the universe. Here's a short roster:

Blue Beetle II: The youngest team member. His father was the original Blue Beetle, and when he was killed by Deathstroke, the scarab armor bonded to young Ray Kord, transforming the awkward teen into a still awkward superhero.

(A professional artist's rendition of the player as the hero)

Dullahan: A mysterious teenager with a past he cannot even recall. James Ulysses (naming himself after the author of his favorite book) has a head composed of ethereal thought tentacles that can move things about, read minds and the histories of objects, and do some things we're not even sure of.

(The player is a very talented artist!)

Johnny Thunder: A deadbeat teenage runaway with the power of sound projection! While his abilities seem to be a mutation or the result of some sort of accident gone wrong, they are actually magical in nature. He also has an amazing vehicle, "The Fuckin' Car"

Schrodinger: Juan Cervantes was born with an unusual quirk. He is, constantly, everywhere in the universe at once, and with an expression of will, he can move his 'physical body' anywhere, or expose more of his physical bodies at any given time. From birth, he was trained to be an assassin by Lady Shiva, and has only recently left her care.

So, I'll likely be putting up 'Episode Summaries' since I run this game in a TV Show like fashion that I will elaborate on later, but that is the basic premise. A grittier, more urban Teen Titans set in my own DC Universe.

What I'll Be Running Soon:

The Barrier Gem Prophecy: Civil War

This will be a sequel to a fantasy campaign I ran for my college group a little more than a year ago. I won't go into too much detail here since there's still a lot of variables with this one, but the main premise will be an 'Early Fantasy Civil War Arms Race.' Doesn't that sound fun?

Edge of the Empire: Escape from Mos Shuttaa

My first group that I created in freshman year of High School is getting together again for a few months this summer, and since we've all been playing Star Wars rpgs for forever, we're going to give this one a try! I'm really digging this system so far, and I'm hoping that I don't muck up this cute little module too much when I run it next week.

Something Else?

A big part of me wants to return the favor to all of the wonderful people over Google+ (Who are likely my only audience at the moment! <3) who ran games for me in the past half a year or so. So far, since most of them have been using Marvel Heroic, my inkling is some sort of game using that.

An experiment I've wanted to do for a long time was to create a revamped version of the Marvel Universe, much like I did with DC, but in a different fashion. Basically, I would run an Origins game for a certain aspect of the Marvel Universe, like.. Fantastic Four Origins, or X-Men First Class, or something to that effect. Instead of me asking my players to build things up from something I've already established, the players would craft the universe with their characters, backstories, and what happens. It'd be, like, a mutual universe creating thing-a-mabob meets the Ultimate Marvel basic idea of retooling stuff.

If that sounds cool, let me know!

Anyway, that's what I'm running now and what I'm running in the future. Hope you enjoyed it! If not, here's a funny picture.

-Wes