Session 12: We had a fun vignette of Reynolds destroying one of his bonds to kick off the game. The opening credits song was “Paint It, Black.” Just three agents at tonight’s operation. They woke up in Hexburg, started to make their way towards the source of the river, and instead followed the weeping cries of the Squonk… all the way to the last remaining building with any sign of life: the old pastoral cottage. Young Pastor Cody was sapped of all joy by the cosmic desolation overtaking his town and flock. He had nothing to say but battered wails and lamentations, and his regret formed the Squonk, guardian of his misery. The Squonk’s beastly second form gave us a good excuse to learn about full-autofire rules today. Now the 11th Armored Brigade of 1963 suits up and rolls to the RV park in the hills. We almost lost Captain Richards. Two of my players are engaging really well with the rules, and not so much with the story. They are just following the mission machine wherever it leads. One player is falling victim to a lot of the mental and physical pitfalls, and yet his goal of finding his sister is the most noble and rife with story hooks out of the l whole squad. I think it’s time to realign the tone and objective of the campaign with a session re-zero, especially with some players who have dropped out indefinitely, and at least one player who wasn’t there for the inception of the campaign. I think the return of Maya Richards is achievable in this storyline, although not earned, in my opinion. Season two?

Posting the “Session X.5” episode from Fear the Boot and the “Session ‘re’-Zero” episode from Dungeon Dudes… https://www.feartheboot.com/ftb/index.php/archives/7014 https://youtu.be/YUgHMlbX3E0?si=aao0vu6Xu0BMc7ow

Woohoo! Welcome, Richard! You sound like my kind of GM. We’ve got a lot of variety here, so yeah, dig in! Are you purely an online player/GM, or do you have an in-person game going post-pando? Holler if you need encouragement or input finding in-person games and people to run the other games you want to learn. Tabletop Empire on YouTube has a Star Wars FFG actual play going. I really like Flamey GM and Pocket Dimension for Daggerheart stuff. You’ll find a few devotees of Sly Flourish (Mike Shea) and Justin Alexander here, too. I highly recommend poking around with those, if you haven’t already. Welcome to the fold. 🙏

I want to acknowledge with admiration and agree that it is nice to revisit aspects of the game that I once thought too unsatisfactory or too difficult to enjoy. We grow all the time, and it’s worth another look after some time has passed. Kudos!

@Tristan Fishel : Revisiting this thread from ancient times because I can’t find the data from you and @Jonah Fishel on how to review goals at the start of the session. I have reached a point in my games when my players all show up early, so I don’t get any time to get into the zone. I think that’s the time when I’m going to get players talking to each other about their goals, motivations, and other system-specific items, like obligation in Edge of the Empire. One more time for this old man: Can you refresh me on how you go over goals with players at the top of the session? Or send me the page or chapter reference? 🙏

Thanks, Tristan! A report: last night a lot of folks got there just a hair before time to start so I took the time to get a soda and a microwave pizza. We had a new person show up, so it was a great excuse to do a roll call to explain the characters and the system. After introducing themselves and what they knew about the world, I got to ask about people’s goals and what they want to do today. It worked. Rather than have something structured or wait until the game “officially” started, folks were a lot more loose and free with pondering what their characters might be like, and one of the stars during our debrief at the end was one of the players complimented how well everyone played to their motivations.

Woohoo! Now I have a picture to post when someone asks a world-building question. 📚

@Richard Mills : You’re not alone. I bounce off of modules more often than not. Speaking only for myself, I have had a pretty hard time getting players to do a 180 and go hard into PARP. Collaborative world-building has been easier for me, and I’ve been doing it longer. Next time I start a campaign (Daggerheart), I’m going to do my usual collaborative world-building ritual with a hybrid of Tristan and Jonah’s method and A Spark in Fate Core, and then practice weaving what backstory information I get into an adventures for folks to follow. My players (I have three groups and a huge pool at my friendly local gaming shoppe) tend to respond better with a carrot to follow at first rather than build a world and ask, “Okay! So what do you guys want to do???”

@Eric Person : Ah! This is a great idea. That character I wanted to make is my friend, rival, angry neighbor, estranged relative…