by Rozwi_Game10 Sat Jun 18, 2016 11:36 am
Starting to play Swashbuckler has opened my eyes to the possibility of the RP -type games. I couldn't take part in another game the size and workload of TGOK, but games structured around the size or workload, and price, of Swashbuckler is something that I would look further into.
I reckon a pure RP only game, such as a Swashbuckler without the TGOK element slowing down and making the game more complex, and playing a £5 turn every two weeks might be a draw in regard pulling in new players. I'm not saying Agema to do this, merely offering my suggestion.
Players control a character and the game revolves around, say, the city of London during a certain time period. If the game was limited to London, and only the exploits of the player controlled characters and whatever a GM did with non-player-controlled characters, then that could possibly keep such a game going with a bi-weekly turn around and newer players wouldn't get bogged down with too much information or distractions.
Possibly the issue of an open-ended game may put off new players? That's one of the reasons why I set myself a 24 turn task in my Swashbuckler game, and I'm hoping to meet that time frame. I now know that I'm playing Swashbuckler for 2 years, give or take a couple of months - and the option to then carry on is there for me, and Agema. I can work out my finances to take into consideration playing this game and know that the workload is quite small (factoring in the research needed for historical possibilities).
I know one thing that I'd love to know more about is the workload of the GM, and how difficult it is for them to run the game. We all can appreciate how the games work from a player's viewpoint, but the world of the GMs is a bit of a closed book. I have found some information on the Internet, written about some GMs experiences running and creating games and I found it very interesting. I find it of use to know what issues a GM faces, when running games, and then I'm more forgiving or understanding in what I should do as a player.
That was another issue that my old toy soldier opponents didn't like the sound of, when I told them about PBMs. Them not being in control over every aspect of the game, and being in the command of the GM. They wanted the God-like certainty of knowing how and why something happened in the game, and a PBM gave them too many unknowable quantities for them to work with. Random issues of friction was not to their liking, they wanted a game with given rules and game limits that they could work inside and find methods to exploit to their advantages - something that is probably impossible with PBMs such as Agema's, as the GM is the balancing hand in ultimate command.