One of the revelations of the Ryth Chronicle is the style of expeditionary play practiced by its multiple game masters and over forty players. What I mean by expeditionary play is that each session consisted of a single "there and back again" trip into one of the campaign's mega-dungeons or wilderness areas. The players involved in a given expedition varied tremendously and the various game masters were each responsible for their own adventure sites. It is a style of play that made me immediately think of Ben Robbins' West Marches. It is also a style of play that seems to be quite rare these days.
I would love to run a game like this. I would love to play in a game this. Unfortunately, I think that the large player pool required of such a game is probably out of reach. I don't think I need 40+ players, but I think you'd need enough people that were interested in the same kind of game that could at least produce a quorum on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. That's a tall order in this day and age. I can usually make a game session every two or three weeks or so, but lining that up with my other players is tough. And then there is the requirement of everybody being on the page as far as the style of campaign. I know that I'm not just a fantasy guy. I like to mix things up a bit. To make this work, I'd need to be able to run games outside the genre periodically without depriving the ongoing campaign of a critical mass of players.
Oh well, one can dream.
On a related note, Ben Robbin's ran a supers game with a similarly large player group. He talks about the logistics of running such a game and managing all the various dangling plot threads in this article here. It's a must read for anyone considering a superhero campaign and I may borrow some of the techniques right away for the remainder of my Slaying Solomon episodes as well as my Knights of the Astral Sea campaign.
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13 comments:
This is great stuff, thank-you for excavating it.
And here's to D&D: it not only gave the computer gaming industry the RPG, it also inspired the MMORPG with it's the Massively Multiplayer Offline Role Playing Games.
I definitely see the appeal for the type of campaign you're talking about, but like you say, the logistical problems are large. Maybe harnessing the power of the internet? Even then it might be tough.
The largest group I ever had at a table (actually, several tables) was twenty-ish. I loved it. The players were energized and focused and I had no choice but to stay on my toes!
Today, I wonder if I would still have the mindset and energy to tackle half that many again.
One of the key factors in pulling off the Ryth campaign (in the days before email) was the pre-existence of a very large dedicated pool of gamers. By 1975 the Detroit area had a very robust board gaming organization, with meetings around town every Saturday that drew 30-40 people. These were also the springboard for Summer and Winter conventions that eventually drew over a thousand people. John and I were active in Metro Detroit Gamers (and related groups) but several other adults - Paul Wood, Mike Bartnikowski, Bill Somers and others were provided much of the organizational impetus. Mike published a monthly newsletter and I did a bi-monthly regional magazine - the Midwest Gaming Review. Paul and John published a PBM magazine that handled Diplomacy and other games. Ryth activities could piggyback on all these platforms.
If you're having trouble finding gamers who are not resistant to the idea ("can't teach an old dog new tricks" syndrome), then make some new gamers for yourself. Get people who have not gamed before but seem interested, and tell them this is how the game is played.
@Anonymous: That's actually an awesome idea!
If I were to attempt this myself, I think I'd try for something along the lines of a regular twice-monthly game with another concurrent group of adventurers running in a pbp format.
Well, and it actually wouldn't matter who played in which group...
Len, if you're reading this, the Chronicle seems to suggest that pretty much every single adventure was a complete cycle of into the dungeon/muck about/leave the dungeon. Is that true? It would seem to help facilitate things...
@Vincent: Indeed, I raise my glass (of morning tea) to D&D. Btw, your Dungeonautica supplement is one of the things that got me started on this while Risus thing. :)
@Trey: Indeed, the logistical problems are almost insurmountable. But I remember a time in the mid-90's when it wouldn't have been so hard.
@Thomas: Oh my god, that's a huge group at one table. I think the biggest I've ever done is 12 and that was seriously crazy.
@LenS: I wish I could have been a part of that community. Even when I started gaming in Grosse Pointe, I was only aware of my immediate gaming group of friends (who were mostly self-taught). I didn't really start to be aware of a large community until college.
@Anonymous: With two young kids, I'm *literally* working on making new gamers. :)
But yeah, roping non-gamers into the scene is one way to do it. We've actually done it before, it just requires some interesting conversations at work. :)
@kesher: Twice monthly is the most that I could manage now (or the most my wife would allow). The trick is making those two days line up with the schedules of everybody else.
@Vincent: Dungenautica is your creation?? That thing ROCKS! The best alignment suggestion EVER:
Night is the University of the Dervish
@RM: Yeah, that's the maximum my wife would let me get away with in person, anyhow. Next I work on getting the sessions actually IN our house... :)
However, with this sort of campaign, I don't actually see the need for a constant group of players, especially if it's run on the "in-and-out" philosophy.
I run my normal group as a "Free Campaign", open to all comers, at any time. I just email everyone who's ever expressed an interest with a time and place, and whoever shows up plays.
If I had, at this point in my life, to try and coordinate people's schedules, I think my head would actually explode.
@keshar Yes, each expedition was self-contained. Taking a break in the middle of one would have severely complicated attempts to set up other expeditions.
@Risus - You touch on the original focus of what became Metro Detroit Gamers and the Midwest Gaming Association - finding gamers. When we started, we would drive a hundred miles or more to get seven people for a game of Diplomacy (and even then came up short.) We had some brilliant and very hard working people out there networking all the time. D&D was only one of many gaming activities our members participated in. The whole point was getting together to have fun, ages ranged from early teens through the thirties.
One of my fondest memories of gaming in college was stumbling upon a guy who was not only a fellow student but also a fellow gamer and DM. He invited me to join his group in a small town close by and when I arrived at the gaming location (the conference room of the local newspaper), there were nearly 20 gamers in there! This guy had developed a city in Nyrond (I think) with maps, NPC's, encounters, etc. So many plans and plots within plans and plots. I was teamed up with another player to help me adjust to such a massive group. But the DM managed it all without a fluff - he controlled several groups at once and the players took turns carrying out their own missions and such. It was fantastic!
@kesher: It's exactly that "in and out" philosophy that I'd love to recapture. We already do it on a much smaller scale, but our player pool is so small right now that we sometimes struggle getting to quorum (which is why scheduling becomes tough). It would be nice to push our player pool back up to the 10+ range.
@LenS: It's weird that I gamed through the entirety of the 80's without becoming a member of a larger organization. Would have been great to have the "gaming with new people" experience that I didn't get until the 90's.
@Hedgeknight: Such wonderful stories... yet another reason that I've thankful that I was able to post Ryth. And 20 gamers at a table! Amazing.
@Risus: We've been managing that same "in and out" approach in both of the campaigns at Red Box New York for over two years now. It helps to have a large city's player base to draw upon, but once a group gets going with a solid level of enthusiastic buy-in, you can bring 8+ players to the table every week, while allowing people to rotate in and out of play depending on their schedules.
(Captcha of the day: flonil, clearly some sort of allergy medication.)
@muleabides: Wow, I was only vaguely aware of your Red Box New York stuff. Didn't know it was run in this fashion. Very, very cool.
I remember back in the 90's, we had a player pool of roughly 20 or so. Alas, life happened and after I returned to DC after a 6 year absence, most of the group had moved on.
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