Intermission?

[Sierra]

So, I'm sitting here at the computer trying to focus on the info post Rat asked for and I just can't concentrate on it at all. While it's not unusual for the Cid to have difficulty concentrating on pretty much anything, I think it pretty apparent that I haven't been real attentive the past few sessions. And when that happens you guys get a lot of yammering, cut-off GM lines that don't offer enough chance for interaction. And when that happens, boredom surely ensues. I'd rather not let it drag out, so here we are.

I don't actually intend to terminate the game right here. I know I said the same thing right before Avontyne and DF went on indefinite hiatus and then quietly died in their sleep, but this is different for a few reasons: A) I don't think HH suffers from critical flaws--it's just felt like a grind recently and that will be a killer if it keeps up; B) I have a lot planned for future developments in the game and I know I'll regret not being able to make good on any of that; C) I have a long history of making snap decisions about overturning established routines and it's never worked out well. My computer's littered with incomplete projects abandoned due to impatience and I'd rather not contribute to their number when I think that can be avoided with a little work.

Nevertheless, we've been running for over a year with just the occasional week off and I am in serious need of a chance to switch gears and think about something else for a while. It's not precisely interest or ideas I'm presently lacking; I simply find myself afflicted by a visceral need for a change of pace. What I would like to do is break for a few months, play something of distinctly different style and tone during the interim (I've had a couple ideas for short games, or someone else could take the reins for the duration if they've got something ready), and resume HH in the spring as that is a season which is much less prone towards inspiring apathy and ennui in impressionable Cids.

Downtime can be lethal to a game, I know. I do have every intention of running HH to completion (however far off that may always seem), however--I simply find it difficult to remain mentally engaged with it recently. I've been an unbearable mope lately and I think a chance to shake things up and do something different would be of benefit. We could run HH one more time this Saturday (assuming Rat's around), because that's our last Saturday before the holidays anyway and I believe we could hit a good break point that gives you a clear (and hopefully intriguing) place to pick things up again when we resume. Where we left off last session doesn't feel quite as satisfactory an intermission point.

This is assuming everyone is still interested, of course. Cor's the only one who talks to me about the game regularly, so I confess to being somewhat in the dark about current attitudes (though I generally take Eb not responding much in-character to be a telltale sign that a session's missing something). Since we've never really had a feedback thread, I figure this is an opportune time to ask for such. If I'm going to take a break from the game, why not see if I can come back to it with a better perspective, right? So...What do you like most/least about HH? What could I stand to improve on as a GM? How do you feel your character has progressed over the course of the game? Are there sufficient opportunities for personal growth beyond simply interacting with the plot? What arcs/scenes/characters/encounters stand out as being the most fun? What future developments do you hope to see/bring about?

[Ebiris]

I think this is a good idea, because to be honest the last half dozen or so sessions have nearly bored me to tears due to being incessant talking with nothing to break it up. I much preferred playing Nadia over Brunilda, since even though she was out of her depth with the esoteric subjects we spend most sessions labouriously discussing, having a character who can contribute but just feeling too bored and disconnected to get much out of it is possibly worse. I've been trying but my head generally turns to mush two hours into a session these days because there's nothing to grab me. I don't think a dice has been rolled in anger since Moscow - Yomi executed a demon in Egypt and we executed a monster in the underworld, but there was no challenge to either, and even if we ignore combat, there just hasn't been any conflict that's required effort or cunning to get by lately. Just talking and occasional knowledge checks.

What's worse is that a huge chunk of the talking is effectively white noise, as we mindlessly speculate on various issues over and over while being drip-fed sparse tidbits of information spread out so much that the last bit is only dimly in mind when the next comes up. We need some revelations to grab interest and definitively settle things so we can put these tired discussions to bed.

If you hadn't made this thread I was probably going to volunteer something myself unless this coming session managed to kick things up a notch - I don't like to complain and I know that there's always going to be quiet spells in between the drama and excitement, but HH has been lacking those for a goodly while now, and it's really dragging me down.

So as not to be all negative, I'll cover the good stuff so you can take that away and know what works for me when the game resumes, or if you run anything else. The sense of progress and adventure in the early portion of the game were solid - criss-crossing the globe, finding clues and leads, rescuing plant-women, interrogating nazis - that was all exciting stuff that kept interest high, we had a definite goal 'beat up Ivo/Elgin and get our stuff' and our foes were well characterised and fun to hate.

The overall characterisation has been good as well. From the nefarious Doctor Herr Ivo, to the motley crew of action girls we've picked up, NPCs all have their own distinctive voices that hook me in.

The Nazis are perfect villains, and the ninjas weren't bad either, having their own tricks and foibles that make them stand out as fun to both work around and fight. It fits into the backdrop of the world as well, lending meaning to our confrontations that just works subconsciously in the part of the brain that recalls the movies we watched as kids where those guys were the villains of choice - you want to fight them just because of what they are and represent, even moreso than mysterious demons and aliens.

So yeah, the game had a strong start. There were occasional empty sessions where we were spent too much time talking about fascinating philosophical ramifications or speculating on motives and means, but for the most part we were driven, had things to do, and had people who tried to stop us doing them. Now that we've gotten our items back and killed Ivo/Elgin it feels like we're just hanging in the wind.

[Carthrat]

I tried to type a post but just couldn't think stuff through. As a perpetual leech it's easier for me to read someone elses and riff of it in point form. So!

-I, similarily, feel a bit burnt out. In my case I'm kinda burnt out on Erin herself. I wouldn't want to play anyone else in this setting, but I could use a break from her for the time being.

-I agree that the game hasn't been as fun since we took out Masha, owing mainly due to the lack of strong, driving conflict that pushes us forward.

-I actually like philosophical discussions, to a degree. What's been getting me about them lately is that I have no real basis to explain my magic or the supernatural. I think I want some first principles so I can effectively discuss them with Brunilda, who can always use real-life science to back up her arguments and skepticism.

-I talked to you earlier about putting my book to plot-based use- that stands and is an easy hook to my interest!

-The thing I like most about HH was landing in funky situations in strange locales. Exciting encounters were had in Poland and Zimbabwe, and they really helped get you into the game, I think.

-I think the otherworld was a bit of a problem- while exploring them early on was interesting, they've all gotten a bit samey. I think here you needed to include more inherent need to be there- each time it was 'we show up, look around, maybe get a small clue, and return'. Exploring them's a bit dreary- it reminds me too much of old-school dungeons. STILL that looks to have changed with our recent discovery of a functioning empire.

-As a GM, I think you're pretty great, and it *frustrates me* because there have been moments in HH where I felt bored, but everything that was happening *should* get my interest. I don't know how to reconcile this. Pacing could play a part. I also think for most of the game, encounters have been pretty far to the 'easy' side of the scale- there was rarely much threat to us, though there were consequences for failure. Exception: Masha! I dunno what to say- I don't feel the whole tension thing that works so well in getting me enthused. Maybe it's the group dynamic- if I'm indecisive, I can leave the decision to others.

But yeah, if I had to point to one thing you could improve it's the pacing of the game. Knowing when to push the game forward and when to reveal things to the PCs to keep them interested is something worth working on.

-I think Erin started out the game pretty idealistically and has slowly weathered it to become more cynical, though I do think she's never really lost her inherent hope or anything. She was probably flightly at first but is now looking to be more responsible in the future. She still has a strong desire to help people, both individually and as a group. I'm very serious about revealing magic to the world. And yes, there are plenty of opportunities for personal growth. I feel I've let myself down here and not gotten as into the game as I could have.

As for THE FUTURE, I have a radical idea.

We're about to reach the inner sanctum of the Eridani and hopefully learn a bunch of stuff, then go home. We aren't under immediate, crushing pressure. If the theory of seal break = demon release is right, we do have a big problem that thankfully won't be wholly unmanagable swiftly. I've got a long-term, potentially world-changing plan in the form of revealing magic and starting a public school on it.

Instead of calling the book on HH, I do think it can be used again! But I don't think a 'pause, resume from this position' is necessarily the best way. Instead, why don't we come back to this universe after a timeskip? I think we can all think of things to spend a lot of time on or work on that could significantly shift the setting. We could come back after months/years/decades of in-game time and pick up our characters from a new position, ready to be thrust into the heart of a new conflict (or old ones revisited). Or we could roll new characters and play the setting from a different angle. I guess I'm in agreement that while I think the current game is getting stale, I also think there's too much attachment to just let go.

[Corwin]

We want to get to where we have believable conflict, an opponent we want to oppose. But we don't want one magically just there as soon as the one we've just defeated breathes his last, and we don't want them to be carbon copies, either. We want to be moving up in the world.

We want small victories. Personal triumphs. Some sort of an achievement that makes us feel good about ourselves and helps tide us over until the plot kicks in. Those are usually not combats. Like the previous condition, they're very hard to hit right.

GMing is hard.

[Sierra]

What's worse is that a huge chunk of the talking is effectively white noise, as we mindlessly speculate on various issues over and over while being drip-fed sparse tidbits of information spread out so much that the last bit is only dimly in mind when the next comes up. We need some revelations to grab interest and definitively settle things so we can put these tired discussions to bed.

I expected you guys to know pretty much everything by now, but...PCs don't always go where one expects them to and you skipped over where I'd put the answers. Some otherworld locations I can fudge--and have shuffled around--according to what order you visit surface locations, others I can't. Logistical problems in doing so.

Pacing is forever my main problem, yes. GM infodumping is generally a sign of one of three things: insufficient preparation for a specific area; players did something/went somewhere against expectations and I'm thrown for a loop; for whatever reason I'm distracted and not sufficiently focused on the game. These are sometimes interrelated. When I'm on top of things I make a conscious effort to avoid letting this creep in, but I really haven't been lately. Probably the biggest mistake I've made recently is having NPCs get sent off to fight possessed super-nun instead of the party going en masse. (The actual call from Myriam was supposed to happen multiple sessions earlier than it did and I just kept forgetting to work it in, which I think suggests that my recent inattention probably started right after Moscow.) That would've been a change of pace, but lazy GM defense mechanism of "Keep things to basically arbitrarily-determined schedule' kicked in.

That said, some of the random inter-party conversations you guys have had were surprisingly apropos (for reasons I can't really elaborate on) even if it seemed like you were just shooting shit at the time.

Going to cut this short because I think Cor wants a verdict tonight and he's likely crashing soon: if folks just want to get back to the normal world where they're in a position to come back and reassess things later, I believe that can happen with tomorrow's session. If you're sufficiently burnt out that you just want to pause right where you are, then we can figure things out later. I've been burnt out as a player in games before and I know it doesn't make for good times or progress. Preferences, guys?

[Ebiris]

To be honest I'm really burnt out. While I could force myself through tomorrow's session, knowing we're about to go on a hiatus that might never end makes it even less appealing. I'd rather take the day off, if we ever resume the game we can figure things out then.

[Sierra]

Then it sounds like that's what we're going to do. Cor suggested I post a message from one of your NPC allies requesting your presence back in the normal world, and I think this is a better idea than just leaving you all hanging where you were. So I'll likely have something like that up tomorrow. I don't think it's spoiling much of anything to note that there's a 'porter right near Urgesh and you are fully capable of getting to the surface again if you need to.

[Sierra]

Since it's being tossed around in chat, I figured I may as well elaborate on what I've been considering to run in place of HH for a while.

-What I've had in mind for a while as the next thing to run is a group of operatives wreaking havoc on behalf of a corporation/not-so-secret-world-domination-focused-paramilitary-outfit operating from a totalitarian country in the burnt-out shell of a postnuke eastern Europe. In the game world's context you are functionally redshirts, but looking at the missions I've sketched out it's more like a well-trained special ops team. Individual sessions would be mission-focused with the ostensible goal of moving up the ladder to the point where you can safely send other people to die instead of going out and doing it yourself (and hopefully avoiding falling prey to Klingon promotions in the process). This skews heavily towards black humor, obviously. Outside of mechanics and some minor details, I know just about everything I need to run this. I've thought about reusing the SW mechanics from DF for this (and likely shaking weapons up a bit since there wasn't a lot of variety there) since it's workable enough for quick and dirty combat, but am open to other suggestions for other sci-fi systems if retreading old ground is unwelcome.

-I've recently been contemplating running something superhero-themed. Relatively low power, contemporary setting in a made-up city somewhere in the U.S. on the Pacific northwest. You guys would be somewhat experienced novices, basically. I mean to restrict this to local shenanigans--no world crises or alien invasions, everything takes place in and around the city. I just started thinking about this a few days ago, but it's enough to have arcs and adversaries thought out. Probably the obvious thing to use here mechanically is Mutants and Masterminds? Would need some time to get familiar with the system is the downside, but I guess I do have a couple weeks before the holidays are over with.

Either of the above appeals in large part because they're meant to be fast-paced and avoid a lot of the writing pitfalls I'm prone to in long, meandering stories. They are meant to be short, action-oriented games (3-4 months for the former even given the fact that things always take longer than planned? Longer for the latter, probably). Which inevitably sacrifices some of the opportunity you get for development in longer games, but it is the kind of gearshifting I'm looking for after HH's recent slump. It's worth noting that I ran the first option by Cor already and he expressed lack of interest, however.

I've also considered a more straight-up Fallout style postapocalyptic game but have not applied as much thought to this. Consequently less enthusiastic about it and would have to go back to the drawing board for a while.

Thoughts, preferences, other ideas if someone else wants to take the reins for a bit?

[Ebiris]

I like superheroes. I looked into M&M a while back when considering running such a game myself, it looked pretty neat.

[Carthrat]

I'm not exactly big on the trappings of the superhero genre myself.

I can get behind a post-apocalyptic game, buuuut I'm not really interested in using d20 mechanics *again* for that sort of combat- I remember it feeling fairly silly the first time around.

I'd be willing to try running a couple games that might appeal to everyone, though! The first would be a game based on Command & Conquer. For those who haven't played them, the gist is this; the world is being slowly overtaken by an infestation of Tiberium, a plantlike mineral that is exceedingly dangerous to humans and emits a unique form of radiation. So much of the world has been affected by it that many points on it are no longer livable, and of those that are many are still afflicted by smaller pockets of the stuff. While Tiberium can be used as a powerful source of energy with certain unique properties, it's still bad news for humanity in general since the infestation is too far spread to completely contain, and it's still growing.

The core conflict is between two groups- first, the Global Defense Initiative, which holds sway over the 'Blue Zones', the richest and least infested parts of the world (mostly former first-world states). The GDI presents itself as a bastion of freedom and democracy, but they're hardly saints- they focus on protecting the richer segments of society more than anything.

The other group is the cultlike Brotherhood of Nod, which has more influence over the much more widespread Yellow Zones, and is built up of people from poorer nations and lower in the social class. The Brotherhood is more focused on being a banner for the impoverished and the exploited to rally behind, and they stand behind a charismatic leader known as Kane.

The game would probably have the players be operatives of one side or another- possibly choosing IC at the start- and would have a focus on propaganda and military mayhem, with plenty of hi-tech toys flying around to get things done with.

<->

Another game I'm thinking of would be some sort of Dark Heresy game- I'm not a big fan of Warhammer's GRIMDARKNESS and view it a bit tounge in cheek, so it'd have it's fair share of black comedy as you all play a bunch of inquisitor apprentices there to root out HERESY! on one of the many Hives within the Imperium. It's one job after another as you seek to clean up xenos and chaos incursions before they can get their claws into the heads of honest, hard-worked imperial serfs! We all know enough about 40k that this needs no more explanation, I think?

<->

Both games will surely have plenty of hamminess, enemies who you must defeat through blatant cheating and ruthless guile, hilarious allies with bizzare shticks, cool toys for y'all to mess around with, and the opportunity to choose between either just following your orders or trying to get a deeper look at the situations you're in. I'd use the DH system for DH, and I'm not sure what I'd use for C&C (though DH itself temps, since I think I liked the way it handles firearm-based combat.) Open for suggestions here, though. Both games will also probably channel my deep love for the Metal Gear series (stealth is your friend, for one, as is badass normalness.)

[Carthrat]

As an aside, I'm also willing to consider running a game based on various anime/games/etc. Just toss stuff out if there's a particular little girl you really want to be?

[Corwin]

Sorry, not really drawn to anything. Any interest in seeing if GF can move to saturdays instead, idly? There's surely place for Cid to join, too....

[Carthrat]

Really that would be pretty aces for me since it lets me get a good night's sleep before monday (thus preventing me from quitting the game as soon as I get full-time work), and it prevents Cor getting owned by his commute, too. And yes, I'd love to have Cid around for it.