Over the past couple of years, I've slowly been drifting into the headspace where I don't want to play the currently popular rules lite RPGs. Black Hack derived, PbtA games, Into the Odd, etc. I mean, for a one-shot or a short arc, they aren't bad. But they don't capture my interest that much. There's enough system to handle individual encounters, of a wide variety of types. But there doesn't seem to be a lot of staying power. Even the ones that have levels or some other advancement mechanics, like PbtA milestones/achievements just aren't holding my interest. And even if you do get to level up or improve every so often, the games usually don't have a campaign advancement system. You don't get to "grow up" and evolve to some sort of end game. It's still more monster hunting in dungeons, or another mystery/monster of the week, which is the biggest weakness of WotC versions of D&D in my opinion.
And then we get into the art-punk stuff. I've mentioned before that Mork Borg may be a perfectly cromulent game, but the clashing fonts, disjointed layout, and purposefully garish art suits the genre it's going for, but makes it a pain on my old man eyes to read.
Yet, if you've gotten the connection to this post's title, I did indeed try out Mork Borg a couple of weeks ago. Keith (who ran Cyberpunk Red at our game con last fall) ran a couple of sessions, running the same adventure for two different groups on consecutive days. I was in his Saturday group (the second game, the first obviously being on Friday).
And honestly, the mechanics made sense when he explained them to me, they worked well for the adventure, and I sure had a ton of fun with it. Of course, it helps that my PC was the last one standing, after Scott backstabbed Martin, Craylin's PC died, then I backstabbed Scott's PC. :D Yeah, it was that sort of game.
We did mostly randomized character creation. Keith let us pick our class and name (we could roll for that if we wanted), and if we didn't like a random roll result we could reroll once. Or maybe it was twice? Anyway, being a one-shot, I wasn't super invested in making a bespoke PC, so I just went with my random rolls for my dirty old lives under the bridge hermit.
Yes, I enjoyed it. As a more beer-and-pretzels or event (con) game, it seems really good. I don't see the long-term play aspect of it, although with just a one-session designed as a one-shot, I honestly can't judge it yet. But if it's like most of the other rules-lite OSR offerings of the past 10 years or so, I doubt it does lasting campaigns well.
Of course, I'm becoming the old fuddy duddy who wants open campaign sandboxes that eventually turn into either a domain game, a plane-hopping series of grand adventures, or both. The way Gygax intended! Harumph!
Jesus, I'm only 52 and stared gaming in 1984. Yet I realize I sound like those dudes who were already well along in their 20s or early 30s back in the 70s when the game debuted.
But don't fear, loyal readers. This Saturday, Justin is running a one-shot of Mythic Bastionland. And I'll be playing in it. I don't have time to organize and run a game of Pendragon right now, so this is probably the next best thing.
And Scott has invited me to a one-shot centered Discord server. I haven't joined it yet, but I might. We'll see. I'm not craving these rules-lite games per se, but one-shots or mini-campaigns (3 to 6 sessions and done) seem to be what's popular these days.
Anyway, since I'm going on and on about evolving a game to a different endgame state, I should probably think about what to do with Missions & Mayhem at higher levels. How could I adapt domain level play to a modern or near-future setting game? Shouldn't be that hard. But that's either another section of game to create for the core rules, or another supplement to produce for the game.
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