So, reaching the end of another uni semester, it's time to recap.
I've been playing in two games this semester: one as a player and the other as the DM.
The first was a game called Mutants & Masterminds.
I went with the shapeshifter archetype, because I wanted to go with something I would usually never pick. I was an animal shapeshifter with a raccoon for a father, though the one animal I (ironically) couldn't turn into was a raccoon. However, my defining characteristic was a stripe pattern like that of a raccoon's tail, no matter my form. If there's one thing that this game taught me, it's that rhinos and whales fuck shit up. In the best way. Our gang (named the Wrecking Crew fought the government, who wanted to exterminate supers, some anarchists based on
(see 0:24 onwards) and even Oda Nobunaga. At the beginning of the last session, the GM gave each of us what we'd been aiming for: I was reunited with my father and finally managed to shapeshift into a raccoon. I fought ninjas with my dextrous hands, undoing belts, lassoing swords and hurling throwing stars. I also possibly turned into a blue whale right above a Perfume concert
All in all, had lots of fun and the group of players was always entertaining. It's a shame that one of them is returning to the US in a couple of weeks.
The game that I ran was D&D 4e, house-ruled to a fair extent. It started off as a one-shot until my friend could come and run our other campaign, but that never happened, so the one-shot has become a long-term campaign. It's set in Eberron, currently in the city of Sharn. We don't use a battle map, which does make combat last longer than it should, but everyone seems to have fun. The group dynamic is interesting, in that the players all like each other, but as characters, trust and teamwork are virtually non-existent. It's the first time I'm running a campaign of my own design and I'm seeing where it goes, but really, it's most fun to first give the party a push in any direction and then just see where it takes them.
Playing for about 7 weeks (with 1 session per week), the PCs are only level 3 (even with me increasingly boosting the XP rewards) now. I hope they don't get too frustrated with the rate of levelling. I spent the past 3 sessions trying to show them that combat isn't always the most preferrable option and I started throwing some different kinds of encounters: illusions, artifacts with a taste for mind control - the usual.
In short, it's been fun.
I have to say, I'm pretty bad at sticking the rules in places
Even moreso, I'm finding it hard to visualise the world of Eberron and the city of Sharn in my head, which makes it hard to describe at times. I've read the setting book, but it just doesn't implant a clear image. Any tips?