Casting Shadows

Today’s RPGaday question gets us into some murky semantic territory if you are the sort who does not see the GM as a player. I do, so I can answer this question easily. Also, I am once again in a group that shares GMing duties, so it wouldn’t matter anyway. For those poor GMs out there who always run but never play, it might be hard to remember the last game you “played” but hopefully you can see as a GM you are really playing, too.

Still, despite how technically easy this should be, there are shades of answer I can offer…

I am involved in a lot of games these days. Not as many as I used to engage in, but still quite a few. I have one live group, a group in Hangouts (that I presume are live people), and a few PBeMs in various states of activity.

The last game I sat down around a table to play was on the weekend and it was Edge of the Empire by Fantasy Flight Games for their Star Wars line. This is our staple campaign. The characters are hiding out and regrouping after the heat of their previous activities has grown too great and too many people are pursuing them with cruel intentions. It feels like something big is going to come of this, and they have already begun to wheel and deal to solidify their position in the Wild Space community in which they are sheltering.

An offshoot of this campaign, run by one of the players, was the last face-to-face game that I was in as someone playing a character. I am very much looking forward to running that character again. He is built on the premise of neither being wholly comfortable in or out of a group, and through his occupation as a law enforcement professional, his predilection for profit, and his isolation as a relocated witness in a case liable to get him killed, offers me a lot of stuff to explore and enjoy.

The last move I made in a game was actually for the compelling Broken Rooms RPG by Greymalkin Designs. We are playing this as a play-by-facebook-group game, and while it is slow, the players are bringing out interesting character dynamics and grappling well with the hard choices the setting offers. This game offers opportunities and scratches itches for roleplay that not a lot of other games consider, so it is really satisfying to see the players stick through all the delays and posting glitches that comes with play by post games.

How about you?

#rgaday2015