(Closed) From Twitter Game to One-Shot Session: The Open Legend Challenge Begins

(Update 11 May 2017: Unfortunately, while this project was a fun idea, it’s had to go on the back burner, likely permanently.)

I think it’s easy for us gamers to get lost in the statistics. From World of Warcraft to Risk to Dungeons & Dragons, there’s plenty of talk about strategy, probabilities, optimising builds.

In the blog series I want to start here, it’s tempting to do the same. Tabletop roleplaying games do have a strong statistical bent, after all. Yet in the challenge I’ve set myself, I think there’s plenty of scope to talk about the important stuff, the people behind the statistics, how we react to challenge and risk.

So let me start off with an emotional reaction: I must be absolutely nuts. I mean, seriously insane.

Why? I’ve volunteered to be the game master for at least three people, only one of whom I really know, in just over two month’s time, for a one-shot adventure using a set of rules I’m almost completely unfamiliar with and with no chosen world to go adventuring in.

This all started with a simple social media thingy that the makers of an upcoming new RPG rule set, Open Legend, put out on Twitter:

I thought, what the heck? I’ll give this a go.

I got the usual assortment of likes and replies, and then one of my good mates from the Sydney RPG days came back with:

And then another Twitter connection (whom, interestingly, Sim Lauren connected me up with) chimed in:

I sort of made a joke about it:

But then… Maybe it’s all the episodes of The YES Effect Show I’ve been listening to lately, but a good part of me went, “You know, why not me?” I decided on a date that fit between the schedule for my Deathwatch game and:

And in glorious short order:

Sadly, Neil of Tin Man Games isn’t available and I’m still hoping to hear back from Adam Koebel and Feisty Cuffs. But I am very glad to have Sim, Delaney and Bebo on board!

Which means that I now have two months to:

• get familiar with the Open Legend rules
• create enough of a fictional fantasy world suitable for three-to-five players to explore in a single, three-to-four-hour session

How? Well, that’s what I want to blog about between now and then. But as I said, while I could talk about world building and rules and making characters, I also want to talk about the experience of preparing to entertain three to five people over the web with the product of my imagination and performance skills as guided by a set of RPG rules – particularly the exciting and scary bits!

But, yeah. I must be absolutely insane…