The Old School GM

My little gaming group has tried Spirit of the Century and Apocalypse World in recent weeks. Spirit of the Century is a clever, fun game, but I couldn’t get into it because 1920s/30s pulp just doesn’t do it for me. For whatever reasons, I’m not drawn to the setting. Apocalypse World is an astounding game because of how it focuses on story and interpersonal relationships. It’s also difficult to build a campaign around precisely because it’s so story-driven. So we’ll probably wind down AW after a couple more sessions.

That doesn’t mean either game was a waste of time. Far from it. Spirit of the Century has one of the best sections on gamemastering of any RPG I’ve come across. It’s fantastic material for any GM, and I highly recommend it. The FATE mechanics also provide some interesting food for thought, particularly as to how player characters can be built in a way that naturally reinforces their in-game cooperation. Apocalypse World taught me a few tricks about managing threats to player characters. The whole concept of a Front is something I’m going to use in other games.

As we start moving into fall and winter, we’ll be settling into campaign mode again. There will be fewer vacations and other disruptions once summer disappears, and something about the colder weather makes the idea of a more solid, consistent game appealing. I’ll start up my Eclipse Phase campaign again, and we’ll also get Dungeon World going. After a while it looks like Matt will fire up a One Roll Engine game set in the Ars Magica world.

Rotating through these games as we move into winter should be a blast, even more so because we experimented this summer. I feel like I’ll be a better GM for having run a few sessions of Spirit of the Century and Apocalypse World.