I did about five when I was a lot younger - Edit 1
Before modification by RugbyPlayingAshaman at 03/09/2009 11:39:07 PM
I ran one when I was 11; my best friend was heavily into Werewolves, so I modified the rules to include some from the Mark of the Garou game. I think Mark of the Garou came out of the same publishing company as the one that produced/created Vampire the Masquerade. Mines was heavily based on Final Fantasy, so powergaming was especially heavy. It wasn't until my second and third campaign that I focused on an enjoyable story and a difficult scenario.
How'd it go?
It went great! I was actively making sure everyone had fun, and that they all got to do cool stuff. I still included dice rolls, though, but I created two additional characters to make sure noone died (a cleric and a mage, both female, since the game group was entirely male). Later on, when the computer game came out, I created a really large and seemingly unending campaign focused around the idea that the characters could start or end wars, and eventually they could all retire - it was heavily influenced by DragonLance.
What'd you do?
I will go off the fourth and fifth times to give you the benefit of my experience a bit more. I am against grinding (as in requiring you to five hordes of rats at the begining, and then be fighting red dragons at the end) and all about story, so I always had two or three scenarios planned, like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book. That way, if the characters decided to go down a certain road, do something a bit differently or rolled the dice a certain way, I was just as excited to see what happened as they were. The fun part is controlling other characters who get to react to what the players are doing - if they are being jerks, then a bunch of the prices at the stores would be raised, inns wouldn't allow them to stay and kings/queens/lords/ladies wouldn't deal with them directly. I was also very brutal in combat - I modified die rolls using other rule sets (like from the magic, martial arts and heroic combat guidebooks) so that a sword that hit it's target might very well maim the character. The players, thus, could end a fight by blasting a magic missile into a monster's eye or aiming an arrow at the monster's jugular. Also, it was more fun to deal with the obviously non-human monsters, so I had gelatinous cubes, dragons, demons and etc but very few goblins or trolls (I left the orcs, ogres and giants in, though).
Any suggestions for starting one up?
I would look at the different magic and combat systems AFTER playing through a more traditional campaign. It might be helpful to run the basic setup first so you can focus on telling a fun story and building interesting scenarios, and THEN start altering rules just so. At this point, I've developed a magic system combining Avatar: The Last Airbender's Bending and The Wheel of Time's Channeling in order to give the players more freedom beyon just memorizing and casting spells. A lot of fun can be had when you make it clear that the spells that need to be used creatively are not just parlor tricks - a first level spell (1 used the magic missile one above) in the hands of a high level/skilled player was a very dangerous spell to have, and I encouraged experimentation.
The end goal: Happy Players. Happy Players, Happy DM. But don't make it too easy or you'll get tired of it, and the players will get bored.
How'd it go?
It went great! I was actively making sure everyone had fun, and that they all got to do cool stuff. I still included dice rolls, though, but I created two additional characters to make sure noone died (a cleric and a mage, both female, since the game group was entirely male). Later on, when the computer game came out, I created a really large and seemingly unending campaign focused around the idea that the characters could start or end wars, and eventually they could all retire - it was heavily influenced by DragonLance.
What'd you do?
I will go off the fourth and fifth times to give you the benefit of my experience a bit more. I am against grinding (as in requiring you to five hordes of rats at the begining, and then be fighting red dragons at the end) and all about story, so I always had two or three scenarios planned, like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book. That way, if the characters decided to go down a certain road, do something a bit differently or rolled the dice a certain way, I was just as excited to see what happened as they were. The fun part is controlling other characters who get to react to what the players are doing - if they are being jerks, then a bunch of the prices at the stores would be raised, inns wouldn't allow them to stay and kings/queens/lords/ladies wouldn't deal with them directly. I was also very brutal in combat - I modified die rolls using other rule sets (like from the magic, martial arts and heroic combat guidebooks) so that a sword that hit it's target might very well maim the character. The players, thus, could end a fight by blasting a magic missile into a monster's eye or aiming an arrow at the monster's jugular. Also, it was more fun to deal with the obviously non-human monsters, so I had gelatinous cubes, dragons, demons and etc but very few goblins or trolls (I left the orcs, ogres and giants in, though).
Any suggestions for starting one up?
I would look at the different magic and combat systems AFTER playing through a more traditional campaign. It might be helpful to run the basic setup first so you can focus on telling a fun story and building interesting scenarios, and THEN start altering rules just so. At this point, I've developed a magic system combining Avatar: The Last Airbender's Bending and The Wheel of Time's Channeling in order to give the players more freedom beyon just memorizing and casting spells. A lot of fun can be had when you make it clear that the spells that need to be used creatively are not just parlor tricks - a first level spell (1 used the magic missile one above) in the hands of a high level/skilled player was a very dangerous spell to have, and I encouraged experimentation.
The end goal: Happy Players. Happy Players, Happy DM. But don't make it too easy or you'll get tired of it, and the players will get bored.