Everyone who has gamed for any length of time likely has the experience of a game that was shelved. Sometimes it is for the best, the game is just falling part or something else is going fundamentally wrong. At others, the game ends but not because of reasons anyone likes. People's schedules drift apart, someone moves out of town, the GM suddenly gets swamped with school or real work and has to stop running. Either way, the game has come to an end and we didn't really like that.
So, in honor of all those fallen games that we likely won't get to go back to, whether as a GM or a player, I wanted to hold this discussion. Consider it a memorial for the game. Share the details, and let's remember the great times that passed.
For me, the game I probably most want to return is one I was a player in. It was a small 4 player game set in the near future in a "close to the real thing" world. In the game, the players played members of a Joint Special Operations Command spec ops team. Each character was from a different branch of the military, giving us an army sniper (myself), a marine force recon heavy gunner, a navy seal, and an air combat controller. The missions were a lot of fun, and had a tendency of rather creepily predicting world events that have happened since - albeit faster than they happened in game. Luckily, the big set pieces didn't happen.
Unfortunately, the game went on hiatus over a school semester when we weren't sure if we'd have people around or not for the game. It never picked back up, leaving the story in a place that can serve as an ending, but I very much want a sequel story to. Maybe someday, but I doubt it. There is very rarely a return from hiatus for games.
What about you? What game do you miss? What game do you wish you could resurrect?
I played in a Shadowrun game as a troll named Chumba Wumba who was strictly hand-to-hand. We didn't really understand the system fully but our GM was great and he liked to run interesting sessions that involved each of our characters. My best friend played the face of the party who was just about as good with pistols as I was with my fists and we had two girls that liked to use machine guns that were bigger than they were and our signature tech. We also had a hobo that followed us around out of boredom. Despite all the silliness, it was one of my favorite games to play it. It ended when our GM moved and two of the players never came back.
ReplyDeleteWe had a game that the char's were sent in to investigate why there was a ring of dead equipment surrounding a region. They found equipment that was generating EMP bursts. There was a circle in the middle of the area that the EMPs didn't effect and the players found a tribe of humans that were hostile to any technology and had barely started trying to communicate with them when they found a hive of robots that were intelligent but very menacing. The game was fun because there were layers and layers of mystery. One of the players was a bit irregular and we didn't get to finish.
ReplyDeleteBoth of those games sound really awesome.
ReplyDeleteThinking back at it, I think part of the sign of how spoiled I am with the current play group I have is that it seems almost any game that does't get finished I would absolutely love to go back to.
There was a steam punk game, for example, where I was the captain of an air-ship. The game fell apart due to GM burn out sadly, and the players constantly scattering, but it was a lot of fun.
Same with our groups first attempt at a Halo game, with players being Spartan IIIs doing ops for ONI.