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End of an Era (4-1-04)
Apr. 1st, 2004 12:13 pmThis actually happened a few days ago, but I've been sick as a plague-ridden dog for the entire week (I'm zero for five on attending classes as of this morning). In fact, right now I'm typing up a journal entry instead of grading student homeworks, because I can't quite muster the concentration.
Anyway. Feng Shui is over.
For those of you that don't know, Feng Shui is an action-movie roleplaying game, where everybody gets to play amazingly cool badasses and generally rip things up. This particular incarnation of Feng Shui was spawned by my good friend Dave, and he and I co-GMed it until he left for Texas. Since then, I've done my best to wrap up the story we had. As of this Sunday, approximately fifty sessions and two years in, I finished the job.
In a lot of ways the campaign didn't end up quite like we planned. For every hour we spent playing, Dave and I spent at least another hour at our local Steak and Shake plotting. We structured the campaign like a television series: we referred to sessions as "episodes;" we had seasons with cliffhangers and finales; we had a pilot episode, theme music, opening monologues, closing credits, episode titles, the whole shmear. When I GMed, I'd often talk about camera angles, subtitles, or the "special effects department." And all of this worked really well-- the players responded, and it seemed to get everyone in the right frame of mind for the kind of stories we were telling.
The problem was that we had initially sketched out a five-season arc, much like the late great Babylon 5. We kept revising exactly what we were going to do with it as the players continued to surprise us, but the basic idea never really changed. Unfortunately, when Dave left, it only made sense to cut the campaign short... he was half the team, and while it would be an utter waste to just stop the story, it would be impossible to keep going the whole way. So we ended up with two and a half seasons. I still managed to get through the story, but with the tumult in the middle I wasn't entirely happy with the way things went. As one of my players put it, "It's like Gargoyles; they had a kickass first season, a lackluster second season, and they just started to get interesting again when they got cancelled."
Still, we finished, and that's a monumental accomplishment. Over the course of the game we had 13 players and 15 characters, four character deaths and a player walkout, a character marriage, a PC-PC relationship, and a PC pregnancy. We visited Venezuela, New York, southern France, western England, Monument Valley, the Falkland Islands, Tokyo Tower, Tibet, Italy, Arkham MA, Atlantis, and outer space. We killed at least five parents of characters; turned one boyfriend, one dad, and two PCs evil; revealed that two characters were actually brothers; and ended up with players in charge of three world-spanning organizations.
Looking back, I'm sure I learned a lot of valuable lessons as a GM, but that's not what I remember. What I remember are the quotes, the spectacular moments, the stunts, the roleplaying, and the way all the characters changed over time. I remember mostly what they did, and very little of what I did. I remember the photo-booth stunt, flying nude through the lobby of the Waldorf, Lord Tarrasque falling in love, Brian awkwardly trying to decide what his female character was wearing, demons going "Woe!", the party swinging by a cable from Tokyo Tower, Tony being blackmailed into singing "Getting to know you," the Kirlean archaeologist, riding the tentacle, the Three Amigas, Lao trying to apologize to Nabiki after killing her mother, Jun and Yin trying to reconcile their differences, Tan's jungle gym, face-biting Rebecca, Andy wanting alcohol so he could be more "in-character," "Return my guns and trenchcoat and you will not be harmed," being betrayed by a talking monkey, Lily on an altar of sharp black glass, Westley's finger, Tiny trying to make love to a helicopter, Ed's brother Ed, getting free merchandise from Bernie's House of Porn, the punks outside IKTV, the duck with a necktie, the New Dragon Army, Allyson crashing the boat, and "space glass."
Gods, what a blast. What an amazing ride. I wish I could remember every piece of it, but so much of it is already gone and forgotten. Ah well... the details may be forgotten, and much will be lost, but the mark this campaign made will last. We made stories that we will tell over and over again, to each other and to our friends.
It was incredible.
Anyway. Feng Shui is over.
For those of you that don't know, Feng Shui is an action-movie roleplaying game, where everybody gets to play amazingly cool badasses and generally rip things up. This particular incarnation of Feng Shui was spawned by my good friend Dave, and he and I co-GMed it until he left for Texas. Since then, I've done my best to wrap up the story we had. As of this Sunday, approximately fifty sessions and two years in, I finished the job.
In a lot of ways the campaign didn't end up quite like we planned. For every hour we spent playing, Dave and I spent at least another hour at our local Steak and Shake plotting. We structured the campaign like a television series: we referred to sessions as "episodes;" we had seasons with cliffhangers and finales; we had a pilot episode, theme music, opening monologues, closing credits, episode titles, the whole shmear. When I GMed, I'd often talk about camera angles, subtitles, or the "special effects department." And all of this worked really well-- the players responded, and it seemed to get everyone in the right frame of mind for the kind of stories we were telling.
The problem was that we had initially sketched out a five-season arc, much like the late great Babylon 5. We kept revising exactly what we were going to do with it as the players continued to surprise us, but the basic idea never really changed. Unfortunately, when Dave left, it only made sense to cut the campaign short... he was half the team, and while it would be an utter waste to just stop the story, it would be impossible to keep going the whole way. So we ended up with two and a half seasons. I still managed to get through the story, but with the tumult in the middle I wasn't entirely happy with the way things went. As one of my players put it, "It's like Gargoyles; they had a kickass first season, a lackluster second season, and they just started to get interesting again when they got cancelled."
Still, we finished, and that's a monumental accomplishment. Over the course of the game we had 13 players and 15 characters, four character deaths and a player walkout, a character marriage, a PC-PC relationship, and a PC pregnancy. We visited Venezuela, New York, southern France, western England, Monument Valley, the Falkland Islands, Tokyo Tower, Tibet, Italy, Arkham MA, Atlantis, and outer space. We killed at least five parents of characters; turned one boyfriend, one dad, and two PCs evil; revealed that two characters were actually brothers; and ended up with players in charge of three world-spanning organizations.
Looking back, I'm sure I learned a lot of valuable lessons as a GM, but that's not what I remember. What I remember are the quotes, the spectacular moments, the stunts, the roleplaying, and the way all the characters changed over time. I remember mostly what they did, and very little of what I did. I remember the photo-booth stunt, flying nude through the lobby of the Waldorf, Lord Tarrasque falling in love, Brian awkwardly trying to decide what his female character was wearing, demons going "Woe!", the party swinging by a cable from Tokyo Tower, Tony being blackmailed into singing "Getting to know you," the Kirlean archaeologist, riding the tentacle, the Three Amigas, Lao trying to apologize to Nabiki after killing her mother, Jun and Yin trying to reconcile their differences, Tan's jungle gym, face-biting Rebecca, Andy wanting alcohol so he could be more "in-character," "Return my guns and trenchcoat and you will not be harmed," being betrayed by a talking monkey, Lily on an altar of sharp black glass, Westley's finger, Tiny trying to make love to a helicopter, Ed's brother Ed, getting free merchandise from Bernie's House of Porn, the punks outside IKTV, the duck with a necktie, the New Dragon Army, Allyson crashing the boat, and "space glass."
Gods, what a blast. What an amazing ride. I wish I could remember every piece of it, but so much of it is already gone and forgotten. Ah well... the details may be forgotten, and much will be lost, but the mark this campaign made will last. We made stories that we will tell over and over again, to each other and to our friends.
It was incredible.