Potato Falls (2019)
Hypertellurians (2020)
The Final Revelation (2020)
Masks (2022-2024)
CyBorg (2023-2024)
Kult (2025)
Hearts of Wulin (2025)
I don’t know if it’s old age or the state of the world, but, lately, I’ve been reflecting on various parts of my life in a deliberate way. Predictably and appropriately, a large part of this consideration has revolved around tabletop roleplaying games. I’ve been game-mastering since I was around 12, I think, though there was a lengthy break, from maybe 1995 to 2017, due to various trivial “real life” things, like work and health.
Before that hiatus, every game that I ran or played in was a campaign. Neither I nor the people I played with ever considered playing otherwise. That mindset seems really strange to me now (not in the least because so many of the old campaigns were discontinued after only a session or two). These days, I run a lot of one-shots and enjoy doing so. At the same time, like many other gamers, I have a certain passion or compulsive sentimentality—I’m really not sure which it is—for the idea of a campaign. I love the epic meta-plots, the sweeping character arcs, and the familiarity and camaraderie that go with a long form TTRPG—not to mention the slow builds, the setups and punchlines, the will-they-or-won’t-they moments of suspense.
With that last point, I’m not (just) referring to romance. I’m pointing toward those remarkable moments wherein you find yourself wondering: will the GM go that low? will the player go that high and/or silly? and what unexpected developments will come out of someone/everyone going off the rails, the script, the planet, or the plane of existence? There are the big fights, the noble or ignoble deaths, and the times when a beloved character is lost to madness.
Currently, I find myself running three campaigns—all in different systems and settings: Vaesen, Trail of Cthulhu, and Brindlewood Bay. We are at least a couple of months into all 3 games, and they all seem to be going well. (Vaesen has been running since July.) I know that things can and will change before we hit the finish line with any of these games. (With Brindlewood, I suspect we’ll be done by mid-March.) I’m running hardly any one-shots, though I don’t expect that situation will outlast this winter. I love campaigns, but I do miss the huge range of experiences that a one-shot setup offers. Still, while in my campaign mindset, I wanted to say a few words about some of my most successful campaigns to date.
Potato Falls (Dark Places & Demogorgons) – 2019
- The pitch: It is 1984. PCs are adolescents and teens growing up in the town of Potato Falls, OH. Peculiar things keep happening, from attacks by ghosts and monsters to disturbances in the space-time continuum. Somehow, none of the adults ever seem to pick up on how weird everything is.
- Context: Potato Falls was a pickup game that we set up for our public RPG group. In the space of a year, I’m not sure how many people showed up, just out of the blue—definitely more than 20. Everyone rolled a character in 5 or 10 minutes, and was cast into hijinks right then and there. Many of them went on to join other games with me, public or private.
- The verdict: I can’t begin to tell you how fun this game was. It was also really chaotic, and I responded to all the energy at the table with bigger ideas and crazier concepts for how we played. Almost everything worked, because the vibe was so positive and welcoming. I really miss the game and might be running it still, if it weren’t for COVID.
Hypertellurians – 2020
- The pitch: You are part of a group of passengers and crew aboard the Ultracosmic pleasure-ship, The Aetheric Lordling. You visit strange places, always seeking after new adventures and experiences. This game is really about wonder and exploration, viewed through a 1970s lasers and sandals haze.
- Context: A campaign that I threw together for 4 players in March of 2020. It was a bonding experience for all of us, I think, and led to some really memorable, psychedelic moments.
- The verdict: Despite the game’s innate silliness, we loved its Wonder mechanic, and we all became really committed to the various PCs and NPCs, and at times, the whole thing had the capacity to be somehow moving. Go figure.
Part 2 coming soon…