Hey guys! So total silence on my end,
always classy.
I'll get the important part of the way: next session will be on the 16th of October at 6pm. I apologize but I've been laid up with work and too embarrassed to admit it.
Just so you know, you're not the only ones; every other roleplay I've been doing has been neglected. If they were my children, social services would be knocking my door down now.
Now, next session will be different from our regular game, and I'll detail why in the spoiler, if you wish to read it. Do look at the spoiler below, though; you'll be able to give opinions on it!
So, Flame & Famine was intended as a down-to-earth game set in a very dire part of Ireland's history. The main theme, at least as far as I can remember, was the juxtaposition of supernatural powers and intense poverty.
If you haven't been playing in the game, I'll just let you know, it did not end up that way. What it did end up was as an apocalyptic, cosmic, really fucking confusing mess of a story. In fact, it was more similar to a fever dream than an actual plot.
Now, the thing is, the GM advice I hold dear is that 'if the players like it, you're doing okay'. I have always had a problem with this, beating myself up about details the players don't really notice. I've worried that I've been doing it again with this chronicle; what if my worrying about this game's plot being too ridiculous/unbeliveable/stupid is just my problem?
But I've been thinking, and I think I know what you guys want. It's very simple; you want your characters to do cool shit, make tough choices, and have interesting lives. Mysterious dreamlike bullshit detracts from that. Our best sessions were when you guys knew what you wanted and had real trouble getting it. The closer to Eraserhead we got, the more awkward the sessions felt to me.
I found the same thing in other roleplays, and in actual Lynch works you find that the characters have a clear idea of what they want; it's just that all this weird shit is in the way. It's not weird shit for the sake of weird shit, see, it's got a point.
Buuuut I could be wrong. You guys could be having a fantastic time with the apocalyptic storyline and the dreamlike feel. Hence... Well, read below.
So, next session... It might be beginning of what will either be a 'new season of Flame & Famine' or 'A kinda weird experiment that was fun at the time'.
Remember that premise for a roleplay we had about vampires being stuck in a rural village, trying to avoid detection by a pack of werewolves? well, considering how HB is making a new vamp character and Blitz's character Thady is pretty closely linked to one of the vampire NPCs... I'd say we could give it a shot as a storyline within Flame & Famine.
I believe it makes sense, since everyone in the party has good reason to GTFO of Castlebar. And anything incongrous can be removed with the power of RETCON™. So moving to another village should be interesting and maybe cut away some of the fat we've been accruing as a result of the main storyline.
Here's a few pertinent questions for the change.
Should I do this at all? This is obviously the first question on my mind. Are you guys cool with a more focused, down-to-earth story, or would you rather we kept going with what we have now?
What do you think of the main plot? Cos at the moment I'm feeling a lot of empathy with the Lost writers. I'm not really sure how to resolve it and I'm really tempted to change it up. It's just a little too huge of a scale. However, I'm not against isolating parts of it. What parts did you like? Any characters that could be used in a different way?
Is the premise interesting? If you guys have any other ideas that would work in Famine-era Ireland, I'll give them a look.
And that is probably the longest post I've done in this thread in months.