Deathbat actually runs a module - Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle

I'll admit it: I've felt some burnout lately. The main problem is easy to figure out: I've run so many games so consistently over the last 34 years that I've all but exhausted my own avenues of exploration. The secondary problem is more recent: finding time to prep.....I don't have a lot of free time to do that. That's why games like D&D 5E and 13th Age appeal to me so much.....they are an easy sell to my groups and make the DM's life easier.

That said, when you've run hundreds of scenarios and dozens of campaigns over the last decade and a half, it's easy to start feeling a little repetitive. Even if my players don't notice, I do.

On a lark one of my players earlier this week asked if I'd be willing to run some official D&D modules for a change of pace. I decided...why not?....and proceeded to prep for the first scenario in the Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle. As it turns out, that was a GREAT idea. The module was fun to run (we're only partially through the first module in the four-part set) and it provided a framework that I could manipulate and feel challenged as a DM managing while not stressing me with the effort of trying to come up with something new from my usual repertoire as a DM. Simply put...I probably have about three or four dozen tricks and concepts I tend to use a lot in my games, and for the last year or so I sort of feel like I'm just rehashing old, well-trod territory. By running a module I'm breaking out of my comfort zone. Plus, I can still "make it my own," too. I've reskinned it so it's set in my Pergerron setting....changing the names to protect the innocent, so to speak (and any players who might have poked around and read a copy).

So: running a module is proving to solve that issue nicely. Think I'll look at running a module this weekend for 13th Age, too....maybe an adaptation of an old classic, such as Against the Giants or something equally interesting.....

My Latest RPG Buying Frenzy

I ordered quite a haul this last week...maybe once I have these books in hand, in the far future I will get a chance to read them...even --gasp!--- play them!

First up I put an order in for Numenera, which from all I have read is sounding increasingly interesting and fresh. There's a serious glut on the market right now for "games that look and feel a lot like D&D," and it's nice to see an RPG out there that might be fantasy yet not a D&D-like.

I attached to that order Fear Itself, a Gumshoe-powered game system with an emphasis on one-shot horror gaming with a high body count. The retailer also had copies of Advanced Recon and I've always wanted to check that game out so I threw it into the basket, too.

Over at rpgnow.com I caved in and picked up Void Core and it's first two expansions. Made by the people behind Cthulhutech, Void Core looks to me like the game I wanted Cthulhutech to be--a quasi hard SF Cthulhu Mythos experience. It also looks more robust in terms of game mechanics and design than the last game I picked up with a similar thematic (Maschine Zeit), and since the core rules are entirely free (i.e. pay what you want) it was all I needed to explore the game and decide a physical copy was destined for my collection.

Lastly I have Mythic Adventures for Pathfinder waiting for pick-up, will be checking that out later today. I am uncertain as to whether it's going to be an amazing book full of new larger than life campaign ideas or a gimmick that gets ignored. I'll let you know more once I have it.

All of this is to compensate for not being able to attend GenCon, although a friend and his wife did indeed go there and even picked up two copies of the Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle, one of which they will be sending me. Joy!