I went over to Cody's earlier to play a couple games of 40K. I was playing the Necrons, a race of robotic terminator-like robots that serve a god-like race called the C'Tan, a race of ancient "Star Vampires." The Necron army was what originally got me in to Warhammer 40K, but besides a few troops they never released anything more for them. So, I went on to play the Space Marines and eventually the Tyranid (a race of monstrous creatures like the bugs in Heinlein's Starship Troopers). Well, they finally started releasing new miniatures for the Necron army and a new army book with the rules. I haven't been playing in a while but the new Necron minis have pulled me back in.
Cody and I have started playing a narrative campaign between my Necron and his Tau army. (The Tau are a bunch of goody-two-shoes that fight for "the greater good." Bah.) With each game we develop the story a little more and increase the size of our armies. The storyline has been about a mysterious (everything about the Necron is mysterious) attack on a Tau planet. The Necron have been attacking bases around the planet and the Tau are trying to find where on the planet they are coming from.
We don't write up stories around the battles or anything but having an idea of the story in our own minds makes the game more interesting. 40K may be a strategy game but as a roleplayer I like to know why my army is fighting. Why are the Necron fighting? I can't tell you that. If I told you, it wouldn't be "terribly mysterious." Of course, in the last game we played my Necrons decimated the Tau, so they may never live to find out themselves.
There's another diceless roleplaying game in town. It's called Nobilis and it sounds cool. Here's a description I found:
Nobilis is a diceless role playing game set in the modern times. Players role play incarnations of reality, called Nobles or Powers. Examples of this sort of character and genre include the Sandman series by Neil Gaimen, "Creatures of Light and Darkness" by Roger Zelazny, and the anime film "Princess Mononoke". The characters are quite powerful, although they serve still more powerful beings, called Imperators.
I'll have to look for more stuff on this game later.
Played Changeling on Sunday. Neither Carla or Neil was there, so I wanted to focus the game on wrapping up the more mundane subplots in the game. I realized quick that when characters are toting around the Holy Grail and The Sword of Light, they lose interest in dealing with the little things. The whole "saving the world" thing becomes more important to them. Go figure.
The next game should wrap up this campaign and then we'll take a break for a couple of months before returning. The new game should be able to continue some of the abandoned subplots from the current game.
Lesson learned: When gluing miniatures I need to make sure my hair is in a ponytail. I leaned forward to get a better look at a mini I was gluing and got a bunch of "Zap-a-Gap" in my hair.
The game went pretty well last night. Our two heroes were called on to retreive a nuclear warhead stolen by the Clown Prince of Crime, The Joker. Their armor deflected the bullets of his henchman pretty well, but they learned that Hyenas have pretty powerful jaws. It ran later than I wanted it to because, as usual, I didn't watch the clock. When I'm GMing, I tend to lose track of time.
Neil is getting burned out on GMing Champions so he wants to take a break for a few months. We have been talking about what to game because we still want to get together Thursdays. So, I emailed a couple of ideas to the group (OK- the group is currently me, Neil and Eric) and we decided that I would start a game tomorrow. Not much notice. Luckilly, I will be running a game that I have run before, based off of a DC Comic Book. It's a super-spy/espionage game about a secret organization called "Checkmate." The players will be playing Knights, the James Bonds of the organization.