Howard's Loners v.s. Player Groups

[rgrove0172]

In my reading Ive found most of REH's characters, expecially Conan, were loners, tackling the challenges of life on their own unless soldiering or sailoring or occasionally linked up with one other partner in the current endeavor. Rarely if ever do you see the typical 4 or 5 player group of mixed and widely varied characters prevalent in roleplaying games. Im fairly lucky in this regard as I only have two local gamers likely to take part in my upcoming campaign but Im wondering how you GMS handle it if you have 6 buddies expecting to play. It seems very anti- genre you know?

 

[quigs]

I'm finding it that way yes. But so far I have managed to keep the group entertained. I even have one naysayer in the group who doesn't like the S&S genre as much as D&D, but he's still playing and having fun.

Then again, my group consists of 2 Corinthians, an Aquilonian, a Brythunian, and a Cimmerian. Not really that diverse of a bunch, especially with 1 barbarian, 2 soldiers, a thief/soldier, and a noble/soldier.

 

[Yogah of Yag]

There was a somewhat helpful article in S&P on Solo and Duo Play, that might address some of your concerns.

 

[rgrove0172]

You dont have the issue number handy do you?

 

[Strom]

You dont have the issue number handy do you?

It was issue #7 but here's a link to the S & P Index:

http://www.warpedcore.net/?x=signsportents/index

And a breakdown of S & P articles just for the Conan RPG:

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=20177

 

[VincentDarlage]

In my reading Ive found most of ROE's characters...

I hope you mean REH... (Robert E. Howard).

The article referenced above would suit - it is reprinted in the Conan Compendium, by the way.

Another way to go is to pick a character to be the "star" and the other players play support - they die just a bit easier and if they want to play a different character that week, then no problem.

My group really hasn't had a problem just playing as regular, though.

 

[rgrove0172]

Thanks or the head up on ROE , dont know how that happened.

 

[Lord Jolly the Scribe]

How do you make one the star without making others feel like they are just there to further the star's goals. I am so used to running multiple people games and I had a guy when I was in college used to run a weird world he had built where he played the main important Final Fantasy-style chosen one to save the world and we were jut there to help him finish the story. Gosh, he drove us all so crazy...

Sorry, flashback venting. I needed that though. :?

 

[Ichabod]

I'd say most of fantasy focuses around one or two characters, so it's hardly anything specific to Conan that a party is off flavor.

D&D is the way it is with the highly codependent classes because it needs to be an enjoyable game for a group of people much more than it needs to capture any particular fantasy setting.

The only thing I can see about games being oriented towards groups is losing the ability to play characters like those you read about, ones who are ridiculously good at nearly everything and can singlehandedly deal with opposition.

Now, ironically, I think Conan's (the RPG) bias towards barbarians is actually too much of a nod towards the material as party members should feel equally worthy.

Interestingly, even RPGs that have to have superstars (Buffy and Highlander*, for instance) try to balance things out such that the superstars won't completely overshadow the other players.

* It was demoed at Gen Con for a few years. Seemed to be a fun game, though maybe it was just good GMs.

I don't think it's impossible to run a game where one character is more important all of the time, but you have to have the right players and have the support staff have fun things to do.