The world is a funny place. As much as I love me some Mordheim, I play more RPGs then war games. Which is one of the reasons I love Mordheim so much, it splits the difference. That's probably worth a post at another time.
The thing is, today we started playing a new game, just because. Vampire; The Masquerade. I've come back to it after a decade. Thinking about it, it is really interesting. Actually more then a bit interesting. Its story worthy. Or rather blog post interesting.
Ten years ago, I and two other guys were running an interlaced WoD campaign with alternating sessions of Werewolf, Mage, and Vampire. I was the one running Vampire. I had recently starting reading Changeling, and I was generously adding Changeling to flavor the campaign.
One of the big Changeling events, was the 5th of November. Those who are not British probably have a little thing nagging at the back of their head about it. It's Guy Fawkes day. I can't for the life of me remember why Guy Fawkes was important to Changeling, but it was. I had seeded a session where some Unseeley were going to blow up a big thing of the Vampires. I had been building up to it for months. It was still only half way there.
Then it was 9/11.
That was it. No one wanted to play in a 'gothic horror' version of the real world anymore. Buildings blowing up, and supernatural entities guiding the fate of humanity just wasn't escapism. It went from creepy fun, to eerily real. Our group actually had a bit of a falling out over it, from a bit of backpedaling I tried to do. It was dumb and stupid and we almost didn't get back together again.
Then I got Mordheim, and we got back together. For awhile it was great until the wives got angry about being excluded. Not that we didn't want them to play, they didn't want to play a wargame. So eventually we ended up with D&D again.
Time passed, and the RPG group fell apart. Kids, new jobs, and night classes. The standard stuff that always happens. Now, my kids go to play RPGs at their friends houses using all my old books. I have a group that I play with at work that enjoys RPGs a bit more then wargames, but I can occasionally get to play a good miniatures based game. A decade of leaving, I've come back to my old stomping grounds. Its a new group, a different type of world, but its a bit like riding a bike. You don't forget the mechanics. Was a decade enough that 'gothic horror' appeals again, I don't know yet. I'll enjoy it while it lasts, and even if it doesn't work out I still have Mordheim.
That hazy space between wargame and roleplayer is something very interesting. I'm intrigued it might be possible to create something inclusive, something which lets gamers who prefer the different focuses to play together and enjoy it, without anyone feeling they aren't getting essentially what they want. I wonder if the Mordheim ruleset could be smoothly developed into something more RPG.
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