[TML] Has Anyone Heard Of "Astrosynthesis?"

[Richard Aiken]

On Dec 20, 2007 8:20 PM,  <traveller at dhimaging.com.au> wrote:
> Ps: what's this group you've joined?

They call themselves "The River Gods of Gaming."  The name appears to
come from an art print of a Toltec (?) stone carving that Jason has
hanging on the wall of his living room.  Jason (and now me) are the
only unmarried members, so the group normally meets at his house.  I
speculate that staring at this photo for weeks on end eventually led
to an inspiration . . .

The group meets every Saturday from 7 pm to 11 pm in Oak Ridge, which
is an hour-and-a-half drive for me.  When I contacted the current GM
through NearbyGamers, he was surprised I would be willing to make a
trip like that every week, just to game for four hours.  I assured him
that it was no more than I expected, living in semi-rural East
Tennessee.  I told him I had GMed a weekly game for thirteen months in
Knoxville, which had meant a two-hour round trip.  Adding another hour
to actually PLAY for a change was no hardship.

Counting me, there are six RPG members plus a few more who just play
tabletop wargames.  A couple of the RPGers also wargame.  From what I
understand, they've had a fairly stable group for several years.
They're all guys at the moment, although they've had female members in
the past.  They range in age from late twenties to early forties, and
represent several different religious/political leanings.  Most are
apparently native Tennesseans, except for one guy who's from Scotland.
 Several months ago one of the founding members had to quit gaming
entirely due to unspecified "life issues" (from the subtext, I think
his wife demanded he finally give up gaming - he's 46).  They've been
looking for a sixth permanent member ever since.

They take their gaming quite seriously.  There's a formal "social
contract" that new members must sign which specifies the sort of
behavior they expect at the gaming table.  Since their contract
matches what I've got posted on my NearbyGamers profile to a "T" I had
absolutely no problem with it.  In theory, prospective new members
must pass a four-week probation period before being accepted.  But
they told me last Saturday (my first session), that I didn't have to
worry about that.  I was in.

They rotate GM duties, with each GM getting six sessions to run an
adventure, then the chair passes to the next guy.  As the newest
member, my spot's at the end of the current list, so it'll be quite a
while until my turn comes around.  Which is just fine with me!  After
each full six-week rotation, they then do a one-week rotation where
everybody runs "something a little different" as a one-off.  As to
WHAT each GM can run, there is only one (1) requirement.  You can not
run any d20 games.  None of the members like class/level-based games,
so d20 has been ruled completely out of bounds.

Oh!  Two of them have played Traveller before (in different forms).
Two others have played Serenity.  All of them have played Savage
Worlds.  Two are fans of the Black Company books, another (the current
GM, who's running a World of Darkness detective adventure) is a
Laurell K. Hamilton fan.

I really LIKE these guys!  :-)

-- 
Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident."  Robert A. Heinlein