Advice On New Game

[blindgamer]

Hi! I'm new here and new to running MaOCT, though not to GMing in general (been doing that for many, many years). I wanted some advice on starting a my new game and I had a few questions as well.

First, the Game: I'm thinking of starting with Christmas Vacation adventure in the back of the main book, a few small adventures and then Road Trip as it's a starter level adventure as far as I have read. Then I was going to go into Conspiracy and lead after that into Bigger Bads Jumpstart into the Military campaign. I think that should go from the middle of 7th Grade all the way up through Freshman year and beyond. So? What do you think?

Second, the Questions: Where do you think Skymaul would fit in? I haven't bought it yet (I am first thing on Friday!), but I wanted opinion. Next, as far as I can tell, there are three PC Types: Kids w/ Monsters, Weird Kids and Spellcasters. Am I missing any?

I wish I could figure a way to use Candlewick, but it's just doesn't seem like something that would fit anywhere but, well, Candlewick.

I'm very excited about my game! I love the books, awesome writing! I hear the pictures are good, but I'm blind, hence the handle! lol

Thanks for the any help, opinions and advice in advance!

[Shane Ivey]

Thanks for writing. I hope your game goes great.

Your prospective outline sounds fine. You could squeeze "SkyMaul" in between "Christmas" and "Road Trip".

In some parts of the U.S., middle school begins in sixth grade. If you want to extend the "middle school" years for your campaign you could start it there.

You could have the kids moved to Spring Crescent in "Curriculum of Conspiracy" as aftermath for their monsters being discovered at some point earlier, perhaps in "Christmas."

Then run "Road Trip" after they've been at Spring Crescent for a year, in the summer vacation.

You asked about PC types. The standard is Kids with Monsters.

Some campaigns also have various kinds of Weird Kids, who have monster powers themselves but don't have monster friends. That started in "Candlewick Manor" but a lot of versions are presented in "Bigger Bads." You could incorporate some version of that as a Spellcasting Kid if you like.

In convention games I often have half the players run the kids and the other half run monters. I don't know if I would do that in a long-term game, but it can be very fun (and make my job easier as GM) when there are a lot of players.

Good luck!