Listeners to the podcast will know that I recently began running a couple of new role-playing game campaigns. One of those was (eventually) named by the group Ariadne’s Thread, the title coming from the name of their starship.

Today was Session #2 and, although very different in feel and tone to the previous one, a joy to play. Experience at the table is teaching me new things about the strange alchemy inside a role-playing game between players, GM, characters, world, system, and improvisation.

Ariadne’s Thread is an Empress Marava-class Far Trader from the esteemed Traveller universe. Our game is set around 1000 years after the collapse of a previous galactic civilisation that is known as The Long Night. But this isn’t the same setting.

My pitch to the group was to create a science-fiction game blending Traveller ’77 with Firefly and the first Alien movie. The whole thing would be powered by the Cypher System core rules. The intent was to run a long-form game that we all want to play in a year.

Using the longer and deeper character creation process I outlined on the second podcast episode last week, we created a fascinating collection of player characters who have already proven dynamic and exciting to play with. I’ve rarely known such a strong creative spirit at the table.

But the thing that really struck me across both sessions of play has been the alchemy between the world we are imagining, the player characters, the situations they are experiencing, the interplay of the rules system, and the creative improv between us all.

Truly, while I have prepped effective situations and posed problems for the player characters to deal with, the deepest joy has come from watching the players wrestle with the implications of their character’s goals and beliefs.

This is a game of discovery: about players, their characters, the world we are exploring, the way the game system works, and what might be possible when everyone is open to finding out what will happen next.

What I’m learning more and more is to trust both the players and myself in-session. To be as playful in spirit as I can muster while maintaining a grounded and believable sense of what the world and the game are about. Ariadne’s Thread is indeed a tangled web.

The key is to let the inspirational sources ground the game while simultaneously allowing yourself to shift with the flow as players make their moves in the game. Let the world respond, both through NPCs and natural consequence, and see where it ends up.

I’ve laughed more in these two sessions than I did in the entire year and half with the same group in different games. In loosening my metaphorical tie I’ve found even more joy and excitement… and those other games were great.

I really do want to know what happens next.

Game on!