I have at least one phenomenal example of a great means for a party to keep
itself occupied and happy during Jumps...Near Miss, the party featured in
my story and adventure-module series at GenCons from 1984 to 1989, is a
professional music/stage group, and spends its entire Jump period writing
material ("Hey, Cap'n, what rhymes with 'blowtorch'?"), researching old
remnants of ancient music for rearrangements ("I am having difficulty
translating 'Whop-bop-a-loo-bop A-whop-bam-boom'...."), practicing ("Of
COURSE I can play it right...Give me a month, okay?"), designing new sets
and stage effects ("...and then there's this massive explosion and stage
blood starts pouring out of everyone's clothes, and--no? Why not?"), and
so on. I should also pont out, in more general terms, that keeping one's
skills honed requires a great deal of practice, and Jump is an ideal time
to do so. So one would expect martial arts classes, exercise periods,
marksmanship training, fencing, simulated combat runs, and so on, in
profusion. But a common hobby for the entire party, preferably one that
is time-consuming and cooperative, is a big plus. As has been drawn in
many Traveller rulebooks by artists looking for an easy joke, why not
play Traveller? Have a game being played by the characters, within the
game the players are playing....ooh, bad karma....what an idea....
Excuse me, folx, I have to get writing...I just had a great idea for
an RPG campaign.....("No, you can't run that character the way YOU'D
run him, you have to run it the way your CHARACTER would run him!")
metlay
PS> Marriage is a really nifty concept. I recommend it heartily. |->