The Children- Background

This is the first in a series of posts detailing things that happen during the game I am currently running. I am, however, not about doing a story time where everyone is subjected to my prose or where I get to spout about how awesome the campaign is. Instead the posts will deal with rpg elements, how some things worked and how things did not work. It is a practical look at the mechanics of an rpg game in progress.
All too often it is easy to philosophise about rpg gaming, but without object examples, it is nothing but theory. By showing examples, as they had just happened the night before at a real table with real people, it takes rpg philosophy away from the theoretical to the practical.

The current campaign is called The Children. The characters started out as 11 year olds and progressed from there. Unbeknowst to them at the start, they are also the children of demons. This fact is something they have come to suspect by now and is an ongoing theme.

The Rules of the Campaign post I made earlier has the actual email I sent out to my players before the game started. This is the second time I have run this campaign. The first run ended prematurely, but that option is built into the campaign, and the first group "chose" to end it early. Since then my wife has repeatedly ask me if I could run the campaign again. With the release of 4E (the earlier game was run in the Rolemaster system) I finally decided to dust off my notes.

One of the highlights of the campaign is how the characters are coming to terms with the fact they are essentially demons. Major themes to be seen within the campaign are the sense of alienation and contending with a dark, naturally evil side.  The concept of nature vs nuture is prevalent throughout the interactions the characters have had in the past and will continue to have.

The campaign has been running for some time now, but rather than rehash stuff that happened months ago, I will be picking up the ongoings in the current time frame. We play every other week so updates on this will be sporadic and only if something of note happened; ie an interesting topic about rpgs came up in some manner during the evening, but as every game session is a learning experience I should have something from most nights.