What Types of Games Would People Like To See?

faraday

@Coin said in What Types of Games Would People Like To See?:

I mean that, in that moment, that player is, within their own bubble of context, playing an OOC game. If what drives me is exclusively getting the shiny object or stat, then I'm playing an OOC game.

I would agree with you about the shiny object/stat thing, if it's motivated for OOC reasons, but what if it's IC reasons?

I'm playing a Firefly ship captain. My character's goal is to keep the ship flying. I do lots of RP about this. Some portion of that RP is supported by coded systems, whether it's a haggle die roll to get a good deal, or a coded econ system where I have to spend some measure of my playtime running cargo from point A to point B. Is that an OOC game? I, as a player, don't give a crap about virtual cargo or imaginary money. I'm just abiding by the game's framework that lets me tell stories about them.

Combat is another instance. My poses are literally influenced by what the combat system says - was my character shot in the leg? OK, RP that. Did they just blow somebody's head off? OK, RP that. Bob is getting piled on by Cylons? OK, RP going to help him. These just really don't feel like OOC games to me. They're just as much a part of the roleplaying experience as the rules and dice in a TTRPG.

Coin

@faraday said in What Types of Games Would People Like To See?:

@Coin said in What Types of Games Would People Like To See?:

I mean that, in that moment, that player is, within their own bubble of context, playing an OOC game. If what drives me is exclusively getting the shiny object or stat, then I'm playing an OOC game.

I would agree with you about the shiny object/stat thing, if it's motivated for OOC reasons, but what if it's IC reasons?

I'm playing a Firefly ship captain. My character's goal is to keep the ship flying. I do lots of RP about this. Some portion of that RP is supported by coded systems, whether it's a haggle die roll to get a good deal, or a coded econ system where I have to spend some measure of my playtime running cargo from point A to point B. Is that an OOC game? I, as a player, don't give a crap about virtual cargo or imaginary money. I'm just abiding by the game's framework that lets me tell stories about them.

Combat is another instance. My poses are literally influenced by what the combat system says - was my character shot in the leg? OK, RP that. Did they just blow somebody's head off? OK, RP that. Bob is getting piled on by Cylons? OK, RP going to help him. These just really don't feel like OOC games to me. They're just as much a part of the roleplaying experience as the rules and dice in a TTRPG.

You're deviating from what spurred this topic of conversation into an aergument that's pointless because we agree, you're just interpreting my words as meaning something they don't. I am specifically referring to the type of distinction Ominous made here:

@Ominous said in What Types of Games Would People Like To See?:

I think these desires are mutually exclusive. Plotting and intrigue needs something concrete to plot and intrigue over and that concreteness comes from game mechanics. Otherwise you're just stabbing each other in the back over the color of the draperies. I mean, I guess you could plot an assassination on your brother, so you can inherit a pointless crown that doesn't mean anything, but that strikes me as just being mean to the player of the brother for no reason, because, again, the crown is pointless. Kind of like kicking a dog, because it was sleeping and no one was watching, so you could get away with it.

I do not need the crown (or your spaceship) to be backed by a system mechanic in order to roleplay either being important, because to me, narrativity is what's important and the rest props it up.

That's it. That's the whole thing. Everything else is discussing in circles.

faraday

@Coin said in What Types of Games Would People Like To See?:

You're deviating from what spurred this topic of conversation

Um, no, I was responding to a thread about there being some kind of problem with narrativity and coded systems co-existing, and you were quoted, perhaps out of context. I don't have the entire thread memorized. If we agree, then great.

L. B. Heuschkel

@Arkandel said in What Types of Games Would People Like To See?:

@L-B-Heuschkel You can also only read a novel within the scope of what its author wrote down.

Quite. That's why it's a novel, not a roleplaying experience. That comes later, when you create a character to tell your own story in the universe the writer handed to you.

Bad at Lurking

I keep coming back to the idea of 'The Series: The Mush'.

Basically a shared universe (ala most anime mushes) for the cheesy, fun urban fantasy TV shows like Buffy, Supernatural, Grimm, Highlander, The Crow, etc.

There have been a couple of fun places that tried it, but I think they failed because they tried to bring in urban fantasy novels and/or video games as a part of the same world, when the conventions are really quite different in some ways and because they split everything up into several urban centers, like a superhero mush.

I keep coming back to the idea of lifting 'Seacouver' from Highlander: The Series and throwing all the glorious oddness into one big pot while keeping things semi-cohesive. Basically, fun, cheesy supernatural drama with a distinct 'tv show' flavor, as opposed to WoD games.

ZombieGenesis

@Bad-at-Lurking I think that's a great idea. I briefly ran a similar game once(though it just combined Buffy, Supernatural, and Highlander) that used the Cinematic Unisystem.

Bad at Lurking

@ZombieGenesis Unisystem is so underated. And the last version I know of (the one in Angel) was perfectly streamlined for this sort of thing, with the trait packages for supernatural and normal archetypes. (So you could buy 'werewolf' and 'nerd' and hit the grid ASAP.)

ZombieGenesis

Yeah, I'm a big fan of the Unisystem. Usually, all you have to do is house rule a limit on Dexterity and it brings most of the problems it might have right under control.

Bad at Lurking

@ZombieGenesis Oh the lamentations of the classic Buffy mush players can already be heard.

Hm. I need to go looking to see if there's a version of Cine-Uni softcode out there somewhere.

ZombieGenesis

@Bad-at-Lurking I may have one somewhere but it's coded for TinyMUX and I'd honestly suggest doing a game like this in Ares. You wouldn't have online c-gen or +rolls but you'd still have the web-based scene system, which is amazing.

Ghost

A MU set in a combined Willow/Conan universe.

I wanna see some awesome little people PBs fighting Jason Mamoa.

Lotherio

@Ghost Aside from the beginning 30 mins or so of Han Solo, David Copperfield (Dickens) and the write/smudge/write/smudge to fuzzy up the Han Solo origin on paper to rewrite up to just before robbing the train, I really enjoyed it. Warwick Davis showing up as a marauder was pretty cool element in the movie too, it was a nice touch.

Lisse24

So, given my general dissatisfaction at the moment and inability to actually sink into a game, I've been thinking about this, and my answer is a bit different:

I very much want a game that really emphasizes the relationships between characters and makes them meaningful. The ability to create meaningful, deep relationships between characters is one of the strengths of MUs, IMO.

A lot of games recently have been putting emphasis on PRPs, and while building character relationships and participating in PRPs are not exclusive, I would like to see the same effort put into encouraging player interactions. Personally, I would rather have 1 deep, meaningful scene with another PC than 10 PRPs.

Lotherio

@Lisse24 said in What Types of Games Would People Like To See?:

I very much want a game that really emphasizes the relationships between characters and makes them meaningful.

This is to share experience/idea/etc, I generally try to avoid anything involved saying anything conceptual on a Mu I've worked on is good or should be used or anything of that nature. That is, I don't like to say, this is what I did on that game and why its cool.

Only because its relevant and anyone working on such a model may benefit or not if they want. When my co-head and I sat down to work on Fifth Kingdom, our focus was on how to we get to character driven story and development.

Tucked into news files on game and on wiki:

***=NSFW content***

click to show

Instead of focusing on houses in an L&L game, we worked on a model of the king's castle and his officers as the focus of play. They were both their houses required service to the king and their token in the politics of the realm. House advancement was on the side, probably as much hidden as our aim at personal stories over strategy/dominion building; but folks could have worked hard to overthrow the king and run our player realm if they were inclined. @Ganymede was beginning to plot that way.

We've dusted it off and are looking at it, with a stronger emphasis on the Court of the High King again, with more structure in place and more guidelines on how to advance. We originally had five main staff that organized other staff, we're being more open in that these are and should be run like traditional orgs (for WoD, clans under a prince), just trying to help give it player thrust in control and guidance versus staff hand. We're looking if reputation via vote/request would work more if way more emphasis is placed on it, such as needing it to get to control positions instead of apping in, then letting players run the orgs/areas of influence under high level court officers.

Which, in the end, I want this too, player driven story/emphasis/etc.

I would be very interested in other various models related to how to drive player driven story and character development to the front as we look at tweaking our king's officers/court model. And just in general curiousity, I agree, MU is good for this, I would actually like to see it more than another diced simulat/strategy/points game system.

Lisse24

@Lotherio I did really enjoy playing on 5th Kingdom. I don't remember my character, but I remember that I liked the game and the RP I found there. It really did match my preferred style of play.

I'm excited that you're thinking about bringing it back!

Ganymede

@Lotherio

I swear I'm going to get to reviewing that Google docs file this weekend, my friend. I will follow up with my thoughts then.

Would love to have you on-board too, @Lisse24, if that's okay with Lotherio and his crew.

Lotherio

@Ganymede said in What Types of Games Would People Like To See?:

I swear I'm going to get to reviewing that Google docs file this weekend, my friend.

You're golden, hope the work load lets up, you can look that over when RL lets you have the spare time.

peasoupling

For some reason, I want to play a post-apocalyptic setting, so I can pretend I am actually competent and not dead after the collapse of civilization. Any system's good!

Jennkryst

The Kingdom, S2, has put me back in the mood for L5R. Feudal Korean Walking Dead?

bear_necessities

Magicians game set in Fillory, not brakebills