1 Sphere, 2 Sphere, 3 Sphere, 4!

Ganymede · Jan 28, 2015, 1:21 AM

While I think that some players do not want to play a mortal at all, I am of the opinion that most players don't play mortals when supernatural PCs are available. At least, I think.

Frankly, with GMC, I'm beginning to like Mortals. I think I'll start my game with them.

Thenomain · Jan 28, 2015, 1:38 AM

@Ganymede said:

Frankly, with GMC, I'm beginning to like Mortals. I think I'll start my game with them.

Mortals in GMC are what we've been calling M+, as they have more notable access to other things. I likewise approve.

@lordbelh said:

It also requires putting in the time to codify how those spheres of influence look.

So? If I'm told that a game is getting a codified chair creation system, then you'd better prepare for people getting frustrated that they can't politically outmaneuver the system with stats that are there to do exactly that.

Reach's new crafting system mixed with GMC's "doors" setup is probably as deep as you need to go.

lordbelh · Jan 28, 2015, 1:51 AM

On Reno with two supernatural Spheres, the ratio of mortal to supernatural is more or less 50-50.
On Kingsmouth, which is a single sphere (vampire) game, it's 50-50. Additionally, on Kingsmouth most players only have one character, due to the strict alt rules, yet still half the characters are mortal.
On The Reach it's more like 1/3 character is a mortal.

This was just me quickly pulling up census on those three games, the ones I'm online on ATM.

Edit: By mortal I mean plain mortal, mortal +, or mortal sub splats to the big scaries.

Bobotron · Jan 28, 2015, 3:05 AM

@Thenomain said:

I played briefly in HM's "mortal sphere". The quotes are for sarcasm, as most mortal spheres are about as cohesive as your general metropolis. There is no social glue that all other game lines have, and I wince any time someone appoints a "mortal staffer". These people can do little more than be the important brain behind approvals, and I wince any time a player complains to them that there's nothing going on.

I feel that the "mortal sphere" is something that needs to stop. All characters need to belong to an established theme and setting, or they might as well be just taking up disk space.

That leads me to a thought. So many games have a 'mortal sphere' divided up into subspheres (Crime, High Society, Law, Police, etc. like @Coin said.) To me, that's not so much theme as it is 'in game job' stuff. So lets take a different track and assume a core theme.

So what WOULD you consider a themed mortals venue? I keep looking at TV and movie media and look at, say, Dark Shadows as a themed mortals venue (mostly), or the anime Umineko no Naku Koro Ni (which is a similar concept, big extended family) as examples of 'themed' mortals venues, after a fashion.

Bennie · Jan 28, 2015, 3:11 AM

Walking Dead!

Miss Demeanor · Jan 28, 2015, 3:11 AM

I had a mortal on HM... one that actually managed to stick her fingers into multiple other spheres' pies. It was fun for awhile. Then again, I could really say the same for every sphere I played on HM. >.>

Deleted · Jan 28, 2015, 4:07 AM

I would love to see a down and dirty street level Hunter game. Put it in a large, corrupt fictional city with rampant crime that is run by supernaturals from behind the curtains. Vampires control the city council, werewolves have some street gangs, Changelings are in organized crime.

The whole city is going to shit and it's up to the PC Hunters to clear it out, block by block. Start them out with only a tiny little safe haven (A dive bar, obviously) and let them work towards something bigger and better.

You can even keep it at the Compact level until things grow and Conspiracies move in. Night Watch and The Union would fit this kind of chronicle perfectly.

Worst case scenario, the game starts to fizzle and you can open the supernatural spheres up and be another City by Night game.

darksabrz · Jan 28, 2015, 4:26 AM

@Coin It's just a shame that Secrets of the Covenants is looking to be at least August before it comes out (at least, that's what @tragedyjones was telling us at Reno) -- they've been extremely slow about getting 2.0 Vampire out more.

I confess, though, I have certain... thoughts about playing a Dead Wolf (and while I have a way to potentially see it happen at Reno -- I could PM you for details), I'd be very interested to see how you give Dead Wolves the 2.0 treatment.

Bobotron · Jan 28, 2015, 4:41 AM

@darksabrz said:

@Coin It's just a shame that Secrets of the Covenants is looking to be at least August before it comes out (at least, that's what @tragedyjones was telling us at Reno) -- they've been extremely slow about getting 2.0 Vampire out more.

I confess, though, I have certain... thoughts about playing a Dead Wolf (and while I have a way to potentially see it happen at Reno -- I could PM you for details), I'd be very interested to see how you give Dead Wolves the 2.0 treatment.

I'm just glad that more stuff is coming out for it in general. I've been sitting here re-reading B&S and thinking that 95% of the changes I really like (and holy CRAP I forgot how awesome some of the Devotions there are).

Thenomain · Jan 28, 2015, 4:54 AM

@Bobotron said:

So what WOULD you consider a themed mortals venue?

I don't. I'm starting to lose the idea that even Vampire, Werewolf, and Changeling are "venues". They're not.

Changeling's venue is the Freehold. Vampire's venue is politics. Werewolf's venue is war.

Political sphere? Law sphere? Crime sphere? No: Politics, Law, Crime, High Society. There's nothing that makes these the purview of anyone except those who are good at it, and there is nothing that keeps "mortals" from being good at these things.

Subvert the game-line expectations and the notion of a "mortal venue" or any "sphere venue" is lost. There are just "venues".

I don't think Reach meant to illustrate this, but I think they've realized it.

Usekh · Jan 28, 2015, 5:16 AM

I would love a Hunter only game. I liked the theme of Hunter and tried two of them on TR, but between folks fucking Supernaturals and being pressured into PVP it didn't work out for me.

3543thrh67 · Jan 28, 2015, 5:16 AM

@Admiral said:

I would love to see a down and dirty street level Hunter game. Put it in a large, corrupt fictional city with rampant crime that is run by supernaturals from behind the curtains. Vampires control the city council, werewolves have some street gangs, Changelings are in organized crime.

The whole city is going to shit and it's up to the PC Hunters to clear it out, block by block. Start them out with only a tiny little safe haven (A dive bar, obviously) and let them work towards something bigger and better.

You can even keep it at the Compact level until things grow and Conspiracies move in. Night Watch and The Union would fit this kind of chronicle perfectly.

Worst case scenario, the game starts to fizzle and you can open the supernatural spheres up and be another City by Night game.

This sounds like it would be a lot of fun.

Misadventure · Jan 28, 2015, 6:58 AM

This post is deleted!

Coin · Jan 28, 2015, 10:03 AM

@darksabrz, sure, hit me up.

Wizz · Jan 28, 2015, 10:33 AM

@icanbeyourmuse said:

@Admiral said:

I would love to see a down and dirty street level Hunter game. Put it in a large, corrupt fictional city with rampant crime that is run by supernaturals from behind the curtains. Vampires control the city council, werewolves have some street gangs, Changelings are in organized crime.

The whole city is going to shit and it's up to the PC Hunters to clear it out, block by block. Start them out with only a tiny little safe haven (A dive bar, obviously) and let them work towards something bigger and better.

You can even keep it at the Compact level until things grow and Conspiracies move in. Night Watch and The Union would fit this kind of chronicle perfectly.

Worst case scenario, the game starts to fizzle and you can open the supernatural spheres up and be another City by Night game.

This sounds like it would be a lot of fun.

I'd also play the hell out of this, and would hope that supernatural spheres don't ever open up there. It would be such a fun change of pace, and really fit into the "niche game" trend. On that note, it would be my dream come true to see a spread of games that each give you a genuinely unique experience and thus, more incentive to log in to different places, spread your time around, and flex your creative wings. ("Thursday's zombie night. Friday's techngnostic-Cold War thriller night. Saturday is GIANT CITY-DESTROYING CATS WITH LASER EYES NIGHT")

Coin · Jan 28, 2015, 11:26 AM

@Wizz, this is also my dream.

I think at my most ambitious (at least, inasmuch as MU gaming is involved) I would like to see the model for the game I'm making take off and have several sister-games pop up, some solo-sphere, others mixing certain spheres to create unique experiences, and all of them interconnected in a "if something big enough happens in one game, it pops up as world-wide or nation-wide news on another game's bboard".

Inter-game play might be a problem--you'd need to have an OOC agreement that one game's players aren't going to complain that they can't go vacation to another game's city; but we justify more annoying shit daily in this hobby, so I don't think it'd be a real problem.

But yeah. At my most ambitious? That's what I want. I want the game we're working on to sprout spin-offs in other cities, other locations, as the different 2.0 games get released. That, to me, would be amazing.

Ganymede · Jan 28, 2015, 3:43 PM

@Coin and @Wizz

What about post-apoc zombie-land? I've discarded the idea of integrating Demon into the mix. The game would be sort of like The Walking Dead, although there'd probably be a crafting/resource mini-game where PCs that are set-up as crafters or developers can make or break the entire game.

I'm starting with Mortals. I'm debating how much Mortal+ to add to it. I looked at Hunter for more inspiration, and think that some Endowments could be made available. I thought people might be interested in starting as plain-Janes for Beta, and then "learning" Mortal+ stuff, if they want to, as they "explore" the world (via PRP or SRP).

HelloRaptor · Jan 28, 2015, 3:55 PM

@Coin said:

@HelloRaptor
Or maybe it's just a way of saying that I suspect it might be more fun because that's my opinion. I don't necessarily have to hate people who play PCs more powerful than mine to have an opinion that isolates a game. You exaggerating jerk.

Hey, I said probably. ^_^

Coin · Jan 28, 2015, 3:55 PM

@HelloRaptor
Jerk.

HelloRaptor · Jan 28, 2015, 3:58 PM

@Coin said:

@HelloRaptor
Jerk.

Probably.