Star Wars: Age of Alliances
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@Coin See, that would be awesome. I dunno, when I think of a Star Wars MU* that I would -want- to play on, I always look to SWTOR first. I know, I know, MMO's.. but at least that game lets you PICK what you want to play. You want to be a Dark Side loving Rattataki Jedi Consular? Do it. You want to be a Light Side basking Twi'lek Sith Assassin? World's your oyster, make it so! You want to play Han Solo or Finn or quite literally ANY OTHER POSSIBLE TYPE OF HERO/VILLIAN? You can.
Sure, there would be chaos, there would be bickering and in-fighting... but that's how factions actually behave and function. So I don't really see that as a problem so much as how its supposed to be.
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@Tempest said:
The important question is, can you be force sensitive and have a lightsaber.
Gonna assume not, since 9/10 Star Wars MUs seem to outright ban that or save it for staff-pals. Which is why the genre has died, IMO. I don't wanna play some goddamn Han Solo knock-off. I want a lightsaber.See, so many multiplayer Star Wars games make the same stupid design choice. When many players think of the setting they want to play a damn Jedi. Or Sith, whatever. And yet even in the MMO (well, the first one at least) actually playing a Force-user was reserved for a tiny minority - screw that.
It's like running a World of Darkness MU* where 1% of the players get to be vampires or werewolves and everyone else has to be mortal. Not chooses to be because that's what they feel like playing; has to be.
Nope.
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That's pretty much how a fair number of early World of Darkness games did work, right down to the part where slots that open up almost invariably go to staff or friends of staff. Shockingly, games that actually allow players to be vampires or werewolves proved to be a lot more popular.
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Any of these MU* that have "applicable slots" that claim favoritism isn't a factor in selecting players to have those slots is full of shit.
Realistically, staff doesn't want to give the slot to a player they don't like, even if that person is very active, roleplays well, and has a great idea. The people selected for these slots are a measure of game control due to the belief that the wrong player in a powerful slot could imbalance the game.
So, in the end, it really is a popularity contest, like making sure your boss never has to correct you for anything while you're seeking a promotion. It's really no different. People don't want that stress in both their real and "pretendyfun" lives.
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Sorry to double post, but I'm gonna call bullshit on this game.
The game isn't accepting force applications on this new game, yet the "Feature Characters" of Luke, Rey, and Kylo Ren are already in play. Looks like staff already done gobbled up some force slots.
"Oh, well YOU can't play what you want right now, but since we all wanted to play Jedi we gave ourselves (or our friends) the only force characters...so be patient while we have run roleplaying them."
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@Ghost said:
The game isn't accepting force applications on this new game, yet the "Feature Characters" of Luke, Rey, and Kylo Ren are already in play. Looks like staff already done gobbled up some force slots.
"Feature Characters" are probably my biggest peeve with 'fanon' MU*. I'd rather them be NPC only or not show up at all rather then be played by favored players.
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Feature Characters: The movie cast who are exciting to scene with.
Player Characters: Supporting cast for the staff-run force users and feature characters.
^that's the reality of it, IMO.
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Feature Characters: Staff controlled alts to lead the charge.
Force Characters: Staff controlled alts to show off.
Player Characters: non-Staff controlled alts to look on at awe as the staff does stuff.
Staff: Get frustrated players never do anything.
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Let me be more constructive here:
SW1 and Star Wars: New Worlds were a smorgasbord of favoritism, staff-alts filling most of the force and/or FC slots, unchanging characters that had been around for so long they had become furniture, and a lot of rules about activity for FCs and Force users (like activity) that were not enforced. Both of these games, and a few other iterations, were d6 Star Wars games with "applicable" force slots, feature characters, the same OOC baggage carried from game to game, characters who ported from both games, and had a lot of favoritism problems.
So now we have AoA, a d6 game with "applicable" force and FC slots (which seem to all be taken), characters from SW1 and SWNW on grid (Gren Delede is a face I remember), and it is pretty much the same setup as all of the other d6 Star Wars games that careened into making the same mistakes its predecessors did with the same characters and the same rules.
So, sell me on this Age of Alliances. Is this game run by a SW1/SWNW veteran, and how does this game expect to avoid the same issues of its predecessors when the Force/FC slots are already taken up and old characters are already porting in?
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As an admin for Generations of Darkness, I really dedicate all my time there. I can't speak to the reboot of AoA - but when I originally played it, I never had the feeling I did on Starwars 1. It felt like you could really get a Jedi (hell even FC) if you tried. Cujo was pretty fair as well as the other admin. The people I know who do play on AoA are pretty top notch (with a notable exception or two). Even @Jennkryst seems pretty cool from what I can tell. I would not, at the face of it, say no just because you can't get a Jedi/sith out the gate (even if I disagree with the mentality).
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@Soresu in fairness, I'll take a look at the logs and go from there, but I do think the process of having to app a non-force sensitive and then hope, pray, kiss ass, run events, behave, roleplay a lot for just the chance of getting what you really want is really rough on people. It's easy to feel like these "slots" go to staff, friends of staff, people fortunate to roleplay in staff run scenes, or people who just somehow managed to do just the right thing to be given a Golden Wonka Ticket. I've seen it build resentment on nearly every SW game that does it, and I don't think it's a positive policy.
ARE Luke, Rey, and Kylo Ren FCs (and presumably the only force users on grid) currently occupied as staff alts? That really is all that needs to be answered. The answer to that question will spell a lot.
Anyone on the game know the answer to this?
Delete the Hog Pit. It'll be fun.
I really don't understand He-Man -
the few times I have attempted Star Wars games I made a fighter pilot so this really does not concern me directly in this instance but I could never understand the premise of hey play this thing you don't want to and maybe later you can play what you want.
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It looks like AoA is adhering close to the current Force Awakens mythology, which is that there are very few force users. There are a few PCs who have some skill with the Force, but only Kylo Ren appears to be a real Jedi type. I guess that's just the theme? If it were a Knights of the Old Republic game, you would have more jedi and sith and such.
It looks like some of the Feature Characters are played by staffers. But they seem to do this to create roleplay. They make scenes, send people on missions, run scenes, etc. I'm not against staffers playing features if their goal is to create roleplay and not just be johnny badass stomping around the galaxy.
It doesn't feel like Star Wars 1 where you had these rare jedi/features who would just sit around and not die until they got their exact special death scene with a heroic twelve paragraph pose.
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As far as I know about Star Wars and the Force Awakens, there were very few Jedi. But also remember that you don't have to be Jedi to have the force. I can definitely understand why there wouldn't be many Jedi characters. I don't know why there wouldn't be many force characters. Even if every PC that apped was a force character, you wouldn't even scratch the surface of the number of force sensitive people that would exist in the galaxy, even during that time period.
It really does seem to be a case of holding back for no better reason than to allow only certain people to be special.
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To me it doesn't matter. Games are games. Would I play a Marvel Comics game where I can't have superpowers? No. If they chose a setting where only a handful of people had them then I'd conclude they chose badly - at least when it comes to the kind of game I'd find enjoyable.
After all The Force Awakens is a kickass movie but it's not made to be RPG friendly, that was never a concern its screenwriters had at all.
Maybe once more films come out and the setting expands that will be different or perhaps game runners can customize and add to theme in order to accommodate the fact players will want to play all the things... or maybe it's simply not a good place to set a MU* in if they're unwilling to do either.
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You may have noticed lately my pushing really hard for a FFG Star Wars game to spring up (with volunteering to @dig the grid and everything), in part because of a few of the policy decisions on AoA. I have nostalgia filter, since it was my first MU*, but Star Wars is kind of like Shadowrun, in that there are few options out there that are not Saga edition (as awesome as my time on Generations of Darkness, was, I have ISSUES with level-based systems in general, and d20-ish moreso). My vote for a time would be 1000 BBY, set during the war that happened riiiight before the rule of two was created, even if that means I can't have my Gungan/Ewok buddy cop adventure.
Re: Features - Phasma is played by one of the coders... when she's not busy writing code and fixing broken stuff, she's handing out plots to our First Order characters. I ran Random NPC Stormtrooper in a plot, and it got to the point that it ran so long, the three of us who hadn't passed out were begging her to step in and save the day, just so we could sleep. She did not oblige.
The rest, I couldn't tell you if they are staff or not. Luke is busy hanging out in Ireland. Rey is busy hanging out in the desert being VERY invested in not leaving. Kylo Ren is passing out plots like a boss and giving SWAG to pretty much everyone in the scene. Hux is being a ginger space nazi. Maz is providing any number of plot hooks in her castle. Han and Chewie are trying to hire some folks to move animal cargo. Leia and Poe are, presumably, doing things with the resistance in the shadows. I don't really pay attention to them.
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@Jennkryst I would totally come back to MU for a FFG Star Wars game. I love the narrative dice and the plethora of character options. It is a storytelling system, which I love.
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@Jennkryst said:
You may have noticed lately my pushing really hard for a FFG Star Wars game to spring up (with volunteering to @dig the grid and everything), in part because of a few of the policy decisions on AoA. I have nostalgia filter, since it was my first MU*, but Star Wars is kind of like Shadowrun, in that there are few options out there that are not Saga edition (as awesome as my time on Generations of Darkness, was, I have ISSUES with level-based systems in general, and d20-ish moreso). My vote for a time would be 1000 BBY, set during the war that happened riiiight before the rule of two was created, even if that means I can't have my Gungan/Ewok buddy cop adventure.
Re: Features - Phasma is played by one of the coders... when she's not busy writing code and fixing broken stuff, she's handing out plots to our First Order characters. I ran Random NPC Stormtrooper in a plot, and it got to the point that it ran so long, the three of us who hadn't passed out were begging her to step in and save the day, just so we could sleep. She did not oblige.
The rest, I couldn't tell you if they are staff or not. Luke is busy hanging out in Ireland. Rey is busy hanging out in the desert being VERY invested in not leaving. Kylo Ren is passing out plots like a boss and giving SWAG to pretty much everyone in the scene. Hux is being a ginger space nazi. Maz is providing any number of plot hooks in her castle. Han and Chewie are trying to hire some folks to move animal cargo. Leia and Poe are, presumably, doing things with the resistance in the shadows. I don't really pay attention to them.
Personally, I miss D6. I started out on Starwars A New Threat.. Which is the D6 system. I wish I could find a hopping game that used that. Saga honestly just feels like the took DND and added a Star Wars skin.
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There are things I like about saga edition, and things I don't.
Needing to keep track of a series of feats and statblocks made the game very bulky; bulky as opposed to agile and easy to navigate.
(Trying to shoot your X-wing at a TIE fighter? SIMPLE! Simply apply your base attack bonus modifier to the fire-linked weapons bonus, add it to the attack rating of the ship, apply any other bonuses from feats, talents, or any of three-to-ten other modifiers. That will give you a number like... D20+3+4+2+4+5+3+4+3+2+4+5. THEN, once you have determined your bonuses to your d20 roll....)
(...roll and apply the total rolled to the agility bonus of the TIE plus the pilot/crew rating of the TIE. If the number is higher than this reflex number, you've hit! Then roll the damage of the weapon (4d20x4) and SUBTRACT that from the armor rating. If your damage exceeds the damage threshold of the...)
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A lot of people have rose-colored glasses when looking back at D6 Star Wars. I remember it as a pain in the ass that required almost every game to do their own home brew work-arounds. Some of the skill requirements were insane. To run a ship you gotta have Sensor Operation, Shield Operation, Pilot: Freighters, Pilot: Starfighter, Gunnery, and god knows what else. It was annoying. Most places just went with 'blaster' and 'pilot' and simplified. And then the die and pips... fuck pips. So annoying.
Arguably the most successful and popular D6 Star Wars game, Minos Cluster, just went with their own homebrew system while having basic skills and stats. I think they used Strength to give you a base amount of damage you could take. And Stamina kept you from going unconscious. It worked OK. I don't know what A New Threat used, but they were very popular for a time, then everyone left and it took a nosedive.
