Much of it is filled in. Some parts need finishing. Please don't make characters or connect to the game yet.
ETA: I think I'm about done with the wiki and stats customization. Chargen works. Just need a bit of a grid for the two static locations.
Much of it is filled in. Some parts need finishing. Please don't make characters or connect to the game yet.
ETA: I think I'm about done with the wiki and stats customization. Chargen works. Just need a bit of a grid for the two static locations.
So as I mentioned a few days back, I've been given the keys to an entirely new sphere that, to my knowledge, has never been tried before on a multi-sphere game: Promethean. @Sonder at Fallcoast is letting me try it, and I appreciate the opportunity.
That said, I don't want this to be a discussion of FC or TR, why you will or won't play there, or any of the issues that can and have been discussed in the Pit (yeah, I know, threads drift, but...). So let me explain up front WHY I decided to do a Promethean sphere on FC instead of a Promethean-only game, and then we can get to the core of what I'm trying to do.
There were several factors in deciding to just make a new sphere there when offered. To me, at it's core Promethean is SO different from the other splats, but it's a little-known game and therefore hard to make work as MU*. It's difficult to keep a game going when it's, at most, a dozen or so players. So yes, honestly, making it a sphere on an active game with a good size playerbase was a major factor. But not for the reason you might be thinking.
Promethean is a game of isolation and alienation. In order to make that work, you either need an ST willing to play dozens of NPC Mortals on a regular basis (ending in burnout), a bunch of players willing to play Mortals (perhaps every Prom player plays a Mortal, too, but good luck making that happen), or an existing game with lots of non-Prometheans. When the only players are Prometheans themselves, who exactly are you isolated and alienated from?
Promethean also has something the other splats don't: an endgame. In pretty much every other splat, building power and surviving is the goal. It ends when you get bored or get dead. Prometheans can actually become mortal, and that's the whole goal of the game. That fascinates and excites me in a way WoD/CoD hasn't in ages.
So instead of sipping drink in a club, or playing in private cliques, the Prometheans have to go out and figure out what being human means. They have to keep changing their RP circles as Disquiet drives away friends. They have to DO things, and work towards an actual, real, achievable in-game goal. An ending.
Maybe it'll sputter. Maybe it'll crash and burn. In any case, I'm trying it, and I'm quite interested in what others think and have to offer on the idea. I don't want a ginormous sphere or anything, I just want to try something truly new, and I want to help others have fun with more personal stories instead of metaplots and big bad villains to kill.
@Arkandel Apologies! I meant to, but got abruptly yanked RL-wards.
AMERICAN GODS: The perfect antidote to WoD. Modern-day urban fantsy/horror with a far more fascinating backstory and mythology, if you'll pardon the pun. You can play pretty much anything. Characters are broken into Mortals, Legends, Myths, and Gods. The first is self-explanatory. The second would be Johnny Appleseed, Sir Lancelot, etc. The third would be Vampires, Unicorns, Leprechauns, etc. The last are, well, Gods.
I actually have the Newsfiles written for an America Gods-inspired game, but we decided to go with GMC nWoD and make Fear and Loathing instead because more people know it and play it. We all talk about wanting a non-WoD game, but few ever make it. People think they need to read a book or books to play there. People don't like the rules system you decide to go with - FATE, GURPS, homebrew. Or you go statless, and people who don't like full-consent games complain.
For better or worse, people end up playing what they know, not what they profess to want.
@bear_necessities I'm very much into the MM idea. Excited, even. As for HM, I'm just not really feeling it anymore as this last year has been crushingly bleak and horror isn't appealing as a result. Messy, chaotic fun is more my current speed.
Who were you on HM? Hope you're well!
@tinuviel He's been banned on 3 more accounts, including his own Social Media Director's.
Our first event to start the game will be on Wed July 1st at 5pm PST/8pm EST!
@surreality said in Diceless/Stats Optional:
This sounds like it would be really fun for tabletop, or for a small-scale game (roll20 or similar).
I am not sure how well it would fare in a 24/7 persistent world while people are left to their own devices.
It could either be brilliant, or become a perpetual argument generator of epic proportions, and I wish I could say which I thought was more likely. (With a small group of mature players who ideally know each other a little, likely fantastic. A larger group of strangers with a lot of mystery wild cards in the mix... not as confident it wouldn't trend toward disaster over time.)
That's why I'm wanting to encourage group app/troupe play. You and your friends make a TARDIS crew and do whatever you like. There would be a few static 'hangout' locations to meet others and open RP, but you only have to deal with others as much as you choose to.
As mentioned in a below post, ended up shelving this idea as it wasn't going anywhere.
SANCTUARY
sanctuary.aresmush.com
sanctuary.aresmush.com 4201
The air smells like ozone, full of electricity that crackles all around. That electricity flows through you, too, like blood, or perhaps fire. Your first breath fills your lungs in a gasp, your body going rigid as muscles and nerves awaken. The world comes slowly into view, blurry at first, but soon sharp and crisp and bright. You're alive.
You are alive.
Promethean: The Created is a roleplaying game of existential horror, where players take on the roles of creatures that were never meant to be. The monster in Frankenstein is the most well-known example in pop culture. The wooden boy Pinocchio is another. By one means or another, a spark of divine fire has been infused into a corpse (or parts of several!) or some other kind of humanoid construct and unnatural life has been created. Reality rejects these poor creatures, slowly twisting and warping everything around them if they linger too long in one place. Humanity abhors them on a subconscious level, their lizard-brains whispering that something Is Not Right even though most of the Created appear quite normal. Over time, that whisper grows into a scream and humans lash out in extreme and often violent ways without understanding why. The Created can never escape Wasteland and Disquiet, as these two phenomena are known, for very long. What's worse, they come to know that they are not human, but monsters, when human is all they want to be. So they travel to avoid lingering, and they make acquaintances instead of friends, and they seek a way to transcend their unnatural state and join humanity as one of them.
You don't need to own the RPG to play on Sanctuary. In fact, if you're willing to start as almost as much of a clean slate as your character, everything you need to play is right on two wiki pages. Once you've read that, you can answer a few questions and make your character. We're serious. Don't let a lack of experience or knowledge push you away. Give it a read, and if it sounds like fun, give it a try.
Sanctuary is a Promethan: The Created 2nd edition game. It is NOT a Chronicles of Darkness game. Yes, we use the basic rules, but none of the theme/lore/setting. Vampires, Changelings, Mages - you'll find none of it, and any supernatural entities that do come up (if any) will not be from those books. This is a standalone game. The only book we use is the 2nd edition of Promethean, and even that isn't required to play. Because of this, there is no Refinement of Silver/Argentum in this game, and no Spiritism Transmutation.
We are focused on co-operative storytelling first and foremost. Players who feel the urge to stockpile XP and max out their stats will be disappointed. XP is gained monthly at a 5XP per month flat rate. There are no XP incentives or bonuses to chase. We want players who play in and tell stories because they enjoy it, not because they're getting incentives to. Similarly, this is not a competition. PvP is discouraged. We seek players interested in helping each other tell tales of existential horror, tragedy and redemption. There will be plots and NPC antagonists, but action and fighting are far from the focus of this game. Players who want to see more action and adventure are encouraged to run their own stories for anyone interested. Staff are very accommodating to such things as long as power levels and the like are kept within reason.
Most Staff run scenes will be one-shots that involve emitting the human masses your characters move among and interact with. The slice-of-life that makes Promethean what it is. Players are encouraged to do this as well, and playing humans for each other can be a great deal of fun. You can start play as an existing Created or freshly made, complete with a 'Born on the Slab' scene. Existing Created get 15XP on top of their starting points, and details can be found on the Making a Character page under Systems. Newly Created get their 15XP broken up as an extra 5XP a month for the first 3 months. They can redo their stats after a month of play, and every player can respec in March and September.
All character sheets are done in PDF by Staff and posted in a special section on your character's wiki as an image. This image must not be edited or replaced by anyone but Staff - and yes, we can tell. Any tampering will get the character yanked and the player suspended. When XP is gained and spent, Staff will update your sheet for you. Dice are rolled on the game by typing 'dice <#>d10', where <#> is whatever your dice pool is. No, it's not coded chargen and sheet/dice support, but Promethean is a fringe game and doesn't have much MU code or support. Ares has a LOT of great functionality, so this is what we're doing. It's not that hard.
@faraday said in Diceless/Stats Optional:
@botulism said in Diceless/Stats Optional:
...True. But there ARE good players who won't do statless/consent RP.
Sure, but there are good players who won't do a lot of things. As long as you're willing to accept the limited audience, doing the kind of game that you'd be happy running is more important than doing what the unspecified masses may want.
That said, it's pretty well-demonstrated throughout MUSH-land that a) advancement-free games are a tough sell, b) "players do their own thing" games often devolve into relationship soap operas, and c) small-group-based games often lead to a splintered playerbase where people are off doing their own things with limited opportunities to interact. So I think you've got three things working against you from the start. That's not to say "don't do it". Just be aware that you're starting from a disadvantage and will likely have to work extra hard to get people interested/engaged.
Yeah. Maybe the answer really is to just drop stats. Make getting a character and playing as easy as possible to encourage people to try something new. A couple lines of a concept/overview/bg, a description, and you're approved.
@pyrephox Sure! In Promethean, moving around and the vagabond lifestyle is already a major element, so The Sanctuary jumping is actually more a way to keep it with you as you travel. It doesn't jump weekly or anything, though. Months, even a year or more (IC) can pass before it has to jump.
So all of that is to say that, yeah, the real challenge the game will face is having enough going on in terms of mundane interaction and human encounters. I share that concern, but I want to try, at least. When I ran HorrorMu, I was running some pretty plot-driven, break-neck stories for 2-4 months at a time for a year solid. Here, I'll be running SOME danger/action/mystery plots, but what I see my main job being as head ST is running/emitting humanity for you guys to interact with while everyone settles in. Hopefully at least a few players will jump in and people can take turns playing or emitting humans for each other. Everyone is supposed to chip in IC in some fashion, so pickup scenes can easily be the part time job you work to bring some cash in, or the scrounging for useful items around town, etc. Daily life. It's what HAPPENS during that daily routine that gets the ball rolling, and then incidents get talked about at home with other Created, lessons shared, ideas explored, etc.
TLDR; Yeah. It might not get off the ground, but I'm willing to work my ass off to try.
I'm attempting to deal with the "everyone is spread out everywhere" problem on my Who game by encouraging players to group up into TARDIS crews with friends or others in their timezone. Then there are a few static locations that are public and open to everyone so crews can meet and people can mingle. I agree that having 10 PCs in 8 different places is a good way to kill a game in the crib.
The Last Road is a post-apocalyptic dieselpunk game inspired by the Mad Max movies (you'll be fine if you haven't seen them), using Ares MUSH and FS3 as a system and codebase. This is a game of desperate survival, high-octane adventure, cruel piracy and even crueler politics. It is a consent-based game that focuses on PvE and co-operative storytelling, but allows for brutal combat and life-and-death consequences for those who want the risk. We don't just focus on combat and danger, however - the social warfare and politics of the post-apocalypse can be just as treacherous. Throw in plots of mystery and discovery in a wasteland that's buried more than a few secrets and we're hoping there's something for everyone here.
We have different character Tiers for different levels of activity and responsibility (30AP/45AP/60AP), open to everyone. These are not lengthy, heavy-handed apps, and you can can have up to 5 Tier 1 (starting level, 30AP) characters at a time, one in each group. Tier 2 are more experienced (45AP) and are limited to 1 per IC area, which at open is one starting location. Tier 3 are IC leadership roles expected to help foster RP (60AP), and you are limited to 1 on the game at a time. This way everyone can have one 'badass' and a number of more basic power characters.
We're just opening and literally everything and anything is needed, so jump in anywhere. We'll get you going.
@lotherio Which is funny, because in SW you go from A to B in seconds in the movies, especially the new ones.
If my Whoniverse game never takes off, I just might try a Mortal Horror game. Here are my answers to the questions:
1: Age. Would it need to be young adult to be captivating? Could you do "age spheres" such as High School, College, Adult and run plots for each?
I'd base it very loosely on the comic book Locke and Key by Joe Hill (Stephen King's son). I'd call it Welcome to Lovecraft and set it in modern-day Lovecraft, MA, the fictional town from the comics, but would not use (much of) the story or characters. Lovecraft is a strange town where the supernatural and unusual happens but no one talks about it. Not the adults, anyway. They always forget. I'd let PCs be students at Lovecraft High and Miskatonic University, or those few adults who can, for various reasons, notice and remember. While the HP Lovecraft influences are obvious, it wouldn't just be that. I'd bring in lots of horror movie stuff like Camp Crystal Lake, vampires and werewolves and sea creatures and zombies and... the whole toybox. The idea would be that Shit Is Not Right, but no one believes it.
2: How often would plots need to be run? Let's say, for gits and shiggles, that I'm running a game and am also the only staffer running plots. I could only do so probably once a week, on Monday evenings. Would that be enough? Twice a week? Three times?
I could/would run at least a scene a week, sure.
3: Player Run Plots. I'm a HUGE fan of PrPs. What tools would players want/need to run their own plots?
I'd let people run with it. Borrow from comics, movies, TV... have fun. Anything can happen in Lovecraft.
4: Mortality. Should death be a very real possibility? Should players go into character generation knowing their PC could be short-lived? Should there be a "victim" opt-out option for players who don't necessarily want to have their characters killed (which may make them ineligible for some scenes)?
I'd let people opt out, but if they want in on the nastiest stuff, death can happen.
5: The monsters. Strictly staff run? Should players be able to take on the role of "Suburban Vampire" for the length of a plot knowing that, in the end, he will be slain?
As I said in #3, go have fun.
6: System. What system would work for this? I think WoD or the current edition of Call of Cthulhu would work fantastically.
I'd be open on system. Not WoD, though. Something that doesn't have 30+ books and is less about fistfuls of dice and XP and number-crunching and more about drama and story. FATE, etc.
From Monday, October 25th through Sunday, October 31st, HorrorMu* will be running a one-shot event called The Deadman's Party, open to anyone and everyone to come and try the game. Character creation guidelines for this event can be found at https://horrormu.com/forum/10/206. It takes less than 15 minutes to make a character, and you need only know what's in this ad and that post to make one.
Each RL day will be 3 IC hours, starting at 9am on October 31st, 1992. Set at the Eager Beaver lodge in Oregon, a Fraternity (Nu Mu Beta) and Sorority (Zeta Eta Pi) from OSU (go Beavers!) are throwing an epic Halloween event called The Deadman's Party, where everyone dresses up as their favorite dead person (historical or fictional). New player PCs will be Fraternity or Sorority members. This is NOT connected to or based on the HM 1.0 season Slasher! I'm just reusing the convenient setting.
That's it! If you want a week of horror movie fun for Halloween and feel like giving our game a try, you can find us at horrormu.com 4201.
Figured I'd post the wiki link so people can know a bit more about if they're interested in pitching in! http://lovecraftma.com/index.php/Main_Page
Thinking of doing something with Prometheans. Any interest?
Way too amused by this and had to share. So much fun making it.