Posts made by Cobalt

DOUBLE POST.

This isn't really meant to be a discussion on mechanics, HOWEVER. If any of these ideas super grab your fancy and you know JUST WHAT SYSTEM you would use for'em, I'd love to hear it.

This is just to gauge some general interest. What would you be more interested in a new game that isn't a) WoD, b) Super Hero, c) Historical L&L*

Theme & Setting #1 - Our World of Terrifying Dreams
Game opens on a normal day in 2018. Global warming is causing the weather to be shittier than normal. People are just trying to make a buck and get by. But then it happens. People think it's Korea or Russia attacking, except they soon learn that whatever is happening is happening all across the planet. Explosions, violent storms, and earthquakes all strike at once... Tears in reality open and all manner of monsters, terrors, and myths fall out of them. Spilling into the world in the Great Rending of Reality.

You are someone who was there when it happened. You lived through a werewolf attack on your office. Or maybe you were pumping gas when a horde of zombies burst out from underneath the concrete and tried to chew off your arm. Or maybe you were running from your life from strange tentacled monsters when a glowing woman with a sword made of starlight saved you.

Or maybe you're a stranger from The Dream. You were going about your normal life-- hunting vampires, leading a pack of werewolves on a sacred hunt, ruling over your faerie court, whatever it was you were doing --when suddenly your world was rended open and you fell through a portal into a world with far less magic then you are used to.

Are you a human trying to recover from the monsters of the movie screen and your dreams suddenly becoming real? Are you a "monster" suddenly stuck in a world were your magic isn't as godlike as it once was? ...are you a human being slowly being warped by magic that is suddenly in your world?

Theme & Setting #2 - Courts of the Sacred Seeds
Your world is very different from our own. At the age of majority you were given a choice: Which of the Sacred Courts will you join? You were born with an element (unless you're one of the unlucky Seedless), and typically you join the Court that represents the elemental seed within yourself. Is fire Seeded inside of you? Can you summon flames to your fingertips? Can you walk through a blazing fire without being hurt? The Court of Embers is typically where you will go. But maybe you have the ability to call the rain from the sky, or summon droplet of fresh water...
You are Seeded of Storm but you have no court... You might go to the Court of Frost, or you might go to the Court of the Sea. Or you could walk the long, struggling road of trying to found your own Court. It'll be difficult for the Sacred Courts are loathe to let go of their powers. You'll have to fight all of them:

The Court of Embers (fire / heat)
The Court of Frost ( snow / ice / cold)
The Court of Groves ( vegetation / nature)
The Court of the Sea ( ocean / rain / salt-water)
The Court of Winds ( air / wind / non-rain weather)

Setting & Theme #3 - Lost in the Stars
You are a member of the crew or a passenger on the Ariadne, the last hope for humankind. The ship was set to find the nearest planet that might be habitable. However, something happened... There's a terrible shaking and lurching of the ship, and when the smoke clears... the Ariadne is no where near Proxima Centauri, in fact no one knows where you are...

What you do know is that there are hostile and terrifying aliens, and their ships have just started to open fire on the Ariadne. Escape must be made before anyone can address "where are we".

• The Court of Sacred Seeds would have some L&L theme to it, but wouldn't be a historical "lets crib real world feudal systems".

** This is supposed to be a pole but it's not letting me.

*** I'm not like taking a complete vote of "if this gets enough likes I'll do X" but I have a Digital Ocean giftcard from the PyBundle, and a bunch of Python books. So I might work on something, since I have to use my DigitalOcean funds by August ... uh something.

Uuuuuhhhh....

@thenomain To be clear, if anyone felt I was calling them stupid or wrong for liking the chart— I’m not.

I’m sure I did come across that way, and I’m sorry for that. If this chart is your jam— my bad friends. Use it and if you can use it to help other people good!

My preference is to use more bite sized pieces of knowledge. I find it to be too complicated, and more information than needed at once.

@Derp @surreality My objection was how @magee101 came across, to me, like s/he was saying that if you found this chart off putting then you couldn't enjoy mage. I'm not going to put in the energy to go back and directly quote it, but considering magee flat out said "if you find this off putting then mage isn't for you", I don't think I'm out of bounds in taking their words to mean that their way was the correct way and any other way was not.

Even told them: I'm glad it helps you, but it doesn't help everyone.

I'm not sure how that makes me the one saying there's only one right way.

I got frustrated and finally resorted to sarcasm. Obviously I shouldn't have, but like I said I resort to sarcasm when I feel like I've hit a brick wall.

@derp said in Helpful Spellcasting Flowchart:

Currently, the only person that I see espousing One True Right and Only Wayism in this thread is you. You're convinced that a tool meant as a reference to a complicated rules system should be somehow simpler and more streamlined, and that anything less is somehow a detriment.

@cobaltasaurus said in Helpful Spellcasting Flowchart:

But I can understand how someone would find it useful as a reminder of rules they've already learned. Especially if they're in the happen of doing things less based off of their spells, and more freeform creative thaumaturgy.

Maybe finish reading the thread first, bb.

@auspice said in Helpful Spellcasting Flowchart:

@jennkryst said in Helpful Spellcasting Flowchart:

The biggest issue with the flowchart is it gives suuuuuper little information. So people who do not have a certain level of knowledge going in are just blindsided.

I think that is why it doesn't feel 'right.' IMO it's more of a reference chart than a 'learn to Mage' chart.

I saw it once before I knew Mage and noped right out. But now that I do know Mage, it's something that could be a helpful tool.

See, I see it and find it visually distracting and would rather just double check myself with the various tables in the book. But for the most part I use the spells that are already out in the books so I find the chart to be over-information (I don't need to deal with the weaving vs making aspects for the example, if I'm just using a stock matter spell from the book or what might happen with my spell if I have +1 over the needed arcana to cast, or even sometimes what happens when I have two arcana I wanna combo cast together-- that stuff is usually already written down in the example spells).

But I can understand how someone would find it useful as a reminder of rules they've already learned. Especially if they're in the happen of doing things less based off of their spells, and more freeform creative thaumaturgy.

@magee101 I enjoy mage just fine and I don't find this flowchart to be helpful. Each time to come back to "if this flowchart turns them off, mage isn't for them" is implying that it's required material to enjoy mage. I don't believe it is. I love mage, I don't like this flow chart.

@magee101 I react with sarcasm to holier than thou people who aren't interested in having a conversation but rather ram their argument down other people's throats. I never said that mage wasn't complicated, it sure does get complicated. However this flow chart is a detriment. I learned how to play it via the help of patient people who walked me through spells in the different situations to casting them: Rotes, creative thaumaturge, ritual, etc.

Without a messy flowchart that is confusing to look at and follow. That flowchart is in no way required material for playing mage.

@magee101 Okay, sure. You're way of playing and learning is the One True Way, got it.

@magee101 It doesn't send me running for the hills. I know how to the rules for casting in mage. I have had multiple people comment to me that looking at that image has completely turned them off of playing mage. @Sparks Is a good example of people turned off on mage. "This is too complicated, I'm going back to D&D." (Paraphrasing here.)

I'm glad it helps you, but it doesn't help everyone and it actively turns off some people.

@magee101 said in Helpful Spellcasting Flowchart:

@cobaltasaurus this is not over complicated at all. This is actually a brief and concise walkthru of creating spells. It looks complex but this is literally EVERY SINGLE STEP you need to take to cast a non-rote spell in 1e Mage. Sure there are steps you can skip once you get to know the system long enough but I still woukd rather have this flow chart than just the books

It's an over complication and way more information than a new player is going to need. It is not brief and concise, it's a visual mess that sends people not already familiar with mage running for the hills.

sigh This is such a gross over complication. It does not need to be this difficult.

@ixokai @Autumn @Ganymede @Cupcake --

Here's my very very general concept:

Junior scientist working on her master's in astronomy and physics at the local college. Works part time at a local observatory. Super into space and mind, and travel. But she's bored with earth and wants to travel the stars. It's frustrating being stuck on earth. /Guh/.

Thinking Reality Stalker if legacies are allowed. Haven't decided on order yet, path is definitely Mastigos.

@autumn Hey, Hey. I wanna be the Mastigos this time... >_> (Don’t look too shocked at kybplaying something OTHER than a Moros.)

@arkandel Darkwater and The Reaxh existed in the same universe. Soma and I worked out how to connect them.

I actually do have interest in this. I'll be at work tomorrow so will probably pop on around Saturday. And since I'm mostly interested in being able to play mage again... @Autumn @Ganymede You guys interested in working up a cabal or something? Anyone wanna see about doing some sort of cabal with us?

@magee101 said in San Francisco: Paris of the West:

No offense but can we not devolve an ad thread into a grab ass session? PMs are a thing. Please consider, thank you

Nope.

@ganymede said in San Francisco: Paris of the West:

@cobaltasaurus said in San Francisco: Paris of the West:

AUTUMN!!

No, mine!

MINE

@autumn said in San Francisco: Paris of the West:

San Francisco

Mage

You have my attention.

AUTUMN!!

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