Posts made by De Villefort

@Macha said in 2023: Dead Celebs pt 2, Electric Boogaloo.:

Tina Turner, 83

I reject your reality and substitute my own.
Tina Turner lives on forever so long as there is music in our souls!

@Misadventure
All of your points are completely valid and I agree 100% with them.
However, wouldn't it feel better if you got to roll more dice for your S/K/T checks?

Even if, in the long term if makes only a fractional difference, succeeding even moderately more often at tasks would make you feel more like a heroic character without needing to lower the difficulty on everything.

More dice is just more fun.

One thing I never liked about WoD was how every fight turned into a comedy of failure or one side was so overpowered that it wasn't even funny.

I can't do anything about the latter, but the former I have an idea that might make things slightly better. For this solution, let us look behind the scenes at the mechanics we don't use for our characters in day-to-day play.

Let's say your character is opening a door. They don't have a door opening skill but they can still do it. Behind the scenes it is assumed that somewhere along the lines they picked up some secondary skill for opening doors. It's just not on your sheet.

Since most people don't frequently mess up opening a normal door we can assume that you have at least 2 points in your "Open doors" skill + your dexterity (or intelligence).

This results in most people having at least 4 dice to roll vs a low difficulty for a standard door. This explains why you can go most of your life opening doors every day and rarely mess it up.

In the real world sometimes you do mess up even opening a simple door. You push when you should have pulled, or you hit your own foot. Those are the 4 dice rolling 1s.

Now why, I ask, are these two invisible competency dice for every day tasks not added to skill checks involving things in combat?

Should not anyone, even a toddler, be able to throw a punch and hit a larger target? Currently, if they have no skill in it the chance of them doing it with their 1 Dex or 1 Int die is next to impossible.

However, if you assume everyone has 2 points of competency dice for skill related checks, then the toddler has 3 dice to successfully hit their baby sitter.

Now this is an extreme example but it gets the point across that what we have been using as our first point in our combat skill should be seen as your first point of expertise, not competency.

I propose that (for Skill/Knowledge/Talent checks only) everyone has two free dice to represent the basic human ability to do things.

Beyond that, you buy expertise dice with your chargen or XP points to make you better than an average human. These are the points on your sheet.

Just throwing the idea out to see what everyone thinks.

@greenflashlight
Nah, the game being more progressive is actually historically correct.
It was cowboy movies and novels who treated women like shit.
Popular media of the past made it seem like women stayed home and waited for the men to do everything important when they were actually pretty boss.

@cobalt

Honest opinion? Scrap it and start over.

To prevent magic from spiraling into a mess of chaos and power gaming you have to start really basic. Also, if you have to define every magical effect as your players make them up, you're going to end up needing a full time staffer just for that. Simpler is better.

Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Mind, Spirit, Life, Time, and finally Transmutation.

Approach it like old school Mage from WoD does. If you have rank 1 in <element> you can do this kind of stuff. If you have rank 2 you can do that kind of stuff and so forth and so on. Not spells but guidelines. Say, at Water 2 you can shape or control X amount of mass of the water and conjure half that much into being.

Magic should be like building with lego blocks and each block should be clearly defined.
Don't just say your magic system is part science, part magic, make it work like that. Define elements, rules and set up guidelines then let the players build things with those elements.

Want to turn a person into a statue? Life 3 to seize control of the person's body, Transmutation 3 to transform one level 3 worth of mass into another element and Earth 3 to shape that amount of mass into a statue.

You could use Life3, Transmute 3, earth 1 to turn them into earth but they would be a lose pile of dirt instead of a statue because you need earth 3 to maintain the stability of the mass of stone in the statue shape until the transmutation process is complete.

If you have a system where everything is defined by properties and values you don't need to write out every spell and every ritual because the requirements can be self-evident.

@citation said in Thundergulch:

Women aren't relegated to traditional women's roles. They can be any position.

Well, there goes my interest in the game...

***Terrible truths below...***

@coin said in MUs That We Would Love To Make (But Won't):

lol. Why am I surprised. You have a very, very limited concept of what is worth roleplaying so everything makes sense now.

I don't have the time or energy to waste on a scene that is going to go nowhere an accomplish nothing. I don't understand why you think it's a good use of your time. Sitting around a table talking about how good the donuts are or how spicy the chili fries are at the bowling alley is a waste of everyone's time both IC and OOC.

Think about it, have you ever seen anyone actually have coffee shop chatter in the real world?
Have you ever seen total strangers just sit down at a table and start talking about benign, mundane, stuff for no reason?

Ever see anyone organize a group of strangers for a one-off bowling game then leave without having any other form of contact outside of bowling?

No, you haven't because it's crazy and a massive waste of everyone's time.
Most people don't do it IRL. Some people might do it.
Those people are freaks and weirdos in the eyes of the public because it's abnormal.
So why is it expected in RPGs?

Just eat your donut or drink your beer alone like a normal person who doesn't bother strangers. If you want to bring chatter to the place the invite someone you know and maybe they can invite someone they know and you can all get to know each other but this whole idea that it's cool and expected to just start talking to people you don't know needs to stop.

While I'm not sure it counts as an Anime, if you like Superhero shows and haven't seen it yet Invincible from Amazon Prime is freaking awesome. If you are still asleep on this show you owe it to yourself to watch it. The first episode starts off pretty standard for a young hero coming of age story but towards the end of the first episode you quickly realize things are not going to go by the numbers.

I realize Clark Kent could go to some random gala as a reporter and Bruce Wayne could show up at a random bowling alley in Gotham to hang out with the plebeians... but why...? Why would you want to role play that?

The person you are presenting yourself as is a lie. The person the other players characters are presenting themselves as is also a lie.

You both ends up talking about meaningless stuff with people you know you're never going to have any real connection too because you're lying to their face and all you can hope to get out of it is a chance to arrange to meet them again to talk about more meaningless stuff while you continue to lie to each other.

Why bother?

@lotherio

I'm not saying that I don't like social RP. I'm saying that many games make social RP difficult by creating themes in which no meaningful interaction can happen because the day-to-day life of your character is just a meaningless mask they wear to relax when not out being a more awesome person.

Take super-heroes for example. Clark Kent only ever talks to people he works with because he has ZERO in common with other people. He has family and 2 groups of work-friends. The JL and the Daily Planet. If he meets some random stranger in the coffee shop there is zero reason to engage with them because they will have no understanding of the two major aspects of his life, one of which is a secret.

Batman is the same. He's got Bat-friends/family and he's got a lose group of practical strangers that like to be seen with the elusive Bruce Wayne in public.
Non-Elite strangers need not apply.

World of Darkness is even worse because you are literally trained ICly to see everyone as a potential enemy who isn't in your click.

Battlestar and Star Trek give you more opportunities for social RP because you forced to be work-friends, like it or not. There are no strangers in those games. There are only people from your job you haven't met yet.

All these setting create systemic isolation. That's what I'm saying. Game designers and people who run games need to be aware of this if they want to address it.

Has anyone mentioned Log Horizon? It's an Isekai where thousands of people are suddenly trapped in an MMO world but instead of their being one overpowered protag everyone is about the same power level and they have to form guilds, build economies, deal with the native kingdoms who are kinda freaking out because the adventurers who usually just take whatever quest they offer are now creating their own kingdom.

It's one of the better anime out there for people who enjoy thinking instead of just watching boobs bounce on the screen.

@lotherio

I didn't think I needed to explain this but here we go...

There is no idea, no cause, no statement or even fact backed by thousands of years of research that everyone agrees on 100%.

We can't even get 100% of humans to agree that the earth is round.
There will always be some chucklefuck that will find something to argue about even the most obvious truths.

When I write, "Everyone thinks X" It means "A great many people" think X is true.
When I write "Games who do X result in Y" it means "Quite often games who do X result in Y"

There are no absolutes. I would have assumed that as adults, everyone here would understand this but that is my fault for assuming the intelligence and maturity of the posters here. I shouldn't have assumed. You have my sincerest apologies.

@derp Yeah, the gun version was kinda lame. They could have just left Kirito out of it all together and it would have been way better.

The Abridged version is better than all of them because it breaks the tropes and makes fun of them. Protaginist-kun is a fucked up mess most of the series. Just absolutely a terrible, broken person instead of the flawless self-insert that the original writer put in.

@solstice

You really sound like you would love Sword Art Online Abridged.
A lot of people never knew about it because it's a fully voiced and edited version of SAO made by fans. It is freaking hilarious.

Youtube SAO abridged playlist here <---

@thebigd

The problem with most RPG settings and coffee shop chatter is that in most games you are keeping secrets. You are secretly the vampire slayer, you are secretly a witch, you are secretly a werewolf or an agent of the technocracy.

Most, but not all, games have a premise which require that you never talk about the thing that consumes most of your adult life with any strangers. On games where everyone is keeping secrets small talk has to be kept to the smallest, most boring stuff possible to protect the hidden truth.

I'm a filthy casual. I wouldn't have picked any of these.
I'll give some of them a try but I'm more of a KonoSuba, Interspecies Reviewers, Sword Art Online (Abridged on youtube) kinda guy.

I finished off Overlord and My Hero Academia but I had to skip a lot of the blahblahblah.
The sheer amount of empty dialog and whining in most anime drives me crazy.

After thought: Trese and Castlevania on Netflix were good. Didn't need to skip for them.

I was forced to sit through the second Space Jam movie with two children.
It was so boring one of them fell asleep some time after the first third of the film.

Please, protect your family. Protect yourself. Don't make my mistake.

@ganymede You are kinda proving my point. Human life in Battletech is all but worthless. You are a pilot. You are functionally a part of your mech. If you die and the mech is salvageable, they just replace you and no one bats an eye. You can murder 20 people a day on the battlefield and no one cares. Murder 1 person in a game set in modern times and you'll be hunted for life.

Advanced technology and a high value on human life together is a good system for the real world because we don't want people dying in the real world, but it makes a boring RPG world.

@squirreltalk
It's always an issue on any game with any kind of combat system. You always end up with people so powerful they can singlehandedly stop any plot they want ICly so people just don't try things because they know it will get them killed.

That's the reason the bad guys are always stronger, more prepared, or more well organized than the good guys in the movies. When the good guys always win people just settle for boring.

Why do you think people hate Superman but like Batman?
Superman makes everything boring.

@coin
It's more modern society+modern technology. Modern values are all about protecting life. In a good game you can't have those values.

Imagine any RPG where the characters weren't allowed to kill monsters or other people because the cops would investigate, track them down and throw them in prison. It would suck.

For a game to be fun, you can have either modern technology or modern morals, but not both.

People cared about human life when Jack the Ripper was killing but they didn't have the tech to catch him.

In Blade Runner and Cyberpunk type settings they have far more advanced technology but the value of life is low so they only investigate the crimes that victimize the "important" people.

You can have the power to stop evil or the will to stop evil, but if your game has both in it, it's going to become boring fast.

I think this is the reason most World Of Darkness and Super-hero games die a slow death.
The older and/or more powerful characters can stop the less powerful ones from doing anything that can cause dramatic tension or kill/capture them the moment they do so there is never any real danger to anyone.