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    Posts made by friarzen

    • RE: Thoughts on Gumshoe for MU*?

      So I read through the SRD's PDF over this weekend and ran some simulations to get more familiar with it all.
      It turns out to be a sort of fill-in-the-blank document for creating your own game, with mashups of the various Gumshoe-derived rulesets as some examples (especially TimeWatch and Esoterrorists). So, the intent is to be very hackable, but that does mean nothing is really fully standardized, some assembly required, etc.

      It is definitely a narrative-focused ruleset, but it does have a couple of odd, overly-complex details here and there that I will probably just defenestrate. And it has a couple of large omissions, such as Players-as-magic-users or Player cybernetics, that are just entirely left as an exercise for the reader to build themselves (there may be setting-specific rules in the non-free/PRD supplements, but nothing hinted at so far).

      So all told, for Section 14, I will probably have to write my own setting-specific rules or choose something else.

      posted in Game Development
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    • Thoughts on Gumshoe for MU*?

      Has anyone run a MU* based on Gumshoe? So far, I'm considering some hacks/variants of it like "The Fall of Delta Green" and "Night's Black Agents" for the RPG basis of Section 14. It has an online free PDF/SRD available for the base rules, too, which is what is making me lean more towards it than other systems I've been researching. Anyway, thoughts?

      posted in Game Development
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    • RE: Section 14 - Discussion

      I don't trust my ability/time to run a quality, full-blown RvR game, so, while other factions do exist, they will all be non-playable in favor of a cooperative game. It might be something that gets revisited in the distant future, but not any time soon.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
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    • RE: What Types of Games Would People Like To See?

      @Ominous Both of those are on my list of considerations, actually, as are CthulhuTech.

      posted in Game Development
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    • RE: Section 14 - Discussion

      @Rinel Section 14 investigators were unable to discover which hostile Entity or Entities provided Mr Lovecraft with the funding and materiel he used to create his original works. But, working swiftly, the Agents on-site succeeded in a surprisingly beneficial operation which swapped his originals with inoculated, sanitized copies. These copies gained notoriety and spread farther and wider than expected. Section 14 then discovered an added side-effect: desensitizing the general populace to such topics increased the success rate of the Agent indoctrination procedures. Since then, many suitably sanitized disinformation campaigns (so as not to fall afoul of Protocol 3's Operational Security mandates) have been devised to assist in the gradual reeducation of the public. Without confirming, nor denying, Secure, Contain, and Protect's Foundational guidelines are a perfect example.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
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    • RE: Section 14 Teaser

      As stated in another thread, this will be a smaller scale (maybe growing with time) Modern Day Paranormal Covert Operations type game inspired by The Secret World, the Laundry Files book series, and the Netflix Travelers show. The game will likely include disturbing topics such as torture or human sacrifice and be fairly "dark" most of the time.

      Players will take on the role of Agents that have (most often) been conscripted into working for Section 14 as investigators, troubleshooters, or cannon fodder that are sent to counter the horrors behind the curtain of the mundane. At the beginning of each mission, Agents' souls are injected into available Hosts (mundane humans that are near the mission objective and have a high probability of imminent death due to some magically alterable medical condition, accident or other trauma). Transfers are never wholly complete, however, so, much of the physical and mental capabilities available to the Agent for that mission will depend on the selected Host. In the event a Host dies while possessed by an Agent's Ghost, the remnants of the Agent's Soul will be collected and returned to Assets at Headquarters for debriefing. Please make sure your next-of-kin beneficiary documents are on-file and up to date before being selected for any field operations.

      Players will be able to choose either a newly indoctrinated Ghost (This is probably not the Afterlife you were looking for) or can app in as a veteran once a decent backstory is worked out and you will be granted a pool of xp debt with which to create a suitable Agent (every odd future XP is then spent to repay the debt).

      I am most familiar with Evennia so I will most likely be starting with that as my base, but I have not yet selected a gaming system to run with. I am expecting this to start out as more of a "Weekly TableTop" feel and expand as my Lead Storyteller skills grow and the playerbase becomes more comfortable/knowledgeable of the custom lore.

      posted in Adver-tis-ments
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    • Section 14 Teaser

      ....
      ....
      Anomaly Detected...
      Estimated Coordinates: 40.738730, -73.987413, -20 Meters.
      Prognostication Engine: On-Line
      Estimated Time Till Incursion: 17 hours 2 minutes
      Estimated Resolution Assets Required: 6
      Resolution Assets Available: Insufficient
      ....
      Contingency Asset Subsystem: On-Line
      .
      ..
      ...
      Soul Acquired...
      Formatting:
      .
      ..
      ...
      Implanting Geas:
      .
      ..
      ...
      Asset Indoctrination Commencing:
      ...Protocol1: Implanted
      ...Protocol2: Implanted
      ...Protocol3: Implanted
      ...WelcomeToSection14: Implanted
      Asset Acquisition Complete: Resuming Resolution
      ...
      Resolution Target Hosts Required: 6
      Downloading Resolution Assests to Hosts
      .
      ..
      ...
      ....Target Host lost...
      Verifying Resolution Asset...Ghost Soul Recovery Complete.
      Alternate Target Host Acquired...Resuming Resolution Asset Downloads...
      ....
      .....
      ......
      Download Complete...
      Physical Assets onsite...
      Estimated Time Till Incursion: 14 hours 53 minutes
      ....

      You wake to full consciousness in your new Host...crap...a drug addict with the needle already prepped...
      The extreme probability of an overdose would be an easy way out of the next 14 hours...if only Protocol 1 would let you...

      posted in Adver-tis-ments
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    • RE: What Types of Games Would People Like To See?

      @Sparks Well, I only played the Secret World enough to know I didn't like it as a game, and for this, the scope is just too big for me to deal with, but, I guess I can post a teaser over in the Advertisements of what I have in mind and you can tell me if that'll work...

      posted in Game Development
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    • RE: OOC Knowledge Levels Question

      I really like the idea of being able to read all of the events, but I also LOVE the feeling of the reveal. So my question is "has anyone tried an automated delay in posting...i.e. everything that gets posted totally publicly is 3 weeks-ish out of date?" Enough time for the rumor mill to expose most of it by default anyway.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
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    • RE: What Types of Games Would People Like To See?

      Since this thread has lots of good ideas and has vaguely branched out into @mietze's topic of game size, I keep being captivated by the idea to run an inspired-by "The Secret World" / Laundry Files / Netflix Travellers style of game, but since I'm far more familiar with MUDs and TableTop GMing compared to MUSHes, I'm curious if anyone has a "Newbie Storytellers Guide to running a MUSH". (not the technical aspects, I can do those in my sleep, but...hmm...the soft skills parts, I guess).

      posted in Game Development
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    • RE: The litRPG thread

      Wow, that page seems really misleading to me. I'd say the core trope in litRPG is that the world the main characters exist in, for what ever reason, forces RPG tropes onto them. Imagine your favorite character from your favorite series gets a Warcraft Ding whenever some unseen experience bar fills up and they are then visually/mentally presented with character development choices.

      It isn't about the experience of the reader "watching someone play a video game", it is about the character experiencing life like an RPG. It is weird, but just another trope, whether their story is interesting or not is still a matter of how good the author and editor are.

      posted in Tastes Less Game'y
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    • RE: The litRPG thread

      My long time TT gaming buddy hooked me a couple of months ago. We've described the genre as kind of the Harlequin Romance of Fantasy/SciFi. Quickly published, lightly edited and pretty formulaic, but...still enjoyable. He started me out with the "Delvers LLC, by Blaise Corbin" as the first-hit's-free sample. Most of these books are all found on Kindle Unlimited (and/or a Facebook group that is dedicated to the litRPG community).

      There is also now a splinter sub-genre called DungeonLit or DungeonCore, where the protagonist IS a dungeon. My daughter has been hooked on these enough that I've actually been working on switching my Rogue-like MU* over to being a asymetric-PVP between player-as-adventurers and players-as-dungeons (since I was already building the game to be PVE adventurers-vrs-AI-dungeons, this is just allowing the players to also control their own dungeon territory).

      I will warn that there does seem to be a heavy, juvenile tendency towards anime-esque Harems-surrounding-the-MC, so be just prepared.

      posted in Tastes Less Game'y
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    • RE: What Types of Games Would People Like To See?

      @Sparks Oh wow, ok, the SJGames angle definitely complicates things. So it would be an "inspired by" game and not directly use the FCs. "The Baron" is pretty generic and maybe the Dynamo Boyz, Dynamo Castle and the Lady Dyne, if the references were ever needed.

      @auspice As for everyone wanting to play one of the Dynamo clan, I think that could be avoided by making it more a choice between playing a Spark and playing a Minion (like Jaegers or Amazons or Mist Knights). I'm guessing most people would want to play a Spark, but there should be enough differences that Minions are also perfectly viable. I could see Sparks having a "Madness" rating that ticks up as they use their powers until they are then required to do something Grand/Insane. Whereas Minions would get bonuses to being experimented upon and bonuses to healing and such.

      posted in Game Development
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    • RE: What Types of Games Would People Like To See?

      @Sparks heh, I'm about half-way through Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka so this idea is ... creepily timely? ...

      On an semi-related note, has anyone ever created a Girl Genius inspired game (does anyone know if Studio Foglio has an official position on such works?)

      posted in Game Development
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    • RE: Things I've Learned Running Horror Mu

      Hmm...this post is a very nice congealing of many of the design issues I've been wrestling with while building my personal passion project (which isn't very MUSH-like, it is more RPE-MUD-esque). I've never felt the urge to play HorrorMU because I'm much more addicted to High Fantasy/Sci-Fi and am generally turned off by horror/slashers as a genre, but I am definitely interested in how to...bend?... a traditional game into something more like this approach. Some ways that come to mind:

      All of the characters are experiencing a series of mutual dream worlds where "the game" takes place, including some where the world cuts/changes into totally new roles/storylines.

      The characters are souls that skip into new bodies/dimensions every so often (Sliders TV show as game mechanic).

      Some "Great Magic/Aliens" in the world alters the game/characters periodically, some of how everything used to work translates to the new world, but alot doesn't....

      Thanks for the ideas.

      posted in Mildly Constructive
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    • RE: What Types of Games Would People Like To See?

      @Arkandel said in What Types of Games Would People Like To See?:

      @Ghost Like there is a ton of potential game-runners/coders able and willing to take input from the masses about where they should invest their time? 😛

      I kid - mostly.

      Hmm...I am a MUSHing neophyte, but a very experienced coder/sysadmin and world builder. After giving a few of the bigger MUSHes a try, I've decided the best way for me to really get involved is to help build somebody else's. I don't have the required experience staffing/running a game, though, so I don't have the rep/chops to do both. This thread is good, in that it does help...

      A Sunrunner game is a really interesting idea, but I'd have to go back and re-read the source novels...it's been...30 years? since I read the first trilogy.

      posted in Game Development
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    • RE: Coming Summer 2019

      @Auspice Ok, thanks. I figured it was worth checking in on, just in case.

      posted in Adver-tis-ments
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    • RE: Coming Summer 2019

      What is this going to be coded in? I'm starting to feel the best way I can participate is to help code and this would be a perfect project for it I think (I even mentioned doing a Stargate Universe based game in another thread, but it didn't get nearly this level of response).

      posted in Adver-tis-ments
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    • RE: Space Games and Travel Time? Why? Why Not?

      @Sparks That sounds like a great game, really. I'm saddened to hear it never opened. An SG:U game has the advantage that with just one season, most of the overall mystery is still intact, so the game staff could take it in whatever direction they felt like. I have the skills to code it in Evennia, but yeah, I wouldn't be able to run the game day-to-day.

      posted in MU Questions & Requests
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    • RE: Space Games and Travel Time? Why? Why Not?

      Huh, I'm surprised to realize how good a setting like Stargate Universe is for this. A single "giant" ship as "game/grid hub" that moves through different star-systems-of-the-week, shuttles for any space-sim minigames wanted, and stargates for instant travel whenever the plot needs it.

      posted in MU Questions & Requests
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