Best posts made by Ghost

^^^

The difficulty with metaplot is in investment. It's easy to write something you want every character on grid to care about (the writer is invested), but harder to make others care about it.

IMO metaplot works better in settings where the setting itself is metaplot (Battlestar/PostApocalypse) or metaplot in segments (this affects the vampires only, or the Rebel Alliance and Empire only).

I think it's fair to say that not every player is there to RP outside of their preferred bubble. Some just want to sandbox with one player, or RP with a small group of friends, or only with things central to their character. I don't think these players should discourage others from creating metaplot, but it should be noted that when this happens, these players aren't always playing the same game that everyone else is playing; they're technically using the game's server to play something else.

@Wretched said in General Video Game Thread:

@Auspice I have had similar feelings. But the no Pre order rule is in effect... so far.

I have a strong feeling that this game is gonna be safe to pre-order. CD Projekt Red delivers.

Post-apocalyptic setting (more wild west than Mad Max) where vampires and other monsters cause all sorts of horrible shit to go down. Bounty Hunters are a huge part of the setting, and D is a rare half-vampire who works as a bounty hunter.

@Sunny @Arkandel True, I mean even with commitments/pledges there would be no guarantees. Mush interest can be a fickle beast per person as there are plenty of other factors (with varying degrees of importance per individual):

• Who is making the game?
• Who is staffing?
• Is <name of person they don't like> playing/staffing?
• Other stuff.

It's just an idea off of the top of my head, but perhaps I'm thinking in very simple terms. Just a simple: "Hey, I'm making a FARSCAPE game! If I code it using X system and you feel good about who is on staff, are you willing to come give it an honest try?"

I figure if it's 2 yes and 25 no then...go fish? Just simple interest pre-polling but with a slight emphasis on "pre-order".

@mietze Man, I remember this time I was on FC and there was a metaplot, it kind of went like this:

1. Metaplot is announced and asks for players to mail requesting involvement.
2. I send mail.
3. 3 days later I get added to a mailing list and it looked (dramatization) like this:

"Hi, this is <insert name of overbearing player character> and I've been asked to coordinate the investigation plot with the players! I want to send out feelers about who wants to involve involve themselves and how, but first let's update everyone on the current status of what's been done so far!"

• MY character has:*
• Done all of the computer investigation
• Arranged to personally handle all of the lab work
• Has gone to the scene of the crime and done all of the intelligence gathering
• Questioned all 5 witnesses
• Arranged 1on1 meetings with all 3 suspects
• Has a bow and arrow that rolls 45 dice and does an auto 300 agg damage and have already pre-rolled 3,000,000 successes to make sure my PC goes first when the inevitable combat happens

...what would YOU like to do?

THIS^^^^* is also a big reason metaplot fails on MUs. Because there are always super eager beavers who want to do all the things, list out everything they want to do without sharing the investigation, and/or try to funnel the metaplot towards their character in a way that doesn't involve sharing.

In fact, I can vaguely remember mails from players saying things akin to: My character doesnt communicate well with other characters. I want to be involved but to be involved I need you to give me things that he can do alone, one on one, with staff STs

Constructive Suggestion: Keep control of how much one PC can do in a time period. I don't care if you have to have signups for X segment of the plot requiring Y number of players. Treat it like a signup for a potluck if need be, but control the likelihood that one player will overrun everyone else's fun.

@Admiral There was controversy about an in-game ad featuring a trans model, so now the character creation for CP2077 is under the microscope as to whether or not they'll allow trans characters, which signs currently point to yes/maybeYes

@Miss-Demeanor said:

I'm gonna flat out call false advertising. 'Make whatever Star Wars character you want from your wildest imaginings! ... except anything that might fall under the label of Jedi or Sith. So, y'know.. the two major factions from the Star Wars universe that everyone wants to be part of. So basically, its Lords & Ladies in Space. Pass.

Pass agreed.

I spent 2+ years on a Star Wars MU* hoping for a force slot to come into my hands. After seeing 3-4 go to staff buddies, I realized holy fuck, I just spent 2+ years roleplaying as my SECOND choice in hope of being able to play my first choice.. Never again. I'm gonna be allowed to play what I want, or I'm passing.

FYI.

There have been previous attempts at using M&M (at the time it was 2ed) for mushes, as well as the newer Margaret Weis MSHRPG system on superhero mushes. Both had issues maintaining a playerbase because the majority of superhero mushers are either used to (or prefer) the diceless/freeform "stat description" system.

While I love M&M and MSHRPG, you may want to poll or get an idea who would step across that picket line for an OC-only game. In my experience you may have high interest in the game idea, but choice of dice system or its complexity could hinder that.

@mietze Oh delegation is fine, I was more referring to the "I've picked the list clean of everything I've wanted to do myself, and everything else you guys can do for yourselves"

If you allow one person to BusyBeaver their way into doing all of the fun stuff alone and leave tablescraps for everyone else, it will happen.

@Tempest said in General Video Game Thread:

Please don't fuck up Red XIII

If they fuck up Red XIII, you will have my axe.

I will join you on this quest to Japan to fuck a brother up. I would literally swear fealty to Red.

@Cirno This is the best question since "Does soap get dirty?"

You're making me think at 06:15. I hate you.

I just thought of a Marvel-themed game set in Mega City One from Dredd. This thought made me very happy.

Gangs of mutants and Avengers-themed judges fighting it out across one or two massive 2000+ foot tall "blocks" consisting of about 75,000 citizens, each contained with their own gangs, drugs, shopping malls, tattoo shops, people being thrown off the roof, etc. Quicksilver getting dosed with Slo-Mo....

Na-Na-nananana-nerd bonerrrrr

• Tokyo Ghoul
• Robotech
• Aliens: Colonial Marines
• Orville
• GI Joe
• Solid: The 1970s Blaxploitation RPG
• BPRD
• A semi-original kung fu setting

@egg said in General Video Game Thread:

@Ghost Real fans call him Nanaki.

ohhhhhhhhmotherfuckerdidyoujust???

lol

I did find a d20 Saga Edition MU* once, but every time I logged in, I watched the owner/staffer talk on pubChan about how stupid most of his players were. I had a Jedi there for all of 2 login sessions after approval. I'm not gonna stick around a place where the headwiz has so little respect for his players. He used to brag about how much money he had and not having to work; it was like roleplaying with PharmaBro.

But yes, I would like to see someone make a Star Wars MU* that allows people to play where their interests lie, rather than turn force sensitive into earning a spot at the COOL KIDS table.

Actually, the more I think about it the more I like this idea:

The Xavier Institute is now X-Club: A YMCA styled youth outreach/powers control program/orphanage that has control of floors 155 and 156 of "Medford Gardens", which was once intended to be a luxury arcology but turned into a projects/sprawl filled with drugs and gun running.

When there is trouble, Judge Barton and Judge Danvers are sent to serve the public interest...

@bobotron said in POLL: Super Hero MU Gut Check:

Has anyone else here read Marvel Heroic from Margaret Weiss Productions? There are things you could totally mine from tat, since it uses a variant of the Cortex System.

I printed one of the character stat sheets to a PDF, located here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5ugmtzt9mra45ss/MHR - Cyclops.pdf?dl=0

You could adapt something like that, since it's already using descriptive traits. It does two things, I find, really well...

• Plot Points: These are gained from you, as a player, doing something to gimp yourself. Cyclops' example shuts down his optic blast (typically by his visor getting yanked), and he gains a PP. Or you can roll your distinctions (which are descriptives for yourself) as a d4 (this giving you less of a chance at success) for a PP. You could, theoretically, limit how many PP someone can have at a given time.

Otherwise, the system is pretty simple: make a die pool of trait/distinction/powers/etc. and roll, and the DM has what's called the Doom Pool, which is dice representing the enemies/environment.

Remove the 'making stuff on the fly to affect the scene' aspect of it, and you have a pretty solid way to mechanize the traits system

I'm a fan of that system for herostuffs. I don't have the time/knowledge to code it, but if someone were to take on the effort, I'd join the project to help design it.

@Sparks said in General Video Game Thread:

ducks DUCKTALES and runs for her life

Fixed it

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."