A few other successful, or possible, smaller-focus settings:
There have been Transformers games for a while now. I haven't played them personally, but there always seems to be one hanging around, which I feel may also be a point in favor of tighter focus; smaller scope.
@Tempest said in POLL: Super Hero MU Gut Check:
Straying further away from the preference discussion....I feel like it's worth repeating that X-Sphere in particular has a number of advantages that I'm not sure any other Comic sphere would have.
Agreed. Xavier vs Magneto isn't a story of good versus evil but a philosophical entry in the discussion about civil rights.
Don't give up hope on humanity versus We aren't going to wait to be placed into chains
Concepts of good and evil can be found in both the Brotherhood and the X-Men, and while each have a default setting closer to good or evil, what matters is the point of view.
Is Magneto evil for working alongside Sabretooth who is willing to take human lives...but the Brotherhood would be willing to destroy half of Manhattan to save a mutant life?
It's a great setting. Everybody matters so long as they have an X-gene. They are all at stake.
That's a prime example of what I envision a YES concept game to be.
No PCs in the Avengers, DC, Spawn, Asgardians, etc because the focus of the story is mutant civil rights
Sure, the Avengers may show up as NPCs come mutant registration day...but its just an example my brain came up with as to what might work better.
@Tempest said in POLL: Super Hero MU Gut Check:
More post rawr.
I think a mutant-specific game would be awesome. You'd have Xavier's and the Brotherhood as options for PCs, with the possibility of inter-PC conflict, and still plenty of room for staff antagonists and even reasons for the two groups to work together vs the various anti-mutie crowds. Also the anti-mutant stuff would have more 'teeth' I think, without Iron Man/etc hanging around.
I also think I'd die of cancer from the hordes of teenage mutant OCs.
But hey, life has its ups and downs.
This is one of the concepts I've carried with me for a while. It's a simple setup.
Two factions of PCs
XAVIER'S
BROTHERHOOD
PCs could select from a roster and place whichever thematic Mutant (and only x-gene mutants) wherever they please so long as they come in with an interest in mutant civil rights.
They can fight each other, ally, switch sides, have drama as much they want, especially when staff throw the following into the mix of the mutant civil rights drama:
So, 2 factions, plenty of goodies to throw at mutants, and the central theme being the trials and tribulations of Xavier and Magneto's philosophical differences.
As a counterpoint, I've seen focused games like BSG games have some really great success with only one/two factions, one setting, and more plot and story to keep people roleplaying together rather than in groups separated by differences in power levels or (in some cases) galaxies apart.
But lets focus for right now on preference. Whether or not it would work we could save for later. Which is preferred?
MUs live and die based on interest and are a lot like advertising TV shows. Some hit it off, some fail despite having similar qualities to other successful games. It's a crapshoot, but polling for interest is important.
Once you know what is desired, you can try to work on an option that would make it work.
I'm excited to let this poll roll and see how it ends up.
@Tempest Which could potentially be an issue, but IMO this YES idea would likely limit players to 1 (maybe 2) FC to avoid one player eating up all of the FCs and then sitting on them, with an option for an additional OC or two.
Just an idea.
In the Gotham setting alone I could conceptualize over 30-40 FC playable characters.
@icanbeyourmuse Yeah, the idea for YES is that the game would still allow Feature Characters (and/or Original characters) to be selected from a roster, but for that roster to have a scope that is more focused for the setting, which would allow staff to better shape the game environment with plot and group cohesion.
Using Gotham as an example, the roster might contain the entire Bat family, Birds of Prey, Red Hood, etc anything that would be conducive for a GOTHAM environment...
...at the expense of NO Marvel, No Justice League, No Atlanteans, No Wonder Woman, No Teen Titans etc unless the characters from those groups would fit in with the rest of Gotham.
So, in theory, NO to Superman, YES to Constantine, NO to Aquaman, YES to Arsenal, NO to Captain America (not DC), and YES to Green Arrow
And then staff/TP/PrPs could throw the Joker, Solomon Grundy, Killer Croc, Clayface, etc at the PCs as part of the ongoing Gotham soap opera.
I would also like to note that I'm not looking to start up a YES option SuperMU.
I have this theory that the large MarvelDCImageDarkHorseEVERYTHING games, while fun and have a bazillion options, suffer from being too wide in scope. That when 2 people who want to play Avengers, 2 who want to play X men, 2 who want to play Justice League, and 5 OCs that don't really fit into any of those groups get together, it's not only hard to click, but for staff to direct a game that caters to their player base.
A few of my friends say "No this smaller scope idea would fail due to no one wanting to ONLY play off a limited roster" and others have said "This might be the answer."
So this is me polling to get an idea as to how my theory, just in theory alone, would be approached by the MU community.
Quick poll question for my own curiosity/theory/purposes
It is my opinion that large, cattle-call superhero MUs fail because there are too many options to enable a cohesive environment. That, ultimately, too many options leads to difficulties with plottage, clique factions, characters that don't fit with the setting, etc.
HERE IS THE YES/NO QUESTION
Would you prefer a more limited roster superhero game with more focus over the massive net of Multiverse-type games?
Examples include:
There's plenty of ways this can be done, these are just examples. The examples aren't the point.
YES means "I would prefer a more limited roster, more focused setting hero MU" or this sounds like a great idea.
NO means "I prefer Super games that incorporate large rosters, either within one or more comic book universe, and across multiple teams within those universes, or I wouldn't be willing to try a smaller roster setting.
I DONT HAVE INTEREST... is the option for people who dont care about super hero MUs so that their no votes don't pollute the polling pool.
@ThatOneDude Swinging around as Spider-Man is sooooo satisfying, too
@Lithium if you die in HC mode during the season, do you lose everything or can you still xfer gear after the season?
Hooray for new Diablo 3 season!
Hooray for addition of Nighrcrawler to the Marvel Omega PS4 roster and them giving him to me for free for being a VIP member!
Hooray Red Stripe
Hooray for beer.
I just witnessed a conversation about the best way to go about being conscientious in regards to the gender identity of your housepets
That conversation and the fidget stick are currently neck and neck for the shit that has perplexed me this week award.
@Thenomain I getcha. It's a minor peeve of mine, too. If the people who wanted an exact retelling of the book or comic book wanted an exact retelling, then why not read those again? An exact retelling wouldn't make sense, and it's not something worth getting nearly as upset as some of these people do about it.
In some cases, an exact retelling might actually be boring.
@Thenomain Well, when it comes to Game of Thrones, pretty soon here all of the detail will be from the TV series and the book series will contain all of the lesser information.
@Auspice I'm not too proud to admit that the rose petals and pictures of Van Damme were involved in some weirdness behind closed doors. >.>
@surreality She's one of my favorite things ever.
A few weeks ago we had a weekend best described as: "Drunk on whiskey, hanging out in the hot tub, and playing Diablo 3 in our underwear"
A great thing happened to me RL yesterday.
I was in my room getting changed out of work clothes and into comfy after-work clothes. My SO walked in and said:
"Hey, I just threw a pizza in the oven. Think we can get the job done in under 15 minutes?"
loinfight then pizza for the win.
@Bobotron said in Vampire 5E Playtest:
@Arkandel
We don't know. The playtest is literally 'here's all the Hunger mechanics, here is te combat rules, here's some Disciplines up to 3, go to town'. Generation is in there but as a tacked on 'this will probably break shit' mechanic. APparently we'll have a much better and more thorough full Alpha, not pre-Alpha, release after Gencon.
@Arkandel what Bobotron said.
We're talking PRE-Alpha, so the packet is bare bones, just enough to get a little bit of play in, but lacks the broader spectrum.
For now here's what we kind of know (subject to alpha/beta/live change)
If I had to put my money on it, I'd say they might be going with a second inquisition concept where the sects have more reason to remain secret and underground, with less comforts, such as the territories are becoming harder to control.