Posts made by Ghost

@Rinel said in Dead Celebrities 2019:

flibertigibbet

@insomniac7809 Dredd is one of the most underrated films, I swear. Fucking crime that it didn't get the franchise treatment.

Man, I am such a Lena Headey fan. She's really brought out the character and is the perfect Cersei.

Another thing.

Every game I've played on that has had coded ships has had one thing in common: It was hard to actually get ships.

Keep this in mind when designing a game with coded ship objects: I perceived that the main reason ships were either so expensive or limited on these games was because staff didn't want a grid covered with orphaned ship objects. Not to bring up Serenity again, but it's a good example. I want to say that there were...maybe 10-15(?) actual coded ships on the grid.

I think there was wisdom behind limiting how many ACTUAL ships are on grid. It forces RP to those ships and controls the RP zones so to speak. If everyone had their own ship, you very well could end up with 30 players, 30 ships, and a lot of isolation.

But Serenity (again) also showed us where this could be a problem.

With a limited number of ships being handed out, there was some favoritism involved in who actually got to captain these ships. As a result, you had a limited number of ships and some ships were very competitive in terms of who got to be a part of the crew. I don't want to use the term clique because the ability to fire a crew member helped keep creepers off of ships, but it also kept new players off of the most exciting crews, too.

So when creating a ship-based system, you have to ponder your philosophy behind IF you're going to limit ships, and IF you're going to limit ships, then HOW do you choose WHO gets the ships and WHAT your expectation of ship-owners is.

Serenity and SW1 are probably the greatest examples to ask people about when it comes to learning how ship ownership and item economy can affect a MU.

Super crunchy games with no experience levels like Shadowrun and Cyberpunk have taught us that inventory/economy bases games are pretty easy to break.

With the right influx of cash, a starting player can have god stats through their equipment. Why bother worrying about their 2d6 stat roll when their equipment enhances it to 5d6, for example.

It definitely is a rabbit hole, and so the balancing of this has to happen if you're allowing items and economy. People need to build these systems with balance in mind.

For Example, again, Serenity.

That game had HSpace, great, but with that came equipment economy, etc. People learned fairly early on that the starter pistols and armor at the vendor were outright garbage. At some point, Mal and Inara started making new weapons and armors by tweaking the stat systems on those items. Those items were then given to their friends. Before long everyone knew that the only way to get equipment that mattered was to join an org that had been supplied by Mal and Inara...only people eventually left those factions to start new ones outside of the Mal/Inara favoritism umbrella.

So...then people outside of the Mal/Inara/Pirate favoritism umbrella then had guns/armor comparable to them. Thus, the arms race escalated. They didn't want people who opposed their PCs to have comparable equipment, so new waves of equipment were created that were better than the last wave, and those weapons were given to their friends.

None of these items were available at vendors, and the price of these items was so astronomical that no player could ever afford these items without direct involvement of these orgs.

So....keep this story in mind if you go the full coded ship, space, equipment route. Things that alter the way the game is played need to be carefully balanced, as well as the economy/availability that purchases those things.

This is ultimately why I think low-object RPG works better for mushes. These complicated economy/item systems are easier to keep an eye on at a tabletop game with 4-7 players, but on a mush with 30+ players there's gonna be a lot of wibbley-wobbley in terms of zeroing in on items.

@Coin said in Space Games and Travel Time? Why? Why Not?:

@Ghost said in Space Games and Travel Time? Why? Why Not?:

@SG said in Space Games and Travel Time? Why? Why Not?:

why not have space adventure games in localized areas where moving from one spot to the other in a RL day isn't some sort of immersion breaking feat?

I personally find "this sector only" to heavily hinder the space sci-fi genre. It's also very hard to justify only remaining in one sector when you're flying around in ships with hyperdrives.

I mean. I manage to play in a small town setting and my character drives around in a car and has access to airplanes. I mean, okay? lol.

Right. Let me be clearer since it appears you wanted to get an "lol" in.

From Star Trek to Buck Rogers to Farscape to Star Wars, the Sci-fi "Space Opera" genre largely dwells in large, galaxy-spanning drama where weird planets, weird cultures, and weird space phenomena are a part of the storytelling. A lot of the genre involves finding weird, new places, and flying a spaceship there to kick ass or seduce a space princess.

There are a few exceptions that have been successful that focus on one solar system. The Expanse is a good example of that.

My point was this. Given that the genre (and in most cases, the setting) involve traveling to and from different star systems, I feel that limiting play to a particular star system somewhat limits the player by slaving them to one setting. Also, these genres also tend to include spaceships capable of traveling from one end of the galaxy to the next, so having a ship that can do that but reasons limiting them to only being in one sector can be limiting to the writer, as well.

Space is about BIG.

Let's take it a step deeper, too.

Systems with coded ship objects that fly from one segment of grid to the next also tend to have other coded objects: guns, armor, etc.

I think some players enjoy the tactile sense of an object that means something, which is why I presume some people prefer systems like HSpace to using temp rooms for space travel.

Objects are an interesting catch-22 when it comes to RPGs. On one hand, object-driven RPGs provide the players/GMs with rewards that can help define what the PC can or cannot do, but on the other side, object-driven RPGs very easily become more about having stuff. On mushes (like we saw on Serenity), it can quickly become about hoarding stuff, resulting in only a few certain groups having the best stuff, which turned into an OOC mess.

Anyway, so I have this inkling feeling that the argument for or against a space coded system runs deeper than simply having a ship. I suspect people that want coded ship objects also want coded weapon, armor, etc objects. So if I'm right, this has less to do about the desire for coded space flight, but the desire to move away from light systems in favor of something crunchier and more technical.

I can't deny, there's something definitely rewarding about having objects.

@SG said in Space Games and Travel Time? Why? Why Not?:

why not have space adventure games in localized areas where moving from one spot to the other in a RL day isn't some sort of immersion breaking feat?

I personally find "this sector only" to heavily hinder the space sci-fi genre. It's also very hard to justify only remaining in one sector when you're flying around in ships with hyperdrives.

God, I bet the wiz/admin level access to that database is fascinating and probably contains over a decade worth of stuff.

Because there's probably more than a few things the DB collected, I'd recommend a nuke and pave. It would get rid of dirty data if there is any. I also recommend spinning up a new canon with new characters. The dinosaur players might hate being barred from returning as their 50,000xp characters, but it is usually the best way to ensure the new run is just that: new

@Ganymede THATS WHAT I KEEP TELLIN EM! but noooOoooOooOooOoOoOoo they just keep blathering on.

I got a Habs fan on one side of my office and a Bruins fan upstairs. Both are from Quebec and Boston. Local love. Glad to see they get along so well.

@silverfox Hahaha hell no. Root for your Avs. Best of luck to them.

I will straight up fight a Red Wings fan. I get so sick of their smarmy lot piling in at my Coyotes home games, yelling and laughing at Coyotes fans about "You're welcome for the ticket revenue" even after getting beat.

Bertuzzi? Holmstrom? Red Wings fans saying stuff like "you just hate us because we're the best hockey franchise in history"?

@Ganymede So, the Gretzky bitch.

The great one was part of the effort to rush the team into a bankruptcy sale without NHL approval. They may have kept the Coyotes in Phoenix, but kind of like that movie Major League, they kinda ran the team into the ground for a sale.

2nd bitch. Gretzky was a horrible coach. I have friends who were with the Coyotes organization during his coaching tenure. I have it on very good authority that Gretzky was flying back and forth from Los Angeles to Phoenix, and it was Rick Tocchet who was actually coached the team, but that didn't stop Gretzky from showing up at the games and then yelling at the team for losing.

Now Tocchet is coaching officially.

Zombie-wise, anyone pick up World War Z? I hear it's the new Left4Dead, and since fuckin Valve is dodging the zombie cash cow and not releasing L4D3...I've been reading reviews and considering.

@Lotherio I think it's crazy that the Flames didn't get past the Avalanche.

Like I said before, I don't have any dogs in the fight, but here are my preferred Cup hoisters:

• St. Louis - Been a while since they've seen the finals and never won a cup. Go for it. I'm also a kid from Nebraska (which has no pro teams so we borrow a lot of fandom from Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Minnesota. So the Blues are a quasi-home team pick)

• The Sharks - Hey, remember that time the Sharks went to the playoffs over and over again for decades after strong as Hell seasons, but fizzled in the playoffs? Yeah, that's pretty much every playoffs since 1993. Close the deal already, guys

• The Islanders - I root for these guys in the same way I root for the New York Jets. They're an American Apple Pie team that's been out of the big show and hasn't been feared in so long that I love to see them do well.

• The Stars - My favorite player, Vern Fiddler (#38 baby, the Coyotes were crazy to not hang on to him. Yeah, my Yotes jersey isn't Doan or Briere or Tkachuk or Roenick or Gartner or Khabibulin or Numminen or Tversovsky or any of the other badass players. It's Fiddler.), isn't on a line with them anymore. He retired, but is coaching, and I wanna see him be a part of the cup.

So I guess I do have a dog in the fight, now that I think of it. Go Fiddler (not allowed to say Go Stars because of the Coyotes/Dallas rivalry).

@Lotherio Yeah I like the Oilers. Theyre one of those teams I'm always hoping to see had a good season. I kinda fell in love with them during that 2005/2006 playoff run where they went in 8th, beat the 1st ranked Red Wings, and took it all the way to the finals. Roloson had a great year that year.

I dont want to even speculate how you feel about the Oilers having not one but two allegedly game changing draft picks (Nugent-Hopkins and McDavid) and have only made the playoffs once recently. That would drive me insane. I'm a Yotes fan. I know. My team is in the same boat

@Ganymede hahaha yaaaas...ive gone back to YouTube a few times and don't have the heart to tell them that I didnt see a kick.

As a Yotes fan my major bitches are Gretzky, how they fucking sold Dubnyk to the Wild for draft picks to keep playing Smitty, and the absolute garbage referee work during a few select playoff series against the Red Wings.

I dont even care that Holmstrom and Bertuzzi amd Babcock arent a part of Detroit anymore. Fuck those guys. Bertuzzi should have never been allowed back on NHL affiliated ice, and I was getting pretty tired of watching Holmstrom shove people who didnt have the puck off of their ice. Fuuuuck there was one instance where Holmstrom grabbed the back of Adrian Aucoin's sweater from behind, pulled them both to the ice, and AUCOIN got a 5min for Holding.

Fuckin hockey sometimes, right?

@Ganymede The Golden Knights were due a "we got fucked" complaint. Two of my best friends are from Buffalo (and by rote Sabres fans) and they're still bitching about that Bret Hull kick goal.

@Ganymede Congrats!!!!!

Also, if I were a Changeling that fed on sadness, this weekend would be like the Super Bowl. I have a feeling Game of Thrones and Avengers are gonna be tear jerkers.

SO DONT LET THAT SPOIL YOUR VICTORY

@Ganymede Hey, it's not my complaint. I get that hockey is mostly piss and vinegar and bad calls are a part of it. I don't have a dog in the playoffs right now. Yotes and Flyers aren't present.

I'm referring to This 5 minute major drama in which the Knights are saying handed game 7 to the Sharks