Best posts made by ixokai

@zombiegenesis said in Potential Buffy Game:

@ixokai My understanding, and I could be wrong, is that any potential slayer born post-Willow's spell would be active. So anyone born after the show went off the air would become a Slayer at some point (age 12 or 13?) So there could have been new slayers popping up from the end of the show till now meaning slayer ages could range from 12 - 38 or so? Again, unless I'm misunderstanding how the spell worked? And even then we could always house rule it I suppose.

Oh no, in fact, that's a big deal. You could always decide to HR that away, but I LIKE that about the post-Buffy season, it creates a sorta tension: the Slayers need to WIN before its too late. Otherwise a post-Buffy world is almost too easy. There's slayers everywhere.

The spell with the scythe tapped into the well of power the Shadow Men created that was supposed to forever empower Slayers. (That well of power was a big ass demon's soul/power/whatever). There's a lot of power in that well, because hell, Slayers don't have long half-lives. It popped off the handle and poured pour into everyone.

Every Potential who was alive at the time was activated.

So now there's a lot of slayers! Yay!

Except the pool of power that makes Slayers is now empty. It'll take centuries to replenish.

So once all these Slayers are dead there won't be any more. omnious voice

I've been buying all my rpg books off DriveThruRPG for awhile now. Then again, I buy all my regular books off Amazon or iBooks too.

I have fully embraced the tablet as what it is I read from.

@ixokai said:

I'm not sure about the setting-- its incredibly bleak, (at least, in Changeling) more so even then the wiki and news describes. I fear that this will become a thing that kills fun as time goes on, instead of something that encourages stories. But I don't know, we'll see. I'm a little bit worried, I admit.

Just in case someone's reading this: This is certainly a thing that is both fixable and meant to be fixed. Its a challenge. I got to take part in a SRP over the last couple days that made a significant milestone.. It was run well, there were some challenges there and it was resolved with a combination of some hints that were earned previously and player innovation, including one player (not me) coming up with a completely novel approach to the situation that took some on the fly ST judgement.

Also I got to say "premature bunkulation" in character which was fun.

So: The setting is grim right now, but its a WIP, and it no longer concerns me as much. I don't think the bleakness will go easy, but I also don't think it'll be this mountain we chip away at for a long time. Only the first couple steps towards the fixing have been done, but it feels like a less desolated world is on the horizon.

@secretfire said in Potential Buffy Game:

Pittsburgh, the City of Bridges as a "City of Bridges" (to other dimensions) is a wonderful idea. Its a city that mixes the ultra-modern high-tech with urban decay and absurdly old architecture. 400-year old coal mines underneath entire sections of the city, plenty of buildings (--plenty--) from the 18th century still very common - thats a decent idea.

Yeah I looked long and hard in picking it, its a great city.

But the thing that kills mushing is the extreme OCD; the 'I want to play the exact character with minor variations on every mush, in this ONE THEME, that I've done for XXX years and refuse to vary on'. Guess what? I'm sure Mexico has teens and young adults struggling with themselves, too! (And vampires!) Hell, I bet Dublin, Ireland, Johannesburgh, South Africa, and Paris... ....all have vampires! Its sad to watch the hobby decay from a writing pasttime into an OCD-outlet pasttime.

I don't think this is at all the reason why you don't see games in settings like that. Its that most of us int his hobby are American and we suck at representing other cultures well at all. Every non-American based mush i've ever been on (and back in the day there weren't completely uncommon) basically sucked because everyone was American in it or did no effort in portraying themselves as anything non-American. They all sucked as a result.

That being said, I think the Pittsburgh idea is a good one.

I have a fully built (built! Not per se descd, though some is) and +map'd out Pittsburgh grid (note: rhost) I could donate if its liked.

I agree with the idea that not bothering with spaceships is a good idea; a lot of the theme of Eclipse Phase is about how big space is. Its a setting in space but its not really a setting about space travel.

I was at one time thinking of making an EP game, but got overwhelmed by the setting choices. So much of how the game plays out rests on where in the solar system the game is taking place. In plots, people can egocast around and end up in any of the zones temporarily, but where you set your basecamp sort of defines a lot about the setting for your character.

And they're all so cool.

@Ghost said in Star Wars: Insurgency:

One thing I think this game has going for it is the FATE system. You're right, @ixokai , in FATE these things need to be BOUGHT, which presents an interesting concept that doesn't exist in some other systems. To have that kind of authority, or riches, or benefit, it needs to be bought, which balances out the character sheets in a way most systems aren't used to.

The major question, though, is are the character sheets of FCs such as Darth Vader going to have additional purchases so that the character FITS the FC version?

In short, no.

In long, we've chosen to put everyone on an "even" playing field in Fate point terms, even if that means that certain characters (like, Darth Vader) are, if they are PCs, are not able to quite live up to what they were in canon. This is a purposeful decision that was thought about.

Our tier system is how we address stronger-then-average, but even then 'FC' does not mean 'Tier 1' -- FC's can be apped at any tier and Staff explicitly does not judge a character to see if its 'worthy' of the Tier choice of the player. We do look at how much refresh is left over and try to get it into a number we're more comfortable with, but we do so by encouraging the player to either lower the Tier (and since players can have only one Tier 1, and only one Tier 2 character, saving the higher tier for a concept that needs it to make sense), or by buying additional stunts or extras to have more abilities.

We have only two characters on our banned list right not: the Emperor and Yoda. For different reasons we don't think either should be in play or fit into the system except as quest givers. Maybe Vader should be on the list too, but I don't know for sure. Alpha.

During FATE character creation, there's a # of skills that can be selected via character generation. There's also alternate ways to make veteran characters, etc.

So using Darth Vader in mind:

• Sith Lord
• Former Jedi
• Master Force User
• Commands the Super Star Destroyer
• Pilot
• Parent to 2 major FCs. Ahsoka?
• Has his own legion of Stormtroopers
• Fought in the Clone Wars (Skills, Aspects)
• Fame. Rank. Infamy. Fear?
• Throneworld: Vjun. He has his own throneworld.

Do note that although we are based on Fate Core, our power level is significantly bumped up from the baseline. Our skill pyramid tops out at +5, we allow five free stunts and seven aspects (we don't require them all to be set at chargen. Fate takes some getting used to and aspects sometimes take time).

I think Vader actually fits into our power level quite well. What he doesn't do is fit into the game as better then every other person of the same tier. But that's intentional.

I think the challenge that your game may face is in asking themselves "How do we make this FC what the FC really is without writing prepackaged player benefits into the character sheet? Do these FCs get extra benefits that OCs don't in an effort to make them truly the FCs they are?"

Our answer to that last question is a resounding no. If someone wants to play a FC they have to accept that. Does this potentially make FC's less attractive? Perhaps. It might disappoint a Vader player that he is not the best lightsaber combatant to be found: but he can still have Superb Fight and get Legendary hits from time to time. Of course, my OC Tier 1 guy can too so he might be a match to Vader.

Given the possible outcomes of A) Be True to the FC and B) The OC's must have an equal footing, we choose B. This may diminish some FC's and we're aware. Perhaps those that can not fit onto this scale shouldn't be PC's (Maybe Vader), but I don't see any problem with the likes of Dash Rendar and Leia -- they fit just fine.

@wildbaboons said in Potential Buffy Game:

Willow cast a spell? Mages sound OP.

I know you're joking but it is more amusing to me that on the show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, witches are in fact the most powerful agents. Buffy calls Willow her Big Gun at several points.

That said:

is the Charmed series related in any way to Buffy and Angel? They seem very similar

shudder No not at all.

@quinn said in Potential Buffy Game:

If you're doing powers, have people run through your chargen trying to break it. People will come up with the weirdest combos that technically aren't against the rules but are totally broken.

In my experience across like two and a half Buffy games (the half being Devilshire which I only played at and didn't staff), this isn't an issue at all. Unisystem and the Buffy/Angel RPG simply doesn't work like that.

There are three places where 'broken' comes into play: 1) Stacking packages [suggested HR: You can have no more then 2 packages, and there can be no overlap], 2) you need a HR about Dexterity and extra turns because otherwise Dex is flat out the most important stat and highest Dex wins, and 3) You have to handle magic's consequences well, especially if you're not having slots.

@the-sands I think you're on the right track as far as setting goes.

Plots (PRP or SRP) can take place via egocasting to whatever place someone wants to run a plot, IMHO. That has the added bonus of balancing the morphs people egocast into with the challenge of the plot. Body hopping on missions is one of the coolest things in Eclipse Phase.

Random idea for a setting thrown at you:

Enclave, a processing locus nestled in an asteroid somewhere -- no one knows where except for Management, for security reasons. Management maintains the simulspace city but its a reputation-based cyberdemocracy, not entirely unlike Titanian Commonwealth, without the Scandinavian socialist parts. Alternative: make it an Extropian colony, and Management is who you signed a contract with to allocate enough processing power to you to run you in the locus.

This might sound limiting at first, because everyone at home is an infomorph, but that's only at the resting state. And what infomorph you take (and how it manifests in the simulspace and what it can do) is important for local jobs.

@Tennyson said in Star Wars: Insurgency:

There's something else to consider. If a stunt turns out to be too powerful, staff can always re-evaluate it and tone it down.

Indeed, and we will be doing that when we transition into beta (which is soon: I wanted to get the final ship code done this weekend but kinda got sick so probably another week)

Also we have public, open sheets exactly to avoid someone getting unfair treatment stunt wise.

I like danger, but it depends on how fatality works on a system. If a single bad roll of the dice determines if I lose a character, I am less inclined to join a scene without being damn sure I can probably survive it. Like, on the 100, @Seraphim73 and @GirlCalledBlu had it set up so when you got KO'd, the next turn if no one else attacked or did something to the guy that got you, the NPC would go in for a kill shot. I liked the balance of this: no single action can end you, but if you're abandoned (or don't have a luck to bring yourself back into the scene) it could be fatal.

I would not mind a roster of support NPCs to help fill things out.

MoTW can get boring after awhile. Plots don't have to be big, super long running, but some cohesion to keep the world going forward is important to me. That said, MoTW is important especially for people who can't commit to schedules well.

Plots in a Box: Yes

Workshops: If needed.

XP/Save Points: As long as there's some way to change and grow over time, or to feel like I'm having an impact on my development, I don't need it to be XP and for all my numbers to get bigger every week.

wistful sigh

I don't really have anything to say but: I wish I was still playing this.

@bobotron said in Social 'Combat': the hill I will die on (because I took 0 things for physical combat):

I understand that they were not designed in that manner, you don't have to keep repeating that point ad nauseum.

Since that's the first time I made that point, I hadn't intended on repeating it.

I know @Botulism posted a 'what do you want out of plots' question, got some feedback, but if you're posting a request for more staff, you gotta sorta tell people: what do you want out of plots, maybe after that feedback or just in general?

I say as someone who might be interested in running certain monster plots after reading the system (I like it)

The only thing that turns me off is the 80's, but it doesn't turn me off so much I wouldn't play. I too would like some non-WOD urban fantasy games.

@botulism said in Welcome to Lovecraft Looking for Directors and Stage Hands:

@ixokai There's a Central Casting character (NPC) that's gay, and his uncle is the priest at the local Catholic Church and accepts him, which isn't really troubles? Beyond that, not sure!

Yeah, I apparently had a very vivid dream which went weird. Ignore that part!

@arkandel I know a certain subset are rabidly against the idea that the game owner can ask to know 'who they are'. Most make noises on way or the other; privacy, history, etc. They are offended by the very presumption one would ask for an email address, not hindered by some lack of technical ability to use a throw-away address.

They're nuts, in short.

@surreality To me the issue with 'act in good faith' is I can't really tell, often, what's inside your head or if you're acting in good faith or not.

I can absolutely see dick and point it out though.

@arkandel Really? I don't know a lot about 5E, but what I've seen of it... I don't exactly know that I like. If I had partners I'd probably code the hell out of Pathfinder, but what's it about 5E for you that does it?

@faraday said in Mush Online Training:

@ashen-shugar I did an interactive tutorial for the FS3 combat system. The Ares tutorials are interactive, but require a game. I could have done them with javascript like the combat one but it just wasn't worth the effort.

Hey that's really clever.

@auspice said in What's missing in MUSHdom?:

I like the idea of Evennia for D&D because some of its core structure is designed for building 'encounters.'

I really don't get where you're getting this from. I'm pretty familiar with Evennia's internals and don't get this at all.