Posts made by Ominous

I have thought about trying to use something similar to Mystic Empyrean as a system in a MU*. It uses 7 elements as skills - fire, light, lightning, water, earth, shadow, and air in a wheel. Characters are ranked in each element and has a deck of cards consisting of these skills, so if you have a fire of 4, your deck will have four fire cards. When you want to perform an action you draw a card from the deck. If the element drawn matches the element of the action (fighting physically requires fire, for instance), it succeeds better than expected. If the element drawn is one step away, it succeeds normally. If it's two steps away, it succeeds but only if it's not being opposed or difficult. If it's three steps away, it's a failure.

http://www.mysticempyrean.com/The Balance.pdf

I want to use the system in a game where the PCs are spirits and gods. It encourages specialization in certain areas, so a spirits of fire and war is going to have a bunch of fire cards and some light and air cards, while trying to minimize other cards.

I am honestly surprised that Planescape hasn't been done yet. Birthright would also be awesome, but it not being a setting for a MU* isn't surprising considering how unknown it is. Then again, Firan was Birthright-ish with nobles having inborn magic.

What about Planescape combined with Birthright? That would be an interesting combination. Maybe throw in some Mystic Empyrean.

@HelloProject A different kind of economics, one not based on larvae or whatever souls are called in D&D's hells.

Basically, I took a space-like setting and transplanted in a fantasy setting, using sea travel and islands instead of space travel and planets. It tightens the scale of things, while still allowing for distinct land masses with easy borders to be claimed as territory. I felt it was cleaner and easier to work with for a MU*, since it doesn't have the graphical interface of a strategy game.

@HelloProject @Chet You would be surprised. I would play there. I was bandying about a similar idea; though, I had the Princes of Hell as PCs with an emphasis on frequent turnover (it's the crazy, intrigue-y, back-stab filled politics of Hell after all, so being at the top has a huge target on it.) I sort of hoped that since the setting was Hell, people would be more willing to be cutthroat with one another. The idea eventually morphed into an island world setting with the politics centered in pseudo-Rome, because I wanted to incorporate some thematic elements from Dune and economics.

@Tempest I liked Dystopia too and was sad to see it go. I reached out to see if I could review some of the mechanics they had, because I want to steal some of them for a Gilded Age Western in Spaaace game with elements from the cyberpunk genera, Tales of the Borderlands, and Offworld Trading Company.

@Bobotron That's a shame. Houses of the Blooded is an interesting system and setting that I could easily see being shoved into a vampire setting.

From the name I assume you are using Houses of the Blooded? If so, awesome and you have my interest.

Speaking of things with "Horizon" in the name, Horizon: Zero Dawn MU*. Add some MUD elements with the exploration and hunting. MUSH elements with building villages. You have survival elements and a pretty flexible metaplot to work with.

Settles of Catan is showing its age. It's like craps only without the fun of the casino.

And, no, my friends and I don't fight when we play strategy games. We play every Thursday evening and one Saturday a month, playing Empires: Age of Discovery, Twilight Imperium 3, Power Grid, Dead of Winter, Eclipse, Caverna, etc. Everyone still seems to be going strong.

I remember Redemption MUSH. I tried playing there when Crossroads was winding down. The theme seemed like a mish-mash of disparate ideas and some factions didn't appear as balanced or well thought out as other factions. However, nothing in what I remember had any sort of mechanical measurements of resources or anything. It was just a bunch of cops & robbers style stuff - "I shot you." "Nuh uh!" Which is the first 'no no' of any sort of PvP political play. It would be like trying to play Coup without any cards.

However, I will agree that it does become a bit of a strategy game, but that's the point. The RP develops out of the strategy game aspect, much like RP comes out of D&D, even though it is derived from a wargame.

Awesome! I was actually working out a similar idea only in a fantasy setting. My only nitpick is that it is in the Star Wars universe instead of DUNE or an original IP, but if everything else is awesome, it is an easy thing to swallow.

As to your questions. It depends on what you mean by having a mook PCs influence the outcomes of battles. If your goal is to allow players to RP their own fights and activities during a battle without it having any effect, then I would be fine with mooks not influencing battles, as long as that is made clear. however, if the battle is just a bunch of PCs, both mook and non-mook, in a room doing stuff, what points is there for the mooks being there if they have no agency in the outcome?

If you include assassination, it needs to be developed fully into the game mechanics. It needs to be something PCs expect and can take easy countermeasures against. Otherwise it just leads to grief.

@Kanye-Qwest

True, but it was the best I could find. I suck at finding funny meme images.

Who asked "OK but why?"

Kanye Quest said "You don't have to use it if you don't like it," and I went "I know and completely agree." Roz went "Why did you even post this?" That's when I felt myself become a bit irritated that someone felt I was wasting their time on one of the most pointless places on the internet and felt the need to remind them that the following is not true:

No, the words were "I don't understand it," which has a considerably softer connotation than "I hate it," and "it is ugly" not "ugly and stupid." "I don't get this thing. I think it looks bad" does not mean "I hate everything about this and people who engage in this are a bunch of morons."

@Kanye-Qwest In your example, it's a group of people talking about how great Star Wars is, then someone else says 'I don't get Star Wars.' I chip in to them with a 'Hey, I don't get it either. The prequel trilogy completely ruined it for me.' The group conversation has forked, and I am engaging with that other person, not the rest of the group.

Depends on if people honestly want to call me out on my off-hand opinion.

I hate most ASCII art. It's as ugly as sin. That is all. I'm not giving a dissertation on some new insight into the human experience. It's an opinion given in support to someone else who offered a related opinion on the topic being discussed. The sensible response would be for a person to shrug their shoulders at it and move on rather than calling me out for having an opinion on some minor tidbit of our very insulated and unimportant hobby.

@Roz I admit to not understanding what the purpose of you voicing your issue with my initial post is, if it wasn't as a smack to the knuckles with a ruler for sharing in the subjective opinion that something isn't as good as everyone thinks it is.

@Roz The prevalence of ASCII art indicates that most people like it. I am adding my voice to Jaded's showing that their opinion isn't some odd outlier that no one shares. I apologize that a lack of conformity offends you.

@Kanye-Qwest Completely true. Just adding my voice to the minority, so they don't feel lonely.

@Jaded said in Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning:

@Sparks This is the first game I encountered ascii desces in a weapon or item. I find that...strange, actually. So I would not expect ascii art. Just...a good desc.

I didn't understand it in Firan either. To be honest, I find most ASCII art ugly as sin. Only a few pieces have made me go "Oh, wow! That's neat!"

@Faceless I miss Ida and stories of Tomato Bacon Chef.

@Bobotron said in Which canon property/setting would be good for a MU* ?:

• Fullmetal Alchemist

That would be interesting. I am surprised no one has tried it yet.