@Misadventure said:
It isn't. What everyone appears to be talking about in terms of the experience of horror, lethality and atmosphere is very different from typical World of Darkness translated to MU* format.
So, worst case scenario, you get a MU* like every other WoD MU* out there. But there's no harm in trying for something different!
@runescryer said in Good TV:
Getting back on topic...
Leverage: Redemption.
Almost the entire band is back together, and it's a thing of beauty. Then cast chemistry still sings, even with 2 new additions. The writing, pacing, humor, banter, and twists are all spot on.
8 episodes released so far, and it's great.
It's SO damn good. The two new characters fit in very well, and I love everything about it.
@fortydeuce Ooh, ooh, I know this one!
A @revelation is something that you receive when you gain the right combination of @clues to see a bigger picture perspective on a topic. It's automated, and it'll give you the revelation itself, and a list of the clues that you have that triggered it. A @theory is something like a revelation that /you create/, which may or may not be accurate.
@Ganymede said:
Give me a Mortal game where you have to survive in a zombie apocalypse. Please. No powers or what not outside of the core GMC game.
Shouldn't be tough, right? Let's give it a shot. I'll figure out some sort of "local community development social power mini-game" to satisfy the RfK crowd's need for manipulating the Grid.
Oh, that kind of system would be easy. You can adapt the territory system, but have different stats like "Defense", "Supply", and "Infrastructure" - a power plant, for example, might have very low supply when found (because not much usable food, water, or ammo is available there, but good Defense and huge Infrastructure, because once you have someone who can get it running again - motherfucking POWER, man. And you can improve territories by finding ways to raise the attributes, and staff can "attack" specific attributes with crises like "Crop Blight!" or "Idiot Loses Local Election, Pulls Down Guard Post to Let The Zombies In". Put a cap on the attributes according to how many/what quality of civilians are willing to live there (here's where the social manipulation and politicking comes in), and you've got all the makings for a zombie-themed territory system. Add a streamlined mechanic for inter-territory trade of skills or supplies, and all the politics you want should come thundering to your door.
@solstice said in Good Anime:
I do not care for the way he puts his romantic interest up on a giant pedestal, but hard agree.
I don't think anyone's supposed to care for it. Every relationship in that show is /gloriously/ fucked up.
@fortydeuce I'll be honest. I have about 200 clues and...five revelations. Mostly around the same subject, while the vast majority of my clues are a grab bag of things or results of @actions in clue form. So do not be concerned if you haven't had a revelation, yet!
Yeah, I don't think crafting would be a barrier. It does appeal to a lot of people, but I don't think it's the primary draw for anyone. IME, what makes a game popular is a lot of activity at the front, and a premise that excites people, rather than the bells and whistles.
(The bells and whistles might make them STAY for longer, but that's a whole other set of things.)
@Arkandel I think we disagree that it would be a "fun thing". I, for one, am really very excited for a mortals game. Where mortals are the focus. I don't think adding PC or former PC monsters is going to be fun. And it takes away from some of the fun things that I was looking forward to - namely a sense of mystery in the WoD, and the idea that more exists than Uratha and Kindred and whatever. Some really great, creative things about the setting and antagonists have been leaked. Why water that down with pale and uninteresting shadows of people's past PCs? What does that add to the game that wouldn't be better served by creating something new to explore?
Especially when it is inevitably going to lead to tantrums because either their NPC totally would have seen that coming and prepared for that and what do you mean he's going to be KILLED or their monster NPC had the best TS with this hot hunter guy, and now she's going to be reformed and hang around with the mortals as their buddy, and no, of course her sex buddy isn't going to kill her, instead he and his gang are all going to protect her and she's just the best thing ever and how dare you ruin RP by saying that can't happen.
Another factor is that, let's be honest? Expecting school personnel to deliver instruction, or kids to receive instruction, at a comparable level when people are literally dying around them is...kind of nuts. Teachers have lost family, friends, colleagues. Kids have lost the same, and even if we're not talking about the deaths as much in the media, that doesn't mean they're stopping. It's almost worse that it's a steady, ongoing trickle of deaths rather than a singular devastating event, because no one can go 'okay, it's over, we can relax'. Adults and children have to wake up every day with the knowledge that today might be the day someone they know, or themselves, gets sick with something that can kill them.
Every one of us is dealing with chronic stress and trauma right now, and the more we try to ignore that and push for 'normal', the worse off people are going to be.
@auspice said in Encouraging Proactive Players:
OOC engagement inspires me. I've had plots spark out of OOC joking around.
But as an ST... it is so. freaking. disheartening. to run plot and basically have people disengaged unless I'm constantly holding their hand and leading the way. Show me you're interested? Please? Somehow?
Like if you're enjoying what I'm doing, let me know. Somehow. Otherwise, why am I even doing it?
This is HUGE for me as a runner of scenes/plots/etc. Just a simple, "I'm enjoying this," goes a huge way for me as far as being inspired to run more stuff. When people seem unengaged or bored, I do my best to try and figure out what's going on and then adjust, but if they're just terminally unengaged, my interest drops like a rock.
Also, from the runner end on games - I will say that having too much mystery or strictly defined things that aren't well-explained will kill my interest in running plots. I don't want to break theme, or cause problems, but my style as a GM is pretty extemporaneous, so if I don't feel confident enough to be able to answer questions off the cuff, or take things in the directions the players head, then I avoid running plots.
So, one of the things I've been struggling with is how to create a survival and exploration game without creating a bottleneck where staff has to continually run plots or process jobs JUST so that people can explore an unfamiliar territory and run into interesting things. Also, much like with the flora and fauna, one of the ideas that intrigues me is giving players a chance to contribute to building the world, rather than just having it revealed for them. So when it came to grids, I decided to create an exploration system that guides people on how to create rooms for people to explore - //by exploring//.
The tldr: Outside of the 'home grid', the ship and immediate surroundings, grid rooms will be very broadly defined Sectors that are largely unknown (one sector will be more fleshed out, with some examples of grid rooms, so that people who don't really want to participate in the system still have the chance to do wilderness fun). Having scenes in these Sectors where players collaborate and generate challenges for their characters (or use these Sectors for things like food discover, etc.) generates EP for those players (players, not characters - it's entirely a metacurrency) for that Sector. When a group of players reaches a threshold of held EP for a Sector, they can spent the EP to create a grid room representing a section of that Sector in more defined detail, with special features they can purchase. These are not 'personal builds', but open territory that any players can subsequently use for plots and scenes.
The really spammy version:
Exploration and Grid Growth
Sectors
The game begins with a small grid, most of which is defined within the ship, and places immediately outside of the ship. Outside of those core grid rooms, there will be a series of grid rooms called ‘Sectors’. ICly, these are designated and named by Aggie, the colony ship AI, and are filled in as people discover more about them. In practical terms, what that means is that the desc of Sector rooms has only vague and general information. But, obviously, it would be boring if those sectors remained blank slates.
Grid Rooms From Sectors
Instead of a top down, simulationist approach for the creation of grid rooms, Excelsior favors a more bottom up, narrative one. Grid rooms will be defined by the results of scenes and plots taking place within those Sectors. Players who participate in scenes and plots dealing with specific sectors will earn Exploration Points for those sectors, and when a group of players gains enough EP, they can get together and collaboratively with staff design a grid room from that sector, indicating a stretch of wilderness which has been explored thoroughly enough that it can be defined as its own place.
Using EP, players can buy features for the grid room: resources, unusual terrain, rare fauna, exotic or unique features. Neither the players nor the characters OWN the grid room (unless the Colony government decides that creation of a grid room counts as staking a land claim to a specific place, and that’s okay) - once the grid room is created, anyone can use it. It’s a place and a public grid, not a personal or group build.
EP are a meta-currency, and as such, they can be earned for things which are not intentional IC actions, such as running scenes and plots within the sector. EP are also meant to incentivize players indulging in and enjoying higher character risk and consequences, so they are rewarded in larger amounts to players who put their characters in danger while exploring.
EP Rewards: (Note: All rewards and costs subject to change.)
1 EP: Participating in a scene set in a specific Sector.
2 EP: Directing a scene set in a specific Sector, +2 if your character is not involved in the scene.
5 EP: Running a plot set in a specific Sector consisting of at least three scenes (in addition to the EP you receive for directing each scene) - this can be a series of scenes hunting down a new source of food, looking for the cure to a disease, prospecting for minerals, chasing down a criminal who fled the justice of the colony, whatever. Just needs to be three connected scenes, ending on some sort of closing note.
1 EP: Including specific flora or fauna from the Herbarium or Bestiary into your scene in some significant way. (Just about anything other than just posing ‘oh there’s a stand of sunblood roots, or whatever, works.)
1 EP: Your character sustains an Impaired injury while in a scene set in the Sector.
3 EP: Your character sustains an Incapacitated injury while in a scene set in the Sector, or is infected by a disease or infection from the Sector or something harvested from it.
10 EP: Your character dies, or is permanently lost or retired as a result of a scene or plot taking place in the sector.
Creating a Grid Room
Once characters have reached the threshold of EP required to make a grid room (50?), they can put in a job. They do not have to submit a job with the minimum possible EP; if they wish to spend a lot of points on one room, they can go all the way up to the upper limit as established (100?). The job should link to the scenes that took place in the Sector, list each EP gained in the log, and where to find it. The second part of the job breaks down the Features they want to purchase for that grid room, how much they cost, and a brief summary of what they would like that Feature to be.
Features
Features are enduring aspects of a room which can be used as resources, plot points, or complications. These include mineralogical and biological bounty, unusual geographic features, alien mysteries, very rare fauna or flora, etc.
Sectors begin with baseline features, which can be further enhanced in their grid rooms. For example: If Sector 3 is desced as having a mineral wealth of 2, forests at 4, and Dangerous Weather (5), then a grid room built out of that Sector will start with those stats. But EP can be spent to boost the mineral and forest resources, and reduce the fury of the weather. A Feature could also be bought that gives that grid room a mysterious artifact to be uncovered.
Players will not create the desc - staff will do that in order to retain some continuity of terrain and sense of place, but players can collaborate on things they would like to see. ‘Science fantasy’ type terrain will be involved, and is actively encouraged.Towering fungi, floating crystals, abyssal lakes with strange, chitinous beasts? All good.
Features, Mysteries, and Plots: Players can ask for alien artifacts and features in the broad sense of ‘a city’ or ‘lost technology’ or ‘an ancient tomb’, but staff takes the responsibility of creating the artifact and its connection to the metaplot, solely so that there remains a mystery for these Features which can be explored. If a player wants to take on an artifact to run a PrP around it, that can absolutely happen, although it means spoiling the player at least a little bit on some of the mysteries, in order to retain continuity.
If the full Changeling 2.0 rules ever, ever come out, and I like them as much as I think I will, I would be open to trying something, although I suspect its appeal would be limited.
Also, in our current situation, you do not want to be incentivizing people to come to work sick. Particularly in a school environment, which is already a huge vector for disease.
What I typically do for +event type signups is disclose OOC about the focus of the plot and which characters are going to have the most relevance to it, and let people self-select. Like, "This is going to be a horror plot, heavy on atmosphere and menace. Characters who are connected with the underworld or who have an interest in cursed artifacts are most likely to hear about it, but if that's not you and you're still interested, let me know and we'll see if we can't find you a way to hook in."
But then, I honestly like to know a couple of days in advance (at least) who's going to be at the plot scene, so that I can check out their wiki and sheet (if available) and have some idea of what they're interested in, so that I can make sure to tailor the plot towards what the players seem to enjoy.
@Three-Eyed-Crow I have forgotten every flashback I've ever been invited to. I pose while I'm on, but as soon as I log off, I forget it exists. I'm so sorry to everyone I've let down on those, but...yeah.
I swear to god. Talking to any living human person over the last three years just fills my heart with rage and the desire for revolution.
Didn't one of the Amber games have programmed objects that were essentially 'plots in a box' that people could take and run with without a dedicated GM? I never played there, but I remember hearing about it, and thinking just how fantastic that sounded. While there's a fair amount of front-loaded work, that work is something that people can do on their own time, and then players can just meet up whenever for it.
@krmbm said in Web portals and scenes and grids oh my!:
@silverfox said in Web portals and scenes and grids oh my!:
I've yet to play on an Ares game where when I threw up a general scene set and waited, people didn't show up. Yes, I did make sure there were people "active" on the game within it.
This has totally happened to me. Like three times.
Out of the hundreds of scenes I've played on Ares games.
It's happened to me more than three times, I must admit. I love Ares, and the system, but starting an open scene by yourself CAN be hard, and it does feel...rather horribly crushing when you sit there for an hour or two with your set and nobody bites.
I don't think that's a fault in Ares - I've certainly sat on the grid for hours even with pinging on whatever 'want RP' mechanics a game has, and not gotten a bite. But I do think there's a...implicitly public presentation of it that makes it FEEL worse. At least to me. If I sit on the grid, it doesn't really feel like anyone notices except me.
If I sit in an open public scene by myself, it feels like the whole game can see it (and point, and laugh). That is entirely a personal perception issue, but it's probably not one I have /alone/. Or maybe it is. >_>
@faraday Newspapers and TV have stopped headlining the daily deaths, so that means that they aren't happening anymore and EVERYTHING IS FINE.
(Sarcasm, if it needs to be said.)
