Best posts made by Runescryer

@Livia
https://massivelyop.com/2019/04/18/the-city-of-heroes-private-server-team-has-released-its-code-to-the-world-but-not-the-characters/

My two cents worth...

I don't have a problem with FS3, per se. I think Faraday came up with a decent, simple game engine that has lots of different genre applications where skills are emphasized.

That being said, I think that it falls into a common trap for many simple generic systems in that it does basic stuff really well, but falls apart once you start moving away from the basic stuff. Once you start moving beyond skills into more supernatural elements (be it magic, psionics, or superpowers), the system starts getting kludgy. For pure skill and attribute driven games, it's certainly fine.

Another (minor) quibble that I have with FS3 is that I'm not entirely sure how successes and levels of success are generated. Like, I understand how attributes and skills work together in systems like WoD, Shadowrun, and 7th Sea. With FS3, it's 'do a roll and the engine spits out a result'. It's not like other games where you see numerical results like 'Runescryer rolled Computer, getting x,y,z for a 'Good' result'. When I can't see the numbers and how things interact, it makes it harder for me to get into the system as a player.

@tek said in What Types of Games Would People Like To See?:

I want a Carnival Row game so bad

Just finished it last night and was about to post the same thing here.

@golgoth Heck, let's do TORG or one of the MasterBook (the successor to TORG & Shatterzone) games like Bloodshadows or Necroscope. I've got a full set of both TORG and MasterBook cards to use as a reference for coding in.

Very interesting idea. I'm not a coder, but I had a similar structuring idea a while back in thinking of a Comic Book Multiverse concept. Most of the time, the Universes would remain separate with their own list of characters, so you could have multiple versions and interpretations of, say, Superman, Captain America, Thor, Batman, etc., across the Network. Each Universe would also have it's own staff to run things and enforce theme/concept. So, you could have Universes like: mixed Marvel/DC, pure Marvel, pure DC, Marvel Cinematic Universe, DC Movie-verse, X-Men movies, Arrow-verse, Young Justice, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Earth-2 DC, Ultimate Marvel, and so on. Every so often, there would be cross-over events.

@TimmyZ Yeah, the name of the system was always mentioned in passing in news files, but never really had any link or directions to documentation. And that's a failing on the Staff of the games, not Faraday.

Hi there.

So, some of you may have noticed the posts about the recent (ongoing) drama at one of the few superhero-themed games currently active. Not naming names, this isn't the Hog Pit; you either know which one or can easily find out. The HeadWiz of the game made their feelings perfectly clear recently with an ultimatum post on the game: Stop discussing what happened and start toeing the line, or find somewhere else to play.

Okay. This is for the people choosing the later option.

There's not many supers games currently active, so we're making a new one. One that takes into account things that we see as wrong or lacking in other games and tries to make an inclusive, accountable, fun community.

There's lots of ideas to use, and I'm sure there's plenty of people that have thought of what can be done to build a better supers game/community. We'd like to hear your input and ask you to come and join us.

Right now, it's a bare-bones Discord server, but it has the potential of growing into something more.

https://discord.gg/8SJ4Q7Q

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

@Runescryer deja vu

Okay, how did I manage that? Fixed

Regardless, let's keep things positive? I appreciate the sentiment from @Wizz. @Mr-Johnson

EDIT: Had the wrong member...

@Coin
Hit me up for the Scion or Aberrant game once you and @tragedyjones start working on it. I'd love to be involved with that.

Just to follow up...

I think that having a 'Theme' entry on the game's wiki would be helpful (I didn't see one when I checked). But, Make up a list of things that you consider to be 'in theme' or capture's the theme of the game, that players can read or view to manage their expectations of what to find.

Just some examples...

-Several of the Fleischer Studios Superman cartoons are on YouTube
-Ditto for The Shadow radio shows
-Graphic Novels and limited series like JLA: Age of Wonder and Spider-Man: Noir
-Films like The Shadow, The Phantom, Dick Tracy
-Even 'modern' series like Batman: The Animated Series or Defenders of the Earth.

Describe some thematic tropes, like
"The Weed Of Crime Bears Bitter Fruit"-Criminals tend to get what's coming to them, whether it's jail or death
"If Only You Used That Intellect For Good"-Many of the villains the heroes faced were disgruntled or disillusioned scientists
Black & White; no Grey Areas: Good is good, evil is evil. And Good Stopping evil with a firearm isn't as 'grey' as modern times.

And, make sure you emphasize that Heroes in the 30's were very different than their modern interpretations. Batman not only used a gun, he had no qualms about killing criminals to prevent more innocent deaths or the criminal escaping justice. Noir Spider-Man is not the wise-cracking Peter Parker we're familiar with, but a cynical investigative reporter that's dealt with betrayal at almost every turn; also, instead of 'With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility' Uncle Ben taught Noir Peter 'If there is too much power, then it is the responsibility of the people to take it away.', a message very on point for the era.

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

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

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

I love the idea of superheroes in an alternate setting. Unfortunately what I read is "Victorian Superheroes" but what I hear is Steampunk Superheroes. I'm a fan of the Victorian era but the internet has killed Steampunk for me. It just seems to come down to weird goggles and obnoxious contraptions. And it seems whenever I see the topic of a Victorian era game come up it invariably transforms into a steampunk game. That said I'd love to see a game set in some alternate era or world (fantasy, dark ages, zombie apocalypse, etc). I'd actually like to see this for WoD or something too. I'd love a good Dark Ages game.

At one point, I was thinking about a TT campaign using Vampire, Werewolf, Sorcerer, and Changeling, but setting it in a full-on fantasy world. Mage would have been too powerful, I think. Basically World of Dark Dungeons & Dragons.

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...

Once upon a time I was told by some friends that they didn't really think they would like Changeling very much (each for their own reasons) and that I should pick something else to run. Keep in mind they barely knew anything about Changeling at all. I didn't even get into the Hedge, or how any of it worked.

So I was said "sure" and picked Dungeons & Dragons.

And I was like, "and you can be anything in this setting. I will allow elementals, and ogres, and orcs, and anything you want, basically, we just need to work it out..."

And they got really excited.

And they were all in a kingdom ruled over by a strange, esoteric sorcerer, and some of them were his servants, and some of them were his pets, and one of them was his Deadly Enemy (TM).

So anyway, I gave them all reasons to work together.

And about six sessions into a ten session campaign I started sprinkling in weird visions and stuff. Strange oracles and prophets saying shit like, 'your past is not your past' and shit like that.

And they finally run completely afoul of the ruler of the kingdom (in the ninth session) and the only way they can escape is by crossing a dense forest that limits his kingdom.

So in the tenth session they run. And they push through it. And their skin gets flayed by thorns and bramble and as they go, I start describing memories. I pulled each of them aside and made them "remember" a past beyond their fantasy homeland--before it, when they were people. In a world like ours.

They popped out of the hedge, and I informed them they were Changelings and asked if they wanted to play it.

Ten sessions later they're waist deep in Lost politics, too many Pledges, starting wars with other Gentry... and then one of the couples in the group breaks up and the ensuing drama (which I veered sharply away from) ruined the campaign.

But yeah, that's my story about how I tricked my playgroup into playing Changeling because fuck what they want, apparently, I know best.

Like Zeus, but without the raping and killing.

So, one of the other games I mentioned earlier, Underground, has you playing heavily armed ex-military superhumans with various psychological issues in a dystopian America. So, in game lore, it turns out that the human mind can't adapt to suddenly being able to toss cars and bounce bullets off your body, so all the earliest enhanced soldiers went insane. The solution was to immerse a person into a months-long VR simulation where they live out a comic-book superhero life, gaining powers and such, while being enhanced. By the time the enhancement process is complete, the soldier has already lived a complete heroic life and more easily accepts the effects of having powers, with treatable mental illnesses instead of full on Reaver psychosis. Since Underground uses a modified version of the DC Heroes game (both published by Mayfair), I had an idea to start off a DC Heroes game, then suddenly have the characters wake up and the game switches over, and they're just getting back after their 5-year tour of service.

Of course, that would be the equivalent of taking a character that's a good and noble hero, then shipping them straight off to Vietnam with massive guns and telling them, 'Kill everyone that your computer identifies as a foe'. The evil bastard in me really liked that idea.

I'd be very much down for this game, and I have all of Eclipse Phase on PDF, aside from 2nd edition.

@Jennkryst Well....I mean....technically, spaceships exist...but the only group that uses them are inbred space gypsy clans. Or the fascist-evangelical-space Nazis that consider cortical stacks to be shat straight from Satan's bunghole. 3D manufacturing is so cheap and prevalent, every habitat can make everything they need, so there's no real need for in-system commerce. Likewise, bio-printing new bodies is insanely cheap, so it's faster and more efficient to call ahead to a habitat, have them thaw out or print a sleeve, and then quantum-cast your consciousness into that body in a matter of minutes, rather than take a system ship that can take months or longer to get to where you want to go.

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

@The-Sands The Strange and Numenera are pretty interesting. The Cypher system overall, I guess.

Another system I have been looking at is Degenesis. Not a whole lot has been put out since 2015, but what they do have is pretty nifty.

Degenesis would be awesome.

Another EuroRPG that is nifty and would be a great MU basis is 'Shadows of Esteren' Dark medieval fantasy game with haunted woods and a 'nature magic vs. techno-magic' theme. Most of the websites for it are in French, but it's a very beautiful game world.

So, some thoughts...

1. Agree with the idea that it should be right after the death of an Avatar, so that no-one can play an Avatar

2. The setting does indeed matter, and having a hub like Republic City or Ba Sing Se would be best.

3. While I do like the steampunk/dieselpunk feel of Republic City, I realize it's not everyone's favorite setting. And setting it after Korra's death would increase the tech further. As an option, think of setting it in the past, before Roku, Kyoshi, Kuruk, or Yangchen (Yangchen being the Avatar born to the Air Nomads before Ang and dying @ 345 years before the Fire Nation killed all the Air Nomads). Bonus for an earlier time setting: no restrictions on Airbenders, since the Air Nomads are still alive.

4. Avatar Wikia, which includes the related comics and gives excellent details and timelines. https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Avatar_Wiki

5. FanFiction about an Earthbending Avatar that comes after Korra; a black teen named Abioye. Modernizes the timeline further than Korra. Lots of strong, visual concepts that would be neat to play with (IMO), like Earthbending a motorcycle.
   https://marcusthevisual.com/avatar-legend-of-abioye/?fbclid=IwAR1myMfWqGbLt60rduJxrZcPRYn8oN3Mv3smbRwFBSEI_18V-D0kH3Lvfd4

Definately will be keeping track of this thread/idea

Thinking about some classic D&D campaign settings...

Dark Sun: Choose a City-State (probably Tyr) to be the setting focus and abolish the Troy Denning books from game lore

Council of Wyrms: Lots of possibilities here; political games played on the Draconic level

Ravenloft: Start out with one Domain, gradually add in others. Play up the character corruption angles, eventually trapping characters in their own domains

Spelljammer: Couple of options here. Set it on the Spelljammer itself, and you have a faction politics game. Set it in a single Sphere, centered around a station/trade hub like the Rock of Braal

Planescape: Plenty of possibilities here, lots of political/faction play

Al Qadim: Not the full Forgotten Realms, just the Al Qadim setting. Exotic enough to generate interest, but also possessing enough familiarity

Birthright: Honestly, this is the one I think would really work the best and am the most excited about (despite Spelljammer being my favorite setting of all time). Use 2e, 5e, or a quick conversion to Pathfinder. Set it in the Anurian region with a meta-plot of the re-unification of the Empire. L&L with occasional dungeon delving and monster hunting. TONS of political and intrigue RP possibilities.

@Waller Mick Foley spoofing the Rock was highly entertaining

Okay.

I've been roleplaying in one form or another since 1980. I've seen the lows and the highs of the hobby, and I think things are getting better. D&D/AD&D has several built-in flaws from the start. The 'biological determinism' of the Alignment system when applied to whole cultures/species being one of them. The inherent need for there to be 'bad guys' to hack and slash being another.

And the problem goes back even further; Tolkien himself based the portrayal of Orcs on the 'Mongol hordes', as he put it in a letter. There's lots of baggage that is endemic to the fantasy genre. And there's ways of correcting those problems without making the issue worse.

Example: The Elder Scrolls. Orcs in Tamriel are no better or worse than any other race. The High Elven government is problematic in it's persecution of Humans after the Empire was weakened, but individual High Elves can be noble and kind.

Other issues in fantasy are with 'savage' or nomadic cultures, being portrayed as the 'marauding Indian horde' or 'gypsies', respectively. Ugly equals Evil.. 'Dark' features such as skin are 'Evil'. And some of this can be traced back to poor interpretations of the British/Celtic folklore. There are some Fae creatures of the Unseelie Court whose appearance mimics the corruption inside of them. But at the same time, the Irish language doesn't apply the word 'Black' ('dubh') to people of African ancestry (the Irish use 'blue' ('gorm'), instead), because dubh has specific meanings that allude to Evil.

For myself, I try to show that no single group is fully 'Evil' when I run TTRPGs. Marauding bands are made of of humans as well as Orcs and Gnolls. There can be nobility in members of any culture; not just the well-known example of Drizzt, but even in the Illithid (the Spellljammer novels had a Mind Flayer named Estriss who was more on the Neutral side; he aided the series protagonist and would generally perform Good actions, but he still had to eat...Estriss did limit his diet to kobolds and other evil humanoids, but that's another issue entirely.

Yeah, there's lots of baggage with fantasy races. But, I think things are slowly getting better.