Posts made by Runescryer

@ZombieGenesis I totally get what you're saying, and I agree. My only point is that M&M combat is simpler and quicker, IMO. Having played both Champions and Champions MUSH, relatively simple combats already take a long time in TT, and get even longer when the factors of a MU (waiting for responses, typing, and other communication delays) get added in. You're not wrong about the Stun-lock potential for M&M, but that encouages teamwork and planning, IMO, instead of just trying to Hulk SMASH your way through every encounter; especially if you're not a build like Hulk/Superman

@ZombieGenesis Okay. To be honest, I haven't really looked at Champions since 6e first came out. I was disappointed with it, overall. For the most part, I find M&M to be just as utilitarian as Champions, but easier to run and use. The biggest advantage being that you don't have to keep track of BODY, END, & STUN for every character in every combat. M&M has a much simplified, more action oriented combat system, IMO.

I really recommend the Deluxe Hero's Handbook; the most recent version of M&M 3e. In addition to the point-buy 'DIY' system, they expanded on the Archetypes to make them more customizable. There are 20 Archetypes, each with their own set of decision tree choices to personalize the Archetype to fit what you want your character to be,

Example: The Paragon

First Choice: Man of Action (Captain America), Superhuman (Superman), Vessel (Shazam, Thor). This choice gives you your base stats. A Man of Action would start with STR: 6, STA: 6, AGL: 6, DEX: 4, FGT: 6, INT: 3, AWR: 4, PRE: 2. A Superhuman would start with STR: 8, STA: 8, AGL: 4, DEX: 4, FGT: 8, INT: 1, AWR: 2, PRE: 2

Second Choice:Advantages. You choose a 'package' of 4 Advantages; like Athlete (Extraordinary Effort, Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Uncanny Dodge), Leader (Inspire 2, Leadership, Teamwork), Warrior (All-Out Attack, Improved Initiative, Interpose, Move-By Action), and others.

Third Choice: Skills; you choose 2 Skill 'packages'; like Athlete (Acrobatics 6, Athletics 6, Perception 4), Charismatic (Expertise 4, Insight 4, Perception 4, Persuasion 4), and so on

Fourth Choice: Powers. From a list of pre-made powers, you choose 1 Offensive, 1 Defensive, 1 Movement, and 1 Utility Power

Fifth 'Choice': Defense. Based on your initial choice (Man of Action, Superhuman, Vessel), your Defense points are pre-determined. Man of Action: Dodge: +4, Parry: +4, Fortitude: +4, Toughness: +0, Will: +6. Superhuman/Vessel: Dodge: +4, Parry: +0, Fortitude: +2, Toughness: +0, Will: +6

Choose your Complications and you're all done with a balanced PL10 character. Also, each decision point, including the initial Archetype, can be randomly rolled for quick NPC's or a random-built PC if the player prefers.

@Derp said in Avatar / Korra game considerations:

@Wretched said in Avatar / Korra game considerations:

Pro Earthbeder - The Under-quaker

Aero Saul!

Firebender: Ryk Flare

@Wretched said in Avatar / Korra game considerations:

@Cadi I like post Korra (the show not her death tho mebbe that too?), because it seems like the power levels of bending were less limited to the few 'specials'. Lots of Metal benders, at least 2 lava benders. spirit benders, blood benders etc. The tech level is nice but there's still room for nature, more spirit wilds popping up around 'custom town' iss totally possible (or later plot thing dun dun!). Gives a lot of room for character options. Also PRO BENDING.

The Boulder is very upset at your lack of recognition that (airquotes) 'Pro Bending' began in the Earth Kingdom with the EARTH RUMBLE, the greatest spectacle in bending EVER!

My vote went to M&M 3e. Marvel Super Heroes was my first supers RPG, and it still has a place in my heart. Champions 4e came into my life in college and that became my go-to supers system for a long time, followed by Champions 5e. However, M&M 3e has been the best system for supers that I've played. Like Champions, it's a toolbox that allows you to create any superhero you can imagine, but it has about 25% less crunch and a much simpler Power Advantage/Disadvantage system. Combat is tremendously faster, even with masses of agents/minions involved, and less paperwork/calculations. And the current Deluxe Heroes Handbook has an archetype system that is easily adaptable to any MU code and can create unique, balanced, and playable heroes within 15 minutes. Or, the archetype generator can be set up for random rolls to quickly stat NPC's. For me, it's the best balance between minimalist systems (like MSH) and simulationist systems (Champions).

@Derp I had a campaign idea once where a Federation ship (Galaxy or Sovreign class) accidentally slips into the Mirror universe and can't get back. So, they try to stay off the grid at first to follow the Prime Directive while they try to figure out how to get back home. Soon, though, they get dragged into the fight with the Empire and serve as a rallying ship for the revolution. Star Trek: Liberty.

@SquirrelTalk Right. And I wasn't advocating that you were going for something that vert. My point was more to show how erotic/sexual themes can be baked into a central theme, rather than be a secondary thing that players happen to do.

@Roz said in Gauging Interest in a new Erotic RP MU* (with anonymous survey):

@SeriousSirius It's not really the same. Like, if you go on a sex game and compare it to a non-sex game, it's really not the same. It just isn't. There is a just -- a very distinct difference when the actual point of a game is the sex. As opposed to sex being a side thing a certain percentage of the game enjoys pursuing.

Exactly. To put it another way...

On a Superhero MU: two characters have sex, it's a secondary aspect to the superhero stuff.

On an ERP superhero MU: characters are empowered by 'sexual energy'/orgone/other, where they need to have sexual release to recharge themselves; it's a core premise of the world and central to the superheroics.

@Coin Oh, absolutely. When you have a ship/station of 400+ crew, it's easier to write for just 7 or 8 'main' characters. It also maintains the audience's focus. But, the point still stands that Trek has a certain 'style', one that doesn't make logical or strategic sense all the time.

I think that of all the Trek games I've played, Anomaly had a workable concept: a central station and adding ships to accommodate the growth of the player base. However, this also demands a LOT of Storyteller resources, as essentially each ship & the station are it's own 'show'.

@Three-Eyed-Crow said in Why no Star Trek games?:

You could just make the senior officers NPCs and have people primarily play like Ensigns - LTs.

I think the model that worked on a lot of BSG games could work for a Star Trek MU reasonably well.

While that makes a certain amount of sense, it's not Trek. Yes, in a logical universe, 90% of the Away Teams would be comprised of the lesser officers. But in Trek, it's the CO and Command Staff that go on the missions and see all the action. The Ensign/jg/LT characters are background gruntwork, unless they have an applicable specialty.

@ZombieGenesis said in Why no Star Trek games?:

So Modiphius just released their Klingon Core Rules for their Star Trek RPG and it got me wondering; why are there no active Star Trek games?

For me, the few games that have come about have been stationary or they try to fit everyone onto one space station or starship. I'd like something in the middle, myself. Maybe centered on a space station but people can "crew up" and get their own ship to explore some portion of space? Instead of one starship crewed to the gills have a few that use a central space station as a common port of call?

I dunno. I just know I get the itch to RP Star Trek from time to time and can never find a game!

I don't think that Star Trek lends itself to a large, multiplayer setting as easily as some other properties. Rank and position is very much a core part of Trek, and that means limited 'spotlight' space on a single ship or station. Everyone wants to be Kirk/Riker/Sisko/Spock/personal favorite; no-one wants to be a crewman on Delta Shift. So, the plum roles/positions go very quickly, leaving 'lesser' roles that would be more like walk-on characters. O'Brien is really the only Trek character that went from walk-on/recurring to a main Cast position. Compared to other Rank/Position genres like L&L (where there's plenty of noble titles to go around and let a PC make a name for themselves and advance) or even Superhero Games (where even though there are obvious 'star characters', other characters can still prove themselves and gain status/become more prestigious).

Also, some players, or maybe it's just me, are sort of burned out still on the spate of 'Report Status' Trek games from a decade or so back, where we had to fill out IC reports on everything....

Finally, Trek shows like Discovery and the newer movies haven't been as well recieved by the general fandom; so the enthusiasm isn't where it was in, say, the DS9 & Voyager time when LUGTrek came out. Again, just my opinion, and Picard may have changed the dynamic in regards to fan enthusiasm.

@Coin said in Gauging Interest in a new Erotic RP MU* (with anonymous survey):

@Rinel said in Gauging Interest in a new Erotic RP MU* (with anonymous survey):

Yeah, and especially when you get into roleplayed nonconsensual stuff. There absolutely has to be a barrier between public and private there, OR you need to make it excruciatingly clear to everyone from the start what people are getting into.

Exactly.

And any game that is primarily-erotic/sexual in nature/theme is going to be an exploration of kinks, many of them not a lot of other players's thing. So you gotta make sure everyone consents not just to participating but also to being made to spectate/witness certain kinks.

Just my opinion, but I think that if you're trying for maximum freedom/expression, the best thing to do is to have a clear line between 'public' kinks/logs and 'private' kinks/logs. There are things that I like for ERP that others don't like and there re things that other people like for ERP that I don't like. Neither myself nor others should seek to limit or kink-shame. At the same time, some of the more problematic kinks could be categorized in a way that they get played in private situations only and log tagged in the same way erotic stories on the net are to prevent others from accidentally reading a log that contains things and situations that they don't like or could trigger reactions (like rape or incest scenes). So, basically...

1. Be 100% clear about what is and isn't allowed in Public
2. Have a Tag system for logs that make the log contents clear to potential readers
   2a) Potentially have a special Log section separate from the main logs to house logs with the more problematic kinks, to add an extra buffer.

@faraday said in Netrunner MUDs:

@TiredEwok said in Netrunner MUDs:

Which came first: Shadowrun or Netrunner?

Shadowrun, by several years. But most of the similarities between the two (and the Cyberpunk RPG) are attributable to the underlying fiction sources.

Technically, Netrunner came out first, since it's based directly on the Cyberpunk RPG. All the names of items, Corporations, and system concepts, like Daemon programs & MU, are directly taken from the Cyberpunk setting.

@toreadorfool I totally get that. I was developing a California setting because 1) I'm from there and know the area and history, and 2) it was a good way to allow both Union and Confedearcy characters to interact as a sort of neutral site playing both sides of the Civil War and supplying both with Ghost Rock. Also, two of my favorite Western series are Zorro and Have Gun-Will Travel, which have California roots.

However, the timeline's been altered because of the Meta storyline for Deadlands. The year is 1884 and the Civil War now ended in 1871 after the Battle of Washington, with the Confederacy's Ghost Rock machinery running out of fuel and the Union forcing Lee back and securing the Confederacy surrender at Appomattox a few months later. So, no need to have a neutral territory for Union & CSA characters anymore. The US now has Territorial Rangers, based off the Texas Rangers, which continue the Ranger lore in-universe; and the Agency is still around as well.

Other Lore updates:
-The Great Flood happens in 1880, taking out Lost Angels and Reverend Grimme
-Hellstromme wins the Great Rail War in 1879 by burrowing under the Rockies in secret, then disappears from the public in 1883.
-The Sioux Nation performs the Great Summoning in 1881, making technology cease to function inside the border.

Okay, folks. The PDF of the new rules set has just been released. I'm still going through it all, since Savage Worlds isn't one of my normal jams. But, if people are still interested, I expect that we can start moving on this in another couple weeks.

Definitely will be needing coders familiar with the Savage Worlds system for this. As well as a 'standard' card deck code that includes Jokers for a total of 54 cards in a deck.

Debating between the new 'standard' setting in the Wyoming/Colorado area or the custom California setting I've been working on and off with for a couple years now. Thoughts?

Finally getting around to reading the Foundation cycle. Also have the Lensman series and Jack Vance's 'Dying Earth' series on tap with my Kindle app.

@Waller Mick Foley spoofing the Rock was highly entertaining

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

Saddle up, pardner; the Kickstarter for a new edition of Deadlands just launched for release in November. The rules are updated to the current Adventurer Edition of Savage Worlds, and the timeline is advanced to 1884. The Servitors have failed and the Reckoners are back to square one in their demonic plans to return to Earth. The Civil War has finally ended, or at least the shootin' has ended, and a Cold War between the USA and CSA has ramped up. Even the Rail Wars have been settled with a phyrric victory by Dr. Hellstrome.

So, it's a return to small town, more isolated tales of terror. Any folks out there interested in gearing up a MU for this?