Posts made by Runescryer

@tinuviel Right. Which is why you need to subdivide a MU into smaller groups or 'spheres' like WoD games do. I view it like a staffer being an editor on a comic book that's part of a larger publishing group. The staffer works with a group, sometimes brings in another staffer or player with a fresh event idea for a group, and discusses with the other staffers what's going on and how events they're overseeing interact with the larger world.

Tennebrae (a Pathfinder system MU) does this rather well; they have a good number of staffers whose job is to run events/missions on a regular basis, and the events run a large sample of level ranges (1-4, 4-8, 8-12, etc.). And the events all tie into an overall story arc.

@rnmissionrun That. And, IIRC, he got burned rather badly with Fallout. Fallout was designed to use GURPS, then they cancelled and created the SPECIAL system; although SJ was as much responsible for the GURPS system being pulled as Interplay was.

@apos Tabletop systems are designed for smaller groups, true. And this does need to be kept in mind for designing MU*s based off TT's. But, it can be done. What's required, IMO, is a dedicated staff, regular events, and a player base encouraged to participate or even run events. Looking at MUDStats, 2 of the top 20 MUDs by population/connections are WoD MUDs: City of Hope and Fallcoast. So, TT system games can be successful from a population standpoint, you just need a reason for players to log in.

Also, there is something to be said about game popularity or stability being measured by player satisfaction/enjoyment, rather than pure population numbers.

@thenomain What did you find horrible about TORG's design? If it's the 'Glass Jawed Ninja' effect, the new edition corrected that by making Bonus Damage separate from the Bonus added to the Attack test. The other major problem was that certain powerful buff or effect cards, like the Glory card, would sometimes be wasted as initiative draws; this problem was solved by splitting the initiative and buff/effect into two separate card decks.

@thatguythere I agree with you for the most part. Fantasy RPG's are the last bastion of Class/Level design that I participate in. I'll still look at other genres of games with systems like that, but odds are I won't buy or play them.

And yes, the TORG revival was exceptionally well done. They fixed several issues in the original game system and made several overall improvements to the system and game world. Check it out when the books go on sale in physical stores. Or, the next Kickstarter (beginning in a few days) is supposed to have the big 'Cargo Crate' option and Core Books, Dice, Cards, etc., available in the BackerKit.

Three other thoughts of genres, rather than specific systems or properties....

1. Espionage. Setting up two sides, whether it's US/NATO vs. the Soviet Bloc in the 70's & 80's, UNCLE vs. THRUSH, a more serious CONTROL vs. CHAOS, MI-6 & CIA vs. SPECTER or SMERSH, or even the Top Secret SI setting of ORION vs. WEB.

2. Western: Lots of territory to explore here, and toss in another vote here for DEADLANDS.

3. Gangland: Back to the '20's and Prohibition. Law Enforcement vs. the Mobs. Plenty of action & drama to go around.

@thatguythere said in Fading Suns 2017:

@packrat said in Fading Suns 2017:

Sadly I disagree with that, they are (according to their developer blogs) planning on a class/level system for the new edition. That does not fill me with confidence.

I had not really looked in into it much but class and levels....ewwww, I know they did a d20 version of Fading Suns back in the day but I didn't like it then and I am not crazy about the idea now.

Fair enough. Having not been into Fading Suns when it was around, I didn't know the system. Thought that the care and work that went into TORG: Eternity would also be there for a Fading Suns revival.

@ominous Armageddon looks to be a full-on clone of Dark Sun: just change the names of places and people around. I think that there would be a greater demand to actually play in Athas (so long as all the Troy Denning nonsense was retconned/thrown out so players could actually do epic stuff instead of NPCs having already done it), than in a thinly veiled retread. Again, just my opinion.

@livia Possibly. It's also possible that I'm a bitter old fan that hates how the original Heroes of the Lance got treated in the later stories.

Thought I'd just pop this in here for those who aren't aware....

http://www.ulisses-us.com/games/fading-suns/

Ulisses Speil is a German RPG company best known for 'The Dark Eye'; a long-running fantasy RPG that's been likened to the German equivalent of Dungeons & Dragons (in terms of influence and staying power). Their North America branch recently re-launched the TORG RPG, from West End Games back in the 90's, and it's been fantastic so far. If you're a Fading Suns fan, the IP is in good hands here.

Just a few ideas, fwtw.....

TORG: The relaunch by Ulisses Speil has been fantastic. Lots of condensing and streamlining the rules without loosing the original game's feel and unique dice/card action system. Lots of data-crunching, though, for the effects of the 100 or so cards in the game (3 different decks, 1 of which determines initiative in combat rounds and other effects; the other 2 decks are action boosts and a deck of cards with narrative effects specific to the Reality the adventure is taking place). Also, the invading Realities have had nice makeovers, fixing some issues and adding in new effects. The Living Land now also includes the possibility of 'Lost Worlds' popping up at random inside the realm. Nippon Tech has been renamed Pan-Pacifica and adds a 'Resident Evil' type virus to the high-tech corporate setting.

7th Sea: 1st Edition; the 2nd Edition has some problems with action and difficulty scaling and scales down Magic. Set it in Vodacce, in the capital of Numa, and you can hit all the main themes: Intrigue, Archaeology, Piracy.

Earthdawn: Solid game system and an interesting setting. Plus, the characters have a purpose beyond basically being murder hobos looking for Help Wanted ads in the local taverns.

Original Superhero Setting: This one is more cultural than a system issue. With Superhero games, almost everyone wants to play the Big Names, so I can understand why OC games like ChampionsMUSH and the old Four Color Comics (to name two) never really caught on, aside from any issues people may have had with staff (if those problems existed, I'm unaware of them)

@tnp Dark Sun would require conversion of the Psionic rules, which I haven't seen yet. It would be fun to see, though.

To put in whatever my 2 cp is worth...

Dragonlance & Forgotten Realms: Popular, lots of lore already known by the playerbase, but needs to be rolled back to before everything went to poop (pre-Second Cataclysm for DL; pre 1372 for FR as mentioned above)

Ravenloft: Possible, with the recent rise of non-WoD horror games. Probably would have to have 1 Staff member dedicated to playing a Lord and running Events in their realm.

Greyhawk: Doable and not as already over-exposed as Dragonlance & Forgotten Realms

Mystara: The old Basic D&D setting; well documented with lots of published lore/splat.

Planescape: Widely popular and adaptable, centralized 'city' to use as a main gathering point for PC's

Spelljammer: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes......Set up the Rock of Braal as a centerpoint of the game similar to Sigil/Waterdeep/Greyhawk. Plus ship combat and boarding actions. And abandoned Dwarven Fortresses. And, and, and....

Birthright: This would be awesome. The setting has a built in Political/Trade/Intrigue mechanism, a nice Mass Combat mini-game system, and combines a solid Lords & Ladies RP setting with classic D&D Adventuring. Also adds a bit more epicness (Bloodlines, Realm Magic) to D&D.

Original Setting: I don't think players would be too opposed, but learning the lore of a new setting can be a bit time consuming, IMO.

@n0q

Okay, specifically....

New Avalon is DCAU/Timm-Verse Metropolis in feel/theme

San Macario is Netflix Marvel/Defenders New York in feel/theme

@Chet said in New Superhero Game Looking for Staff/Feedback:

Referring to a discussion two pages ago, about PKs:

The 'legacy' character argument gave me an interesting idea, that may work with a pure OC MUSH.

The secret identity is the original OC app, whereupon the secret identity becomes the feature character, and the guy inside the alias is your personal creative property. So, if you killed, retired, or promoted outside the new superhero/supervillain alias, the character would remain.

I'd call this a 'Street Legend' policy.

Already have something like that planned

@Ghost Incorporeal is always a pain, regardless of system But yes, I'll work on that.

@n0q I have been giving that a lot of thought, especially when it comes to the Two Cities/Themes. I've always had issues with the ridiculous levels of Plot Armor it takes for The Punisher to exist in the same city as The Avengers. Now, some of it does work, when it comes to the idea of rogue elements in the government or law enforcement secretly supporting the Punisher; but constantly having the Avengers (especially Captain America, Black Panther, Falcon, and others) turn a blind eye to the Punisher with the refrain of 'we focus on the bigger threats' is just unrealistic.

Staff will be flexible, and work to come up with reasonable plot explanations, but we're never going to force other characters to ignore someone's actions.

One of the ways we're 'enforcing' the separation of Four Color heroes and the grittier vigilantes & anti-heroes is that San Macario has active anti-vigilante laws. It means that the Superman & Wonder Woman type characters are going to get no help from the local police there, and will be 'encouraged' to go back to the other side of the Bay. The corru[ption in the city extends upwards into having the Congressman that represents the District San Macario is in actively working to keep the Federally sanctioned superhuman team out of the city as well. That way, we can manage the reasonable plot elements to allow the crimefighters there to exist, like allies on the police force (Jim Gordon) and such.

@Lithium Believe it or not, I am reading and evaluating all the feedback that this thread is generating. As we're still planning this out and setting things up, nothing is totally written in stone yet until we open the doors. It could very well be that certain Advantages will be pulled when everything is said and done. While I've staffed before, I've never been the one calling the shots and ultimately responsible for a game before, so I've going through all this and constantly evaluating pros and cons of the various discussion points regarding the rules.

@Misadventure

Identities can also 'switch sides' when passed on. Like the criminal Black Knight passing on his legacy to his nephew, who becomes a hero. Or, Spoiler becoming a hero to stop her father, Cluemaster.

We are looking to have 'Legacy' characters, where the players define the various Legacies to carry on. Sort of a 'first come, first served' basis, but there's no real quota on how many Legacies can be created. We are going to cap at 1 Legacy character per player, though. But, the player that first creates and defines the Legacy gets control over who can join in that particular Legacy.

@Arkandel It's running a game, yes. But it's running a game with well-defined and expected tropes in the genre to cater to. Possibly expected moreso than any other game genre.

In truth, no-one ever really dies in comics. Not any of the main characters, at least.

There are, however, plenty of times when accidental deaths of minor or plot characters have occurred.

Two incidents from Iron Man

First, Iron Man was greeting a foreign ambassador who was a fan and with whom Tony Stark was trying to cut a deal with to build factories in the ambassador's country. Justin Hammer used a remote control device to activate Iron Man's repulsors and kill the ambassador in front of the public reception.

Second, durring the first Armor Wars storyline, Tony had to infiltrate into the USSR to deactivate the Stark Tech that was being used in the Titanium Man armor. So, he used a stealth armor that had a limited repulsor capability; three shots only. After using up all three shots in the fight, Iron Man was grabbed by Titanium Man from behind. Tony tried flying upwards in hopes that his suit would better withstand the trip into the upper atmosphere, only to have his jets directly heating the feet of the Titanium Man armor to the point of ignition for titanium, which burns until it's completely consumed. The operator of the Titanium Man armor was killed.

Also, let's not forget the assorted street criminals who have crossed paths with The Punisher.

So, I'm trying to construct things so that Accidental Deaths of minor NPC's can be triggered, but Permanent Deaths of characters doesn't really happen.

@Arkandel said in New Superhero Game Looking for Staff/Feedback:

@Runescryer I guess what I was saying was that the usual problem with PvP is that it seems to default to 'we fight to the death', and that upsets people because they stand to lose their PC.

If that's taken out of the equation it's easier. Sure, Robin just beat the crap out of me but hey... Blackgate can't hold me! So whatever, I got beaten up by a kid in shorts.

Fair point. I pretty much avoid PK games, so I'm not as well versed in the psychology of PvP.

Just for my two cents, outside of Hero vs. Villain fights or the occasional heel turn, for most of the Supers games I've played on, sparring is less about PvP and more about 'So, what are we going to scene today?' Danger Room scenes are more about socializing in a venue that's different than the usual.

That's one of the reasons why I'm wanting to create a stable of simple, stock villains that can be dropped into scenes and emitted without Staff approval; to add a new variable instead of players asking each other 'So, what are we going to do today? Stop another bank robbery or sit around the common room of the HQ and chat?' There's now the option of 'Hey, want to scene? Cool. Let me grab 'Wrecking Ball' and we can team up to stop his latest rampage. Sound good?'