Posts made by Seraphim73

Spending time on relatively-brainless computer games (WoW for my wife, CK3 for me), while sharing time watching TV shows we've already seen that show a better world than the one we have (The West Wing, Madame Secretary, etc). Trying to be okay cutting down my RP time because it requires creative energy and I just do not have that right now. Focusing on safety in public commitments, and focusing on the numbers/data for making public decisions.

@theznar Augh. I get going with the code base that you have easy access to, but I honestly don’t know that I can easily give up the features of AresMush.

I love the era, and I think it's a good one. I'm very interested (although I'm not a huge fan of WEG, I suppose it would be better without Force-users).

I will put forward three issues with what you've proposed, and a couple of ideas on how to balance them out (just unsolicited advice and I won't feel bad if you totally ignore the suggestions).

1. There is a significant portion of Star Wars players who just want to play Jedi, and won't join any game that doesn't have Force Users. I see two solutions to this, either just accept that you won't get those players (my suggestion) or allow minor Force abilities (which I think will just frustrate the players who want to be Jedi).

2. A ton of players want to play Han Solo before he joined the Rebellion, and just want to be independent smugglers. My solution: keep the theme tight, require people to app in as actual members of the cell, and hold them to it.

3. You will have some players who want to play Rogue One, and some who will want to play The Force Unleashed. One group will want the entire Rebel Fleet to be beaten up by two Star Destroyers and a defense base, and the other group will want to have fleet engagements when they aren't trying to board Star Destroyers with 40 of their closest friends and take them over. I strongly suggest picking which of those two extremes (or more likely, which point in between them) you want to play, be very up-front about it, and enforce it ruthlessly and equally.

Leverage. It has the 'small troupe style' problem that most RPGs do, but I adore the Flashback mechanics, so much so that I've brought them into the last two games I've run. Plus, who doesn't like competence-porn?

We're just reaching the end of our current Adventure and our logins and activity have gotten pretty low. We're looking for help from folks as to both 'why they're not playing' and 'what would they like to see.' If you played on The Savage Skies, we would appreciate if you took the few minutes to fill out the following poll:

https://forms.gle/s2GNi22yboUCSEb76

@Otrere said in Web portals and scenes and grids oh my!:

Even with your two axes, we'll really only end up with three types of scenes:

• "live" - shorter average pose speed, less than a day.
• "asynch, one-day" - longer average pose speed, probably people at work or busy with RL. Maybe the pace improves when they all get home, maybe not.
• "asynch, multi-day" - yeah, we're gonna take our time with this to play it all out.

In my own experience, there’s one more type of scene:

• “Live Burst” - 1-3 hours of live play, a pause usually around 12-20 hours, and then another 1-3 hours of live play to finish it up.

@KDraygo said in Vietnam War MUSH:

There was nothing good about the Vietnam War to play about.

Unless it's Aliens.

@Rinel A displaced German leftist would certainly work, especially a Catholic given Chancellor Joachim Kott’s recent feud with the Pope during his visit to Italy (https://savageskies.aresmush.com/forum/11/616). But Coin’s point is a good one: all character have to be volunteer members of the Sky Guard (volunteer in that they signed up to be there, they definitely get paid).

I’d suggest starting with the Overview page, as it has a broad view, plus some links to check out next.

@Obie said in Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era):

As a result of last night's actions, past experiences, and also from observing player behaviour in chargen, I've decided to nix the random generated ability rolls that came with the system and stick with 32 point buy.

I think that this is an excellent idea -- although I think I'd suggest a 36-point buy. Just a slight preference, but the 32 works plenty well too.

As for keeping dinosaur characters, that's a hard no from me. I had a very powerful character way back on Generations of Darkness, but a) I have no interest in bringing that character back, because I already told story with him, and b) even if I did, there is zero way I would ever expect or ask to be let back in with XP and gear that took me months (a year?) to earn. Saga Edition already has a major problem with dinosaurs, allowing dinosaur characters at starting is just exacerbating the problem.

@Obie I think we were on the same game.

I agree that relatively narrow canon changes but keeping the general sweep of history the same is a good call. In my opinion, you want to have the new setting be recognizable, and to make sure that a new player can scan over a (relatively) brief list of bulletpoints as to "what's different" from established canon and still feel like they can fit their expectations into the new reality.

I also love how you've described the use of FCs. I'm also of the opinion that canon characters should be used as questgivers and canon touchpoints only, and should all be in the hands of Staff. Then you don't have to worry about, for instance, Palpatine going off and starting Order 66 a couple of months before everyone was ready.

@Coin Yes, I know, for those south of the equator that doesn't work as well. Yes, it's cartographic imperialism.

@bear_necessities It's not about being anxious or worried about missing something, it's about being surprised when you're playing along day to day and then you realize that the game is in September when the real world is in May, and you were just starting to think 'hey, it's almost June, that's when my character's birthday is.' It's one more step of remove from the real world.

I definitely agree that there are benefits to increased time ratios (marriages, pregnancies, learning, promotions, research, etc), but I just like it when things synch up. When it's hot out, I often want to RP by character either reveling in the heat or avoiding it -- I don't want to have to think about whether it's actually January ICly and my characters should be worrying about snowshoes.

Just different strokes for different folks.

I think that if everyone is on the same side, Episode II is a pretty great setting. There's plenty to RP about, there's always action going on, and Force Users are common. You'll have to decide how far you want to diverge from canon though -- there are dangers on both sides.

I'm a huge fan of 1:1 except when it serves a specific purpose. I also like my IC time to line up with RL time, because I get a lot of inspiration -- I can be decorating my house for Christmas and wonder how my characters might handle Christmas onboard a giant airship aircraft carrier while also worrying about whether fascists are sending dragons after them for the giant spell they cast on their last mission.

There are definitely times for different time scales -- I think we used 2RL:1IC pretty effectively on The 100 for the first part of the game, because we wanted events to happen close together ICly, but we wanted time to play out the repercussions. And either a time skip or switching to 1RL:2IC or even faster for short periods of time to advance plot can be very effective -- as @Coin said, mostly on small games. That's because, of course, Staff has to either trust everyone to come up with what their character did during the time skip or faster time, or they have to vet everyone's plans.

That said, I still think that 1:1 is the best for games set in our world in a recognizable time, because it helps keep everyone's vision of what's happening in the world in the same place. On a game with a different time scale, it can be jarring to realize that you missed a holiday or that one's coming up very soon, to say nothing of birthdays or other character-important dates.

@Ominous said in If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP:

What if you did it in a low-magic fantasy setting, say like Mouse Guard only with humans? Or is the modern setting a central part of the appeal?

It's not fantasy, but the middle-magic setting of The Savage Skies has attracted quite a few people. Unfortunately, the historical setting takes more brainpower than a modern day setting does, so we've had quite a few folks get idle because braining is hard these days. That might be one reason that a modern setting would be important right now.

There are a number of Feats/Talents/etc that are simply better (or worse) than similar ones, but the biggest threat to balance (in my opinion) is comparing skills to attacks/defenses at early levels (under 10-12). This manifests itself through the use of Use the Force for defenses (Block/Deflect) and attack (most damage-dealing Force Powers) and Vehicular Combat, but also works for Intimidation attempts and any other time you roll a skill against a defense or attack roll. The biggest culprit is Skill Focus. At level 1, you can have a Use the Force or Pilot of 15ish, which is about the same as most defenses -- before you add 1d20. My suggestion is to House Rule this to Skill Focus providing a bonus of 1/2 level (round up), with a max of +5.

There's another minor thing if you're planning to have Dark Side characters, and that's halving the bonuses for Dark Rage.

Beyond the mechanical, however, the biggest advice I can give you is to keep your focus relatively narrow. Have something specific to tie all of the characters together and give them a reason to interact. Maybe they all serve the Republic as soldiers, peacekeepers, privateers, etc, or maybe they're all connected to emerging Confederate interests. Whatever it is, the Galaxy is a huge place, and if you don't pull your characters together from the start, I think that you're going to end up with them scattered widely and with some of them having little reason to interact with the others.

There wasn’t a place for comments on the FC/OC question, but my preference is to keep FCs in the hands of Staff and to use them minimally as quest givers and sources of guidance. I voted for a few FCs.

We're back up. Sorry about the delay.

My preference in general is for competing factions within a larger war. I generally prefer the politics to be Character vs Character and the combat to be Character vs Environment. I think that this generally means that there are fewer CvC deaths, which tend to be the ones that cause the most disgruntlement and calls of favoritism (you’re going to get disgruntlement and calls of favoritism even if the characters are just competing over a seat on a bench).

This weekend we’re finishing up our first real location (Spain in the Spanish Civil War) and moving on. Starting next week, the airship aircraft carrier and floating black market known as the Guinevere will be settled in the southern Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, immediately in the wake of the Anschluss of Austria by a resurgent and magic-centric Germany.

Did you get tired of punching proxies and want to go right up against the big bads? Were two nearby great dragons too few (the Gwen will be within 300 miles of 4 now)? Not enough opportunities for interrupting fascist rallies to steal things or blow something up?

Czechoslovakia might be just what you need to get into The Savage Skies. Our Current Adventurepage will be updated for the new location Saturday.