Posts made by SunnyJ

@jennkryst I hope oWoD stuff doesn't change too much. Don't like it don't buy it. I want me some 90's insanity, please.

Almost all of my characters are emotionally scarred. Be it a Sire that tortured their sanity away, or an uncle that fed them people flesh, hyper-demanding parents of a perfectionist noble house, or cultist parents that promised them to the Devil, they are all fucked up, but they are all curious about the other, "normal" side of the fence. Sometimes that curiosity is macabre (like if I am playing a Vampire or something similar), and more often than not just makes themweirdos trying to adjust.

And no, most of times I don't judge you for the characters you play. I will only judge you if you bring that shit to OOC channels and try to act like some condescending Invictus asshole while we are talking about Transformers. Then I will just assume you don't have a character, and that the Invictus asshole you "RP" ICly is just an avatar for your own idiotic behavior. Don't get high on your own supply.

@bobotron

• Old World of Darkness Vampire

• Old World of Darkness Dark Ages Vampire

@the-tree-of-woe I don't think it is you. Almost every game I have touched the last year or so has had the same issue. People want to socialize but not necessarily RP.

Lee Ermey, 74.

Well, for starters, I think you would need enough of a first stint first, so you could do a good post mortem to figure out what worked and what didn't.

Second, I would design a game for the players I had. It is very hard to know game culture when the game is new. In a restart? You know what is going to go down. We all know the "Reach/Fallcoast Tropes" because they are real. You can design a game around Reach-isms, and improve the experience. This includes adjusting the grid, removing factions if you had too many with too few players in them, etc. This includes designing new systems, removing Spheres, etc.It is very important you are honest with yourself in figuring out what was crap in your game to begin with, or what didn't interest players. Sometimes you have some good feature, but players are just not interested in it. SOmetimes you can even have a good game, and no players interested in it.

Redo the wiki. This is the most important. Wiking is always the most important aspect, always.

@zombiegenesis Which one?

1. The rules are great, but I am pretty sure some of the major draws would be taking the reins of a canon house, even if it is something as small as the Marbrand or the Banefort. With a few tweaks to the Green Ronin game, it should be amazing, but prepare for both.

2. Setting: King's Landing as a main hub, and then the other 'Kingdoms' if you think people would like to build their castles there. So you can have Reach -> Horn Hill (where you can then have the Tarly castle). People want pretty castles, I'm pretty sure.

3. Ready-made characters I think are needless. Just have people app, and as they go inactive, roster them, instead of dumpstering bits.

4. Start canon, and then go wherever the game takes you.

@thenomain These are some bold words.

@tinuviel said in Activity and Aid:

@sunnyj said in Activity and Aid:

If you are running your game on an old, arcane system, you must have all powers well noted on the wiki or ingame (which was not the case) and probably some sort of simplified tutorial in the wiki, along with sheets for thugs, etc. Even if you have people willing to ST, sometimes the system is a barrier in itself. Give them tools to run your stuff.

Unless there's a licensing prohibition.

Eh. Honestly, don't see that as an issue. These companies don't seem to care about MUing too much?

Let me try to add something to this convo! Mind you, I wish you nothing but success Eevee, so if anything here sounds harsh, it is not my intention. Staff not loving what they have created is not this game's problem. You guys are all very passionate about it, and it shows.

1. Theme: What is the game about?

When I played there, I felt like the game could have used some sort of theme for players to use when creating their characters. I get the SETTING is Flashpoint Paradox (amazing choice) but what is the THEME? What sort of stories are going to be written there? What is the connecting thread between all characters? A THEME helps characters find common ground even when they come from different walks of life. The game needed that.

2. Custom Codethings.

You guys have a coder you can rely on. Awesome! But the fact you guys built a whole codebase that was unlike what we have in other games meant players have an entry cost in Flashpoint that does not translate into 'learning something new'. The +jobs system was funky, +events was not a thing, etc. I love custom code when it adds functionality that a particular game needs, but not when when it is the same thing from every other mu, but different.

3. Theme Returns: Lack of Focus

With the lack of a Theme it becomes hard to understand when you are designing your character "right" for the game. At launch you planned on allowing Lanterns, and despite the playerbase consisting mostly of ground level Gotham characters like Riddler, Kate Kane, etc, Amazons and Atlanteans were also allowed. I think the playerbase and staff didn't look at the game the same way, and having a focused theme would have helped.

4. Power To The Players

If you are running your game on an old, arcane system, you must have all powers well noted on the wiki or ingame (which was not the case) and probably some sort of simplified tutorial in the wiki, along with sheets for thugs, etc. Even if you have people willing to ST, sometimes the system is a barrier in itself. Give them tools to run your stuff.

5. RP HUBs

WoD games have Spheres, and Spheres have Covenants/Courts, etc. These bring players together. Your game was not WoD, but it had a very attractive WoD flair to it. Having RP HUBs like Watchtower (for vigilantes), GCPD (for cops/vigilantes with secret IDs), Falcone Hangout (for crime people) and Cadmus (for scientist types) could have helped people worldbuild too.

@thatonedude Isn't that all in the perspective of the pack, though? Okay. I invited another player into the game, they app a vampire and join my pack. I don't see the big dynamic change that paragraph proposes. Just small pockets where a single pack ST moves the game for that corner of the world.

@jennkryst The third paragraph of the book is already talking about "Us" versus "Them". The game is about making insular packs, which in tabletop is ideal. The more people pretend that isn't what Werewolf is about, and that it in turn translates into pockets of sandbox, or interpack PvP, on a MU, the less we are talking about how to tweak the premise or game setups to make it work better.

Then again, I have heard people ask for pack vs pack werewolf MUs. So maybe the game isn't broken for MUs, it is just that nobody is willing to sit down and make a game solely revolving around physical combat pvp?

I think the most fundamental aspect of a horror game is having a charming setting (for the purposes of characters having bonds with it) that has a sinister/eerie enough overlay to craft your plots (like people being somewhatkindabutnotreally used to weird rumors about cults and sacrifices).

Imo, have your players create at least NPC that matters to their characters upon apping so people can use on plots, and have pages for such NPCs on the wiki. Never saw this be a thing, but I bet it could be effective. Also, once the NPC is created, they belong to staff. 100% no consent.

IMO don't let people grow from teen to adult. If someone wants that RP the can app a graduate-to-be and then do something like that?

@ashen-shugar Ahhh. The taste of Vamp Sphere. How familiar!

@ganymede WoD: a game for people that hate people and/or themselves.

Simple!

When looking for good social systems in a game, what is it that you are looking for? Does it need to be quick and not that mechanic extensive? Do you like a complex showdown?

@ganymede Yeah, Gany raises some great points and now I'm curious too. This seems like an oWoD game from reading what you wrote. What is the 'thing' behind the game, the theme of it? What is the goal? What sort of Bloodline are you looking for to push this agenda?