Posts made by Thenomain

@zombiegenesis said in Social Systems:

@Thenomain Most of the systems I use (Savage Worlds and A Song of Ice and Fire) actually have you set a social objective before you enter into the social conflict.

This is the negotiation I mentioned. I can think of quite a few systems that have tried this, and have considered how this would be done outside a social situation and each time I run it through my head, the social situation takes far longer to get into.

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A Practical Example

Back in the oWoD days, the rules were pretty much written as "this sounded good at the time" and Rule Zero always gave people the chance to ignore rules.

In action in a situation where there is no GM oversight—i.e., online—this meant that everyone could negotiate what the rule really meant. In action, combat scenes of 4 people could take more than eight hours.

More than eight hours. For combat. And why? Because people could argue their case.

It has been said and repeated that stricter rules keeps this from happening, and people can either agree to play a game with that rule or not, or informally ask people to ignore the rules, but they couldn't make a case for each roll of the dice and therefore things go far faster.

This is what most social systems lack.

Fix this.

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edit: I have seen @SunnyJ's attempts at fixing this. They're pretty bad-ass.

I have skipped to the very end because I didn't see people focusing on this:

In almost every other rolled situation, you have a fairly clear idea of risk/reward, even if sometimes the risk is you don't get the reward. And by "reward" here I mean "find the trail" or "hit the dude". Sometimes the risk is more interesting.

I've seen very few social systems lay out a risk/reward system in as clear a matter. It's muddy and far more personal than other systems. Negotiating seems to be required just to get started. There are almost never rules as to what social stats can do, and that makes comparisons to combat and other types of contests neigh useless.

So start with deciding what your social challenges are for.

Then make a system that does that.

After that, it's a matter of tweaking the first or second step until you feel that people are engaged.

@ganymede said in General Video Game Thread:

@thenomain said in General Video Game Thread:

But whatever we think, that we had different experiences and still enjoyed the game means it deserves some kind of Most Amazing RPG To Date award.

That award clearly goes to The Last of Us. Still.

Then it's The Best I've Ever Played. This is a valid award that Witcher 3 did better than your mom.

@sg said in Skin Bug:

Every time I see this thread on my unread list, it makes me think of a hookworm picture I saw earlier this month.

Well. This is Soapbox. The analogy kind of works.

@sg said in General Video Game Thread:

@thenomain said in General Video Game Thread:

@tnp said in General Video Game Thread:

One word: Triss.

For whatever reason, Witcher 3 didn’t let me romance her. And in the end I’m glad, because Triss was a whiny do-gooder, and I’m always too nice in all the games I play. The way I played, tho, Yennifer was a complex and interesting woman.

I had the opposite experience. Triss was all about getting her hands dirty and getting things done. Yennifer was pretty awful and bragged about using mind control on Geralt to get what she wanted.

This ends up being a whole lot of deflection. Like the hint to me below about Triss, Yennifer is a proud woman who doesn't trust easily.

To me, Triss was super-whiney.

But whatever we think, that we had different experiences and still enjoyed the game means it deserves some kind of Most Amazing RPG To Date award.

@scar

Considering how frazzled she looks, maybe that’s on purpose?

@tnp said in General Video Game Thread:

One word: Triss.

For whatever reason, Witcher 3 didn’t let me romance her. And in the end I’m glad, because Triss was a whiny do-gooder, and I’m always too nice in all the games I play. The way I played, tho, Yennifer was a complex and interesting woman.

Recently started playing Tyranny.

This is a much, much better game than Torment: Tides of Numenera.

@kanye-qwest

I will say that a lot of people do Mu* for minigame. Muds are a lot of minigame. Mushes have a lot of crafting minigames. Politics minigames. Economics minigames. Minigames all over the miniplace.

It is almost universally a bad idea to let people spread out too far. There are exceptions (a TwoMoons game I coded for had people pretty much one alt per region, which kept things alive, and the Vienna WoD game Haunted Memories had a large grid that nonetheless felt alive), but unless it feels right, or unless people are pushing in that direction, it is far better to keep people close enough that there is always someone else to interact with.

@lotherio said in Sci Fi/Opera Originality:

There seems some interest in original sci fi/fantasy/space opera, but seems very niche these days

Arx is about big visions and doing big things. I sincerely doubt people won't be able to get into a Space Opera style game these days.

The key is to give people something to do, and they'll enjoy whatever genre you put in front of them, especially if they have some dispensation toward that genre or setting to begin with.

@arkandel said in Good TV:

I think whether it goes into my tier 1 pile will depend on its villains. He can't keep fighting gang members and street toughs forever, let's see what they got cooking

You must be easily frustrated by anime. Those things have a boil slower than taking a lighter to the bottom of a bathtub.

Here are these bloodlines applied to my GMC/CoD stat system (probably would work identically on my older stat system):

https://github.com/thenomain/GMCCG/blob/master/Z - Game Lines/Vampire the Requiem/VtRz - The Descent - Bloodlines.txt

Should give anyone enough code to apply to their own games.

@tnp said in RL Anger:

@thenomain Look more. You'll find other things.

This is the basis of science, yes, except that we're supposed to look with a more structured approach.

@admiral

I...just realized that our public services are Socialism.

Huh.

(I also realize that we're solidly in Politics board territory.)

@sunnyj said in Descent Reboot:

@thenomain

@thenomain said in Descent Reboot:

Promethean is on the list.

It's on the list under "Never", but it did make the list.

Cruel, man. Cruel.

Do you know how difficult their sheet system is?

Not as hard as Demon's, but if I get the gumption, I will be all over it.

Ganymede's customized Bloodlines are in.

Hurt Locker's absolutely horrible fighting styles are in, but I haven't worked out how sheet is going to show them, and I'm not sure if the xp spending system knows what to do with them either. It should, but I have too many headaches to work it out right now.

Promethean is on the list.

It's on the list under "Never", but it did make the list.

@bobotron said in Random links:

@arkandel

Just... why?

Because meeting up with celebrities to solve mysteries is what Scooby Doo does.

edit:

Batman & Robin. C'mon, the real question is why didn't this happen sooner?

@ganymede

I have no idea who let Dayton become a thing. I mean, at least it isn't Toledo.

I will miss her intelligence, her clarity, and her respect for the world.

@surreality

In the only case of my suggesting this: Get the plan.

Make sure the store will take a thing back if you destroy the keyboard through the mere act of typing.

If they say 'no', shop elsewhere, because seriously.