Posts made by WildBaboons

@Auspice said in Space Sim w/Economy:

WNOHGB

What is that

It seems like by "World of Darkness with limitations" you mean any and all urban fantasy that isn't world of darkness. Not sure how to answer that one.

@Auspice said in Star vs Ensemble Cast - Why Theme is Vital:

I played on a Dresden game once and it very quickly became 'The primary Wizard (aka Harry-analog), his apprentice (aka Molly-analog) and their friends.' The rest of us were literally told 'Staff is not going to be providing stories for anyone outside of this group. If you want plot, you have to make your own.'

That reads like an example of bad staffing, not bad theme. If the theme of the game is red court is on the rise and Mab is meddling and the staff only lets a small subset of the game participate.. as Wizz said, that happens everywhere.

I don't know, you may be too narrowly focusing on Theme as the actions of the main protagonist.

In the Dresden Files example especially there is a large, interesting ensemble cast. The Knights, Thomas, Molly, Butters, the Paranet, etc. Heck, even Ghost Story was largely about how things continued on without the Star.

There have been at least three long lasting, active Dresden File games in the last decade or so that I'm aware of. One thing I can think of in common with them is that none of them had Harry Dresden as a character, NPC or otherwise, he just never made an appearance. The theme was there, the world building was there, everything you needed for a game.

@Arkandel said in Carnival Row:

self-starters who can make it up as they go along

This itself is "what can I do when I log in?" It may be exactly what the game is there for or that sort of thing may be actively discouraged to avoid theme going in odd directions. (See games that have had zombie Apocalypse beach parties with DJs and cupcakes or Pirates of the Caribbean mango rum drinking ocean raiders for example)