Best posts made by Wizz

Street level secret world weirdness. Like, say, The Secret World but grimier; there's no globe-spanning organizations and nobody has more than scraps of anything. It's all cults and nomadic secret orders and they all want a slice of some big mystical pie nobody in their right mind should ever actually touch, because magic and old gods and the mysteries behind the universe are something that will someday, somehow, guaranteed get you buried in an unmarked grave or get you so disappeared you may as well be. But you were touched by it, and that one taste will never ever be enough.

@zombiegenesis said in MUs That We Would Love To Make (But Won't):

I think you'd have a hard time getting people to "play it straight" and take the theme seriously.

It's a property from the 80's explicitly designed for children, it's inherently a little silly. Trying to get people to play it "seriously" is the wrong angle, imo. Just because people are having fun with it doesn't at all mean you couldn't also tell stories with real weight or gravitas.

I really, really liked the first episode, but the way the second of Lovecraft Country went has me like...ehhh. I'll keep watching, but I'm a little baffled by how much the tone and pacing shifted and how they went through that plot at like, a full-on sprint.

@Coin said in What Types of Games Would People Like To See?:

@Wizz said in What Types of Games Would People Like To See?:

@MidnightCarnival said in What Types of Games Would People Like To See?:

Maybe a game that was based on a type of Demigods, Gods, and Goddesses like thing. Like American Gods or a blast from the past with Magnus Chase or Percy Jackson-type fun.

Scion 2E has been...sort of a thing for a minute! They're still working on the demigod and god stuff tho.

Man, people complain about dinosaurs and power creep on normal games; I can't imagine the amount of whining and bitching there'd be on a game where there are literal tiers of power and if you're below someone else you're basically like a fly. Lol.

What is really cool (in theory, we'll see how they'll make it work) is that the different tiers are almost like completely different games this time around. Demigods and Gods aren't just "Hero character but can juggle mountains now." They don't just open themed coffee shops and casually smite the fuck out of people in BaRP, they've got very different spheres of responsibility and can't muck around in the mortal world without severe consequences, so they have to rely on Hero-level characters and mortals for the every day stuff. I think it'd be really interesting to see a MU* with all three interdependent tiers in action the way they've described it.

On the subject of MU*s to not-make:

Oubliette. I'm actually a little surprised I haven't seen a MU* or even discussion here about it, it's such a fun and bizarre setting.

Imagine a place that is sort of between Heaven and Hell, where all forgotten souls, creatures, cultures, and even gods wind up after they disappear from the world of the living. Everyone has a living body but is basically immortal, and even if slain they simply appear again in a new body some time later -- but because the sheer scale of time in this place is so immense, many of the inhabitants are "broken" after eons of existence, and simply wander mindlessly or lay in piles on the streets.

The realm is enormous and made up of a strange mix of locations all contained within a boundary that is essentially impossible to escape, and includes vast deserts, hostile jungles, bizarre cities, a vast underground, etc. that is constantly changing, breaking down, and reforming. The whole is referred to as Castle Oubliette.

Because time is "a plate of worms" in the Castle instead of strictly linear, you could meet someone who died in 1346 and someone else who died in 1982 and have lunch with them, though more likely you'd all be working for the vampires who rule one of the districts, or running from goblins in a Labyrinth, or fighting for the honor of a mad god, or a million other things.

There's politics and adventure and horror and simple slice of life stuff all in a zany Purgatory place and you can play anything from a mutated rat all the way up to the living concept of hate, and boy I sure do love it.

@Lotherio said in Good or New Movies Review:

@Wizz said in Good or New Movies Review:

I mean wouldn't a French art house Trek be kind of amazing tho

I think David Lynch did this in like the 90s, are we talking about original Twin Peaks at this point?

One day, my Captain's Log will have something to say about this.

@Coin said in Spitballing for a supers Mush:

Though honestly, at this point, there could be a dozen Batgirls, Robins, Nightwings, whatever. Shit, just have everyone play Logan and put a number after their name, who gives a fuck.

This was how Project Infinity handled it. IIRC, there had been like five different Spider-Mans, but they maintained a continuity at the same time to a degree, so even a freshly-bitten Peter Parker pulled through the wormhole right out of high school had to be aware and at least acknowledge that another much older dude calling himself Spider-Man had already been webslinging around and that people would recognize the costume.

And honestly that was pretty fun. It gave you something really different to navigate, not that you were forced to play out the same exact relationships or storylines but that someone who was essentially you had at one point.

@pyrephox said in Online friends:

There's actually a phenomenon called the Online Disinhibition Effect

YAY I LEARNED SOMETHING TODAY

The tiny little feet kill me every time I look at this.

That strikes me as a downright bizarre mashup, with a lot of inherent conflict, but I'll be fascinated to see how you make it work!

@Coin said:

Sometimes I do spend those ten or fifteen minutes on those two sentences. Sometimes I sit there and wonder about the right adjective to use; is it a rictus or is it a moue? Is my character showing contempt or not? How do I inject immediacy into this scene as bruskly and sharply as possible?

Not to give my writing any undue credit, but this is the biggest problem I've had the few times I've tried coming back to RPing after a long hiatus. People are used to quick poses and I'm over here trying to create art, maaaaaan and I've really felt the pressure just to hurry the fuck up, and I haven't liked it at all. Where all the wordy bitches at?

@Macha

Membership itself is free!! But yeah, getting the card is basically just an excuse to put money towards their activism efforts. FeelsGood.gif

@tek said in The Celebrated Company of Mongrels:

@Wizz i love you and i love this

@Derp said in The Celebrated Company of Mongrels:

This sounds neat.

I actually really, really like Beast. It's definitely its own thing; Beasts are avatars of primordial fear and can bring nightmares into the real world, basically. Give it the benefit of the doubt and have a full read, don't just make assumptions based on the blurb.

@Lotherio said in The Future is Now:

You make me want to watch that movie again.

Never a bad call, friend.

@thesuntsar

So, the way it's working in my mind at the moment is pretty highly variable.

Nobility are obviously not all mustache-twirling evil, but they do rule by divine right according to the Church. Many are feverishly faithful while others are basically only adherents because they're required to be, and more lax as to who they'll associate with behind closed doors.

Some nobles will refuse to hire a regiment not led by former nobility or knights, or at least be incredibly difficult to work with, and may even threaten not to honor the terms of a contract if they learn non-humans were involved -- but again, that might be entirely a public spectacle that characters have to withstand through gritted teeth until payment is delivered later in private.

Basically it will be advantageous to play a former noble or knight when contracting with nobility, but not being one is not always some enormous social barrier you can't overcome. The Company presents you as a leader and gives you the right to negotiate and for the most part, at this point nobles are desperate enough for the help.

Nobility are also not the only NPCs with authority; villages have elders or mayors or councils and the exact opposite dynamic might turn out to be in play.

ETA: SPEAKING OF THE CHURCH, have a look-see at the first draft and let me know what you think.

Also ignore the double post plz

OP hasn't mentioned the mechanics behind gaining renown to a great degree, but a lot of the mechanical changes to having renown are pretty damn cool. Werewolves can inflict conditions on people like vampires, and also flare their power like mages. I'm pretty excited for it and genuinely torn as to whether I want to make a Demon or a Werewolf first.

S2 Episode 15 of The Mandalorian was awesome.

And jesu cristo Bill Burr has some CHOPS, I am still a little shocked!

@theznar said in Interest check: Early Rebellion SW game:

The Force really probably isn't going to happen. Unless it's dealing with some NPC for a bit. I'm open to evolving as time goes on, but I'm really not a huge fan of one or two people getting to play an awesome role with very limited slots.

Just out of curiosity, why limit Force slots that way at all? People love to play Jedi, but that's not the only reason to Star Wars by a very long shot. I'm sure you'd see a pretty diverse cast regardless. Maybe limit Force Users to one per account if you really wanted to maintain some sense of proportion, but otherwise just say the number of non-FU NPCs is simply higher and PCs are the exception.

Not that Force PCs would be a dealbreaker for me personally either way, I love the idea of playing a plucky cell against the Empire. Star Wars: Rebels has given me such a hankering for it

@Arkandel
With Renown moving to front and center in 2.0, I get your frustration, but it's such a huge mechanic now that I gotta agree with @Coin. It just doesn't make any sense for players to be able to write it off. This probably means that playing a wolf inherently requires more investment and thus it might be the smaller, less popular sphere, but on the other hand that investment is a huge draw for players like me, even if it means my own progress might be relatively "slower" than other players'. Maybe it's a matter of deciding how much that specifically actually matters to your own sense of enjoyment.