Posts made by ZombieGenesis

@Ghost Renegade Game Studios. It runs off their Essence20 system. It's not bad. It powers GI Joe, Transformers, Power Rangers, and...My Little Pony.

Modiphius does the 2d20 system that powers Star Trek, Fallout, Conan, and some other stuff. I feel that's a pretty good system. I'm currently in love with Star Trek and Fallout. Love the settings and I love the system. So happy Star Trek finally has a decent system to power it.

Free League does Alien which I'm very much hoping to run for my TT group some day.

@Ghost I ran a M&M game a very long time ago. It might have even been first edition. Maybe 2nd. It did okay but did run out of steam.

I do agree that ease into entry is very much a big thing. It's why I've ultimately given up on trying to use any sort of RPG system on a game unless it's FS3 or a basic traits system. If there was a fleshed out CoD/WoD plugin for Ares maybe that would be included.

RE: GI Joe, I actually do think you could do that fairly well with FS3.

So, I've been working with a few very new folks, not just to MUing but to RP in general. They are intimidated by MUSHing but are willing to give it a shot in a controlled environment. So, I set up a game and have been working with them on it. Earlier today, one of them asked me, "Why don't you use this to set up a GI Joe game?"

We've been playing the tabletop GI Joe RPG in our TT group, and today we were messing around with the FS3 combat system(which I'm not an expert in). They thought GI Joe would work great with the system and didn't understand why a game doesn't exist.

While I agreed with them that the game would be cool, I think the problem is there's no interest in it out in the world. We'd get 4 players, and 3 of them were right here. LOL

I explained that, in my experience, the MU community is interested mainly in modern-day horror and superhero games. This is probably because of the easy social component each comes with. While I think that could also exist on a GI Joe game, I think the knee-jerk response would be, "I'm not interested in an action game like that."

I know this is kind of akin to the old thread "Games I'd Love To Make But Won't" but instead of neroing that thread, I figured I'd just make a new one. So do you have any games you'd love to make but the juice just isn't worth the squeeze for whatever reason?

Arleen Sorkin The original voice of Harley Quinn.

Weirdly, my TT group messaged me this morning asking about "that MUSHing" thing I do and wanted to give it a try. So I'm working with them at the moment to get their feet wet on a game.

@Ghost I am very much a fan of RPGs and TT stuff. I'm also a huge fan of narrative storytelling. My sweet spot is when the two meet. That's why I love Ares, the web portal allows me to partake in MUing/storytelling at a casual pace. I often don't have time to dedicate 3 or 4 hours to a session but I can get a pose out every hour or so generally. It's a struggle just to hook up with my regular gaming group nowadays, unfortunately.

Being an adult and having a job and responsibilities seriously cuts into my gaming time!

@Devrex Yeah, I think Nightlife is a straightforward, fast-paced system. It plays like Call of Cthulhu, especially if you tweak it just a tad. I think it's one of those systems you can use to enhance your RP without the mechanics getting in the way. I could be wrong, of course.

The one major drawback would be no web-based c-gen. Then again, most MU's don't have web based c-gen. It would have a web-based sheet and a simple roll system for the scene system, but that's it. So, time investment is minimal.

I've been poking away at it, at any rate. We'll see.

@Ghost I hear what you're saying and believe me, I get it. I gave a lot of thought to FS3. In the end, however, I was worried that it just wouldn't handle supernatural creatures well. I toyed around with using Advantages as sort of supernatural powers but it just never quite felt right.

It does offer a lot of convenience and, as I said, I've considered it heavily I just worry about how it would deal with things like vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural creatures. I thought about utilizing attacks and armor and what not to simulate some things and other stuff could just be RP fodder but I worried about player buy in, you know?

I think Faraday herself even discourages people from trying to use FS3 in such a way. I know there are supernatural games out there that use FS3 but I don't think they do it in the way I'm intending(a WoD/CoD alternative).

I'm open to ideas, however.

@Misadventure That's an interesting idea. Something I'll have to chew on.

So I'm starting to feel the itch to run a game again and I want to break out of my comic book mentality. I'm a big horror RPG fan and have wanted to run a supernatural horror game for a long time. My first instinct was to use Chronicles of Darkness, focusing on Vampires and Werewolves. However, I have an old RPG called Nightlife, which also tempts me.

The advantages of Nightlife include it being a very easy system and there are a ton of creature types you can be that all use one unified system. My question is, if someone opens a horror game does it need to be WoD/CoD? Is that just what the community expects or would something like Nightlife have a shot of catching an audience?

@Devrex You may be on to something. It seems like they tried to craft a system where the mechanics did not get in the way of RP. It was also a substantial rework from the beta game in a short period, so who knows.

@Macha LOL It's a fun system. I think this might be a great system if you're interested in Marvel RP. And, at least on Amazon, it's not too expensive at the moment.

I know there are a few comic fans here, and Marvel just put out a new RPG, so I thought I'd share my thoughts on it.

To start, I was not a fan of the playtest material. I didn't think it felt like a superhero game at all. So I had given up hope on it. Last week, a friend told me I needed to check out the actual release because it was pretty different from the playtest material. So I ordered it from Amazon and was more than a little surprised. They seemed to have fixed most of my problems with it.

I won't bore people with a long-winded review of the system. Instead, I'll make bullet points of things I like and don't like. This is all based on reading the game and making a character. I have not been able to play it yet.

Things I like...

• It's a good-looking book. It's nice to have in my collection.
• It's a decent mid-crunch game. I say mid-crunch only because they use multipliers to achieve some results. This might turn some people off and be clunky in play, but it seems simple enough at a glance.
• It seems like it will play quickly.
• It's very thematic. This is not a generic superhero RPG. It's the Marvel RPG. Powers are named after their most iconic incarnations, but it's easy enough to reskin/rename a power to fit your character. For example, your Shield Bash doesn't need to be a Shield Bash. It could be any close-quarters attack that could knock someone prone.
• Character creation is very quick and simple. I think most people could make a character in 15 minutes or less.
• Powers are straightforward with no fiddly bits. A power does a thing, and that's it. They're all rated equally, making power selection very easy. Some powers are tiered, having a 2, 3rd, or 4th rank, but each is treated like an individual power with the previous levels as prerequisites. I like it. It's a nice counterpoint to something like Hero or M&M.
• It seems like it'd be very easy to make house rules for.
• They give a ton of example characters. Something like 100.
• And if you don't like how a character is built? I've heard a lot of people complaining because Daredevil is a Rank 2 character. Well, it's very easy to rebuild a character to suit your needs. Upping DD to Rank 4 would be very easy. To test the character generation system, I created my favorite fantasy build, a venomized Mary Jane. It worked very well, which brings me to my next point...
• Characters you build are on the same level as their Marvel counterparts. One of my big gripes with some RPGs built off existing IPs is that your characters generally can't compare or compete with characters from the IP universe. Spider-Man is Rank 4 and built just like any other Rank 4 character. I love that.

Things I don't like...

• There's no PDF. You can get a physical copy or access it through Demiplane or Roll20. That was a huge bummer for me.
• It's expensive. It's $60 retail(though Amazon has it for $35 right now) and $50 on Demiplane and Roll20 I think.
• Some things are a bit vague or up to interpretation. For instance, Telekinetic Manipulation says a character can manipulate objects with their mind. That's it. No discussion of how big or heavy those objects can be. Fixed with a simple house rule, but it still seems like an oversight.
• There is just no customization to powers. No mechanical method anyway. This can get a little clunky with some characters. Magneto, for instance, has a lot of powers that show how he can use his "element"(metal) to do things but has nothing that says he can lift a car. He could hit someone with a car, wrap people up in girders, and all kinds of other stuff but nothing that says he can lift a car or a mailbox or something. You assume he can, given the nature of his powers and all the things he can do. It's a bit clunky, and I can see it being an issue if you're playing with argumentative people.
• There's no adventure. I'd have given up some sample characters for an introductory adventure.
• It's very much a comic combat simulator. That's less of a gripe, given most RPGs are combat simulators, but the Storypath system has spoiled me, and I was hoping for more.
• They list a few unique weapons in write-ups(such as Mjolnir) but don't give the rules on how to create those weapons.

And that's about it for now. Maybe the system will fall apart in actual play, but I think it has promise. It's a nice middle ground between games like Hero or M&M and the more narrative-focused rules-lite systems. I can see having a lot of fun with it.

@Hella Savage Worlds is a great system. The one thing that my players tend to get hung up on is using the deck of cards for initiative. If you're more accustomed to traditional RPGs, that may come as a shock. It can also be VERY swingy thanks to exploding dice and the extra d6 you roll with everything. It can lead to unpredictable results.

Have fun! I think(hope) you'll enjoy it!

Pee Wee Herman

@Devrex I wish I could do more, I really do. I did share the link on FB so hopefully that helps. Thinking good thoughts.

@Nessa By cheating, do you mean altering their sheets or not going by their sheets when they make their dice rolls?

For sheet alteration, it is possible to lock the sheets. Though one of the cool features of the web-based sheets is that you can link directly to a D&D Beyond sheet if you're doing D&D.

Or do you mean just ignoring the sheet and saying they have this or that or whatever? In that case, I think I'd have a low tolerance for it as an admin or player, really. Don't RP with people who do that if you're a player, and if you're a game admin, kick them off the game.

I see what you're saying, though. Automated in-game systems are difficult to abuse in such ways.

I've started migrating away from traditional MUSH/X systems the more I use Ares. The combination of the scene system, the dice roller plug-in, and the ability to display PDF sheets are just too convenient. It means I can spend time working on the game world rather than the mechanics that power the system.

So I'm just curious, how important are in-game systems to you as a player? Would you be turned off from a game with a theme that interests you because it uses a web-hosted PDF sheet? Why is that?

I worry that, as a community in general, we don't welcome new things. Be it new ways of doing things or new game themes or ideas. So I worry about stepping out of the WoD/Comic zone after seeing a lot of cool games come and go with little to no fanfare.

So just curious about what people's thoughts on the matter are.

@Ghost I'm about 8 hours in and I'm loving it. This is generally not my type of game either(I'm generally more of a combat sports or Dark Souls person). I'm also not a huge Harry Potter fan. I enjoyed the movies and books well enough but only to read/watch them once each. This game, however, has sucked me right in and I can't seem to stop playing.

Mills Lane

@Macha Wow. Not a good day for my inner teenager. These are rough.