Posts made by ZombieGenesis

Jim Neidhart(prowrestler)

He was one of my faves as part of the Hart Foundation back in the day.

@faraday Well we didn't ignore the dice. The dice were excellent adjudicators of the fiction. Succeeding here, failing there, developing a story around those things. I think the important thing was the fact that we did not have to remember all about our feats and powers and what not we could, instead, focus on creating cool aspects and consequences and things of that nature. I'm not saying the various SW RPGs are bad, most of them are quite good, but this was a really fun change of pace with FAE putting the focus on developing the fiction instead of memorizing a laundry list of rules and things of that nature.

@faraday Yeah, I totally get that. It's kind of the same with my group and Worlds in Peril. They have you stat up your character by what is "Easy", "Difficult", and "Possible" for a character but there's absolutely no difference when you roll dice for any of it. So we just did a slight mod of putting difficulty levels on things, Easy = 8, Difficult = 9, Possible = 10.

We're already talking about something similar for FAE/FATE. If it's not something that you are even capable of doing based on your aspects than you might roll the same number as someone else but you suffer a penalty. Like there's a persistent aspect labeled "You can't do that!"

I will say that last night we opted to do some Star Wars using FAE and we had THE MOST FUN we have ever had playing Star Wars. Instead of trying to figure out what we can and can't do based on feats or powers we just justified doing "Jedi Stuff" using our aspects and had a freaking blast. It was phenomenal.

@faraday My answer to the "why" question would be because they are both player characters. That's the best answer I can give. NPCs would have a different impact on the narrative. PCs, however, should be on even footing in certain ways regardless of if they are Hulk Hogan or the Incredible Hulk(or Iron Man and Hawkeye or whatever). It is something different to wrap your head around, however.

As for OCs, yeah, that's the real hanging point. That's the biggest hangup for me deciding to go all in and try this out on a MU level.

@Misadventure For me it's a relief. My group had been playing M&M3E/DC Adventures since DCA came out. The most frustrating thing to me was fudging stats to get characters to certain Power Levels. It did not make sense for The Joker to have an attack at +12(or even +10) but it had to be that way so he could be competitive with Batman in a combat scenario. That's why I found Marvel Heroic and, to a greater extent, Worlds in Peril to be a breath of fresh air. They found a way to have the Captain America Vs Iron Man/Hulk or Batman Vs Superman without needing to fudge stats. My problem with Marvel Heroic is just that everyone seems to be throwing around the same handful of dice which is why my group currently uses Worlds in Peril almost exclusively.

I think the biggest problem with Fate/FAE is that it does take that buy in from players. For players newer to the hobby that is a lot easier than some of us who have had 40 years of RPGs being one way, turning around and going in that very different direction is not easy.

That said, my small group is enjoying it so that's good. And while I would love to do a Masters of Umdaar style MUX I'm not sure I'll ever get up the gumption to try it. The good thing about FAE though? It'll take next to nothing to code up.

I talked to someone today who put a lot of it into perspective for me. My biggest question was say I create The Hulk and Hulk Hogan both with +3 Forceful...what makes separates them? And the answer was shockingly simple, their aspects. He also said not to think of the +3 Forceful as they're both equal in strength but instead they both use their strength to exert equal narrative influence on the game.

He used Superman as his own example. What makes Superman invulnerable? His aspect "The Last Son of Krypton". We know Kryptonians are invulnerable so that is not in question. Now let's say that Deathstroke shoots at Superman and scores "damage". Mechanically Superman is invulnerable but the game drives fiction not mechanics. If the same shot hit Batman he might take "Flesh Wound" or something but since Superman is invulnerable it's up to the player(s) to come up with something that fits the narrative so they might choose "Civilian hit by ricochet" giving Superman something to worry about.

He used the example from Superman II where he's fighting Zod, Ursa, and Non. Their invulnerability largely keeps them from taking damage but Superman keeps wracking up stress and consequences as can be seen throughout the seen. Eventually his stress tops out, he surveys the scene and sees all the damage the fight has caused, and flies away defeated.

Anyway, I'm sure all of you Fate veterans get all that but I'm still processing it and typing it out helped with that. Provided we're barking up the right tree with all of this.

So far we're having a blast. Made characters tonight for Masters of Umbaar. Used random c-gen to see what we'd get and I ended up with a crab-centaur(top half human, bottom half crab) paladin with a demon sword. Not something I would have ever made on my own but I'm looking forward to playing him.

So now that I'm over what happened to my old MU server and having essentially lost everything I ever coded, for the most part, I'm looking to move on. One thing I'm working on is a DC Comics game that is plugging along but I've also been looking for something to do fantasy wise. I just want something simple and easy to slip into and, up till recently, I haven't really found it. For the past few days, however, I have some friends screaming about how awesome Fate Accelerated is because, OMG, unlimited options.

So I'm reaching out to people with FAE experience...how do you like the system? I get that you can stat up pretty much any character with a fair amount of ease but...is the game TOO simplistic? I guess I'm just a bit nervous about a system where you can stat up Superman and Scooby Doo using the same system/mechanics.

That said I've ordered the FAE rules because at $5 why not? And I intend to run a Masters of Umdaar adventure to see how it all feels.

For those of you who have played it...did you enjoy it? Do the characters feel good? Would it work well on a MUX type environment?

Thanks!

I don't have the PDF and I don't think I'll be getting it as I ordered through Game Kastle and they don't mention the PDF at all. I'm glad to hear it sounds good though. Weird sex restrictions aside.

@Insomnia Absolutely, I agree 100%. It also unfortunately gives an edge to the more level headed but still rude passive aggressive types over the maybe less level headed but possibly better meaning and less eloquent types. Thus we're back to the damned if you do and damned if you don't.

(This is long and kind of got away from me but this is actually something I've been discussing with people RL too so I thought I'd just let loose. Feel free to ignore!)

Personally, I don't believe in moderating speech. At least not to a severe degree. I'm a believer that words are harmless, it's the intention behind the words that have meaning. I developed this mentality through a lifetime of working in phone related jobs and an extreme dislike of passive aggressive behaviors and phrases like "Oh, I kill them with kindness." Rude is rude regardless of what tone you're using.

Further, while there are certainly those individuals who see other sexes or races as lesser I think when one person calls another person a name it's not in the belief that the name in question represents an entire subset of humanity but rather they use it because they know it will inflict emotional harm on the person they are using it against. For instance, if Man A calls Woman B a "bitch" it's either because that woman is Dee Reynolds or because they know that calling Woman B a bitch is one of her triggers. It is unlikely because they think all women are "dogs" to be cowed and broken.

Finally, I think some things that should be quite clear such as racism is often not quite clear because of how each individual person perceives things (IE how they are "triggered" by things). For example, and I'm going to use things like "the n-word" instead of the actual word even though I think that is patently ridiculous just so I hopefully do not trigger people, BUT on the Big Brother live feeds (yes I watch Big Brother) there is a little person (I'm not sure if midget is offensive so I'll just use little person). He was explaining to a woman who happens to be black how the word dwarf or midget was offensive to little people (I forget which word it was). He said it would be like calling a gay person the f-word or a black person the n-word. Now he used the actual words. She did not get offended by the use of the f-word but went ballistic over the use of the n-word.

To me, I see nothing wrong with how he used either word. He was using them to explain how another word was as offensive to him as those words were to other people. He was not using them to cause emotional distress or to denigrate a type of person. He was just using it as an example of how severe another word could be considered and yet he was still roasted for being a racist by the woman on the show and the internet as a whole (well, the whole who bother to type things in comment sections).

So...in short I guess my opinion on forum moderation of speech is that you're damned if you do and damned if you don't but I think a poster's intention is much more important than the actual verbiage they use.

Just to add to this, I love the idea but the time requirements are just not quite possible for me. On certain days I'd not be able to post at all in fact. But I love the idea in theory!

So the PDF for the first book came out the other day for backers and I've been pouring through it. Man, I really want to love this game. I do. Like to the point where I'd love for it to inspire me to wanna make a MUX using it. For some reason, however, I just can't get on board with it. This is far from a comprehensive review but here are a few of the issues I'm having trouble with.

1: Character creation seems unnecessarily complicated. Choose these paths, prioritize these paths, assign dots according to prioritization...if that's too many dots in 1 skill put it where ever...Same with attributes and arenas. Part of me likes it, it gives a reason for points to be in certain places, and it makes it easy to play a non-scion (want to be a Satyr? Just take the Satyr path instead of a divine path). That's pretty cool but the overall process just seems complex, especially given the more narrative approach they seem to be going for. That said, I have yet to actually make a character. Gonna get together with a few people tonight or tomorrow to try that out.

2: Scale. This is a bigger pain for me. I like it. I think it makes sense and i like how it cuts down on potentially ridiculous ranks in attributes and skills. I just don't like how there is seemingly no mechanical method to assigning scale. In their example it makes sense that Hogzilla is Scale 1 or 2 or whatever it was when facing Sigrun because he's so much bigger than she is. But in the same paragraph they say that Sigrun would be scale 1 when fighting Joe Generic Scion...just because. As far as I can see there are no knacks that set you at Scale 1 in fighting or speed or leadership, it's just decided.

Then there's the scale example chart. According to that being a manager at a 7-11 entitles you to the benefits of, like, Scale 2 in Leadership rolls. I can get behind the c-gen, especially since I haven't tried it yet, but the hand wavy implementation of scale (they even use that phrase when describing how to use scale) really puts me off.

3: I could not find a way to replicate Donnie Rhodes as depicted in the opening fiction in the book. He's not done up as a sample PC and I wanted to see what kind of Knack would be in use for the "universal love and adoration" he receives. Except...there isn't one. I'm a huge believer that you need to be able to emulate whatever you depict in your book using the rules in said book and...well I couldn't. Unless I missed something (which is entirely possible).

So that's my stance on Scion as of right now. I was curious how other people were finding the game? It's better than First Edition, I do think that, at least so far but...still not quite playable. At least based on what I've experienced so far.

@Shincashay Aw man, I'm so sorry to hear that.

I want the app process as easy as possible. Long applications are tedious, boring, and really give you no idea of how well someone will play a character. If I did anything like that it would be short pitches from people who wanted to play a character.

So, bringing things back to the app process for a moment, would it be fair to lock PCs and have all players +request a pitch for the character they want to play, put up a notice that Character X closes in 7 days, and then have staff hand out the character based on the most suitable +pitch? I won't lie, it seems archaic to me but would most find that fair?

So this thread inspired me to watch Ready Player One and I have to say I thought it was pretty fantastic. It's definitely a love letter to the 80's and geek culture in general, so if you can't get on board with that you're likely not to have the best of times,. As a child of the 80's, however, I had a blast watching it. I thought it did a great job of paying tribute to geek culture while also creating some very interesting characters unique to the movie. Two thumbs up from me.

@Bobotron That's what I figured. Thanks!

Also RE: Sabbat. It's not just the Sabbat that leads to shit shows it's that entire "fuck the world" mentality. I played on an X-Game recently that had a Brotherhood set up. It immediately devolved into gore fests of things like playing football with human heads and things like that. Now I'm all for "edgy" RP but this was beyond even my levels of acceptance. And when called on it the ringleaders of the Brotherhood pitched a huge stinker fit and, in the end, it actually pushed players away from the game. Which is too bad because, aside from that, the game was pretty good. It was funny because I'd seen the same shit go down on games that allowed the Sabbat. I don't understand what it is about those types of factions (Sabbat, Brotherhood) that immediately sends people down the "murder-murder-kill-fun-murder-kill" rabbit hole.

This is semi-off topic but...with the staggered release of the books any idea how they are shipping the slip case edition? Have they said if those will just be shipping in September when all three books will be available?

With the PDFs coming out in a few weeks I was just wondering if there were any Vampire 5E games in the works?

So deliberations continue. I've spoken with some people and I think these are our goals in regards to alts...

1: Making sure a small group doesn't snatch up all the "choice bits".
2: Encouraging the formation of groups/teams.
3: Encouraging villain applications.

What'd I'd hate to see is for someone to app, say, Hal Jordan as their first character then see the Teen Titans making a recruiting post and not be able to join that team because of the 1 alt per player rule. I can, however, see saying "Okay, you've got Hal so you can't app Nightwing or Impulse or Kid Flash but you could app Hawk, Freddy Freeman, or someone like that."

I'm also thinking of allowing 1 "open alt"(anyone you want) and a villain alt that does not conflict with your "open alt". So no apping Sinestro if you have Guy Gardner or Eradicator if you also play Superboy.

These are just things I'm pondering at the moment. My ultimate goal is to uphold the three objectives I listed above and, obviously. promote diversity of characters and RP.