Just to clarify on the use of the DC Heroes system, I've stripped out point costs and all that for the MUX. Characters are built based on what "they should have", whatever that is, without having to worry about point costs or any of that. That said, I really do like the idea of them filling out just a basic "power profile" application and staff handling the actual mechanical +sheet.
To start, I'm a firm believer that applications on MU's need to be simple. It shouldn't be too much of a struggle to get a character on a game. Especially if that character is a feature character that everyone knows everything about anyway. So, to that end, I've attempted to make the application process on an upcoming DC Heroes game as simple and easy as possible. We use the DC Heroes RPG system(because I love it and firmly believe that though it was released some 30 years ago it is the best superhero RPG to be found) with staff doing up all of the +sheets. Players simply log on, check the +roster for the character they want, and head into the FC chamber to claim them. From there they just give us a pitch on how they intend to play the character and why they want them and, at that time, they have the option to request changes to the characters +sheet. There's also the +finger info, @desc, all that but, overall, the app process should probably take about 15 minutes.
For FCs. I'm still on the fence about OCs but if they are allowed , with the above system, they would need to create their +sheet and the process could take a bit longer. Everything regarding the DC Heroes RPG would be on our wiki.
It has been suggested to me, however, that I use Worlds in Peril for our in-game system. For those who don't know Worlds in Peril is a superhero game that is "Powered by the Apocalypse" style game. I won't lie, I do like the game. In fact we play it TT and love it. It's not like other PbtA games in that you don't need playbooks for powers or anything. Instead you have some basic stats (Smash, Investigate, Maneuver, Protect, and Influence) which dictates how your character goes about doing things and then you fill out a Power Profile that essentially creates a framework for what your character is capable of. You write a simple phrase describing something Simple your character can do, something that is Difficult for your character to do, something that sits on the Borderline of what your character can do, something that is Possible but that they've never done, and finally something that is Impossible for them to do. There are a few ways to get more phrases for each level(and a few more with the house rules we use) but that's roughly it. So the game is very narrative in nature and some people I know think it would complement a MU environment nicely.
Example, say Superman has "Shrug off military artillery fire" listed under something that is Easy for him to do. Joe Thug poses firing at Superman. There's no need to even roll because a gun shot is well below the level of artillery fire. In fact, by using the system, Superman could use that to "take out" the thug by posing that he's standing his ground, hands on hip, letting the thug burn through his ammunition before dodging the gun as it is thrown at him.
My TT group has found that mixing power levels with this system works amazingly well. For those interested there's a Google+ Group dedicated to it. And, honestly, a quick net search will get you the PDF if you're so inclined.
So my question is...does the Worlds in Peril setup interest anyone? In going back to my initial statement and goal of quick and easy character generation this obviously isn't as easy as "I'll take Aquaman, please" but I don't think it would be that much more difficult. And it would be a far cry from having to write a dissertation on your character and their abilities.
Whew, anyway if you made it this far thank you for reading!
Well, I certainly appreciate all the ideas. I know alt-hogs can be a real issue, for sure, especially on comic games. Right now my plan is to open with a 1 alt limit for a month so word of the game and get out and people won't get shafted for not being one of the first to get there and then I'll take it from there. If things are going well I might extend the 1 alt period for another month. If I feel comfortable I might open up a 2nd slot for people but there will be limits put on that alt (the tier list, no related alts, etc).
That's the plan right now, anyway, and it may change by the time the game opens.
I second what @Macha said. The two movies are so close in terms of quality I can't decide which one I like better. And Michael Pena does steal the show a bit.
I'm not necessarily opposed to discussing the alt-grab situation but I'm not sure I'm too keen on limiting players to 1 alt permanently. I think there are enough characters in most comic universes (in this instance DC specifically) for alts to be a good thing but I also want to see about avoiding the alt-grab fest that tends to plague a lot of games.
I am open to ideas though.
So, say there is a new comic book game about to open and they're wondering how to handle new players and feature character grabs. As players which option is more appealing?
12 years or so ago I was looking for a new username as my yahoo account was filled with nothing but spam. I won't say I was heavily into Yu-Gi-Oh but I played it enough and my favorite card was Vampire Genesis. Unfortunately, that UN was already taken on most things so I went with a slight variation, ZombieGenesis.
It's worked out well for me. The only place I've ever gone where the UN wasn't available to me was the freaking XBox. That's the one place I haven't been able to claim the username.
So the other day my MU hosting server suffered some kind of attack that did serious and apparently permanent damage to the OS I was running (debian). It is, at the very least, beyond my ability to repair.
As such I'm going to be shutting the server down. Unfortunately, as of yet, I have been unable to make backups of any of the MUs I have hosted there. None of the commands seem to work any more, I just get errors ranging from memory to "proc not installed". I'm going to recover whatever I can, even if it's just the raw netmux.db files, and store them in the hopes that they can be recovered somehow.
So if you're one of the games that was hosted on my server (Saturnine Dreams, Pulp Age, DC After Dark, Changing Breeds, or whoever else) and would like a copy of whatever I'm able to recover just let me know and I'll send along what I have.
Not all my critters are furry with 4 legs. Some are furry with 8. This is Gmork. Currently my largest tarantula. I have another named Barda, however, who will grow up to be almost a foot across.
@SunnyJ Thanks! I think my entire server itself is borked. I can't run any commands. Which means, I hope, that the games are salvageable. I can't back them up though so I'm hoping I can get them up and running using just their netmux.db files.
An unfortunate update. Today I discovered that...something happened to my personal MUX hosting server (MuxMadness) on 6.29.18 at 1:07:44 AM that seems to have corrupted every game I had running on there. I'm in the process of trying to salvage DBs but...I don't know. I can replace most of what was lost for other games I had on there but Armageddon MUX existed solely on MuxMadness and I had not backed up the code since I lost it a few years back.
What does this mean? I have no idea. Right now I'm just trying not to freak out too severely and trying to recover as much as I can.
Thread necro because I just discovered a game called Prowlers and Paragons. It's a pretty neat little system from what I've seen so far. Kind of a decent mix between narrative style and crunch. It's D6 driven but not necessarily in the way one might thing (everything is rated in D6s , you roll your rank, even numbers = a success, dice also "explode" on a roll of a 6). My wife and I whipped up some characters last night and had a decent time punching bad guys in the face.
I wa just wondering if anyone else has experience with this game? It's crazy cheap, $5 on drivethruRPG.
I'm actually shocked by the lack of advertising avenues that are left in the MU world. I recently logged onto Gateway after not having been on for 3 or 4 months and found not 1 new game had been posted. It kind of made me sad. For me the only place I can even really think to advertise any more is here. I'm not sure how well used MudConnector is any more and I'm unsure how many people visit Gateway any more.
I know a lot of people who use Roll20. I use Discord for some stuff. Personally I still love the idea of everything being on a MU. I'm a big fan of AresMUSH as a possible next step in the evolution of MUing. It has some really great features.
I'm just gonna work under the assumption you don't know what the words weird and uncomfortable mean at this point and move on.
The actual idea was to prevent competition and encourage cooperation and working together. Not saying it would have worked by that was my thinking behind it.
@Arkandel I get that, yeah.
And Storyteller's Circle was one of my inspirations. I have fond memories of that place. As for only allowing one type of game the idea is to not spread what few resources there might be too thin. Not sure how that's "weird and uncomfortable". A bad idea perhaps but...weird and uncomfortable? I find that weird and uncomfortable.
So as I sit here 3d printing a Sword of Omens from Thundercats I'm once again shocked that there has only ever been 1 Masters of the Universe game and none for the likes of Thundercats. I was whining about this to an online friend and she reminded me of an idea I had been exploring a while ago. A place called Realms MUX. This would be a place where people could go and create their own mini-games to play on. The game itself would provide an overall infrastructure (obviously the game would be hosted there, a base system would be available for all games to use, a nexus for getting to these mini-games, etc) and then players could create, well, whatever they wanted.
Our plan was for it to perhaps be a haven for places that don't get much love but you could do whatever you wanted. It'd be a place where you could set up a game to scratch that little itch that may not be worth investing an entire game to. Or to try out an idea to see if it's worth expanding into something else. The only rule might be 'no stepping on toes'. So if you have an idea for a Buffy game but one already exists...you can't make your Buffy game. At least till the one that is currently on the MUX closes.
There are some logistical problems (naming conventions, wiki sites for the mini-games, etc) but I always thought it was an interesting idea. I just wasn't sure if it would be viable.
This seem interesting to anyone else but me?
I think the problem with M&M as a system for MU's is that the people who get it, get it. Those who don't? As stated, feel out of place. Which is too bad because it genuinely is a solid system.
Heat. I've now been awake for nearly 24 hours and I can't get to sleep because it's 85 degrees and muggy as fuck in my room.
So I've run various incarnations of Mutants and Masterminds since the first edition of the game (Sovereign City for both first and second edition and Empire Bay for third) and the one thing that always seems to be a pain is figuring out what makes for acceptable power levels. This discussion came up again recently so I decided to discuss it here.
Note, this isn't a discussion about how viable M&M is for a superhero game (on or off a MUX) just about what constitutes acceptable power levels for games that do or would use M&M.
The span of a few power levels can have a huge impact on how well characters can mesh in M&M. For me, and most of the people I play with, we've found that more than a 2 PL gap leads to big problems. We either play PL 8 to 10 or PL 10 to 12. The last time I had Empire Bay open to the public I allowed PLs from 8 to 12. Some people loved it and some people hated it (to the point of just not playing on the game).
So what would be acceptable? Just saying "This is a PL 10 game, that's it end of story"? Or allowing characters from any rank up to 10 with the understanding that no character will ever advance beyond PL 10? Or is allowing up to PL 12 acceptable?
Also, how strictly should PL be enforced? Should a player be required to meet the Offense and Defense caps of a PL? Or should a character be allowed to come in at Offense Power Level 9 and have a max Defense Power Level of 8 while using PL 10 character points (150)?
Playing off that, how should max character points be handled? Should each PL have a cap? Should a 300 point PL 9 character be allowed?
I love M&M. I do. It may not be my favorite RPG but it really does cover a lot of bases and it covers them fairly well. It's just power points and power levels that can get frustrating. If a player understands them, great! If they don't...well that's where the headaches can begin.
So, for gits and shiggles, I thought I'd throw up a post here for suggestions on how to manage them on some hypothetical M&M game.