Posts made by ZombieGenesis

If I understood more about integrating code with the web portal/scene system I'd be all over it. Sadly that level of skill is beyond me at this moment in time.

@Ghost We are def using the cards. My group in High School didn't like using them so we used the alternate system they list in the book. For this weekend, however, I'm embracing the game as it was meant to be played.

I've convinced my TT group to play the old Street Fighter Storytelling Game on Saturday. I don't know why but I'm incredibly excited. I played the crap out of this game back when I was in High School and I'm hoping that revisiting it doesn't burst the nostalgia bubble it's been living in.

We're also going to take a look at the new Dark Souls RPG which I'm very excited for.

Don't why I felt the need to share this, I'm just that excited.

@faraday said in Wish Fulfillment RP:

It's also a bit illogical - like if you're in a room with Olympic athletes and Oscar-winning actors and somehow "nobody's special" just because everyone there is outstanding.

It's not that nobody is special but the baseline average has now been raised considerably. If you're at an Oscar party and someone asks "Who's the best actor here?" you're going to get a lot of different answers. It's more difficult for a single person to stand out in that room because they all have high "acting skills".

If, however, in that same room you have Mike Tyson and the question is "Who is the best fighter in the room?" the answer becomes much more obvious.

Edited to add that while I might argue the above point, I'm not oblivious to the real reason why other players don't acknowledge something special about other player's characters; because it might in some way suggest that their character is somehow less special. Player arrogance is the real problem, of that I am aware.

All I ask from my RP partners is that they give me something to work with in their poses. I hate flat poses or poses where they just respond to what you've done and add nothing to the narrative. So long as you're interactive and not trying to dominate the scene, I'm all for people RPing however they want.

I often ask my partners what they want to get out of a character or scene or plot so that I can be sure to keep those very things in mind as I play opposite them. We all have something we want to get out of RP, be it just a fun night of monkeying around or something more specific and focused. Again, so long as that doesn't lead to you prioritizing your fun over others? I don't see a problem with it at all.

In regards to Striking Looks/Attractive type advantages in a game, I just treat it like any other "striking feature" a character might have. My character may notice that someone is "hot" or whatever their thing is but that doesn't mean that they're attracted to them.

My only real issue with it is that everyone wants to be "the hot one" and when everyone is hot then that becomes the new average. We're RPing on a CW show and every character has the Striking Looks(Hot) merit. I get it, my character will notice, but it's hard to make that character feel special because, as we've said, everyone has that merit.

That's one of the reasons I think it's good to have a circle of people you can trust and rely on for things. I've had a partner come to me and say, "I really want to play a bombshell character who makes someone's nose bleed just by entering the room." So I was like, "Oh, okay. I can make that character for you." Then we can discuss how we see things going, whether it's short or long-term RP, etc and so on. I know what they want to get out of the RP, they trust me to respect whatever boundaries they have, and, hopefully, they have fulfilling RP as a result.

That was a long ramble and I apologize.

@arkandel In instances like that, I think players just kind of need to suck it up. As you said, not everyone can be sheriff. I mean, it's okay to be bummed if you don't get exactly what you want but, as an adult and a theoretically creative individual, find a way to move on. Keep that momentum moving forward.

Build off the RP that led to them not becoming Sheriff, find a new plot to explore, and other ways to be involved. If the player really wants to be part of that style of RP, find a way to include them. Movies invoke tropes like this all the time.

"Yup, you're now the Sheriff but guess what? The first thing you have to deal with involves a situation that <Character that lost> has intimate knowledge about. You have to work with them to solve it." Buddy cop hijinks ensue.

For me, and I could certainly be wrong, I very much think it's all about keeping that momentum moving forward.

I don't think there's one answer to this question. I also think it depends on the specific situation and, more importantly, what the consequences of the IC failure are. The biggest one is character death. It was one of my biggest problems with WoD games back in the day, combat twinks luring other players into combat just to kill them.

One solution might be to simply not allow failure in places that might cripple RP on the whole. If the Elysium is the primary source of RP on a game it'd be rough to ban a character from it unless they did something horrendous, for instance. Don't allow permadeath on unless, again, something horrendous has happened. Things like that.

A lot of modern RPGs handle situations like this by having "success at a cost". If someone was going to fail at something, switch it around so they succeed...at a cost. They owe someone a favor, they suffer some sort of permanent mark of their failure, they make an enemy, or whatever. Don't let failure stop forward momentum. It might redirect it but momentum should always be moving forward.

Make sure failure is fun. A lot of players like succeeding because, well, it's fun. You win. You get to look like a badass or whatever. I think it ties into the above, something along the lines of "Sure, you fail at this but..."

I run a private game where we experiment with various ways to RP. We use a modified version of the Storypath system and it's allowed us to move RP in directions we wouldn't have ever thought of on our own, including embracing failure.

I guess, in short, I'm saying make sure failure isn't crippling, make it fun, and make sure RP keeps moving forward in some fashion or another.

@squirreltalk Sonic isn't really my thing but, man, I'd be all over a Mortal Kombat game or a Pro Wrestling game.

Ultimately I think my question boils down to this; Are there few games on a focused theme because of lack of player interest or because staff want to hedge their bets by allowing as many characters as possible? I don't think character balance factors in though I do think character unique-ness could.

And I'm also not saying there aren't any or have never been successful games with a focused theme. They are, however, vastly outnumbered by games that allow either everything from a given comic universe or anything from any comic universe. I'm just wondering why the scales are so unbalanced.

So I've often been tempted to try and do something for my small group of friends who would love to play a Transformers game via Ares. The big hurdle is that Transformers players love their coded combat and I don't have the coding ability to create something that would work via the Ares web portal.

So my question, on the most basic level, is could FS3 work for Transformers? I know someone did a Gundam game once and it's similar, though not quite the same. I'm not that familiar with FS3. I've read through the documentation and played on a few games that used it but have never used the system for a game myself.

I might be vastly over simplifying things but could you handle the human > transformer > titan/gestalt scale simply by adjusting things like armor and penetration? Human weapons and armor in the 3-8 range, transformers in the 10-15 range, and titans like 17+ or something?

I know it says FS3 works best cooperative but most Transformers combat code is generally just 'hit > damage' anyway and this seems to work in a similar fashion?

Anyway, it's hella-early and this was just something that was rattling around in my head. Any thoughts or suggestions would be very welcome.

I never quite got the stigma of homage or pastiche characters. As a player and staffer I think I prefer them. I think they come with a number of inherit advantages. For starters, it sets a tone for the character without having read anything else. A pastiche of Batman is going to have a different feel than one of Daredevil.

It also automatically sets some power level parameters. One of my primary problems with OCs is that many players automatically shoot for 'best there is on the game' in some way, shape, or form. For instance, if someone is a homage to Spider-Man you're likely not going to see a flying brick with super-speed and laser eyes.

It also eliminates the "Oh, my favorite characters are taken..shoot..." issue. Want to play a Batman homage? Go for it. Just make sure that it is, in some small way at least, different from Batman and different from the other Batman homages on the game.

I would be all for an OC game that either highly encouraged or required characters to be homages to existing comic characters. When pondering OC games I've often thought about doing something in the Squadron Supreme universe using Hyperion, Power Princess, Doctor Spectrum, Nighthawk, and Whizzer as benchmarks/examples and then just letting people fill out the rest of the universe with their own OCs, the only requirement is that they're an homage to an existing comic character.

@arkandel It's less about balance for me and more about that feeling of being special, about contributing in your own unique way. The Hulk is supposed to be "the strongest one there is"...except when he isn't. The Hulk himself(excluding Banner) contributes in one way, being strong. That becomes less cool when you're on a team with 3 other people just as strong but who can also fly, move at super-speed, shoot lasers from their eyes, etc.

At this point, it's more of a peeve than an actual gripe, though. Like I said, even on a pure Marvel game there are a number of characters that do what the Hulk does plus a host of other things.

@lotherio I hear ya.

My issue with multiversal games combines the surreality of what you've said (I've been on games with a team made up of a power ranger, a MiB, Lion-O from the Thundercats, and Batman) with the fact that DC and Marvel really don't mesh well together IMO. I mean, I've played on games where they've been blended and I've run games where they've been blended but some things always felt off to me.

The Hulk, for instance. Superman is just as strong but can fly, is super fast, has heat vision, super-senses, etc. It's mitigated by the fact that on a Marvel game you might see someone like Hyperion or Blue Marvel or Sentry. Which is why I've played it, I've run it, and it's entirely possible I run one again someday. Even so, there is something about characters being less special.

As for Ares plugins, what kind are you looking for? There's a general dice plugin that lets you roll dice in the scene system(and there's a dice command in-game). What kind of things were you looking for, plugin wise?

This post is based entirely on my own curiosity and experiences. Also, keep in mind that when I say something like "I'd like to see" it also inherently means I'd like to see it done on an Ares server as those are really the only types of games I can play nowadays.

That said, there seem to be two primary game types that are "successful" in the MU world, WoD/CoD and comics. Keep in mind I think success is relative and could be determined by a number of factors. In this case, we'll base it entirely on the number of unique logins a game has.

My problem with WoD/CoD games is that they tend to be 'all-in' games. They allow as many splat types as possible where I'm generally really only interested in Vampire. When people post that they're working on a WoD/CoD game the first questions are generally, "Are you allowing X, Y, and/or Z?"

The same seems to hold mostly true for comic-based games. The "most successful" games tend to be blended universe games with a broad scope. I guess my question is this, what type of game scope would interest you most as a player. Assume all are semi-sandbox with both staff-run plots and tools for players to run their own PrPs.

It also assumes these are FC games. OC games have their own issues that would need to be discussed.

• Broad: Multiversal game that allows as many characters as possible.

• General: A single comic universe(DC or Marvel) but pretty much any character in the said universe is fair game.

• Focused: A game set in a single comic universe with a specific character focus. A Marvel game featuring only the X-Characters or a Marvel game specifically excluding the X-Characters(ala Heroes Reborn or the MCU).

• Narrow: A game set in a single universe with a very specific character focus. A DC game focused on the Teen Titans or Gotham City, a Marvel game focused specifically on the X-Men(no other X-Teams allowed).

• Alternate Universe Game: A game set in the Squadron Supreme universe, Age of Apocalypse, DC Injustice, etc.

In my experience, you tend to see mostly those of the broad category and some of the general. You almost never see any of the others. I'm curious if that's because people just have no interest in such games or because someone has just not come out and made on(or at least not made on in some time).

@ganymede I think this is a really neat idea. Instead of derailing this thread, however, I think I'll create a new one for it.

As for my original OC superhero idea, the overall theme involved exploring what it meant to stop being human. My system would still use taint and supers would be naturally gravitating towards becoming 'aberrant'. Mixing in that WoD/Humanity aspect into a supers game.

So @Ganymede suggested a theme for an OC supers game involving dreams and nightmares made reality. That, combined with the recent Sandman trailer, got my brain churning. This isn't necessarily a game in development(which is why it's here instead of there) but I thought it might be interesting to talk about. Here are my thoughts/questions...

Living dreams/nightmares? Are they dreams/nightmares made flesh? Like the personifications of dreams given body in the real world? Or are they normal people who have been imbued with powers and abilities linked to dreams and nightmares?

Actual dreams and nightmares? Do people still dream? What effect has dreams and nightmares coming to life had on the actual dreams of normal humans?

OC Supers or...? The original idea was for an OC supers game but might this work better as something more akin to a WoD style universe? Do these supernatural beings walk proudly and openly in the world or hide in the shadows gathering in secret?

Power level? How powerful should these characters be? This will likely be affected by the question above. More WoD/Vampire 5E levels of powers and abilities? Avengers/X-Men? DC/The Boys?

Setting? For me, and this is likely impacted both by the Sandman trailer and the fact that I'm running the Fall of London campaign for my TT group, but I think this would be a great game to set somewhere not in the United States. I think London would be great.

I really dig this idea but, for me, I like it less as an OC supers place and more in-line with a gothic supernatural game. Though I guess there's nothing saying it couldn't be a cross of the two, something more Scion-like in scope?

@runescryer That one has been a big temptation for me. I'd set it in an OC universe that kind of mimics The Boys. My biggest issue is that while I really like Aberrant 2E I think it is a bit bloated and needs to be streamlined a bit. I find their nova tech rules unplayable.

So this is my fear, I'd streamline and simplify the Aberrant rules quite a bit. I'd remove quantum(mostly because I don't like the idea of having to pay to use your powers) which means most of the powers would need to be reworked. Which is fine, I think it could be done fairly easily both to remove quantum and to simplify them over all. But then I'm afraid people would be like, "Well, it's not really Aberrant any more so..."

But, yeah, this is one is like an itch in my brain.

As the title says, games I'd love to make but probably never will.

An OC Hero Game that uses a streamlined and simplified Aberrant 2E system.

A Ravenloft game using Tiny Dungeon.

A fantasy game set in a post-apocalyptic ancient Greece(the Titans destroy Mount Olympus and open the gates of Tartarus, releasing all the dead things within) also using Tiny Dungeon.

A Transformers game(based on G1 but more comic-themed than TV show).

A Masters of the Universe game.

Possibly a "Saturday Morning Toon" game combining things like Masters of the Universe, Thundercats, Sectaurs, etc.

Edited to add, Throne of Eldraine tempted me to make a game combining elements of Arthurian legend and Grimm's Fairy Tales.

sigh If only I had unlimited time and faith that any of these would draw players.

@runescryer I'd certainly love to see a Dragonlance game. I've often been tempted to try my hand at running either a DL game or a Ravenloft one.

I haven't read this thread through in its entirety but this is my take on IC romance and TS. This is my personal philosophy, mind you. Romance and sex are just forms of RP just like anything else. I partake in them to enjoy the scene just like I would combat or an action scene or whatever. I think romance and sex can lead to all kinds of fun drama to RP out(just look at nearly any TV show or movie).

It's one of the reasons I never understood why MU's always had a "do but don't show" policy when it came to TS. The policies always generally read the same; We know you do it, it's fine that you do it, but NEVER IN PUBLIC and never post a log! I think that, so long as it's properly marked, and people want to share it what's the harm?

I run a game right now where people share their TS logs, and often let people in to watch as the scene unfolds, or whatever. We use Ares which gives us the benefit of tagging the scene labels and warnings, which certainly helps. As I said, people should certainly know what they're getting into but I think that's true of any scene.

Now I understand there are nuances to this subject but that's my take. It's just RP. I make sure anyone I RP with understands that this is my stance on it. RP is RP, IC is IC, and has no bearing on OOC friendships or relationships any more than our characters fighting a duel to the death.