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Messages - Mckma

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16
General Chaos / Re: Should fantasy maps have projections?
« on: January 23, 2015, 06:54:35 PM »
But....

What if all these fantasy worlds were actually flat, that would take care of that projection issue straight off....  8)

In seriousness though, projections are super interesting to me and I liked your mention about things being thematically/technologically appropriate.  I don't know if I ever would have considered giving the players a map that is "inaccurate" because the group that made it just over/under-emphasized things.  Would be really interesting to have them wrestle with that (not enough food, wrong climate, unexpected features, etc.)....

17
RPGs / How do you compile game notes?
« on: January 20, 2015, 10:08:58 PM »
So I was thinking about this the other day.  What do you use to put together campaign/game notes?  Word documents?  Notebooks?  What helps keep you organized?  Looking for ideas for planning a potential game....

18
RPGs / Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder
« on: November 15, 2014, 10:59:06 PM »
So a friend brought this story up and I immediately assumed it was fake and went to Snopes, but apparently not: http://www.snopes.com/photos/odd/evilstick.asp

Might be good for part of a Delta Green game or something.  Also was a bit reminiscent of Akaja (sp?) from Know Evil.  Something weird like this is going to make the rounds, so the thought that it could gain power as it spreads is definitely creepy....

19
Made this thread as a place for people to chat about the inspirations that come from particularly interesting games, books, movies, etc.  I know that Ross has written a lot of one-shots based on video games, and other people likely have to.  So this is a place for people to bring up things that have struck their fancy and how one might do something or spin it into something gameable.

So I'll start us off.  Watching Snowpiercer right now and it is really catching my interest with some of the images, scenes, and characters.  Minus the large pack of people making their way to the front a bunch of it seems very gameable and probably a bit survival-horror-ish.  Only about halfway through, but really captures the imagination with some of the imagery.  Any thoughts on what kind of scenario one might run?  Specifically what the payoff might be?  I'll probably revisit once I've finished the movie (with appropriate spoiler tags and such)....

EDIT:  Oops, totally placed this in the wrong subforum and realize it might actually be redundant with the story fodder thread....

20
General Chaos / Re: What Vidja games are you playing?
« on: November 01, 2014, 09:27:55 PM »
I have Four 8 Evolve codes for steam.

If anyone wants to get in on the weekend alpha PM me and I can send you a code.
Anyone who has XCOM also has access....

21
RPGs / Re: Eclipse Phase Campaign Idea
« on: October 19, 2014, 10:11:50 PM »
I had an idea after I made my previous post.  What if the "rogue" firewall operative was one of the PC's?  I mean as in Firewall took their top suspects and put older back ups, from before the betrayal began, and sent those "suspects" to undo the damage and neutralize the traitor?  Using your idea, maybe pull a total recall-ish idea and have them be restored from backups dating from before they even joined firewall.

It's a neat idea, the only "worry" might be if that burns the players from wanting to join Firewall.  Maybe an alternative is that one of the things the rogue agent stole were backups of people, instated them and then sends them on jobs that turn out to be against Firewall's interest.  That way even if they fail and get caught, they might be reintegrated or something and resume old posts.....

22
RPGs / Re: Eclipse Phase Campaign Idea
« on: October 19, 2014, 05:27:34 PM »
Recommendation based on me starting my first thing and what I think would work best in this circumstance:

Start with just one of those ideas from that last paragraph and build a short adventure/scenario out of that where the players are essentially just random people off the street.  Then from that, they catch Firewall's attention and are brought in.  The reason I suggest this, is it gives you an opportunity to get started and test the waters as to what your players are really interested in.  If, for example they become super fixated on switching morphs at the drop of a hat, then make that the unifying thread for the main campaign (and build things around that).

Example from my campaign:

The idea of illegal/unknown forking fascinates me.  So I built an intro adventure around a hypercorp just throwing the PCs through a gate over and over again until a problem is solved.  So the game picks up after 3-4 instances have already gone through (the PCs don't know this yet), so they will enter and eventually find themselves already there.  Eventually when they escape, Firewall will contact them and vet them.  Then based on whatever they liked best in exploring this abandoned facility, I'll build the main campaign around.

23
General Chaos / Re: What Vidja games are you playing?
« on: October 10, 2014, 08:42:48 PM »
The data nerd in me geeked out over this.  Even if you don't particularly like League of Legends, seeing these maps and gameplay plotted out is kinda neat.  Would love to see this kind of thing for other games as well....

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/10/technology/league-of-legends-graphic.html?_r=0

24
RPGs / Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder
« on: August 19, 2014, 11:24:07 PM »
I was on a camping trip with some friends and we stayed in a single room cabin that was handbuilt by his great grandfather in the 1920s or so.  It was very basic and rustic with just a frame and boards for the walls.  What seemed like a very good bit to add to a potential game was that almost every time someone stays there, they find a space on the wall and leave a message about their trip.  It was dark wood and most of it was in pencil, pen, or carved in so they weren't immediately visible and noticeable (you had to walk up to the walls and focus on actually reading them), so I can imagine a lot of creepy elements of players reading mostly jovial messages with some sinister undertone emerging from them....

25
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Timeline of Eclipse Phase
« on: August 18, 2014, 04:49:31 PM »
Yeah I think that (given what I have seen on how carefully they have crafted their lore) they probably have an "official" time where they based everything from.  BUT, the brilliance is not in just doing that but also introducing the BF/AF so that it doesn't really matter to those who want it to be more timeless.

Plus it does make some sense that you would redefine your calendar off of that point, though I would have guessed that they might have done some more redefinition than just the 0 point (say something like Star Trek's star date).

26
I think it is a potentially neat idea, but in order for me to probably get into it I think it would (as mentioned before) need to be somewhat heavily edited and pared down to the story.  Things that I imagine would be somewhat obvious (taking out fillers words, finding a sensible way to deal with multiple people talking at once) and some maybe not so obvious (cleaning up grammar, cutting out table talk) would probably be necessary to make it readable.  Because of all that, I'm not so sure I would appreciate a "transcript" take so much as using all that happened and what was said as the basis for just writing a fiction story based on the game.  This would probably be really cool more specifically for one-shots (because they are essentially short stories) and maybe a few campaigns that have a strong story-arc.

All that said, while I think that product could be neat and would be the only way I would consume it (edited and somewhat retold), I speculate that I wouldn't actually get into it after all.  The beauty of APs to me is that I don't have to read it and I like some of the riffing that happens along with good stories.  So I might pay for an audio version of some of the games I really liked (imagining something of a reenactment with people voice acting parts, but that would be a MASSIVE project probably far beyond what you were considering), but probably not for a text version (though I totally understand why it wouldn't be released for free, with all the associated costs).

Hopefully that is some helpful feedback or things to consider (of course just all my opinions)....

27
RPGs / Re: Eclipse Phase
« on: August 15, 2014, 07:32:45 PM »
Running a PbP game for some friends and looking for some ideas to help flesh out a scenario/campaign.  I haven't read too much of the lore, but feel reasonably familiar with the setting and the ideas and what I guess I am looking to crowdsource is putting meat on the bones of the story seed I am starting with.

This is designed to be an introduction to the setting and get the characters "into" Firewall.  What I am toying with is them working as gatecrashers for one of the hypercorps and heading through to help out with an expedition/research run already in progress (but not a fully established colony).  They will arrive and find it wrecked/abandoned and will have no way of contacting back until the link is reestablished later.  I suspect I will have some sort of ex-threat that brought about the downfall.  I want the big twist or reveal of this story arc to be that this wasn't the first time that they have been sent through, but they have just been restored from a backup that was made right before they stepped through the first time.

Things I like:
  • The idea of a hypercorp "throwing money at the problem" by shelling out for morphs to just send the same batch through until they take care of the problem and return.
  • The possibilities of encountering other versions of themselves or finding old stacks and the decision of whether to reintegrate or not (since to my understanding it would essentially be like alpha forks, but it wasn't really a copy?)
  • The isolation aspect (no way to get more help) and the panic to reach the rendezvous, especially after they discover that the hypercorp will likely just throw another set through if they aren't at the gate at the appointed time

Hiccups/Things to work through:
  • Egos not realizing that time has passed since they supposedly arrived (e.g. if they are the 3rd sleeved set, how to trick them into thinking everything is on the level)
  • If it even makes sense that a hypercorp would do this sort of thing to keep it on the DL
  • What the hypercorp would plan to do to the egos if they did return (likely kill and restore from backup with claims of great heroism I suspect)
  • How to structure the settlement as I want to have it be fairly large and abandoned (one of my players likes the idea of atmospheric exploration and investigation which also works well for PbP)
  • If gates are isolated enough for something like this to happen (solar system side that is)
  • Any other issues I missed

So I may regret this, but please give me any feedback you can think of.  None of my players are too familiar with the setting (which I why I want it to be intro and thought putting it out of system would make it less overwhelming since they are contained) so it should help introduce them to a lot of the concepts.  At the end I will have them approached by Firewall to induct them, but other than that, I just want input on how to make this a really interesting (and hopefully unsettling/creepy scenario).  If that means saying that something sucks or doesn't make sense, let me know that too.  Thanks!

28
General Chaos / Re: Payday 2 Discussion Thread
« on: August 15, 2014, 05:44:10 PM »
-Don't pug, work with a group that is willing to try and try again and will learn from their mistakes.

General rule for any time you run on Deathwish?

29
General Chaos / Re: What Vidja games are you playing?
« on: August 12, 2014, 03:39:17 PM »
On that note, just beat Dark Souls and have started Dark Souls II.  Not sure what kind of build I want to run with though....  Recommendations?

Personally I have found Demon's Souls to be my favorite, but it may be a bit of nostalgia of introduction to the "series"....

30
General Chaos / Re: Payday 2 Discussion Thread
« on: August 12, 2014, 03:37:24 PM »
I've run into an interesting issue lately and wondering if anyone has found a solution:

Whenever I am playing online, my game will crash the first time that I try to start a mission (regardless of whether hosting or not) and the first time that alarms are raised (regardless of hosting or not).  That said, it works fine in single player offline.  I have tried Google, but to no avail....

Do you use HoxHud?

4.2 kinda broke Payday 2 for a minute. They've since fixed the crashing issues.

Mayhaps that is the problem?

Otherwise I have no idea.

Ooh, good call.  Should have checked that before uninstalling to reinstall....

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