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Topics - Tadanori Oyama

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106
I think the title says it all.

I've been wanting to run a Hunter: The Vigil game for a long time. My players are D&D hacker and slashers, though several of them deny this and proclaim they would love a wider game system. This additionally proves some of my players are liars but that is besides my point.

So, if you could have any players you wanted, what would you run?

107
RPGs / Non Standard Home Town
« on: April 24, 2009, 12:56:55 PM »
I'm putting some time for my new 4E setting which is a revamp of my old Inverted Underdark from back 3.0 days.

So the characters will be playing in the Underdark, where all of the old "surface races" have ended up now that the Drow and other nasty things have taken control of the surface (there's more to it than that but I'm being concise).

I'm working on building a town for the PCs to use as their starting homebase and I want it to be a strange place. It's one of the gathered outposts the surface beings have managed to create in the ten years since their flight underground and lies in a sort of middle ground, not too close to the surface and not to deep into the pits.

It's a borderline "hive of scum and villainy" because the last ten years have made everybody a little fend-for-yourself-ish. The outpost isn't really a town because it has little authority, it only exists because people seek protection behind it's walls.

I'm looking for advise on unusal groups and individuals to populate the town and I thought the odd minds here could help supply some. There will also be three other major adventuring parties in the town, who I have not yet defined. The heroes will be 6th level and NPCs should be enough of a threat that they won't be able to just attack them. The underlying idea is to make a place where the PCs won't be sure of their footing.

108
RPGs / Dungeon Master Justice
« on: April 17, 2009, 01:48:19 PM »
I'm a big believer in teaching players lessons for their character's behavior.

I'm coming up on my next 4E session where the fate of a PC who assaulted a group of city guards will be announced by his jury. I would like for the player to learn a bit of an in game lesson and simple imprisonment seems a poor way to do so because 1) they others might break him out or 2) he'll make a new character and act the same way.

Does anyone have any creative punishments for players who violate the law?

109
RPGs / First Time Call of Cthulhu players
« on: April 16, 2009, 05:04:34 PM »
I'm gearing up for my first Call of Cthulhu game and I'm working on a bit of a problem.

Most of my players have no idea about any of the Mythos details. One players knows quite a bit but only about the higher beings, the various gods, rather than the smaller creatures.

I need to pick a good, lower on the totem creature for the characters to encounter towards the climax and I'm not sure what would be a good one for first timers.

110
Ever had one of those days when your penis just feels like it's mad at you?

111
Play by Post / No Sides: A Game of Feudal Adventure
« on: April 09, 2009, 02:22:03 PM »
With land changing hands every few months at least somewhere in the nation the reserves for troops have been sorely taxed. Peasants, it turns out, make poor soldiers. Even worse, once all the peasants are dead there's no one left to grow food or pay taxes.

This has lead to a rising demand for professional soldiers. Mercenary bands, comprised mostly of ronin, foreigners, and criminals have become a much easier way for a lord to take military action. It's also lead to alot of warlords, mercenary leaders, with alot more gold than they used to have and a taste for authority. Things have kind of gone downhill since.

Open war has become the norm. Declarations and formalities fell by the wayside as warlords rather than feudal lords began to become the most common authority.

Our story begins in South Curve, a high turnover section of land along the south-eastern edge of the big island, across the bay from what, today, would be call Tokyo. South Curve serves as a gathering place for warlords seeking to replinish their numbers and for service jobs related to a war economy.

The ground here is slick and nearly black, the mud a streak of slime across hard packed clay earth. A wandering line makes up the town of South Curve, a path ten paces wide with tents it's whole length. At either end a single tent may line the road, with it's neighbor pitched a spear's thrust to their left or right and only the wilds or ocean to their back. In the center of town the line swells thick and smaller paths move between the "service" tents.

In the center, the Swell, there is noise. Humans talking and singing and shouting, the ring of metal against metal, and wet sound of metal against flesh. From the Swell of South Curve has come nearly every warlord of note in a generation. The town is a breeding ground for fighters and that reputation has served the warlords well.

Do you come to find membership in a warband? An excuse to ride and fight without cause? Or perhaps gold is your cause.

Or something higher. To raise your own band and earn fortune from the feudal lords? To gather the begins of your army, to become a lord yourself, perhaps?

Or just to make a living among the battlers. To sell your craft, your products, or yourself.

Whatever your reasons you now find the sounds of the Swell drawing closer as you move along the muddy road...

112
Play by Post / Japanese War Game
« on: April 07, 2009, 08:03:08 PM »
Okay, so some of my more out there ideas haven't really taken root. How about this one:

Name-
The Warring States War Game.

System-
GURPS 4th Edition. 75 point characters.

Theme-
Wartime mentality among nobles and commoners.
The "realities" of war.
Single "heroes" being totally awesome within an army.
 
Goals-
Having fun.
Conquering land.
Gaining followers.
Ruling the world (Japan).

Style-
Play by Post. Hince the thread in the PbP section.


Play a noble. Or a singular foot soldier. Or a one in a million peasant. The goal is survival.

113
General Chaos / Screen name history
« on: April 03, 2009, 01:47:42 PM »
I am really bored!

As such I am doing anything to entertain myself, such as reading the members list. And so I wonder: where on earth did people come up with these names?

I mean, I have reasons behind my screen names; I kind of assume other people do as well.

My primary screen name, Tadanori Oyama, is about ten years old. The name is, more or less, stolen. In my freshman year of high school I was reading Usagi Yojimbo, fun series by the way, highly recommend it, and happened across a character who greatly appealed to me. Sparing details, the character was named Oyama Tadanori, sir name being the first name in Japanese naming. Character was badass and appealed to exisiting interests of mine. I'd just started using the internet at the time and wanted a cool name to use so I stole it.

I reversed the naming because I though Oyama would be a better "first name" so it has to come second.

Initially I simply copied the character from the comic to use as my own, including his appearance and abilities. Over time I changed it, especially once I moved to my first RP board and had the chance to actually play a character of my own design.

Over high school the character and named evolved and grew more personal. By the end of senior year Tadanori Oyama was simply an extension of myself into the internet, my digital face. I use the name whenever I create a profile where my personal views will be the primary reflection and seldom use the name in conjection with the character any longer.

So, what about you?

114
RPGs / A Study in the Logic of Gaming
« on: March 30, 2009, 02:37:57 PM »
We've mentioned Gamer Logic at least once or twice this last week and after some examples from various members Maze has suggested we present the matter directly.

So, this thread is for examples of Gamer Logic. I suppose the quickest way to establish a difference between Gamer Logic and normal logic is that Gamer Logic often doesn't make sense and is most often self-justified.

For example: "Killing the leader of the village (for being firm with the PCs) is really what is best for the village."

Or: "Another player (who's character is a police officer) won't give me his gun. Therefore, he is hording the weapons."

Game Master primarily discover these instances but certainly players see their share, both from other players and from their dungeon masters.

115
RPGs / Anecdote Megathread
« on: March 23, 2009, 10:42:42 PM »
They do them on the show, so why not do more on the forums? Post your best stories from game sessions.


This story is from years ago when I was running a 3.0 Dungeons and Dragons game, my very first long term campaign. It started in the Forge of Fury premade and moved up into the higher levels over months of play. Great time. I spent most of my time being fairly nice to the players. They had tough fights but they got treasure at an amazing rate so they were equipped to handle themselves properly.

At around eighth level I decided to throw them back into the dungeons after a lot of military campaign behind enemy lines kind of adventures. So, they have to get this book for some wizard to win the guy’s help in their country's war. This book is in a tomb but that’s easy enough, they've handled undead before.

The party enters the final room of the tomb/dungeon. The book, which they know is cursed, sits on a stand in the middle of a platform in a floorless room. The platform is held up by a massive pile of bones which descends into darkness. It's connected to the doorway by a narrow rope bridge that has a lot of slack on it. The characters have to balance their way across it, which two of them do while the other two wait.

The Cleric decides to read the book. The trap for the room triggers when the book is removed so I ask him if he’s going to open it on the stand or pick it up. He says he’ll  pick it up and crack it open. The moment he does so two things happen: the platform rumbles and the bones start clattering below them and the book blasts the Cleric with negative energy. He takes light damage but he is now totally paralyzed.

A round later, as the Wizard tries to pull the book out of the Cleric's hands so he could close it and the Fighter is rushing across the bridge to see what's going on, skeletons start to come crawling up over the edges of the platform. The skeletons aren't really a threat to the players but there's a problem. The skeletons are what's holding this platform up and as more and more come to get the adventurers the platform is starting to lower.

The Fighter gets to the platform and starts smashing skeletons as fast as he can because that's how Brutar the Dwarf liked things: smashed. Meanwhile the Wizard managed to get the book loose at last and tosses it into a bag. The Cleric, no longer staring into the cursed book, starts to come out of his paralyzed state. The Rogue is still at the doorway, because 1) he was kind of a dick and 2) the character’s player didn’t want anything to do with skeletons (which he couldn’t sneak attack or inflict significant harm on with his piercing damage).

The platform is about ten feet lower by this point and has pulled the formerly slack bridge tight. Skeletons are still pouring up from the edges and the Wizard manages to convince the Fighter that smashing them isn't actually helping the situation that much. The Cleric, thinking quickly, managed to stumble his way back onto the bridge and start back towards the doorway while the players of the Fighter and Wizard argue about how to stop the skeletons. The Cleric assumes he can take the opportunity attacks without much trouble. But the skeletons don't try to claw him; they grapple him (which took me a LONG time to get right, I wasn't great with the grapple rules) and work as a team to pin him down on the rope bridge.

Now the platform is getting even lower and the bridge is more of a ladder. The ropes are surprising strong and take some of the weight from the platform as it continues to sink, which tilts the platform at a thirty degree angle and forces the Wizards and Fighter to keep their balance and returns their attention to the problem of escape. At that moment the Cleric, using an awareness of his class features he had not yet demonstrated, remembers he could turn undead. He wins his grapple to get out of the pin and I rule he could turn while in grapple so he makes the roll and crits it. He totals high enough to turn all the skeletons on the platform, about ten of them, and then some (skeletons have about 1/2 a hit die, if I remember right). He assumes they will crawl back over the edge, thereby stabilize the platform. I then remind him that because they’re less than half his level so they are not turned; they are destroyed.

All of the skeletons around the players turn to dust; than the platform starts to tilt farther. I inform the players that the burst of positive energy destroyed skeletons still under the platform. The “floor” is at something like a sixty degree tilt now with the Cleric hanging onto the rope bridge while the Wizard and Fighter try to scramble up the slant to do the same. At this point the party is starting to get worried because the Wizard had used most of his spells for the day already and he only has damaging spells remaining, not utility spells. Some anger is also expressed towards the Rogue and his player, who still remains completely safe at the doorway.

Skeleton hands start to peak around the bottom on the platform where it still touches the pile of bones and it begins to tilt again. With some good climb checks from the Wizard and Fighter they get high enough to catch hold of the Cleric's legs. The Clerics player, after checking his strength score, informs them that he couldn't hold them up. The Wizard, in a fit of brilliance, pulls the cursed book out of the bag and tosses it up to the Cleric. He tells the Cleric to lace his arms through the ropes on the bridge and open the book.

The Cleric does so and promptly freezes in position. The remaining skeletons can not reach the Wizard and Fighter before the platform finally comes away from the bone pile and hangs totally vertical. The party is now hanging from the Cleric, who is in turn latched to the rope bridge.

The Wizard, hanging from the paralyzed Cleric, didn't want to try and make a climb check because significant failure would result in a fall into the pit. The Fighter, however, makes a quick check to climb up the Cleric until he is high enough to grab the planks of the bridge. He manages to get to the top and promptly begins kicking the crap out of the Rogue for not helping them. I get them back on track, reminding them half the party is still hanging on for dear life. The Rogue aids another, the Fighter pulls but they couldn't pull the bridge up with the platform attached to it. So they drop a knotted rope to the Wizard and get him level with the Cleric. After a few tries the Wizard gets the book loose from the Cleric’s hands and stuffs it back into his bag.

Within a few rounds the Cleric and Wizard are pulled to the top and the challenge has been conquered. They had the book, and they resolved to never open any books in the dungeon, ever again. Also, the Rogue would have to go first from now on.


116
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Tom in the DBZ Game
« on: March 23, 2009, 05:11:17 PM »
Well, having finished the latest episode I feel we need to have a serious discussion about Tom's choices regarding the Dragonball Z game.

So, my concern is this: What was a Namekian doing as part of Freza's gang during a period when only three Nameks are supposed to have survived the storms on their homeworld 100 years ago? At the time, Guru would have been on Namek with all of his children getting slaughtered by Freiza himself, Lord Slug was who knows where, and Kami/Piccollo was dead.

Justify yourself sir!

And as a minor aside, did you know if you search for "namekian" using google, that this is the first image it lists? I haven't found the connection yet.

Oh right, and that anal raping to death thing seemed a little over the top. Just game dude. Of course I have to say, bonus points for really slipping a knife into that GM's ribs like that.

117
RPGs / Roleplaying DIY
« on: March 18, 2009, 02:57:16 PM »
If you're anything like me than chances are at some point during the many, many times you've been skimming your source books, learning about places that exist only in the minds of gamers and designers, you've had this thought: I could do that way better.

Sure most roleplaying games involve creating your own material to some extent depending on the goals of a given game but there's usual somethings that are left alone.

In D&D, one more or less assumes that the Drow live in the Underdark. Or that Dragons horde treasure, after some fashion and humans, elves, dwarves, etc. exist in more or less the same fashion. In Old World of Darkness, one does tend to assume that Caine existed or that lower generations means more power. When we make our own adventures we tend to stay within these established traditions. Like a coloring book we may use any amount of colors but stay within the lines.

Sometimes we want to be preschoolers. The lines make the world boring sometimes and everybody knows the "rules".

So we flip everything over. We don't just make up our own stuff, we take the old stuff and make it different. Now all that "knowledge" is nothing but a stumbling block because the stereotypes aren't relievent in the least.


This is a thread dedicated to DMs (or players, why block people out) who have gone off the beaten path and twisted a game system so far around it's neck came close to snapping.

There's two conditions: #1) the game you "made" needs to have worked, that is the players need to have had fun, and #2) it can't be something created out of truly whole cloth. This is for mutations of existing games, not your personal creations.


My biggest success at this was an inverted Underdark in Dungeons and Dragons 3.0. I rewrote the races completely including racial bonuses, favored classes, size in some cases, and their roles in mixed society. Drow, drueger, and other dark baddies ruled the surface world while the PC races toughed it out underground.

This lead to a campaign of expansion as the players explored new caverns, continually looked for new resources (food, fresh water, ores, and building materials (not alot of lumber in the Underdark)), and interacted in a society with a siege mindset.

The players had a great time playing the "strange new" races and encountering problems that weren't used to. I'm currently trying to rewrite the setting for D&D 4E.

118
Play by Post / Dark Heresy Play by Post
« on: March 14, 2009, 11:57:17 AM »
A fresh start from this thread here.

I fell pretty far behind in getting it going but I still have my notes and the partial character sheets and more than anything I'd really just like to get started playing. I have the basic stats and it'll be easy enough to alter Skill Tests based on those, case by case.

So, anyone who's still interested and doesn't mind a slightly lite rules version of the game is welcome.

119
Play by Post / Shadow Hearts Game
« on: March 12, 2009, 02:05:18 PM »
I've been toying with the idea of playing a game of GUPRS using the Shadow Hearts series of video games as inspiration. I don't know enough RL people who are fans of the games and play GURPS to run one around the table but online my options are little wider.

Any fans of the series interested in giving the comedy/horror/action genre a spin?

120
General Chaos / PAX 2009
« on: March 11, 2009, 12:12:53 PM »
A continuation of this thread from the old forum.

I'll be attending the event for the first time and will have several games ready to run at the event. Might not get to actually run them all, depends on time and the availability of shiny objects to distract me.

So far the list of games to play includes:
  • 4E DnD Epic Dungeon Delve, possibly a "follow up" to Tides of Doom by some guy named Ross
  • Possessed, a New World of Darkness Mortal variant that plays similar to Wraith: The Oblivion (the characters are possessed and each player will play their own character and the demon possessing another character)
  • A Trail of Cthulhu adventure simply titled "Bubbles".

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