Dig to Victory scenario

[Tadanori Oyama]

Well, beej gets my stamp of awesome.

[beowuuf]

Don't forget Dan adds one to his darkspiral aura afterwards.

[beej]

Okay...

Yeah, Ross is a dick.  When he's savagely beating someone, he taunts him/her, belittles their gamerhood and their family breeding in the Announce voice.   Then he orders Cody to violate the hapless victim with the O' Screaming Pelican or possibly a Rusty Trombone, depending on whether Cody has had relations with a humanoid amphibian recently.  Following Cody's abuse, Ross then lets Mike use the poor bastard for target practice and shots him/her from across the room like 'a boss' and then Ross has Aaron patch up broken and humiliated victim's wounds.  After the sexual portion of the ordeal, Dan slaughters the victim like a kobld member of the Thieves Guild and adds one to his Dark Spiral Aura.  Ross then either feeds the corpse to Tom(what with his cannibalistic ghoul tendencies and what not) or lets Bill sell off the poor bastard to some sinister eldritch vendor...one of which turns out to be Scott Glancy.

[Boyos]

Wow! I dont know whats more scary ASG Realism, or how close to the truth Beej is!

[A Scott Glancy]

I posted a link to this thread to Scott's Facebook

And why exactly would you do that, Ross? Seems like a bit of a dick move.

A. Scott Glancy, President TCCorp, dba Pagan Publishing

Really? I just thought you would want to know when the fans are talking about you.

Well sure I would, Ross. And to do that you would send me a private message with a link. But you told everyone having the conversation that you were doing it. By telling the people in the thread that you were telling the author of the scenario that folks were talking about him might have a chilling effect on the discussion. I'm not going to learn very much when I only get positive feedback so I would prefer to hear the criticism unrestrained.

As for the criticism, some of it is valid. While I did include too much technical information in both those scenarios, I think Ross will back me up that I included far, far less than I did for the "Last Flight of the L58." As entertaining as it was to drop Ross off the top of the Zeppelin 8,000 feet over the Caucasus Mountains, that evening was filled with too much of me lecturing on the operation of zeppelins. A friend of mine took me aside afterward and told me that the game was more like a history lecture than a Call of Cthulhu scenario. Therefore there was less technical info in "Dig to Victory" and even less in "Uboote Heraus" because I realized that these details were bogging things down. Nevertheless, I felt that most of the technical information was critical because the scenario is set in an environment where those details may be critical to game play and player decisions.

Of course, this is a game run at GenCon outside the normal schedule of games. I'm hanging out with friends I don't get to see but once a year. So, yeah, there's too much bullshitting back and forth going on. Everyone at the table is a history wonk and everyone wants to say something smart or funny to ensure that they keep up with all the other wonks. So that slows things down. The thing to remember is that we weren't running that game to entertain you, the RPPR AP audience. We were entertaining ourselves.

We had a good time. Anything else is lagniappe.

A. Scott Glancy, President TCCorp, dba Pagan Publishing

[Kroack]

We love you Mr. Glancy.

[Setherick]

Of course, this is a game run at GenCon outside the normal schedule of games. I'm hanging out with friends I don't get to see but once a year. So, yeah, there's too much bullshitting back and forth going on. Everyone at the table is a history wonk and everyone wants to say something smart or funny to ensure that they keep up with all the other wonks. So that slows things down. The thing to remember is that we weren't running that game to entertain you, the RPPR AP audience. We were entertaining ourselves.

Ross and I were actually talking about this earlier. Most of the RPPR AP audience would have probably hated the old games by the RPPR group for some of these very reasons. When Karee and I were still in Springfield, particularly in the pre-Cody days, games would revolve around detail conversations of philosophy, psychology, literary and cultural theory, history, and game design because that's what we found entertaining. We liked the story elements of the game, but the game was also a place for us to socialize outside of work and school. Very rarely did we have strict narrative games that would have been entertaining to many other people.

[clockworkjoe]

I posted a link to this thread to Scott's Facebook

And why exactly would you do that, Ross? Seems like a bit of a dick move.

A. Scott Glancy, President TCCorp, dba Pagan Publishing

Really? I just thought you would want to know when the fans are talking about you.

Well sure I would, Ross. And to do that you would send me a private message with a link. But you told everyone having the conversation that you were doing it. By telling the people in the thread that you were telling the author of the scenario that folks were talking about him might have a chilling effect on the discussion. I'm not going to learn very much when I only get positive feedback so I would prefer to hear the criticism unrestrained.

As for the criticism, some of it is valid. While I did include too much technical information in both those scenarios, I think Ross will back me up that I included far, far less than I did for the "Last Flight of the L58." As entertaining as it was to drop Ross off the top of the Zeppelin 8,000 feet over the Caucasus Mountains, that evening was filled with too much of me lecturing on the operation of zeppelins. A friend of mine took me aside afterward and told me that the game was more like a history lecture than a Call of Cthulhu scenario. Therefore there was less technical info in "Dig to Victory" and even less in "Uboote Heraus" because I realized that these details were bogging things down. Nevertheless, I felt that most of the technical information was critical because the scenario is set in an environment where those details may be critical to game play and player decisions.

Of course, this is a game run at GenCon outside the normal schedule of games. I'm hanging out with friends I don't get to see but once a year. So, yeah, there's too much bullshitting back and forth going on. Everyone at the table is a history wonk and everyone wants to say something smart or funny to ensure that they keep up with all the other wonks. So that slows things down. The thing to remember is that we weren't running that game to entertain you, the RPPR AP audience. We were entertaining ourselves.

We had a good time. Anything else is lagniappe.

A. Scott Glancy, President TCCorp, dba Pagan Publishing

Well, that is entirely reasonable and accurate. Needless to say, I did not think of any of those considerations when I posted it. Because I am a loose cannon. Or something like that. My bad.

I should note however that I have full faith in the RPPR community to keep an intelligent debate going on even when the subject is aware of said debate.

[iceemaker]

Honestly, there's not very much to debate here. One side says, "I think the background was cool and fun" and the other says, "I think that stuff lagged the games down". And that's really it. I may happen to fall into the latter category, but as long as the GM and his players had fun, that's all that matters. No amount of criticism and debate will change that simple truth.

[beej]

Icemaker pretty much nailed it.

For my faction, if every single week we had an epic 6 to 12 hour Glany game....we'd be getting an early twentieth century college education without those annoying tuition fees or exams.   Which is cool.

And I'll point out, as entertaining as the Mutants and Master Minds games are, I have zero desire to spend time or money on the system.  Between Tom's Cthulhu playtests and the Glancy Con games, I really fell in love with the Cthulhu system and really want to get my players to try it again.  I mean I was ready to go down to the store and buy the book/s that had those scenarioes in them.   But since they're not out yet I'll have to buy a Pagan book and wing it.    I was just hoping I could sit down with the physical scenario and listen to the podcast at the same time and map it all out.   

Kroack....does this rag smell like ether to you?   Shhhhhh don't fight it.

[ristarr]

I also fall into to the "it was really cool" camp.  The only AP I have ever listened to more than once is Uboat, and I think I will need to listen to Dig again now.  I do remember having to do a good bit of reading on trench warfare during/after listening to it the first time.

Beej, you can apick up Mysteries of Mesoamerica from Pagan and die in the Well of Sacrifice as so many others have.  Lots of historical and flavor details in what I think is a much neglected region for fantasy/horror.

[beowuuf]

Obviously, the important part of the debate is that did the haters feel so strongly that they stopped listening to the podcast? (Yes). Did the lovers of the podcasts really like it enough to keep listening repeatedly, or was it just fun once? (Listen repeatedly). So sadly, if Scott wants to know how to pitch any APs of playtesting for future releases, he's still in the marmite situation. Could be worse, could be a marmot situation. Those are scratchy.

[Dogfish]

Of course, this is a game run at GenCon outside the normal schedule of games. I'm hanging out with friends I don't get to see but once a year. So, yeah, there's too much bullshitting back and forth going on. Everyone at the table is a history wonk and everyone wants to say something smart or funny to ensure that they keep up with all the other wonks. So that slows things down. The thing to remember is that we weren't running that game to entertain you, the RPPR AP audience. We were entertaining ourselves.

We had a good time. Anything else is lagniappe.

A. Scott Glancy, President TCCorp, dba Pagan Publishing

That's all very reasonable, the forum gives the context to these recording sessions as entertainment and I guess when listening to your games it's a poor way to approach them.

[Shallazar]

Its kind of like when you listen to podcasts from the community AP site.
They might not be your bag, but the people who play them enjoy them.

I get my jollies listening to people have a fun game and thats why I like the ASG games and I would really have liked to hear the Zeppelin one, because they are awesome. Not only that but it is kind of a privilege to get sneak peaks into stuff that won't come out until it is all good and ready. Its like "Fuck! These games are awesome! WWI was hardcore."

[A Scott Glancy]

the forum gives the context to these recording sessions as entertainment and I guess when listening to your games it's a poor way to approach them.

I leave it to the readers of this thread to decide whether that statement is constructive criticism of my game presentation or merely an executed opportunity to say something snide at my expense.



A. Scott Glancy, President TCCorp, dba Pagan Publishing