Messages

1

Recruitment Board / Red Markets - Wed. evening (US MDT)

« on: July 26, 2016, 02:50:25 PM »

I'm looking to start an online (Discord) Red Markets campaign set in northern New Mexico (ish).  Play would be every other Wednesday at 7pm MDT/6pm PDT with three hour sessions as the goal.  The game would be Bust oriented, but not pointlessly brutal - no budget, no buy; +1 or it can't be done; but normal vignettes and will to live.  Other than that, I don't have strong feelings about game themes or conflicts. 

I ran a one shot to get practice myself.  A summary is here: https://plus.google.com/101162269534629740347/posts/YG55DDDP3oc

You can respond here or on G+ if you're interested.  I could run another one shot, too, if people aren't sure about the game (or the new-to-you GM).

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RPGs / Re: RPGs that MUST be made

« on: June 10, 2009, 06:49:56 PM »

I'd like to see some neon genesis evangelion game that is sanity-based.

So, what, you level as your sanity drops?  Progression should be logarithmic rather than linear, if you go that way.

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RPGs / Re: Fantasy Burnout.

« on: June 10, 2009, 06:44:23 PM »

I'd second In Nomine, and add GURPS Black Ops.

Consider http://nemesis-system.com both for the system and for adventure/campaign ideas, especially if you're doing Delta Green.

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RPGs / Re: RPGs that MUST be made

« on: June 08, 2009, 07:06:44 PM »

3.  The Dresden Files, of course

This is actually being worked on. It's supposed to use the Fate system (a la Spirit of the Century).

I don't know that system, but I'm not at all surprised.  The novels and setting are practically designed around creating an RPG -- a worldwide organization with designated ass-whoopers (Wardens), and if you want to run a low-power game, there's Paranet!  It's like Ars Magica Madern!  (Or, like the antitesis of Mage, but that's not coincidence.)

If the system doesn't suck ass, I can harness my natural laziness and quit working up my ORE homebrew.

As for a licensed game that doesn't blow, preach on, preacher!  Trouble is, it's more work to make a good product, and then the PR people have to deal with it being panned on message boards by all the mouth-breathing purist fan-boys typing with one hand.

I'd imagine a lot of licenses also "protect the property" by ensuring that the licensee is yoked to the story already told.  (Though I remember reading that the license for the first B5 game just required "major" additions and changes to be run by production staff for approval, so maybe not.)

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RPGs / Re: RPGs that MUST be made

« on: June 06, 2009, 01:23:17 PM »

1.  Steven Brust's Dragaera setting from Brokedown Palace, The Khaavren Romances, and the Vlad Taltos books.  Three species, five magic systems, plus action and adventure!

2.  The Land from Stephen R. Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

3.  The Dresden Files, of course

...and I know I've got more, but I'm house-sitting and so I'm not near my book & movie collection.

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RPGs / Re: Rehabilitating the Bad GM (and why I now hate KOTOR)

« on: June 04, 2009, 03:17:02 PM »

maybe you could go over her process of planning games and actually plan out the next game. Subtly give her pointers to make the game better.

This is what I was going to say, but I'd like to a amplify a point:  She has to come to the Light Side (pun very much intended) on her own, but you can help.  If she thinks the game is going great, you're just the asshole who doesn't like her style, or you just want your game back, or something.  On the other hand, if she knows that people aren't enjoying the game, but doesn't know what to do, then you can provide suggestions.

I find that it works perfectly well to lay out a few options in archetypical form, both so that I can be surprised as a player, and so that she can put her stamp on the scenario.  If you're just writing the adventure for her, then she won't grow as a GM or have much fun herself.

Be prepared for some continued rough spots, and also remember that you can't be too heavy handed.  It works far better to present yourself as a resource ("Any frustrations with your game that I can help with?") rather than a scold ("You're sucking, and here's what you need to fix.")  Just be prepared to do some work gently focusing the conversation so that she correctly identifies the problem -- "I designed an on-rails adventure that's too difficult for the PCs" rather than "The PCs aren't the right level."

As may be apparent, I've had a lot of these conversations.  As long as you can stay focused on creating and amplifying positives, rather than eliminating negatives, they tend to go well.  (Focusing on the negates tends to cast you as the scold, while amplifying the positives tends to end up crowding out the negatives.  Eventually.)

Good luck!

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RPGs / Re: What do you want the RPPR crew to try out?

« on: May 27, 2009, 03:25:43 PM »

I can't believe I haven't seen this yet (did I miss a posted AP?):

Reign

I've been interested in Reign for quite a while, but I haven't had a group for four years now.

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RPGs / Re: Laws of Running a Game

« on: May 18, 2009, 12:47:23 PM »

I noticed long ago that the more detailed my plans as GM, the less of the details I would use.  If I'm doing my job right, after all, the players are all there to be creative.

My GMing style now is to have a firm grasp on the character and motivations of the NPCs and NPC groups, and for games like Shadowrun a good idea of floor plans, other building tennants, etc., and no real idea how the PCs can win.

I find this works well for everyone.  I don't waste a lot of time on details that won't be used, and the time I do spend is reusable; if they never meet one of the NPCs, (s)he can be recast later.  The players, on the other hand, get to find creative solutions to the scenario, and watch the GM sweat a bit as I figure out NPC responses to PC actions.  (And it always feels good to make the GM sweat.)

Also, I get the entertainment of watching them try to guess what I want them to do.

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RPGs / Re: Games you would run if you didn't have the players that you do

« on: May 04, 2009, 08:19:54 PM »

Wow, if only I had players.

One service worth mentioning for finding people is Nearby Gamers (http://nearbygamers.com/).  Depending on where you are, the penetration is OK, (though not here in 'Burque).

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RPGs / Re: Share your Best Prop Story

« on: May 04, 2009, 07:32:54 PM »

had his girlfriend play the houseboy -- she was sleight, and had just shaved her head. 

what does that mean, im confused. But sound creepy none the less.

She was shortish, and slender, so she could almost pass for a boy, and she was basically a live-action prop playing the old guy's very creepy servant.  (She brought drinks, took empties, etc.)

She had a chair in the back corner of the room where she just kind of kept to herself when we weren't in the creepy old guy's house.  When we did get to the house, she'd come back around the table, so she was only "there" when the servant was around.

It was very cool.

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RPGs / Re: Why do you game?

« on: April 25, 2009, 06:03:34 PM »

One of the many reasons I game is that it's collaborative.  The GM and players can tell a better story together than they can apart.  It's not just expressing creativity, but appreciating others' creativity.

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RPGs / Re: Project Management in games - THIS SHIT JUST GOT REAL

« on: April 25, 2009, 05:56:50 PM »

One thing I would add, though it's more of a strategy for the PCs:  They are the invisible hand against the quite visible hand.  Things that slip by one player may be caught by another, and things that slip by them mey be caught by one of their independent contractors.  Anything that slips by Cortez is probably just gone.

The players can use this to their advantage.  Instead of staging raids that would hurt the slave labor, they can just frustrate, annoy, and irritate Cortez.  If he can't get a full night's sleep, and has to wonder when his hair will stop being orange, he may forget to secure resources, or make sure he has enough lumber, etc.

Conveniently, all players have a natural talent for being annoying and derailing plans.  They just have to use their powers for good!

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RPGs / Re: Share your Best Prop Story

« on: April 25, 2009, 01:08:38 PM »

I've got two stories -- one as a player and one as a GM.

As a player, I was in a one-shot Call of Cthulhu game where the GM, when in character as the creepy old coot who'd hired the investigators, had his girlfriend play the houseboy -- she was sleight, and had just shaved her head.  She served tea at the beginning of the session, and just kind of crouched next to him whenever she wasn't doing anything else.  It was extremely creepy.

As a GM, I was running a horror session of a sci-fi game, where the players were in a science research facility that had gone dark.  When they arrived, the lights were on but nobody was home, etc.  The facility was in two pieces that were connectd by an elevator, and I couldn't hav ethem using it too much because if they compared notes too often they'd figure out what was going on.  My solution was, every time someone took the elevator, I'd hum "The Girl from Ipanema" until someone started gritting their teeth, then say "Ding!  You're there."  They stayed split up, and I still get compliments on that session years later, so I think it went over well.

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RPGs / Re: Non Standard Home Town

« on: April 25, 2009, 12:50:06 PM »

If you want to go with the tall-vs-short race thing, there's solid reasoning behind it.  It's more work for the experts (e.g., dwarves) to dig out hallways and rooms for the tall folk.

As for oddities, a lot of people are going to be depressed -- this means listless, short tempered, more frequently sick -- so one person who would be really weird would be a genuinely cheerful and helpful individual.  (This only works if you establish some paranoia with your players first, so they keep wondering what this person's angle is.)

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Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: How Adversaries Get Made

« on: April 23, 2009, 11:43:03 PM »

It can happen by accident, too.  In a GURPS Black Ops game, there was a demon the players didn't outsmart, and he got away.  Several adventures later, he sent them an invitation (in the form of a severed body part), and I never saw the group so excited to take a hook.


They got him that time, incidentally, and enjoyed it immensely.