Messages

1

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Red Markets Alpha Playtest

« on: August 15, 2015, 02:54:10 PM »

I think I'm a little late to the party, catching up on RPPR episodes now that I'm commuting again, I would like to give the playtest a go if that's still going on.  I've been really interested in the ideas behind Red Markets and have talked over with some of my players about it and they seem intrigued.  I'm in the process of finding some new players here in the Portland area but I just took a a job at an IT place so I think my seats will probably fill up pretty soon.

What I would do with the rules is go over them myself first and then present them to my players.  If I can close the sale with them we'll do a one-off to familiarize ourselves with the nuts and bolts.  From there I'll have them make characters and we'll do a multiple session game and give the tires a good kick and other mechanical analogies.  For Caleb's sake I'll be doing rather a lot of note taking and record our sessions.  I've got a decent setup for that so the audio quality won't suck balls.  I'll record an after-session analysis with everyone to get their thoughts about the way the game went.  Unless they just argue like idiots.  I'll load up Audacity and cut the BS out ahead of time.  I have a feeling Caleb has better things to do than to listen to nerds he doesn't know bitch at each other about dumb crap in and out of character.  So if I can't get everyone off their cellphones for longer than five minutes I'll just hand in notes.

I don't really have any character or enclave concepts to post at this time.  I've been purposefully avoiding that thought exercise with the idea that I'm going to be the one running the game and I'll let my players do that.  I want to keep my own expectations a blank slate so they can take the reins on that and I don't want my stupid ego getting in the way.  Good luck with the writing and looking forward to backing the Kickstarter.

2

General Chaos / Re: HAY GUYS HAVE YOU SEEN THIS THING (Forum Shout Out Thread Thing)

« on: May 07, 2014, 07:56:11 PM »

Good AP podcasts are hard to find, especially having been spoiled by this one.  However I've come across this one recently and while I've only heard the first few eps, its already looking like a new favorite.

http://www.critjuice.com/

3

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Caleb is a mad genius (or Yet Another Fan Club Thread)

« on: May 03, 2013, 06:32:16 AM »

For me Eclipse Phase was just another niche RPG that I had no interest in.  Another indie title with hopelessly complicated game mechanics that seemed alien to me.  I couldn't even begin to bother my ADD-rattled brain with it.  The few oneshots you guys had run didn't really sell me on it like the CoC ones had done previously.  I wasn't very excited about the campaign as it started and I honestly only really started to listen because my job has many boring hours to kill.

To my thoughts about it now that the campaign has come to a close, I'd really like a chance to either play or run an EP game myself.  Sometimes it's hard to learn a new rule set and it can be more difficult by how tied in to an entirely new setting it can all be.  But these games really made it clear for me.  The only complaint I can think of is how in the world am I going to talk my friends into investing the time to understand the setting, hah.  Great listen, thanks guys.

4

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: The RPPR Catchphrase, In-joke, and Obscure Reference Appreciation Station

« on: May 01, 2013, 01:38:43 PM »

Nobody mentioned "top men" yet?  The line comes at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, was trying to remember it and came across a YouTube clip and was all "oh yeah."  I remember my parents making jokes about it way back when as well.

<a href="" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win"></a>

5

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Tadanori Oyama and you can too!

« on: April 15, 2013, 05:36:26 AM »

I heard about Tad before I heard about RPPR actually.  I came across this and a few other websites looking for something to keep me awake at a data entry job in 2009.  I found NerdBound first and they did some Rogue Trader games run by Tad over Skype.  That was actually my introduction to the setting.  Tad did a great job running those.

http://www.nerdbound.com/2009/12/19/episode-14-rogue-trader-into-winters-heart/

6

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: The League of Extraordinary Gentleman - Listener Edition

« on: April 15, 2013, 05:08:50 AM »

M.A.N.T.I.S.  He's Professor X plus Iron Man and his name is an acronym.

Methos.  From Highlander TV series.  Cool character and not over-powered, despite being immortal.

Archer.  Not too far from muderhobo, so being a complete dick is expected.  Plus he's a super-spy.

I would have gone with Burt Reynolds from Archer but I can't do a good impression of him.  It just wouldn't be right.  I thought of some 80's characters but decided not to go with those.  Too many too choose from.

Oh and this:

Keyser Soze-- Usual Suspects

I was discussing this with Ross and decided to share this with everyone. To properly play this character, I would tell everyone at the table that I was playing Bennie from Bennie and June. Until I absolutely had to reveal my alternate identity, I would do silly juggling tricks that Bennie does throughout the movie.

Basic stats: Max Disguise (or equivalent), Max Bluff (or equivalent), Max Spot (or equivalent), Max Killing Skills

is awesome.

7

RPGs / Re: RPPR Listeners: Who gets to play on a regular basis?

« on: April 02, 2013, 08:03:25 AM »

Ran Pathfinder for about a year.  I wanted to play for a change.  Group broke up, hah.

8

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: The RPPR Catchphrase, In-joke, and Obscure Reference Appreciation Station

« on: April 02, 2013, 07:03:55 AM »

I just like those moments when Caleb hits this stumped silence in response to something Aaron has said his character is going to do.  The aforementioned orange grove confrontation being probably the most, iconic I guess, of these moments.  Or when Thad takes a moment to acknowledge just how horrific what is going on, or more likely what the other players are doing, actually is.

9

RPGs / Re: Moving from D20

« on: March 18, 2013, 03:45:47 PM »

Just cut the pretense and go to War Hammer Fantasy Skirmishes?

We already play board games. 

GURPS looks fun. 

10

RPGs / Re: Moving from D20

« on: March 17, 2013, 05:27:17 AM »

Thanks for the all the replies.  I'd seen FATE's kickstarter but the size of the book kind of waved me off of it.  If it was completely new and had a ton of rules it wouldn't really work for my needs.  Eclipse Phase's fluff is what made me pass on it.  I like it well enough, there's just a lot to it.  The Pathfinder campaign world is too much fluff for my group, hah.  I'm trying to talk them into a setting they already know from pop culture, but it's been a hard sell for some reason.  They see their time as valuable, and rightly so, and aren't very interested in learning a new setting for something they aren't going to take very seriously anyway.  We did Dragon Age for a minute but that system is terrible.  Even more random than D20, save or be boned for the entire fight spells being tossed at you at level 1 with save difficulties of 17 to be rolled on 3d6...  Yeah DARPG is kind of a mess.  Beside, DA2 ruined the franchise for us, not that it was great to being with.

I hate how negative I'm coming off on these posts.  But it has got me thinking.  I just need to sell them on a one-off and get them to actually try it.  Mikey might actually like it.  Thanks for the input, guys.

11

RPGs / Re: Moving from D20

« on: March 16, 2013, 04:30:57 AM »

Well they became min/maxers because we had the most amazing min/maxer I've ever seen play with us for a long time.  He could role play, had confidence shining like the light off his bald head, and played to win no matter what it was.  Even when he was trying not to.  Scorpion and the frog I guess.  I think he kinda colored a lot of their impressions of RPGs since as a player he dominated and as a GM he decimated.  They look for the angles now because they don't want to just be along for the ride like they were most of the time when our old buddy played.

Thanks for the comments.  I don't know much about FATE.  If it's anything like Heroes, no thanks, hah. 

12

RPGs / Re: Moving from D20

« on: March 15, 2013, 07:33:24 PM »

Well they do.  At least they say they do.  When I'm a player in someone else game they start to get a little more into the RP side, following my lead.  But as the GM I can't really lead them on like that.  Honestly I think a lot of it is just being nervous or embarrassed.  I tell them to use 3rd person narrative but it doesn't seem to help.

I dunno.  Maybe some Cthulhu one-shots might help them switch gears.  A modern character requires less creativity to come up with as it's something we live and breath every day.  Creating a back story for a gnome requires a bigger leap than creating a back story for a cop or a frat boy.  I think I'll try that on them and see what happens. 

I think I need new players, hah.

13

RPGs / Moving from D20

« on: March 15, 2013, 06:52:57 PM »

Want to move away from D20.  It's going to be rough to talk my friends into it.  I can already say Eclipse Phase is totally out of the question, too much "new" to learn for a group that never bothers with the fluff.  So I'm sticking with the fantasy genre, as it will probably help ease the transition best.  I need a system with rules that cover how to do all the things, I need something similar to what they're used to.  I don't need narrative systems and like, they barely bother to come up with names for their characters, they're more interested in their stats and how much damage they can put out than anything else.  For real, I tried giving them plot and failed hard.  When I gave them 10 foot room with an orc guarding a treasure chest they loved it. 

So we're keeping it nice and stupid for now.  I want to angle them into a position where they pick up some better habits and maybe start thinking of their character as a character and not how they can game the system to maximize dps.  They've never played with RP'ers so they don't know what to do.  They're computer gamers.  Something more open and less confined by class.  I think more choice will make them have to think "alright, so what do I WANT to actually play?"  If they realize that they need some sort of concept and aren't handed one, maybe they'll come up with an idea and even develop some sort of attachment to their toon.

When I first learned about D&D as a kid I made characters before I knew the rules, I just made stories.  And in that first group that worked because they were all creative kids like me.  That was a long time ago and I don't know those guys anymore.  My current friends are great guys and I love them, they just haven't ever had to think about story before.  They play computer games and board games and most of them are engineers (some of you just went "ah yeah I can see that")  When I listen to RPPR's actual plays I frequently pause so I can heave a big sigh of longing.  Even the player who makes himself into the hooded stranger who sits in the corner with his back to everyone is more than what I've been able to squeeze out of my players.  I ENCOURAGE them to try to rip off an anime character they love.  Even Naruto if that's what floats their boat.  No dice.  I'm fighting an uphill battle all alone against an enemy that doesn't seem to know there's a war.

So help me out here.  I think the first step is to break them out of D20.  And to be honest, they're all sick of that system.  They say "I wanna do this but then I can't."  So I need something that will let them do the thing and not gimp them in combat, which is what they're really afraid of.  Suggestions?

14

General Chaos / Re: Introduction

« on: September 18, 2012, 05:35:52 AM »

My name's Jared, early 30ish.  I GM mostly because nobody else does.  I'm working on putting together an online game, probably through something like Roll20, of Pathfinder's Kingmaker.  My local group's go at it dissolved into in-fighting and when I realized I was spending more time playing group therapist than trying to kill them with kobalds I decided it wasn't going to work out.  I bought those books and like the campaign, I'd really like to see a successful go at it.

For my local group I'm going to stick with horror and mystery one-shots from now on.  Those have become my favorite games to play and listen to.  I'm hoping to get some of these guys outside of their D&D comfort zone and put the power gaming behind them.  I'm hoping that the games Caleb has put out will help me open some eyes.  Wages of Sin is my favorite of anything you guys have done.  Hell, it should be a movie.

15

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: What if Cody came back?

« on: September 09, 2012, 12:44:04 AM »

If Cody came back I'd register just to say how awesome that would be.