Topics

1

General Chaos / PAX

« on: July 24, 2009, 10:05:19 PM »

So, GenCon is the big convention that people are talking about and posting about here, but who's got plans to head up to Penny Arcade Expo? Anybody going to run any games or play any? Be cool to meet up with anybody who is going. I'm bringing my D&D4e stuff since I'm sure there'll be plenty of that, but not sure what else I might end up playing.

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RPGs / How much do you game per week?

« on: July 20, 2009, 12:46:43 AM »

Just kind of curious about how much other people game in a given week. Give it however you want, how many hours, how many days, sessions, whatever.

I'm about to start my 4th game, this time D&D4e, to go with the weekly Shadowrun, bi-weekly (sorta) Dark Heresy, and the Saturday gaming that's now kind of a mess. D&D will go about 5 hours, Dark Heresy rarely more than 3 per session, Shadowrun goes about 4, and the Saturday Star Wars/Mutants & Masterminds game usually went anywhere from 7-9 hours.

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RPGs / Trail of Cthulhu

« on: May 29, 2009, 11:40:14 PM »

So I've been looking at Trail of Cthulhu the last few days and I'm really digging it. I like the rules and the art is really awesome. I know there are a lot of CoC people here, so I kind of wondered how people thought it stacked up or if it's apples and oranges with CoC.

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RPGs / The worst and most hilarious thing I've ever done to a fellow PC...

« on: May 08, 2009, 01:45:10 AM »

...was tonight in my Shadowrun game. It is a tale that must be told. Then you too can share tales of fantastic things done by players to players.

One of our players is out of town, gone to Vegas with a girl he knows. But before I get to this week, I must discuss last week. Last week, our dear sweet out of town player was a bit of an idiot.. He basically posted his mug shot/wanted poster to Shadowland and bragged about it. He took video of him burning down a club and everybody inside it and sold it as a snuff film. Unfortunately, he also got me and another player kind of in the video too, though not much. Then he kind of bailed on me in a firefight where I almost died. So this week, we hear that the Yakuza was interested in talking to us. And by talking to us, I mean killing us slowly. In part, they found us because of this certain player. So we went to get revenge.

Not kill him or trash his stuff. Oh no. That's too simple. We were going to vandalize the fuck out of his giant gold pimped out Hummer.

We got about 3 pounds of shrimp and dumped them in the car. Including in the air vents. Also inside his secret compartment that he hides his super boomie gun.  We put vaseline on the door handles. We spread cocktail sauce all over to go with the shrimp. I cast a fashion spell to do such things as make his steering wheel powder blue with a smiley cloud in the center, a camo seat cover with colors of pink, green, blue, and flourescent yellow, and another seat cover in rainbows and pink hearts. We turned on all his lights and switches. We messed with his speakers so the only one that works is the one in the far back left and we put on the worst music we know.  And we spray painted "Flamer" on his gold hummer in brown paint.  We paid for another magician to cast a Stench spell in the car and ~make it permanent~. He'll have a hard time even getting in the car, let alone driving it. Oh and part of the reason he's going to have a hard time driving it anyway? We found a dead hobo and put it in the drivers seat.

The dead hobo conversation was amusing anyway. "What do I roll to find a dead hobo? Do we find one? Do I need to make one?"

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RPGs / How do you handle player suggestions/requests?

« on: March 29, 2009, 05:05:42 PM »

As per the usual, I have an ulterior motive for asking this, but I figure it's a good general RPG question to ask and get opinions on. When you're GMing a game, how do you handle player requests or suggestions that come from players? Not just things like item/equipment wishlists, but anything else. Plotlines, encounters, scenarios, house rules, whatever. Not just in the positive (things that they want to see), but the negative (things they don't want to see anymore). Do you lean towards taking them vitally important or not very important at all? Do you work in everything when possible or cherry pick what to add to the game? What do you do when something someone wants contradicts what someone else wants?

When I GM, I tend to treat player suggestions/requests as fairly important. It helps me guide a game more towards what everybody likes to see or at least what they don't like to see. I rarely take everything exactly as requested though. At the very least, it keeps players more on their toes if they don't know quite what to expect. Also helps to avoid conflict between what different players want or when it doesn't gel with my own plans.

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General Chaos / Xbox 360 Gamertags

« on: March 13, 2009, 01:50:55 PM »

Kind of a continuation of some stuff on the old board. Post your Xbox 360 gamertags here and find some people to game or chat with. Post the games you've got that you'd like to play with other people, if you'd like.

Gamertag: Phelanar
Games: Too Human, Gears of War, Fable 2, Team Fortress 2, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Streets of Rage, TMNT Arcade, Uno, Texas Hold 'Em, and Smash TV.

I'm also up for just chatting when I'm playing one of my non-multiplayer games.

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RPGs / House rules in overabundance

« on: March 11, 2009, 01:20:40 AM »

So, I recently joined a weekly Shadowrun (4th Ed) game and the co-GM...has house rules. Lots and lots of house rules. I have no fewer than 12 different documents with house rules from this GM. Character generation was changed dramatically and, as a person new to the system if not the setting, it took me the better part of 3 hours to make a character with them, even though I only used the core rulebook and not any of the other source books. For those of you familiar with the system, it went from a 400 build point buy using BP costs to a 750 karma buy using upgrade costs.  I've never once run into a game which uses this many house rules and quite frankly I'm not sure if I want to keep playing the game because I wonder if I'm playing Shadowrun or the homebrew of somebody who fancies himself a game developer. I've had my enthusiasm for the game drastically reduced and am actually considering just calling the GM and telling him I don't want to play anymore. Despite the fact that I'm a huge Shadowrun fanboy (it was my first ever real tabletop RPG) and would love to be in a good Shadowrun campaign

Anybody else run into this sort of situation where an overabundance of house rules has dramatically affected your enjoyment of or anticipation for a game?