151
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Better Angels Campaign: The Spared and the Spoiled
« on: May 15, 2014, 11:35:26 PM »
My roommate and I fucking lost our collective shit at the description of the demonic hell-scanner. 
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152
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Better Angels Campaign: The Spared and the Spoiled
« on: April 10, 2014, 09:19:45 PM »Quote
The theme when I've run it has always been that of a disfunctional self-help group. I like to open with everyone playing the demons, bragging about the previous session, and then cut to the players, sitting in a garage with coffee and donuts talking about how they can be better.
Do you mind if I borrow this for my campaign? It sounds like a fantastic and hilarious idea.
153
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Red Markets Alpha Playtest
« on: March 10, 2014, 01:20:40 PM »Quote
Hackers are definitely a thing. The main metaplot NPC is a hacker (Gnat). They can have a big effect on getting leverage over clients and competition in the negotiation part of the game. They're technical skills are somewhat limited out in the field without abundant electricity, but I'm finding that I need some crafting mechanics so they could useful there. Finally, if the job site has power or security, having a hacker makes things a LOT easier. So think Deckers in Shadowrun; they might not be spec'ed for maximum utility in a fight, but they definitely have spotlight moments where the team uses their skills to survive.
Okay, so I'm not insanely off the mark after all. :p I figured it would be handy for a group of Takers to have a hacker if they came across an abandoned government facility or sealed bank vault or whatever, but depending on when Red Markets is set I wasn't sure if it would be unrealistic to assume such places would still be secured and/or have electricity. I'll post a concept in a bit, thanks for the response!
154
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Red Markets Alpha Playtest
« on: March 10, 2014, 01:34:49 AM »
I'm rolling around a couple of character concepts in my head, but I wanted to ask a potentially naive question before I did: are hackers (Aside from Gnat the God-Queen of Ubiq City) still a thing in Red Markets?
("I am not a hacker/CompSci major" disclaimer applies)
I know people think of more Wild West gunslingers and wrench-wielding auto mechanics when they approach post-apocalyptic settings (At least I do), but reading about Ubiq makes me think that there could still be demand for people who can digitally infiltrate or sabotage networks and whatnot. Even out in the Loss Takers might have room on their team for someone who knows how to crack into a digital lock, remote hack another group's Amazon drone, or break into secure government websites for intel. There could even be entire criminal groups dedicated to scamming the whole Bounty/bitcoin economy somehow, although I'm not an econ major so that might also be a silly proposal.
Is this idea feasible at all, or am I thinking too much in Hollywood terms?
("I am not a hacker/CompSci major" disclaimer applies)
I know people think of more Wild West gunslingers and wrench-wielding auto mechanics when they approach post-apocalyptic settings (At least I do), but reading about Ubiq makes me think that there could still be demand for people who can digitally infiltrate or sabotage networks and whatnot. Even out in the Loss Takers might have room on their team for someone who knows how to crack into a digital lock, remote hack another group's Amazon drone, or break into secure government websites for intel. There could even be entire criminal groups dedicated to scamming the whole Bounty/bitcoin economy somehow, although I'm not an econ major so that might also be a silly proposal.
Is this idea feasible at all, or am I thinking too much in Hollywood terms?
155
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Caleb is a mad genius (or Yet Another Fan Club Thread)
« on: March 08, 2014, 12:43:57 AM »
Having just finished re-listening to Know Evil, I'd like to give Caleb another round of applause for that entire campaign. Great storytelling, fantastic horror, plenty of amazing character and roleplaying moments and an immensely satisfying conclusion. Bravo, sir.
156
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Better Angels Campaign: The Spared and the Spoiled
« on: March 03, 2014, 11:30:48 PM »
This is quickly turning into the funniest RPPR campaign by far. Know Evil and HONA are still my favorites plot-wise, but Spared and the Spoiled is definitely the most lolworthy.
157
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Better Angels Campaign: The Spared and the Spoiled
« on: January 31, 2014, 11:44:58 AM »
Bravo to Tom for his peanut gallery quips. I did a spittake at his sing-song "swear to meeee!"
158
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: RPPR Gamedesign Workshop - To grog or not to grog.
« on: January 17, 2014, 10:52:23 PM »
After listening to one and a half of the podcast episodes thus far I decided to finally sit down and write up a rough concept for the game idea I've been kicking around in my head for a while: Minions and Mooks (Probably not final name), or "what if the GM plays the hero and the PCs are kobolds".
I don't know if I want to look into using FATE Core like TO or wade into the eldritch bog of custom game mechanics, but I do know more or less what kind of gameplay I want from my system: the players will be working together to defeat singular, much more powerful enemies than them. That might sound like every RPG ever, but what I want out of it is to force them not only to work together but to build their characters in such a way that they coordinate and play off each other mechanically (And maybe even narratively if I can somehow finangle that) by giving each class an ability that specifically ties into another class; IE "you are a rogue and you get X bonus if there is a friendly Tank within sight" or something like that.
In addition, the players will die. Probably a lot. When they do they roll up new semi-random characters and continue with minimal penalty (You lose a certain amount of experience but not so much that you're useless to a veteran party depending on what 'tier' you're in) but they have to be careful not to experience an abundance of deaths or they will fail their assigned task/mission/operation as their master or whoever decides to avoid the sunken cost fallacy and just fires the survivors. Possibly out of a cannon, into the sun. Of course, the flip side of this is that character progression isn't individual, but collective; everyone advances at the same rate (With potentially smaller individual bonuses depending on how dangerous I want to get with the leveling) to represent their oversight officer/supervillain master/Dick Cheney investing more time and effort into their gear and training, which is why Bob 034 is more or less just as effective as his late predecessor Bob 033. There will also probably tiers of some sort, ranging from "Rookie/FNG" to "Go-Getter/Dude from Buffy who dual-wielded M4s like a boss" to "Lieutenant/Right-Hand Man".
As for setting I also have the gleeful challenge of writing this game's mechanics and classes and equipment and such so that the game can be modular, since one of the underlying ideas I have for it is that you can apply it to pretty much any setting that has a dude in charge of a bunch of weaker dudes who run off and die trying to accomplish some sort of objective. Evil necromancer's army, government agency dedicated to hunting mutants, alien infiltrators tasked with eliminating superheroes to prepare for an invasion, etc etc. I want people to be able to sit down and play XCOM just as easily as they do Stormtrooper Academy Graduate Squad or whatever.
Of course this is all literally what I just wrote down after letting the idea stew for ages and then trying to scoop it all out of my head and jot it down coherently. I'll be amazed if half of this makes it into the "official" rough draft alpha, but it's nice to want things.
Inspirations were XCOM (As mentioned), Agents of SHIELD, Heroes (The Company), RPPR's Tribes of Tokyo campaign, and probably more than a few others I'm forgetting.
I don't know if I want to look into using FATE Core like TO or wade into the eldritch bog of custom game mechanics, but I do know more or less what kind of gameplay I want from my system: the players will be working together to defeat singular, much more powerful enemies than them. That might sound like every RPG ever, but what I want out of it is to force them not only to work together but to build their characters in such a way that they coordinate and play off each other mechanically (And maybe even narratively if I can somehow finangle that) by giving each class an ability that specifically ties into another class; IE "you are a rogue and you get X bonus if there is a friendly Tank within sight" or something like that.
In addition, the players will die. Probably a lot. When they do they roll up new semi-random characters and continue with minimal penalty (You lose a certain amount of experience but not so much that you're useless to a veteran party depending on what 'tier' you're in) but they have to be careful not to experience an abundance of deaths or they will fail their assigned task/mission/operation as their master or whoever decides to avoid the sunken cost fallacy and just fires the survivors. Possibly out of a cannon, into the sun. Of course, the flip side of this is that character progression isn't individual, but collective; everyone advances at the same rate (With potentially smaller individual bonuses depending on how dangerous I want to get with the leveling) to represent their oversight officer/supervillain master/Dick Cheney investing more time and effort into their gear and training, which is why Bob 034 is more or less just as effective as his late predecessor Bob 033. There will also probably tiers of some sort, ranging from "Rookie/FNG" to "Go-Getter/Dude from Buffy who dual-wielded M4s like a boss" to "Lieutenant/Right-Hand Man".
As for setting I also have the gleeful challenge of writing this game's mechanics and classes and equipment and such so that the game can be modular, since one of the underlying ideas I have for it is that you can apply it to pretty much any setting that has a dude in charge of a bunch of weaker dudes who run off and die trying to accomplish some sort of objective. Evil necromancer's army, government agency dedicated to hunting mutants, alien infiltrators tasked with eliminating superheroes to prepare for an invasion, etc etc. I want people to be able to sit down and play XCOM just as easily as they do Stormtrooper Academy Graduate Squad or whatever.
Of course this is all literally what I just wrote down after letting the idea stew for ages and then trying to scoop it all out of my head and jot it down coherently. I'll be amazed if half of this makes it into the "official" rough draft alpha, but it's nice to want things.
Inspirations were XCOM (As mentioned), Agents of SHIELD, Heroes (The Company), RPPR's Tribes of Tokyo campaign, and probably more than a few others I'm forgetting.
159
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: The RPPR Catchphrase, In-joke, and Obscure Reference Appreciation Station
« on: January 16, 2014, 01:53:15 PM »"Are you a cop? You have to tell me if you're a cop."
I keep hearing this, but I have no idea where it's from.
I'm pretty sure this is just from the urban legend that undercover police officers have to tell you if they're an officer if asked, which is complete bull shit. If they're intentionally referencing something specific then I'm not sure.
My group makes this joke often as well, as far as I know it's just a reference to the erroneous thought that an officer has to expose themselves when asked.
This lead to someone in my gaming group turning to an NPC and saying "Are you a Paladin? You have to tell me if you're a paladin."
The proper response to this is "what's a Paladin?"
160
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Better Angels Campaign: The Spared and the Spoiled
« on: January 16, 2014, 01:04:02 PM »
Apparently I've been using a Crown Royal bag for my dice for years, but I never bothered looking at the stitching so when Caleb mentioned a CR bag full of dice in episode one I thought "'alcohol paraphernalia?' Who keeps their dice in whiskey bags?" 
What was David's supervillain name again? I know we have Shifty, Master Debater, and the Unseen Chupacabra but I can't remember what the friendly Vietnam vet turned librarian turned demonic villain decided to call himself.
What was David's supervillain name again? I know we have Shifty, Master Debater, and the Unseen Chupacabra but I can't remember what the friendly Vietnam vet turned librarian turned demonic villain decided to call himself.