Messages

31

General Chaos / Re: GenCon 2016 and the 7th Annual RPPR Fan Meet-up: The Fans Awaken

« on: January 21, 2016, 09:36:41 PM »

Definitely interested! Had no idea there was stuff going on all the time I was listening to podcasts until Caleb said something at one of the panels. Was GMing, so had a sad I missed it all.

32

RPGs / Re: Eclipse Phase

« on: January 21, 2016, 11:14:19 AM »

I also will add this sublime Kris Straub comic to the infodump.

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RPGs / Re: Eclipse Phase

« on: January 21, 2016, 08:56:04 AM »

Link is now fixed. Enjoy going down the rabbit hole.

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RPGs / Re: Eclipse Phase

« on: January 20, 2016, 04:15:31 PM »

Okay, I'm in the super early brainstorming stages of a new campaign and am looking for input/ideas to build into it.  I'm wanting to plot out story arc/conflict revolving around the idea of the "big bad" being a meme evolving through the hypercorps/Planetary Consortium.  Inspiration has come from a couple major sources, Akaja from the Know Evil campaign, CGP Grey's "Thought Germ" video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE3j_RHkqJc), and seeing how people spread misinformation in internet echo chambers.  As of right now, I know that I'm treading a really tough position of how to actually discover/fight a meme or something so nebulous, but I think that is also part of what makes it so terrifying.

Some of the structure/ideas I'm thinking:

• As with Akaja, no one "starts" the thing intentionally, it more or less arises from a series of events
• PCs would uncover the danger as they are undergoing other missions at which point their focus shifts to the meme fulltime
• The danger of fighting it head on (e.g. If someone is arguing something that is completely false and idiotic, you don't typically set up a debate with the most prominent figure on the opposing side for the risk of actually legitimizing what your are fighting, but more sinister than stupid)
• I'm thinking the x-threat piece comes in as it might be something of a singularity-seeking meme or essentially trying to turn all of transhumanity collectively into a TITAN-esque collective
• Before PCs uncover the "meme-ness" of it, they take down something only to see it pop up several other places (a la Hydra), leading to them delving into its true nature.
• Being a meme/thought-germ, it infects different hypercorps in different ways, perhaps leading to mini x-threats throughout the campaign.  This could lead to the struggle of balancing fighting the symptoms vs. the disease.

So those are some of the initial thoughts.  The overall concept is probably less than an hour old and I haven't slept on it yet (the time that things typically coalesce better for me), but I was eager to get input and thoughts from others.  Any ideas, especially on how to "beat" the meme or major flaws to avoid would be greatly appreciated.

I used religion as a meme threat. I've lost my original notes on the main baddy, but the basic idea was stolen from Duality - the main baddy was a guy ascension forked with a baby TITAN delta fork. The religion hook was based on the idea that so many religions have about the end times and how 'prophecy' meant that they had to go blow it all up to be saved. I combined that with the stuff from this awesome link and went from there. I was able to fold in petal creation in an intemediate step and I turned the Egg into a skyscraper sized chunk of strange matter that could be transformed into a quark-gluon star with an assist from the solar power transmitters on Caloris 18. It wasn't a terribly well written thing, but I still think the idea of religion as meme warfare is one that can get you a lot of traction.

35

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

« on: January 19, 2016, 06:56:07 PM »

My Google Fu has failed me. What is the source of the 'beetle people' thing?

In Lovecraft's work "Shadow Out of Time" it describes the next dominant race of Earth, in a distant Post-human future as being a race of evolved Bug People.

Ah, I see. Thanks!

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

« on: January 16, 2016, 05:19:40 PM »

My Google Fu has failed me. What is the source of the 'beetle people' thing?

37

RPGs / Re: Anecdote Megathread

« on: December 29, 2015, 11:43:36 AM »

So I've been playing a Mutants and Masterminds campaign with my friend GMing. There are four players, and the GM was hoping for a more lighthearted campaign.

Then he let me make the homeless guy with an Illusion array (Affliction/Damage) and a couple of levels of Transform. He's not got the best grip on his imagination, and he hears the voice of his dead friend, but I must admit that turning the air around an opponent's head into three pounds of plastic DOES end fights quickly. As does an army of six foot long ants crawling from vents. Or a swarm of bees erupiting from under his hood.

38

RPGs / Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder

« on: December 21, 2015, 03:07:25 PM »

I have always thought someone (preferably with more experience with CoC than me, which means >0.1) would be able to make a fine campaign out of Blue Oyster Cult's IMAGINOS. Considering Sandy Peralman has always said Lovecraft was a direct influence, and I get the manic giggles thinking of PC's opposing the Cult of the Blue Oyster.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imaginos

39

General Chaos / Re: What Vidja games are you playing?

« on: December 06, 2015, 06:43:05 AM »

Someone showed me Crusader Kings 2. I post this only to prove to myself that I still live.

40

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: What have you bought because of the podcast?

« on: November 10, 2015, 07:13:14 AM »

Everything EP except the core book
No Security
Delta Green, both original sourcebook and new KS
Call Of Catthulu
Forgotten: The Play's The Thing.

41

General Chaos / Re: Introduction

« on: October 24, 2015, 01:21:48 PM »

Hi, I'm Lonnie. Call me whatever. 45. The rest really doesn't matter.

The gaming started at age 12, playing D&D right about the time AD&D was the hip new thing. Included in part one was a lot of Star Frontiers, Gamma World, Twilight:2000, Traveller, and eventually Marvel Super Heroes. Then came a brief interregnum of about 20 years where I was kept in a dungeon called 'real life'. Escape brought me here after further adventures in stuff like the ST:TNG game and Amazing Adventures. Found RPPR looking for AP's of a game I picked up blind at GenCon called Eclipse Phase....and, well, now you know the rest of the story.

42

RPGs / Re: Anecdote Megathread

« on: October 23, 2015, 09:37:12 AM »

A little over 30 years ago, I was privileged enough to get an invite into a D&D group that ran on Thursdays, whose GM was affectionately known by many many people (including one Mr. Gygax) as Mad Ruthie. Why, I never learned. Anyways.

The campaign was, at best, total chaos. Party strength ran from as few as seven to as many as 20(!) people in a night, depending on how many people from the ever rotating cast would show up on a random Thursday. Levels ran from first to around 10th, or so. I never made it past level 7 with any character, however. Anyways.

First levels were essentially DCC funnel characters. Sent into rooms, with instructions to report back what they saw in the room. Generally, they never came out, so the party knew when to gear up for a fight. Once you made second level, though, you weren't the FNG anymore, and so you were golden. Well, except for the mass combats with the huge fatality rates among the low levels.

Along the way were simply the zany creations of a very imaginative lady and the really bad ways her players reacted to them. Among them was finding a Bag of Holding with a Sherman tank inside. A magical box that cast Teleport when you spoke the magic words 'Calgon, take me away!'. The old man in a room with a pile of housecats. The housecats reacted badly to our Fighter killing the old man, and the resultant 'combat' ended with our Fighter losing one eye. Of course, none of the Clerics cured it, and soon after someone replaced the crest on his shield with a cat's paw. The first level who wandered into a room with a beholder, upon which said beholder rolled six attacks, none of which hit, and the first level exited the room and said that he didn't see anything. I miss those games.

Addendum: After I came back to games a few years ago, my first group was playing the Lost Unicorn Star Trek TNG game. The GM was foolish enough to tell me that the only things he wanted out of my character was no psionics and no hybrids. 'Everything else is fair game!', he said. That was a mistake, and the reason why their ship ended up with a Breen pilot. Much hilarity ensued.

43

RPGs / Re: Hacking Red Market question.

« on: October 23, 2015, 07:09:03 AM »

Three words: Louis L'Amour westerns.

44

RPGs / Re: Eclipse Phase

« on: October 22, 2015, 08:05:55 PM »

Hello, everyone, long time listener, first time forumer.

I have a small problem/block. I'm thinking about making a small mini-campaign for newbies to the system (because all my friends are newbies to the system, haha), to get them both introduced to the system and allow them to feel their way into the backstory without requiring them to read hundreds of pages of story. So I thought about placing the setting on Earth at the moment the Fall starts, and the basic concept will be that the players (in their pre-Fall careers) will have to deal with the fallout of such niceties as terror attacks, shadowy missions for secret organizations, etc., with the payoff being that the terror attack that starts it all and several of the subsequent missions are the planning of the TITANs to use humanity against themselves while they build up their forces, with the players finally getting the big picture as they're headed off of Earth.

My big questions are, should i break up the episodes to teach various parts of the system? Like have the intro get them used to how skills work, and then introduce the sousveillance/Mesh, then combat options, etc.? And should I start them with characters with fewer options at creation representing the fact that they're not the people they're going to be in 10 AF?

Thanks for any advice in advance.