16
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Why I Love Tom Church
« on: July 10, 2009, 05:13:31 PM »I'd love to hear some actual plays with Tom as GM. How about it, Tom?
Thanks Ross!
Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
Pages: 1 [2]
Thanks Ross!
17
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Why I Love Tom Church
« on: June 26, 2009, 02:09:38 PM »
I love Tom Church because:
1) He is a wealth of practical game knowledge. I have absolutely no doubt that my games have improved because of Tom's experience and advice.
2) He is a great Role-player. Listening to the many and varied Actual Plays leaves me with the distinct impression that Tom is exactly my favorite kind of Player; He really gets into his character, and stays in-character, and he is an active player, not content to sit back and let the others come up with the ideas. Tom keeps the game moving forward.
3) He has great taste. Not only in games, but in music (sorry, Ross: Reverend Horton Heat beats techno 7 days a week and twice on Sunday), comedy, and pop culture.
4) He is funny as hell.
Overall, Tom is exactly the kind of guy I'd like to hang out with.
I'd love to hear some actual plays with Tom as GM. How about it, Tom?
1) He is a wealth of practical game knowledge. I have absolutely no doubt that my games have improved because of Tom's experience and advice.
2) He is a great Role-player. Listening to the many and varied Actual Plays leaves me with the distinct impression that Tom is exactly my favorite kind of Player; He really gets into his character, and stays in-character, and he is an active player, not content to sit back and let the others come up with the ideas. Tom keeps the game moving forward.
3) He has great taste. Not only in games, but in music (sorry, Ross: Reverend Horton Heat beats techno 7 days a week and twice on Sunday), comedy, and pop culture.
4) He is funny as hell.
Overall, Tom is exactly the kind of guy I'd like to hang out with.
I'd love to hear some actual plays with Tom as GM. How about it, Tom?
18
RPGs / Re: NEED HELP: Mafia Game
« on: June 23, 2009, 04:06:36 PM »
-Create various NPCs in the family, as well as the other families
The first thing I would recommend for NPCs is the ubiquitous name lists:
Italian-Americans tend to have anglicized versions of Italian first names, such as Tony, Joe, Mike, Paul, etc. for men and Marie, Phyllis, Josephine, Teresa, etc. for women. For Italian last names simply crib from your favorite Mafia themed movies and television shows. However, another easy cheat is to Google Italian towns and cities and add “De” to the front of the place-name for an easy Italian Surname: for a real-life example, my Grandmother’s maiden name is DeMarco.
Now, as far as the actual NPCs go: follow the RPPR Golden Rule; Steal Blatantly. However, I would advise you NOT to steal from mafia T.V. shows and movies; your players will be looking for this. Instead, steal characters from other kinds of shows, change their names, and work them into the context of your campaign. For example, the crew of Serenity from the show Firefly would make a great mafia crew-just change the names of the characters. Another great source would be the show Babylon 5: virtually every character from that show makes a great NPC for any game; I have used them myself in my Iron-Age DnD game.
-Design various events that will happen whether the players do anything about it or not
For this list of events (that could easily double as adventure hooks), I would make a list of events divided into two categories: Major Events (that would indirectly affect the PCs but have reaching consequences) and Minor Events (that would directly affect the PC, but are easily resolved, i.e., adventure hooks). I would create, say, 5 Major Events and 10 Minor events, depending upon the length of your campaign.
Major Events would include: The Boss of a Rival Crew is assassinated; the local DA arrests a major Boss on a RICO charge (bad news for any crew), etc. Minor Events could include: the girlfriend of a PC announces she is pregnant, the brother of a PC is a gambling addict and is in 40 grand deep to the boss of a rival crew, a rival gang (not mafia but, say, Russian, Yakuza, or Irish) moves in on the PCs turf, etc.
-Have various jobs for the players to do.
Most members of Mafia Crews are basically left to their own devices; they must simply give a weekly “cut” to the crew boss, who in turn gives a cut to the Capo, and on and on. This element could introduce a nice sandbox element to the game as the PCs engage in various attempts to “earn,” collecting extortion money (protection), loan sharking, gambling debts, and a little B&E on the side.
As far as specific jobs given by Bosses and Capos: these would mostly include collection of overdue debts (“Frankie the Scab is in ten large and he ain’t paid up in a while. Go convince him to quit being a douche-bag and cough up some of what he owes.”); Babysitting (body guarding various NPCs); and, if the PCs are real toughs, assassinations.
-Have a list of traits for the PC creation
I’m not exactly sure what you mean by this. Are you looking for GURPS-style advantages, disadvantages, and quirks, or are you simply looking for unique personality traits to assign to the PCs? Either way, the aforementioned GURPS mechanics are a good place to start.
-Have main locations in the city for the players to become familiar with it
Locations would fall into three broad categories: businesses owned by the PCs and their associates that would double as meeting places; ‘Neutral’ territory for meetings with other crews and bosses; and ‘mark’ locations- places where the PCs collect protection money, engage in B&E, fight other crews, etc.
Examples of businesses/ meeting places would be Bars, restaurants, delis, bakeries (Italian-Americans are big on food), etc. The same would apply to the ‘neutral’ territories. The ‘mark’ territories would be anywhere the PCs would be able to pick up easy cash; mostly businesses but residences would do as well. One great resource for this aspect of the game is the out-of-print Shadowrun Book Sprawl Sites, however any floor plan will do- you can even reuse old floor plans by adding “new paint” to them.
I hope these general tid-bits help. If you would like specifics of anything above, feel free to relpy either on this thread or via PM. I will be happy to provide what I can (time permitting). Good Luck with the game!
The first thing I would recommend for NPCs is the ubiquitous name lists:
Italian-Americans tend to have anglicized versions of Italian first names, such as Tony, Joe, Mike, Paul, etc. for men and Marie, Phyllis, Josephine, Teresa, etc. for women. For Italian last names simply crib from your favorite Mafia themed movies and television shows. However, another easy cheat is to Google Italian towns and cities and add “De” to the front of the place-name for an easy Italian Surname: for a real-life example, my Grandmother’s maiden name is DeMarco.
Now, as far as the actual NPCs go: follow the RPPR Golden Rule; Steal Blatantly. However, I would advise you NOT to steal from mafia T.V. shows and movies; your players will be looking for this. Instead, steal characters from other kinds of shows, change their names, and work them into the context of your campaign. For example, the crew of Serenity from the show Firefly would make a great mafia crew-just change the names of the characters. Another great source would be the show Babylon 5: virtually every character from that show makes a great NPC for any game; I have used them myself in my Iron-Age DnD game.
-Design various events that will happen whether the players do anything about it or not
For this list of events (that could easily double as adventure hooks), I would make a list of events divided into two categories: Major Events (that would indirectly affect the PCs but have reaching consequences) and Minor Events (that would directly affect the PC, but are easily resolved, i.e., adventure hooks). I would create, say, 5 Major Events and 10 Minor events, depending upon the length of your campaign.
Major Events would include: The Boss of a Rival Crew is assassinated; the local DA arrests a major Boss on a RICO charge (bad news for any crew), etc. Minor Events could include: the girlfriend of a PC announces she is pregnant, the brother of a PC is a gambling addict and is in 40 grand deep to the boss of a rival crew, a rival gang (not mafia but, say, Russian, Yakuza, or Irish) moves in on the PCs turf, etc.
-Have various jobs for the players to do.
Most members of Mafia Crews are basically left to their own devices; they must simply give a weekly “cut” to the crew boss, who in turn gives a cut to the Capo, and on and on. This element could introduce a nice sandbox element to the game as the PCs engage in various attempts to “earn,” collecting extortion money (protection), loan sharking, gambling debts, and a little B&E on the side.
As far as specific jobs given by Bosses and Capos: these would mostly include collection of overdue debts (“Frankie the Scab is in ten large and he ain’t paid up in a while. Go convince him to quit being a douche-bag and cough up some of what he owes.”); Babysitting (body guarding various NPCs); and, if the PCs are real toughs, assassinations.
-Have a list of traits for the PC creation
I’m not exactly sure what you mean by this. Are you looking for GURPS-style advantages, disadvantages, and quirks, or are you simply looking for unique personality traits to assign to the PCs? Either way, the aforementioned GURPS mechanics are a good place to start.
-Have main locations in the city for the players to become familiar with it
Locations would fall into three broad categories: businesses owned by the PCs and their associates that would double as meeting places; ‘Neutral’ territory for meetings with other crews and bosses; and ‘mark’ locations- places where the PCs collect protection money, engage in B&E, fight other crews, etc.
Examples of businesses/ meeting places would be Bars, restaurants, delis, bakeries (Italian-Americans are big on food), etc. The same would apply to the ‘neutral’ territories. The ‘mark’ territories would be anywhere the PCs would be able to pick up easy cash; mostly businesses but residences would do as well. One great resource for this aspect of the game is the out-of-print Shadowrun Book Sprawl Sites, however any floor plan will do- you can even reuse old floor plans by adding “new paint” to them.
I hope these general tid-bits help. If you would like specifics of anything above, feel free to relpy either on this thread or via PM. I will be happy to provide what I can (time permitting). Good Luck with the game!
19
RPGs / Re: Games you would run if you didn't have the players that you do
« on: May 04, 2009, 02:30:15 PM »
I'd like to play any game that presents problems to which the solution is not "KILL THEY ASS."
My players do very well at any game centered around violence (DnD, Cyperpunk, etc.), unfortunately they tend to approach ALL games with the same mindset. I especially like investigative games, but the two attempts I've made to run games in this gameplay style have ended in violent shoot-outs involving vehicular homicide and violent kidnappings respectively.
I'm currently organizing a Doctor Who game using Skype because the only players I know with the temperment for such a think live very, very far away.
My players do very well at any game centered around violence (DnD, Cyperpunk, etc.), unfortunately they tend to approach ALL games with the same mindset. I especially like investigative games, but the two attempts I've made to run games in this gameplay style have ended in violent shoot-outs involving vehicular homicide and violent kidnappings respectively.
I'm currently organizing a Doctor Who game using Skype because the only players I know with the temperment for such a think live very, very far away.
20
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Cody Fan Club
« on: May 04, 2009, 09:48:59 AM »When I was in college, I started my own creative writing /creative arts organization on the Missouri State University campus. We called ourselves the "Alpha Battle Dragon Lords Against Forest Fires" or "ABDLAFF" for short. We made shirts and adopted a highway. Our highway sign is still up too.
What I'm saying is that I want you to carve "ABDLAFF" across your chest.
OK, I did it. But I was watching The Daily Show at the time, so I wasn't really paying attention to what I was doing and I fucked it up, so now I have "ADBLAFF" carved into my chest.
*sigh*
21
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Cody Fan Club
« on: April 13, 2009, 01:45:28 PM »
How about simply "The Blasphemy?"
22
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: The Ennie Awards
« on: April 11, 2009, 01:29:23 PM »
My picks would be as follows: Episodes 14, 20, 25, 28, and the Fear Itself Actual Play.
And, yes, Episode 14 is arguably my favorite episode. One of the most helpful and informative, among many.
And, yes, Episode 14 is arguably my favorite episode. One of the most helpful and informative, among many.
23
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Cody Fan Club
« on: April 10, 2009, 09:44:13 PM »Behold, my fellow faithful! The glourious gifts of mighty Coddowalshagoth!
This calls for a special celebration. I'll dig up that really flashy sacrifical knife. Setherick, you and Brother Jonnygadfly head to Missouri and get a villager. I know the pit's only like three feet deep right now but it's the mind inverting thoughts that count.
Missouri? We have to sacrifice them in Missouri? Oh, man, I've been slaughtering people here in Boston left and right in the name of Coddowalshagoth. Serves me right for jumping the gun. How much is air fair to Missouri? *wipes his hands and checks Travelocity*
24
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Cody Fan Club
« on: April 10, 2009, 02:13:47 PM »
Another possibility, though not a Cody quote, strickly speaking:
"FUCK YOU COOLEY!"
I love this so much I actually say it, though it's basically a reference that no one I know gets, so they just look at me like I'm crazy.
"FUCK YOU COOLEY!"
I love this so much I actually say it, though it's basically a reference that no one I know gets, so they just look at me like I'm crazy.
25
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Cody Fan Club
« on: April 10, 2009, 01:50:46 PM »
How about this for a T-shirt quote:
"My character's not a dick, he's just a hedonist!"
"My character's not a dick, he's just a hedonist!"
26
RPGs / Re: A Study in the Logic of Gaming
« on: April 09, 2009, 11:18:10 PM »
Any course of action, plan or stunt seen in a movie, particularly an over-the-top action movie, is an appropriate course of action for the characters even if said action is wholly inappropriate and even contrary to the tone of the game.
27
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Cody Fan Club
« on: April 07, 2009, 11:57:55 AM »
Oh, what the hell, I will. I have plenty of free time, and since I live in Cambridge, Ma, I'm convieniently close to Miskatonic University.
28
General Chaos / Looking for new players
« on: April 07, 2009, 11:25:54 AM »
The Neverwinter Nights persistent world of the Way Inn is looking to expand it's player base.
You can find more information on the server here: http://www.thewayinn.net/
The server is 100% free to play. The DMs and players are extremely friendly and helpful. Please come and check us out.
If you're new on the server and you need some help getting acclimated look for one of my characters, Freya, Fionne, or Gracchus, and send me a tell and I'll be happy to help you get started.
You can find more information on the server here: http://www.thewayinn.net/
The server is 100% free to play. The DMs and players are extremely friendly and helpful. Please come and check us out.
If you're new on the server and you need some help getting acclimated look for one of my characters, Freya, Fionne, or Gracchus, and send me a tell and I'll be happy to help you get started.
29
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Cody Fan Club
« on: April 07, 2009, 10:46:28 AM »
Cody is the funniest motherfucker in Missouri.
I don't actually know anyone from Missouri, but I'm pretty sure he is.
I don't actually know anyone from Missouri, but I'm pretty sure he is.
Pages: 1 [2]