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Post by Kainguru on Feb 15, 2014 10:46:14 GMT -8
This will be little not 'PC' (possibly, so no offence intended to anyone - really and truly) but I played a totally broken character in a Mutant and Master Minds one shot : She was a female Professor X clone so asked the GM if she could also be an African American, Lesbian with Mental Health Issues and thus was born (having checked all the boxes I could think of) "Minority Girl" - champion of the disenfranchised . . . I also played a paraplegic, sadistic, addicted, anti social teacher in an All Flesh Must Be Eaten game (I just took every disad I could to see what I could make). He was a bastard to everyone, claimed all the fags and booze available and wouldn't share it, terrorised his former pupils into assisting him, bossed his poor carer about, made the hard unethical choices for the group (eg: "you been bit?" "Ah, yeah I might have been, it could be a cut from running through the wreckage?" - opens the sliding door of the moving mobility van being chased by zombies, waves hand gun in poor guys face: "you get out here") and somehow survived despite being a self centred and very damaged arsehole . . . Aaron
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maxinstuff
Supporter
Posts: 1,939
Preferred Game Systems: DCC RPG, Shadowrun 5e, Savage Worlds, GURPS 4e, HERO 6e, Mongoose Traveller
Favorite Species of Monkey: Proboscis
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Post by maxinstuff on Feb 15, 2014 12:50:15 GMT -8
This will be little not 'PC' (possibly, so no offence intended to anyone - really and truly) but I played a totally broken character in a Mutant and Master Minds one shot : She was a female Professor X clone so asked the GM if she could also be an African American, Lesbian with Mental Health Issues and thus was born (having checked all the boxes I could think of) "Minority Girl" - champion of the disenfranchised . . . I also played a paraplegic, sadistic, addicted, anti social teacher in an All Flesh Must Be Eaten game (I just took every disad I could to see what I could make). He was a bastard to everyone, claimed all the fags and booze available and wouldn't share it, terrorised his former pupils into assisting him, bossed his poor carer about, made the hard unethical choices for the group (eg: "you been bit?" "Ah, yeah I might have been, it could be a cut from running through the wreckage?" - opens the sliding door of the moving mobility van being chased by zombies, waves hand gun in poor guys face: "you get out here") and somehow survived despite being a self centred and very damaged arsehole . . . Aaron Hey now - a paraplegic doesn't survive the zombie apocalypse by fart-arsing around with moral dilemmas. This is survival - we aren't here to fuck spiders.
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maxinstuff
Supporter
Posts: 1,939
Preferred Game Systems: DCC RPG, Shadowrun 5e, Savage Worlds, GURPS 4e, HERO 6e, Mongoose Traveller
Favorite Species of Monkey: Proboscis
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Post by maxinstuff on Feb 15, 2014 12:53:54 GMT -8
Maybe the DM with the asinine PC's should try Savage Worlds. "You want an ineffective character? Ha! In this system you're all mechanically identical!" Tell me more about this strange game system where all characters are identical.
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Jojo the monkey
Apprentice Douchebag
Posts: 71
Preferred Game Systems: 2FT, BoL, BRP/OpenQuest/Renaissance, d00Lite, Fudge, GDi, Streamline, Ubiquity, Unisystem, V6 Engine, Vortex
Currently Playing: various (D&D 5E, Savage Worlds Achtung! Cthulhu, All Flesh Must Be Eaten)
Currently Running: Call of Cthulhu, preparing: Gunslingers & Gamblers Streamline Edition
Favorite Species of Monkey: Ateles geoffroyi, Alouatta pigra, Alouatta palliata
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Post by Jojo the monkey on Feb 15, 2014 14:31:14 GMT -8
Now that I've seen the YouTube video I can say with certainty that I'm not familiar with the gummi bears. I thought you were referring to the care bears first. Now there's an 80s nightmare to remember. This is even more sanity-blasting than My Little Pony! The only thing good about this is that it's not fucking Disney.
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Post by heavymetaljess on Feb 19, 2014 3:53:55 GMT -8
We have never built characters as a group. The personal tension, bonding, and learning about each others characters has always been a big part of the game for us. It hasn't ever back fired the way that people here seem to be experiencing. Basically, the GM gave you simple guidelines (be from one of these three cities, be humanoid, don't be evil) and you discissed it with them before playing and they nudged where nudges were needed.
It would have never occurred to me to make them together until we had a player who was mad we didn't. "I just assumed the first session would be character building and world building." Then pouting. So my only exposure to that wasn't positive. Plus, he was joining a game world already in progress so I'm not sure why that was the assuption. Especially when I lent him a PHB so he could build his character.
Maybe for our next set of characters we'll give this a try and see how it goes.
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D.T. Pints
Instigator
JACKERCON 2018: WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY June 22-July 1st
Posts: 2,857
Currently Playing: D&D 5e, Pathfinder, DUNGEONWORLD, Star Wars Edge of the Empire
Currently Running: DUNGEONWORLD, PATHFINDER
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Post by D.T. Pints on Feb 19, 2014 8:01:35 GMT -8
I think both techniques (or sliding scale between the two) can work well. I think the "world building/character connections" session allows players to exert greater control of what they want to see in their game/characters but a game that begins with four strangers world's colliding can be just as fun. Especially if there are interesting but currently hidden backstories to each. An all thieves game, or wizards with dark pasts that allow one player to know one aspect of the storyline and then control how much she lets the other players know can be great. For me having that "group template" experience makes the work for the GM a great deal simpler. Players can provide interesting NPCs, locations, plot threads that can be built upon. For me its the whole hivemind (not that one guy) that helps create a deeper, more interesting world.
But then again sometimes meeting in a tavern can be awesome.
Just ask Frodo and Aragorn(he's the one without the pointy ears).
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Post by Stu Venable on Feb 19, 2014 14:32:25 GMT -8
Have a party that has never met before certainly can work. Our Favorite Minmaxer from Chicago's game start idea: "There the sound of gun shots and a scream coming from the back door. Four people stand up and rush out. Make one of those four people."
The fact is, there's still something unifying about that party. It's not as unifying as sharing a long history of trials and tribulations, but you're certainly defining each PC as a "type" of person who charges into danger. Certainly a more tenuous connection, but a connection nonetheless.
I've run the sorts of sessions that Dan must have run to cause him to develop the Group Template thing: one or more players (often playing dwarfs) with their arms crossed, expecting the "stranger" PCs to earn their trust.
It's a funny, challenging scene. Once.
After that it becomes more and more frustrating.
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Post by Malex on Feb 19, 2014 17:20:09 GMT -8
Who allowed the Booters back? Guess they needed to pick up their dirty laundry and make use of someone's bed/significant other. :-D
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Post by hoseirrob on Feb 28, 2014 11:56:15 GMT -8
While I enjoyed Dan's group generation, it created too much of a milquetoast group for me. The group has all the same meta objectives and different personal reasons. At times I want a group with different objective, ones that cause character tension.
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Post by Malex on Feb 28, 2014 12:48:23 GMT -8
While I enjoyed Dan's group generation, it created too much of a milquetoast group for me. The group has all the same meta objectives and different personal reasons. At times I want a group with different objective, ones that cause character tension. This is where a stellar GM can sew in conflicts between PCs. Use the Group Template as a means to bring a group of disparate characters together, and the PCs Character Backgrounds as a means to drive some differences in that can cause tension between each party member. Group Template offers a central concept that everyone is working toward, doesn't mean that each PC achieves the goal of the core concept in a manner that the others accept. Just like the story Stu offered about his super hero that was a better villain because he considered criminals scum that needed to be dealt with in a homicidal manner, while the rest of the party was playing classic Zap-Pow super heroes. Obviously there was a lot of potential for inner party tension, and they were still working toward the same goal of cleaning up the streets.
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