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Post by Forresst on Apr 14, 2014 18:53:09 GMT -8
I just finished listening to the episode, and I have to say the following: Mongoose Traveller can absolutely be run remotely! In fact I run a game through Skype every Tuesday night. The reason we use Skype as opposed to Google hangouts is because my one friend is recording it for eventual publication and he has no idea how to work his recording setup with hangouts. We created characters the same way you would with a face-to-face game. We focused on each character for a couple career terms apiece, took stock, made connections if they made sense, and then continued on. After that, there was a fair amount of discussion about why they went from their comfortable little lives in disparate places to the party, and then we picked it up the following week with some introductory scenes and off we went. The greatest thing about using Mongoose traveller for a remote game is that with even the book setting, you can use ALL SORTS of awesome tricks to push the media. Tomorrow, my players will get an urgent news announcement over their screens: They have a wiki to look at, and any time they get to a planet, they add it to their atlas of stuff. Unfortunately, I haven't found a place to host the atlas but it's really neat, my friends from Sweden made me a bunch of little planet animations to go in the corner. So yeah, don't be afraid to play MgT over internet. You can DO it! *cheerlead*
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snoman314
Journeyman Douchebag
Posts: 225
Preferred Game Systems: GURPS
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Post by snoman314 on Apr 14, 2014 19:02:22 GMT -8
Yeah I think it was Stork saying that you can't do Mongoose Traveller character creation online. I Also totally disagree. I ran a Traveller game online, and all the character creation was done via G+ hangouts. This was in 2012. It's arguably even a little easier now. I think that game ran for about a year before real-life got in the way.
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D.T. Pints
Instigator
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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 Apr 14, 2014 22:23:24 GMT -8
Yeah...not to continue the stork bashing (I love me some tall big nosers!) but I think before our favorite bird starts to critique playing anything online he needs to actually have played online...just sayin. So from now on I expect to hear something like "I have never actually played online and quite frankly it terrifies me and my creeping on 50 soul...but having said that I do have some thoughts about playing Game X online..." and then crickets. And just remember Stork your one of the best straight men I've never met. (except online) . And just for all the stalkers...Satine Phoenix ? Totally on G+... Satine Phoenix G+So get ready for Jackercon IV y'all. Cuz she's invited.
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Post by malifer on Apr 15, 2014 5:39:06 GMT -8
I think it boils down to many of the hosts haven't gamed much online and I can agree there do seem to be barriers, but once you give it a shot there are a lot of bonuses to online gaming. To flip this discussion stork was the voice of reason in the discussion pertaining to a player destroying a game. While most of the discussion focused on the GM's failures or how settings with limitations "suck to begin with" stork actually mentioned the possibility some of the onerous is on the players and you can't blame the GM. If I'm running Call of Cthulhu and a player decides to summon Cthulhu that's it game over. I wouldn't say it sucks. On a smaller scale in Traveller if a player opens the Airlock sucking out all the PCs and NPCs into space that's the end. Traveller doesn't suck because in the setting "space is a vacuum." Since this was the first session I doubt the "big red button" was the only option the players had. It was an "I win D&D button". Congrats you won D&D. All the PCs are dead. Would you guys like to make new characters? The GM failed when he had everyone wake up in a white room. Because it was a bullshit deus ex machina and took away player agency. Might as well as fudge a dice roll. Sometimes the players have to take some responsibly for the game. As GM it's not my job to wipe the players runny noses.
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Post by Stu Venable on Apr 15, 2014 6:54:17 GMT -8
I would contend that if a GM provided a PC with all of the information needed to summon Cthulhu at the beginning of a campaign, that the GM would deserve a big helping of blame as well.
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Post by joecrak on Apr 15, 2014 7:03:31 GMT -8
Part way through and I regards to the 12 hour game with two separate tables.
Do it. It works so well, far better than you expect. My friends basically call this a house con, as you are playing games like you are at a convention, but in someone's house. I've been in 2, using Marvel Heroic and Dungeon World. And both went great.
You may think that switching tables breaks the story or momentum, but it works so well for character arcs and stories. And people can focus on different leads, investigate different things, then meet up to share information, learn what the others have found and be drawn into helping them.
Our Dungeon World game is even going to have a sequel in which new characters return to the ruins of the city from the first game.
The biggest thing about this style is the amount of prep that goes into it. at our Marvel heroic one we had a total of 6 GMs and a pit boss go between. Four for the main dedicated group, and 2 that also ran some side one shots that took place and affected the story of the main "book".
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Post by malifer on Apr 15, 2014 7:10:38 GMT -8
I would contend that if a GM provided a PC with all of the information needed to summon Cthulhu at the beginning of a campaign, that the GM would deserve a big helping of blame as well. I'm cool with that. It takes two to tango.
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SirGuido
Supporter
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Posts: 2,127
Preferred Game Systems: L5R, Traveller, Fate Accelerated, Masks
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Post by SirGuido on Apr 15, 2014 7:48:36 GMT -8
In regards to the player with sight issues. In my current Pathfinder game we have a player who is legally blind. He can see things on the large scale but badly, so he can't look at the map for example and see where his mini is at all. So we all work together and when its his turn he'll ask "Am I close enough to attack, or can I move up and attack?" etc or he'll say "Where am I?" and we'll reach over and stick a finger on his mini so he can see. In terms of dice he has a black case and white dice that he rolls inside said case for the highest contrast possible then he'll pick up the die after rolling and hold it as close as possible to his eyes so he can read the number. For his sheet he uses a standard hero lab printout with a large lighted magnifier. He doesn't seem to have any issues, and we as his other players only have to do minor things to help him along. As long as the other players are willing to help I see no reason why you should really change your game much.
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maxinstuff
Supporter
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Preferred Game Systems: DCC RPG, Shadowrun 5e, Savage Worlds, GURPS 4e, HERO 6e, Mongoose Traveller
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Post by maxinstuff on Apr 15, 2014 23:59:23 GMT -8
Is it common in Numenara for people to be let into areas with only glass separating them from the vacuum of space with guns and ammunition on their person?
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Post by Stu Venable on Apr 16, 2014 6:19:08 GMT -8
Is it common in Numenara for people to be let into areas with only glass separating them from the vacuum of space with guns and ammunition on their person? RIGHT?!
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Post by evilgingerdm on Apr 16, 2014 11:32:04 GMT -8
I don't think that's the Common setting in Numenara. I listened to an actual Play from Knights of the Night on Numenara, and their game was set in a Desert.
Also, I wouldn't think the game had to end, If the society/ setting was set under a bubble, they should have some kinda Disaster plan in place if the bubble were to break. Also, did the bubble just all shatter 100%? or did it happen over a few minutes/ hours? I would play it that yes, some of the peopel died, but most (including the BBEG) escaped underground, where the atmosphere isn't needed.
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Post by Kainguru on Apr 16, 2014 12:30:23 GMT -8
Numenera = poor man's Jack Vance 'The Dying Earth' either that or it's a total rip off sans royalties to the Vance estate (and possibly because The Dying Earth already has a very good RPG available?) Aaron PS I don't think the original email said the whole setting was under a glass done?
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Post by yojimbohawkins on Apr 16, 2014 13:13:50 GMT -8
SirGuido My player has a magnifier with a light that he brings to the game. He has trouble with the books due to the print size, so it's pdf's for him. I knocked him up a character sheet in word which seems to do the trick. Thanks for the advice, mate. All gratefully received.
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nanoboy
Journeyman Douchebag
Posts: 142
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Post by nanoboy on Apr 16, 2014 13:17:38 GMT -8
Regarding moral panics and Dungeons and Dragons:
I grew up in a Southern Baptist environment, and while I did not play table-top RPGs as such before college, my folks were very concerned about me liking computer RPGs with fantasy elements as well as Magic: the Gathering. They didn't totally freak, and I am certain that they would be embarrassed about the whole thing now (they've left that stuff behind and are now Methodists, as they have always been politically liberal and so on). I think I know what happens with these things, at least at one level. I might be overplaying it, but walk with me here.
For a long, long time, Christianity held a certain cultural monopoly on Western culture, but that really started changing last century. In order to maintain the attention of their flocks, certain ministers are convinced that they have to keep cultural identity Christian. When seductive new elements of popular culture-- like jazz or rock & roll or Dungeons and Dragons-- start to appeal to the youth more than the old and stodgy traditions, they have to be stopped. Ministers in a lot of communities have a lot of sway. They can tell parents that these new things are Satanic (and I'm sure that most of the ministers sincerely believe this) and a threat to their children's spiritual well-being.
Only it's not really a threat to that. It's just a threat to the old order of clergymen controlling what is accepted as culture, what is accepted as the thing that binds the community together. Moral panics are intended to keep communities together by creating taboos out of secular cultural ideas. Growing up, there was a lot of pressure from my church to only listen to Christian rock, but most kids preferred the secular stuff, because it was simply better. At that point in the 1990s, religious groups had largely abandoned decrying rock & roll as Satanic as an art form and had just decided that the lyrical content was sinful or just not about God (which is necessary for music to that group.) At this point, there are a few Christian RPGs out there. RPGs aren't as culturally important as popular music, but I'm sure that kids playing RPGs in some fundamentalist circles are being pressured into playing only the Christian ones.
I should note that Christianity in this context is really just a segment of a segment of the religion. It's largely American fundamentalists and evangelicals of fairly specific stripes. It's not especially hard to look back at numerous other moral panics about kids getting into secular cultures. At their worst, these panics are used to isolate children from mainstream society to keep them in line. Most of the time, it's parents legitimately concerned that what the pastor says about some benign thing is true and are only trying to protect their children.
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Post by Stu Venable on Apr 16, 2014 13:33:25 GMT -8
Moral panics don't necessarily have to be religious.
The Mothers Against Drunk Driving thing was considered a moral panic by many at the time. Drunks Against Mad Mothers was started as a parody/commentary about it.
Parents Music Resource Center hype about song lyrics wasn't particularly religious and crossed political lines.
The ritual Satanic abuse thing (aka McMartin) was definitely not limited to religious people and was promoted by damn near everyone.
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