Hey all. Just finished listening to the episode and wanted to add my thoughts. I was planning to wait until tomorrow morning (it's currently 1:12am here in Osaka) but I stupidly drank something caffeinated and now can't sleep.
Dummy.
First of all, it sounds like OrcCon was a blast. I would have loved to play in the games I heard about. It was also helpful to hear what each of you thought worked and didn't work in the games you ran. I don't get a chance to game all that often currently, but I'm always eager for tips on how to improve my GMing skills. Listening to other GM's thought processes is great for that.
For the guy looking to speed up combat and trying to turn up the enthusiasm for that high level
Pathfinder game, my first thought was "Why bother?" I've never really seen the appeal of playing ultra high level characters in any system. For me, once your characters get to a certain power level the scope of threats they have to deal with to feel challenged becomes so extreme that it borders on the ridiculous. Honestly, if you aren't enjoying the setting or the story then just sit out the last few sessions while the GM wraps up the end of that story arc for the other players. People get attached to their characters and want to see them get the ending they deserve after a long running campaign, and they should be allowed to have that. But if you're not interested or invested in the story, then just don't play. Let the ones who are invested in the story wrap up the end of their character's story and then jump into a fresh story when the group starts up a new game. Or if you enjoy spending time with your group (which it sounds like you do) just stick it out and wait. Maybe try to get a time frame from the GM abut how many more sessions this campaign will go before the new game starts up.
I may very well be in the minority here, but as I said in
this thread (which has pretty much turned into an argument between me and
daeglan), I tend to find combat pretty boring regardless of the system. If I want to have a fight just to have a fight then I'll pay a dungeon-crawl board game like
Descent: Journeys in the Dark or a tactical miniatures game like
Warmachine. Combat in an RPG is only interesting for me when there's a reason for the fight in the fiction and there are consequences and/or something at stake to fight about. As we've heard numerous times on the show, D&D 4e encounters, if built "correctly" are weighted in favor of the players; it's not really a question of
if you will win the encounter but of when and how much of your resources you'll use to get through it. I played in a year-long campaign and never once did combat feel tense, dangerous, or like it meant anything other than just rolling some dice.
In contrast to that, we were playing a
Vampire: the Requiem game at the same time and every session felt tense and dangerous despite the fact we only ever had a single combat the entire six months. I think part of the reason for this was that the GM of the
Vampire game made sure our actions had consequences in the game world. The safety of other people in the game world depended on our character's actions, and not in a nebulous "You saved this village of nameless, faceless NPCs who you'll never see again" kind of way, but in a real "these people are as close to you as family" sense. So I wholeheartedly agree with
CADave and
Tyler's suggestion of introducing NPCs that the players will eventually start to care for.
Stu did that in his fantasy game as well when he had the major NPC Xavier Birdstaff (I think that was his name) get captured and the party decided to rescue him. That's an example of a fight that would hold interest for me; if the PCs fail or take too long in their attempt, then Xavier Birdstaff dies. It gives the encounter a sense of urgency and consequence.
The hosts touched on this when they suggested that smart foes would go after the healer or mage first (anyone in a dress). As they said, it is a bit metagame-y and you can't do it in every encounter or your players will start to call bullshit on you, but you can do it a few times. After that, if the players have provided a backstory for their character that isn't "I have no family. I'm a loner." then the GM should have a wealth of important NPCs to threaten in interesting and creative ways. I hope that I never experience this in real life, but I imagine that there is no greater feeling of helplessness than when someone you care about is in danger or victimized in some way. All right. Rant over.
Tyler, I played the new
Cosmic Encounters once and that was enough for me. Having to draw a random card that dictates which player I am allowed to interact with on my turn was a complete deal breaker. It felt like I wasn't able to make any choices for myself, and who wants to play a game that's already decided for them? No one.
Glad to hear you picked up the
Eclipse Phase book
Stu. It's a fantastic setting. I have all the products that Posthuman Studios has released for the game, though in PDF form (shipping English-language books to Japan can be pricey). The setting is probably one of the most realistic that I have ever read for an RPG. By realistic I don't necessarily mean that I think the things in the setting are possible, mind you. I just mean that the creators of that universe really thought about the logical extensions of the technology and elements present in the setting and made things feel real. If you thought the
Shadowrun book had a lot of fluff, you haven't seen anything yet. While the
EP core book does a nice job of balancing and integrating fluff and crunch, the other books are about 75% fluff to 25% (or less) crunch. But it's interesting stuff to read. They're serious discussion about how the politics of and Anarchist society would function, real hazards of life in space, and what it means to have a "disposable" body. However it is a really difficult game to run. Characters have so much gear that it's nearly impossible to keep track of. All kinds of nano-, bio-, synthetic and cyber upgrades and implants that'll make your head spin. It's not a game for a con or a one-shot unless the players are intimately familiar with their characters and all their abilities. I GMed our first game and after the session I felt like I had totally cheated the players because of all the things I forgot they could do.
The system is great though. It's a percentile system that has a margin of success mechanic that sounds as if it would solve the big, loud argument that
Tyler and
Casey were having about
RuneQuest(?). Basically, if you roll equal to or under your skill rating (after modifiers) you succeed. In an opposed test, whoever rolls higher while still rolling equal to or under their skill rating wins. Both characters have a chance to beat the other by rolling higher or by having their opponent rolling too high (over their skill rating). But the person with the higher skill rating has a better chance of winning because they have a better chance of being able to roll higher than their opponent while still rolling equal to or under their skill rating. It's like Black Jack; the higher you roll the better unless you roll too high and go bust.
All right. I think I'll hopefully be able to get to sleep now.