fredrix
Master Douchebag
Posts: 2,142
Preferred Game Systems: Fate, L5R, Pendragon, Gumshoe, Feng Shui
Currently Playing: Pendragon, Song of Ice and Fire, L5R, Feng Shui, Traveller
Currently Running: Fate, Coriolis, Nights Black Agents
Favorite Species of Monkey: 1970's NTV, dubbed by the BBC (though The Water Margin beats it)
|
Post by fredrix on Feb 8, 2016 0:57:09 GMT -8
Last week Stu explained to Angry GM that some listeners play the 'cast while gardening. I am one of those - at least I am when it comes out in time for Sunday, UK time. If not then I listening on my car journeys for work, which are variable so it can take me almost all week to get through an episode, last week's as an example. This week, the 'cast came out in time for me to listen while cleaning out the chicken coop, and weeding around my Hop Rhizomes (year three this year, I'm expecting a bumper crop). Thanks Stu. So, gritty Star Wars - I can't speak for Age of Rebellion, but give my experience playing my son's EoE game, I can't see the system lending itself to grittiness. Also, I have a little problem with even trying, Star Wars is a fictional world where a farmboy can take out a moon sized space station his first time in an X-Wing after all. But that said, were I looking for grittiness as a GM, I'd tend towards the team's recommendation of Traveller rather than messing with the challenge dice in the FFG games. Horror games - I've just finished a Nights Black Agents campaign. Admittedly this is a twist on the CoC type games, with the PCs having Jason Bourne levels if competence. But I can endorse the fact that the PCs are most scared before the creatures actually appear. Keep 'em guessing as long as you can before revealing the beastie... Maps - ever since I started playing Feng Shui back in the 90's I've taken to heart Robin Laws maxim that maps generally limit player choices. The less detail you describe, the more the PCs fill in the blanks, the more cool stuff happens. For this reason I wouldn't have any props or drawings on my table. But don't play heavily tactical systems much, and I know lots of people enjoys battlemats and those cool looking 3D dungeon sets. (I do use Lego with Fate sometimes).
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2016 1:49:28 GMT -8
You should try using pictures instead of maps a go. Map or picture, you want something with details people can latch onto. The general issue with maps is people draw rooms or areas with relatively little in them and then have a boring, static, engagement. A good picture on the other hand is like a catalyst for ideas. It helps you bridge the gap from sparse description to imaginary landscapes.
|
|
|
Post by weaselcreature on Feb 8, 2016 8:21:57 GMT -8
It's too bad Bill Roper didn't finish explaining (for new listeners) just HOW successful he and Stu were in that pseudo-LARP college horror game and why they had to suddenly tone things back. It involved a scared person and a machete, apparently.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2016 11:01:38 GMT -8
Bill's description of his Pathfinder Society character summed up my issues with D&D / PF in general, specifically the whole having to spend gold only on mechanically useful items. There just seems to be something about the game that turns otherwise good roleplayers into min maxed damage optimisers.
Also while it doesn't properly count as I don't live there I have listened to the podcast while in Africa.
|
|
fredrix
Master Douchebag
Posts: 2,142
Preferred Game Systems: Fate, L5R, Pendragon, Gumshoe, Feng Shui
Currently Playing: Pendragon, Song of Ice and Fire, L5R, Feng Shui, Traveller
Currently Running: Fate, Coriolis, Nights Black Agents
Favorite Species of Monkey: 1970's NTV, dubbed by the BBC (though The Water Margin beats it)
|
Post by fredrix on Feb 8, 2016 11:41:12 GMT -8
We do have one fellow listener who is Ghanian, though he lives here in the UK. Has he ever listened from Ghana I wonder?
|
|
dlw32
Initiate Douchebag
Posts: 11
|
Post by dlw32 on Feb 8, 2016 13:07:28 GMT -8
Re: CoC and Sanity recovery. Yes, you can gain SAN. Two ways. At the end of an adventure there's usually a section on rewarding the players. There will be a list of a few conditions and possible SAN gain or loss. Like: * If you save little Jenny from being sacrificed, gain 1d6+1 SAN * If you burn Arkham to the ground, lose 1d10 SAN (it's not really that great a loss... In practical terms you tend not to break even though. And once you start losing SAN it tends to spiral pretty quickly. The other way to regain SAN is to have the PC committed. IIRC (and it's been a while) you can regain 1d3 SAN per month and possibly cure some of those phobia/manias. But depending on the time period and the quality of the institution, you may also end up losing hp... some of the "cures" for insanity were worse than the initial problem...
|
|
|
Post by OFTHEHILLPEOPLE on Feb 8, 2016 13:23:27 GMT -8
Regarding setting the feeling of a Star Wars game, I've had this discussion a lot with people while playing the X-Wing Miniatures game. In the game the Empire units are very easy to pick up and play because usually the ship you get is all that you get with very few bells and whistles in the special abilities department. You don't have to think about how to fly and play them because they're so simple that any grunt could pick them up and fly a swarm of TIE Fighters with efficiency. On the opposite spectrum you have the Rebellion with units they've scrounged up, slapped together, and ships with very specific ways of fighting in combat and few pilots capable of flying those ships. Every little ship, upgrade, and resource is precious to the Rebellion and losing one ship can cost them a battle whereas losing one TIE Fighter to the Empire is still shooting under Par for the course because of how easy they are to replace.
My point here is that the Empire should fill that feeling that they are numerous and willing to throw everything they have at the enemy if it means squashing an opposition. The Rebellion should feel two steps away from oblivion and any resources and edges they gain against the Empire should be precious and, usually, short lived against the Imperial war machine. There's a reason many of the Rebellion are rogues and thieves, because they understand that against an enemy like the Empire it's best to strike from the shadows and get out before the heat has a chance to take them down. And there's a reason many of the officers in the Empire are ruthless sociopaths and psychopaths, because they are valued in a regime that idealizes the Sith values of crushing weakness and dominating through force.
|
|
|
Post by ericfromnj on Feb 8, 2016 14:13:15 GMT -8
Still listening to the episode but when it comes to the gritty military campaign, go on Netflix and watch the first five to ten minutes of the first episode of Firefly. It has what would amount to NPC characters getting killed left and right and while the main characters do have a small victory it ends badly for the main characters involved.
|
|
mrmanowar
Apprentice Douchebag
Posts: 74
Preferred Game Systems: Ones that I own.
Currently Playing: AS&SoH, AD&D various editions and Manowar CD's
Currently Running: D&D 5E, AS&SoH (Started!)
Favorite Species of Monkey: The ones that rhyme with donkey
|
Post by mrmanowar on Feb 8, 2016 20:51:09 GMT -8
I have nothing to offer on the Star Wars front having not played the game however, I have played Stars Without Number and almost died both times I played it. The first was a roleplaying opportunity I explained my way out of, the second due to dice conspiratorily trying to kill me. If you want the link to the game, here it is: www.drivethrurpg.com/product/86467/Stars-Without-Number-Free-EditionEnjoy!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2016 10:59:25 GMT -8
Combat in Pathfinder is unlikely to last more than three rounds (in-game; out-of-game it might take an hour or longer). A rogue who tries to sneak around for a surprise attack, after blows have already been exchanged, is essentially abandoning the other party members in their time of need.
You might come into the game with the expectation that this is something your character would do, based on books you have read or other games you have played, but the natural laws in a Pathfinder world are different than they are in your source material, and trying that sort of stuff here is going to get your friends killed. Don't be that guy.
|
|
|
Post by OFTHEHILLPEOPLE on Feb 9, 2016 12:28:12 GMT -8
Combat in Pathfinder is unlikely to last more than three rounds (in-game; out-of-game it might take an hour or longer). A rogue who tries to sneak around for a surprise attack, after blows have already been exchanged, is essentially abandoning the other party members in their time of need. You might come into the game with the expectation that this is something your character would do, based on books you have read or other games you have played, but the natural laws in a Pathfinder world are different than they are in your source material, and trying that sort of stuff here is going to get your friends killed. Don't be that guy. Or people can play there character any way that makes them happy and doesn't bone the party. If the Pathfinder Society group doesn't want them back for playing their character then, hey, it wasn't a good fit and there's other groups out there. But there there is nothing you must do in a Society game other than "have fun."
|
|
|
Post by Kenigma23 on Feb 9, 2016 12:57:11 GMT -8
It is important to be aligned with the party. Whether it is a new party or an existing one, setting up the ground rules of how the party operates or the game will be run is very important. This way everyone has an idea of what to expect and new players can be informed. Some parties like to roll-play over much of anything else (like the Eldemy game) and some like to “kill shit and take their stuff.” Both are legit ways to play, but they aren’t often compatible… which can lead to the “not fun”
The tendency we have is to assume that everyone will play like we want to play… and you know what happens when you make and assumption? You make ‘ass’ out of ‘u’ and ‘umption.’
I’ve excused myself from games if they were just something where I wasn’t going to have a good time. Of course not everyone has that luxury…
|
|
mrcj
Journeyman Douchebag
Posts: 173
|
Post by mrcj on Feb 9, 2016 17:01:21 GMT -8
Gritty Vietnam movies to base Star Wars sessions around, here are three suggestions: Hamburger Hill- a squad is shredded trying to take a fortified position Apocalypse Now- a captain has to travel into Cambodia to kill a rogue colonel Platoon- A young soldier patrols the jungles in Vietnam and two sergeants clash when one massacres a village.
I think though Star Wars itself is a reaction to this kind of movie (and this kind of war) itself. Star Wars has always had the clear white hat black hat cartoonish quality that are absent from many of the seventies/eighties movies about Vietnam (not counting Rambo First Blood or Missing in Action series). So the irony is that most of the Hollywood movies are from the US point of view and the game characters and plots are going to be coming from the other side.
So an alternate might be other conflicts like: The Great Locomotive Chase- Civil War Von Ryan's Express- WW2 Glory- Civil War The Wild Bunch- Western criminals
|
|
|
Post by joecrak on Feb 10, 2016 8:33:54 GMT -8
Gritty Star Wars.
First question, do your players want to play a gritty military campaign? Second question, do they want to turn pulpy over the top star wars into something gritty?
The system, and even the setting to a degree do not lend well to gritty. Its a game, where unkess youre a droid, you can suddenly lern how to use the force. Plus destiny points allow players to create sudden fictional details about the scene that are now true, and to be respected.
Not to menton triumph and advantage results can also be used to narrate the scene into awesome bad ass heroic ways, because that is the intent of the design.
It really just sounds like you want to run traveller while everyone is still in service.
|
|
jeffrywith1e
Journeyman Douchebag
Posts: 182
Preferred Game Systems: Pathfinder, BRP, d20 Modern
Currently Playing: Pathfinder
Currently Running: OpenQuest
Favorite Species of Monkey: gone to heaven
|
Post by jeffrywith1e on Feb 10, 2016 20:54:03 GMT -8
1. Very informative episode! Good stuff.
2. Table Titans is excellent. I've been reading it since you guys interviewed Scott Kurtz. I love it! Quickly became one of my favorite web comics. Thank you for bringing it to me.
3. What was the name of the song at the end of this episode? Fantastic!
|
|