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Post by weaselcreature on Dec 12, 2017 17:15:24 GMT -8
Fulfilling filler: spot on advice with one thing left out (especially if it’s a newer group; I know the email was from a newer GM). Ask if there’s anything the characters want to do or talk about in that time.
It’s 7 days to the next city, is there anything specific you want to do or discuss during travel?
1: I want to craft things while we camp 2: I want to write these scrolls into my spell book 3 & 4: we discuss some tactics/get in a theological discussion on whose god can eat more eggs
(Break for RP if needed)
Ok, all that happens and you arrive 7 days later, 2 of you with egg poisoning.
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Post by Stu Venable on Dec 12, 2017 22:38:50 GMT -8
"No man can eat fifty eggs."
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Post by ayslyn on Dec 13, 2017 19:15:25 GMT -8
Did my ears deceive me? Did you say that there's going to be a Tales from the Loop actual play? *blissful fanplosion* *sigh* I'll just sit here waiting until forever to hear the HJ's AP that I really want. They’ve already done two, one of which is currently running. Unless you mean a specific PbtA game. Possibly three? Was there an AP for Spirit of ‘77?
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HyveMynd
Supporter
Dirty hippie, PbtA, Fate, & Cortex Prime <3er
Posts: 2,273
Preferred Game Systems: PbtA, Cortex Plus, Fate, Ubiquity
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Currently Running: The Sprawl
Favorite Species of Monkey: None
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Post by HyveMynd on Dec 13, 2017 19:32:39 GMT -8
They’ve already done two, one of which is currently running. Unless you mean a specific PbtA game. Possibly three? Was there an AP for Spirit of ‘77? Come on, now. Don't play coy ayslyn. You know which PbtA game I'm talking about.
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Post by Stu Venable on Dec 13, 2017 20:58:10 GMT -8
tomes also came over and Saturday and ran Legends of the Elements for his daughter, my kids and myself., It wasn’t recoreed, becuase kids. My daughter took SO LONG to make her character!! By the time she was done, I was exhausted. Kids are such kind-hearted role-players. And Zach is destined to play sidebar-crazy theives — sorry, rogues. On this Saturday, we’re going to stream two one-shots. And Monkeyfun Dave is going to play in the second game — Moment of Truth: Vast Dominions. I’ve never seen him play. I don’t know if any of us have. I’m looking forward to it.
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HyveMynd
Supporter
Dirty hippie, PbtA, Fate, & Cortex Prime <3er
Posts: 2,273
Preferred Game Systems: PbtA, Cortex Plus, Fate, Ubiquity
Currently Playing: Monsterhearts 2
Currently Running: The Sprawl
Favorite Species of Monkey: None
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Post by HyveMynd on Dec 13, 2017 21:54:58 GMT -8
In all honesty, I have enjoyed all the HJ's APs that I've listened to, and I've listened to most of them. Hell. I've even listened to Tomorrow Legion and that's in Savage Worlds RIFTS for god's sake. That didn't stop me from liking it, or from literally LOLing when Stu Venable botched that railgun attack roll. Regardless of system or setting, Happy Jack hosts are always interested and involved in both the game and their characters, and that always makes for great listening. Please keep recording them, as they are awesome entertainment.
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Post by OFTHEHILLPEOPLE on Dec 14, 2017 6:11:59 GMT -8
I too enjoy the HJ actual plays, you're a consistent crew who actually tries to play the game instead of trying to be "entertaining for the lulz" like a lot of other APs. Keep doing that and I'll keep listening.
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Post by vyrrk on Dec 14, 2017 12:42:45 GMT -8
In all honesty, I have enjoyed all the HJ's APs that I've listened to, and I've listened to most of them. Hell. I've even listened to Tomorrow Legion and that's in Savage Worlds RIFTS for god's sake. That didn't stop me from liking it, or from literally LOLing when Stu Venable botched that railgun attack roll. Regardless of system or setting, Happy Jack hosts are always interested and involved in both the game and their characters, and that always makes for great listening. Please keep recording them, as they are awesome entertainment. This! 100% this! (But I enjoy savage worlds....)
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tomes
Supporter
Hello madness
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Currently Running: Dungeon World, hippie games, Fallout Shelter RPG hack
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Post by tomes on Dec 14, 2017 13:40:26 GMT -8
tomes also came over and Saturday and ran Legends of the Elements for his daughter, my kids and myself., It wasn’t recoreed, becuase kids. My daughter took SO LONG to make her character!! By the time she was done, I was exhausted. Kids are such kind-hearted role-players. And Zach is destined to play sidebar-crazy theives — sorry, rogues. OK, so first off: The selection of names took the longest time. Legend of the Elements totally fails in not having example names aplenty on the sheet (almost a PbtA standard). I mean, some folks don't like that stuff, but I'm a huge fan, and maybe Stu's daughter would've chosen a name faster (nah... who am I kidding... she would've read the list and said "nope. nope. nope." Oh, I think one rule I messed up on: A player can only use a Chi to upgrade a roll by taking advantage of a Tag (environmental or otherwise). I think my daughter used her Chi token to upgrade a roll, and I just didn't think twice. I think the purpose of the rule is to encourage more scene setup by doing things to add Tags around, which in turn allows everyone to work together and play off of each others prior successes. (At least that was my impression from prior games.) Also, in retrospect some more hard framing and forcing a more railroaded story could've worked well for a kid group and short one-shot, but my daughter resists the rails like the plague. She's a wrench thrower when she feels like she's being railroaded.
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HyveMynd
Supporter
Dirty hippie, PbtA, Fate, & Cortex Prime <3er
Posts: 2,273
Preferred Game Systems: PbtA, Cortex Plus, Fate, Ubiquity
Currently Playing: Monsterhearts 2
Currently Running: The Sprawl
Favorite Species of Monkey: None
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Post by HyveMynd on Dec 14, 2017 17:08:45 GMT -8
OK, so first off: The selection of names took the longest time. Legend of the Elements totally fails in not having example names aplenty on the sheet (almost a PbtA standard). I mean, some folks don't like that stuff, but I'm a huge fan, and maybe Stu's daughter would've chosen a name faster (nah... who am I kidding... she would've read the list and said "nope. nope. nope." Hold the phone. A PbtA game that doesn't have lists of names on the playbooks? That is one of the best parts for me. Names can be so evocative and helpful in fleshing out a character.
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tomes
Supporter
Hello madness
Posts: 1,438
Currently Running: Dungeon World, hippie games, Fallout Shelter RPG hack
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Post by tomes on Dec 14, 2017 18:46:41 GMT -8
That is one of the best parts for me. Names can be so evocative and helpful in fleshing out a character. Yep. To be fair, might come off a little weird if all the names were straight Asian (Chou), or straight Avatar rip-offs (Azula) - cause of lawsuits. But honestly, just some pseudo Asian-Avatar sounding shit would've been perfect. Panya Toan Ravi Asoon Bahn-Li I mean shit, I made those up in a few seconds. Can't be that hard.
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Post by Monkeyfun Dave on Dec 14, 2017 18:53:15 GMT -8
In a big ol' list of responses: 1. Nice pull on the Cool Hand Luke reference, stu. 2. I've done two Spirit of 77 AP's for Happy Jack's - one audio, one audio+video. 3. Yes, I'm playing Saturday in Vast Dominions, aka "Dave Pays Stu Back For Svengali Shenanigans". 4. Names in PBTA playbooks are only meant as suggestions, not a requirement. To be honest, I find names generated in So77 to be far more evocative and entertaining, and we didn't provide suggestions in that one. Kiss-Kiss, ~dave
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Post by Gillsing on Dec 17, 2017 8:32:50 GMT -8
On the subject of players discussing what to do instead of actually doing something, I feel that it's the lack of rules that's to blame. In combat and similar situations, characters have skills and abilities which they can use, so even if the characters might not be good at something, the players still know roughly what their options are, so they can make decisions. But when they can 'do anything' because there are no rules telling them what options they have, there are also no rules to guide them. Instead they're left with 'what would secret agent/vampire/shadowrunner do in this situation', which is something that the average player wouldn't know much about, because they're not actually their characters.
Most RPGs seem to focus on extra detailed combat rules, and then (usually) a bunch of rules for skills and other abilities. Anything in between, connecting these parts to each other, is left to the players' and GM's imagination. Which seems unfortunate, because sometimes imagination runs out, and people might need a little helpful structure to show some options to choose from.
Personally I would like to try out some kind of system that has everything covered in broad rules that allow players to make informed decisions in any major situation where they would otherwise be faced with "what do you want to do - you can do anything". I've been thinking about making such a system myself, but I already have plenty of escapism to consume, and I'm lazy, and such a system seems like it could easily end up being really boring. Maybe there's already a game like that out there, and I just haven't heard about it because it's so boring that no one plays it?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2017 14:31:38 GMT -8
I don't know in my experience that lack of rule coverage impedes players deciding what to you. YMMV, but what I've experienced is analysis paralysis. More debate about 'Well, if we take action X, we tip our hand to the bad guy. If we take action Y, we aren't in a position to stop his action.' And there is also the issue of, in groups I've been in, a lack of desire to split the party. I understand it in a dungeon crawl or a bug hunt like Aliens, but ... in a modern setting, there is no reason not to split the party especially investigating. Even the Scooby Gang split up... of course, that's part of the joke.
I'll give you another situation I'm dealing with with my upcoming L5R campaign. We're heading towards Session Zero, two of the three characters have backstories at least, no stats made yet, but we have a rough outline for the three characters. I have one player having paralysis, going back and forth what to play. I finally stepped in and chose for him out of his two choices and said 'You'll play this'. After that, it unblocked him enough for his backstory to work out... but then he began analyzing how best to be useful and how to make sure the party wasn't combat deficient.
To me, that's on me. Even though we've been friends and gamed for a decade, to me, it says he doesn't trust me enough as a GM to balance things (he plays with another pretty crappy group, so I understand the burnt-hot-stove feeling). So, to get him out of that paralysis, I commited a spear-carrier NPC. He won't be talkie, he's just a drunkish Mantis budoka who's out for some coin, just a hired sword. Then he won't feel obsessed over his wife's PC being the combat beast and the other PC being a total noncombatant.
TLDR - analysis paralysis is more of a cause of player indecision on actions than mechanics, in my experience
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fredrix
Master Douchebag
Posts: 2,142
Preferred Game Systems: Fate, L5R, Pendragon, Gumshoe, Feng Shui
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Post by fredrix on Dec 17, 2017 14:59:29 GMT -8
I meant to comment on this ctopuc and forgot. Discussion about what to do next is fun, IF it is role playing. I had a group who were prone to analysis paralysis, and all I did was remind them to have this discussion in character, and forbid them from discussing was players. For example, from the letter, what question a player could ask the GM would be a player discussion not a character one, so i’d Cut it short. But as Inuki and (most of) Mote of Sin proved, characters discussing stuff is Roleplaying.
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