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Post by jonas on Dec 30, 2017 1:25:01 GMT -8
Oh my god. I thought that I'd died and the backlog was flashing before my eyes!
The horror!
The pungent horror!
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Post by Forresst on Dec 30, 2017 17:50:58 GMT -8
I get the metatextual joke! Yes! Hindsight is 20-20!
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HJRP 2020
Dec 31, 2017 7:38:10 GMT -8
via mobile
Post by uncommonman on Dec 31, 2017 7:38:10 GMT -8
Copy from another post:
Ok Mutant was the first RPG I ever played (1986?) and here is a timeline of those games:
"Old" Mutant (1984) This game was inspired by Gamma World and took place "several hundred" years after an apocalypse wiped out humanity. The world is slowly starting to rebuild and is populated by humans, mutants, anthropomorphic animals, robots and psycers/anthropomorphic animals psycers. The setting is Diselpunk-like western in Scandinavia with technology from before the apocalypse.
"new" Mutant (1989) This is a cyberpunk game with the same races as the past version races but new rules and setting.
Mutant R.Y.M.D/S.P.A.C.E (1992) Similar setting as "new" Mutant but now in space with demons from Mars. This setting was inspired by Warhammer 40k and was quickly replaced by:
Mutant Chronicles (1993) Sci-fi inspired by Warhammer 40k but with creatures and symbolic from the RPG game KULT. This version is the least connected with the original games.
Mutant: Undergångens arvtagare/Inheritors of the apocalypse (2002) Back to the "old" mutant setting but with a darker tone and a more oppressive government and secrets societies, this is my favorite iteration of the setting.
Mutant: År Noll/Year Zero Similar but different, this game takes place before society has started to rebuild and has different books/games for each race: humans/anthropomorphic animals/robots.
It also have the Elysium game that takes place DURING the apocalypse.
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HJRP 2020
Dec 31, 2017 14:24:00 GMT -8
via mobile
Post by uncommonman on Dec 31, 2017 14:24:00 GMT -8
Oh my god. I thought that I'd died and the backlog was flashing before my eyes! The horror! The pungent horror! Drakar och Demoner was based on BRP if that helps. The only difference was that Drakar used a d20 in stead of a d100. RiotMinds gave away free .pdf of all old versions of that game (all before Trudvang, they are not still up but you xan find them if you look) so you could get those if you want a free Swedish okay game. And if the worst happens you are welcome to stay at my place for (a short) while...
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Post by ericfromnj on Dec 31, 2017 16:25:22 GMT -8
JiB, I've been on a bit of a Neil Gaiman kick in part because I received his short story anthologies as Christmas gifts. However, the thing I am most excited about for the new year is a one shot weekend LARP that is a cross between American Gods and Mad Men in the Philadelphia area. I may be just a little excited for this.
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HJRP 2020
Dec 31, 2017 16:42:11 GMT -8
via mobile
Post by uncommonman on Dec 31, 2017 16:42:11 GMT -8
JiB, I've been on a bit of a Neil Gaiman kick in part because I received his short story anthologies as Christmas gifts. However, the thing I am most excited about for the new year is a one shot weekend LARP that is a cross between American Gods and Mad Men in the Philadelphia area. I may be just a little excited for this. It sounds ah-may-zing so you are right to be excited.
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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)
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HJRP 2020
Jan 1, 2018 1:26:15 GMT -8
via mobile
Post by fredrix on Jan 1, 2018 1:26:15 GMT -8
Awwww I miss “... and Beer”
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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)
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HJRP 2020
Jan 1, 2018 1:48:40 GMT -8
via mobile
Post by fredrix on Jan 1, 2018 1:48:40 GMT -8
Stu Venable “I don’t like [FFGSW] character generation, I don’t like character generation. Too complicated. It doesn’t need to be that complicated.” Yes! This!
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Post by chronovore on Jan 1, 2018 6:52:11 GMT -8
So, a couple things: I played the ElfQuest game very, very briefly before getting into GURPS. There was an ill-advised campaign where we ran our little elves through a D&D dungeon and all had a fight over a Rod of Lordly Might. Despite the ruleset, our adventure regressed to standard D&D lootcrawling and bickering over who gets what. The other BRP game I'd played up to that point was Stormbringer, and that was also mostly just another D&D game but there were demons bound into weapons or something. 1985 or '86. But it was frustrating to have games which purported to give me the the experience from those fictional works, and have it just be another dungeon crawl. I was a huge fan of the ElfQuest comic in my youth, and the officially licensed system did not offer me anything fulfilling.
A good portion of that was the DM's decision to run… well, a dungeon crawl. But part of it is that the BRP system doesn't give any cues that the players' stories should go differently than a D&D game.
In contrast, Twilight 2000 focuses on gear and survival and grittiness. Traveller focuses on efficient, dry, and consistent SF behavior. FATE emphasizes drama, and player agency in when the drama will work to their character's advantage — as well as disadvantage when throwing the GM story beats via self-invokes. The rules inform what kind of story can be told.
The statement that "setting informs the rule set" is completely compatible with "GURPS stands for 'Generic…'" - The setting SJ Games strove to create was a representational one, which as efficiently as reasonable mimics the behavior of physics. GMs can try and play something larger than life, but we have seen where GURPS Supers fails to track with internal consistency against the other rulebooks.
I'm stunned that the hosts didn't take umbrage with the GM's wife saying, "They want you to run this…"
Looking back on previous episodes, the attitude had previously been, "It's great that this is the game you want to play but I'm not that GM" — both to system or play-style.
Instead, it seems to me that this is the opportunity for the GM to say, "Oh, you like ElfQuest? I can probably run something like this," possibly peppering in sage insights such as, "but I'm not learning an entirely new system so I can run a game for you," and "this system doesn't even represent the atmosphere of ElfQuest with any accuracy."
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HJRP 2020
Jan 1, 2018 10:19:26 GMT -8
via mobile
Post by ericfromnj on Jan 1, 2018 10:19:26 GMT -8
Just listened to the end of the episode. My sincere condolences to Pat’s family and everyone at Fear the Boot.
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andreasdavour
Patron (Supporter)
Posts: 257
Preferred Game Systems: M0, Savage Worlds, Over the Edge, Warhammer FRP 1st ed.
Currently Playing: None
Currently Running: Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate
Favorite Species of Monkey: Llama
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Post by andreasdavour on Jan 2, 2018 3:16:27 GMT -8
I think it has become something of a thing to rap on BRP. It's supposed to be old, clunky and slow. I don't buy that.
In Sweden many of the early games were built upon that engine, so when the "young turks" who discovered the new wave of games became active online they started slagging the old stuff. I can understand that process, even though I don't approve.
Internationally there have been a similar trend, slagging the old as the newer games are "obviously" better, as they are newer. That is just bollocks. There's nothing inherently better in a newer game. That being said, there are things in BRP which are not great designs. First and foremost, I think, is the fact that stats are not used for much after character generation. You calculate HP and MP maybe, and then you just use your skills. It's something of a D&Dism, as they had those six stats so of course we will also have them. It's worth noting that in OD&D, stats are kind of useless after character generation as well. You mostly use your saves and fighting capability, like magic, is all based on your class, not your stats.
So, why do I not agree BRP is bad, slow, clunky and old? Well, I do agree it is old. But, I think it's also very intuitive to use. For a new GM, and a new player, with some really basic math capabilities learned in school you can grasp the basic mechanic. Everyone understand what it means that my chance of success is 30%, 75% or 50%. A newbie will instantly understand what he or she can do, and a newbie GM can improvise super simple by just eyeball a probability. That's not clunky and slow, it's extremely fast and lightweight.
Well, that's my personal bug bear and I keep fighting it.
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andreasdavour
Patron (Supporter)
Posts: 257
Preferred Game Systems: M0, Savage Worlds, Over the Edge, Warhammer FRP 1st ed.
Currently Playing: None
Currently Running: Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate
Favorite Species of Monkey: Llama
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Post by andreasdavour on Jan 2, 2018 4:21:14 GMT -8
Some Traveller notes. Virus was not MegaTraveller era, Stu Venable. Virus came with Traveller: New Era. MegaTraveller was the Rebellion era. It was basically the 2nd ed of original Traveller, consolidating the rules that had started to sprawl into a common system. The biggest issue was it was not done in house, so when the modern DTP files should be imported, they had to redo it all by hand onto the old typesetting system GDW used, and retyping it all they introduced to many typos it became a total mess, and starship combat was totally useless. The MT Imperial Encyclopedia is indeed a gold mine for setting info. And Stu Venable, you have to look close on eBay, as there were indeed a second volume of Library Data published.
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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)
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Post by fredrix on Jan 2, 2018 5:19:16 GMT -8
I'm stunned that the hosts didn't take umbrage with the GM's wife saying, "They want you to run this…" Looking back on previous episodes, the attitude had previously been, "It's great that this is the game you want to play but I'm not that GM" — both to system or play-style. Instead, it seems to me that this is the opportunity for the GM to say, "Oh, you like ElfQuest? I can probably run something like this," possibly peppering in sage insights such as, "but I'm not learning an entirely new system so I can run a game for you," and "this system doesn't even represent the atmosphere of ElfQuest with any accuracy." Yes, I was a bit surprised that they did say something like that, but to be fair, jonas did ask “how can I find the fun in this game” rather than “how can I refuse to run it”. Still, were I Jonas (and I’m not because I don’t have any negative issues with BRP based games, they are the games I grew up with), I think I would say “Great, which of them is going to be the ongoing GM, because I can only invest a little bit of time in this and to use it best I want to work with someone who can take over running the game”. Running a one-off you don’t enjoy is, as Jonas said (I think) a sure-fire way to put them all off RPGs. But working with an Elf-Quest enthusiast to show them how they can have fun running a game for their friends would surely be rewarding for everyone.
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Post by inflatus on Jan 2, 2018 12:09:42 GMT -8
Holy shit! When I heard Tappy I got a bit excited. Obviously the best-looking woman in the Boggards. I'd tap that.
Nice intro.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2018 17:32:30 GMT -8
Running a one-off you don’t enjoy is, as Jonas said (I think) a sure-fire way to put them all off RPGs. But working with an Elf-Quest enthusiast to show them how they can have fun running a game for their friends would surely be rewarding for everyone. I'm not sure that I feel running a one-shot you're not committed too is going to vinegar people off of gaming. I think stepping back, figuring out what you don't like (Is it the setting? Is it the mechanics?) and putting on the best that you can, with the understanding you're only going to run it for a short arc, while also having post-session post-mortems to find out what the new players liked/didn't like, and then use that as a sales pitch to SW or whatever game.Are the people wanting to play in Elfquest's world, or are they getting that sunk-cost fallacy of 'well, we already own this system so we might as well use this'. In full disclosure, in my current group, we're kind of getting into a nostalgia groove. Being the old man of the group, I've lived through most of these games <stares confusingly at FASA's Star Trek RPG near by> and we're playing a short arc of original Rifts, strictly with just the main book for OCC/RCC. My friend who requested the game wanted it, knowing full well how it gets, and he wants to see it and enjoy it, warts and all.TLDR - promise a short three-session arc, keep open communication, have a way to segue into the world in a different system if that works for you and them, and best of luck. Or co-GM the Elfquest game, handling the mechanics for whoever wants to tell a story. Easy peasy. And avoid wife aggro.
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