tomes
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Post by tomes on Feb 26, 2015 16:47:48 GMT -8
And watch until the VERY end.
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tomes
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Posts: 1,438
Currently Running: Dungeon World, hippie games, Fallout Shelter RPG hack
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Post by tomes on Feb 26, 2015 16:47:29 GMT -8
Ah, like watching a well played RPG. So good. The credits are running now.
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tomes
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Posts: 1,438
Currently Running: Dungeon World, hippie games, Fallout Shelter RPG hack
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Post by tomes on Feb 26, 2015 12:20:43 GMT -8
I didn't understand "Add DM for skills and stats"... I read Dungeon Master, but that isn't right.
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tomes
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Post by tomes on Feb 26, 2015 8:58:57 GMT -8
And it's in the theaters... here in Pasadena: www.laemmle.com/films/38812I'm going today for an early matinee at 3:10... Kahlua for movie coffee? Check. Port and dark chocolate for dessert? Check. Random medicinals? Check.
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tomes
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Posts: 1,438
Currently Running: Dungeon World, hippie games, Fallout Shelter RPG hack
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Post by tomes on Feb 24, 2015 19:41:30 GMT -8
I'm a grown up, so I (and others) often have a beer or two without any noticeable change in behavior. Because it's delicious. And that's what we normally do now. Because it's delicious.
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tomes
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Currently Running: Dungeon World, hippie games, Fallout Shelter RPG hack
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Post by tomes on Feb 24, 2015 12:22:18 GMT -8
Regarding outofprintGM's letter of "five new female players for D&D 5E"... (I think I heard the author correctly) I had that exact situation, only at the time it was prior to 5E, and I was just getting back into RPGs. In my case I looked at a couple of systems, such as D&D (4 was the flavor of the day) and Pathfinder, and found them too rules intense for me, much less my players who could care less. At the time I went with Savage Worlds, but given what I've seen and heard of 5E, I think it's totally appropriate for new players (even though I'm more of a fan of Dungeon World for that demographic). I'm not going to repeat some of the excellent advice on the podcast (be a fan of the players, protect them from mechanics they aren't interested in, work with them to thematically make their characters, etc.). Other things that I thought worked well when I did this: - Use tactile components instead of bookkeeping. If you track arrows, give them little tokens to keep track of them (toothpicks if nothing else!) Instead of counting coins on paper, use pennies. They're fun! End of session? Write it down on paper, unless you have little boxes for each player.
- Miniatures: if you are going to use them, go buy them with the players at the local game shop prior or after character creation or discussion... fun field trip!
- When creating the characters-session, have some images ready... I had the graphics from Pathfinder at the time, a picture for each of the races, each class, etc. and that way they were choosing from the tropes.
- I've been a fan of selecting from a pool of resources, so that everyone isn't overlapping too much, and Dungeon World does that very well, since the playbooks/character sheets are one per class... once someones grabbed the Barbarian, it isn't available for the other guys. I think that could work well since it allows for a limited selection (instead of what may be considered too open a decision to make).
- Definitely do not shy from railroading. I know we talk about sandboxing and yes anding like it's the cat's meow (and it is), however the feedback I got back from a majority of my new players was that they wanted a more defined story with less open-endedness and less mysteries that had to be solved... they wanted a fairly simple story, and I think that's a good place to start. You'll always be surprised by the few who are there just to kill shit, too. Obviously, your mileage will vary.
- In regards to certain mechanics (D&D probably won't have this problem), feel free to select some defaults for some players, and allow them to change it later. For example in Savage Worlds I chose the disads for the characters based on the player's personalities... I knew one friend thought she could do anything so I gave her Overconfidence. It worked out perfectly as far as her playing to that Hindrance, even though she didn't select it or really notice it was there.
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tomes
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Post by tomes on Feb 24, 2015 7:54:12 GMT -8
6) A rival criminal mastermind \ arms dealer or whatever offers to take the PCs under his\her wing to keep them safe from the countless bounty hunters and mercs after them from the botched deal. All he requires is a cut of your work, and that they run some jobs for him when he needs it, no questions asked. +1 to that one as it still jives with your PCs desire for the game. You can tweak it so that the mastermind knows something about the ship, and maybe doesn't want it for themselves (or pretends not to), and slowly feeds the PCs information on the device and how to use it, in exchange for these missions. Now the PCs aren't playing for cold, hard cash (which they don't lack anyways) and instead are playing for something more valuable. The problem is: is the guy telling the truth? What's his ulterior motive? Maybe he's just playing with them so that he can keep track of the device until he tries to take it for himself, or until it gets to a place where it can be activated "safely", or it's all a delay tactic until the mastermind can get someone here who can activate it (like that old guru from that cult from sector 3)... and then you can use archmagezemoc's option #7 :-) 7) It's not actual the Engine of the ship they sold the guy, as alien tech is incomprehensible to us with no former knowledge, they assumed it was the power source cus of the cables or something. Nope, that was the Low-Berth (stasis) containers, there's an old-ass alien inside whose been in cryosleep. Maybe they never figure that out until they plug it in hoping to power their ship, which drains the rest of the ships power and awakens the alien inside And who's to say this alien isn't just an old human-ish dude? Maybe someone to help seed the rebellion, etc. etc.
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tomes
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Post by tomes on Feb 23, 2015 22:06:37 GMT -8
The Northman said it pretty well. For me: - Book reads super easy, and gives MANY suggestions on rules, including shows situations where the GM and players self-correct.
- Great super-easy system for noobs, but has all the flavor of narrative driven old-school fantasy
- I really like the character class progression system... many classes have "upgrades" (advanced moves) that allow you to cross-select other class abilities. Although this sounds like it could be a bit of a shitfest, what it really allows is the ability to make virtually any combination of builds and powers and concepts (or stick with something fairly simple and "class" specific, if you like)... but as northman said, still gives everyone fairly even footing.
- There are lots of contributed "playbooks" (aka different character class / character sheets) out there so once you've gone through one or two games with the basic classes, you could always grab something else.
- Some systems allow you to easily wing it during sessions. Many don't, requiring tables, rules, book lookups, NPC stats, etc. This is the former.
- I love the monster manual section, cause it gives all the information I need for a monster: the 3 or so basic stats you'll need during play (damage, hp, armor), a list of 2 or 3 bullet points on their general motivations, and, well, that's pretty much it.
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tomes
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Post by tomes on Feb 23, 2015 13:44:36 GMT -8
According you your précis, perhaps I should be telling them exactly who I've decided is and alien. But actually I prefer not to know myself, until through play, we've created NPCs who might be, and others who might be red herrings. I don't know that the original article advocates that you must them "who") I don't think the premise is that you must be up front about absolutely everything. Just being up front about what makes sense, and sometimes that might be more than you originally assume. I think as GMs our trap is that we sometimes assume that the PCs want to be surprised by certain pieces of information or planning, which may not be true. And sometimes testing these bounds helps us understand other methods that work. E.g. you mention how well it went given they knew one of the big "spoilers" of the game, to your surprise (so it sounded). I think that's all this is about... moving that line of expectations and requirements to try new things that might work quite well. In your case you haven't decided what who is the alien. Well, there is no reason that you necessarily need to plan that far ahead, and even when you've decided there isn't anything which says you MUST share that information either, since by now the players are bought into the scenario. However, that is a second line that can be experimented with... being up front with them on that next mystery, or having them in on it. Maybe having the PCs suggest who the alien is or agree amongst themselves who might work well (with the premise that the players have a lot to contribute to the game) and see where that goes. Is it worth doing? I don't know... could ruin the game. Or could move on to the next awesome step and surprise you that that level of honesty and communication works too. Who knows? I just think it's a great tool that can be in a GM's quiver, and with the right players and game can work wonderfully.
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tomes
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Post by tomes on Feb 23, 2015 10:34:19 GMT -8
This may not quite jive with the pacifist-topic exactly, but here's what my friend Howie did in a recent space game I ran:
He was playing an alien race that was classically an enemy of the other races and PCs. He chose to be "the medic" as his profession and skills, and (being Savage Worlds) a "pacifist" as his hindrance. In his case in the game, he had some reasons to not work well with the others, but instead of ever getting "violent", he decided that because he wouldn't really know their physiology, he would just recommend all sorts of random (and possibly harmful) healing remedies to the other PCs. And in fact he avoided all conflicts in the game, mostly cause he was busy fulfilling his other goals. I don't think he raised a weapon once (maybe a stunner, but you could argue that's a pretty non-violent way to deal with a violent opponent; to stun them).
You could argue he isn't really a "pacifist" if he plans to do harm to the other PCs (or enemies), and that may be the case, but I thought it was an interesting build. I will preface this with saying he is a little bit of a min-maxer, so I suspect he chose Pacifist as a way to get a hindrance that he could still play effectively to his end-goals.
Pacifist doesn't necessarily mean you are a nice guy. Maybe you just don't like violence cause it was done to you. Or cause you are a coward. Or you don't wish harm on individuals, but do have some higher morals or codes that would allow harm to be done to them in lieu of the greater good (i.e. you wouldn't interfere with harm that others have orchestrated to save someone; "pacifist" does not equal "hero" or "courageous"). Think of a hippie who hates the government and opposes it "peacefully", and who won't go and fight for the country... doesn't mean he doesn't hate your guts as the government stiff, or the cop; he just wouldn't physically or mentally abuse you. Maybe he just wants to find a way to convert you "peacefully".
Oooh... like in a superheroes game: a pacifist with mental abilities / psionics would be cool... mayeb has ways to temper down peoples' violence, maybe make them nauseous when they get violent. I.e. they aren't "hurting" the person, but causing the persons bodies to react against that persons own violent tendencies... so that person could prevent being "self-hurt" by controlling their own violence. In Savage Worlds mechanics maybe they cause the person to get "fatigue" (nauseous) tokens when the person acts violently.
All in all though, just cause someones a Pacifist doesn't mean they won't commit violence, just that they should try everything to prevent doing it. But even a pacifist may have to self-protect, or protect their friends or others from violence THROUGH violence. Just make sure they take some consequence for that (e.g. because of their guilt they get a mechanic penalty in the game, until they can redeem themselves or get forgiveness from that person, or whatever)
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tomes
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Post by tomes on Feb 23, 2015 10:15:19 GMT -8
Another thing to keep in mind: a battle with the big monster doesn't have to mean a battle to the death (on the monster's end). Most really smart, old, powerful monsters haven't made it this far by just getting lucky. They should know when they're outmatched, and have probably set up some escape routes as well.
So, imagine you've taken Munchkin Chisler's advice, first off (cause it's spot on and I can't really add to that). But then again the PCs are beating this thing down (assuming a red dragon). The dragon shouldn't wait until it's down to "low hit points" before trying to run or take evasive action. Anyone to actually damage an adult red dragon will already put that guy on high alert... anyone who got past the minions and initial obstacles would've done the same.
In theory, the big bad should have some traps or otherwise to prevent the PCs from hurting him as he flees, such as an escape tunnel with a convenient set of rocks to drop, to block them while he exits. Now, it could be the PCs kill the bastard. Or could be they beat him back and make him leave behind his treasure, in which case he'll be pretty pissed (like Smaug-and-Lake-Town pissed). Which of course mean that he may go out and leave behind all sorts of other issues behind. Are the PCs seen as heroes now? Or as the bastards that have caused the next series of dominoes that fall on the local populace.
Does the big bad have friends (or, to use modern parlance, frenemies?) that he'll try to goad into helping him remove the PCs? Just other things to play with... Or will the "escape" of the beast really be a trick into getting the PCs to think they've won, when he's really circled about to give them a final blast (maybe he really can't leave all that treasure behind?)
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tomes
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Currently Running: Dungeon World, hippie games, Fallout Shelter RPG hack
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Post by tomes on Feb 23, 2015 9:51:01 GMT -8
They stripped the ship of the interesting tech(the power plant) So they've installed this thing? Is the alien power plant part of their ship now? Cause that doesn't usually work very well in the movies, in my experience. Could this power plant really be a beacon? Or hungry for something? Or leading them somewhere? ("What do you mean the navigational computer doesn't recognize any of the star systems???") If it's alien tech I'd start playing with them that way, but I would probably try to figure out roughly what it did so that there'll be some consistency in the story, especially in a somewhat "realistic" system like Traveller.
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tomes
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Post by tomes on Feb 19, 2015 13:54:00 GMT -8
As always, I thank you in advance for your proactivity and communication. Outside the GoD room there will be a large sign and a magnetic white board that will read Games On Demand. Sheets for the available games will be attached to the magnetic/cork board. There will be a number of sheets for each game equal to the max number of chairs in the game plus one. Regarding this point, what would happen in the following scenario: I am a GM and said I'd run any of these 3 games in a particular time slot (let's say 2-6pm): Dungeon World, The Quiet Year, D&D 5E. Now what if the first person up there is only interested in D&D 5E, and grab a sheet. The next 3 people show up and are interested in DW or The Quiet Year, and grab the next 3 sheets. (Maybe you see where I'm going here...) Some more people come up with various preferences. The game is now "full" at 6 people. What happens at 2pm when I as the GM show up and I have 6 people who want to play disparate games? I mean, I understand that at that point, assuming people are relatively cool (optimistic, but not always on point), we can figure this out. But is there a way to avoid that disconnect earlier on? I don't know the answer... maybe if the GM says they'll run multiple games, the person signing up can mark which ones they are interested in in a particular table (e.g. the first person would've marked under D&D 5E, the next 3 marked under the other two columns, etc) and that way someone coming later sees what will likely play out (due to demand, etc.). Too complex? I don't know. Also, as a GM I wouldn't mind putting a phone # (or twitter thingie) up there, but some might, so maybe some place to optionally put in contact details (for GM and the players). This also lets the GM contact folks to see if they have flaked out... it's easy to cross out a game downstairs in lieu of another game, but maybe people will be too lazy to run upstairs just to cross out their names when plans change (?) Just thoughts...
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tomes
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Post by tomes on Feb 19, 2015 10:23:36 GMT -8
...But in this case, if the characters know they're being set up right from the beginning, then the interesting part of the story will happen after they get back. The focus doesn't seem like it would be on the setup, but on what happens because of the setup. Which is exactly what I think is interesting about this type of play. No, it isn't what you want if you'd want to surprise your players with the setup, but if you just want a good story, and can sacrifice this little bit ahead of time, it does ensure everyone's on roughly the same page, and it doesn't necessarily mean there aren't good surprises to be had from the game. I agree that for a game that relies on the surprise (perhaps some mystery or CoC scenarios) this wouldn't work in the same way, but still I can see it quite useful in some games. But most importantly, the immediate and intense dialog, to me, indicates a good topic. :-)
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tomes
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Currently Running: Dungeon World, hippie games, Fallout Shelter RPG hack
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Post by tomes on Feb 18, 2015 15:27:24 GMT -8
I met up with Matt Smith this last Strategicon, an UPSTANDING gentlemen I've played with before. And since then I have read his post about "Honest Gaming" (he self-admits it may not be the best term here) defined in his article here: www.playtofindout.blogspot.com/2015/02/honest-gaming-death-of-gm-screen.htmlMy summary of his article is: Based on the premise that 1. Players hate to be duped, 2. Players love to participate, and 3. Players have great ideas, he has started his games with sharing what prep he's performed with the players, including little things like: And he goes on to say: Sounds amazing. A conversation around this approach would be great, including any really cool examples of when something like this worked really well, but also where you think this might not work (like when the premises are wrong, such as a situation where the player would like to be duped). Additional note for those not reading the article and then jumping to say that some systems do aspects of this already: I will mention that he uses Dungeon World, and that some of the approach of his games (especially the con games he ran this last time) is to come in with zero to minimal prep that is recommended with that system. The system itself advocates that the scenario shouldn't really be created prior to the PCs being created and involved in that process. (Something I know the HJ hosts have alluded to as well in numerous conversations.) But it seems like he's taken it a little further than that.
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