Season 07 Episode 03

[1d4cast_James]

I was thinking of a system that can be used with a whimsical setting and I thought of Neverwhere 3rd Edition.

It is based off of the Neil Gaiman TV show & book, but you can wholly ignore the fluff and substitute your own setting in.

All you need is a couple d6s and some paper. You write down a few descriptions for attributes, some occupation(s), and equipment.

It uses a bidding system. Your stats determines the starting bid, then you roll a d6. The number on the die represents the amount the bid is increased, except for 2 conditions: 1s implode and subtract from your bid while 6s explode by adding to your bid.

Worth taking a look at if you want something really simple and adaptable.

Best of all, it's free on DriveThruRPG: rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=65343

[kaitoujuliet]

Regarding the "rewards for good RP" thing...I'm more and more coming to the conclusion that this really needs to be based on effort, and not on the player meeting some kind of standard set internally by the GM. Because otherwise, no one can ever play characters who have social skills that the players don't--and surely people fantasize about being charming, persuasive, etc., just as they fantasize about being strong and agile?

The guy who regularly GMs when I'm a player never seems to think any of my bluff attempts are good enough, and he just slaps them down without giving me a chance to roll dice or anything. The result is that I've given up on even trying it, and I don't bother to take any bluffing-related skills when I build characters, either. There doesn't seem to be any point--and that seems like the opposite of the type of gameplay that you're trying to encourage, yes?

[jazzisblues]

Feb 2, 2012 17:18:06 GMT -8 kaitoujuliet said:

Regarding the "rewards for good RP" thing...I'm more and more coming to the conclusion that this really needs to be based on effort, and not on the player meeting some kind of standard set internally by the GM. Because otherwise, no one can ever play characters who have social skills that the players don't--and surely people fantasize about being charming, persuasive, etc., just as they fantasize about being strong and agile?

The guy who regularly GMs when I'm a player never seems to think any of my bluff attempts are good enough, and he just slaps them down without giving me a chance to roll dice or anything. The result is that I've given up on even trying it, and I don't bother to take any bluffing-related skills when I build characters, either. There doesn't seem to be any point--and that seems like the opposite of the type of gameplay that you're trying to encourage, yes?

Flatly put that sucks and it is contra to my view of good gaming in general. Regardless of whether one is a player or a gm it's never cool to just slap someone down like that. I'm not going to promise that everything a player tries is going to work but I VERY strongly believe in erring on the side of the player and giving them every possible benefit of the doubt.

One of the harder things about our hobby is resolving a situation in which a character has role play skills that their player does not have. Namely social skills like bluff or intimidate etc ... Because if I (as a player) don't bluff well it's going to be hard for me to role play that. Which is exactly why I am so very in favor of erring on the side of the player.

and yes what you describe is EXACTLY opposite what I try to encourage in players. I want players to think more about non-combat skills and try to write games to highlight those skills and encourage them to be as descriptive and flamboyant as they want to be.

As always, just my 2 krupplenicks worth, your mileage may of course vary.

JiB

[shadrack]

Jan 31, 2012 5:31:53 GMT -8 whutaguy said:

Whimsical fantasy game brought PDQ (Atomic Sock Monkey) to mind.

I would go with the 'Zorcerer of Zo' which also uses the PDQ system by Atomic Sock Monkey. Play a Nursery rhyme or other fictitious character, a rapier wielding skunk?, a stuffed badger named Kevin?, a walking talking bear?, a clockwork soldier?

There is a learning curve but it's a neat system. (It's also the system for Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies, which is really neat).

[HyveMynd]

kaitoujuliet, your GM kinda sounds like a dick. One of my biggest shames as a GM was a very similar event. I was running a Changeling: the Lost game, and one of my players wanted to be a con man, kind of like the main character from the Mentalist. The player researched con jobs that he could have his character try to attempt and made all the necessary arrangements in game. He got a security guard costume and a lock box, and set up a table in front of an ATM night deposit box. Employees who came to the bank to deposit money were told the system was out of order, but that he would give them a receipt for their deposit. I, as GM, said no one would fall for that. He tried again later at a local college campus. He wore his security guard costume, stopped students, and asked to see their university ID and credit card to validate they were in fact students. Again, I said that no one would be dumb enough to fall for that trick, and so none of the NPCs did.

After the session the player told me that I had robbed his character of what made him special. He had made a con man, had sunk points into social skills like persuasion and manipulation, yet I took that all away from him. I felt absolutely terrible after I realized what I had done. If I had allowed his cons to work, not only would the player have been playing the character he wanted to play, but he would have created all kinds of of interesting story threads that I as the GM could have exploited. Even though that was a few years ago now, I still think about what a dick I was and always strive to not have that happen again when I GM a game.

Perhaps a frank discussion with your GM is in order there, kaitoujuliet. Tell your GM that he's robbing you of your character's skills and killing the fun of the game for you.

[jazzisblues]

Feb 3, 2012 21:11:11 GMT -8 HyveMynd said:

kaitoujuliet, your GM kinda sounds like a dick. One of my biggest shames as a GM was a very similar event. I was running a Changeling: the Lost game, and one of my players wanted to be a con man, kind of like the main character from the Mentalist. The player researched con jobs that he could have his character try to attempt and made all the necessary arrangements in game. He got a security guard costume and a lock box, and set up a table in front of an ATM night deposit box. Employees who came to the bank to deposit money were told the system was out of order, but that he would give them a receipt for their deposit. I, as GM, said no one would fall for that. He tried again later at a local college campus. He wore his security guard costume, stopped students, and asked to see their university ID and credit card to validate they were in fact students. Again, I said that no one would be dumb enough to fall for that trick, and so none of the NPCs did.

After the session the player told me that I had robbed his character of what made him special. He had made a con man, had sunk points into social skills like persuasion and manipulation, yet I took that all away from him. I felt absolutely terrible after I realized what I had done. If I had allowed his cons to work, not only would the player have been playing the character he wanted to play, but he would have created all kinds of of interesting story threads that I as the GM could have exploited. Even though that was a few years ago now, I still think about what a dick I was and always strive to not have that happen again when I GM a game.

Perhaps a frank discussion with your GM is in order there, kaitoujuliet. Tell your GM that he's robbing you of your character's skills and killing the fun of the game for you.

I think it's fair to say that we've all done something stupid like tht at one time or another. I know that I have. My hope is that as gm's we grow beyond that and get out of the idea that it's our story and remember that it's the player character's story.

Thanks for relating this Hyve it's very important for all of us to remember these lessons and be reminded of why we as gm's are here.

JiB

[kaitoujuliet]

Feb 3, 2012 21:11:11 GMT -8 HyveMynd said:

Perhaps a frank discussion with your GM is in order there, kaitoujuliet. Tell your GM that he's robbing you of your character's skills and killing the fun of the game for you.

I actually did later tell him that I would have liked to be able to roll dice on those occasions, but I still haven't felt like trying to bluff anyone in-character since then. Fortunately, the bluffing wasn't central to the character concepts. If I ever do try to make a "con man" type character for a game this GM is running, though, you can bet I'm going to talk to him ahead of time and either work out something about how we can use the character sheet or ditch the concept and go for something else.