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Baeraad
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  • When I started planning a Rogue Trader game, I thought one of the big challenges would be coming up with reasons for why the PCs would undertake challenging missions themselves instead of sending underlings to do it.

    However...
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    Baeraad
    Baeraad
    .... having written out descriptions for some of the underlings they will have, I feel increasingly confident that that won't be a problem. Getting these idiots to do anything even remotely outside of their hyper-narrow areas of expertise and hidebound job descriptions will be a challenging mission. :grin:
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    I now have both CthulhuTech and Blue Rose on my shelf.

    I of course took the precaution of putting Numenera between them, to make sure they didn't cause some sort matter-antimatter reaction. :tongue:
    Wonderful. I have a player who don't want to join the party because "it's just not what my character would do." Didn't we outlaw those years ago? >_<
    Ronin
    Ronin
    Tell them, "OK, we'll see you in four weeks. I might be abe to work your character back in by then". Bet the player changes their mind.
    CRKrueger
    CRKrueger
    Why isn’t it something their character would do? Are they being a pain in the ass or did the group make up The Devil’s Rejects and the PC is a non-violent healer? Incompatible character concepts are a thing. If the player is just Resisting the Call to Adventure, then it might be time for Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru to get roasted. :devil:
    The problem with liking really intricate campaign settings is that by the time I've read up enough on them to feel that I can run a game in them, I've already gotten bored and feel like running something else instead - which of course in turn requires a lot of reading, and round and round we go... :/
    T
    The Butcher
    I have never been quite there — I spent a long time reading up on Télumel and I’d still be happy to run a game there — but I definitely sympathize with burning out on game premises you nurture for years and end up never running; I am more or less there with nWoD/CoD right now.
    I know I'm having a bad day when the OSR-style approach of "you're going to start with 1d4 HP and YOU'RE GOING TO LIKE IT!" starts to sound appealing to me... -_-
    This is almost a conspiracy theory, but... there is just something that makes me suspicious about the way the Warhammer 40,000 line of games all feel like they are almost great games that just fall short in a few critical ways. Especially since they were published by Games Workshop, who are if nothing else scary-good at making money.
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    Baeraad
    Baeraad
    Could it be... could it actually be that they intentionally had the games designed in such a way to make you feel like they were just a few more optional rules away from actually being functional, so that you'd pick up every new supplement published in the hopes that this would be the one that fixed it all and made it reach its potential? Because that does seem to have been the result. :tongue:
    Aarrgghh, gamer ADD has me bad. I'm running three games right now, and I am itching to run at least three more, but I don't have enough time and energy as it is. :/
    Two of my Hunter: the Reckoning players ended up wrestling with a burning zombie until it finally expired, walking away with severe burns. I'm not sure if it quite fits the intended feel of realistic heroics, but I'm at least satisfied that they'll remember this campaign. :tongue:
    So help me, I'm going to GURPS every WoD game I run from now on! The Storyteller System has officially gotten on my last nerve! :tongue:
    T
    The Butcher
    TBH I'm kind of fed up on the (nWoD/CoD) Storytelling System as well, so much that I've been considering getting AFter The Vampire Wars for Mythras, for my modern dark fantasy needs. I like the (oWoD) Storyteller System well enough. But I approve of conversions in general! See if you can get a hold of the old official conversions!
    TheophilusCarter
    TheophilusCarter
    That's a system I really want to like, but every time I really try to get my teeth into it, I start thinking about how I could run it in whatever my favorite generic system is at the moment ...
    I am reading some Fatal & Friends posts.

    You know, I have complained repeatedly against tastelessly applied edgelording in games. But I'm sort of bemused at the F&F writers' apparent conviction that roleplaying should only ever be a safely bland exercise in wholesome monster-slaying and anyone who puts anything other than that in their game is a SICK PERVERT. :tongue:
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    Baeraad
    Baeraad
    Also, I am flabberghasted by the amount of wailing in the Hunter: the Reckoning posts about how hunters can't stand up to vampires with Celerity 5 and assault rifles. Er, yeah, but... as long as the GM follows the same don't-twink-your-character principle that's belaboured throughout the book, most vampires aren't going to be min-maxed to perfection, and nor will they normally be carrying assault rifles around?
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    Baeraad
    Baeraad
    Seriously. I have run a lot of HtR. I have never found monsters to be too unkillable. The opposite, if anything.

    I can only assume that this comes from the same place as the constant insistence that mages are all-powerful because everyone but me ignores the part of the rules whereby they need a gazillion successes to actually do any magic more impressive than lighting a candle.
    Far from complaining about railroading, my players keep whining that they don't want to make choices, they just want to know which way to go to get to the next cutscene.

    I'm choosing to believe that that's because I'm really good at writing cutscenes and not because I'm really bad at providing interesting choices... :tongue:
    T
    The Butcher
    When players don't choose, NPCs make the choice for them. Bad guys are liable to kick down doors and come in shooting, as Raymond Chandler was wont to do with a stalled plot.
    Baeraad
    Baeraad
    That's my default stance too. If the players don't try to control the course of events, I make things get steadily worse. But these players, THEY DON'T CARE! They just keep going with the flow even when the flow is leading them over a waterfall!
    The wonderful thing about WFRP? In normal high fantasy games, when the players exploit every opportunity, take every cheap shot, and just generally act like horrible little power-hungry munchkins, it's annoying.

    In WFRP, that's precisely what they should be doing. The Warhammer World hates you and wants you to suffer. Your job is to outsmart it! :grin:
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    T
    The Butcher
    This is how good D&D campaigns should manage it too (IMHO) but I love how WFRP wears the picaresque on its sleeves.
    I just managed to improvise a game of Blue Rose in under five minutes from some very vague initial ideas. I feel weirdly good about that. Especially considering that my usual idea of preparation is six months of in-depth research, meditating on flavour and statting out endless characters...
    Okay, I've read one 400-page book. Now I just need to read another three books averaging about 200 pages, and I'm ready to play a game!

    ...

    ... does anyone else sometimes feel like this is a very strange hobby?
    Annoying habits in rules writing # 41: thinking that a single adjective fully explains a relative level of difficulty. No, really, tell me how I'm supposed to know how common something that's "Scarce" is, either on its own or in comparison to something that is "Rare"! Is a certain task "Tough" or "Difficult"? Who knows! :p
    A Fiery Flying Roll
    A Fiery Flying Roll
    They're out of fashion now, but I like the detailed descriptions we used to get, which told us exactly what level of superstrength was needed to lift a blue whale.
    T
    The Butcher
    Agreed. This is why I don’t particularly care for MSH/FASERIP for instance. FUDGE/FATE I find a dash less confusing because each adjective corresponds to a discrete modifier.
    Voros
    Voros
    I think MSH relies on you knowing the ppwer levels a bit more by reference to the comics. The vagueness is purposeful too to allow GM discretion.
    It occurs to me that Warhammer Fantasy might appeal to me much better than Warhammer 40,000 because the former is all about keeping it simple and trying to secure some creature comforts, while the latter is all about how totall rad it is that everything is cluttered up and uncomfortable...
    Voros
    Voros
    WFRP is pretty cool, I now have most of 1st edition on legit pdf and 4e in hardcopy. Cool, amusing world building with lots of vivid NPCs. Hell they even satirize Thatcher, so much for no politics in gaming! Warhammer 40,000 looks like everything I don't dig in one game.
    Baeraad
    Baeraad
    WFRP is definitely one of my all-time favourite games. :smile: It's a setting that's at once very earthy and grounded and very colourful and vibrant. 40K is... well, it has its charm to me, but I kind of have to be in a very specific mood for it. You absolutely must not try to be practical or sensible about it - it's all over-the-top space opera melodrama, all the time.
    T
    The Butcher
    Look up the very first edition of Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (the GW one, not to be confused with the later FFG one), that featured “fat Marines” (ie. before Space Marines were genetically engineered Übermenschen) and oozed with AD2000 tongue-in-cheek brutality and dystopia. Or just play WFRP, which is awesome too.
    Sometimes I remember why I put so much time and effort into this hobby.

    It's because if you put up with enough terrible campaigns with GMs who don't have a clue and other players who don't give a shit, sometimes, from time to time...

    ... you get to swing from lianas in the depths of the jungle to escape from giant carnivorous dinosaurs.

    And that just makes it all worthwhile. :grin:
    Idea for a game: anti-willworking. An elite breed of spellcasters have elaborate philosophies of how the world works on a deep, metaphysical level... and the world, because it hates to be pigeonholed, goes out of its way to prove them wrong at every turn.
    I swear Werewolf: the Apocalypse has an unhealthy grip on me. I read the sourcebooks, I get furious at the sheer misanthropic idiocy of it all, I throw them down... and then I pick them back up so I can read on and get more furious. I think I need help... :/
    I just had one of those moments when the players are talking about what they think your plans are, and one of them comes up with a theory that's like 3000% cooler than what you were actually planning.

    Now, to steal or not to steal...? :p
    One day the players in one of my campaigns may overcome their apathy enough to remember what dice they are supposed to roll without me having to remind them. Alas, that day is not today.
    Note with great sadness that the filthy players have not posted. POST, FILTHY PLAYERS!!! POOOOOST!!!! OR SO HELP ME!!!!!

    Ahem.
    And WE ARE POSTING, lazy players! And ONE and TWO and THREE and FOUR and MOVE YOUR TUCCUS three and four... :tongue:
    Having made my GM posts for the day, I shall now commence staring angrily at the screen and willing my lazy players to post their responses already.
    Interesting post:


    Especially:

    "if we could [see things from the perspective of Malory's female characters], men would appear as strange spirits too. Violent, dangerous, clad in iron, appearing out of the mists, dealing out death and strange troubles, focuses of obsession and desire for power, greatly wanted, greatly feared."
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    Baeraad
    Baeraad
    Now I kind of want to run a Mists of Avalon style Pendragon campaign where the players all play damsels, just to try the idea out.
    Reading some oWoD books. As always, getting the very strong feeling that the people writing them either didn't know or didn't care how their rule system actually worked.
    Baeraad
    Baeraad
    Sure, you can play it, but I maintain that you can't play Mage - in particular - the way it's described in the fluff. If someone can explain to me how characters with Arete 2-4 (which is supposed to be what most mages have) routinely seem to roll 3-4 successes at least given the sort of feats they pull off at a moment's notice, I'm all ears. :p
    Faylar
    Faylar
    I never did Mage. From what I heard it was an addon that wasn't overly popular. Mostly WTA and VTM.
    Baeraad
    Baeraad
    Those two do seem to be somewhat more coherent, yes.
    Aaaarggghhh, I'm trying to write a let's-read, but I just end up making personal attacks against the author. That's not at all what I want to be like. But he's just so damn ATTACKABLE! :p
    Faylar
    Faylar
    I have to ask... who? I have a few suspicions, but...
    Baeraad
    Baeraad
    *sighs* I probably shouldn't say, for the same reason why I shouldn't do this let's read. Let he without sin throw the first stone, and all. But yeah, like you say, there is no shortage of RPG authors who can get on a person's last nerve... :tongue:
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    Dumarest
    Dumarest
    But I haven't published my work...
    Waiting for mythweavers to come back online so I can try to start my game. In the meantime, coming up with ways for the medical establishment in the World of Darkness to really suck.
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    T
    The Butcher
    Absolutely trivial to make his life hell. Residents in the US are expected to work 80-hour weeks. (And that’s after legislation was passed. 100-120 hours was common in some programs.)

    Continued failure to comply with his scheduled work hours will likely result in termination, making his future career prospects doubtful.

    A bit difficult to chase monsters when you’re working the equivalent of two full-time jobs.
    T
    The Butcher
    Besides, residents are expected to study a lot, give presentations and sit mock exams prepared to coach them for the medical specialty board exams.

    If you’re in an academic medical center you are also expected to be involved in research and publish papers.

    Furthermore, even if you do everything right, attendings can be dicks and berate you for the smallest mistakes.

    Now go and make your PC’s life hell.:hehe:
    Baeraad
    Baeraad
    Will do. ;)
    Prepping Hunter: the Reckoning. Must make antagonists Tragically Cool while also deconstructing the whole concept of Tragic Coolness. Because that's not too complicated or anything... :p
    Reading through the Hunter: the Reckoning rules again reminds me of two things: one, I really love the oWoD style and ambience. Two, I have really gotten completely spoiled by rule systems that actually... y'know... work.
    Say what you will of Exalted, and I usually do. But there's no other game that gives you the same "this is gonna be SO AWESOME!!!" feeling when creating a character.
    Okay, so... my geometry-warping hyperspatial maze essentialy has three interesting things inside of it. Now to figure out how the PCs might stumble across them...
    I'm aaaaaalmost getting back into the swing of things. One Wraith: the Oblivion session, planned. One Eldritch Skies game, starting to come together.
    Trying to come up with dungeon crawl. Brain won't work. Am disgrace to good GMs everywhere. D<
    Baeraad
    Baeraad
    Oh, the standard pyramid purpose. For a rich dude to be buried in it with all his shinies, on the off chance that you really can take it with you.
    AsenRG
    AsenRG
    So, human puppet dolls.
    And falling roofs.
    And the specter of a guardian dog.
    ...What? That's AsenRG dungeoneering 101!
    T
    The Butcher
    Look up pyramid floor plans and then Jaquay the hell out of them. Think up supernatural reasons for more rooms. Traps. Monsters in two flavors, guardians and squatters.
    Last night's Wraith: the Oblivion session ended with one player stuck in the Tempest and one player, on the advice of her Shadow, betraying another player to be captured by the Hierarchy. I feel that we're finally starting to play the game properly!
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