|
Kenlon posted:If a Scorpion is smiling at you, you're hosed. Yeah. The books are really big fans of the fable of the Frog and the Scorpion when talking about the Scorpion clan. If you're working with a Scorpion, they are going to gently caress you over. They can't not. They're an entire clan of untrustworthy backstabbing assholes. The only question is, how precisely are they going to gently caress you over and through what ridiculously complicated means? Also they're John Wick's darlings, which is why several times in the backstory they've done poo poo which by all means should have resulted in the Great Scorpion Clan Purge when literally everyone that the Scorpion clan wronged ganged together to murder their faces off for selling out the Empire again for no good reason, but that mysteriously never materialized.
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2014 10:01
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 21, 2024 13:40 |
|
|
Ratoslov posted:Yeah. The books are really big fans of the fable of the Frog and the Scorpion when talking about the Scorpion clan. If you're working with a Scorpion, they are going to gently caress you over. They can't not. They're an entire clan of untrustworthy backstabbing assholes. The only question is, how precisely are they going to gently caress you over and through what ridiculously complicated means? So if I meet a Scorpion and just outright stab it there and then, it's technically self defense?
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2014 13:02
|
|
|
Manic_Misanthrope posted:So if I meet a Scorpion and just outright stab it there and then, it's technically self defense? Sounds like it'd be all part of their master plan to gently caress over someone somewhere for some reason you'll never know, because they planned on you just stabbing them. And also you'd be hunted and hated for the action because HONOR.
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2014 13:16
|
|
|
ArkInBlack posted:Sounds like it'd be all part of their master plan to gently caress over someone somewhere for some reason you'll never know, because they planned on you just stabbing them. So what you're saying is that Scorpion are the tiresome faction.
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2014 13:18
|
|
|
Nucular Carmul posted:So there's a fan made Halo tabletop that my group decided to try out, and we had a ton of fun last night. Your story is great, and I really wanna play this! Where are the rules at? A little light googling is bringing up a ton of d20 systems and some fudge homebrews, but nothing percentile.
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2014 14:21
|
|
|
This is why when I played L5R we had the tag team of a Crane duellist and a Crane courtier who played the tag team of "I insult you so hard you basically have to duel me, and then I palm off onto my friend here who is going to decapitate you." Obviously Scorpions have a lot of outs and this rarely resulted in us actually getting to stab up a Scorpion, but they stopped loving with us after we killed the first dozen people they sent our way. Additionally, the party Magistrate who was specced for knives and rugby tackling and was basically playing John Shaft the Samurai would be standing on the sidelines giving the Scorps a "I can kill you silently in the night" glare. We punished the Scorpions who went behind one of those screens in court where nobody is allowed to hear what you say and talked loudly about how they were going to assassinate this guy and how hilarious it was that nobody was allowed to stop them now that they've all heard it by just asking them to come for a quiet walk in the Zen Gardens and then dropping them down a well.
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2014 14:32
|
|
|
Doodmons posted:We punished the Scorpions who went behind one of those screens in court where nobody is allowed to hear what you say and talked loudly about how they were going to assassinate this guy and how hilarious it was that nobody was allowed to stop them now that they've all heard it by just asking them to come for a quiet walk in the Zen Gardens and then dropping them down a well. Shades of Master Li and Number Ten Ox, right there. I approve.
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2014 14:33
|
|
|
Double Plus Undead posted:So what you're saying is that Scorpion are the tiresome faction. Yep, gently caress them.
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2014 14:59
|
|
|
ArkInBlack posted:Sounds like it'd be all part of their master plan to gently caress over someone somewhere for some reason you'll never know, because they planned on you just stabbing them. Ah, the Alpha Legion maneuver.
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2014 16:36
|
|
|
Yawgmoth posted:I've noticed this with both oWoD and L5R both so I'm wondering if it's caused by having a metaplot or just comorbid for other reasons, but a oddly large number of people seem to have this idea that PCs should never be people of note, ever.  Edit: if your group has both a Scorpion and a Crab in it and the scenario doesn't end in arson, you're playing wrong.
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2014 18:01
|
|
|
AmiYumi posted:I've seen this attitude, a lot, and it still baffles me. Yes, L5R, the game where the recommended party since 1st edition has been "a group of Emerald Magistrates" (a.k.a. samurai MIB who work directly for the Emperor), is a game where the PCs should be random scrubs who accomplish nothing of note. I think it really relates to poor GMing, where giving players too much influence and power means that they can break out of the railroad. Arguably though, you'd think that in a system that emphasizes honor and responsibility, giving more power to PCs would be a good thing, since it would increase their responsibilities and obligations, which would be a good and easy way to add in more plothooks.
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2014 18:30
|
|
|
I must admit I have never even tried to play L5R, but I have most of the books because I really enjoy the setting and learning more about it. Its exactly the same situation as Glorantha. Also the best clan is clearly the dragon, who get to have the storyline of "Our founding god is still in charge and is backed up by an entire hidden temples worth of tattooed monks"
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2014 18:42
|
|
|
Dirk the Average posted:I think it really relates to poor GMing, where giving players too much influence and power means that they can break out of the railroad. Arguably though, you'd think that in a system that emphasizes honor and responsibility, giving more power to PCs would be a good thing, since it would increase their responsibilities and obligations, which would be a good and easy way to add in more plothooks. Some of it also stems from having players all start at low rank low exp, Seemingly out of their gempukku within the last couple of years. It seems weird coming into the game to think of someone with no practical experience around the age of 16-18 being responsible for things. That said, the game system itself is full of ranks, obligations, different jobs and responsibilities that make everything somewhat more interesting but they tend to get ignored.
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2014 18:56
|
|
|
Since we're on L5Rchat: My absolute favourite game of L5R ever was when our GM decided it was unreasonable to have members of multiple great clans in a single group, so he restricted us to just one. So naturally we went and made a ragtag bunch of lesser-clan samurai and ronin. In the eyes of Rokugan we were the most pathetic, worthless samurai, only barely deserving of that title. It was such a huge and welcome change of pace from the usual high-and-mighty Emerald Magistrate group: For Great Clan Samurai we barely registered, Ronin treated us like a joke, even peasants would often try to trick us in some way. The group dynamic was awesome as well. We had 2 Tortoises, a Ronin and a Sparrow. The Tortoise clan is basically the lowest of the low - think Scorpions without the glamour. They deal in smuggling, racketeering and straight up piracy, only allowed to exist because they can be called upon to do the dirty work even the Scorps wouldn't do. In contrast, the Sparrow are the most idealistic clan in Rokugan, selflessly dedicated to bushido and living in voluntary and idealistic poverty. They are by far the poorest samurai in the Empire, but honorable in the extreme. Our sparrow was the sparrow's sparrow - Idealistic to a fault, unwavering in his devotion to Bushido and immaculate in his every social interaction. He would have been completely incompatible with the rest of the team, were it not for the fact he was incredibly gullible, and would believe any half-baked story from his companions (after all, one of the Tortoises was his cousin). This led to many a fun session with most of the group sneaking around at night doing all the dishonorable stuff, and engineering it in such a way that the Sparrow could then walk up to the bad guys the next morning and "convince" them to surrender by lecturing them about honour. This way, too, the Sparrow would become more famous and known for his honourable ways, which would then open more doors for them to walk through and steal everything that wasn't nailed down (figuratively, and sometimes literally). Another fun habit the Sparrow developed was writing. You see, with a little bit of prodding from his Scorpion fiancée, Sparrow decided he was just as good as any Great Clan Samurai, and set his sights on becoming Shogun. For this, though, he needed to be known throughout the Empire. The Sparrow's player, after carefully reading the rules for Glory (a measure of how well-known and respected a character is in L5R) found that one of the easiest ways to gain Glory was to create great works of art. He also found out that, by gifting such a work to a superior, the Glory gain was multiplied. Since his character had ended up having an obscene score for Narration due to random events, he could essentially earn more Glory by writing a haiku for a Daimyo than an average warrior gains by winning a battle. This led to him insisting on visiting the lords of every city we went to, handing out literary masterpieces like loving church flyers as he went. Very soon he had more Glory than the actual Shogun. Unfortunately the game ended shortly after that, but it would have been fun to see the little guy write his way to the Imperial Court.
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2014 21:01
|
|
|
Ratoslov posted:Scorpion fiance Kulebri posted:Scorpion fiancée
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2014 22:06
|
|
|
Splicer posted:Is this a Thing? Arranged marriages are the norm in L5R. Whether it's the man or woman that leaves their clan for their spouse's depends on their respective families' importance in their clans, etc. Marriages between members of different clans are almost always for alliances and whatnot. A Scorpion fiance is pretty much perfect shorthand for a certain type of character. The whole "Scorpions are always scheming" is a bit overblown and it's entirely intentional. The clan as a whole has a mandate to defend the Empire by any means necessary but individuals do whatever for various reasons, sometimes duty, sometimes greed. Because the Scorpion have such a bad reputation, making everyone think that every Scorpion is a scheming bastard gives them a bit of safety. Nobody wants to mess with a Scorpion courtier because they've all heard the stories, etc. Ironically, despite being complete bastards, Scorpions are one of the clans that treat their peasants relatively well, if only out of pragmatism.
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2014 22:37
|
|
|
Kulebri posted:Another fun habit the Sparrow developed was writing. You see, with a little bit of prodding from his Scorpion fiancée, Sparrow decided he was just as good as any Great Clan Samurai, and set his sights on becoming Shogun. For this, though, he needed to be known throughout the Empire. The Sparrow's player, after carefully reading the rules for Glory (a measure of how well-known and respected a character is in L5R) found that one of the easiest ways to gain Glory was to create great works of art. He also found out that, by gifting such a work to a superior, the Glory gain was multiplied. Since his character had ended up having an obscene score for Narration due to random events, he could essentially earn more Glory by writing a haiku for a Daimyo than an average warrior gains by winning a battle. This led to him insisting on visiting the lords of every city we went to, handing out literary masterpieces like loving church flyers as he went. Very soon he had more Glory than the actual Shogun. Unfortunately the game ended shortly after that, but it would have been fun to see the little guy write his way to the Imperial Court. This is amazing. It's a shame the game ended before that could be concluded, because it'd make a great story.
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2014 23:32
|
|
|
Kulebri posted:Another fun habit the Sparrow developed was writing. You see, with a little bit of prodding from his Scorpion fiancée, Sparrow decided he was just as good as any Great Clan Samurai, and set his sights on becoming Shogun. For this, though, he needed to be known throughout the Empire. The Sparrow's player, after carefully reading the rules for Glory (a measure of how well-known and respected a character is in L5R) found that one of the easiest ways to gain Glory was to create great works of art. He also found out that, by gifting such a work to a superior, the Glory gain was multiplied. Since his character had ended up having an obscene score for Narration due to random events, he could essentially earn more Glory by writing a haiku for a Daimyo than an average warrior gains by winning a battle. This led to him insisting on visiting the lords of every city we went to, handing out literary masterpieces like loving church flyers as he went. Very soon he had more Glory than the actual Shogun. Unfortunately the game ended shortly after that, but it would have been fun to see the little guy write his way to the Imperial Court. Reminds me of the time we realized that, according to the Glory rules as written, the Crab oni-smasher was (within the city the game was set) a bigger deal than the Emperor. The Firefly bushi meanwhile had so much Glory and Honor when he died, together with a shrine dedicated in his name (ridiculous luck on a "random funerary gift" roll by the player), that by RAW he became the minor Fortune of tropical fish. What I'm saying is, L5R with the right people is amazing.
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2014 09:46
|
|
|
AmiYumi posted:
It really is. I'm in a game that's kind of in limbo right now, but it's probably the best campaign I've ever been a part of, and it's entirely because the GM and other players are all really great dudes. Our GM (and all the players, thankfully) like the concept that Honor is this ridiculous ideal, but it carries weight and Samurai are more than willing to destroy themselves trying to live up to it. It makes for great tragedy, if your group is into that sort of thing. That and the fact that our group can just say "gently caress it" and have our Matsu shugenja suplex our Kakita duelist onto a pile of Seppun Guardsmen in a teahouse so our sneaky Hare samurai can steal a letter upstairs without missing a beat helps too.
|
|
#
?
Mar 17, 2014 00:38
|
|
|
Joined a 3.5 D&D game on saturday because it seemed interesting and I'm usually not doing a whole lot on saturdays in the early afternoon. So far, the DM has made about a dozen mentions of this arena fighting league in his campaign world, but has cockblocked every attempt I've made to join it or even meet any NPCs who might help me in that regard. He then throws in a dragon (which are supposed to be super rare) for me to meet, but it blasts me with its breath weapon and runs away when I fail my will save. Apparently I was supposed to pass that will save and have some kind of personal plot development, but because I rolled a 2 I get nothing. And when I told him that if he wanted me to chat with it that he shouldn't have made me roll a will save, he got all pissy because he "knows what [he's] doing when DMing" and signed off. Not really feeling good about this game anymore.
|
|
#
?
Mar 17, 2014 01:52
|
|
|
Yawgmoth posted:Joined a 3.5 D&D game on saturday because it seemed interesting and I'm usually not doing a whole lot on saturdays in the early afternoon. So far, the DM has made about a dozen mentions of this arena fighting league in his campaign world, but has cockblocked every attempt I've made to join it or even meet any NPCs who might help me in that regard. He then throws in a dragon (which are supposed to be super rare) for me to meet, but it blasts me with its breath weapon and runs away when I fail my will save. Apparently I was supposed to pass that will save and have some kind of personal plot development, but because I rolled a 2 I get nothing. And when I told him that if he wanted me to chat with it that he shouldn't have made me roll a will save, he got all pissy because he "knows what [he's] doing when DMing" and signed off. Just sever, he clearly doesn't have a single clue what he's doing when he's DMing.
|
|
#
?
Mar 17, 2014 02:07
|
|
|
Deltasquid posted:Just sever, he clearly doesn't have a single clue what he's doing when he's DMing. This right here. There are a lot of online games going on all the time. You can find something better than this with a minimum of effort.
|
|
#
?
Mar 17, 2014 02:14
|
|
|
I want to at least give him the benefit of the doubt and see if he can be helped. Does anyone have that video of the guy talking about how success and failure both need to be interesting and if they aren't then dice shouldn't be involved? The guy used lock picking as an example and it was fantastic, but I seem to have lost the link.
|
|
#
?
Mar 17, 2014 05:41
|
|
|
Yawgmoth posted:I want to at least give him the benefit of the doubt and see if he can be helped. Does anyone have that video of the guy talking about how success and failure both need to be interesting and if they aren't then dice shouldn't be involved? The guy used lock picking as an example and it was fantastic, but I seem to have lost the link. You cannot change people who look at themselves and see no problems. Your plan will fail. Turn from this path immediately or you will find only suffering.
|
|
#
?
Mar 17, 2014 06:17
|
|
|
VanSandman posted:You cannot change people who look at themselves and see no problems. Your plan will fail. Turn from this path immediately or you will find only suffering. Plus I really really wanna find that video.
|
|
#
?
Mar 17, 2014 07:12
|
|
|
Yawgmoth posted:Yes, the first step is getting him to see that he has a problem. I want to at least try because then I can say "hey, I tried to help you and you poo poo your pants in response. Don't expect me to stand here while you line up a warm handful to throw at me." That video DOES sound really cool, and I'd like to see it also if you manage to dig it up.
|
|
#
?
Mar 17, 2014 17:27
|
|
|
The operating term to search for is "fail forward". It's one of the core tenets of FATE and ______ World.
|
|
#
?
Mar 17, 2014 17:32
|
|
|
It's a key thing in Edge of the Empire too, unless we're talking more philosophy and less actual mechanics.
|
|
#
?
Mar 17, 2014 17:35
|
|
|
the_steve posted:It's a key thing in Edge of the Empire too, unless we're talking more philosophy and less actual mechanics.
|
|
#
?
Mar 17, 2014 17:45
|
|
|
Kulebri posted:Another fun habit the Sparrow developed was writing. You see, with a little bit of prodding from his Scorpion fiancée, Sparrow decided he was just as good as any Great Clan Samurai, and set his sights on becoming Shogun. For this, though, he needed to be known throughout the Empire. The Sparrow's player, after carefully reading the rules for Glory (a measure of how well-known and respected a character is in L5R) found that one of the easiest ways to gain Glory was to create great works of art. He also found out that, by gifting such a work to a superior, the Glory gain was multiplied. Since his character had ended up having an obscene score for Narration due to random events, he could essentially earn more Glory by writing a haiku for a Daimyo than an average warrior gains by winning a battle. This led to him insisting on visiting the lords of every city we went to, handing out literary masterpieces like loving church flyers as he went. Very soon he had more Glory than the actual Shogun. Unfortunately the game ended shortly after that, but it would have been fun to see the little guy write his way to the Imperial Court. To be fair to that guy, "wandering poet presents his work to the lords of the land he meets" seems like a perfectly legitimate premise to a folk tale to me.
|
|
#
?
Mar 17, 2014 20:06
|
|
|
Yawgmoth posted:I want to at least give him the benefit of the doubt and see if he can be helped. Does anyone have that video of the guy talking about how success and failure both need to be interesting and if they aren't then dice shouldn't be involved? The guy used lock picking as an example and it was fantastic, but I seem to have lost the link.
|
|
#
?
Mar 17, 2014 23:22
|
|
|
Its not a good sign when your DM reads John Wicks "Play Dirty" like it is the Bible, is it?
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 01:58
|
|
|
Asehujiko posted:To be fair to that guy, "wandering poet presents his work to the lords of the land he meets" seems like a perfectly legitimate premise to a folk tale to me. Oh, yeah, it's definitely a neat concept for a story and a character arc. I could very easily see people talking about the emperor who rose to power by traveling the lands and chronicling everything through magnificent poetry. Every lord he graced with a masterpiece would view him favorably, people would see him as wise, etc. It really is a fantastic way to seize power, especially when contrasted against the standard murderhoboing your way to power in most games.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 02:47
|
|
|
sansuki posted:Its not a good sign when your DM reads John Wicks "Play Dirty" like it is the Bible, is it? No. No it is not.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 02:53
|
|
|
Okay, I think I've posted bad stories so far, so thankfully Saturday's Con provided me with a good story. Incoming walls of text about a stupid idea that led to some great fun gaming. So I've been doing a regular thing for Cons over the last few years where I run a Spontaneous Game. With the players I create characters and run an entire setting, including rules, made up completely on the spot, and run a complete story within three hours. Feedback is always good, and it's nice to see some of the players who've been used to having to spend a week on graph paper and calculating Challenge Ratings see that it's possible to have RPG fun without any kind of rulebook or defined setting. Once they get their head around it, people dive in and really have fun with it, and I know there are some people who find it really freeing. The gimmick I usually use is to get every player at the table to write a genre or a setting or an idea each on two pieces of paper which then all get thrown into a box. I then pull out two random ones and then we discuss and build the setting and game idea from the, hopefully, contrasting elements. Previous pulls have yielded such fun as "Noir" and "Giant Monsters" leading to a tense game tracking the trafficking in kaiju eggs (before Pacific Rim came out so missing awesome inspiration from Ron Perlman's character); "Ancient Rome" and "The Love Boat" which gave us the hijinks of a pleasure galley cruising up and down the Mediterranean; and "A Convention" and "Revolutionary France" where in an alternate history Robespierre had authorised a World's Fair to try and legitimise the new France and aristos attempted to find foreign contacts in order to flee while pursued by agents of the Committee of Public Safety. This time around, after a veto for drawing basically the same thing twice, we got "1950s Space Opera (Flash Gordon)" and "I Can't Control My Powers". After some discussion trying to find a good solid hook into the concepts, and working out how to do both the old 1930s serials with a slight 50s aesthetic, we eventually came up with a setting that I'm seriously thinking of expanding into an actual game. In the near future, humanity somehow discovers a cache of alien technology. Except this alien technology is kind of stupid. Everything is ray guns with antennae and ridiculous looking rocketships with a fuse to light that wobble unconvincingly. Even disassembling them reveals that they're almost the equivalent of toys, or are made of cardboard. Yet they actually work. The badly painted foil helmets actually do keep people alive in the vacuum of space. The rocketships are actually capable of interstellar travel. The ray guns are actually dangerous and more effective than contemporary firearms. So humanity collectively shrugs its shoulders and embraces the oddness in order to conquer the stars. Then, of course, after some time the outer colonies are under attack and being bombarded by awful-looking flying saucers that look like they're suspended by string. Green humanoids wearing loincloths and foil bandoliers with ridiculous head-dresses claiming to be the Zygonian Empire demand that humanity surrender. So a confusing war commences with humanity both fighting aliens who seem to have no problem with the ludicrousness of the situation, and constantly wondering why everyone keeps ending up acting like 1930s radio serial heroes. It was great to see everyone really get into it and start playing around with the pulpy setting. Our first character out of the gate was the "Russian" scientist whose accent kept slipping but was the only one who knew how the technology worked. Except he could only explain that technology in other nonsensical terms. Dr Stanislavsky would rush into a situation and yell, "No, you fools! Put more Jacob's Ladders in this room!" and have that somehow be completely right. The next character started off with the concept of "MIB in a tinfoil hat". Which then quickly became "MIB in a psychic helmet". Thus was born stoic and by-the-books Agent Hat, who wielded the fearsome Magnetron 3000, an unconvincing prop with valves, dials and lights on it. By securing the chinstrap and gripping the handles he could focus its power to read others' minds, giving him a grainy black and white TV picture of their thoughts. Of course, it would only work if Agent Hat provided the necessary "WOM WOM WOM WOM WOM" noises. The player provided an absolutely hilarious drawing of the character, and included everyone else's suggestions for what to stick on the helmet. Our third player wanted to play a robot, but we weren't sure how that manifested in the setting. After a couple of false stars we hit on the obvious answer. Captain Robo is actually an actor in a bad cardboard and foil suit. But as long as he keeps making the robotic noises when he moves, speaks in appropriate robot-talk and, most importantly, no one acknowledges he's just a guy in a suit, then the outfit gives him super strength, power, scanning abilities and anything else a robot should have. The last player didn't really understand the genre we were going for, which was something I'd stupidly forgot to check this time before we started mapping out the idea, so we tried to give him another genre to latch on to that might not be too out of place. He ended up going with the intrepid 40s news reporter guy, and when asked decisively gave his name as Speedy McNewsboy. I imagined that he had been some sort of precocious 15 year old paperboy who'd grown up and worked his way up the ranks to become the star reporter, but it turned out a bit later that Speedy was actually 15 years old. It was the player's first con, I think, and so he was a little bit quiet, but he mainly played the role of straight man, the one who ended up pointing out a lot of the ridiculousness. We start off with brief prologues. Speedy gets called in by his ball-bustin' editor and promises to get him a great scoop. Captain Robo is "activated" and his handler sighs as he gives Captain Robo his orders by feeding a punch card into a cardboard slot on his chest (then quickly leaning forward and whispering the orders before leaning back and confirming out loud that the orders have been processed). Agent Hat is given his orders to assemble a team to help interrogate the first Zygonian prisoner they've ever captured, on the planet Neptunia VII. He then calls Dr Stanislavsky at his lab, who is performing his energy experiments with a microscope while yelling at his confused assistant to pass him the electrolotron. They then all assemble at the Roswell launch facility. There were some hilarious moments with everyone meeting up and playing off their ridiculous genre tropes. Agent Hat decides he's going to unveil America's Secret Weapon, Captain Robo, to the other two and so presents each of them with a dossier that they must read and agree to before they're able to continue. The visual gag is that sheet of paper just has one line on it that reads, "He is a robot. Ignore the man in the suit." As Speedy and Dr Stanislavsky finish reading they look up in time for the lift doors to open and the vastly underwhelming Captain Robo to "vvvt, vvvt, vvvt, vvvt" in. Dr Stanislavsky asks sincerely, "What man?" They board the Mark IV Starship, a bright orange classic rocket with fins and the ground crew light the fuse and run for cover. There's a mighty roar as the engines ignite and a shower of sparks erupts from below. A blue blur goes past the portholes and then they're in the velvet-backdrop-specked-with-white-dots of "space". A brief aside made me realise that I'd worked out how interstellar travel works in this setting. The velvet backdrop being wound past on spools is a kind of sub-space that the technology can access and allows much faster travel between planets, and also presumably includes some kind of gravity and atmosphere so that rocketship engines can have sparks falling and smoke going up. Agent Hat holds a briefing session in an appropriately smokey room only lit by the flickering of a slide projector. (Captain Robo's player had him enter the room and start coughing, only then to very quickly recover by going, "...Er... FILTRATION SYSTEM MALFUNCTION!") Agent Hat's brilliant player then uses the briefing session to invent a whole slew of details for the setting (naming the Zygonian Empire, giving us some timeline, inventing all the details about what Neptunia VII was like), and then giving everyone the orders that they're to accompany him to interrogate a prisoner. Before the floor is opened up to questions, the entire ships rocks from an explosion! Everyone begins running from side to side as the wonky set wobbles from the detonations. A speaking tube comes to life, and the pilot informs them that they're under attack from Zygonian Saucer Ships! The doctor runs for the cockpit, Captain Robo begins loudly telling everyone he's scanning for damage, Agent Hat is positive there must be danger in the cargo hold (there's always danger in the cargo hold) and goes to investigate, and Speedy looks out of the window to see the two foil-covered saucers in the distance firing sparks from cardboard tubes at the Mark IV! Tune in next post for the exciting continuation!
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 03:34
|
|
|
When we last left our heroes, they were under attack from Zygonian Saucers! Captain Robo decides that there's damage to the engines and vvvt vvvt vvvts his way down. Dr Stanislavsky bursts into the cockpit and demands to know where the weapons are. Agent Hat enters the cargo hold and discovers a green-skinned stowaway. And Speedy decides he's going to take a photo of his bum, put it in an escape pod and fire it at the Zygonians. At this point I should mention a couple of things. The system that I'd invented on the spot had each character have one thing they do not do well. I encouraged everyone to go for the tropes. Captain Robo's was, of course, not understanding love. Dr Stanislavsky's was anything to do with concentration. Speedy's was, brilliantly, "I'm always bad at: Avoiding Capture." So, with the announcement of his bum photo plan, we decided to up the stakes and bring in his weakness as he accidentally toppled into the escape pod and fired himself at the enemy saucers. Dr Stanislavsky mans the controls for the Atomic Electro-Blaster Ray and his player explains he's going to calibrate it. I ask him if it requires concentration to calibrate. He laughs and agrees, deciding that in the middle of getting the Ray (which is obviously the antenna sticking out of the top of the rocket) powered up, Dr Stanislavsky has a brilliant thought about how to make it more powerful and begins absent-mindedly jotting down ideas on the wooden console top. As Captain Robo plugs himself into the engine and announces badly, "POWER ACTIVATING! REPAIRING DAMAGE!" the sudden surge of energy wheels the Mark IV into the perfect firing position, just in time for both the pilot and the doctor to look up and notice the escape pod hurtling toward the saucers. Speedy meanwhile bounces around inside until the escape pod finally comes to a halt. He then hears, obviously in English, an over-the-top voice saying, "Come out, Earthman! We have you surrounded!" Cautiously opening the hatch he discovers himself in a hangar with a whole bunch of green-painted muscle men, stripped to the waist, wearing loincloths and with foil bandoliers and stupid conical helmets with rings on them pointing community-theatre-prop spears at him. Speedy's player wasn't quite sure what to do in the situation, so I threw him a bone by then having a vampy woman in heels, a veil, a beehive, and a long shiny cape appear and loudly declaim, "Ha! We have captured you now, Earthman! We will hold you as prisoner until they release our Princess! Activate the telecommunicator!" By this time everyone was of course in the cockpit as the screen flickered to life and a grainy image of the woman appeared. I had a bit of fun doing some very campy, pulpy posturing, had a bit of back and forth where they swore revenge and worried about Speedy, and I also got to use the "End Transmission!" crossed-arms move from Plan 9. I forgot that the doctor's player had told us he would have to leave early, and he announced this at this point. A quick discussion was had, and we decided that the doctor fired the Ray, destroying one of the saucers, but then revealed he'd been hit by a piece of cardboard shrapnel in the chest from one of the earlier salvos. Agent Hat rushed to his side, gripping his hands and begging him not to talk. There was an incredibly touching death scene, with the doctor admitting he wasn't Russian but was actually from Nebraska, and also saying that Speedy should press the button before expiring. Agent Hat stood up, his player mentioning his arms covered in ketchup, and then saluting. Meanwhile, Speedy found himself on a divan in a room decorated with exotic velours and more muscular men wearing only loincloths and stupid helmets. An iguana spray-painted pink with extra spikes and limbs glued on sat on a perch nearby. The woman entered, in a completely different but similarly camp outfit, carrying two goblets painted with gold paint, and a fluted jug. We had a lot of fun playing around with the trope, the woman all breathy and saying, "Tell me of your home planet, Earthman," and Speedy trying to work out how to get away. He eventually started talking about how great Earth bubblegum was and said he could bring some from his escape pod. I had to let him get away with it, so the new-named General Turquoise clapped her hands and sent him with a guard to retrieve it. We switched back to the cockpit of the Mark IV in time for Captain Robo to loudly announce, "MUST RESCUE SPEEDY" and open the door on the side of the ship. Luckily Agent Hat was wearing space goggles, so only the pilot had to hold her breath as soon as the door opened. In true action fashion, Captain Robo then launched himself at the Zygonian saucer, flying across the intervening "space" as a tiny model. In the corridor, Speedy quickly used his athletics skill to grab a beam and spin over it to kick the guard in the back before running for the escape pod. Of course, the Captain of the Guard yelled, "Fools! Sieze the Earthman!" as Speedy scrambled to get inside. Just as the Zygonian guards charged the pod, Captain Robo appeared. "A Metal Man!" the guards gasped as Captain Robo advanced on them with terrifying vvvt vvvt vvvt noises. They threw their spears at him which of course I had bounce off his cardboard chest. "He is impervious to our weapons! Retreat!" they cried. General Turquoise then appeared with her hand on her heart calling out, "Take me with you, Speedy Earthman!" I'm not sure if I'm capturing everyone laughing loudly and giggling before delivering any kind of line throughout all of this, but the high camp was just really fun. Speedy's player now decided that he pulled a wad of thick pink gummy stuff with a button on it from somewhere inside the escape pod, pushed the button the doctor had told him to and tossed it at them saying, "It'd never work between us, General!" As the Captain of the Guard caught it, the two piled into the escape pod and General Turquoise said, "Is this Earth bubbleg-" before the entire saucer exploded in typical firecracker-on-a-string fashion. The rest of the game wasn't as over-the-top fun as it was basically me tying up the plot elements and the initial suggestions into a coherent whole, but I'm happy to write it up if people were interested. But it was a drat fun game just goofing off with some great players, and was pretty good for something that was just made up on the spot. And I really want to make this into a full setting. Any ideas for a name are warmly welcomed.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 03:34
|
|
|
I'd love to hear the end of it. Also, names. Hmm. Gernsback's Gift (revenge?) Foilpunk (no) The Gods Must Be Lazy
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 03:50
|
|
|
Corman Quest.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 03:51
|
|
|
Flash Gordon: The Movie: The Game
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 04:34
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 21, 2024 13:40 |
|
|
I hate to come back to it, but did anyone ever post a link to that Halo RPG? I'd really like to take a look at it, and my attempts at googling came up with a bunch of systems, but none similar to what was described.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2014 04:36
|
|