Monathin posted:

Submitted for Smasher’s Approval/Happiness, Last Minute Entry: Designer notes from the Super-League RPG

Some time back. I want to say… SL14? 15? An idea was thrown around about the logistics and ideas for a Super-League RPG. I know I said I’d actually make this, but it turns out making a video game is actually very hard when trying to hunt for work and struggling with being in and out (mostly out) of college! So instead, I cleaned up my design notes in terms of plot, characters, and notable events, to be submitted for the committee.

The Plot

This world is a place very different from our own. While it appears to be a setting that is, at best, based in a slightly anachronistic medieval europe, it seems this fantasy land has instead subscribed to the means and methods of the greatest tome of knowledge in the land: the Based Ballartius. It is within this tome that all historical knowledge of the land’s legendary techniques and skills has been passed down from the Great Ones - Theodore Williamson, Peter of Alexandria, George Herman the Ruthless, Denton Everyoung. They passed down the honorable way of the Swing, and the makings of the Sorcerous Arts of the Pitch.

For many years, this tome has been lost. The knowledge passed on, but imperfect in its execution, as the greatest empire known to the land fell one thousand years ago, and since then, the country has been plunged into darkness and despair, fighting over the ruins of once-great civilizations.

To that end, it is not uncommon for wandering bands of practitioners of the Pitch and Swing travelling together in order to settle a Home Field to call their own. The opening act follows one such company - lead by the righteous Saint, Mark Bellhorn, and stumbling on an ancient tomb. Examining it, they are surprised to find it dedicated to an old king of the land - the very same Smasher the Dynamo that mysteriously disappeared, one thousand years ago - and led to the fall of the empire of Machonia, and the loss of the Book of Based Ballartius, believed last held by The Dynamo himself.

It’s soon realized that the Dynamo’s memories of the fall of his empire are muddled, hazy, and unclear - consigned to a nameless tomb, indignant over how much the world has changed - and how much knowledge it has lost - he tasks St. Bellhorn’s company to help him find the ruins of the fallen capital of Machonia, and from there, find the Book of Based Ballartius, reclaiming his empire - for the Dynamo’s Spirit cannot rest until Machonia reigns once more - or a suitable successor to the Machonian Company Of Warriors is found.

But escorting a thousand-year-old thought-dead king has its cons. Notably in that many notice, for good or for ill, that they are seeking the lost ruins of Machonia and the book, and wish to pursue them - either having the Dynamo take them to the book themseelves, or simply scavenging it for its wondrous treasure. It is this story that the Company of St. Bellhorn is thrust into, and the one in which they must survive. For the road is perilous and harsh - but the gold, and the chance of a new civilization wait at the end of the long tunnel..


The Characters

Combat would be a generous affair, balancing a large company with fielding requirements in a sort of hybrid RPG. Actual combat plays out with members of the party - no less than 3, and no more than 6 - fighting against other baseball players. Characters are typically divided into two different ‘main’ subdivisions - ‘Pitchers’ and ‘Hitters’. Pitchers use their Pitching Arts in order to deliver magical attacks, and Hitters use their Hitting abilities to deliver a beatdown on the opponent. Several players can be assigned as either ‘Frontline’ ‘Midline’ or ‘Backline’, changing their defense and how often they get hit. Backliners will (with some exceptions of pitching arts) never get hit so long as there’s a Frontline in the battle, and Frontliners trade some defense for extra attack and get attacked more often than Midliners. Here’s a sampling of the party members you’d get over the course of the journey.


St. Marcus ‘Mark’ Bellhorn
Designation: Hitter
Position: Frontline Only
Health: Medium-High
Speed: Low
Eye: Midrange
Defense: High
Power: Midrange
Growth: Low
Special Techniques: Rallying

Mark Bellhorn is the leader of the Company, and he shows it - if brought into battle, he will only fight on the frontlines, leading the charge. He hits well enough, but is much better at taking blows for others, and picking up where the others falter. He is a just and honorable man, trying to lead his company not just to survive, but to thrive. Bellhorn has a noted strength for the party in his Rallying techniques, which can bolster the other members and even heal them, in a pinch. Bellhorn falls off in the midgame - especially in his Rallying techs, which are rarely useful after the second act starts to get in gear, but he remains the leader of the party through dialogue, and a master of defensive techniques throughout.

Adam Dunn
Designation: Hitter
Position: Frontline, Midline
Health: High
Speed: Low
Eye: Medium-Low
Defense: Medium-Low
Power: High
Growth: Medium-Low
Special Techniques: TTO

Adam Dunn is the crass, good-hearted, bull-headed second of the Company. He is Bellhorn’s foil in many ways. Whereas Bellhorn is wise and patient, Dunn wants to cut to the chase - often causing more misfortune for the party in the process. Though him and Bellhorn rarely see eye-to-eye, they are brothers in battle and out. Dunn’s strength lies in his brute force, and is easily the one dealing most of the damage through the early and even middle parts of the game. However, his drawbacks are that he is often much slower than even some of the more formidable early-game enemies, he does not have Bellhorn’s high defense to back up his health pool, and his accuracy waves without a steady supply of buffs from Yoshida and the Saint. His special skill is ‘TTO’, which is effectively a Critical Attack roulette. Either delivering a weaker-than-average but accurate hit, a powerful, wildly inaccurate strike, or a complete miss, based largely on RNG.

Eri Yoshida
Designation: Pitcher
Position: Backline
Health: Low
Defense: Low
Power: Medium-Low
Control: High
Movement: High
Speed: Midrange
Growth: High
Special Techniques: Knuckler Arts

Eri Yoshida is the youngest of the Company, and a practitioner of the Sorcerous Pitching Arts, with a catch - as a study in the Knuckler Arts, Yoshida is often derided, as other Pitchers often consider Knuckle-Style a wild and impossible-to-control style of Pitching Sorcery. Nonetheless, it’s Yoshida’s spirit and contagious enthusiasm that often carries the energy of the party through the story. Yoshida does not have the health of Dunn or the Defense of the Saint, but, as a Pitcher-Sorcerer, she has special techniques that make battles easier on them both, in her ‘Knuckler Arts’, which range from a various amount of effects, from a multi-hitting strike to debuffing her enemies with Knuckler Pitches and buffing her allies in the same respect from it. Reflecting her age in the story, Yoshida’s growth is the highest of all the starting members, and is most powerful in the midgame when ‘Chou-dai Knuckle’ becomes available, which saps the enemy of a wide range of buffs that can be used to soup up one of your other Batters.



There was extensive notes on several other characters. Jack McDowell, a more offensively-minded Pitcher. The Machine, a speedster with all-around good stats, picked up in a sidequest in which Historian Beeticus has us recover the remains of his Old Home Turf, and Mark Grace, who rounds out the beatstick balance trifecta of Bellhorn and Dunn. Even some ideas for special battles involving Company Coach-King Dynamo, giving orders and buffs to the team, but needing to be protected so long as he was doing so.

Unfortunately, a number of my notes have been lost to the ages and a computer swap or two, and this game is on the backburner, and the idea would need further iteration before it saw play. But, hey. A pretty solid foundation, if I say so myself.

Smasher Dynamo posted:

Super-League XIX, Week 13 Injury Report

Notice!

Heralds from faraway lands bring news of a resurgence of the Great Plague of Monicro that threatens to drive the Super-League's population of Eddie Collins into extinction.

Kobe Crows
Eddie Collins (2B) (PLAGUE!) - Out for Season

World Warriors
Eddie Collins (2B) (PLAGUE!) - 30 days

Smasher Dynamo posted:

Pick 'em: The Sweeter Science

UNIFICATION MATCH! FIVE TITLES ON THE LINE!
Marmosets unify vs. both retain vs. @ Zephyrs unify

Intercontinental Championship
South Shore Gumshoes @ Rochester Generics (c)

Television Championship
Glastonbury Knights @ Rockford Losers (c)

HulkaMatt posted:

Oh god PD everyday

Say it ain't so

DannoMack posted:

mentholmoose this is essentially just a copy paste of what you had in your sheet. The only change I made was moving one guy down in the lineup to get the Ruths at 3 & 4 in both, but if you think that's the wrong move we can fix it.

Keith Wuncler CXXXIV posted:

"No decision craigk has ever made mid-season should worry other owners." —Some Fool

The Dinger Gap was the belief that there existed in the Sub-Par VII a short fall in the American production of dingers, as part of the US-Mexico warm war that had been in effect since Sub-Par V. This was officially met with skepticism on the part of the United States government, which pointed to the existence of such clubs as the Commission and Kernels as a sufficient dinger deterrent.

However while the outward stance was positive and dismissive of any such theoretical gap in dingers, it was understood that the balance of power required the advancement of the state of the art to avoid falling behind in the dinger race. Unofficially, this lead to the sanctioning and formation of certain top-secret research groups, such as the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, DARPA and the Black Mesa-based Aperture Scientists. It is this last group that was tasked with the goal of adding to the stockpile of dingers in the US arsenal, under contract with the US Strategic Dinger Command (SDC).

The general direction taken by the Scientists was first met with overwhelming disapproval, with arms-control activists warning such an upset in the balance of power would lead to a spiral, ending in a dinger conflagration with a massive Mexican retaliatory strike. Facing broad resistance, project head CraigK scaled back plans that would not violate DART II (Dinger Arms Reduction Treaty), and submitted a two-step plan that would raise dinger production in ways that would not unsettle the geopolitical calculus in effect at the time, offering as a first step a modest pulling in of the Aperture Stadium walls before the more radical and highly controversial stage of launching the stadium into the stratosphere. This stage was completed in time for the Mexicutioners series at home to begin on Sub-Par VII, June 20th, a start which has been considered suspicious in its timing^{[citation needed]}.

Dinger test Papa Uniform Castle Kilo (PUCK) was conducted on June 22, the third game of a four game series. This was a crucial juncture as the balance of the series rested on the outcome of this game. Initial reports showed no dingers from either side, though a 3-0 lead based on a barrage of singles and doubles gave credence among analysts that the project was a "fizzle," a premature detonation that did not reach sufficient critical mass of power hitting to feed a self-sustaining dinger reaction. After this initial outburst, levels were quiescent for several innings.

It was in the 8th that readings started spiking. Sensors had detected an enormous pulse of offense which loaded the bases. At this point Craig Biggio, not known for hitting with any sort of power, hit a grand slam, triggering dinger sensors around the globe. The Mexican-US red phone was used only for the second time since its installation now, with Mexican president Enrique Peña calling President Barack Obama directly to discuss the sudden escalation. While the contents of this conversation are sealed and are not to be released no earlier than 2075, aides have anonymously leaked a few quotes, among which is "you control that fucker craigk or you'll see the world burn." Official press releases from the White House at the time downplayed this event.

The seismic nature of a park that allows a mediocre hitter like Biggio to hit dingers was merely the strongest of the detected outbursts. Later in the same inning Richie Ashburn dropped a three-run bomb, his first of the season, which was conclusive evidence that the project was an unqualified success. There was no question now that the Scientists had accomplished something anti-dinger activists had considered unthinkable; turn the team in dinger hitters. Or hitters of any sort, for that matter. This transformation would have profound ramifications for the warm war.

After PUCK was concluded, world opinion split along predictable lines; close US ally the United Kingdom was enthusiastic about this development, with spokesman Gingemidget noting that the two UK-based clubs had long embraced dingers in a modest way and so would fall under the American dinger umbrella. Germany, via the outspoken owner TheMcD, condemned the new initiative, stating that the addition of some many dingers was destabilizing to the world order. Mexico and its allies, having been denied dingers in the same game, was uncharacteristically muted in their response, with multiple requests for comment returned only with a promise to update after "preliminary investigations" were completed. Seemingly despite placement in a dinger friendly environment the Mexicutioners should have responded in kind; after the fall of the rabidsquid cartel new documents showed a party purge that revealed an internal house-cleaning which would not been allowed to the public uncensored.

Combined with the earlier tests with the SPACEFISH elite counterterrorism team, the details of which remain redacted, it was judged the efforts of Aperture to narrow the gap had succeeded. Further testing would continue.

FOOTNOTES:

- Babe Ruth also hit a dinger, but this was determined to be part of the natural background dinger rate so was ignored for the purposes of the test.

- A side test of the Second-base Defense Initiative (SDI) showed that Billy Herman was faulty and could not intercept all intermediate-ranged batted balls.

- Addie Joss, as an anti-dinger pitcher was taken down and retooled. This being Mexico, it is imagined it was done violently.

- Hoyt Wilhem was a party favorite who had no business on the mound and paid accordingly. That he wasn't immediately purged was shown as evidence of canny political maneuvering.

- At this new rate of winning, the Scientists are projected to improve to 82-80 on the season. So, uh, good job on returning to mediocrity.

Frank Gaiman posted:

WHAT CAN CHANGE THE NATURE OF A TEAM

From the diary of the owner of the Omaha Forgettables

I've still got a nasty damned headache. I woke up on this slab a couple months ago with no idea who I was or why I was here. And damned if my back didn't hurt a lot.

"Chief. Hey chief," came a voice from my left. Slowly, I turned my head.

A weird toothy barbarian was watching me. It was really unnerving.



"Who are you?" I asked.

"Ah, jeez, Chief," he said. "You don't know Pete? I'm your oldest pal. Loaned you money when you got into some bad debts. Guess folks came collecting anyway. You said if ever you disappeared that I could meet you here. So here I am, your loyal friend."

"I owed someone money?"

He nodded. "Yeah. At least, that's what I make of it. You never were much for words. Or for memories, really. Used to say you'd forgotten more than I'd ever know. I guess that's why you kept that big lineup card."

"I have a lineup card? Where is it."

Pete shrugged. "Beats me. Wasn't with you when you was brought in, Chief. Course, you yourself seem to be a lineup card of sorts."

"What do you mean?"

"Whoever put you here worked you over pretty good, that's for sure," he said. "But they're not the ones who wrote a damned novel on your back."

"Wait, I've got stuff written all over my back? Is that why I hurt so much? What does it say?"

Pete crept closer. "I know you feel you've been drinking a few kegs of Natty Ice, but you need to CENTER FIELD yourself. Among your possessions is a lineup card that'll shed some light on the dark of the matter. McFreeze can fill yoou in on the rest of the chant, if he's not Machoed already."

None of it made any sense to me. "Anything else?"

"Don't lose the lineup card or we'll be stuck in the Subpar forever. And whatever you do, DO NOT tell anyone WHO you are or WHAT happened to you, or they'll put you on quick pilgramage to relegation. Do what I tell you: READ the lineup card, then FIND McFreeze."

"Who's McFreeze?"

Pete shrugged. "Guess we'll have to find out."

"Anything else on my back?"

Pete shook his head. "Nope! That's it. Nothing else at all."

Two months later, and I still haven't found out that much. I've been all over this baseball wasteland, collecting random players. Ark'Von, whose prowess with the bat and fielding wizardry made him a force to be reckoned with. A bunch of other guys, too. All anyone could tell me was that if I kept winning games, I'd find answers. Lose them and I'd end up relegated. So I tried to win. But I felt like I was treading water.

Until one day, I came across a dark wizard. "Marauder," he called himself. I still don't know if it was actually Marauder or someone just pretending to the mantle of that legend. Marauder's supposed to be dead. But yet there I stood in front of him, and he asked me just this:

"What can change the nature of a team?"

I was prepared. "Dingers. Dingers can change the nature of a team. Nothing changes the fortune of a game like a home run."

"That so?" replied the one who called himself Marauder. "Then take this and go. You have learned nothing."

And suddenly I found myself commanding a Barry Bonds. If the so-called "Marauder" had been upset with me, it wasn't evident by the performance of Bonds. All he did was hit extra base hits. Today he hit two more. So did Pete, even. We romped over some other unfortunate soul in this league.

Now we find ourselves just a game back in the standings. If I could just take first place, I'll bet I'd get some answers.

But instead, there are only more questions. Bonds came up to me after the game.

"Hey boss," he said. "Was just curious. Why do you have that line on your back?"

"What line?" I asked. "It's just a bunch of nonsense about not losing the lineup card and to find the mysterious McFreeze."

"No, I mean the line that says:

Don't trust Pete Rose."

GAME NOTES

- Inky, where are you? Your team is going to die if you don't intervene (and possibly if you do intervene.)

- The whole Planescape idea might've been better had I started the season with it. Oh well.

The Commander posted:

BABY WADDELL FAILS TO MURDER MINES... FOR NOW

Over twenty-plus seasons of play, there are certain truths that one accepts when it comes to Super-League team building. The first is that regardless of what you do, you are completely and utterly hosed. The second, is that if there is a Speaker, Williams or Ruth available, you draft them or trade the pick for an obscene price that only mentholmoose can afford. The third rule is that if you are picking #4, you should probably take a Rube Waddell, as Ruth/Williams/Speaker will go 1-3. After all, Waddell is perhaps the best of all worlds in the Super-League. He is a deadballer who can pitch for days at a time, yet also manages to rack up strikeouts at a pretty solid rate, regardless of era.

The third rule however, does not factor what a Baby Waddell can do. Now Rube Waddell was, to put it lightly, odd. His teammates were known to find him so strange ownership was forced to trade him in his prime, he would send his teammates off the field during exhibitions so he could strike out the side and allegedly lost track of how many women he married. All this on top of a predilection to walk off the mound at various points for no reason.

Now thankfully this didn’t affect his performance on the mound of the Super-League, as the black hole/time travel portal/Geas that compels players to enter the league had never before pulled Waddell from before the age of 25, an age at which he had presumably become less wild and weird.

This is to say that entering today's game, DivineCoffeeBinge was unsure what to expect from his prized acquisition. Sure, he was a Waddell, who by definition came well-regarded, but he was a rookie. And reports indicated that his odd behaviors led to him earning the nickname “orange crush” from his successful effort to destroy every single member of the super league's oldest underachiever after his trade from the Base Cloggers.

Now, in today’s game, Baby Waddell ended up being fairly successful initially, only allowing one run early and then stabilizing to keep the Flames at bay. That said his behavior was... concerning. After the third inning, he walked up to DivineCoffeeBinge and just started saying “Puppies!” After ascertaining that it was not “Bark in the park” day, and that Centralia was such a terrible place there was unlikely to be one soon, DCB was even more confused.

“Yes, Rube, puppies are great. If you go out there then we’ll find you one I guess?”.

“Puppies?”

“Yes yes, go out to the mound now. It’s time for the fourth inning.”

Events like this continued throughout the game including a spontaneous marriage and divorce between innings 5 and 6 and an attempt to find a place to fish after the seventh.

Entering the bottom of the 8th, down 1-0 however, he seemed... distracted in a way that made DivineCoffeeBinge strangely uncomfortable. It was almost as if something in Waddell was choosing to act out. Thankfully he couldn’t do his trademarked “Clear the field to try and strike out the side” act, but there was something mischievous in his eyes, almost like he was preparing to go wild. Luckily, once he gave up a run to make it 2-0, a firetruck drove by the stadium. Nobody knows quite why a firetruck would drive to an area that has been on fire since 1962, but it may have saved the Flames as Waddell promptly chased it off the field, forcing DCB to go to his bullpen, which promptly ended the inning.

In the bottom of the 8th inning, the Mines rallied to take a 3-2 lead and then closed out the game. Good for them.

After the game, Waddell was unavailable for comment as he was apparently still chasing the mysterious firetruck all the way out of the state.

GAME NOTES

- During 2 rounds of the Gauntlet, Baby Waddell posted a 2-12 record with a 6+ ERA. This one seems slightly less murderous.

- Fun fact, the Centralia Mines are likely still alive because this Waddell poo poo the bed so hardcore that the Oranges weren’t able to make it to the #3 survival slot in the final round of the Gaunlet. Perhaps the conspiracy runs deeper than I realized.

Gabriel Pope posted:

TheMcD posted:

And here I was thinking that even I, who didn't even make a submission and is the #1 Thing Wrong With The Super-League Today, was more likely to win a pick than HulkaMatt, with my rationale being that giving him a pick probably makes the Burnt Doritos stronger, and I figured helping the Burnt Doritos win would have to be at least in the top three things Smasher wouldn't want to do.

Goes to show how little I know.