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Yeah, that's a good one. I was also reminded of this video, which is the same concept but as a youtube skit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JlwsM044kA
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Mar 1, 2023 17:55
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ninjoatse.cx posted:I've never had a group that did not indulge in ultraviolent, juvenile, or ethically questionable escapades at least sometimes, and I've been GMing for 26 years. I don't mind general murderhobo antics. Lord knows I've been part of or run plenty of game groups that see fire as the cause of (and solution to) all of life's problems. The brothel trawling and uncomfortable sex stuff/jokes is a bit beyond what I'd want in a game of adults, and it caught me guard probably because it clashed with the vibe the fanbase gives off. I assume that stuff must taper off at some point... or people have built up a barrier of cognitive dissonance so dense and massive it puts the Wall of the Faithless to shame. Surprising to me either way. Nuns with Guns fucked around with this message at 19:30 on Mar 1, 2023 |
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Mar 1, 2023 18:17
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I saw one episode of the Critical Role anime, and it's just this, but they try to pull off that tonal shift in about five minutes.
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Mar 1, 2023 18:28
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What are your favorite card games (preferably involving a deck-building component) that are not about dudes punching? I understand why "my deck is my dudes and we fight" or "my deck is my gear and I fight" is such a common theme: Magic, L5R, Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn, Doomtown, Sentinels of the Multiverse, Hearthstone, Slay the Spire, etc. It's a simple theme so I get why it's used. But I grow weary of it. What are cool deckbuilding games where violence is a minor element (or one of only a few paths to victory)? Obviously, the gold standards are things like Netrunner, the Decipher Star Trek CCG and Arkham Horror. Though a game like Game of Thrones also has paths that don't involve killing people. I'm excited to get my copy of Pagan: Fate of the Roanoke. I'm aware of Millenium Blades which meets the criteria due to its meta-conceit nature. What else is there? If I want to play a card game (deckbuilder, TCG, whatever) where I don't have to physically punch people, what should I investigate? Note that I want the strategy of a TCG/Deckbuilder (though solo is great, too!), and not merely the presence of cards. Sushi Go is not the kind of game I'm looking for.
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Mar 1, 2023 19:13
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Hmmm. Dominion is still about struggle but not necessarily combat?
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Mar 1, 2023 19:25
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CitizenKeen posted:Note that I want the strategy of a TCG/Deckbuilder (though solo is great, too!), and not merely the presence of cards. Sushi Go is not the kind of game I'm looking for.
Really depends on what kind of game you want, or what other elements of board/card games you do and don't like.
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Mar 1, 2023 20:08
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Yeah, I'll second Concordia. It's not what you're asking for, but if you like that mechanic it's a very elegantly designed board game that uses hand-building as basically its whole shtick. Plus you learn a lot of cool random Roman proper nouns. Between expansions I've put at least 100 hours, possibly 200, into that game and just talking about it kind of makes me itching to pick it up again.
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Mar 1, 2023 20:38
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Yeah, I'm mostly looking for constructed deck games. I own Concordia. I'm not looking for a board game. I'm more thinking of playing my hand with a slew of cards, drawing from a big deck. If it's a pre-con deck (like Sentinels), that's fine. But I'm interested in something narrower than a board game. It's the feel of playing a deck that I'm thinking about. I also remembered the Sim City CCG. It doesn't have to be new, it can be from the glut of CCGs back in the late 90s, early 2000s.
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Mar 1, 2023 21:28
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CitizenKeen posted:What are cool deckbuilding games where violence is a minor element (or one of only a few paths to victory)? This question might be better served in the The Fringe/Dead CCGs Thread. You named all the ones I was going to say.
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Mar 1, 2023 21:39
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I guess I'll get nostalgic and pour one out for Mythos, the Cthulhu mythos CCG. You could construct your deck to fight with other players or be defensive (or just ignore other players, but that wasn't a great idea), but it was difficult to win solely through combat. The main way to win was by completing Story Cards, which had a little tale on them, with certain words in all caps. The all caps words matched the title of cards. If you had all the all caps cards in play and/or in your discard, you could play a Story Card, which would score you points and Sanity (HP). Score enough story points, and you win. My friends and I played the hell out of that game. So much fun. At one point, I think I had something like 10 different decks that I would bring to game night and use/let people play if they wanted something different.
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Mar 1, 2023 21:46
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Nuns with Guns posted:Thanks, I'll think about if I want to skip ahead. I suppose it can't be any worse than starting at the first arc where the characters were already established from game sessions that happened before they started streaming them. As mentioned, Campaign 1 is kind of rough (even without the other issues) since it's pretty much like coming into a 2nd season of a TV show blind. I initially bailed on it but eventually went back and rewatched it after Campaign 2 hooked me. It does get better once the dragonborn is kicked out and they start realizing that they have a show and not just a goofy home game, but Campaign 1 never really rises above traditional "murderhobos who have decided to save the world", even if it does have some funny and touching moments. Campaign 2 is better since you meet the characters fresh and can grow with them, but like any game it quickly goes off the rails when the party ignores some of the obvious plot hooks to go do their own thing. Which is great right up until the end when they have to be forcibly dragged back to the conclusion. The characters are better on the whole though, particularly since there is no Grog or Scanlan. Overall though I don't think they play particularly good D&D, but they're good VAs and can really sell their character interactions, so it's easy to get attached. Though I do skip through most of the combat when I'm not watching it live, because boy does it get frustrating.
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Mar 2, 2023 03:10
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Nuns with Guns posted:I've been trying out some early episodes of the Critical Role podcast to see what it's all about, and I have to say it's really not grabbing me. They do good character voices, what with being professional voice actors and all, but otherwise it's been completely pedestrian murderhobo and rules-laywering antics, with some vague sexual harassment at various intervals and an early digression into a "dwarven brothel" and all the remarks that entails. I'm only going to disagree slightly with everyone else. At the outset they had one bad player, and the group got more relaxed after IIRC Orin/Tiberius left. But in essence it's the best executed version of an average D&D campaign - and everyone can imagine their D&D game being that good if only they were a whole lot better (and if only they had a group). Everyone's a professional voice actor which means that the characters have professional quality voice acting; voice acting isn't something that feels like magic, it's something that every listener feels that they could do if only they were that good. Everyone's a fan of everyone else's character; people don't do that enough but they do do it and they feel the effect when it's done to them (and don't spot it); there's no actual magic there, just a group that fits (especially, as mentioned once Orin left). And Matt Mercer is your average neo-Trad 90s trained DM who does exactly what you'd expect from such a DM but does it really well; he's a fan of all the PCs and gives them time to shine, he puts in the work for worldbuilding and plotting, he's fond of the sound of his own voice - but it's a great and varied voice with all the NPCs being distinctive because professional voice actor. And he doesn't just put in work but has a team behind it. So the Critical Role table is a table that almost every listener can imagine themselves playing at if they've even played D&D once. It's like theirs or the one they remember from school but better. And the fantasy isn't the game but being one of the players in that game. And that the fantasy isn't the game itself but being a player in the game makes the parasocial relationship far far stronger.
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Mar 2, 2023 03:42
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3is0DUugTk
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Mar 2, 2023 04:13
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The comedy->pathos arc is what frequently stops me when listening to APs. Episodes 1-3: These people are hilarious! I love this show! Episode 10: Are they ever going to tell a joke? This is a 3-hour episode just dealing maturely with this character's insecurities? gently caress this, I'm out.
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Mar 2, 2023 16:22
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CitizenKeen posted:What are your favorite card games (preferably involving a deck-building component) that are not about dudes punching? Mystic Vale. You are a druid and you are building a grove. There is no conflict, you just want to get the most points at the end. That said, it's a different take on deckbuilding. You start with a deck of like 20 sleeved cards and instead of voiding cards or adding more cards to the deck, you pretty much always have 20 cards. Each of these cards has a top, middle, and lower section that can be blank, produce a mana (currency used to buy things) or have a spoil icon. Instead of buying new cards or voiding old cards, you buy advancements. These are clear plastic cards that you slide into the sleeve of your deck that have overlays for the top, middle, and/or bottom section. So for example, you buy a cool flower that produces 2 mana in the middle section. You can then slide that advancement into the sleeve of one of your cards that doesn't already have something in the middle section and the next time you play that card it will generate 2 mana in addition to any other effect on the card. The basic jist is that on your turn, you turn over cards from the top of your deck into a line until you've got 3 spoil symbols showing. At that point you can either stop or choose to push and flip over another card. If you get a 4th spoil you bust and waste your turn essentially. You can keep pushing as long as you like. Once you decide to stop, you total up all the bits on the cards (mana, victory points, elements, negative victory points, etc.) and then get those things and you can spend mana to buy new advancements and elements to buy groves and yada yada. I find it to be a lot of fun and unlike a lot of deckbuilders the game fuckin flies. By which I mean, once you pass your turn and the next guy is going, you actually then start your final phase which is flipping stuff back over until you've got 3 spoils showing again. That way, once it's your turn again, you're already at the main relevant decision point of your turn. So most people's turns are wrapped up in under a minute and you rarely have to deal with the level of faffing about you see in Dominion or Ascension for example. There's a digital version on steam and phones that's a pretty goods version and can be bought for relatively cheap if you want to try before you buy. If you do decide to buy, I would caution that I don't recommend any of the expansions. Some of the expansion add some real nonsense in terms of power creep and I find that the diluted card pool tends to make building an actual strategy nearly impossible. Failboattootoot fucked around with this message at 01:00 on Mar 3, 2023 |
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Mar 3, 2023 00:57
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Has anyone ever played a game of Root against experienced players as cats and won?
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Mar 3, 2023 01:15
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ninjoatse.cx posted:Has anyone ever played a game of Root against experienced players as cats and won? With or without vagabond/otters/lizards? In terms of base game, vagabond fucks everything up because there's no actual points incentive to spend your turns beating it down beyond "don't let the vagabond win," as opposed to fighting the other factions which do give points for beating them up. Otters have a similar problem and lizards have the opposite where they'll just be randomly unable to work towards points based on card stuff
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Mar 3, 2023 02:05
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In terms of base game. We usually have 4 players, and the only thing that seems to be a common thread is cat never wins.
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Mar 3, 2023 05:38
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The "advanced setup" rules give the cats a bit more of an early-game advantage. More freedom of where to put the keep and more cats on the board to start. I'm not sure how much it helps because I personally haven't played against experienced players, only newbies. But definitely start with at least that and let them go first.
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Mar 3, 2023 11:35
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Nuns with Guns posted:I don't mind general murderhobo antics. Lord knows I've been part of or run plenty of game groups that see fire as the cause of (and solution to) all of life's problems. It tapers off significantly, and pretty quickly as I recall. Sam's character continues to have problematic aspects to it for longer, though they do address it as well. My understanding is at the beginning they did more or less no prep for moving their long-running home game to be on camera, and then there was a lot of 'oh poo poo, people watch this huh?' adjustment to do.
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Mar 4, 2023 14:06
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https://www.gofundme.com/f/4wsmb4-help-vivka-get-her-life-back Vivka Grey has a gofundme going on to fund legal costs around being sued by Zak S. Please donate, if you can. She deserves better than the judgment she got and she doesn't deserve this debt.
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Mar 4, 2023 18:27
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My DnD 5th Ed group has been playing for a long time, and have tried some different systems (new Fallout game, WH40k wrath and blood game, etc) to keep things fresh. We usually like combat a lot (75% combat, 25% other elements) but moving to crunchier systems that no one is familiar with tends to bog down sessions a lot. What are some simpler rules light-er systems that still support a lot of combat? Ive heard of stuff like Fudge and Fate but not sure what else is out that that we could try for a few weeks.
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Mar 4, 2023 21:01
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Ceros_X posted:What are some simpler rules light-er systems that still support a lot of combat? Ive heard of stuff like Fudge and Fate but not sure what else is out that that we could try for a few weeks. Have you tried Savage Worlds Adventure Edition?
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Mar 4, 2023 21:40
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Having spent some time playing and GMing SW recently, I think it's crunchier and clunkier than 5e, tbh. I'd maybe suggest some OSR game? Try Worlds Without Number, it's free.
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Mar 4, 2023 21:50
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Crunch can come in a lot of forms so it's hard to really know exactly what's the best fit. Like I really like Strike for its combat but idk if that's actually "crunchy" because most of the complexity comes from decisions you make in combat rather than CharOp or just messing with overlapping systems which I know is what a lot of people enjoy.
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Mar 4, 2023 22:04
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Ceros_X posted:My DnD 5th Ed group has been playing for a long time, and have tried some different systems (new Fallout game, WH40k wrath and blood game, etc) to keep things fresh. We usually like combat a lot (75% combat, 25% other elements) but moving to crunchier systems that no one is familiar with tends to bog down sessions a lot. My two suggestions:
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Mar 4, 2023 22:23
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Ceros_X posted:My DnD 5th Ed group has been playing for a long time, and have tried some different systems (new Fallout game, WH40k wrath and blood game, etc) to keep things fresh. We usually like combat a lot (75% combat, 25% other elements) but moving to crunchier systems that no one is familiar with tends to bog down sessions a lot.
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Mar 5, 2023 17:47
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Are you still looking for a 90s-style game that is very "game-y" in its mechanics? Earthdawn is a fantasy-setting that is very fun to play for people who like game-y mechanics and lists of abilities that are unique to their characters. The rules are not complex but the dice rolls are just fun and memorable.
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Mar 5, 2023 18:50
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 I got turned on to the Kickstarter for Across a Thousand Dead Worlds a while ago. I was looking for a procedurally generated solo scifi experience. An almost-final draft pdf of the Core Rules just dropped (446 pages!) and I've been looking through it and I really like what I see. I knew there was scifi horror, but I didn't figure it would be like Roadside Picnic crossed with Dungeon Crawling in Space with Cthulhu-like Stress and Emotion rules and Vault-Tech-like dystopian corporate humor. I'm really excited for it's full release and to play it. It is a one to five player game. There are oodles of charts and tables to generate unknown alien bases to go exploring in. It also really focuses on the survival aspect of space flight in an alien craft to these strange alien ports and how much oxygen, food, medicine and tools you choose to bring with you. I'm sure a scenario of Alien or Dead Space could be run with these rules. Free preview PDF is here: https://blackoathgames.com/across-a-thousand-dead-worlds
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Mar 7, 2023 03:27
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I’m sorry, did you sayHelical Nightmares posted:Roadside Picnic 
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Mar 7, 2023 03:58
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I also backed that and I'm excited for it to finally come out. I'm honestly not someone who bothers with the PDF versions of things and I splurged for the hardcover of that.
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Mar 7, 2023 04:27
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It's glorious. I upgraded my printer to be able to print the Scout that I did back.
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Mar 7, 2023 04:42
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Across a Thousand Dead WorldsSubjunctive posted:I’m sorry, did you say Roadside Picnic? Yeah, yeah I did. Here is why. So, the central conceit is that human asteroid miners found a hollowed out asteroid with alien ships in it. Lots of them. Each alien ship can house one, three or five humans and they take their passengers to one of a series of ancient alien sites somewhere in the galaxy by warp speed. This travel takes weeks that may or may not extinguish all of your food/oxygen supplies. If you are going to a previously unknown alien site you don't know how long it is going to take. Also their could be time dilation problems given you are using totally mysterious alien warp tech. When the characters arrive at the alien site destination, it's like Roadside Picnic, except with more radiation and no Anomalies. It turns into a horrifying dungeon crawl (generated by random tables) where characters look for ancient alien scrap and artifacts while encountering still active alien security systems, terrifying slavering aberrants and/or biomechanical experiments. The point is you never know what you are going to get at one of these sites. I don't see why a particularly devious GM couldn't introduce physics bending Anomalies a la STALKER and pass them off as mysterious alien weirdness that none understands. Depends how deadly you want to make the expedition. Players need to manage their Stress and Emotional state or else they can go crazy and turn on their fellow explorers...or maybe that is the plan to be the last one with the Monty Haul of artifacts. Be careful who you take with you! When you get back to the space station of the megacorp that sponsors these expeditions, you rest and recuperate...and pay corpo taxes through the nose which motivates you to take the next expedition to make money/get out of debt. There is a little bit of the idea from Red Markets that characters (called Deep Divers in Across a Thousand Dead Worlds speak) are pushing themselves for Just One More Job. However unlike Red Markets, Across a Thousand Dead Worlds is not designed to be a grinding poverty simulator. But it would be easy to make it one if you wanted that kind of game. In the game world, Earth was turned into a massive landfill thanks to climate change and corporate greed. You all know the drill. Player characters usually have backgrounds in some terrifyingly grim down and out job like an Algae Farmer, Ocean Sweeper, Plastic Miner or Blue Collar Worker. It's not all grim and grime all the time though. You could start out as a Celebrity (a glorified blogger on Earth or Mars) or a Hedge Fund Kid (looking for excitement or a legitimate way to make a difference for humanity) if you wanted to (and want the stat bonuses for those backgrounds). Anyway, more about Across a Thousand Dead Worlds. I like how the alien creatures characters can encounter are handled. Creatures are classified into "Types", for example Guardian or Synthetic and they have a Role that determines their combat behavior and statistics. Roles are sort of a melding of actions and goals, for example Roles can be Brute, Lurker, Ranged, Swarm or Psychic. This creature classification reminds me of the Fantasy Flight Rogue Trader bestiary (Warhammer 40K) Koronus Bestiary which classified randomly generated aliens by the ecological niche the occupy (predator, herd beast, scavenger, swarm, etc). In fact I would use that book as a sourcebook for generating lesser aliens or xeno-hazards in the main alien sites. In terms of other books to use with Across a Thousand Dead Worlds, I would also break out Kevin Crawford's Stars Without Number supplement Dead Names for lots of additional tables for ancient alien ruins.
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Mar 7, 2023 20:24
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I'd be curious to hear more about the bestiary, because my one worry with a game like this is that it's 1000 variations of: "It's super intelligent and has strange, unknowable motivations. It attacks on sight, roll for initiative."
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Mar 7, 2023 20:33
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Helical Nightmares posted:Across a Thousand Dead Worlds One, you need to read Gateway by Frederik Pohl immediately. Secondly holy poo poo how did I not know someone was making a gateway dungeon crawler RPG holy poo poo holy poo poo holy poo poo holy poo poo how did I miss backing this
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Mar 7, 2023 20:42
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Gateway is fun, it was one of the first "serious" SF novels I picked up at random from a book fair many many years ago.
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Mar 7, 2023 20:51
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Halloween Jack posted:Gateway is fun, it was one of the first "serious" SF novels I picked up at random from a book fair many many years ago.
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Mar 8, 2023 02:39
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Like hey dog, Is there a Goon thread for the One Piece card game? I wanna learn it as I love the manga so dang much but I want goon fed input
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Mar 8, 2023 03:57
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 I want to do a campaign set during the Earth War era of Dark Horse comics for the Alien RPG. A crew of people who find out "one followed them home" after they evacuated Earth after the Xenomorphs took over. Plus, it works well to make a coherent campaign. They can find a colony. Cyberpunk there for a while before it also falls to a xeno and you got to go somewhere else for refudgee. Maybe that time there is no xeno to mix things up. You just cyberpunk bad and have to escape. It would be a great way to do a campaign. The premise ensures the Xenomorphs are know well enough, have a reason to pop up, and gives a reason for why the characters are struggling and space hopping. Edit: We were arrogant. All of us. We thought we had conquered nature. We truly believed our technology made us superior to it. We had tamed the Earth, explored the stars! We were gods! How arrogant we truly were... They're coming. It won't be long now. I never thought too long or hard about death before. But, as I look at this gun at the table, I feel embarrassed. Will I even use it right? I never did before. Would it better to be one of those who welcomed them. The ones susceptible to the Queen's touch. Those who willingly walk into the hives and praise the Xenos for impregnating them.* I hear them. They're at the door. I wonder... will I dream? --Last Words of Private Adell Orona, 14:34:00 GMT, from the fall of the London Base of Operations I think there is a great setting that a lot of Alien fans overlook: the Earth War. Before Alien 3 was written, there were a lot of open ideas of where to the go with the franchise. In novel and comic form, Dark Horse explored the idea of the Xenomorph finding its way to Earth and taking over the planet Earth. This era of storytelling was called The Earth War. Imagine using Free League's Alien RPG during this era in campaign play. You can be a crew who escaped the Earth, only to find the monsters followed them. They go to an asteroid base and get jobs working for the recently empancipated colony, now free from the control of the corps who once ran it. They work hard and get into trouble with crime and government, risking life and limb. And, as they get closer, they find out something is stalking the base. A xeno has made it aboard and the base gets overrrun. They escape to their ship only to find out one followed them home and they have to survive. After the survivors kill their stowaway, they try to stay safe taking mercenary jobs and never staying at one place for too long. But its hard living, deals get mad, they get screwed over a few times, and people try to kill them over petty business deals. And that's all before the one job that accidentally takes them to a base that was overrun days ago and no one knows. It would be super awesome and there are tons of little details you can gleam from comics. It makes sure there is a reason everyone knows the Xeno and that avoids the constant relearning that can sometimes be annoying with established properties. But it also makes it clear that things are desperate and gives a reason for why Xenos are everywhere. What do you all think? Covok fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Mar 8, 2023 |
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Mar 8, 2023 04:15
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I love the Alien comics, they took the series in a much better direction than the movie franchise did and came a lot closer to recapturing the horror element of the original film. My concern would be with longevity of the campaign. There is only so many times you can be hunted by the same creature before it starts to get a little repetitive. Did the earthwar arc have other types of xenomorphs in it besides the vanilla ones? Is it the one that introduced the red vs black aliens? I don't remember which canon is which.
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Mar 8, 2023 08:01
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