Greg Stolze (Unknown Armies, One Roll Engine) Appreciation Station

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clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Greg Stolze is indeed awesome. I love ORE because Wild Talents and Monsters and Other Childish Things both use it and Monsters is one of my favorite games ever, which is why I write books for it. I need to do a MAOCT thread soon.

Anyway, if you go to Gencon you can meet Greg. He hangs out at the Arc Dream booth usually. He's very easy to approach and talk to. Also, I've gotten to play with Greg during Gencon a few times and even ran a Call of Cthulhu game for him once. He was a great player because he made decisions based on FAILED occult checks.

Call of Cthulhu: Well of Sacrifices - Greg plays the native who encouraged the other players to go back into the cave with horrible giant bloodsucking bats after losing a PC.

U-Boote Herasus: CoC WW1 game run by Scott Glancy (Delta Green co-author). Greg was a player. Part 1 and Part 2

Dig to Victory: Another WW1 CoC game run by Scott Glancy. British tunnelers who find something nasty under the trenches.

And now some UA material:

Is Space Jam based on Mayan sacred text?

More UA Fodder: Unknown Armies Plots in a line on rpg.net

quote:

You know what humor is? It's magic. Dangerous magic. Laughter is used to banish evil from the world. But it's also addictive.

In old times, people were afraid of dragons and monsters. Then people started laughing at them, and they disappeared, and now even those old jokes are forgotten. Later, jesters wore colorful costumes and danced like faeries, and now the faeries are gone.

Now the creatures of myth are dead, transformed into long-forgotten jokes and stories, but we still want the laughter. We can't give up the power to turn something scary and dangerous into something funny.

So we laugh at the pain and disease and death of the world. And it seems to be working, a little bit. We don't live in a utopia, but people are more prosperous and healthy than ever before. People often reach 100 years of age.

But where does it stop? Listen to the comedians of today. They are getting us to laugh at ourselves. At relationships. At cars. At work. At the language. At the little bags of peanuts we get on airplanes.

At life.

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People who have been on ALL the rides at Disneyworld are now programmed to ritually murder their loved ones when they hear a certain song on the radio.
-

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We've all heard the conspiracy nuts claiming that the US government controls Al-Qaeda. The truth is, it's the other way round.

The only living witness to the French Revolution lives in Quintana, TX.

A famous alchemist's formula for transmuting lead into gold is identical to the original secret recipe used to produce Coca-Cola. The introduction of New Coke is believed to have caused a civil war between different factions of alchemists and magi.

The new series of Nokia cellphones have a faulty circuit that makes it possible to listen in on the secret secure phone lines used by the Pentagon.

Knives used in sacrifice rituals don't show up on any metal detectors. No one knows why.

If you keep one of those free AOL CDs within 10 feet of your computer, the government can register everything you do on the Internet.

There really is a wealthy ex-financial minister in Nigeria looking for help. He's getting really desperate now.
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All transportation systems have a "Wandering Jew/Flying Dutchman" type. On the subway system , it is a beggar that "enters" your wagon and starts a juggling act, balancing things and standing on his head, etc... He really never leaves the trains, he just appear on a different wagon every few minutes. Give him a coin and he will answer any question about anybody that ever used the subway.

How I know that? I know because I'm the "Wandering Jew" of airplanes. We all know the others, even if I can never leave the airplanes and airports... I have to catch a flight to Mombay, see you later and dont board the next flight to Caracas, its going to crash...
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-

The government is worried. Someone in Colorado is mailing out CDs with a demo program. It's bug-free, it's user friendly, and it will break any encryption in 12.4 seconds exactly. The crypto guys over at the NSA finally tried throwing completely random numbers at it. 12.4 seconds later, the program told them why they'd come up with those numbers. Sure, it only works eight times. But it says you can remove the limitation by buying the registered version.

Keep an eye out for the CDs. Each one is exactly 12 centimeters across, and 36.5 in circumference. God help you if you look at the reflections.

*********

Take a look at some of your old photos. Do you have one that's a street scene, maybe from a vacation? Look at it closely. See that guy in the background, in the dark suit? You have to look carefully the first time.

Now look at some other photos. See that figure in the background? Yup, same guy.

He's in the background of a lot of your pictures. Anything where there's a crowd. Always a crowd. He doesn't want to stand out. It's not just you. He's in everyone's pictures. He's stuck there, has been for a hundred and fifty years. Back in 1839 he stopped for a shoeshine, and Daguerre trapped him. He's been trying to find a way out ever since.

Try looking at the pictures again in a few years. He'll be a little closer to the camera.

# ¿ May 28, 2010 06:12

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 10:08

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

oh and BTW - Reign is 10 bux so buy it you mugs http://www.arcdream.com/store/product.php?id=75404

# ¿ May 28, 2010 06:18

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

happyelf posted:

yeah srsly i played it at genconoz last year and it was fantastic. we played startign at like 10 at night and had a pretyt good group. I got to play the old guy :3

nobody spoil anything about jailbreak!!

are you going to gencon this year?

# ¿ May 29, 2010 07:50

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Oh there's a great UA email list - not very active but there's a HUGE archive of fodder for the game. http://lists.unknown-armies.com/listinfo.cgi/ua-unknown-armies.com

# ¿ May 31, 2010 21:10

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Stolze also started the ransom model craze among game designers with Meatbot Massacre. http://www.danielsolis.com/meatbot/

It looks neat but I haven't played it yet. Any thoughts?

# ¿ Jun 8, 2010 05:43

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

The Unspeakable Oath, a great Call of Cthulhu magazine, is being brought back and guess who is on the staff? http://www.theunspeakableoath.com/staff.php

# ¿ Jun 11, 2010 21:10

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Seems cool, but whenever I've run Reign, I tend to use 'generic tolkien-esque fantasy world' as a setting because complex and unfamiliar settings aren't popular with my group.

# ¿ Jun 28, 2010 03:45

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Evil Mastermind posted:

The 2nd edition book does have "Minion" rules, which were adapted from Reign.

The new supplement for Monsters and Other Childish Things, Bigger Bads (another ORE game that is awesome and brilliant) has rules for threats, which can be mooks or things like a fire or a trap.

Basically a threat is a dice pool that can harm the PCs through attacks and loses dice when it is successfully countered or attacked.

For example, a 10d mook threat can be beaten up with standard attacks. An attack that does 3 damage reduces the pool to 7d. It only has 1 hit location basically.

However, if the PCs are in a burning building then they can't shoot or punch their way through it. So it's still a 10d (or whatever) threat but only actions that would logically contain a fire would reduce its dice pool.

# ¿ Jul 2, 2010 07:59

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Mr. Stolze just put out a new superhero setting for Wild Talents: Progenitor.

http://www.arcdream.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5&products_id=30

Progenitor is a superhero setting about big ideas. A single woman gains inconceivable power then unwittingly passes it on to a handful of people. They pass it along to others in turn, and so on, and soon thousands of men and women around the world share that strange power in different forms.

Some of them use their powers for their own personal gain or gratification. Others try to help those around them. Others change the world itself.

What will your characters do with that kind of power?

from a rpg.net thread http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=526628 (Greg posts in that thread)

a rpg.net fan posted:

I was invited by Shane to not be silent anymore, so I won't. My group loved playtesting Progenitor and I loved running it. The game is a gem and will be the center piece of a large superhero RPG collection.

One of the problems I have as a game master is immersing myself into a new game setting. I raise three kids and I'm lucky to have a free night to run a game. Most of my players live busy lives. We needed a pre-built setting and Progenitor provided that in spades. It didn't do it by providing hype and gloss over a metric ton of splat books. Progenitor tells you what the world is like in one big drat book.

We loved the complete timelines, both the real world history and the Progenitor history. It was dripping with details and plothooks. When planning a test run adventure, I literally just randomly flipped through the pages and found a story seed in a sentence. I haven't been able to do that since Unknown Armies. By the time I was done reading, I could have set a game anywhen from Vietnam to the nineties with ease. The book fired me up.

The book is classic Greg Stolze. He makes the stories breathe not by giving you bigger than life heroes, but normal people than have bigger than life powers. He shows you a world that could exist if Talents ran wild, how it would have changed history. There's a new mechanic for rating years in the setting that refines the Hite's color system from WT in an exciting new way. Your charactrs can change History and Stolze shows you how in game terms. I sat down with the group and explained that even after a short story arc, I could generate a decade of background stories and run another story arc. And it all feels perfectly integrated with ORE. I love storytelling rules like this!

I'm coming into this from running Marvel in the 90s, Mayfair's Underground and loving Aberrant. I have read Champion's San Andreas and M&M's Freedom City I have to say this is the setting where I can run all of those stories with Greg's guiding hand making them even more super.

Loved it! Progenitor gives you a sandbox that can fit almost any type of super powered storyline that I can tell. It can do four-color or the darkest Watchmen style grit. I can tell stories fitting of Miller's god-damned Batman just as easily as I can do the time-spanning style of Wild Cards!

Thanks for giving me the tools, Greg! I'll be sure to tell the best of stories with them! We're going to be reading this book for a long time and enjoying every minute of it! It was the best superhero setting I've ever seen or read. It evoked echoes of Astro City and Rising Stars from the comic fans at the table, while the TV fans were comparing it to Heroes and 1400. All favorably!

I might be crazy, too, but this is the Wild Talents setting that made us feel ike we were writing a comic book. Weird praise, I suppose, but it is a super hero game. I want more, the group wants more and I'm anxious to tell those new stories!

# ¿ Jul 27, 2010 07:25

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Xand_Man posted:

^^^^^ Pretty much.

My personal list of game designers I would go gay for is:
1. Greg Stolze.
2. Bailywolf.

Greg is working on a new sci fi game called Termination Shock. It's about humans and aliens vs. super intelligent AIs and transhumans

Ben is working on a fantasy ORE game based on the dragon rider trope. It includes rules for aerial combat.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2010 06:13

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

If you like Ben Baugh, listen to him run Candlewick Manor at Dragoncon 09.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2010 04:58

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Xand_Man posted:

Someone said upthread they were doing art for Better Angels (super-villains are actually demon possessed). Any idea when that's coming out?

no set due date yet

# ¿ Aug 29, 2010 04:41

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Arc Dream news

http://arcdream.livejournal.com/6768.html

There's talk of a M&M version of KC as well.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2010 00:00

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

FirstCongoWar posted:

Maybe they'll ship me Progenitors now (I had no idea selling 125 books in a month was "a lot", jesus christ).

WELCOME TO THE TABLETOP RPG INDUSTRY

their shipping problems are the fault of Cubicle 7.

I really need to do a mega post on monsters and other childish things, explaining the poo poo out of it and so forth.

# ¿ Sep 1, 2010 02:58

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Robotic Folksinger posted:

Has anyone tried A Dirty World? I like One-Roll and I like noir. Seems like this could be awesome.

I picked up a copy at Gencon this year and I ran it for the first time tonight. It was a great game. The players loved it. Being able to adjust and raise stats during the game gets people into the game. I recorded it so I will try to upload it soon so you can get an idea of how it played out.

# ¿ Sep 13, 2010 05:46

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Posted it http://actualplay.roleplayingpublicradio.com/2010/09/systems/a-dirty-world/a-dirty-world-the-buyout/

# ¿ Sep 17, 2010 22:48

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

this is a cool reward if you want to support ARDWIN

quote:

Be Greg's editor for a day. A fair amount of the fiction I've written has been "We need something that shows off this element of the setting, it needs to have a big betrayal of trust, and, also, a monkey." Editors and publishers get to do this -- set parameters for fiction writers who then, like chefs with limited ingredients, try to produce a delicious meal. If this ransom clears, I'll write a short story (probably 2-5,000 words) and release it for free through my trusty internet library. But if won't just be ANY story. If you pledge $50+, you can dictate ONE element that must be present. I'll limit that by saying no fanfiction, but stuff in my established settings -- eCollapse, Milonda, PROGENITOR -- are all fair game. (I'll just have to hope and pray there's no crossover.) Or maybe you want a love story. Or a revenge drama. Or for someone to get caught in flagrante delecto with the babysitter. You name it, I'll do my best to put it in there. Will it be a hilarious mess, or an exquisite corpse? Only the high rollers get to decide.

only 50 bucks!

# ¿ Oct 16, 2010 06:29

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Capntastic posted:

I've never actually played an ORE game, but I imagine having both stats and skills would be useful solely for the dynamic of having either a generally alright character with good stats and poor skills, or a specialist with alright stats but a few really good skills.

Stats are useful for tracking damage too - how would allocate a gunshot in a skills only game?

# ¿ Nov 28, 2010 02:58

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Sir Kodiak posted:

You use hit locations as normal and you determine which skill checks correspond to Body / Coordination type things on a case-by-case basis. It's usually pretty obvious, and it's no more difficult than having to determine which stat to use with a skill check if you use stats+skills.

It depends on how broadly you define skills. It seems more abstract than what I would like.

But speaking of abstraction in ORE, A Dirty World is a great game. Handles film noir quite well. http://www.gregstolze.com/adirtyworld/

# ¿ Nov 28, 2010 03:49

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Doc Hawkins posted:

I should rename myself ElitistRPGJerk or something.

The setting is full of great ideas, but I am not crazy about any part of the system except the insanity meters. I am a lazy and unoriginal idiot, and the design asks waaay too much of a GM for my taste. I don't like capricious and arbitrary stats, powers, calls for rolls, creation of opposition etc.

This is actually a common complaint I have of Greg Stolze designs. I mean, it's 2011! Why am I still handing out 1-3xp a session to all players across the board, plus "good roleplaying" bonuses?! We have better ways now!

Essentially, I would play or run the crap out of a game of Solar System or Dogs in the Vineyard or HeroQuest or any number of other semi-generic systems, but with the Unknown Armies setting. It's one of those systems that is no longer best-of-breed for its stated mood and purpose.

Handing out 1-3 xp a session like the world of darkness? Hell, Stolze's games have the advantage in that xp equals character creation points throughout the game. I hate how WoD made XP scale differently than freebie points.

Dogs is not a semi-generic system - it has a very specific setting. You can ignore the setting but you can do that with every game.

Anyway

I started a Wild Talents campaign. I'm liking WT more than Mutants and Masterminds so far. Defining power sources and permissions is great - makes it easier as a GM to lock down things you don't want in a campaign that way - want a batman esque street level game? Only allow a few permissions like peak performer or hypertrained! Want cosmic craziness? Give everyone Super permission.

# ¿ Jan 9, 2011 22:22

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Doc Hawkins posted:

What's the difference between the GM saying "Your character agrees to the treaty, having been convinced by the diplomat's passionate arguments" and "Your character agrees to be dead, having been convinced by the diplomat's passionate swordplay"?

It seems that we like different things, perhaps even opposite ones. I don't think there's an easy way to reconcile this. I mean, I might be able to show you that you were wrong () with a few weeks of playing and discussing games together, but I despair of doing it by post, because I'm not great at explaining things.

My tired attempt at it right now is: "An explicit and balanced system can give the impression of a capricious fictional reality, while meaning less work for, and dependance on, the GM."

You can't see the difference? For me, separating the external physical universe of a game and the internal mental/moral universe of each character is a sacrosanct foundation of RPGs. If you can't make the important decisions for your character, what the gently caress is the point of playing? I want characters to decide

I keep thinking of this quote from 1984:

quote:

He took a twenty-five cent piece out of his pocket. There, too, in tiny clear lettering, the same slogans were inscribed, and on the other face of the coin the head of Big Brother. Even from the coin the eyes pursued you. On coins, on stamps, on the covers of books, on banners, on posters, and on the wrappings of a cigarette packet - everywhere. Always the eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, working or eating, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed - no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull.

As a GM, I control virtually every aspect of the universe in game. If I take away their ability to at least make decisions, those last few cubic centimeters, then how are they even playing the game?

Now if there's some prearranged system that players agree upon, then I suppose it's okay but still - I think these indie social combat systems are set up to support railroading more than anything else.

Also if there's a supernatural mind control ability - that's part of the physical universe - no different than a laser gun or fireball spell.

clockworkjoe fucked around with this message at 09:09 on Jan 11, 2011

# ¿ Jan 11, 2011 09:06

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Doc, the more you write, the less clear you're being. Let's use an example:

Fantasy D&D type setting - PC 1 is a brash headstrong warrior. NPC Diplomat represents a kingdom PC 1 hates. The GM and PC 1 go through a social combat scene where the diplomat attempts to convince PC 1 to accept a peace treaty with his kingdom. The player wants to start a war. The GM rolls really well and uses the social combat system to say that PC 1 accepts the peace treaty. PC1 may get some kind of system benefit - bonus points or whatever - for not getting what he wanted - but the player wanted to define his character as a brash headstrong warrior by choosing war over peace.

The social combat mechanics force the player to take a major choice he doesn't want. I say this isn't fun. The game has reduced the player to a passive viewer in the narrative. That is my opinion.

Now, have I mischaracterized the kind of social combat you like? Would you support this kind of game system?

# ¿ Jan 12, 2011 05:09

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

If a player in FATE doesn't have M&Ms or whatever, would he be compelled to go along with the peace treaty then?

Also why are we talking about this in a Greg Stolze thread? Shouldn't someone make a new thread about social combat and controlling PCs?

# ¿ Jan 12, 2011 09:19

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gregstolze/grab-bag new ransom

quote:

Enemies of Awful Scale -- A set of rules that bridges the scales between a REIGN Company (like, say, the US Army) and the epic individual threats that could go toe-to-toe with them (such as Godzilla, the Incredible Hulk or that monster from Cloverfield). Where's a scrappy band of misfit heroes when you need...? Oh wait, they're stuck between its teeth. Never mind. Send in the Marines. 2,586 words.

YOU FUND THIS NOW

# ¿ Mar 8, 2011 20:25

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

New teaser for the Reign grab bag

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gregstolze/grab-bag/posts/64532

# ¿ Mar 29, 2011 03:06

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Robotic Folksinger posted:

You could try this:
http://www.nemesis-system.com/alternate-combat-rules-2.html

I been wanting to pick up Monsters and Other Childish Things and was wondering if there are any other books beside the core I should pick up while I'm at it? (I've been eyeing Candlewick Manor).

Also I picked up the eCOLLAPSE sourcebook for Wild Talents and it looks to be a pretty fun setting, anyone have any experience with it?

Candlewick Manor is great but I would like to recommend the two books I wrote for MAOCT: A Curriculum of Conspiracy and Road Trip. Curriculum is a campaign sourcebook that sets up a school where the teachers are trying to find and enslave all monsters - so a kids vs adults kinda campaign. Road Trip is a MAOCT take on Masks on Nyarlathtoep - go on a road trip around the USA to save the world from an evil cult.

If you have any questions about them, I can answer them here or about MAOCT in general.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2011 22:03

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Robotic Folksinger posted:

Well, I bought the corebook and Candlewick Manor. Think I'll buy Roadtrip some time next month. it seems like a solid adventure. I do have some questions about Curriculum of Conspiracy. Is it like a full campaign or a setting book? And is it straight up adults vs. kids or is there some playground politics involved?

It's a setting book with 1 intro adventure. It's more of a toolbox than a single setting though. It describes the school history, important NPCs and how the conspiracy finds and enslaves monsters. Among other things, it has magic wards that can detect and counteract monster powers so monsters can't just run rampant through the school. I pictured it as a more of a cat and mouse kinda thing - the teachers are trying to find out which kids have monsters and then how to break them while the kids are trying to figure out what's going on.

It presents several campaign models - a light hearted scooby doo kinda game, a straight up kids vs adult rebellion or a Call of Cthulhu type investigation/mystery campaign and so on. You don't have to run it as a conspiracy. You can do it as a straight up wacky hijinx thing or whatever take you want to use. If you want to use kids vs adults in a school with MAOCT - curriculum can help you.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2011 04:56

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Squidster posted:

AWESOME. Sycophantic email deployed!

I was never able to convince my group to join me in a Dirty World film-noir, because they felt it was a little boring, without bolters or crackmages or capes. "You mean we're just playing... people?"

Adding a veneer of horns and capes should allow me to reel them in.

I think being a normal person just makes it better. I mean when I've played or run ADW, it always get more intense and hosed up than in say D&D.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2011 22:42

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

LincolnSmash posted:

So...ORE...how does it compare to, say, BRP?

Like, if I wanted to run a gritty fantasy game, is the core of REIGN minus the company rules still fun to play with? Or should I just go with RuneQuest?

What's wrong with the company rules? Keep them in there. I mean - don't let the PCs start with a company but if they want to build an army or something, you have the rules to support it.

Also combat can be very deadly and quick. I've only run Wild Talents and MAOCT for any length of time but I've never had long grinding battles like in high level D&D.

# ¿ Jun 28, 2011 07:09

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

get new friends

# ¿ Jun 28, 2011 20:48

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

rantmo posted:

Well then that confirms that the Greg Stolze that my friend took jujitsu with is indeed that Greg Stolze.

So I've read this entire thread over the last few days and have basically become a fanboy without having read a word of his stuff. I'm trying to figure out where to start. Reign sounds incredibly badass but Wild Talents has those awesome settings like the Kwhatsit Club. Which one would be better for getting a feel for ORE?

There's a free ORE game called Nemesis. http://www.arcdream.com/dennis/NEMESIS.pdf

It has the UA sanity system

# ¿ Jul 13, 2011 23:53

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Fenarisk posted:

Dear Greg Stolze please make a game system as good as ORE but with d6's so as tackle the barrier for new players to the market (ie - not normal people dice) thanks in advance

Edit: Would it really break things if players were allowed to defend each round against attacks rather than splitting the pool up from deciding how to act prior? Kind of like how A Dirty World does it.

A Dirty World is the most atypical of all ORE games so don't bring ADW expectations into the other games.

The Declare, roll, resolve mechanic makes combat in ORE games very strategic. You can fudge things a bit and let players say "I attack and dodge any attacks that might be directed at me" but in my experience, it makes combat much more interesting. Players have to think about their actions and gives combat a more unpredictable, chaotic feel than the standard "I hit you hit" rpg paradigm

# ¿ Jul 16, 2011 23:22

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Kerberos Club is a setting for WT or Savage Worlds. I don't know about the SW version but the WT version modifies existing rules but you still need the base rules to play. WT essential edition cost 10 bucks.

WT is a setting free superhero ORE game. I've run a WT campaign since January. I made a thread about on the RPPR forums http://slangdesign.com/forums/index.php?topic=1088.0

WT is extremely versatile and I've run battles with up to 17 super powered characters fighting to the death (11 good guys vs 6 bad guys all 200+ points)

Godlike is a WW2 themed supers game - all Godlike super powered characters have specific abilities - they can sense each other and negate other powers in a contest of willpower.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2011 18:48

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Pretty much every MAOCT adventure is suitable for new groups.

There isn't much written for ADW as far as I know

WT is a universal superhero game so adventures tend to be written for one of the existing settings.

Personally, I would recommend getting Road Trip and forcing your group to play that campaign. Use the postcards to entice them. One of them was drawn by KC Green. :O

# ¿ Jul 27, 2011 21:55

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

yeah 2nd ed. should have the errata.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2011 00:32

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

I played Fiasco with Greg Stolze and some other people last night. I recorded it.

Greg's character was beaten up by a knight's templar and fell in love with a cat burglar which he roleplayed like Zapp Brannigan.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2011 18:10

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Fenarisk posted:

In 6 months

(Just kidding bro)

lol that's fair but since this is the first game of Fiasco I've recorded I'll put it up pretty soon after gencon. Now I go to the Ennies. Wish me luck.

# ¿ Aug 5, 2011 22:22

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

unzealous posted:

My friends and I are getting ready to start a wild talents game and we came upon something of a dilemma. What's to stop someone from taking 2 or 3 hard dice in each stat, pretty much guaranteeing success most rolls outside of combat, the basic perception checks, lockpicking, and anything else that can be done without a penalty? I'm not sure how to approach this.

Yeah, but they're still a person. They can't fly, have an innate ranged attack, resist mind control or magic, detect the invisible, breathe underwater, or survive in a vacuum for long to name a few examples. Enemies that can force them in those situations will whip them.

Superhero games are very much a game of Rock Papers Scissors. There's no one power set that beats all others at all times.

One other weakness for the 2 HD PC - he can't pull his punches well. If his body is over 5 total, he inflicts killing damage and it's going straight to the head and he can't convert those HD to normal dice - he uses all of them or none of them in an attack. I had a PC in my WT game inadvertently kill several bad guys due to his hyperstrength.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2012 08:40

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

I just interviewed Mr. Stolze in the new episode of RPPR http://slangdesign.com/rppr/2012/03/podcast-episode/rppr-episode-71-youve-got-wild-talents/

# ¿ Mar 18, 2012 05:54

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 10:08

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

LordZoric posted:

I'm definitely of the mind that Greg is some kind of gaming god. ORE is pure genius.

I gm'd a few sessions of MaoCT, it was a blast. One of the kid's monsters was this giant steel-bearded viking with a guitar who radiated the power of metal . We were just about to move into Ross Payton's Road Trip campaign before we got Christmas'd and it all vanished into the ether.

And now I'm very sad I'm just now learning about Better Angels...

awww, it's too bad you weren't able to run Road Trip. It's really fun from what I hear :toot:

# ¿ Aug 30, 2012 20:53

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Greg Stolze (Unknown Armies, One Roll Engine) Appreciation Station

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