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This has been a while, so the details are a little muddy, but since this is the one RPG session that's really stuck with me long term I feel like it makes good thread material even if I'm not very good at the storytelling side. Back in 2014, Supers Revised Edition launched. For those out of the loop, Supers RED is roughly equivalent to Mutants and Masterminds, but on the d6 engine derived from WEG Star Wars; it's a low budget game in design and presentation, but it works overall. I was still playing with a group of 5 (I only talk to one of the five any more, and it's the other person involved here), and we decided we'd be early adopters for the system - this puts this around 2015. Everyone took advantage of the freeform character creation; I don't remember one of the four PCs at all, but who I do remember is:
Concept was pretty simple. Hammer and Anvil knocking over a bank, Merrick and Leonard at least responded and one of the others may have too, availability meant I don't think we ever got all four at once. So, pretty even match, but one side doesn't care about collateral damage and one side really cares about it... which turns into the tension point. Merrick pushes Leonard to push his powers, potentially into dangerous territory for himself, because we "needed them" to win the day. He gets pushed, things get really hairy, but we come out on top as a whole. Hammer and Anvil escape alive but without what they came for, little to no collateral, and eveyone on Team Good Guy is alive. Through sheer luck that Leonard didn't burn out his brain or someone else's. The session immediately tripped over into an extended in-character dialogue on powers, responsibility, and risk. Merrick's "I signed up for this, I'll give everything I have to to put what I unleashed back in its box" attitude colliding with Leonard's "I didn't sign up for this, but I'm going to do the right thing where I can" got messy, and we ended up with a solid 30 minutes or so of in character dialogue, primarily the two of us but also the GM & whichever other players were present. Granted, this is text so that's less than it sounds like, but I was and am a fast typer & so are they, so there was a lot of material regardless. Working through the expectations of self-sacrifice, the fundamental differences in our powers and abilities (it's easy to say "I, the rich guy with super tech, plenty of resources, and personal protection will give all I can seeking justice", because there's little real, personal danger; pushing those psychic powers too far for him was brain aneurysm risking territory, and without that he was just some poor late-twenties dude in a cheap apartment scraping by, very little to actually sacrifice before you get left with "my health and/or my life"), settling party dynamics and all that, and seriously getting poo poo straightened away purely in-character. A lot of serious talk. I call it "the bleed session" because this is the only time I've ever gotten significant bleed in a role-playing game; Merrick unconsciously embodied some of my worst traits at the time, and even through the lens of a fictional character sharing those traits, it was essentially forcing me to self-reflect and justify the lovely things I said or did to people. And, of course, realize that I couldn't and that I had to change something. This dumb supers RPG with revenant Lee Harvey Oswald did more for my mental health than any therapist has, by complete accident. I've never managed to get into a character's head since then. I can barely even muster enough to actually roleplay a lot of the time nowadays; I don't know what's happened to cause that and couldn't really tell you, though I'm trying to figure it out and make changes to get that back. But for that one brief session I finally really got into the head and role for some excellent social play. Other players & the GM were very, very happy with the way it went, and the one person I still talk to occasionally will mention it or related events, which is a pretty good sign for meaningful impact to still remember it. Game ended up collapsing a couple weeks later due to player drama unfortunately, so nobody ever got closure or a followup. Still a hell of a highlight for me.
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Jan 11, 2021 23:36
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| # ¿ May 1, 2024 03:51 |
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Fivemarks posted:I almost got into a D&D campaign today. Almost. Then the DM demanded that I prove that I was a real "D&D Player" by proving that the class i wanted to play was well balanced as Fighter. So I told him to gently caress off and left. Then people told me that I'll get into a good game that doesn't attack my pride or self esteem constantly, but that they wouldn't help me find it or that i should just pay a paid DM to run stuff. I told them to gently caress off as well for giving empty platitudes. Obligated to ask if you were bringing a homebrew class to the table.
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Apr 4, 2021 07:19
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Fivemarks posted:Sure, but he specifically demanded that I prove that I was a "real player" because "Real Players" don't use homebrew classes. They also, if they want to be useful, play spellcasters and not martial classes according to this DM. The only really strong thing about this class is that they got Firearm proficiency natively, and the GM declared that overpowered. He even said "I'll allow any homebrew class you want", then allowed this other player's full caster who also got fighter's full line of Extra Attacks. Nope. I hate base Ranger as well. Just clarifying what you were saying so I fully understood. While it loving sucks to deal with that sort of GM, it's better it happens now when it's easier to walk away and the investment isn't as deep yet. That's not a great answer, I know. I don't have any great LFG resources to point to that would help find better options.
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Apr 4, 2021 07:29
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the_steve posted:Doesn't Edge of the Empire do this a bit? Yes. From experience it's a neat concept that's awful to have to determine in the moment on every. Single. Roll.
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May 17, 2021 05:31
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Our Never Going Home playtest didn't have the huge memorable moments that our Maze game did (might write those up another time), but I really appreciated having the mechanics to support players getting tiny character vignettes. Our unit traveled through wartorn WWI France with the game asking the question of how the destruction and desolation made them feel. We got a few touching introspective bits thinking back to family back home, debating whether it was really worth it to enlist. The prospective-officer looking out for chances to get a little ahead of his fellows. And our six-foot-something gentle giant New Englander, hunching over a little bit of paper, scratching out notes to all his family back home small as he could "so I don't leave anyone out". I liked that. It's small compared to the usual "notable experiences" but it's the first time in a long while I've had a system really support individual vignettes and let people get some character depth. It wasn't the smoothest evee or the most passionate thing ever. But it did its job well and now I'm considering something similar in new games.
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May 21, 2021 15:07
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Agrikk posted:What is Lancer? Robots with toes. Less jokingly: tactical mech combat in the vein of 4e/Strike! married to PbtA narrative out-of-mech play. There's an ongoing F&F review of the setting that does it more justice than I can.
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Jul 19, 2021 15:06
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Today on Mothership: The PCs achieved not only the illustrious TPK, but a total module kill. 13 PCs and NPCs combined, every single one dead. (They were meant to be protecting these people.) One PC managed to last long enough to melt into a pile of goo in his debriefing. SkyeAuroline fucked around with this message at 16:18 on Jul 30, 2023 |
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Jul 30, 2023 01:06
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| # ¿ May 1, 2024 03:51 |
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Ominous Jazz posted:i gotta be honest this sucks to read and i wouldn't wanna share it with anybody Yeah, on top of feeling like it's the wrong thread for this, "hey here's a bunch of lovely people saying lovely things that you would otherwise have to go out of your way to find, let me shove it at you" is a lovely thing to do
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Apr 16, 2024 16:47
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