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hyphz posted:Got my hardback copy. It's really beautiful. Just need to face up to the unlikely-to-ever-play-this problem. I'd love to try it out as well. Is it an issue of lack of free time? Because I think you could recruit some players in here.
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Aug 9, 2015 11:42
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paradoxGentleman posted:I'd love to try it out as well. Is it an issue of lack of free time? Because I think you could recruit some players in here. It's partly fear of flaking and partly the fact it's a sufficiently difficult game for me that I'd be uncomfortable running/playing with people I only knew from the net. I have a few rules questions as well, and I guess this is as good a place as any: - The word "Arc" seems to be reused to mean a whole bunch of things. So, I get that an Arc is a series of Quests with narrative notes that put them in context. Then there's an "Arc Trait", which governs what level of perk and things you've gotten from playing an Arc. But as I understand it, the Arc Trait only goes up by 1 when you complete an entire Arc of that type, not when you are at that stage of the Arc. So you have to play the Arc several times to raise the Arc Trait (not necessarily in order). But then at the back of the book are the "Miraculous Arcs", which are lists of powers you get at different levels.. and therefore presumably not actually Arcs at all but perks you get from a series of Arcs of the associated type? Plus, Arcs are described as giving context to Quests, but you can also get XP for an Arc from doing other things, and it's mentioned this could be 30% of the Arc XP.. Since an Arc is 5 quests, each one would be 20%, so that means a side quest can completely displace one of the contextualized quests on the Arc? - Issues. The early sections imply that Issues are given out as semi-penalties when an XP action is invoked out of context, but the later section says that the HG can give out an Issue whenever an XP action is taken depending the situation. Is it expected/normal that an Issue would be given for any XP action? It seems rather awkward that the player can never know if an action will advance an issue or not. - "Adventure GET." This XP action triggers when you're in a threatening situation, but it seems problematic because after doing it, you Fade, so... when is the actual resolution of the threatening situation played out? I can see it's supposed to be a cliffhanger (although it seems a bit weird that every occasion would be a cliffhanger). Also, it seems this allows a character like Rinley to trigger Adventure GET and then in a following scene when she's not the focus, Tall Tales straight out of it again. While I accept that this would be totally in character it seems a bit powerful, any time something threatens her she just cashes it in for XP and then leaves while Faded. Is that right?
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Aug 9, 2015 16:03
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hyphz posted:It's partly fear of flaking and partly the fact it's a sufficiently difficult game for me that I'd be uncomfortable running/playing with people I only knew from the net. Yep, an Arc can have 1 or 2 diversions mixed into and replacing the Arc quests, as long as it makes sense for them to be there - maybe they started out as side pursuits, but suddenly coaching that kid through a bicycle race is starting to seem more relevant... And yes, if you're a Knight (Roadside Cookery) 5 that means you've finished 5 entire Knight arcs and logged probably not far off from a thousand XP. hyphz posted:- Issues. The early sections imply that Issues are given out as semi-penalties when an XP action is invoked out of context, but the later section says that the HG can give out an Issue whenever an XP action is taken depending the situation. Is it expected/normal that an Issue would be given for any XP action? It seems rather awkward that the player can never know if an action will advance an issue or not. There's nothing actually penalizing about Issues. They feed you MP passively as they escalate and you can tap them for more MP if you, the player, feel they're getting in the way of something you're trying. If an issue hits level 4 or even 5 you have the opportunity to close it out for XP, possibly with a heavily discounted miracle. But! If an issue gets worse, especially when it hits, say, level 3, you should know why it's getting worse, or you should sit down with your HG and talk about where they're trying to take you with the issue. hyphz posted:- "Adventure GET." This XP action triggers when you're in a threatening situation, but it seems problematic because after doing it, you Fade, so... when is the actual resolution of the threatening situation played out? I can see it's supposed to be a cliffhanger (although it seems a bit weird that every occasion would be a cliffhanger). Also, it seems this allows a character like Rinley to trigger Adventure GET and then in a following scene when she's not the focus, Tall Tales straight out of it again. While I accept that this would be totally in character it seems a bit powerful, any time something threatens her she just cashes it in for XP and then leaves while Faded. Is that right? Those aren't XP actions, those are quest flavor, chapter XP bonuses. XP actions are the ten or twelve core drivers: Suffer Corruption, Shared Reaction, Ritual, Discovery, etc. You basically say "this was my important scene where I" + XP action name, and then you pass the focus to someone else. You can work your quest flavor into your XP actions for the chapter, or you can pick it up as a background character in someone else's scene. I mean, heck, if you've got a mad genius their Obsessive XP Action could blast you skyward on a fountain of trouble and then you'd mark quest flavor and be ready to do your own XP Action in response. Crucially, you do not immediately get XP from XP actions the way you do from quest flavor. It feeds into a pool and gets distributed among the players, which will generally amount to 2 XP per chapter but could be more if things get intense. Glazius fucked around with this message at 16:40 on Aug 9, 2015 |
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Aug 9, 2015 16:38
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hyphz posted:The word "Arc" seems to be reused to mean a whole bunch of things. So, I get that an Arc is a series of Quests with narrative notes that put them in context. Then there's an "Arc Trait", which governs what level of perk and things you've gotten from playing an Arc. But as I understand it, the Arc Trait only goes up by 1 when you complete an entire Arc of that type, not when you are at that stage of the Arc. So you have to play the Arc several times to raise the Arc Trait (not necessarily in order). But then at the back of the book are the "Miraculous Arcs", which are lists of powers you get at different levels.. and therefore presumably not actually Arcs at all but perks you get from a series of Arcs of the associated type? Plus, Arcs are described as giving context to Quests, but you can also get XP for an Arc from doing other things, and it's mentioned this could be 30% of the Arc XP.. Since an Arc is 5 quests, each one would be 20%, so that means a side quest can completely displace one of the contextualized quests on the Arc? That's correct, your quests form an Arc and while you're on that Arc you get Miraculous Arc powers if you're on one of the miraculous Arcs, and once you complete an Arc your Arc Trait goes up (so your Arc trait is basically the number of completed novels of that type you've already been a main character in). There's an additional use of the word "arc" in the campaign book that I intend to have changed to "saga" before it comes out. The word might be a bit overloaded. An Arc isn't necessarily five quests, though; you have an XP target which the HG will set based on their judgment as to how fast your game is going and what number will result in people closing out their Arcs in a reasonable amount of time. It's perfectly okay to finish that story with the third or fourth quest (much like not every book has a third-act twist). quote:Issues. The early sections imply that Issues are given out as semi-penalties when an XP action is invoked out of context, but the later section says that the HG can give out an Issue whenever an XP action is taken depending the situation. Is it expected/normal that an Issue would be given for any XP action? It seems rather awkward that the player can never know if an action will advance an issue or not. An Issue is basically a subplot counter, so you get one when the HG notices that you seem to be having that kind of subplot. Tying them to specific genres is pretty much just HG advice about when this is likely to happen. quote:"Adventure GET." This XP action triggers when you're in a threatening situation, but it seems problematic because after doing it, you Fade, so... when is the actual resolution of the threatening situation played out? I can see it's supposed to be a cliffhanger (although it seems a bit weird that every occasion would be a cliffhanger). Also, it seems this allows a character like Rinley to trigger Adventure GET and then in a following scene when she's not the focus, Tall Tales straight out of it again. While I accept that this would be totally in character it seems a bit powerful, any time something threatens her she just cashes it in for XP and then leaves while Faded. Is that right? You don't have to fade immediately if that doesn't make sense. Fading is basically a mechanic where you do a thing, and that thing defines your emotional context for the [time interval of the genre you're in]. If you faded on a cliffhanger, that's not really a case of you using your hax meta powers to get out of danger, it's more "so, this is the chapter where Rinley is menaced by a gang of sharks... I guess she must have gotten away, somehow." You also, yeah, don't have to fade after a quest bonus action. The ones that you're allowed to narrate into play kind of split the difference since they're likely to happen simultaneously with a proper XP Action, but you can do whatever makes more sense.
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Aug 9, 2015 16:47
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Glazius posted:Those aren't XP actions, those are quest flavor, chapter XP bonuses. Adventure Get isn't an XP action? I thought it was listed in one of the play style lists. There's another one that bothered me a bit, although this might be a bit meta: - The world has the region property "turning into a giant snake does not help." - Say someone turns into a giant snake and gets into trouble. - Because a region property has caused them trouble, it behaves like a level 2 bond, and so they can get 2 MP. - After they turn back, they can benefit from the 2 MP. - So it did help. Is that intended?
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Aug 9, 2015 17:45
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I think turning into a snake never helps is meant to be more of a meta-joke. Certainly, characters are encouraged to game it, such as the "I didn't turn into a snake to help with this, I was already a snake for other, unrelated reasons" or "I'm not turning into a snake, I'm stopping being human for a bit!" or something.
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Aug 9, 2015 18:13
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hyphz posted:Adventure Get isn't an XP action? I thought it was listed in one of the play style lists. Nope, Adventure GET! is a quest. Quests and XP Actions do share some of the same iconography, though, so I can understand how it might be confusing. hyphz posted:There's another one that bothered me a bit, although this might be a bit meta: Yes, actually! The region property encourages you to turn into a giant snake, and then find that it did not help. You really have to kind of build a wall in your mind separating you as the player from you as the character when you're looking at the Chuubo's rules. Because, I mean, let's be clear here, this is a game where your character can follow the advice of some one they really shouldn't trust and run into whatever the Titovs are keeping under the shrine, and then fall into bleak despair as part of their soul is shaved off or an arm goes missing or something, and then the player will reach over and high five the HG because that's Trust 5 resolved AND Otherworldly 3 in the bin, let's keep this boon train rolling!
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Aug 9, 2015 18:33
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For reference, genre conventions operate as Afflictions, not Bonds, so they tend to be in the hands of the HG rather than the player.
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Aug 9, 2015 19:02
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Rand Brittain posted:For reference, genre conventions operate as Afflictions, not Bonds, so they tend to be in the hands of the HG rather than the player. Genre conventions that apply to places are Region Properties, and they operate as Bonds (p. 116). Genre conventions that apply to characters are probably Afflictions and are generally in the hands of the HG, though the player can speak up about Auctoritas if it might come up. So a bar in a wretched hive of scum and villainy has the Region Property "Conversations are never truly private." and anyone in that place can use that Region Property as though it were a level 2 Bond. But, let's say, Ichiro Taro, star of well-known light novel "My Harem Is Slowly Collapsing, But It's Just My Imagination, Isn't It?" has an Affliction tied to his Emptiness (The Widening Gyre) Arc, "My harem always knows where to find me." and that's largely in the hands of the HG to put the harem in impossible places, but if, say, Principal Entropy II puts ichiro in Double-Secret Detention II and uses a miracle to seal the door against scrying and intrusion, the Auctoritas of that Affliction opposes what the principal is doing.
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Aug 9, 2015 19:53
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The rule in question, "turning into a giant snake never helps," is a Convention, which operates as an Affliction on the entire world, but that particular rule only appears in The Glass-Maker's Dragon, which is where the giant snake rule comes from.
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Aug 9, 2015 20:03
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hyphz posted:There's another one that bothered me a bit, although this might be a bit meta: Oh great, now we need to worry about flower rites attacking the game rules themselves.
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Aug 9, 2015 20:14
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Rand Brittain posted:The rule in question, "turning into a giant snake never helps," is a Convention, which operates as an Affliction on the entire world, but that particular rule only appears in The Glass-Maker's Dragon, which is where the giant snake rule comes from. Oh, whoop. Yeah, sorry about that. Well, getting Will/MP from a Bond is up to the HG's discretion too, so the example does still hold. The Convention is not "people cannot turn into giant snakes" so it's not actually harder to turn into one, you're just explicitly inviting the HG to make things spiral out of control when you're a giant snake. It also opens up some interesting possibilities - if you've got at least Bond 2 with someone and you have to help them out, or if you're acting in support of a Region Property ("Students must experience exactly three events between classes. Submitted for your approval, event three: Giant Snake Express Train") you can be a helpful giant snake at no additional cost.
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Aug 10, 2015 01:19
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"Turning into a giant snake never helps" is definitely in the basic book because I read it there, although it does note that it might not come into play unless you're using a version of Chuubo who has that ability. So, let me see if I've got this right. Say I want to be the biggest badass in Town with a gun. This means I want to do The Ace. The Ace is an Aspect Arc, so I look up Aspect 1, and see that it involves something making me stuck, and ends with me pushing past it. Now I need an Aspect 1 Quest which I can spin that way. In the book there's a couple of these. One of these is Physical Training. So this could be me learning how to shoot, having a problem, and working out a way around it. Or I could be Private Pile, and be kind of crap at the physical training, but find shooting is my way around it. Another is Above The Fray, which would involve observing something bad and being stuck about how to respond to it, and then figuring out a way around that, possibly involving a gun. Then in terms of actual actions I will aim to do the stuff on that quest plus my setting XP actions from the play mode?
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Aug 10, 2015 15:53
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hyphz posted:"Turning into a giant snake never helps" is definitely in the basic book because I read it there, although it does note that it might not come into play unless you're using a version of Chuubo who has that ability. That is precisely correct!
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Aug 10, 2015 16:05
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Man, I wish it was easier to find IRC games or the like of Chuubo's. It's kind of become that 'pet favorite system I'll never be able to play in' for me, since even on RPGnet and the like it feels like it's impossible to find an IRC game or the like (I find myself... having problems keeping up with PBP games.) Ah well, one day. In the meanwhile, I'm sort of frantically flailing around trying to plot out a setting and characters to try to hook some of my regular group in so that I can /run/ a game, but it's not quite the same thing, you know?
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Aug 11, 2015 16:37
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Neopie posted:Man, I wish it was easier to find IRC games or the like of Chuubo's. It's kind of become that 'pet favorite system I'll never be able to play in' for me, since even on RPGnet and the like it feels like it's impossible to find an IRC game or the like (I find myself... having problems keeping up with PBP games.) Ah well, one day. In the meanwhile, I'm sort of frantically flailing around trying to plot out a setting and characters to try to hook some of my regular group in so that I can /run/ a game, but it's not quite the same thing, you know? I'm not sure I've ever actually heard about any real-time games, come to think of it. The action system tends to encourage writing paragraphs at a time, from what I've seen..
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Aug 11, 2015 20:22
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I'm in the same boat; I like Chuubo's but I can't honestly sign up for a forum RP since I've failed to keep up with exactly 100% of them, including one I was GMing. IRC/R20 at a regular or semi-regular time is just much easier for me to do, for some reason.
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Aug 11, 2015 20:40
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hyphz posted:I'm not sure I've ever actually heard about any real-time games, come to think of it. The action system tends to encourage writing paragraphs at a time, from what I've seen.. I'm in a real-time, meatspace game! It's a lot more relaxed than other games, certainly, though last session we decided to switch from Pastoral to Epic Fantasy so things might speed up a little.
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Aug 11, 2015 23:27
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Flavivirus posted:I'm in a real-time, meatspace game! It's a lot more relaxed than other games, certainly, though last session we decided to switch from Pastoral to Epic Fantasy so things might speed up a little. Anyone played Techno? How does that work? I loved TWEWY.
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Aug 12, 2015 00:22
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hyphz posted:Anyone played Techno? How does that work? I loved TWEWY. There a Techno Player's Guide available in print now if that might help.
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Aug 12, 2015 00:51
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Rand Brittain posted:There a Techno Player's Guide available in print now if that might help. I've got that, and it's good at being a player's guide, but an HG's guide to Techno would be much more useful!
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Aug 12, 2015 01:48
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I had another look through the Techno guide and it really more reminded me of surrealist video games like Off or Frankie Goes To Hollywood* than TWEWY. (Although both of those are awesome, too.) It really needs more detail on what can be part of a Ritual and how you stop Rituals becoming a huge XP gimme because of the ability to gain an XP by "taking any meaningful action" during one, though.. *Because I've been challenged on this before, yes, Frankie Goes To Hollywood is a surrealist game for the Commodore 64 from the 80s. Yes, it's based on the band. It starts with you trapped in an infinitely repeating generic town from which you escape into sub-games by stepping into works of art inside the houses. No, I am not joking. And yes, that sounds pretty awesome for Chuubo's.
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Aug 12, 2015 16:11
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I'm getting really tired of my non-Chuubo's vibe. Are there still people around who want to try it?
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Sep 8, 2015 23:31
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hyphz posted:I'm getting really tired of my non-Chuubo's vibe. Are there still people around who want to try it? I would love to!
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Sep 8, 2015 23:37
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I would but again I am 1000% poo poo at PBP. IRC or R20 or something would be fine though.
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Sep 8, 2015 23:58
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I'm game, for pretty much any format/schedule. I have too much free time.
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Sep 9, 2015 03:07
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I would /make/ time to play an IRC Chuubo's game.
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Sep 9, 2015 03:49
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Neopie posted:I would /make/ time to play an IRC Chuubo's game.
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Sep 9, 2015 04:06
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Neopie posted:I would /make/ time to play an IRC Chuubo's game. This. I've never been so grateful for my slate of morning classes before.
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Sep 9, 2015 14:05
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So I got my hard copy in the mail a few days ago? It is very thick and dense and I am looking forward to having the time to tackle it someday.
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Sep 9, 2015 14:15
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IRC I can definitely do. Not sure about making time, but I do only have three modules this year so my only limit is time zones 
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Sep 9, 2015 14:43
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I would prefer PbP because timezones are the bane of my existance since I am European, but I'll see what I can do once we get better organized. Out of curiosity, who here is confident enough in their Chuubo-fu that they could GM a game?
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Sep 9, 2015 14:58
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Not me. Already running a Monsterhearts game right now.
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Sep 9, 2015 16:15
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If there's still hypothetical room in a hypothetical IRC Chuubo game, I would be 100% down for it.
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Sep 9, 2015 16:26
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I suppose I'm not busy if people want to do a game of Glass-Maker's Dragon.
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Sep 9, 2015 17:02
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Rand Brittain posted:I suppose I'm not busy if people want to do a game of Glass-Maker's Dragon. I would be extremely grateful! Is it preferable to know nothing of this adventure going in or to be informed? I assume it is to know nothing about it, and I don't, but I can inform myself if you prefer!
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Sep 9, 2015 17:17
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Rand Brittain posted:I suppose I'm not busy if people want to do a game of Glass-Maker's Dragon. That'd be fantastic! I always assumed I'd never get the chance to play it.
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Sep 9, 2015 17:21
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So, about jumping in at the last second to voice my interest...
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Sep 9, 2015 17:21
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Rand Brittain posted:I suppose I'm not busy if people want to do a game of Glass-Maker's Dragon. I would, just, absolutely love this. Do we want to set up an IRC channel to discuss, or the like?
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Sep 9, 2015 17:28
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That sounds like a good idea, definitely.
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Sep 9, 2015 17:38
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