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Splicer posted:Controversial. In this multi-paragraph post I will  EDIT: 
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Jan 2, 2020 13:26
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MonsieurChoc posted:What would be a good system for doing a game inspired by Shin Megami Tensei? Not PErsona, but the original cyberpunk post-apocalyptic demon summoning world of the mainline series. Pokemon and Shin Megami Tensei are the same game, so if you solve one problem, you have solved the other.
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Jan 2, 2020 13:36
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NinjaDebugger posted:Pokemon and Shin Megami Tensei are the same game, so if you solve one problem, you have solved the other.
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Jan 2, 2020 14:10
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MonsieurChoc posted:What would be a good system for doing a game inspired by Shin Megami Tensei? Not PErsona, but the original cyberpunk post-apocalyptic demon summoning world of the mainline series. Tenra Bansho Zero. Even comes with demon-summoning rules.
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Jan 2, 2020 15:44
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Jan 2, 2020 15:49
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grassy gnoll posted:Tenra Bansho Zero. Even comes with demon-summoning rules. I've got that, but it's pretty tied to it's own setting, no? Tuxedo Catfish posted:elaborate hack of ars magica That's an interesting idea, but my players will never go for it. They're scared of Ars Magica. 
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Jan 2, 2020 17:17
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Another insurmountable problem defeated by
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Jan 2, 2020 17:24
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MonsieurChoc posted:I've got that, but it's pretty tied to it's own setting, no? No more so than Shadowrun. You might want to revise the karma mechanics if you don't want them to get into that particular power spiral, but otherwise you can just go and call it a day.
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Jan 2, 2020 18:04
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Splicer posted:Controversial. In this multi-paragraph post I will the student asked the teacher "are role-playing games fun?" to which the teacher answered "what is fun?" and the student was enlightened
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Jan 2, 2020 18:15
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Meinberg posted:the student asked the teacher "are role-playing games fun?"
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Jan 2, 2020 18:42
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Further continuing the Redwall topic, as much as I love Mouse Guard, it doesn't quite have the Redwall tone, and of course you can only play mice. Zurui, there's a neat game called Tales of Timberwind, currently in development by Elliot and Tovey Baker (the sons of Meg and Vincent Baker of Apocalypse World fame), that you should keep an eye out for. I managed to get in a playtesting group for it earlier this year, and it is Redwall as hell and has some really clever mechanical bits going on.
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Jan 2, 2020 19:36
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Kestral posted:Further continuing the Redwall topic, as much as I love Mouse Guard, it doesn't quite have the Redwall tone, and of course you can only play mice. Zurui, there's a neat game called Tales of Timberwind, currently in development by Elliot and Tovey Baker (the sons of Meg and Vincent Baker of Apocalypse World fame), that you should keep an eye out for. I managed to get in a playtesting group for it earlier this year, and it is Redwall as hell and has some really clever mechanical bits going on. Go on....
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Jan 2, 2020 19:53
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FirstAidKite posted:To anyone here who does any DMing using original content, how much work do you put into it? How do you go about designing it? Obviously you have to have some kind of idea about what the party should be doing and so in that way you can have some control over things, but the party could just as easily end up going in a different direction entirely and obviously the DM can't account for every single potential player decision. I generally write as I go, to respond to the game and players' actions and also the mood of the game and what seems to be working. This means if you've got a weekly session, you've got a week to write the session. South Park style. How much hours I put in varies heavily, but the old adage "a minute of prep saves you ten minutes of game time" is generally true. You never want to be scrambling to come up with rules or names during the session. Everything just rolls so much smoother if you can respond by instantly pulling up a note sheet and rattling off the names of the NPCs the players just inquired about, or whatever it is. Using a mix of pre-made materials can help save time. I have a book called "The essential lazy DM guide" or something like that, which is just tables of names and monster encounters and random magic items and things like that. When in doubt, roll on the table, there you go. The party can totally go off in a different direction. You try to account as best you can; ideally you give them a problem and they solve the problem in a way you didn't see coming but it still results in the problem being solved so the thing you planned on happening next still fits next. But it doesn't always go that way. You'll have to strike a balance between how free you want the game to be (more reactionary, in the moment) versus how crafted and detailed you want the game to be (more prepared, less flexible) and ideally your party is nice and is willing to investigate the thing that you hint at them is probably worth investigating. For a rule I don't let players play Evil characters because it makes it way way way too easy for them to just ignore everything you present them and kill the townsfolk and walk away somewhere else, and then what the gently caress do you do? That's fun as a purely improv game but I hope you didn't put in much prep on said townsfolk!
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Jan 2, 2020 20:04
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:In continuation of 'What system would work for Redwall?' Cairn would be pretty good. There are systems designed specifically for Redwall RPG http://www.mouseguard.net/book/role-playing-game/ Kestral posted:Further continuing the Redwall topic, as much as I love Mouse Guard, it doesn't quite have the Redwall tone, and of course you can only play mice. Zurui, there's a neat game called Tales of Timberwind, currently in development by Elliot and Tovey Baker (the sons of Meg and Vincent Baker of Apocalypse World fame), that you should keep an eye out for. I managed to get in a playtesting group for it earlier this year, and it is Redwall as hell and has some really clever mechanical bits going on. poo poo beaten
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Jan 2, 2020 20:05
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FirstAidKite posted:To anyone here who does any DMing using original content, how much work do you put into it? How do you go about designing it? Obviously you have to have some kind of idea about what the party should be doing and so in that way you can have some control over things, but the party could just as easily end up going in a different direction entirely and obviously the DM can't account for every single potential player decision. Key idea: It's important to focus on the aspects of the world with which the PCs will directly interact. For me, this usually means the important factions and NPCs within them, as these are the places from which your "prime mover" conflicts are coming. Having interesting geography or history is only important insofar as the players are going to interact with them. Making a huge map is pointless if the players are hooked into local politics and never venture far from their starting city/location. But if your campaign takes place on an old, dilapidated space station rife with factionalism, sparing some thought to which regions of the station have atmosphere, gravity, and/or power is important because it's going to change the nature of scenes or scenarios that take place in different parts of the station. Similarly, a lengthy history is only useful as it pertains to poo poo the PCs find themselves in right now. Knowing that the Puulgarian Pogrom happened a thousand years ago is only important in that it gives context for why the (few) remaining Puulgarians are an insular, suspicious, and touchy lot, and that's only important if dealing with said Puulgarians is an important part of the story you and the players want to tell. Finally, I'm going to echo Nerdlingen's advice and tell you to start the game with a bang. Present the players with a situation that is a) immediate and b) impossible to ignore. Put the PCs in a rough spot from the word "go" and see which way they jump. And if you can rope them in for input into setting up the situation, so much the better: "So the Earl is suddenly wreathed in black flame, screaming in agony as he is somehow simultaneously burned, melted, and desiccated. Why were you and he alone in his chambers, and what do you do now that someone - undoubtedly one of his Household Guard - has started pounding on the door?" Or perennial faves "Who are you killing at this very moment and why - and who just witnessed the deed?" and "What are you stealing, and what has just gone horribly wrong in the caper?" Don't plan too far ahead and don't over-think it. The story is ultimately about the PCs and all that the campaign is is the set-dressing.
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Jan 2, 2020 20:09
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re: redwall games, There was recently a kickstarter for an RPG adaptation of Root. It's a bit more "cute animal acting like dirtbags with some politicking" than Redwall's "cute animal arthurian heroics" but it's got the cute animals and some interesting modern design instead of being just another goddamn game of "six stats, D20 + mods vs target number". Adam Koebel did a first look that covers quite a bit of the game. It seems pretty good so far. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KypL4lwSwf8 Plus it seems like it was written by a human being and not Luke Crane so that's good. e: apparently it's full of imperialist colonizer "both sides" apologia so lmao nevermind Rip_Van_Winkle fucked around with this message at 22:53 on Jan 2, 2020 |
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Jan 2, 2020 22:06
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Adam Koebel is cute as hell and his solo Ironsworn series is a good time.
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Jan 2, 2020 22:08
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The Root RPG did not sound good, from what other people posted back when the KS was running. Maybe they fixed some of the design issues but I somehow doubt they fixed the ideological ones.
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Jan 2, 2020 22:27
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Antivehicular posted:I try my very hardest not to judge, but every time I see people roleplaying in public, someone is doing a voice they shouldn't be doing, delivering some incredibly stupid dialogue, or both. The time there was a D&D group in a board-game cafe talking very loudly and at length about crawling up a dragon's rear end in a top hat kind of takes the cake, though. Yeah the kenku did ok all in all. I'd be up to keep playing him, although I'd want to hash out precisely what it means when they say he can only speak through mimicry. If a bird-man has been living around other races for 30 years, he ought to have heard enough words that he can repeat everything he needs for a conversation no trouble, even if he ends up mimicking a dozen different voices in the process. People were talking about big groups in the previous thread, and last night's A.L. game had nine players. The aforementioned voice-guy turned out to be incredibly obnoxious; he did almost everything (character dialog, "I'm gonna move over here and cast magic missile", and just general game-related chatter) in the voice and at twice the volume of anyone else at the table. Besides that guy, the biggest problem with the game was the sheer size of the group: in each of the three battles we found ourselves trying to maneuver into some sort of position through a 5 foot doorway or hallway. The final battle (against 2 nothics) began with most of the party stretched along a 5-foot wide corridor, and it took us at least 3 rounds before everybody managed to get shuffled out of the drat hallway.
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Jan 2, 2020 22:40
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Lemon-Lime posted:The Root RPG did not sound good, from what other people posted back when the KS was running. Ah gently caress dang, thanks for the details. I skipped all the parts about the fluff because if a game's mechanics aren't good I don't care how good their setting is, but yeah that's Not Great.
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Jan 2, 2020 22:48
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As of right now, the Kickstarter for Jenna Moran's new game, Glitch, is tentatively scheduled to begin on January 8th.
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Jan 3, 2020 00:33
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Has anyone participated in Zine Quest? Is anyone planning to participate in Zine Quest 2? It's there a more appropriate thread to chat about it?
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Jan 3, 2020 00:38
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FirstAidKite posted:To anyone here who does any DMing using original content, how much work do you put into it? How do you go about designing it? Obviously you have to have some kind of idea about what the party should be doing and so in that way you can have some control over things, but the party could just as easily end up going in a different direction entirely and obviously the DM can't account for every single potential player decision. The kind of game I'm running defines what kind of preparation I'm doing as far as having scenes/sessions/etc in mind. If we're running a game with a definite premise and end goal in mind, that's different than if we're running a game where the players are isolated adventurers/runners taking things one job at a time. For games where there's more of an overarching plot/story (especially ones where there's an end goal I already have planned, specific or not), I usually have a few set plot ideas in mind between the beginning and the end. From there I tend to intersperse plot-specific sessions with:
Your mileage will vary depending on things like how often you all meet and session length but for my game where we have ~3 hour sessions once a weekish, I try to have one important-plot-thing happen every 3-5 sessions. Per-session, in general, I try to figure out what my party will be planning to do before the session starts (when I was running my fake Shadowrun game I'd have them pick jobs between sessions) and think up a few setbacks, obstacles, and dangers in the way of doing that. For noncombat obstacles, usually I try to define a simple task the party's trying to do. Let's say they're trying to enter a city to deliver a message: well, now the city's in lockdown. What now? From there I try to think of three to four details I can provide that would provide solutions:
If they try any of these, or anything similarly plausible (there's going to be some super-obvious thing that you hadn't accounted for and you should reward them thinking of this), these should move things forward. Assuming there's some sort of mechanics involved in things like this, make sure you come up with a plausible fail-forward results or further obstacles:
For combat, it depends system to system, but especially with more tactical systems you should favor relatively simple enemies in interesting locations over interesting enemies in boring locations. It's a lot faster to set up for most D&D-likes, much less intensive in practice, and gives a better sense of what you're doing at any given point. For important enemies where what they're fighting is more important than the experience of fighting it (like a named NPC they've interacted with prior), you can more readily get away with a more interesting enemy in a less interesting area. Hopefully any of this will be of any help to you. Extra large fries and a large McFlurry, please.
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Jan 3, 2020 00:54
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Lemon-Lime posted:The Root RPG did not sound good, from what other people posted back when the KS was running. My main problem with it is that every time I read the name I imagine a game that will let me play as Root from Person of Interest and every time it is not that game.
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Jan 3, 2020 02:07
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Leraika posted:Go on.... I hesitate to say too much since it's still very much in development. The endorsement I can give for Tales of Timberwind is this: I played a badger who retired from soldiering to become a traveling merchant with a cart pulled by giant beetles, dragging his companions along on a get-rich-quick scheme to sell what he earnestly believed was "the finest quality sand" to the squirrel astronomers of Pine Towers for their telescope lenses. A third of the the session was spent with our river otter minstrel and fox "scout" (shameless thief) turning a peaceful marketplace into a rioting mob over the threat of jam thieves; another third involved a chase sequence through a giant pine-turned-observatory, ending in sabotaging our own cart so that it would overturn and capture an evil opossum wizard. And another third involved delightful pastoral scenes with a family of rats who genuinely want nothing more than to make incredible fruit jams and sell them to you at bargain prices. All of this was robustly supported by the mechanics. Game is delightful, keep an eye out for it! Rand Brittain posted:As of right now, the Kickstarter for Jenna Moran's new game, Glitch, is tentatively scheduled to begin on January 8th. My body is ready, and my wallet can deal with it.
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Jan 3, 2020 02:27
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Pham Nuwen posted:People were talking about big groups in the previous thread, and last night's A.L. game had nine players. There used to be a rule of seven max but I forgot they changed that a few months back.  I'll be DMing my first games since the new season started at a con this weekend and now I'm terrified. Please don't do me like that, organizers...
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Jan 3, 2020 02:45
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DressCodeBlue posted:There used to be a rule of seven max but I forgot they changed that a few months back. I was the 9th, and the DM was really nice to squeeze me in, and I think he'd probably already stretched a bit to include a dad & his two kids. If he'd refused me, I'd have understood... and gone home I guess. With the game fresh in my mind, if you're running a big game please clamp down on goofy crosstalk. As a player I didn't feel right saying something in the game, but man I get tired of guys shouting "Haha yeah like the dart just stuck in his hair and like he just picks his teeth with it hahah" while one of the more soft-spoken players is just trying to loving take his action and I can't hear what he's saying.
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Jan 3, 2020 02:51
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We played Dying in Space tonight at the game parlor. One of our group is apparently friends with the devs which is how he discovered it. It was really fun! Our ship was a space zoo trying collect rare animals from space and establish the first zoo on Mars. Officially it was for philanthropy but unofficially it was to kickstart the Mars tourist industry. We died in space when the Void Pigeon communication opened up a hole to the warp that tore the ship apart. It was a good time
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Jan 3, 2020 03:04
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Tibalt posted:Has anyone participated in Zine Quest? Is anyone planning to participate in Zine Quest 2? It's there a more appropriate thread to chat about it? Zinequest good. Do zinequest.
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Jan 3, 2020 03:14
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Lemon-Lime posted:The Root RPG did not sound good, from what other people posted back when the KS was running. Well drat
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Jan 3, 2020 03:22
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Kestral posted:
Definitely will, especially if I can hack it to run Hakumei to Mikochi as well (it sounds like it).
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Jan 3, 2020 03:24
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Tibalt posted:Has anyone participated in Zine Quest? Is anyone planning to participate in Zine Quest 2? It's there a more appropriate thread to chat about it? I don't think I can get more than 8 pages out of Advanced Creeks & Crawdads, so no. But my credit card is primed to back a bunch of cool poo poo. Last year had some real gems come out (*cough* Goblinville * cough * Four Ways To Die In the Future *cough*).
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Jan 3, 2020 03:36
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Rip_Van_Winkle posted:Ah gently caress dang, thanks for the details. I skipped all the parts about the fluff because if a game's mechanics aren't good I don't care how good their setting is, but yeah that's Not Great. Am I in the minority in being perfectly okay with a TTRPG or I guess most media not following my morality or culture norms and realities? There's definitely a limit, like even if a clear nazi RPG has great mechanics I don't think I'd wanna play a game about Vampire Hitler doing nothing wrong, or games about rape magic. I'm okay if in a game setting say colonialism or divine right and monarchy isn't inherently bad. Those sorts of things do require some care though, like a game that pretty much lazily has things setup as "Not-Europe is the base setting, but there's also a mysterious Magic-Orient! That's completely not racist because uh we made it a mix of Japan and China as one culture (but yes a ton of not-European countries get near perfect analogues, why do you ask?)" I'm also okay if in a d&d-alike we don't go into the implications of murderhobos and inherently evil races or killing sentient creatures to craft cool gear. Games that subvert those tropes, or handle them in a mature way are great of course and it's also okay to say bring up "Is using charm person to make someone love you evil?" in a game or genre if everyone is on board, but I'm just not going to dismiss say John Wick because murder IRL is wrong, even if someone killed your puppy.
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Jan 3, 2020 03:54
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my approach to DMing is to plan the skeleton of stuff and flesh it out with improv. to help with impromptu battles i keep a pool of appropriately levelled encounters that i can deploy when based on the situation. i mostly play over roll20 so having a few little maps set up with monsters is helpful. setpieces i tend to assemble in advance, but i'll add or remove obstacles depending on how the party is doing. i don't want to spend 10 minutes making the party cross a pit if they've just spent half an hour on a magical door.
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Jan 3, 2020 04:35
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Coolness Averted posted:Am I in the minority in being perfectly okay with a TTRPG or I guess most media not following my morality or culture norms and realities? I think it's fine to enjoy those games but it's also good to critically examine those games and have a very clear idea of why the story it's telling you is fucky and from whence your enjoyment derives. Personally I think it just tends to be really lazy so I don't really get a lot out of those kinds of settings/stories anymore. I've just seen it too many times. Very rarely do you see an actual interesting take that leans on colonialist/racist/sexist/whateverist tropes to tell its story anymore. Not that it can't happen or that you're bad if you do like something, it's just not what I personally look for.
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Jan 3, 2020 04:35
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Tibalt posted:Has anyone participated in Zine Quest? Is anyone planning to participate in Zine Quest 2? It's there a more appropriate thread to chat about it? I don't think there is yet, but if someone posted a Zine Quest thread with a good OP I'd sticky that bad boy 
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Jan 3, 2020 06:40
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Rip_Van_Winkle posted:e: apparently it's full of imperialist colonizer "both sides" apologia so lmao nevermind
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Jan 3, 2020 07:24
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juggalo baby coffin posted:my approach to DMing is to plan the skeleton of stuff and flesh it out with improv. to help with impromptu battles i keep a pool of appropriately levelled encounters that i can deploy when based on the situation. i mostly play over roll20 so having a few little maps set up with monsters is helpful. The last game I ran was a Traveller module. We got through that, and it ended up with the PCs getting away with a fair amount of (positive) notoriety and getting the attention of some of the moneyed and/or noble classes. So I grabbed some index cards and came up with a half-dozen wealthy or noble families and noted down a few details and names on a card each. Then I did a card each for their family seats, drawing inspiration from Bond villain lairs, including a residence set into an active volcano (hurrah for high technology !). Then I worked out which of the next dozen adventures I could segue into now that the players had access to powerful patrons, and did a card for each adventure with good, generic, hooks. Naturally the group fell apart and we didn't keep playing Traveller, but I still have the cards !
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Jan 3, 2020 07:36
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Tibalt posted:Has anyone participated in Zine Quest? Is anyone planning to participate in Zine Quest 2? It's there a more appropriate thread to chat about it? I am tentatively in for this year, assuming I can generate enough content for it to be worth shilling out a buck or two for.
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Jan 3, 2020 10:47
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Coolness Averted posted:Am I in the minority in being perfectly okay with a TTRPG or I guess most media not following my morality or culture norms and realities? i mean there's some wiggle room like i generally don't believe in murder as a solution for (most) problems irl but will accept it in games but i'm really not into "evil races" cause i find that poo poo just as lazy and bad as your setting example also puppy killing is absolutely grounds for murder
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Jan 3, 2020 10:59
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