Brian Rogers (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
subplotkudzu) wrote2006-09-03 07:27 am
subplotkudzu) wrote2006-09-03 07:27 am
Entry tags:
The first prospectus
The tyrant overthrown, we now see the first democratic slate where the players are allowed the freedom to choose. . . the best possible candidate of these six choices that I carefully vetted. Feel empowered yet? I included the votes alongside the titles, and have some observations on the choices, old and new. (I should note that the campaign prospectus ID came to me by way of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
whswhs and he has written a a Pyramid article on the subject ($).
The Russia Campaign, Book 2 for D&D (J3, K4, A2, S2 = 11)
Opening with the tales of the Arabian Nights from the boyars books rescued from Era and Ilena, out heroes continue their investigations and explorations. Some evidence will strongly point to doing more research in the grand libraries of Constantinople. But do they really want to go that far when the twisted tower door is just waiting for them underground, with the Kobold tribe hiding behind it? Whatever the heroes decide, the quest is getting deeper, and more dangerous.
Which is to say, continuing with what we're doing. Ruvin's readings revealed the Constantinople connection, and I'll need to know which direction you guys will take so I don't spend a lot of time and effort working up something you won't ever use. Be warned, heading to the big city means entering into a full tilt war. Whatever you choose, due to player concerns the Mongol plot has been temporarily scrapped. The Mongols will be returning once you are high enough level to kick their Bubgear Butts.
1001 New York Nights, Season 2: 'Summer in the City' for Feng Shui (J2, K4, A4, S3 = 13)
Sure the Seven Tigers and Ape-Bombers have been dealt with, but the cops of the Chinatown Special District still have a tough job to do. How will Hoa respond to his invited initiation into the conspiracy? What is the agenda of Large Marge and Night Raven's Black Company? What does Master Cho want with Anna? Does Brendon the Humble File Clerk ever leave the office? And how important is all of this, really, when the Russia Mafia is muscling into the district, looking to start a full tilt gang war? Plus, the inevitable return of the highly literate assassin!
In other words, going back to the old game with a new main police plot to act as a base for the growing weirdness.
Star Trek: The First Generation for ST:RPG (J2, K2, A3, S3 = 10)
Space is still the frontier, full of mystery, adventure and above all secrets. The crew of the _Miranda_ Class _USS Carter_ are on a mission to seek out old life and old civilizations. Archaeologists and Explorers, Diplomats and Defenders, these contemporaries of Christopher Pike (the _Enterprise-_ Captain before Kirk) are threading together the secrets of the past to forge a Federation strong enough to face the future.
I'd like to make some sense of the convoluted Trek chronology. Expect to run into Tholains, Iconians, Orions, Sheliak and other seldom used races. There will be an obligatory encounter with the Klingons, because Trek isn't Trek without Klingons. This is likely to be designed close to the original show in cast – we'll have 4 main crew (the PCs, on par with Kirk, Spock and McCoy), a smaller number of main NPCs (The Scotty, Sulu, Uhura & Chekov equivalents) and a horde of crewmen who die to let you know something is serious. Like the Feng Shui game, I'd like each session to be a single, self contained episode in a short ‘season'.
Atlantis! For Silver Age Sentinels (J3, K1, A2, S1 = 7)
It's the greatest metropolis in a country once as reliable as the southern current, but lately seems to change as rapidly as the tides. In two generations technological advancement has changed Atlantis in ways no one could imagine: with instant communication, affordable personal transportation machines and rapid-fire sidearms, this is not your grandfathers Atlantis. Plus, a well intentioned movement to ban Dream Coral turned small gangs into juggernauts of organized crime, and immigrants from Lemuria, Mu and other countries are altering Altantean culture. The world under the waves is in turmoil and calls for two fisted heroes to defend it. Experience Pulp adventure as you never have before – at the bottom of the sea!
I admit, this one is weird, but I just think it's so darn neat. Yes, it really all takes place under water, so a lot of the world will be modified to deal with a three dimensional environment. And Yes, the position of the culture is very similar to 1920's America. Why not run it on land? Well, because I like the idea of Atlantis being a living thriving city rather than a place surface people visit, and the Pulps are such a riotously fun time period. Anyone with a good knowledge of 20's and 30's America will grasp the underpinnings of the setting quickly, but the aquatic nature should put a new spin on things.
Guts, Guns and Grit for the d6 System (J2, K0, A1, S0 = 3)
Welcome to the West: Iconic heroes stride across a landscape that is almost larger than life. Simple folk try to lead simple lives in a world where might too often makes right, unless strong willed men and women stand up for what America can and should mean. Are you such people? Promise City has the potential to be everything you could want, but first you have to get there. Then you may have to set some things right....
I admit to not having a huge plot in mind for this one. I have several available resources, but I'd want to see the PCs first before building the 5 session story. What I'm looking for here is something a much like Silverado, where heroes of various stripes converge on a town for various reasons – though perhaps all of the PCs could be related. I just really like the iconic Western imagery (and may ask each of you to pick a Major Arcana that identifies your character) and setting. Be warned: No Magic, no Psi, No Steampunk. Just what the title advertises. The System is d6 – that is to say, the old Star Wars mechanic, the one we used with Bob last summer.
At Play in the Fields of the Lord for Mage: The Ascension (J4, M3, A2, S4 = 13)
Magic is the ability to rewrite the world to your will. Unfortunately, on the grand scheme you have to compete with the will of everyone else, and everyone else has been convinced that there is no wild magic left in the world. The Technocracy holds sway, and whatever good they did for humanity is now outweighed by the oppressive rigidity they now embrace. By their calculations, in a decade their control becomes absolute and the world is reduced to pure soulless clockwork precision. Can you representatives of scattered old and new magical traditions forge a new paradigm for humanity before it's too late?
Mage is one of those games I've always liked, but never had time to do something with. Here, I'm blessed because of the group only Jay knows the game at all, and I can freely change all the stuff I don't like. What I'm presenting is the default Mage conflict, brought it front and center for a high speed, high action game – I want you guys to have an up front serious impact by being really audacious and clever. If it ends up feeling like the Matrix with magic I won't be at all upset.
The first observation was the players gravitated towards the familiar (Feng Shui & D&D) over anything too weird, such as 'Atlantis!'; the second was the players admission that the setting needed some non-natural elements to catch their interest. Fair enough and good to know. I ended up breaking the tie in favor of Summer in the City and against Mage, and in light of recent observations that was a good move.
As you can see, the players gravitated again towards GM controlled games - the dungeon crawl and the NPC directed onionskin mystery. The Mage game was, in my head, almost entirely player driven, and I suspect it for a good score because of the Matrix parallel and the knowledge one player had of the system. If I had gone with that and did what I expected -- dropped them in the world with a pile of background information and asked them what they wanted to do to change the world paradigm -- they would have stared at me blankly and the game, if it survived, would have been all about them running from thee technocracy until I gave them some tech haven to blow up. Too much information to digest in one go, which is a fair obstacle for 4 players meeting monthly with busy lives.
The slow unfolding of the universe, where the Players can absorb in stages, is better for these players. But those are again GM directed: you have this problem, this mystery, are being asked to do this by these NPCs. By the time the players have parsed out everything they're enmeshed in someone else's agenda, which is where things stand in the 1001 NYN game - even though two of the PCs are fighting to disengage themselves from the Ascended, they're very likely to end up working with the other two in another NPC controlled conspiracy.
So how do I get the players to take more control?
On to prospectus two...
whswhs and he has written a a Pyramid article on the subject ($).The Russia Campaign, Book 2 for D&D (J3, K4, A2, S2 = 11)
Opening with the tales of the Arabian Nights from the boyars books rescued from Era and Ilena, out heroes continue their investigations and explorations. Some evidence will strongly point to doing more research in the grand libraries of Constantinople. But do they really want to go that far when the twisted tower door is just waiting for them underground, with the Kobold tribe hiding behind it? Whatever the heroes decide, the quest is getting deeper, and more dangerous.
Which is to say, continuing with what we're doing. Ruvin's readings revealed the Constantinople connection, and I'll need to know which direction you guys will take so I don't spend a lot of time and effort working up something you won't ever use. Be warned, heading to the big city means entering into a full tilt war. Whatever you choose, due to player concerns the Mongol plot has been temporarily scrapped. The Mongols will be returning once you are high enough level to kick their Bubgear Butts.
1001 New York Nights, Season 2: 'Summer in the City' for Feng Shui (J2, K4, A4, S3 = 13)
Sure the Seven Tigers and Ape-Bombers have been dealt with, but the cops of the Chinatown Special District still have a tough job to do. How will Hoa respond to his invited initiation into the conspiracy? What is the agenda of Large Marge and Night Raven's Black Company? What does Master Cho want with Anna? Does Brendon the Humble File Clerk ever leave the office? And how important is all of this, really, when the Russia Mafia is muscling into the district, looking to start a full tilt gang war? Plus, the inevitable return of the highly literate assassin!
In other words, going back to the old game with a new main police plot to act as a base for the growing weirdness.
Star Trek: The First Generation for ST:RPG (J2, K2, A3, S3 = 10)
Space is still the frontier, full of mystery, adventure and above all secrets. The crew of the _Miranda_ Class _USS Carter_ are on a mission to seek out old life and old civilizations. Archaeologists and Explorers, Diplomats and Defenders, these contemporaries of Christopher Pike (the _Enterprise-_ Captain before Kirk) are threading together the secrets of the past to forge a Federation strong enough to face the future.
I'd like to make some sense of the convoluted Trek chronology. Expect to run into Tholains, Iconians, Orions, Sheliak and other seldom used races. There will be an obligatory encounter with the Klingons, because Trek isn't Trek without Klingons. This is likely to be designed close to the original show in cast – we'll have 4 main crew (the PCs, on par with Kirk, Spock and McCoy), a smaller number of main NPCs (The Scotty, Sulu, Uhura & Chekov equivalents) and a horde of crewmen who die to let you know something is serious. Like the Feng Shui game, I'd like each session to be a single, self contained episode in a short ‘season'.
Atlantis! For Silver Age Sentinels (J3, K1, A2, S1 = 7)
It's the greatest metropolis in a country once as reliable as the southern current, but lately seems to change as rapidly as the tides. In two generations technological advancement has changed Atlantis in ways no one could imagine: with instant communication, affordable personal transportation machines and rapid-fire sidearms, this is not your grandfathers Atlantis. Plus, a well intentioned movement to ban Dream Coral turned small gangs into juggernauts of organized crime, and immigrants from Lemuria, Mu and other countries are altering Altantean culture. The world under the waves is in turmoil and calls for two fisted heroes to defend it. Experience Pulp adventure as you never have before – at the bottom of the sea!
I admit, this one is weird, but I just think it's so darn neat. Yes, it really all takes place under water, so a lot of the world will be modified to deal with a three dimensional environment. And Yes, the position of the culture is very similar to 1920's America. Why not run it on land? Well, because I like the idea of Atlantis being a living thriving city rather than a place surface people visit, and the Pulps are such a riotously fun time period. Anyone with a good knowledge of 20's and 30's America will grasp the underpinnings of the setting quickly, but the aquatic nature should put a new spin on things.
Guts, Guns and Grit for the d6 System (J2, K0, A1, S0 = 3)
Welcome to the West: Iconic heroes stride across a landscape that is almost larger than life. Simple folk try to lead simple lives in a world where might too often makes right, unless strong willed men and women stand up for what America can and should mean. Are you such people? Promise City has the potential to be everything you could want, but first you have to get there. Then you may have to set some things right....
I admit to not having a huge plot in mind for this one. I have several available resources, but I'd want to see the PCs first before building the 5 session story. What I'm looking for here is something a much like Silverado, where heroes of various stripes converge on a town for various reasons – though perhaps all of the PCs could be related. I just really like the iconic Western imagery (and may ask each of you to pick a Major Arcana that identifies your character) and setting. Be warned: No Magic, no Psi, No Steampunk. Just what the title advertises. The System is d6 – that is to say, the old Star Wars mechanic, the one we used with Bob last summer.
At Play in the Fields of the Lord for Mage: The Ascension (J4, M3, A2, S4 = 13)
Magic is the ability to rewrite the world to your will. Unfortunately, on the grand scheme you have to compete with the will of everyone else, and everyone else has been convinced that there is no wild magic left in the world. The Technocracy holds sway, and whatever good they did for humanity is now outweighed by the oppressive rigidity they now embrace. By their calculations, in a decade their control becomes absolute and the world is reduced to pure soulless clockwork precision. Can you representatives of scattered old and new magical traditions forge a new paradigm for humanity before it's too late?
Mage is one of those games I've always liked, but never had time to do something with. Here, I'm blessed because of the group only Jay knows the game at all, and I can freely change all the stuff I don't like. What I'm presenting is the default Mage conflict, brought it front and center for a high speed, high action game – I want you guys to have an up front serious impact by being really audacious and clever. If it ends up feeling like the Matrix with magic I won't be at all upset.
The first observation was the players gravitated towards the familiar (Feng Shui & D&D) over anything too weird, such as 'Atlantis!'; the second was the players admission that the setting needed some non-natural elements to catch their interest. Fair enough and good to know. I ended up breaking the tie in favor of Summer in the City and against Mage, and in light of recent observations that was a good move.
As you can see, the players gravitated again towards GM controlled games - the dungeon crawl and the NPC directed onionskin mystery. The Mage game was, in my head, almost entirely player driven, and I suspect it for a good score because of the Matrix parallel and the knowledge one player had of the system. If I had gone with that and did what I expected -- dropped them in the world with a pile of background information and asked them what they wanted to do to change the world paradigm -- they would have stared at me blankly and the game, if it survived, would have been all about them running from thee technocracy until I gave them some tech haven to blow up. Too much information to digest in one go, which is a fair obstacle for 4 players meeting monthly with busy lives.
The slow unfolding of the universe, where the Players can absorb in stages, is better for these players. But those are again GM directed: you have this problem, this mystery, are being asked to do this by these NPCs. By the time the players have parsed out everything they're enmeshed in someone else's agenda, which is where things stand in the 1001 NYN game - even though two of the PCs are fighting to disengage themselves from the Ascended, they're very likely to end up working with the other two in another NPC controlled conspiracy.
So how do I get the players to take more control?
On to prospectus two...
no subject
Now, personally, I like Fields of the Lord best, and Atlantis second best; I'd rate both of them high, and the rest lower. I'm afraid Feng Shui has never had any appeal to me; I'd probably give 1001 NYN a 0 rating.
no subject
As for your choices, I have always been really jazzed about the Atlantis idea but this player group has repeatedly stared at it in horror. I might get to do something with it in a broader group. With Feng Shui, well, different strokes. It's been working for us as a solid Genre simulation, and I am only very slowly introducing the Secret War parts.