Brian Rogers (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
subplotkudzu) wrote2006-09-04 07:40 am
subplotkudzu) wrote2006-09-04 07:40 am
Entry tags:
The Second Prospectus
I branched out a little in this one, producing some very off beat campaign ideas but obviously didn't do a good enough job explaining them, which combined with the players gravitation to GM directed games with questions of "it sounds...interesting, but what would we do?"
I also did some, er, campaigning. I explained to one player that the Trek game was really based on the SF game I had toyed with a few years back that she had been really enthused about, and this time she gave a very similar description a much higher rating, which ultimately put it over the top.
The Russia Campaign Book 2: Pilgrimage for D&D (A2, S3, K3, J4 = 12)
Maksyn's worst winter in a generation is finally ending. Clues that Reuvin pulled from discovered texts indicate answers to the old Boyar's madness might be found in Constantinople. How hard can it be to reach the center of Eastern Orthodoxy, evade the besieging Turks, find what you need in the city's literally Byzantine bureaucracy, avoid the war and return to solve the mysteries beneath this unassuming Russian village?
An option for the Russia Campaign, this one leads you headlong into the defining war of the 15th century. Constantinople is still a city of vast knowledge and impressive magic. Heading there might make the resolution of the Apocalypse Tapestry easier. All you have to do is survive. Obviously, part of our ongoing D&D campaign.
The Russia Campaign Book 2: Descent for D&D (A2, S4, K3, J3 = 12)
Maksyn's worst winter in a generation is finally ending. Months of practice and strange new companions make opening the door in the seashell tower a possibility. The Reptoids have fled below, into the depths that drove the old Boyar mad and inspired the images on the Apocalypse Tapestry. Dare you follow? Dare you not? What waits below is known only to God and the Kindly Old Woman of the Forest, and neither reveals much.
This is the second of the two Russia options, which has you plunge directly into the caverns below the mines below the church below the Mad Boyar's basement. There are serious threats below, but you have stout hearts, strong limbs, nimble fingers and unshakeable faith. What's the worst that could happen? Again, this is our ongoing D&D setting.
Star Trek: Old Life, Old Civilizations for ST:RPG (A2, S4, K3, J3 =12)
The USS Carter, a Miranda class science vessel, navigates the ancient stars of the Alpha Quadrant, seeking out survivors of Earth's centuries old slowboats, exploring the ruins of vanished races and contacting new cultures that live amongst these shadows out of time. Archaeologists & explorers, diplomats & defenders, the they learn the galaxy's history so that the newborn Federation need not be doomed to repeat it.
Very early Trek, concurrent with Captain Pike on the Enterprise, with 4 main crew, a small secondary cast and a lot of red-shirted extras dealing with archeology and diplomacy in space. Each session is a discreet story tying into a short season, and combines both SF and Space Opera elements using the ST:RPG. If this is a success, we may return to it.
He Sang Real for Over the Edge(A3, S1, K1, J4 = 9)
The Green Nights are a hard rocking bar band with members from across the country staying one step ahead of their personal pasts. Life can get strange on that road; stuff happens that button-down men can't understand. You do the best you can, making a lot of music, doing a little good and grabbing some fun along the way. So set up the instruments, down the complimentary beer and get ready to rock.
It's the Monkees meets the Fugitive, as conceived and written by Tim Powers. Sure, it's strange, but it's a Tim Powers novel. It's *supposed* to be strange. The game engine is Over the Edge (which is both dirt simple and wonderfully weird), and it's a complete story in one arc.
Sterling's Game for FUDGE (A1, S2, K1, J3 = 7)
In the year 2009 the full promise of electronic connectivity & virtual reality are coming true for the EU. Pressure is building for England to finally abandon its beloved pound and buy into the Euro. That leaves a very small window for cunning group of thieves and con men to make a fortune in transition. Four thieves, nine figures, one sterling opportunity. Don't believe them when they say it can't be done.
Here's a con game inspired by The Sting, Oceans 11 and Entrapment. It's a complete story in one arc, starting with recruiting the team and ending with each getting either 30 million pounds or 30 to life. The game engine hasn't been built - FUDGE with cyber-tech, netrunning and Dramatic Editing included.
Voices in the Twilight for Godlike (A1, S2, K1, J3 = 7)
World War III wasn't so much a nuclear annihilation as it was a land slog in Eastern Europe with some radiation and bio-chem weapons. The reality is that you're cut off behind enemy lines in Poland and the USA has just decided to exit the war. The unreality is that something has happened to you...you can hear the future, see thoughts and taste the truth. For people who can move things without touch, is getting home really out of reach?
The "Twilight 2000/Psi-world crossover" idea I've played with for several years. While the setting might seem grim, I'll be using the slightly pulpier Godlike engine rather than T2K's bloody realism and the objectives are hopeful: can you get home, and how can your strange new gifts rebuild a shattered world? There is a potential sequel to this one.
This round of voting showed one of the weaknesses in my point system, in that three of the choices were tied with the same voting numbers. This means I got to pick my favorite of the three, but I still wish for a clearer mandate from the players. This might not be possible with such a small pool.
In any event, this one game a few new observations. The gratifying one is that Jason just likes every idea I put forward. The second is that by querying the players I can tailor ideas that didn't sell last time into ones that do sell, illustrated by the shift from 'the First generation' to 'Old Lives, Old Civilizations'. The third is that I can't trust that my players are going to share my pointless eccentric knowledge, as 3 of the 4 didn't catch the Arthurian Myth references in 'He Sang Real' - was trying to shroud it a little so there'd be some unfolding mystery in the setting, but in the pre Da Vinci Code days I was being a little too obscure.
The continuing observation is that the players again gravitated strongly to the GM-directed games: both of the D&Ds did well, and ST is very clearly GM directed, with either the problem planet of the week or orders from Starfleet. I broke in favor of ST and am very glad I did.
Trek was a shock for the players because while it was GM directed in what the problem was, it was entirely player directed in how to solve it. They had vast resources at their disposal, but no one to immediately turn to and no excuse to run away: out on the frontier, they were the Federation. The players really enjoyed the game, but ended each session feeling a wee bit wrung out.
Still, this experience left me thinking that if I were to give them a directed goal, I might be able to get them to take control of how to get there, freeing up some of the GM directed tendencies. And on to Prospectus 3.
I also did some, er, campaigning. I explained to one player that the Trek game was really based on the SF game I had toyed with a few years back that she had been really enthused about, and this time she gave a very similar description a much higher rating, which ultimately put it over the top.
The Russia Campaign Book 2: Pilgrimage for D&D (A2, S3, K3, J4 = 12)
Maksyn's worst winter in a generation is finally ending. Clues that Reuvin pulled from discovered texts indicate answers to the old Boyar's madness might be found in Constantinople. How hard can it be to reach the center of Eastern Orthodoxy, evade the besieging Turks, find what you need in the city's literally Byzantine bureaucracy, avoid the war and return to solve the mysteries beneath this unassuming Russian village?
An option for the Russia Campaign, this one leads you headlong into the defining war of the 15th century. Constantinople is still a city of vast knowledge and impressive magic. Heading there might make the resolution of the Apocalypse Tapestry easier. All you have to do is survive. Obviously, part of our ongoing D&D campaign.
The Russia Campaign Book 2: Descent for D&D (A2, S4, K3, J3 = 12)
Maksyn's worst winter in a generation is finally ending. Months of practice and strange new companions make opening the door in the seashell tower a possibility. The Reptoids have fled below, into the depths that drove the old Boyar mad and inspired the images on the Apocalypse Tapestry. Dare you follow? Dare you not? What waits below is known only to God and the Kindly Old Woman of the Forest, and neither reveals much.
This is the second of the two Russia options, which has you plunge directly into the caverns below the mines below the church below the Mad Boyar's basement. There are serious threats below, but you have stout hearts, strong limbs, nimble fingers and unshakeable faith. What's the worst that could happen? Again, this is our ongoing D&D setting.
Star Trek: Old Life, Old Civilizations for ST:RPG (A2, S4, K3, J3 =12)
The USS Carter, a Miranda class science vessel, navigates the ancient stars of the Alpha Quadrant, seeking out survivors of Earth's centuries old slowboats, exploring the ruins of vanished races and contacting new cultures that live amongst these shadows out of time. Archaeologists & explorers, diplomats & defenders, the they learn the galaxy's history so that the newborn Federation need not be doomed to repeat it.
Very early Trek, concurrent with Captain Pike on the Enterprise, with 4 main crew, a small secondary cast and a lot of red-shirted extras dealing with archeology and diplomacy in space. Each session is a discreet story tying into a short season, and combines both SF and Space Opera elements using the ST:RPG. If this is a success, we may return to it.
He Sang Real for Over the Edge(A3, S1, K1, J4 = 9)
The Green Nights are a hard rocking bar band with members from across the country staying one step ahead of their personal pasts. Life can get strange on that road; stuff happens that button-down men can't understand. You do the best you can, making a lot of music, doing a little good and grabbing some fun along the way. So set up the instruments, down the complimentary beer and get ready to rock.
It's the Monkees meets the Fugitive, as conceived and written by Tim Powers. Sure, it's strange, but it's a Tim Powers novel. It's *supposed* to be strange. The game engine is Over the Edge (which is both dirt simple and wonderfully weird), and it's a complete story in one arc.
Sterling's Game for FUDGE (A1, S2, K1, J3 = 7)
In the year 2009 the full promise of electronic connectivity & virtual reality are coming true for the EU. Pressure is building for England to finally abandon its beloved pound and buy into the Euro. That leaves a very small window for cunning group of thieves and con men to make a fortune in transition. Four thieves, nine figures, one sterling opportunity. Don't believe them when they say it can't be done.
Here's a con game inspired by The Sting, Oceans 11 and Entrapment. It's a complete story in one arc, starting with recruiting the team and ending with each getting either 30 million pounds or 30 to life. The game engine hasn't been built - FUDGE with cyber-tech, netrunning and Dramatic Editing included.
Voices in the Twilight for Godlike (A1, S2, K1, J3 = 7)
World War III wasn't so much a nuclear annihilation as it was a land slog in Eastern Europe with some radiation and bio-chem weapons. The reality is that you're cut off behind enemy lines in Poland and the USA has just decided to exit the war. The unreality is that something has happened to you...you can hear the future, see thoughts and taste the truth. For people who can move things without touch, is getting home really out of reach?
The "Twilight 2000/Psi-world crossover" idea I've played with for several years. While the setting might seem grim, I'll be using the slightly pulpier Godlike engine rather than T2K's bloody realism and the objectives are hopeful: can you get home, and how can your strange new gifts rebuild a shattered world? There is a potential sequel to this one.
This round of voting showed one of the weaknesses in my point system, in that three of the choices were tied with the same voting numbers. This means I got to pick my favorite of the three, but I still wish for a clearer mandate from the players. This might not be possible with such a small pool.
In any event, this one game a few new observations. The gratifying one is that Jason just likes every idea I put forward. The second is that by querying the players I can tailor ideas that didn't sell last time into ones that do sell, illustrated by the shift from 'the First generation' to 'Old Lives, Old Civilizations'. The third is that I can't trust that my players are going to share my pointless eccentric knowledge, as 3 of the 4 didn't catch the Arthurian Myth references in 'He Sang Real' - was trying to shroud it a little so there'd be some unfolding mystery in the setting, but in the pre Da Vinci Code days I was being a little too obscure.
The continuing observation is that the players again gravitated strongly to the GM-directed games: both of the D&Ds did well, and ST is very clearly GM directed, with either the problem planet of the week or orders from Starfleet. I broke in favor of ST and am very glad I did.
Trek was a shock for the players because while it was GM directed in what the problem was, it was entirely player directed in how to solve it. They had vast resources at their disposal, but no one to immediately turn to and no excuse to run away: out on the frontier, they were the Federation. The players really enjoyed the game, but ended each session feeling a wee bit wrung out.
Still, this experience left me thinking that if I were to give them a directed goal, I might be able to get them to take control of how to get there, freeing up some of the GM directed tendencies. And on to Prospectus 3.
no subject
As for the Massive Government attack and such, guilty as charged. I really should have loaned you a swath of X-Men comics to counterbalance things. I played into your other expectations in play, and the villains were as heinous as they were, because of a sheer lack of prep work on my part. I don't deny I'm bearing a lot of the brunt from this. lots of comic book stuff (the not killing, the fact that guns are sucky weapons, etc.) didn't translate, but are built right innto the mechanics. I have commented in A&E that one of the problems with the game was that I was setting up a supers game and at least 2 of the players were playing an SF one.
As for the herding too fast, I can understand how you might think that, but I did list that as part of the game: if this is the X-men from the movies, they have a large, fairly bucolic base. They deal with the large threats of renegade mutants and attempts to wipe out human kind. The X-men aren't street level heroes, so I wasn't expecting that and didn't think you had signed up for that. And if we had had a group character creation system, some of these expectations would have been a lot clearer.
Roulette didn't have a clue what was going on - his clue was entitled "they're trying to kill us so we should kill all of them", and he managed to be in the right place at the right time because he's a precog, not because he has good data. Yes, he was sympathetic and helpful and charming to you, you're other Psis. You're his people. And one of the points of a player directed game is to not turn to the NPC who seems to have a clue what's going on and follow his lead. Once I had the revelation that forced Roulette off the stage you guys did have some thoughts on how to get your own accurate information, but at that point the stress fractures from the other disconnects were starting to show.
But all told, yes, there were huge group communication issues here, and getting back to my contention I think one reason for those is a group leaning towards GM directed games. We didn't naturally fall into a player directed one, and I suspect that had Karen not been present the voting wouldn't have produced one, even with that player-directed slate.
no subject
I have two thoughts on how this might have been made to flow better.
First, is to run with the fact that we were starting with raw origins ... let the group rummage around for two or three sessions, and realize that they need to get organized. Then do a two to five year time-slip and pick up after the bucolic institution has been built...
Second, it may have flowed better to start in media res, with all of the infrastructure already in place. If we look at the Aquarius game (Brian's 'once in a while' aquatic supers game), all of the pieces were there already -- the sup, the labs, the corporation -- and it made a natural transition to being Super Eco Defenders when we got our powers.
2¢l
no subject
I did something vaguely related with my campaign set in Middle-Earth after Sauron caught Frodo and took the Ring back: The first two sessions were prologue, showing where each character was in Middle-Earth, how they experienced the impact of Sauron's victory (one of Elrond's sons regaining consciousness near Cirith Ungol with no memory of who he was; a Gondorian noblewoman taking her younger brother North for safety two days ahead of Sauron's hordes coming in; a hobbit escaping from slavery in the conquered Shire), and how they came to be together. I guaranteed the players that their character would live through the prologue and start play with unmodified character sheets. That meant that I could spend those sessions on graphic exposition, with a panorama of Sauron's Victory.
no subject
no subject
Well, given that we were at the end of session 2 I thought we might have done that, but I see your point. You had actually dealt the Firebrands a considerable blow at that point so there wasn't much else to do in Chicago, but giving you another session to figure that out might have helped -- but not without a discussion like the one we're having now.
That would have been purpose defeating to my goal of having a player-driven game where you built something, however. The goal of the Aquarius Odyssey was for a high Wonder supers game that might introduce some of the genre rules (and you still outright nixed secret IDs and costumes!). The pre-existence of EMS Exploration was a vehicle for that sort of story; the building of the Micah Foundation was the stated goal for the Psi-Men game. (Or at least, I thought I had stated it; in retrospect, maybe not.)
no subject
no subject
I have already engaged some of the A&E crew to see if I could make Hero suit the purpose, or if I can gt Jim to run something in GURPS so I can internalize the system it might serve. One thing that's clear is that the Marvel system's hard coded 4 color morality and neutered conventional weapons is not going to serve.
no subject
Hey, it's not as bad as all that! Damara's only just, you know, had to rearrange her ENTIRE LIFE because of all this. Sure, in a way it's partly the same charitable stuff she was doing before, and she's got plenty to keep her busy, but still. And then there's the GUILT. Since she's just not a naturally violent person, any need for violence will always cause her trouble - and she'll avoid it if at all possible. Plenty of room for conflict within the group over that, I suspect ...
no subject
The problem wasn't so much the goal; we got lost in the getting there.
no subject
Your post mortem is very healthy as it allows you all, players and GM, to air what went wrong from your own perspective and to try to learn from it and avoid it happening again.
I'm getting the impression that the game is salvageable as none of the players are screaming 'No, no never again!'in which case I hope you have fun.
no subject
player-directed vs. GM directed - I would have needed a big lesson on that. My previous experiences would not have begun to have let that notion enter in to my head.
I was on board with the "Conspiracy" theory also. I found it particularly had to wrap my brain around not killing people. Which sounds weird when typing it. My point is that role-playing for me is fantasy based and when you see the enemy you kill it.