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Bigotry is abound, apprently, within these boards.  There is a level of supposed tolerance I will have no part of.  Obviously, it seems to be well-embraced here.  I have finally found something more fucked up than what I'm used to.  Congrats. - Ruby

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Open Bar: Drinks are on the Supreme Court

Started by Cain, October 02, 2018, 12:20:11 AM

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Pergamos

Quote from: Cain on April 04, 2019, 09:25:48 PM
"die easily"

GURPs says hi.

I GM GURPS and have yet to have a PC die that didn't intend to.

Pergamos

Quote from: Telarus on April 04, 2019, 10:02:57 PM
My daughter and her crew at vocational-school tried playing a session of Human Occupied Landfill last month. Yeah, that game never lasts more than 1 session. They went back to their weird oD&D+3.5+4+Pathfinder2.0 thing they play between other games...


If you want a game that takes this kind of this 'seriously/humorously' (instead of juvinile-humorously), I recommend Tales from the Floating Vagabond.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TabletopGame/TalesFromTheFloatingVagabond
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/2010/Tales-From-The-Floating-Vagabond


Also, I seemed to have designed something that can create character sheets for any system as part of another javascript-wiki I use. It helps if you know HTML a bit, and 'common wiki-syntax', to get started, so I'm trying to design a more user-friendly package. But it does need testing if anyone is curious.

I'd like to be involved,  I know HTML

Fujikoma

I didn't "get" roleplay when I first posted to these forums, which is a strange thing for a Discordian. I hadn't actually done any roleplay, I played some shitty DnD campaigns, the most traumatic of which wasn't a shitty campaign, it was run by my stepfather, a no-nonsense motherfucker who preferred to play "lawful evil"... yes, he was a right bastard. We should've kept playing but after the first TPK that we deserved, we walked away. Stupid.

Years later I find these MUDs classified as "RPIs", I didn't want to investigate but one of my board members on a PVP mud has a serious emotional breakdown over a dead character. I decided anything that caused anyone so much anguish, was worth investigating... so I did, the results are, I don't fucking know but actually RPing a character is fun as hell, despite the inevitable, fiery death.

Trivial

Ah HOL, I seem to remember cornholed by god was a stat or some sort of character trait.

I have the book with the CHART CHART somewhere.

I liked running Paranoia, but moments of it reminds me too much of work now.
Sexy Octopus of the Next Noosphere Horde

There are more nipples in the world than people.

Cramulus

I never actually got to play HOL, but the book was raw punk rock.. I love how it's clearly written by people that have had ENOUGH of D&D and "Gary" style games. And the fact that the whole thing looks like it's scribbled in someone's notebook gives it this rugged DIY energy.. makes me want to design my own game.

I have had a hankering recently for something that gives a different experience than the "power fantasy", or something that's less mechanically driven and more of a storytelling game. I have only run one session of Dungeon World, but I'm loving it because it's soooo collaborative. But I'm also the king of prep, and Dungeon World basically asks you not to prepare for sessions as a DM, aside from picking out a few images and monster ideas you want to incorporate.

I used to play white wolf a little bit, but I really felt like the gameplay described in the rulebook was always pretty far from how the game actually plays out (except for werewolf). Like, Vampire is a game ostensibly about people struggling and failing to retain their humanity, tragic personal spirals... except the games I played were always more like political thrillers, and the humanity was kind of just this mechanic. I feel like that probably expresses itself better over a long arc, but our games always just descended into petty PvP until we break up the chronicle because everybody's mad at each other.

Mage was real cool, but the game is, like, designed to spiral into a series of philosophical discussions. Which is fun if that's what you're into. But again, we never managed to resolve any cool plotlines because we'd get hung up on topics like "Can divination solve the Halting Problem?"

altered

Sometime we should chat about my system I've been working on, Cram. I have just started to get to the crunchy bits, but the high level stuff I've been working on is very very much a different experience than power fantasy (and it's more than theory, the structure is built to encourage it). Even when you parse power fantasy generally enough to catch spy shit in the mix. I think you'd have good input on some of the concepts, too.
"I am that worst of all type of criminal...I cannot bring myself to do what you tell me, because you told me."

There's over 100 of us in this meat-suit. You'd think it runs like a ship, but it's more like a hundred and ten angry ghosts having an old-school QuakeWorld tournament, three people desperately trying to make sure the gamers don't go hungry or soil themselves, and the Facilities manager weeping in the corner as the garbage piles high.

Don Coyote

Quote from: Cramulus on April 05, 2019, 02:02:56 PM
I never actually got to play HOL, but the book was raw punk rock.. I love how it's clearly written by people that have had ENOUGH of D&D and "Gary" style games. And the fact that the whole thing looks like it's scribbled in someone's notebook gives it this rugged DIY energy.. makes me want to design my own game.

I have had a hankering recently for something that gives a different experience than the "power fantasy", or something that's less mechanically driven and more of a storytelling game. I have only run one session of Dungeon World, but I'm loving it because it's soooo collaborative. But I'm also the king of prep, and Dungeon World basically asks you not to prepare for sessions as a DM, aside from picking out a few images and monster ideas you want to incorporate.

I used to play white wolf a little bit, but I really felt like the gameplay described in the rulebook was always pretty far from how the game actually plays out (except for werewolf). Like, Vampire is a game ostensibly about people struggling and failing to retain their humanity, tragic personal spirals... except the games I played were always more like political thrillers, and the humanity was kind of just this mechanic. I feel like that probably expresses itself better over a long arc, but our games always just descended into petty PvP until we break up the chronicle because everybody's mad at each other.

Mage was real cool, but the game is, like, designed to spiral into a series of philosophical discussions. Which is fun if that's what you're into. But again, we never managed to resolve any cool plotlines because we'd get hung up on topics like "Can divination solve the Halting Problem?"

I think those are universal experiences with WW games. VTM is always either political thriller or champions w/ fangs, and MTA either champions w/ MAJIK or PHIL.

altered

Wraith was pretty close to how it was described but I'm probably the only human being alive who actually enjoyed Wraith.

Also, Demon. Though Demon tended to get fucking stupid in the late stages of any campaign.

I guess Hunter was pretty close to how it was presented too, but really, who played Hunter? Anyone? Didn't fucking think so. And all the fun shit was Lost Creed shit anyway.
"I am that worst of all type of criminal...I cannot bring myself to do what you tell me, because you told me."

There's over 100 of us in this meat-suit. You'd think it runs like a ship, but it's more like a hundred and ten angry ghosts having an old-school QuakeWorld tournament, three people desperately trying to make sure the gamers don't go hungry or soil themselves, and the Facilities manager weeping in the corner as the garbage piles high.

Cramulus

I played one session of Hunter and it remains one of my fav RPG sessions ever. But probably because our troupe was really good, responded well to each other, really fleshed out those characters in interesting ways.


My buddy used to run Hunter as basically D&D that takes place in the world of darkness. I think--if that's what you want... werewolf does it much better.... I mean, werewolf actually kinda has XP, levels, monsterous antagonists, and magic items, if that's what you're looking for.

Q. G. Pennyworth

I can't imagine enjoying Vampire as a tabletop. LARP was workable, because you have enough players to break off into cliques and get real tight with your buddies while scheming against the other PCs, while doing your best to avoid the PLOT trying to kill you before you finish XYZ.

Cramulus

I've been to like half a dozen vampire larp events and every single time, I'm like "why do people enjoy this"

I mean, aside from the corsets and shiny boots



plotting plotting plotting plotting plotting plotting plotting plotting ACTION Reaction plotting plotting plotting plotting plotting plotting

every vampire game I've attended seemed like Team Nerdball.


my personal low point was attending this event which was billed as being a really exciting conclusion to a long arc

in-play, our characters were standing on the roof of a building, doing some kind of initiation ritual which involved riding a motorcycle up a ramp and jumping through a burning hoop

suddenly, antagonists on motorcycles jumped onto the roof of our building from another nearby building, and started shooting us with automatic weapons

also, a helicopter appeared overhead and a sniper began shooting at us from the sky


A) it SOUNDS cool, but this all took place while we were seated in chairs in a hotel ballroom. Like, how is this a larp? The action is entirely narrated. It's a tabletop, but in costume.

B) Vampire combat with more than 3 people is the most boring shit in the world... after taking only 2 actions over the course of 20 minutes, I just quietly excused myself from the event and never returned.


every single fuckin time I go vampire larping, I approach it with an open mind, like, "I hope this is fun because if it is, I will definitely come back" -- and then I have to interact with some asshole who says something like "My character wants to kill your character. But you can't take that info in-game because I'm telling you that out of character. In fact, if I don't succeed, I'm gonna accuse you of metagaming." that literally happened.

I shouldn't hate on it, I know...

altered

#566
Vampire is extremely fun if you play it like you're Jason Bourne and his suspiciously Jason Bourne-esque pals.

Edit: autocorrect

Edit2: Also I'm talking tabletop, not LARP. SCA is the closest I've been to LARP.
"I am that worst of all type of criminal...I cannot bring myself to do what you tell me, because you told me."

There's over 100 of us in this meat-suit. You'd think it runs like a ship, but it's more like a hundred and ten angry ghosts having an old-school QuakeWorld tournament, three people desperately trying to make sure the gamers don't go hungry or soil themselves, and the Facilities manager weeping in the corner as the garbage piles high.

LMNO

Let's be fair, corsets and shiny boots can often count for a lot.

Doktor Howl

I ran a tabletop Vampire game once at our old game shop, on a dare.

I was asked to join by a friend, because she wanted to play but a dude was creeping on her and she wanted me to sit between her and dude.

So I did.  It was basically NPC theater.  Bad dude is so badass that you can't touch him.  DM asks me what I'm gonna do, I say "I'm gonna sit here and wait for your old character to show up and save us again."

DM gets all pissed off and says "I suppose you can do this better?" 

So I take the dare for the following Sunday.  I make a bunch of mooks using Hunter to build basic humans with no abilities (there were no regular people in the game system, for whatever reason).  Choose a moderate bad guy.  Game starts on Sunday.  5 players having a great time kicking the shit out of mooks, regular DM sulks a bunch.  Then they beat the shit out of the big bad and throw him down a manhole.

A good time was had by all (except dude).  I never played the game again.
Molon Lube

altered

I like the old WoD games mostly for setting (exceptions for Wraith and Orpheus which had actually interesting mechanical traits as well), so I don't really blame you.

The only mechanic the Storyteller system as a whole has that I genuinely like is the /freedom/ of roll choices a nice DM can give players. The "Talents" or "Skills" or whatever are such loose categories that there's value in allowing a player to wrack their brain for a combo that lets them bullshit their way past something they lack the required skill for. Bump the difficulty appropriately since they're bullshitting it. It almost approximates creative problem solving mechanically, complete with horrible nightmare failures for rednecking it.

That said, a system built for that exact purpose would do it better, I just haven't figured out how to really get that "I have a working knowledge of gunsmithing and that's KINDA like an internal combustion engine right?" terrible terrible fucking idea vibe in there yet.
"I am that worst of all type of criminal...I cannot bring myself to do what you tell me, because you told me."

There's over 100 of us in this meat-suit. You'd think it runs like a ship, but it's more like a hundred and ten angry ghosts having an old-school QuakeWorld tournament, three people desperately trying to make sure the gamers don't go hungry or soil themselves, and the Facilities manager weeping in the corner as the garbage piles high.