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[OOC]InSpectres: Busting Ghosts and Eating Spectre Snacks
Megazver
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Holy blazes, what is going on here?!
InSpectres is a simple supernatural comedy RPG about creating and running a start-up that specializes on dealing with the supernatural. Think Ghostbusters. Think Scooby Doo. Think Buffy the Vampire Slayer, if she decided to start a career slaying vamps. In the game world, the supernatural isn’t really scary or even all that dangerous, it’s mostly annoying - like a cockroach infestation. You’re not Blade or Harry Dresden, you’re some guys who maxed out their credit cards, bought a van and a shotgun that supposedly works and placed a short ad in the newspaper. You’re supernatural pest control.
The game is easy to learn, silly and, most importantly, is all about one-shots. You know what I’m talking about. Not only do eight out of ten PbP games die, before the Very Bad Evil Overlord gasps its last breath - most of the time the poor Big Bads don’t even get to have their big introduction scenes. They sit in their Evil Throne Rooms, their eyes red from tears and their Doomsday Devices gathering dust and wonder if it was something they said. If Lord of the Rings was a PbP game, Frodo would probably drop out before the hobbits reached Rivendell. But not this game! Yours truly will take great pains to make sure that this will be a pleasant, relatively short and complete experience! Of course, if all goes well and you become as enamored with my game mastering prowess as you all should be, there’s always the option of continuing to play! Either way, a victory!
Fine, but what about the gameplay itself? I am a discerning gentleman and will not just play any plebeian trash!
Well, you make some fledgling monster hunters and work out the details about your new company, deciding what resources and facilities it has and giving each other cool titles. Once that is done, the game begins and you start kicking supernatural ass! There’s a few cool things about this game, and I’m going to list them here. First, the main conflict resolution mechanic. Whenever you succeed on your roll, you get to decide what happens. When you fail, either you decide what bad, bad thing happens to your character or, should I not like it, I do it for you. So when your rolls are good, you actually shape the story the way you want to! It really solves a lot of problems investigative games usually have, where a GM has to carefully drop clues in front of the PCs and hope that they find them. Second, thanks to the wonders of this system, during the initial Investigation you’ll actually be the ones deciding what supernatural problem you’re going to solve! Sure, I’ll give you a nudge by sending you a client with a vague description of what’s going on, but you’ll get to decide what it is, and if he’s even telling the truth. And it’s awesome.
Finally, there’s this cool little thing called the Confessional. I’ll just let the rulebook do the talking here:
“During any scene, you have the option of “stepping into the Confessional” and breaking up the action with your character’s thoughts and feelings. It’s the only time your character can “speak” to the players (and not their characters) and it gives you free rein to introduce new story elements or plot complications. You can foreshadow events and then play them out during the game or “jump ahead” in time and describe something that has yet to happen in the game (but happened in the character’s past). The only hard and fast rules for Confessionals are these:
• Players must address the other players as if on camera (i.e.: use first-person).
• Confessionals should always add; never negate or detract from the game.
• Only one player can give a Confessional per scene.
Hmm, sounds intriguing, good sir. How do I go about getting into this game?
Sure thing, friend. It’s simple, really. You start by creating a character and you do that by giving him a name, a former career or occupation, distributing nine skill dice among Academics, Athletics, Technology and Contact, making sure each skill gets one to four dice, and finally choosing a Talent.
At this point, I would just like to point you to the free rules on the official website. This file has almost everything you as players need to know about the game and rules. Now, while I’ll assume you’ve actually read it instead of just hoping you’ll be able to wing it, just in case here’s a brief review of the skills:
• Academics covers information research, remembering random facts, identifying weird stuff and literary theory.
• Athletics covers everything physical you might need to do. It also covers your skills with swords and guns and, if you want to do it in style, pitchforks.
• Technology is used, when using, repairing and building equipment. It’s also used whenever you wish to buy stuff.
• Contact is your Charisma skill. It represents your general social aptitude, as well as your list of contacts.
Then, pick a Talent. It can be anything you want, from "Deep Knowledge of Scifi Trivia" to "Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu" to "Charming When Talking to the Elderly". You'll use it to add an extra die to rolls, when they apply.
The character you’re going to end up with will probably look something like this:
Shaggy. Academic 1 Athletics 4 Technology 2 Contact 2 Cool 0 [B]Stoner[/B]
Then you as group create your Franchise. The rules for that are simple too, but we’ll get to those once you have characters. Speaking of characters, here’s what I want from you. A character ‘sheet’, a 100-word or less description of your character and an example post. Take note: I said description, not biography. Don’t write about the character’s parents and where he went to school, describe him (or her) as you would your favorite TV character. If you wanted to tell your friend about this awesome new show called House, you wouldn’t go “House was born in a family of a military man blablabla spent his childhood on military bases around the world blablabla even in college already considered a legend blablabla took a job at John Hoskins Teaching Hospital…” No, you’d tell your friend that House is a drug-addled misanthropic asshole, who only manages to hold on to his job by being that-damned-good, that he has a team that mostly hate him but stay because, again, he’s that-damned-good and that he’s awesome. The 100-word limit is there to get you to be a little creative and to release you from the pressure of having to type up a two page biography to please the GM, although if you really feel that you must go over the limit, do so. But it better be good.
As for the example post, here are a couple of ideas. You could write about how your character would react to a frustrating. but unavoidable situation like sitting in a traffic jam when you have an appointment that you can’t afford to miss, or being really, really thirsty and trying to get a can of coke out of a vending machine that just won’t give it up. You could also write about how your character would react to something weird suddenly appearing before him: a vampire, an honest-to-goodness dwarf, an undead penguin, the list goes on and on. If you think you have a good idea of your own, use that. But, again, it better be good.
On a technical note, there’s no real need for a special site to store the websheets, but I would like you to roll your dice on http://dicelog.com/ . Since quite a lot of time, you guys will be the ones interpreting your own results, it would be best if you rolled your own dice somewhere I double-check your rolls. Once we’ve got a group, you’ll need to PM me the emails you used to register on that site, so I can add you to the dice log in question.
Here is where we separate the wheat from the chaff!
And finally, a question to test your game system knowledge. These are popular these days, it seems, and I do everything the cool kids do! Okay. Your character is 1 Fighter/1 Illusionist/2 Rat Catcher/ 5 Invoker/ 10 Dragon Dragon. You’ve taken Allies (Mother) 3, Mildly Incontinent and Bad Self Image during the character creation phase and have since then been spending your XP on your IN which is now at 25. You are wearing the ugly purple and green sweater your mother made you; you enchanted it with Dominate Person at the local Buffs-R-Us. It’s really ugly, so the enchantment only works roughly forty percent of the time, as per chart on page 242. You and your party are surrounded by hungry sewer elves and, by cruel twist of fate and your own inability to think without forgetting how to breathe, are drenched in delicious meat sauce. You have, not a long while ago, destroyed their entire food supply to lure out the Bothersome Bugbear Bureaucrats from their secret office lairs. The swamp elves look pissed.
The question: using the social combat system specified in the second to fifth printings of the rulebook, what’s your Ingratiate dice pool? Describe any other modifiers you might add and your general chances of success. Should you feel your Ingratiate skills are insufficient for the task, suggest other ways of resolving the situation. You’re free to elaborate different scenarios, based on the different equipment and skills you might possess. Answer this question as fully as you can.
Chief Tyrol. Academician Megazver of the Jol-Nar Universities
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I don't know what stuff that would be, but I shall reserve for it anyway.
Meanwhile, I'll yoing a couple more descriptions from robotchicken's Indie Rpg thread:
Well, the game does have rules for monster players, but I've been told that part of rules isn't very fun, since the monster player doesn't get any dice towards victory.
I didn't mean as a player character...
I meant as a constant delusion suffered from the absinthe use...
I'm in.
Don't you already get enough of that in real life?
Sure, the game was specifically designed for being easy to pick up. These indie games usually are - the designers understand they can't afford to make the player read as many rules as WotC can.
Oh god, oh god... a living human being! In this thread! Can I get you a cup of the finest rat-poop coffee? Can I massage your feet while adoringly staring into your face? Do you want me to kill someone for you?
I already have!
You are?
You got a player.
Now make a character for my game.
Also, is Cool a skill or is it something else?
You get Cool dice during the game by doing well on Stress rolls. A Stress roll is something I make you do when your character is in a stressful situation. A one die roll is you getting stuck in traffic. A two die roll is you getting arrested. A three die roll is you seeing a zombie bite someone's throat out. A four die rolls is what you roll after a zombie tried to bite YOUR throat out. You don't want to know when the five die roll is rolled. Let's just say it involves someone waking up.
You roll the dice and you look for the lowest number rolled. If you did badly, you lose some of your skill dice until you get a chance to rest. If you did well, you get a Cool die, which will allow to ignore one lowest die from your Stress rolls. For example, if you just saw a demonic fridge suck someone's brains out, have two Cool dice, roll three dice and get 1 1 5, you get to ignore the ones.
Also, you can spend a Cool die to augment some other roll.
You can only have three Cool dice at one time.
Well, so far four people expressed cautious interest in this thread. I'll give it a couple more days, maybe, and if simonwolf, Ringo and StygianSmileyFace confirm they're up for it we might get started with the characters!
i'd be down for the mountain witch, also. not familiar with it, but i've got the rulebook right here in front of me, and it's motivation to read it.
also - signing up for inspectres! ready to make a character with the go-ahead.
Actually I think I'm down anyway, I have a bad tendency to be irreverent during games. It might in handy here.
I highly doubt there's going to be any epic-ness. But hey, irreverence is good.
Right? Right.
Start submitting them characters.
Don't forget to answer the last question! Mastery of game mechanics is of utmost importance to me!
Chef Valentin Césaire Hervé
Master Chef
Academic: 3
Athletics: 3
Technology: 1
Contact: 2
Cool: Zero
Description:
After a horrid accident as a young boy, the savant chef was treated by the French Government as a national treasure. Combining science and technology, a special appendage was forged. Totally unflappable in the kitchen, there is nothing that Herve cannot create.
It is said Chef Herve's food is so fine that, if on his journey's, the Chef was to come across God then God would cease.
For he would have experienced perfection.
Sample post:
"My fine fellow chefs. Tonight we embark upon a meal unlike any we have served before. Tonight, under one roof, the Pope of the Christian Church! The Prime Minister of Great Britain, the President of the United States and the Pièce de résistance herself! The lovely, beautiful, Katt Dennings!" Herve kissed the tips of his metallic fingers, eyes half closed. "Shall dine in Le Bord. Tonight there shall be no mistakes! Tonight, not one wisp of smoke shall go where it is not wanted, and Gerard!" the Chef turned and pointed a shining finger at a quivering chef. "The. Chicken. Will. Be. Cooked. To... PERFECTION!"
"Master Chef! Master Chef!"
Closing his eyes while letting out a heavy sigh, Herve turned towards the source of the disruption and raised an eyebrow.
"Yes soon-to-be-released-without-benefits dishwasher?"
The young man skidded to a halt, blinking rapidly as the realization hit at what he had just done. Stuttering in an attempt to find his voice, he pointed towards the cooler.
"Forgive me Master Chef but, but..."
"LA CLUCK!!!"
With a booming echo, the cooler's doors burst open. Freezing air condensed into a soup of fog and cold as the assembled chef's took a step back in consernation. The fog spread, filling the kitchen with a low bed of writhing clouds as the Germanic opera grew to new heights. One or two chefs stayed where they were, too scared to move as the air wrapped around their lower limbs.
"What is the meaning of this? I have food to create! The Pop- the presid- KATT DENNINGS! All await my -"
"AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"
First one, then another and another chef vanished into the moving fog. Those back away from the washed out movements shuddered back, and it was only Gerard who stuttered out an insane answer to the chaos that was commencing.
"The chickens! The chickens! They... THEY LIVE!!"
Screams of panic overtook the kitchen, a stampede of white-jacketed chef's struggling to exit without losing their lives to the unseen poultry. With a heavy sigh, Herve plucked a nearby cleaver off of a prep table with his metallic hand holding one running chef still with the power of his gaze.
"You! Get the diners to safety and ensure that wherever they are taken that they are given wine and cheese on the compliments of the house!" With a quick swish of the cleaver, the Master Chef took a step forward, but paused for a moment before calling back over his shoulder.
"And please, send Ms. Dennings my personal apologies."
And the answer to the last question? is love.
Other than that, Megazver is pleased, pathetic human. Very, very pleased.
P.S. Ms Dennings is adorable.
He fought undead zombie chicken corpses from hell man, FOR KATT DENNINGS!!! (That's just for Simon)
I know it's a flashback! But the description says he still rules a kitchen, instead of driving in a van with a talking dog!
The dog is lonely!
SCIENCE!
CAN YOU HEAR THE DOG CRY?
CAN YOU?
I CAN!
At the very least you'll have to add something about why an awesome guy like him would work with the rest of the regular shmoes. Maybe the chickens wrecked his chicken and he needs some quick cash on the side because he wasn't insured against undead poultry?
And a dog.
When there are others, I shall change!
Damn you! I give you a perfectly good setup for a "I would've gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for that meddling dog" and look what you do!
He slash she better be kickin' rad.
Also, Styggy - example post was awesome.
Dika
Academics - 2
Athletics - 2
Technology - 4
Contact - 1
Former occupation: prop comic
Talent: On-the-spot Maintenance and Repair
She's a middle-eastern former prop-comic with knowledge of engineering, electrical and mechanical repair, and model building. Poor sense of comic timing and inability to really tell a joke shooed her away from her old job, so she joined InSpectres as a gadget-gal. Dika's job is to fire the EctoNabm cannon and monitor the computers. She likes Mexican food and bad movies with company.
For Your Consideration:
Dika, in her semi-thick-but-you-can-totally-understand-her accent: "It's a mechanical job. I will work with machines."
She looks up, but the traffic's not going anywhere. Back to the phone.
"You've seen the commercials, yeah? InSpectres? InSpectres. Like, with ghosts."
A chip comes out, is turned over in her hands the way a squirrel examines a nut, and is tapped at with a pair of tweezers.
"No, I don't think I'll be possessed. Hmm? No, I'm not busy. Just trying to fix this thing..."
Over the radio: "...check for an InSpectres office in YOUR area today! Dial 1-888-276..."
"It'll be safe, Dad, I promise. I'll just be monitoring things- What? No, on the way to the interview now. But I've got-"
A wire splits, and Dika scowls. Her fingers prowl over the innards of the phone.
"I don't know. But if these cars don't move-"
Dika leans out the window and squints to see the horizon - it's all car after car after car, all beeping and hot. To the phone, she says, "Hang on a second, okay?" She reaches forward and pulls down a panel on the dashboard, opening up to a serious of buttons and levers, as well as a few tickets and city notices, something about "unauthorized vehicle not allowed on city streets." Pressing a bright red button, the car idles, then jerks and shakes to life: the tires extend, the car itself lifting up onto flexible metal stilts - the hood lifting up and two patrol lights flipping out to shine on the cars ahead - as the tires begin to extend and form crawl-ey tank-like treads, Dika grabs the broken phone and starts to twist wires around the previously jarred loose chip.
"'Kay, you there? Yes. Traffic's clearing up."
The car crawls and spiders over the cars ahead, rolling and stilting over all of them. Slowly, the robo-car violates the natural order of traffic (yet somehow not causing even a dent in the other vehicles!) and pushes ahead to the desired exit before collapsing back down into a regular car and zooming onward.
In her hands, the phone blinks to life, the camera recording her steering wheel.
"All I'm really worried about is the pay. And hopefully I won't have to tell any jokes. Can't risk getting fired again."
She smiles and speeds up, coming into the downtown area.
"I'll call you later, okay, Dad? Love you too. Bye!"
I'm pretty sure the only difference is that the quickstart rules don't have Weird Agents or the Teamwork rules.
You created the female version of the asian kid from the Goonies!