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[Roleplaying Games] New Year, New Dungeons, Same Ol' Bane

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  • kaidkaid Registered User regular
    Could be an interesting contrast for a group honestly. Have a set of skills related to using/manipulating the tech and robotic enemies but if you take any of them you wind up shunned socially and it limits your ability to do things inside of the tribes.

    So characters more in tune with the tech are stronger out in the wilds but rely on others to solve problems when it comes to actual people.

    That is pretty much the main character in HZD pretty much outcast from birth but more in tune with tech because of it but is only grudgingly accepted by the tribe.

  • AmiguAmigu Registered User regular
    Hit me with some good out of the box 13th Age adventures.

    BitD PbP Character Volstrom
    QEz1Jw1.png
  • Albino BunnyAlbino Bunny Jackie Registered User regular
    edited March 2017
    Okay, so, general idea for a loose, short form, narrative game with the following structure:

    1) The GM is playing a mega-corp, oppressive Government or some other corrupt ruling class. The players are playing asshole anti-establishment folks who take advantage of a sparking event shaking the GM's control and embark on 24 hours of mayhem and strikes to try and shake that control further/topple the regime. These are all established by the group doing a fill in the blanks style thing at the start of the game to establish what kind of setting, scale and so on they're working in. Something like:
    Things have gone downhill since _____ took charge.
    Making use of _____ to seize control.
    Their rule has being absolute up until _______ shook their control over ______.

    but more involved/not shit.

    Which would help establish what kind of stats the GM is likely to be playing with.

    2) Characters and the corp are primarily defined by three stats: Force, Wealth and Media

    Force is the capability for violence and using it to coerce people to your side. The GM might use force for acts like torching slums, enforcing the law or beating a figurehead to make an example. Players might use force to break a news presenters knee caps, take part in a riot or rob a bank. Force doesn't just have to apply to physical violence, depending on the setting you're going for it could be things like DDoSing servers or cursing people.

    Wealth are the physical materials, skilled individuals and cash generating assets. The GM might roll resources when bribing someone to give up the PC's information, as a patch up to recover the other stats or when solving a problem just by throwing cash at it. Players use resources when their plan relies on gadgets, pulling strings or specialized contacts to do things they can't.

    Media is to represent the propaganda machines of the GM and the player's opposing views and how they interact and clash. The GM uses media to perform emergency broad casts, to demonize the players goals and manipulate public perception. Players use media to organize rallies, make their presence known through artistic expression.

    These are all ranked from 1 to 5. When rolling dice any roll under the stat is considered a success. 6's have special effects that I'm not sure on.

    3) The GM and players each have extra stats that determine how their dice pools are made:

    The GM has dice pools for each stat of about 10-15 dice. A number to represent just how much excess Force/Wealth/Media they have to throw around. They're used in several ways:

    a) Primarily the player activities will reduce pool's max. If the GM ever hits 0 in a pool then the players have successfully toppled the regime and it's a win for them.

    b) When making a roll the GM can take any number of dice from a pool to represent how many resources he's dedicating to an activity. However the pool is not re-filled until it is the GM's turn to act on the time track (more on that in a second).

    The Player has three extra stats: Talent, stamina and their Ace in the hole

    Talent is simply your maximum dice pool for any given roll. Any dice rolled for a player are removed from their stamina pool.

    Stamina is how many dice you can add to your stamina pool for every hour on the time track. Players start with 6 dice by default but that won't last long if your stamina is bad. The idea is that your character could be this exceptional talent who can't participate in everything or they could be a boots on the ground dedicated slugger who can't really ever punch particularly heavily.

    Your Ace In The Hole is a semi narrative device that you keep secret when you make your character at the start. It represents your unexpected edge in fighting the man. Something that empowers your punk ass to actually compete in this game for control. Maybe it's a revolver no one knew you kept on your person, maybe it's an old Radio broadcaster you're going to use to rule the air waves for a few short minutes, maybe it's black mail material you've got on The Man you've never told anyone. Either way you can use your Ace once per game after any roll. Describing how it factors into a sudden reversal of circumstances and letting you re-roll with a pool of 6 dice that work like your rating for the roll is 5 (so only 6's fail).

    4) The game is structured by a 24 space track which the players pawns move along. The players all start on the first space (representing the first hour of the day) while the corp starts later down the track, I'm thinking 4 to 8 spaces?

    If the hour tracker is on the same space as a pawn that player can have their turn. Either Acting Out, taking a Power Nap or laying some Ground Work down for another player.

    Power Naps just give you your stamina in dice for each hour you choose to nap and moves your pawn to that spot on the track (basically doubling your dice pool generation). You can't power nap twice in a row.

    Ground Work lets you take an unopposed roll (likely a Wealth one) while describing how you're helping set up someone else in the crew Acting Out. Any successes are added to the next appropriate dice pool.

    Acting Out is when you hit The Man and hitting them hard. You describe what particular way you're bringing The Man down and the GM describes how The Man responds. Which establishes which stats are being rolled. Then each of the participating players take a secret number of dice into their hand and roll simultaneously. Most successes wins. The player winning deducts their net successes from the GM's dice pool. The GM winning does... I'm not actually sure? I think delaying the players next action could work as they're stuck getting away from The Man.

    During The Man's turn he first re-fills his dice pool. Then he can both Shuffle Assets and Crackdown on those punks.

    Shuffling Assets lets him trade his dice pool max's at a 2 for 1 rate. This is to make hammering one stat less effective.

    Crackdown is the corp's offensive action. Making use of a grand gesture to suppress one avenue of attack. It could be sending police house to house in a show of force, locking down the store fronts or making a large public broad cast. Either way they make a roll and any successes act as a cap on how many stats the Crackdown can take away: Until the next corp turn any sixes the players roll while acting on that stat reduces the stat by 1. If a stat is reduced to zero then the Player is out. Crushed by propaganda, too poor to do anything but scrape to survive or incarcerated/killed by The Man.

    The Man acts only happen once every 4 hours by default.

    5) So the last questions I want to fill in are:

    a) Outside of crackdowns what do 6's do? To me the obvious one is to move the corp turn marker forwards/backwards.

    b) What does The Man winning while a player Acts Out do? Is it just to keep their dice pools safe or is there an advantage to crushing those punks?

    c) To try and shake up players using their best stat at all times I was thinking of making a rock paper scissors style thing where Force beats Wealth beats Media beats Force. Giving a +2 dice modifier if you've got the advantage. It kinda reduces your ability to make descriptive play because it's assumed that Force doesn't work well on Media approaches but also opens up an interesting strategic thing because the Corp always picks his method in Acting Out second which means you probably want to try and drain a dice pool of the stat before going for a big run in with a talented character whose strong against the other stat with dice left in the pool.

    d) To keep it separate my possible system for 6's would be a bit more involved but make for an interesting narrative arc maybe: Notoriety would be a measure of how recognizable the players are to The Man. It starts at 0 and has no effect. Going up to 5 where any time the player Acts Out The Man's turn marker moves forwards (nothing motivates The Man like a punk people can rally behind). Effects in the middle could be things like moving the turn markers, damaging the player's stats or whatever. Whenever a 6 is rolled by a Player the GM has the choice between either spending it to up the players Notoriety or to cause one of the effects at a Notoriety level equal to or below the player's current. Which I think could be an interesting system but does complicate the game.

    EDIT: Fuck, reading over that I really need to like, keep consistent terminology. Mostly for the GM's stuff. I hope it's understandable even if I'm already punching myself for it.

    Albino Bunny on
  • JoshmviiJoshmvii Registered User regular
    Hey, did you like True Detective season 1 but you wished the supernatural elements were real? Robin D. Laws has a new Yellow King GUMSHOE game coming to Kickstarter.

    Hell to the yes.

    http://site.pelgranepress.com/index.php/announcing-the-yellow-king-rpg/

  • Professor PhobosProfessor Phobos Registered User regular
    Joshmvii wrote: »
    Hey, did you like True Detective season 1 but you wished the supernatural elements were real? Robin D. Laws has a new Yellow King GUMSHOE game coming to Kickstarter.

    Hell to the yes.

    http://site.pelgranepress.com/index.php/announcing-the-yellow-king-rpg/

    It's more, I think, taking Chambers as the baseline for a horror game instead of mixing it in with Lovecraft as the baseline.

  • MrVyngaardMrVyngaard Live From New Etoile Straight Outta SosariaRegistered User regular
    Hmmm. Looking at the stuff that's out there I'm going to pick up Shintar and Accursed. The options the settings give sound pretty damn useful.

    Accursed is in a nice sort of fusion place between Ravenloft and Classic World of Darkness: Dark Ages. I haven't had a chance to run it, as it's sort of on my back burner of Things I'm Doing Right Now.

    Eventually.

    "now I've got this mental image of caucuses as cafeteria tables in prison, and new congressmen having to beat someone up on inauguration day." - Raiden333
    camo_sig2.png
  • Mostlyjoe13Mostlyjoe13 Evil, Evil, Jump for joy! Registered User regular
    MrVyngaard wrote: »
    Hmmm. Looking at the stuff that's out there I'm going to pick up Shintar and Accursed. The options the settings give sound pretty damn useful.

    Accursed is in a nice sort of fusion place between Ravenloft and Classic World of Darkness: Dark Ages. I haven't had a chance to run it, as it's sort of on my back burner of Things I'm Doing Right Now.

    Eventually.

    Sounds like something I've been looking for. Awesome.

    PSN ID - Mostlyjoe Steam ID -TheNotoriusRNG
  • ArdentArdent Down UpsideRegistered User regular
    So one of my group is now considering using Godbound instead of Exalted's rules to, in essence, play Exalted.

    Anyone have any experience with this?

    Steam ID | Origin ID: ArdentX | Uplay ID: theardent | Battle.net: Ardent#11476
  • admanbadmanb unionize your workplace Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    Godbound is fiction-first OSR as fuck. If you wanna get the rad demigod shit but without dealing with piles of rules, it seems like a good choice.

  • Mostlyjoe13Mostlyjoe13 Evil, Evil, Jump for joy! Registered User regular
    Ardent wrote: »
    So one of my group is now considering using Godbound instead of Exalted's rules to, in essence, play Exalted.

    Anyone have any experience with this?

    Yup. Played quite a few sessions that way and it works pretty damn well. I was even on a podcast "Sponsored By Nobody" in a Exalted/Godbound session or 5. And it's punchy as all get out. Doesn't even need all that much conversion since the writer did a lot of the heavy lifting converting for you. But that stuff is in the paid edition. If you'd like I can email you the details or help you build what you want. I was a "Made God" tier backer and have all the beenies from the original kickstart. There are some conversion docs out there for different ways to emulate all the Exalted stuff. Personally, KISS works best so you don't bloat up characters.

    PSN ID - Mostlyjoe Steam ID -TheNotoriusRNG
  • ArdentArdent Down UpsideRegistered User regular
    No, someone's got the paid version. Even without that it looked like it'd work more or less fine.

    As I've said before, Kevin Crawford writes good mechanics. But the setting stuff always seems so "going through the motions."

    Steam ID | Origin ID: ArdentX | Uplay ID: theardent | Battle.net: Ardent#11476
  • FuselageFuselage Oosik Jumpship LoungeRegistered User regular
    My group was talking about how much we like Skyrim last night and, lo and behold...

    https://www.reddit.com/r/UESRPG/
    https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4UcTlC8YmzdMExQdDN3eF9ja2M

    o4n72w5h9b5y.png
  • Mostlyjoe13Mostlyjoe13 Evil, Evil, Jump for joy! Registered User regular
    edited March 2017
    Ardent wrote: »
    No, someone's got the paid version. Even without that it looked like it'd work more or less fine.

    As I've said before, Kevin Crawford writes good mechanics. But the setting stuff always seems so "going through the motions."

    To be fair, his heart is in sandboxing. So his settings tend to be a bit bland waiting for GM input. Nothing injecting your favorite setting elements into can't fix.

    Mostlyjoe13 on
    PSN ID - Mostlyjoe Steam ID -TheNotoriusRNG
  • Captain UltraCaptain Ultra low resolution pictures of birds Registered User regular
    So I bought three Mutants and Masterminds (3e) book way back at Gencon of last year, and I haven't really done much with them. I've read through the core rulebook, but is there any like, youtube or podcasts of actual play that people could recommend? I feel like that may be my best option before I put together a group and just try to kludge my way through it.

  • admanbadmanb unionize your workplace Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    Ardent wrote: »
    No, someone's got the paid version. Even without that it looked like it'd work more or less fine.

    As I've said before, Kevin Crawford writes good mechanics. But the setting stuff always seems so "going through the motions."

    The weird part is that he writes setting stuff at all. Godbound is a great example -- you've got a chapter of setting details, and then an even longer chapter full of tables for randomizing setting stuff and generating factions. If you ignore the setting stuff the game is still complete.

  • ArdentArdent Down UpsideRegistered User regular
    It's not weird at all. There are a lot of people who think they want to run games, think they want to be on the hook to make stuff up, and think they can handle it all on their own. But then the reality of it hits them and they need someone else's outlines to work off of.

    Steam ID | Origin ID: ArdentX | Uplay ID: theardent | Battle.net: Ardent#11476
  • MrVyngaardMrVyngaard Live From New Etoile Straight Outta SosariaRegistered User regular
    Given the use of very potent Words and immortal heroes, I wonder how well Godbound would work with In Nomine as a prospective setting.

    "now I've got this mental image of caucuses as cafeteria tables in prison, and new congressmen having to beat someone up on inauguration day." - Raiden333
    camo_sig2.png
  • Mostlyjoe13Mostlyjoe13 Evil, Evil, Jump for joy! Registered User regular
    So I bought three Mutants and Masterminds (3e) book way back at Gencon of last year, and I haven't really done much with them. I've read through the core rulebook, but is there any like, youtube or podcasts of actual play that people could recommend? I feel like that may be my best option before I put together a group and just try to kludge my way through it.

    Kinda sad (kinda) I'm not podcasting my old supers gaming show, I'd be the fella to do that for you. But I bowed out before MM3 came out.

    That said:

    http://www.punchingforjustice.com/

    http://www.gamershavenpodcast.com/category/actualplay/mnm3ecoa/

    http://mikelaff.podbean.com/2010/12/11/mutants-and-masterminds-3e-actual-play-emerald-city-supers/

    http://thatshowwerollpodcast.tumblr.com/

    http://mikelaff.podbean.com/2012/01/13/mutants-and-masterminds-srd/

    https://roninarmy.com/forums/34-Mutants-amp-Masterminds-General

    You'll have to do some digging through episodes for rules info, general play examples, etc. Ever sense Green Ronin nuked the old Atomic Think Tank you get a feeling M&M isn't their biggest priority these days. That said, sadly M&M3E is one of the most robust systems out there still for Supers.

    PSN ID - Mostlyjoe Steam ID -TheNotoriusRNG
  • admanbadmanb unionize your workplace Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    I get to play a Burning Wheel introductory one-shot tomorrow and I am very hype.

  • McKidMcKid Registered User regular
    edited March 2017
    Half of my Barbarians of Lemuria group couldn't make it, so we decided to play a one-shot of Lasers and Feelings , a free game by John Harper of Blades in the Dark fame. And yes, I've linked the full game, which fits on a single page. This might be the ultimate no-prep one-shot system ! We had a lot of fun and we think it would be a very nice system to introduce new people to TTRPG.

    admanb wrote: »
    I get to play a Burning Wheel introductory one-shot tomorrow and I am very hype.

    Nice 8-)

    McKid on
  • JoshmviiJoshmvii Registered User regular
    Amigu wrote: »
    Hit me with some good out of the box 13th Age adventures.

    http://site.pelgranepress.com/index.php/the-strangling-sea/

    I have that 1st level adventure by Robin D. Laws for 13A, I just bought it to read for inspiration and haven't actually read it yet. But I bet it's good.

    http://site.pelgranepress.com/index.php/eyes-of-the-stone-thief/

    This is a huge mega-living-dungeon thing that I've heard good stuff about, but I don't know if you're looking for something that large.

  • CarnarvonCarnarvon Registered User regular
    The old 3.5 freebie, A Dark and Stormy Knight is a favorite of mine. Wouldn't be hard to update to 13th Age.

  • Mostlyjoe13Mostlyjoe13 Evil, Evil, Jump for joy! Registered User regular
    So, ya. I want to run Savage RIFTS something fierce. I'm putting around trying to think up ways to get a group together to do this. I'd like to nab some folks who played classic RIFTS to get their opinion, but I'll take newbies if I must.

    PSN ID - Mostlyjoe Steam ID -TheNotoriusRNG
  • OatsOats Registered User regular
    I'm already running Blades in the Dark and helping @TheRoadVirus DM his giant megacampaign for Dungeon World.

    But.

    I watched Equilibrium again last night and holy shit that setting is kind of perfect for Blades in the Dark reskinned.

  • Albino BunnyAlbino Bunny Jackie Registered User regular
    I'd probably put a bunch of focus on Stress as a mechanic for that. To represent the idea of characters being visibly emotional and so on.

    Also this is a thing: http://imgur.com/gallery/Zpg4G

  • FuselageFuselage Oosik Jumpship LoungeRegistered User regular
    edited March 2017
    I saved that earlier. Simple and hilarious.

    Edit: Imagine trying to balance attributes like Sanity or Resolve the way you have to balance Bear/Criminal but in an Alice in Wonderland or Lovecraftian setting. Like... Everyone has to be a little off to function properly in that setting, but get too far off your rocker and you'll get stuck there.

    Fuselage on
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  • NotoriusBENNotoriusBEN Registered User regular
    So I've been getting the urge to play shadowrun again, but I'm kinda glazing over as I look at the character sheets and chargen again.

    Does anyone have a good hack for shadowrun or should I just default to fate/fudge and just give people a few more skills or descriptive feats?

    I love the setting, I love that you can create the runner you want, but I just glaze over when I got to look up what to roll for myriad specific actions and it just bogs down the run.

    a4irovn5uqjp.png
    Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
  • DelduwathDelduwath Registered User regular
    They put out a rulebook called "Shadowrun: Anrachy" not too long ago, which is an official rules-light, storytelling-game approach to Shadowrun. I have to confess to not having any more useful information, as I haven't read the book myself, nor have i really checked out reviews of it; I just wanted to give you a heads-up that if you want a more storytell-y version of the game, you might not need to take the time to hack it yourself.

    (Of course, those rules might not be quite what you're looking for; based on the previews I glanced at before the game came out, it said something about players taking turns being the narrator, and I'm not sure if that means that there's no formal game master who directs the show. That's an interesting idea, but probably won't fit everyone's needs.)

  • NotoriusBENNotoriusBEN Registered User regular
    I'll check my flgs tonight after work then. I remember hearing about that but it slipped off my radar.

    a4irovn5uqjp.png
    Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
  • DevoutlyApatheticDevoutlyApathetic Registered User regular
    So I've been getting the urge to play shadowrun again, but I'm kinda glazing over as I look at the character sheets and chargen again.

    Does anyone have a good hack for shadowrun or should I just default to fate/fudge and just give people a few more skills or descriptive feats?

    I love the setting, I love that you can create the runner you want, but I just glaze over when I got to look up what to roll for myriad specific actions and it just bogs down the run.

    How do you feel about Apocalypses and the games Powered by them?

    Sixth World is a Dungeon World hack to play Totally Not Shadowrun because that's copyrighted. That link is to a modified fan site I think since the PDF is now hard to find. All the links I've got are to dropbox which recently decided to be jerks about public folders and what not.

    If it looks interesting to you and you want the original (that was freely distributed under some OGL license or another) then send me a PM and I'll dig up the PDF I've got saved on my home computer when I'm back there.

    Nod. Get treat. PSN: Quippish
  • JoshmviiJoshmvii Registered User regular
    I've heard Shadowrun Anarchy is really badly designed. I would recommend The Sprawl for cyberpunk, but I know it doesn't have all the stuff in it that Shadowrun does.

  • Albino BunnyAlbino Bunny Jackie Registered User regular
    Anarchy feels like what the kind of people who write the Chunky Salsa rule think a rules lite game should be. Plus, while it obviously aides in making the game easier. Turning everything into Shadow Amps makes the distinction between tech and magic feel samey and dull.

  • DelduwathDelduwath Registered User regular
    Joshmvii wrote: »
    I've heard Shadowrun Anarchy is really badly designed. I would recommend The Sprawl for cyberpunk, but I know it doesn't have all the stuff in it that Shadowrun does.
    The Sprawl is purely techy cyberpunk; there's no magic, or non-human races, or any of that stuff (stuff that is one of the key elements of Shadowrun).

    I was looking into reviews over the weekend (there were a couple of physical copies for sale at PAX East, and I kept circling them and trying to make up my mind on whether or not I should buy one), and it seems pretty neat, but I was amused to see that the rules for hacking are apparently overly-elaborate and force the game master to handle the hacker character separately from the rest of the group - so, in other words, like every other cyberpunk game ever.

  • JoshmviiJoshmvii Registered User regular
    The only Sprawl liveplay I've watched is the one Koebel is running for Roll20, and there's no hacker in the group so I can't speak to that. My guess would be that the hacker probably shines during the legwork phase when the PCs are all likely going to be doing their own separate things in the first place though.

  • Albino BunnyAlbino Bunny Jackie Registered User regular
    I mean at this point 'hackers kill the pacing of the game' might as well be as defining a trope for cyberpunk rpg's as mega corps.

  • NotoriusBENNotoriusBEN Registered User regular
    Thats why I kinda like hackers in 4e and 5e now. In game terms, they are debilitaters, able to fuck with the enemies weapons and gear. Ive had success treating the matrix like an electronic astral plane, but you see gadgets and drones, where astral sees people and spirits. Sure you can search the web normally, but I've liked that more local stuff is more readily available and that feeds into the vibe of the designers' mesh and comlinks borrowing power from others from time to time.

    Go ahead and toss me a link to that PDF @DevoutlyApathetic
    The more I have to work with, the better.

    a4irovn5uqjp.png
    Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
  • Hahnsoo1Hahnsoo1 Make Ready. We Hunt.Registered User regular
    I mean at this point 'hackers kill the pacing of the game' might as well be as defining a trope for cyberpunk rpg's as mega corps.
    One of the things I love about 5th Edition Shadowrun is that hacking no longer kills the pacing of the game. The very basic action of crashing a device is a single dice roll against a damage track. There are dozens of hooks on how your actions can be used. I've been able to seamlessly integrate hacking in a way that I never was able to in previous editions.

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  • Grunt's GhostsGrunt's Ghosts Registered User regular
    I've always wanted to play Shadowrun but never gotten the chance so if someone runs some here I'd be down.

  • Albino BunnyAlbino Bunny Jackie Registered User regular
    edited March 2017
    I think there's a whole contingent of buzz for shadowrun with no one quite up for running it. I might be up for giving it a shot but I'd rather it through roll 20 rather than pbp

    EDIT: Maybe a rotating DM kinda thing could work?

    Albino Bunny on
  • DevoutlyApatheticDevoutlyApathetic Registered User regular
    Thats why I kinda like hackers in 4e and 5e now. In game terms, they are debilitaters, able to fuck with the enemies weapons and gear. Ive had success treating the matrix like an electronic astral plane, but you see gadgets and drones, where astral sees people and spirits. Sure you can search the web normally, but I've liked that more local stuff is more readily available and that feeds into the vibe of the designers' mesh and comlinks borrowing power from others from time to time.

    Go ahead and toss me a link to that PDF @ DevoutlyApathetic
    The more I have to work with, the better.

    Now that I'm home I put it into my Drive and got a shareable link:

    https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4BvVauY-MgSZV9Cc0dQVVZOSkk

    Nod. Get treat. PSN: Quippish
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