Rewards:
Don't Get Your Hopes Up - PSFU, Territory - Hope Park Police Post (Good, +1 Violence)
Lockdown - Unchallenged, Trail goes cold
Falling Stars - Unchallenged, Orion Corp secrets go public
Let's Go For A Swim - PTA, Territory - 'The Doggie Paddle', Westbay Port (Evil, +10 Points a turn)
Now Recycling Paper, Plastic, and Corporate Secrets - Diamond Dogs, 80 Points
Anarchy attack on PSFU from The Veil Children - 10 Points for Veil Children
Anarchy attack on Huddled Masses Union from Materium Energy, failed
10 Points income for PSFU
Standings:
Score balance: 280
Good: 350 (220)
Evil: 70 (100)
Good Ranks:
Arcadian Wrestling Revolution - 80 (50)
Huddled Masses Union - 80
PSFU - 80
Diamond Dogs - 60 (80)
Arcadia Watchdog - 50 (60)
GHOST - 0
The Freemen - 0
Materium Energy - 0
Evil Ranks:
Black Alley Studios - 50 (50)
The Veil Children - 20 (10)
PTA - 0 (50)
Black Mask - 0 (40)
Yogis - 0
Irish Mob - 0
The New Dawn - 0
Middle Finger Tech - 0
- Orion Corp stock took a tumble Thursday, as thousands of company records and sensitive data went public, following a hacking attack last week...
- The hacker known as "Gamemaster" offered a $50,000 prize last night, to the first individual or organization who can hack into the new Federal Electronic Security website first. This is the third 'event' the hacker has run in the past year...
Let The Games Begin (Electronic):
Good Mission: Sometimes his games are pranks, but sometimes they cause millions of dollars of damage. First, this attack needs to be prevented, but then it's time to bring this guy down.
Reward: 50 Points
Evil Mission: The prize money is chump change compared to the respect and recognition you get for winning a Gamemaster event. Might as well throw your hat in the ring.
Reward: 50 Points
- There was applause this week at the opening of the new Women's Shelter in The Triangle. The shelter is particularly focused on women who have been rescued from the sex slave trade, and others vulnerable to being caught in the web of forced prostitution. Already fifteen women have been admitted...
Everytime I Get Out (Sexual):
Good Mission: These women will need more protecting than a few civic-minded citizens can provide. Plus, if you can get on the good side of these women it'll be an excellent way to get information on your other investigations.
Reward: Territory - Triangle Women's Shelter (Neutral, +10 Points a turn)
Evil Mission: Dozens of women vulnerable to the sex trade gathering in the same place every month? Looks like it's time for a new business aquisition.
Reward: Territory - Triangle Women's Shelter (Neutral, +10 Points a turn)
- Lawmakers continued debate this week on a new series of laws designed to force openness of corporate workings and profit-making, following several complaints last year of corruption and deception among several companies...
Legislative Action (Corporate):
Good Mission: These new laws will be vital in fighting corrupt companies. You should see what you can do to throw in your support to see it gets enough votes.
Reward: 50 Points
Evil Mission: These laws will make it harder for everyone to do business. Making sure they don't pass is just a community service, right? And it doesn't hurt that the companies involved would be very grateful if they didn't...
Reward: 50 Points
- District Attorney Kim Barrage was killed last night in a car accident, when her brakes apparently failed, causing her to crash into a Tracer Industrial truck. Highway N72 was closed off for several hours as a result, and led to the injuries of almost a dozen others and four other deaths....
An Honest Accident (Corruption & Extortion):
Good Mission: Barrage had reportedly recieved files only hours before the 'accident' that implicated dozens of police officers and other city officials in various forms of corruption. Strangely enough, those files are currently missing. They need to be found before they have their own little accident, they'll be a huge aid in tracking down the corrupt.
Reward: +1 Corruption & Extortion
Evil Mission: Word is, her evidence was supposed to be in the car at the time, but it wasn't. If you can get your hands on it first, there'll be a lot of grateful city employees.
Reward: 80 Points
- Tracer Industrial security was quick on the scene of last nights highway accident on N72. Although they did provide medical support to the wounded, they declined comment on what exactly prompted their quick response...
The Commute Is A Killer (Anarchy):
Good Mission: Reportedly, there was a shipment of a new form of liquid explosive on that truck, real stuff, not the shampoo that scares airport security so much. Some of it was destroyed in the crash but word is some of it just went missing. It needs to be found before it gets in the wrong hands.
Reward: 80 Points
Evil Mission: This was planned sabotage on the truck's steering by a cell known as "Dark Thunder", but it would seem the accident got a bit bigger than they planned and a couple of them died in getting the goods out. At least one or two made it, though...now that they're on their own, they may be open to joining your organization, along with their hard-earned toys...
Reward: +1 Anarchy
Sorry for missing a round or two. I've kinda lost interest with this, it's not grabbing me the same way the previous myth games have, although that might be my fault for making such a single minded group (Argghhh smash shit!) If someone wants to take over the AWR they're welcome. Perhaps some story of them getting bought out like the WcW/WWF thing.
Well, that currently puts us at 5 vs 5, which isn't too bad, but on the other hand more than a third have dropped out. At the current score rate I figure Good could win in about 3 turns, more or less depending on if IC posts get made. But, if interest and activity are dropping, as they seem to be, then maybe it's time to start discussing things that might be more interesting (and I hope I'm not pre-emptively killing UM by bringing this up).
First question, is there still interest in continuing the Myth 'franchise'? Given that the Myths started with over 20 players, and is currently at 10, I do wonder if a fourth game would end up being a non-starter. On the other hand, maybe the drop's because people needed a longer break after Space Myth, or just didn't care for Urban's setup.
Or they didn't like me, which is not allowed!
Just to be clear, I do intend for these to be high-player games, 20's about my target, and 25-30 would be awesome.
Second question, any setting requests for Myth IV, if it is wanted? I've considered a few new settings, which would involve new rules; mainly Pirates, Oriental (Samurai/Ninja), and Western, Pirates being the one I could make work most easily (my actual knowledge on which I could base an asian game on is about nil, and wild west may not offer enough faction options between indian tribes and coyboy outlaws or whatever). I'm also open to other suggestions, although I'm not actually a big fan of fantasy.
I've also had one or two requests for Space Myth II, and while I wasn't intending to repeat games, at least not so soon, I'd rather run something I know people want to play than something that'll end up getting six signups. In this case it'd be by the same rules (with things like combo techs in from the start), with just a few tweaks based on lessons learned.
Thoughts? Or shall we just get on with UM and deal with this later.
I've only been here for the two myths, but I enjoyed a space-myth type thing a lot better. It was more complicated, but it didn't just rely on a win/loss system, which is turning out to favour the people who just loaded up one stat. Anyway, regardless of my criticisms of UM, my broader opinion is that I don't think the theme matters as much as the game mechanics.
To be honest, I'm not really enjoying this - I agree with Cousteau about the mechanics being too simplistic.
As for Myth IV, I'm intending to run the new version of Myth I some time after Urban Myth has finished, and after I've worked out the details. Do you think we're going to clash? I don't want to step on your toes.
I enjoy the Myth series and I'd like to see them ran. I just don't think Urban's working out (I like my Irish guys). The Space myth was a ton of fun as was the Original. I'd like to see Scooter carry on his version of Mechanics-oriented Myths as the Original Myth was pretty freeform and thus had problems.
I've got no problems with it, and I'd probably play in it myself. I've said in the past that I think it'd be cool if Myth took off with people trying all sorts of settings and game systems. The only downside might be people who say they don't have time to play two at once, but tbh I find that kind of unlikely given rolls can be done and post made in about 15 minutes, and that's once or twice a week.
I enjoy the Myth series and I'd like to see them ran. I just don't think Urban's working out (I like my Irish guys). The Space myth was a ton of fun as was the Original. I'd like to see Scooter carry on his version of Mechanics-oriented Myths as the Original Myth was pretty freeform and thus had problems.
That's what the new Myth I aims to fix. Each player builds a god and can then perform actions each turn with a replenishing supply of points. Other gods can cancel out actions by expending a like number of points. It's somewhat more complicated than that, but I won't get into it here.
I'm definetly up for more myth, I loved the previous ones. It just seems to me that this one is too confined. I felt like I was playing a boardgame or something, and apart from the initial group creation I never really felt like I was creating anything. Which for me is the whole point of this, to have a setting created by the actions and imagination of the people playing. Whereas this one, with the set events and the factions of good and evil, it felt like it was "on rails".
And a lot of the ideas that have been put forward for the next one seem to have the same problem of having a very small (if not smaller) scope. The game shouldn't really have much of a "Setting" because that's what the players are there to create. It should have simply a Premise, such as "You're a god, create a world" Or "You're an alien race, colonise the galaxy"
With UM we started with a city that was already completely laid out, we created none of the city itself. We were simply to play in it. And then we had the situations and a lot of the storylines set up for us as well. It wasn't very engaging on a creative level like the others, and I never really felt like I was even interacting with the other factions either.
Those are my thoughts. For future ones, I'd like to see the emphasis put back on creating the setting, which is where this exercise began.
I think what I'll do is keep running SM games, alternating with new ones for variety and to see what takes off. So I guess the question for UM players is, would you rather finish this game at the planned 750-point lead mark, or cut ahead a few weeks and end after this turn? If, say, 4-5 of the still-active players would rather move on to another SM that's what we'll do.
If we do end now, it'll still be at least a week and a half or so before SM II's ready for signups.
I'm okay either way. The issue I've found with UM is that it comes down to a single roll per turn, and then a write-up based on that roll.
Also, I ran into the problem at the beginning that a lot of people chose 'violence' as one of their key stats, so it was hard to win a violence roll, but then I switched to 'sexual' right about at the point where INNS quit -- so there was nobody to compete against. I went from losing on eighteens to winning on tens.
In short: I like Urban Myth. With some tweaking (more to do each turn perhaps?) it could be a great game. On the other hand, I loved Space Myth (yay Hshshshshshahsha!) and UM never quite got as good.
Either way, keep making Myth games! They're good times. Seriously.
Just wanted to say that, due to busy-ness, the end of the turn will be a bit late (sister will be in town this weekend, so I might have time to end it on Sat/Sun, or I might not). At that point I think I'll go ahead and call it a game, so if you want a last shot at improving your standings better do it now.
Rewards:
Let The Games Begin - Uncontested, event is won by a Canadian teenager.
Every Time I Get Out - The Freemen (tiebreaker) - Territory - Triangle Women's Shelter (Neutral, +10 Points a turn)
Legislative Action - Diamond Dogs, 50 Points
An Honest Accident - PTA, Arcadia Watchdog, +1 Corruption & Extortion
The Commute Is A Killer - The Veil Children, +1 Anarchy
10 Points income for PSFU
Standings:
Score balance: 290
Good: 360 (270)
Evil: 70 (100)
Good Ranks:
PSFU - 90
Arcadian Wrestling Revolution - 80 (50)
Huddled Masses Union - 80
Diamond Dogs - 60 (130)
Arcadia Watchdog - 50 (60)
GHOST - 0
The Freemen - 0
Materium Energy - 0
Evil Ranks:
Black Alley Studios - 50 (50)
The Veil Children - 20 (10)
PTA - 0 (50)
Black Mask - 0 (40)
Yogis - 0
Irish Mob - 0
The New Dawn - 0
Middle Finger Tech - 0
Winners:
Side: Beneficial
Good: PSFU
Evil: The Veil Children
Hope nobody's too dissapointed about it ending early, but I do have a good feeling about SM II, and Good side pretty much had it in any case.
Arcadia Post, Today:
- Mayor Helms today presented the key to the city to the PSFU team, thanking them for single-handedly clearing Arcadia City of crime and corruption. "Thanks to fine citizens like you, criminals and terrorists like The Veil Children will never be able to threaten our way of life again.", the mayor said....
Posts
http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=896934
I got a 9.
http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=897017
Great.
I know it's a stretch, but I need a break from smuggling, so I "Don't get my hopes up":
12
http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=897020
Re-roll for the tie:
http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=897030
11
http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=897048
re-re-roll: 9
http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=897049
http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=897103
12.
Doing the Violence event, rolled in #bombfell, got a 13.
Rewards:
Don't Get Your Hopes Up - PSFU, Territory - Hope Park Police Post (Good, +1 Violence)
Lockdown - Unchallenged, Trail goes cold
Falling Stars - Unchallenged, Orion Corp secrets go public
Let's Go For A Swim - PTA, Territory - 'The Doggie Paddle', Westbay Port (Evil, +10 Points a turn)
Now Recycling Paper, Plastic, and Corporate Secrets - Diamond Dogs, 80 Points
Anarchy attack on PSFU from The Veil Children - 10 Points for Veil Children
Anarchy attack on Huddled Masses Union from Materium Energy, failed
10 Points income for PSFU
Standings:
Score balance: 280
Good: 350 (220)
Evil: 70 (100)
Good Ranks:
Arcadian Wrestling Revolution - 80 (50)
Huddled Masses Union - 80
PSFU - 80
Diamond Dogs - 60 (80)
Arcadia Watchdog - 50 (60)
GHOST - 0
The Freemen - 0
Materium Energy - 0
Evil Ranks:
Black Alley Studios - 50 (50)
The Veil Children - 20 (10)
PTA - 0 (50)
Black Mask - 0 (40)
Yogis - 0
Irish Mob - 0
The New Dawn - 0
Middle Finger Tech - 0
- Orion Corp stock took a tumble Thursday, as thousands of company records and sensitive data went public, following a hacking attack last week...
- The hacker known as "Gamemaster" offered a $50,000 prize last night, to the first individual or organization who can hack into the new Federal Electronic Security website first. This is the third 'event' the hacker has run in the past year...
Let The Games Begin (Electronic):
Good Mission: Sometimes his games are pranks, but sometimes they cause millions of dollars of damage. First, this attack needs to be prevented, but then it's time to bring this guy down.
Reward: 50 Points
Evil Mission: The prize money is chump change compared to the respect and recognition you get for winning a Gamemaster event. Might as well throw your hat in the ring.
Reward: 50 Points
- There was applause this week at the opening of the new Women's Shelter in The Triangle. The shelter is particularly focused on women who have been rescued from the sex slave trade, and others vulnerable to being caught in the web of forced prostitution. Already fifteen women have been admitted...
Everytime I Get Out (Sexual):
Good Mission: These women will need more protecting than a few civic-minded citizens can provide. Plus, if you can get on the good side of these women it'll be an excellent way to get information on your other investigations.
Reward: Territory - Triangle Women's Shelter (Neutral, +10 Points a turn)
Evil Mission: Dozens of women vulnerable to the sex trade gathering in the same place every month? Looks like it's time for a new business aquisition.
Reward: Territory - Triangle Women's Shelter (Neutral, +10 Points a turn)
- Lawmakers continued debate this week on a new series of laws designed to force openness of corporate workings and profit-making, following several complaints last year of corruption and deception among several companies...
Legislative Action (Corporate):
Good Mission: These new laws will be vital in fighting corrupt companies. You should see what you can do to throw in your support to see it gets enough votes.
Reward: 50 Points
Evil Mission: These laws will make it harder for everyone to do business. Making sure they don't pass is just a community service, right? And it doesn't hurt that the companies involved would be very grateful if they didn't...
Reward: 50 Points
- District Attorney Kim Barrage was killed last night in a car accident, when her brakes apparently failed, causing her to crash into a Tracer Industrial truck. Highway N72 was closed off for several hours as a result, and led to the injuries of almost a dozen others and four other deaths....
An Honest Accident (Corruption & Extortion):
Good Mission: Barrage had reportedly recieved files only hours before the 'accident' that implicated dozens of police officers and other city officials in various forms of corruption. Strangely enough, those files are currently missing. They need to be found before they have their own little accident, they'll be a huge aid in tracking down the corrupt.
Reward: +1 Corruption & Extortion
Evil Mission: Word is, her evidence was supposed to be in the car at the time, but it wasn't. If you can get your hands on it first, there'll be a lot of grateful city employees.
Reward: 80 Points
- Tracer Industrial security was quick on the scene of last nights highway accident on N72. Although they did provide medical support to the wounded, they declined comment on what exactly prompted their quick response...
The Commute Is A Killer (Anarchy):
Good Mission: Reportedly, there was a shipment of a new form of liquid explosive on that truck, real stuff, not the shampoo that scares airport security so much. Some of it was destroyed in the crash but word is some of it just went missing. It needs to be found before it gets in the wrong hands.
Reward: 80 Points
Evil Mission: This was planned sabotage on the truck's steering by a cell known as "Dark Thunder", but it would seem the accident got a bit bigger than they planned and a couple of them died in getting the goods out. At least one or two made it, though...now that they're on their own, they may be open to joining your organization, along with their hard-earned toys...
Reward: +1 Anarchy
Guess who loses again? This guy. Boo.
http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=902494
A 15. Not bad at all.
It might take me a day or two to get the IC post for last round up, since I'm a bit busy these days.
http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=902711
Well I'm gonna get my ass kicked by SPI on this one...
http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=902747
Another freaking 2!
First question, is there still interest in continuing the Myth 'franchise'? Given that the Myths started with over 20 players, and is currently at 10, I do wonder if a fourth game would end up being a non-starter. On the other hand, maybe the drop's because people needed a longer break after Space Myth, or just didn't care for Urban's setup.
Just to be clear, I do intend for these to be high-player games, 20's about my target, and 25-30 would be awesome.
Second question, any setting requests for Myth IV, if it is wanted? I've considered a few new settings, which would involve new rules; mainly Pirates, Oriental (Samurai/Ninja), and Western, Pirates being the one I could make work most easily (my actual knowledge on which I could base an asian game on is about nil, and wild west may not offer enough faction options between indian tribes and coyboy outlaws or whatever). I'm also open to other suggestions, although I'm not actually a big fan of fantasy.
I've also had one or two requests for Space Myth II, and while I wasn't intending to repeat games, at least not so soon, I'd rather run something I know people want to play than something that'll end up getting six signups. In this case it'd be by the same rules (with things like combo techs in from the start), with just a few tweaks based on lessons learned.
Thoughts? Or shall we just get on with UM and deal with this later.
As for Myth IV, I'm intending to run the new version of Myth I some time after Urban Myth has finished, and after I've worked out the details. Do you think we're going to clash? I don't want to step on your toes.
http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=905110
Well, maybe I'll finally get lucky. I think the Freemen are basically a joke at this point.
That's what the new Myth I aims to fix. Each player builds a god and can then perform actions each turn with a replenishing supply of points. Other gods can cancel out actions by expending a like number of points. It's somewhat more complicated than that, but I won't get into it here.
And a lot of the ideas that have been put forward for the next one seem to have the same problem of having a very small (if not smaller) scope. The game shouldn't really have much of a "Setting" because that's what the players are there to create. It should have simply a Premise, such as "You're a god, create a world" Or "You're an alien race, colonise the galaxy"
With UM we started with a city that was already completely laid out, we created none of the city itself. We were simply to play in it. And then we had the situations and a lot of the storylines set up for us as well. It wasn't very engaging on a creative level like the others, and I never really felt like I was even interacting with the other factions either.
Those are my thoughts. For future ones, I'd like to see the emphasis put back on creating the setting, which is where this exercise began.
Finally, a good roll.
If we do end now, it'll still be at least a week and a half or so before SM II's ready for signups.
Also, I ran into the problem at the beginning that a lot of people chose 'violence' as one of their key stats, so it was hard to win a violence roll, but then I switched to 'sexual' right about at the point where INNS quit -- so there was nobody to compete against. I went from losing on eighteens to winning on tens.
In short: I like Urban Myth. With some tweaking (more to do each turn perhaps?) it could be a great game. On the other hand, I loved Space Myth (yay Hshshshshshahsha!) and UM never quite got as good.
Either way, keep making Myth games! They're good times. Seriously.
I don't think I can really continue this one though, I don't know but I just can't seem to get focused on anything to write for IC posts...
If you want to keep it going though, I'll keep playing, just don't expect epic prose. =/
I have some time today, so here we go.
Rewards:
Let The Games Begin - Uncontested, event is won by a Canadian teenager.
Every Time I Get Out - The Freemen (tiebreaker) - Territory - Triangle Women's Shelter (Neutral, +10 Points a turn)
Legislative Action - Diamond Dogs, 50 Points
An Honest Accident - PTA, Arcadia Watchdog, +1 Corruption & Extortion
The Commute Is A Killer - The Veil Children, +1 Anarchy
10 Points income for PSFU
Standings:
Score balance: 290
Good: 360 (270)
Evil: 70 (100)
Good Ranks:
PSFU - 90
Arcadian Wrestling Revolution - 80 (50)
Huddled Masses Union - 80
Diamond Dogs - 60 (130)
Arcadia Watchdog - 50 (60)
GHOST - 0
The Freemen - 0
Materium Energy - 0
Evil Ranks:
Black Alley Studios - 50 (50)
The Veil Children - 20 (10)
PTA - 0 (50)
Black Mask - 0 (40)
Yogis - 0
Irish Mob - 0
The New Dawn - 0
Middle Finger Tech - 0
Winners:
Side: Beneficial
Good: PSFU
Evil: The Veil Children
Hope nobody's too dissapointed about it ending early, but I do have a good feeling about SM II, and Good side pretty much had it in any case.
Arcadia Post, Today:
- Mayor Helms today presented the key to the city to the PSFU team, thanking them for single-handedly clearing Arcadia City of crime and corruption. "Thanks to fine citizens like you, criminals and terrorists like The Veil Children will never be able to threaten our way of life again.", the mayor said....