What are y'all up to these days?

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Online, I've run into a few people who already had their character in mind before I told them the campaign setup, often with a complicated backstory. Honestly, as a DM, it kind of annoys me, like they are not even bothering to react to the setting and I'm supposed to bend the setting to possibly multiple backstories that are hard to rectify with the setting.

In the future, if I post a request for new players, I'll make sure to have specific instructions and not hesitate to kick out anyone who can't follow them.
 
Stan said:
In the future, if I post a request for new players, I'll make sure to have specific instructions and not hesitate to kick out anyone who can't follow them.
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Good for you. Politely but firmly stick to your guns. The right players will come around eventually.
 
Acmegamer said:
Curious as to what your hybrid mechanics are.
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What I did was set my laptop up on the gaming table at an angle such that all the local players could see the remote player. She joined us via Google Meet. For dice rolls, we all rolled physical dice in our respective locations, same as we did when everyone was remote. For bennies, I stacked physical poker chips in front of each of the local players, and put the remote player's stack in front of the laptop. When dealing initiative cards (I don't know how familiar you are with Savage Worlds- it uses a deck of regular playing cards for initiative), I held the remote player's card up the laptop camera so she could see it. I also announce out loud what card each player gets, which is something I did even back pre-pandemic, when we were all there in-person.
 
EmperorNorton said:
In high school we had a player we called the rent-a-rogue. Didn't matter if the system didn't even technically have rogues, he'd play a rogue.
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Sounds like me. My 3.5 group had a dude who’d badger people to play classes he felt the group needed, and I always got Rogue.

now that’s pretty much all I play, due to some variant of Stockholm Syndrome.
 
I have very little interest in the mechanical side of making characters, whether PC or NPC. I just do that part because it's necessary for the game.

But I do greatly enjoy coming up with personalities for characters, and names that hopefully convey some aspect of those personalities.
 
EmperorNorton said:
In high school we had a player we called the rent-a-rogue. Didn't matter if the system didn't even technically have rogues, he'd play a rogue.
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That's nothing.

A long time ago, in another gal... I mean, in another city ! hidden within a friendly RPG club, there was a truly focused fellow who would play...

... whatever character, man. Whatever ! As long as that character had this one (apparently multiversal) accessory : the epitome of the sword, the sharpness made steel, the Blade that Slices All NPCS... the KATANA !

Me : Hey, man ! You fancy a game of Vampire the Wankin... I mean, the Masquerade ?
K Man : Yeah ! I want to have a katana !
Me : Okay. Which Clan do you want to play ?
K Man : The one with a katana !
Me : Well, you see... the lore of this deeply (so deeply) meaningful game of personnal horror postulates that all Kindred (that's vampires for you, friend) are the scions, however remote, of Caine, the First murderer and...
K Man : I want to play a scion with a katana !
Me : Mmm... okay... How about a Gangrel ? There would be a deeply (so deeply) meaningful contrast bewteen the bestiality of this Clan and the sophistication of the kata...
K Man : Can I have a katana ? I want a katana.
Me : You sure can, friend, you sure can.

(some days later, at the RPG club)
Me : Hey, man ! You fancy a game of Middle Earth Role Playing ?
K Man : What's that ?
Me : It's a game full of elves, dwarves, and the elusive, comfy but surprisingly noble Hobbits, based on the masterpiece by the Master of Fantasy, none other than J.R.R...
K Man : I want to play a dwarf with a katana !
Me : Well, I suppose... But perhaps an Elf would be more suited, what with the sophistication of this weapon you seem to cherish, the k...
K Man : Whatever man ! Let me play a fucking Elf with a katana !
Me : Okayyy...

(Still later)
Me : Someone's up for a Star Wars session ? I mean, I'm not claiming to have mastered all the intricacies of this deceptively simple epic filmed by George Lu...
K Man : I want to play ! I want to play !
Me : ... Great... But this is a sci-fi world of guns and starships, and...
K Man : Hey, no ! I know there's this shit about this guy with all his fancy mofo powers with his shiny sword !
Me : You mean, the light saber ? The light saber of Anakin Skywalker ?
K Me : Yeah ! The gay dude !
Me : Gay ? But he loves Leia... who is totally not his sister in the first episode, and...
K Man : Whatever, man ! I want to play this guy, but not gay, and with a katana !
Me : But he's not... Okay... but [putting my foot down] there are no katanas in Star Wars !
K Man : What do you say ? That's impossible ! This gay guy has got this mofo sword with POWERS, man.
Me : That's a light saber, friend. And it's scientifically impossible for a light sword to be a katana.
K Man : What ? What ? What's this shit ? Why, man, why ?
Me : [smugly] Because you can't bend light.
K Man : I just wanna play a cool dude with a kick-ass shiny powered katana, man ! I don't need light !
Me : ...
 
I’m the “regular” GM for my group, but it’s because I prefer running over playing. As I player, I always have character ADD - no matter how interesting I make my character in my mind, it’s never as cool in play as my “next” character would certainly be.

Playing an endless procession of NPCs helps me deal with that quite well, though.
 
I just got the go ahead to actually sell the hack I just wrote if I felt like it. Anyone willing to contribute art, for some kind of consideration, obviously? There is a ton of revision and layout work to be done as well, so I'm not exactly in a hurry.
 
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Fenris-77 said:
I just got the go ahead to actually sell the hack I just wrote if I felt like it. Anyone willing to contribute art, for some kind of consideration, obviously. There is a ton of revision and layout work to be done as well, so I'm not exactly in a hurry.
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What type of system is it? And what type of art are you looking for?
 
Z-Man said:
What type of system is it? And what type of art are you looking for?
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To begin it's a hack of Trophy Dark moving it from fantasy to sci-fi horror. Trophy Website is here. The intent was to go sci fi horror with an Alien/Firefly/Rogue Trader feel. Lots of technology falling apart, and an immense graveyard of hulks and ruins from thousands of alien species in a system newly cut off from the rest of the Empire of Man. That means that existing tech, especially ships, went from expensive to priceless because they are almost impossible to replace. The graveyard is the system's best chance for survival, so scavengers venture into the deep black, hoping to find alien tech that can be used to fix or patch the failing systems that keep the human colony alive.

As for type, I have no idea. I'm artistic, but not to the extent that I'd even think about doing my own art. I'd look at anything, but I might prefer sketchier style stuff, minimalist black and white maybe, perhaps even verging on Scrap Princess' stuff, or the in a different vein the art from Ultra Violet Grasslands. I'm not picky though, so if someone were looking to get art published, and wasn't overly concerned about financing a second home out of the proceeds, we can probably talk.
 
Fenris-77 said:
To begin it's a hack of Trophy Dark moving it from fantasy to sci-fi horror. Trophy Website is here. The intent was to go sci fi horror with an Alien/Firefly/Rogue Trader feel. Lots of technology falling apart, and an immense graveyard of hulks and ruins from thousands of alien species in a system newly cut off from the rest of the Empire of Man. That means that existing tech, especially ships, went from expensive to priceless because they are almost impossible to replace. The graveyard is the system's best chance for survival, so scavengers venture into the deep black, hoping to find alien tech that can be used to fix or patch the failing systems that keep the human colony alive.

As for type, I have no idea. I'm artistic, but not to the extent that I'd even think about doing my own art. I'd look at anything, but I might prefer sketchier style stuff, minimalist black and white maybe, perhaps even verging on Scrap Princess' stuff, or the in a different vein the art from Ultra Violet Grasslands. I'm not picky though, so if someone were looking to get art published, and wasn't overly concerned about financing a second home out of the proceeds, we can probably talk.
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That's pretty darn cool. I'm a big fan of sci-fi horror...the depths of unknown space have always seemed like a potentially terrifying prospect to me.

I can plug away at a few illo ideas over the next month, if you'd like. If you're interested in my art style, great! If not, no harm done. It does me good to stretch out my art wings a bit from time to time. :grin:
 
Z-Man said:
That's pretty darn cool. I'm a big fan of sci-fi horror...the depths of unknown space have always seemed like a potentially terrifying prospect to me.

I can plug away at a few illo ideas over the next month, if you'd like. If you're interested in my art style, great! If not, no harm done. It does me good to stretch out my art wings a bit from time to time. :grin:
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Lets put it this way, this would be my first published game of any kind, so I'm looking for artists who want in on that kind of project. You can download the beta test in the design forum here is you like. I'd also like to organize some one-shots over Discord or Zoom to stress test the exemplar incursion, which you're obviously invited to participate in if you felt the urge.
 
Fenris-77 said:
Lets put it this way, this would be my first published game of any kind, so I'm looking for artists who want in on that kind of project. You can download the beta test in the design forum here is you like. I'd also like to organize some one-shots over Discord or Zoom to stress test the exemplar incursion, which you're obviously invited to participate in if you felt the urge.
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Awesome, I'll read through both of those. I haven't done any online RPGing, but that sounds interesting.
 
I have started playing in a fortnightly RQG game. We did character generation last week, so should have our first adventure next week.

Hopefully we'll do some Jonstown Compendium scenarios, so that I can finally get to read them.

Really looking forward to it.
 
Lychee of the Exchequer said:
That's nothing.

A long time ago, in another gal... I mean, in another city ! hidden within a friendly RPG club, there was a truly focused fellow who would play...

... whatever character, man. Whatever ! As long as that character had this one (apparently multiversal) accessory : the epitome of the sword, the sharpness made steel, the Blade that Slices All NPCS... the KATANA !

Me : Hey, man ! You fancy a game of Vampire the Wankin... I mean, the Masquerade ?
K Man : Yeah ! I want to have a katana !
Me : Okay. Which Clan do you want to play ?
K Man : The one with a katana !
Me : Well, you see... the lore of this deeply (so deeply) meaningful game of personnal horror postulates that all Kindred (that's vampires for you, friend) are the scions, however remote, of Caine, the First murderer and...
K Man : I want to play a scion with a katana !
Me : Mmm... okay... How about a Gangrel ? There would be a deeply (so deeply) meaningful contrast bewteen the bestiality of this Clan and the sophistication of the kata...
K Man : Can I have a katana ? I want a katana.
Me : You sure can, friend, you sure can.

(some days later, at the RPG club)
Me : Hey, man ! You fancy a game of Middle Earth Role Playing ?
K Man : What's that ?
Me : It's a game full of elves, dwarves, and the elusive, comfy but surprisingly noble Hobbits, based on the masterpiece by the Master of Fantasy, none other than J.R.R...
K Man : I want to play a dwarf with a katana !
Me : Well, I suppose... But perhaps an Elf would be more suited, what with the sophistication of this weapon you seem to cherish, the k...
K Man : Whatever man ! Let me play a fucking Elf with a katana !
Me : Okayyy...

(Still later)
Me : Someone's up for a Star Wars session ? I mean, I'm not claiming to have mastered all the intricacies of this deceptively simple epic filmed by George Lu...
K Man : I want to play ! I want to play !
Me : ... Great... But this is a sci-fi world of guns and starships, and...
K Man : Hey, no ! I know there's this shit about this guy with all his fancy mofo powers with his shiny sword !
Me : You mean, the light saber ? The light saber of Anakin Skywalker ?
K Me : Yeah ! The gay dude !
Me : Gay ? But he loves Leia... who is totally not his sister in the first episode, and...
K Man : Whatever, man ! I want to play this guy, but not gay, and with a katana !
Me : But he's not... Okay... but [putting my foot down] there are no katanas in Star Wars !
K Man : What do you say ? That's impossible ! This gay guy has got this mofo sword with POWERS, man.
Me : That's a light saber, friend. And it's scientifically impossible for a light sword to be a katana.
K Man : What ? What ? What's this shit ? Why, man, why ?
Me : [smugly] Because you can't bend light.
K Man : I just wanna play a cool dude with a kick-ass shiny powered katana, man ! I don't need light !
Me : ...
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I'm glad I wasn't there. I would have started the whole "lightsabers are obviously plasma in a magnetic field, so he could totally have a curved lightsaber" argument, just for the chaos. :devil:
 
I keep wondering why in the world so many RPGs put all their rules for character creation, literally including every possible option, in a game where you can't even understand the options without understanding the rules first, before putting the section on how to play the actual game.

It baffles me so much. Like just a million references to the how different widgets interact with the rules... and you haven't even told me the rules yet.
 
Last night's session went really well and I'm very happy about it. It was the 40th session of the campaign and the 2nd hybrid in-person/remote session. I had been a little frustrated with the previous session, because I felt like we barely got anything done in-game, but that meant I needed to prep almost nothing for last night, since most of my prep for the previous session was still useful, so it all turned out okay :smile:.

I'll do a full write-up later.
 
Andrew J. Luther said:
I’m the “regular” GM for my group, but it’s because I prefer running over playing. As I player, I always have character ADD - no matter how interesting I make my character in my mind, it’s never as cool in play as my “next” character would certainly be.

Playing an endless procession of NPCs helps me deal with that quite well, though.
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I'm almost sorry we don't have anyone like you in my group:grin:!
 
Fenris-77 said:
I just got the go ahead to actually sell the hack I just wrote if I felt like it. Anyone willing to contribute art, for some kind of consideration, obviously? There is a ton of revision and layout work to be done as well, so I'm not exactly in a hurry.
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Congrats, man:thumbsup:!
 
Finished a module last night and getting somewhat better at GMing combat, although keeping track of automatic rifle damage with the Pacesetter Action Table is a little tricky. I'm discovering that putting characters into situations that you think will be too difficult for them allows them to find creative or at least tenacious ways to succeed.
 
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A player dropped out last minute so we played Mothership. It was alright. My heart wasn't in it but the players had fun. I was annoyed at the whiffiness of the system. I didn't care for the scenario we played. There was zero reason for the players to continue investigating without some kind of contrived "your hyperdrive is broken" monkeywrench. I heard "I'm a <job title> not a space marine" a lot. Bunny says, "We have jobs, we're not murder hobos. It's not worth it." Players got out alive and levelled so they were happy.
 
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Brock Savage said:
A player dropped out last minute so we played Mothership. It was alright. My heart wasn't in it but the players had fun. I was annoyed at the whiffiness of the system. I didn't care for the scenario we played. There was zero reason for the players to continue investigating without some kind of contrived "your hyperdrive is broken" monkeywrench. I heard "I'm a <job title> not a space marine" a lot. Bunny says, "We have jobs, we're not murder hobos. It's not worth it." Players got out alive and levelled so they were happy.
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Could have been far worse I guess. Can you talk a little more about the whiffiness?
 
Fenris-77 said:
Could have been far worse I guess. Can you talk a little more about the whiffiness?
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The chance to succeed at anything is almost always under 50%. I understand rolling dice is for situations where the players are under duress "Whenever you want to do something and the price for failure is high" but the chances of success are so poor that it's a better idea to simply not engage with anything that entails risk. Combat was a boring slog of failed rolls, the monsters included. After two rounds they figured out that even Marines suck in combat and that running is the best solution for any confrontation. They had fun so I guess it didn't matter but it left me in a bad mood.
 
Brock Savage said:
The chance to succeed at anything is almost always under 50%. I understand rolling dice is for situations where the players are under duress "Whenever you want to do something and the price for failure is high" but the chances of success are so poor that it's a better idea to simply not engage with anything that entails risk. Combat was a boring slog of failed rolls, the monsters included. After two rounds they figured out that even Marines suck in combat and that running is the best solution for any confrontation. They had fun so I guess it didn't matter but it left me in a bad mood.
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I did notice when I read the rules that there seems to be a lot of percentiles in the 30's, which did make me wonder.
 
EmperorNorton said:
I keep wondering why in the world so many RPGs put all their rules for character creation, literally including every possible option, in a game where you can't even understand the options without understanding the rules first, before putting the section on how to play the actual game.

It baffles me so much. Like just a million references to the how different widgets interact with the rules... and you haven't even told me the rules yet.
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I can see that criticism as valid for certain systems. Certainly any system that combines basic Attributes and Skills with Feats, Traits, Special Powers, etc with funky dice, should probably lay some ground work., at least defining terms and explains the basic core mechanic.

To be honest, I think most RPGs are written by pros for pros. As a result, they get you right into character creation, because they know you already know what an OSR, d100, PbtA, etc. style game is. Also, even though the characters for the largest expressions of the most popular RPGs are essentially collections of widgets, each denoting a rules exception, most games aren’t actually like that, even if they are in the minority.

But, you’re right, if you’re just beginning to learn an RPG, reading it in order completely first, then going back to reread certain areas will be necessary. I think that’s why the proliferation of Starter Sets are profitable and are becoming more popular.
 
Brock Savage said:
A player dropped out last minute so we played Mothership. It was alright. My heart wasn't in it but the players had fun. I was annoyed at the whiffiness of the system. I didn't care for the scenario we played. There was zero reason for the players to continue investigating without some kind of contrived "your hyperdrive is broken" monkeywrench. I heard "I'm a <job title> not a space marine" a lot. Bunny says, "We have jobs, we're not murder hobos. It's not worth it." Players got out alive and levelled so they were happy.
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Which scenario was that?
 
CRKrueger said:
Which scenario was that?
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Dead Planet, specifically The Alexis. The players had fun in spite of the scenario. Everyone got into the roleplay and I think they spent more time on roleplaying and character exposition than anything else. I think it was a nice break from the serious business of Carcosa. They were super happy to escape and level up.

Instead of dumping them outside the Dead Planet because broken FTL drive I had the android wake them from cryo to respond to a distress call. Not only is it company policy but it's spacer code to respond to distress calls. We had a nice little bit of RP on "that's not my job" and contracts and shit. I just wanted to do something quick to get a feel for the system and boarding The Alexis seemed to fit the bill.

Edit: After sleeping on it I think I was just mad at myself because I had to run Mothership on short notice and improvise a lot. The players had fun but I think I could have done a better job on pacing and keeping things exciting.
 
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One of my players, who was missed a lot of sessions lately because work has been kicking his ass, made it to our last session and hung around afterwards for a bit to have a few beers and shoot the shit. He told me (paraphrased), "I hope you know that I really do appreciate the time and effort you put into creating this world and running the game, and that I have a really good time playing, and that my spotty attendance isn't a reflection on the campaign's quality."

I did already know he felt that way, but it was still really nice to hear out loud.
 
E-Rocker said:
One of my players, who was missed a lot of sessions lately because work has been kicking his ass, made it to our last session and hung around afterwards for a bit to have a few beers and shoot the shit. He told me (paraphrased), "I hope you know that I really do appreciate the time and effort you put into creating this world and running the game, and that I have a really good time playing, and that my spotty attendance isn't a reflection on the campaign's quality."

I did already know he felt that way, but it was still really nice to hear out loud.
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One of my favorite things about returning to GMing is when players say that. It's something I probably never did as a player myself when I was young, and I can't recall any players in my games at the time ever saying it (maybe they did, it has been so long). But it's a kind of immediate validation that you rarely or never get elsewhere in life, especially from employment, so the older adult gamer in me really appreciates that aspect of the experience.
 
You know, I don't really think anyone needs to play a single roleplaying game that I've designed. That's why I'm (hypothetically) designing three:
  • Just in case you've had me blocked for the last four years-- a wise decision-- I'm working on my own old-school D&D semiclone that fuses BECMI D&D with the Player's Option supplements for AD&D, with some of the least controversial parts of 5e and some of the most controversial parts of 3.X. Because I care.
  • I'm running an Alternity campaign and I just bought almost everything there is to buy for d00 Lite. I love both systems dearly, but it occurs to me I could make both of them so much better by combining them. Since either system would seem like my best option for the current Alternity game, I suspect the mashup would be the perfect option.
  • So, recently I learned that someone-- his name's Malcolm Sheppard-- someone released a viable OGL retroclone of the Classic World of Darkness rules. Now that I'm doing it, I'm probably legally restricted from telling you exactly what roleplaying game, based on a popular video game franchise, I'm using it to recreate.
My Alternity game keeps getting delayed, again and again and again. I have the furniture I need to finish turning my office into a recording studio-- Dammit Victor's Bad OSR Opinions, coming soon to a YouTube near you-- but I'm waiting for a day my back and my hands are up to the task of hauling it all upstairs and assembling it.
 
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