Why donÔÇÖt people create? GM's and players how is it going?

[WearsHats]

I prefer playing and working with good guys. But I'm willing to roll with other ideas. It's what makes life (and shared stories) interesting.

I was planning on a central event causing the development of super powers. A strange meteor exploded in the sky a few years back, triggering changes in biology. Something like that. Like I said, along the lines of Wild Cards and Freedom Force. But both of those still allowed for mystical powers.

I'll probably be introducing one of my own concepts.

He was on the set of his cooking show when the event happened. The strange power washed over him, and he began to merge with his kitchen. Now, with a metal body, the powers of the freezer and oven (ice and heat rays), a lot of knives, and a bandolier of his special homemade explosive boom-meringues, he fights for order and justice as... The Iron Chef!

He'll probably show up as one of the city's more famous and experienced superheroes. If he was introduced as a starting PC, his ability to use and control those ice and heat rays would be limited. Control comes with practice and strength/power comes with exercise. (You don't exactly level up, but you can gradually improve what you have, depending on what you do.)

I'm very much in the "I'll work with you and we'll see what develops as things go" frame of mind here.

[ThroughTheWell]

But I'm thinking I want to toss the rulebooks. No math. No hard definitions. Each player defines their own powerset, subject to GM approval. As long as it's a cohesive concept and not obviously overpowered, I'll probably go with it. And then, as situations arise, they're free to attempt whatever innovative uses for their powers they can come up with. I'll decide what works and how well, based on context, what makes sense to me, and rule-of-thumb dice rolls as necessary. It means a lot more flexibility for players and the ability to try new and unexpected things. But it also means that players will have to accept my rulings on effects.

I've got that much sorted. But now I need to do the hard stuff: Populating the city (good guys, bad guys, people who are just out for themselves, and anyone else who should be around), figuring out what everyone's up to, and coming up with some sort of plot.

Have you considered Champions? One nice thing about it is, all powers come down to a standard set of powers with standard costs, but the special effects of those standard powers varry between players. For example: blast. It could be electrical or laser; it does not matter. But the player bought blast at so much per d6 damage. The downside is, it is a whole rulebook and it sounded like you were trying to get away from that. It attempts to provide balance though, which I can say will likely end up being harder than you think if you go completely freeform. OTOH, fighters and wizards are not balanced either, so if people can live with that, your ruleing will not be too much of a problem.

Recently, last week or 2, up in Recruitment I think, Sentinals of the Multiverse (?) was mentioned as a super hero card game. The nice thing about it is that the villan and setting are drawn, and thus random for each game. It could provide you the structure you want. More info about Sentials can be found at boardgamegeeks.

[thinkslogically]

Sounds good to me! If you can come up with some vague story hooks that will keep your game going then winging it should be grand. There's no real need for stats if you're running a story-driven game; just decide how tough you want encounters to be and what the outcomes could be (e.g. if they meet a boss guy early on, have a way for them to escape if they need to).

The tough thing I think here will be keeping character death as a realistic possibility (especially once the characters become established) if you're the only guy deciding on who lives and dies. Adding some kind of random or skill-based component might help everyone enjoy the game a bit more to keep the challenge there but without forcing you to make horrible choices.

If you want, I can PM you the system I'm using for skills trees in The Island and LotMK which is a handy mix of random & player-driven training?

[WearsHats]

I've played GURPS supers. That was fun. But I don't have any of the books. And I'd rather try for power flexibility rather than defined limits. So, yeah, I've heard good things about Champions, but it's not quite what I'm looking for. And I don't feel like buying the books and learning the whole system while I'm trying to make everything else work.

I think balance comes with limits. And limits will depend on the powers you choose. Fatigue and experience will be factors.

I'll give Sentinels a look. At the least, some ideas for villains would be useful, even if I don't use the game mechanics.

Story hooks will hopefully come once I get a better idea of who's who. But that's where most of the work comes in for me. I'm not that good at character creation. And I really suck at picking names (unless they're puns). Populating the city will take a while.

Not sure how I feel about character death. This is a comic book-type setting. But yeah, even without literal death... balanced encounters could be tough. Have to make things challenging and defeat a possibility without skewing the odds to being overwhelmingly against the players.

If you're willing to PM your system, I'll be more than happy to read it over. You've got a lot more experience at this stuff than I do, and I'm happy to learn. Ideas and inspiration are very welcome.

[SamWiser]

Please make that game. It sounds awesome.

[LAYF]

So, IÔÇÖve practiced my dark art, and will now perform a bit of
Necromancy: Textus gamees resurectimsaid in the most dark and shadowy voice I can muster

So... How is it going, both for the GMÔÇÖs who have games running, the players who play, and those who are creating right now?

[thinkslogically]

Good ta!

Got another God School Lesson done today, so I think there should probably only be 2-3 of them left to do. Still got the assignments to draw up, but I don't think those files should take too long to make. Hopefully by the end of all that we should be good to go. No idea how long it'll be before it's all done and dusted, but we're definitely getting there slowly...

[Theis2]

Hmm, So far I've knocked 4 out of 6 players down into the negatives during one battle, lost 2,5 players (I expect Lin will return at some point so she only counts as one half.), confused/freaked them out by not having an inn among 7 other buildings occupied by scavengers and almost got them to split the party (which can still happen).

It seems to go.. well? xD

[LAYF]

Sounds great Thinks.. I really really really! look forward to it...

Hmm, sad that youÔÇÖve lost players Theis, but knocking them into negative should not be bad, only empathies the need for thought through plans.... but maybe itÔÇÖs a bit too hard in PbP?ÔÇÖ

I myself think that my games go great.

The horde has become much more complex than I originally planned, but I like that, itÔÇÖs nice to see what the players do when the freedom is more or less 100% and the direction to the target is clear.

The dungeon of horror is easy to manage, only a bit advanced when players finds multiple new things at once, its progressing a bit slower than I thought, but that only makes my job easier (walking back and forth only requires little text )

The godÔÇÖs world is progressing more or less as IÔÇÖd imagined, a bit slow but... at least the players seems fairly agreeing on the costs of things and have not complained yet as IÔÇÖve adjusted things... so thatÔÇÖs good... now IÔÇÖm just beginning to be nervous of the populization stage

MyrMen my newest game is a lot of fun, IÔÇÖve wanted to do something like it for a long time, but has been afraid of the amount of players, as it also involves a lot of text, but it seems to go okay, and I donÔÇÖt get to many complains about my spelling... so thatÔÇÖs good... now all I need is more players


Besides that... I just have a hard time containing myself, I have like 7 or 8 other games in my head that IÔÇÖm eager to try out, but I MUST stop here, so I donÔÇÖt sacrifice the quality of my other games.....

ThatÔÇÖs my ramble for this

[LooksAndSmiles]

I think the Minesweepers is going along fine, except that I don't like when someone applies to play and then disappears without a word. Having a constant amount of about 10 players is a fine thing, though it would certainly stroke my ego if I had 20-30 over-eager applicants to join a game... Speaking of which, currently I doubt my tower offense game will start with the lack of people wanting to join, and I'm seriously in trouble to think up a game that will possibly have enough attention to be a grand scale...

I'm thinking of making something simple and text based. Or maybe a board game. Or try to restart the "Kobolds Ate My Babies!" rpg, which is hilarious.

[thinkslogically]

Why not run a sprite-based dungeon crawl? I'm looking at game styles on here just now and there's nothing except top-down and text-based at the moment that I can find except the games I'm running (deepest apologies if I've missed someone's game!). We've got so many resources in the resource thread it shouldn't actually be that much work, especially if you used ECR's sprites and an LSN-style layout.

[LAYF]

Well there is Clan altogeta by JibJib.
MyrMen and The Horde by me.

and some other i'm sure.. cant remember.... not many I know.. and MyrMen hardly counts....

[gamecreator]

There is not much interest for PvP on this forums, so I can't test my rules.

[thinkslogically]

Thank you LayF! I hadn't found those ones yet (I'm not following nearly as many games as I should be at the moment!), so my apologies! They certainly do all count and I didn't mean to exclude them, just genuinely hadn't got that far through the list of games yet (what I get for starting at the bottom of the page!).

[LooksAndSmiles]

Why not run a sprite-based dungeon crawl? I'm looking at game styles on here just now and there's nothing except top-down and text-based at the moment that I can find except the games I'm running (deepest apologies if I've missed someone's game!). We've got so many resources in the resource thread it shouldn't actually be that much work, especially if you used ECR's sprites and an LSN-style layout.

Because those aren't the kind of sprites I'd like to use, and yes, it would be still a lot of work generating art (at least for me), believe me.

Also, I like the simple 1-stage map design, if I have to create a ton of rooms and stuff, that just goes on my nerves. I have tried to create a simple dungeon game with about 15 rooms, but it never made to the forum because I ran out of art and room ideas after 8 rooms or so.

Don't get me wrong, I love creating complete rulesets and worlds to play in, it's just I fail at creating "dungeons" that actually use these rulesets. Single map designs are ok, because I can clearly see what I want to fit in there and what not. And I don't have to figure out how to connect the areas in order to keep all of them interesting or at least important.

[BeanDip]

I would love to run a game but have no artistic abilities at all. I don't even know how to throw a sprite comic together... Games with pictures are more fun, of course and my abilities to create computer art stop at the pencil-brush in MSPAINT.

I love to write so I could try to spin player actions into a text-based narrative but I don't know if anyone would be interested in a game with no pictures.

[WearsHats]

Speaking of sprite based games... I miss CTF. Also that one that vanished so long ago I can't remember the name, but goblins have one hit point, new goblins can enter the spawn queue at any time, you can get pickups and special powers, and the object is to find the exit to the room and navigate past the traps and monsters to get to it... at which point everyone moves to the next room and the whole thing starts over.

Beandip, that's the great thing about sprites. Someone else drew all the people, accessories, etc. You just need to doodle a background and paste people in. And there are free graphic programs like paint.net and GIMP which really expand your capabilities. I'd be happy to help show you how to use paint.net, and I'm sure there are other people who are much better artists than I who would also be happy to help. Also, there's God School coming up, which is designed to teach you exactly those skills and more.

(In other news, not to derail the current discussion... I did start worldbuilding for that modern superhero game I mentioned before. I've got a good start, and I add to it from time to time, but I need someone else to work with. There are ideas that need to be fleshed out and a LOT of NPCs that need to be created, even if I leave the incidental ones to be made on the fly. This part of the process has never been my strong point, and it always goes better when I have someone to bounce ideas around with. I put out a call for people to brainstorm with, but, although a few people expressed interest, the only one who has really gotten back to me so far wanted me to take apart everything I'd done and rebuild it as if I was writing a novel rather than making an open game world. Also, he thought my map was unrealistic even though it's based on a real city that I've actually been to.)

[LAYF]

BeanDip.. there is a lot of images in the recourses forum you can use those are a great help...

Thinks, I forgot, there is also the Quick death clan by I'mBob...

Wears, I'd be happy to help with the city and such... dont know how well I'd be at NPC's but I'll help any way I can....


Oh and yea CTF was fun to follow, (Newer played myself, but liked watching it, both when it was PVP and VS rabbits )

[BeanDip]

I think I remember God School from the old Keenspot forum... there was Ratha and a Pair of Pants and a sun type thing... i think. Was that the one? I'd be interested certainly, if that was running again. If nothing else I have all summer to learn because everyone started out at my level of skill before becoming awesome.

[LAYF]

Yep that's the one...

And it will be up and running again soon... Thinks just need to get the last things ready....

[thinkslogically]

I've managed to put three lessons together today which I think rounds out my set of the lessons. I just need to draw up the assignments, catch up with the other folk who have agreed to do lessons in the first set and we should be ready to roll. I'm hoping it'll open up in a week or two all being well

[SamWiser]

So, I'm thinking about GM'ing a game for some of my friends. First I need to find players, and learn the rules, and get the supplies, and figure out the plot, and a lot more. I'm not quite ready yet. What I'm asking is what advice would you give for a first time GM?

[thinkslogically]

Be ready to wing it! You can prepare all you like, but real players WILL occasionally go off-plan and you'll just need to roll with it. Prepare a back-up encounter in case they go somewhere you didn't expect, build a spare NPC in case you need a quick plot-device to get them back on track and have a little bit of spare loot to reward them if they do something cool.

[LAYF]

Oh... theres lots.. but.

First time?

Go with less is better. or even a pre made adventure....

if not pre made.

Make a simple plot: Bad guy stole girl, wants to sacrifice, power of evil.. that kind of thing.. lay out small leads, such as clay from the cave he will perform the ritual in, a brench from the forest where he has gathered animal remains for his poison and such...

then, make say, 6-10 randoms (but theamed) small encounters... not nessasarely all combat, puzzles and talking npc guys are also good. all one way or another leading towards the bad guy, these are your "Throw ins" Things you can throw in if your playser runs off track...

And YES.. this IS railroading.... but for a first time adventure... thats a good idea...


also.. consider your system, setting and mood.... what do you want from the game? what type of players do you have? what type of stories do you like to read, and write?

[thinkslogically]

On the subject of railroading - you can do it without your players feeling like they're being forced into your plan. Just limit their options in such a way that they CAN'T try to go everywhere and see everything.