Adventurers and Crime

To quote a particularly amusing exchange from the Firefly TV series:

Simon: So, what are we doing?
Kaylee: [looks up] Oh, crime.
Simon: Crime! Good! Okay! Crime.
Kaylee: It’s a train heist. See we fly over the train car, the captain and Zoë sneak in, we lower Jayne onto the car, and they bundle up the booty, and we haul ‘em all back up. Easy as lyin’.
Simon: So you’ve done this before?
Kaylee: [laughs] Oh, hell no.
[serious]
Kaylee: But I think it’s gonna work.

It makes more sense when you see it:

Sooner or later adventurers are going to end up in the wrong side of the law.  Sometimes by choice, or sometimes because the lawmen are just plain rotten.  So what should you expect before you end up a criminal?

The Fun Rant

I’ve decided to backtrack a little and consider this question after a particularly memorable conversation with one of my players. I’m currently running some research work on starting a game of Vampire: the Requiem set in the Victorian Era, and he (being one of the really system heavy players I have) set off to read the rulebook and dissect the system down to it’s components parts.

While I did mention that character optimization is fun, I have to admit that I was a little big disheartened when I saw him type this out on instant messenger: “I’ve read the system and I will say that Vampires suck against guns. A lick won’t stand up against someone going full auto on his body with armor piercing tracer rounds.”

My knee-jerk reaction would be to tell him, “That’s true, but you’re missing the point.” but I decided to let it slide. His concept of fun, is not my concept of fun.

Are Rules for Resolving Social Interaction Necessary?

Today’s late post is brought to you by the fact that I needed to go get my eye examined. After the laser surgery I underwent last year, it seemed that my left eye still retained a few anomalies that needed a bit of observation and eventually another operation to fix. It’s tentatively scheduled for next month, March 17th. Hopefully that would mean that I would finally get my full 20/20 vision in both eyes.

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With that out of the way let’s proceed to today’s topic:

RPGs are traditionally very detailed when it comes to combat. Pacing, maneuvers, combat distances, cover, concealment, visibility and weapon stats that border on fetishism litter most rpgs. While I have nothing against this kind of detail since combat seems to be the most dominant and common mean of creating conflict in a game, there is some concern with regards to the use of rules when it comes to resolving a different kind of conflict.

Cthulhutech Post-Mortem

Well, after running my first session of Cthulhutech, here’s what I’ve come up with.  The Framewerk system is decent for what it was made to do, which was semi-swift resolution.  The quirky poker-like means of reading dice rolls became easier over time, but I have to admit that I still have no idea as to how the probabilities of this system works.  As such I found myself permanently nailing difficulties to 12 for easy, 16 for almost every other roll and 20 for harder tasks.

Drama dice were a nice option, and given the lack of a feel for the probabilities, it was more than handy to have them available to pull your character’s butt out of the fire.

Unfortunately, my primary gripe was that in the end, the Framewerk System was ultimately forgettable.  The gimmicky rolls only served to hide the probabilities, and the Skill “Feats” only served to confuse players.

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Would I run a longer campaign?  Sure, the book pays for itself in terms of setting detail, imagination, cool concepts and hey, mecha and bio-armor.  Would I run it in Framewerk?  This I’m not sure… I might just convert it to nWoD or even HERO just to iron out the system.

Was it worth the price paid?  I’d still say yes.  Perhaps when the next edition comes along, Framewerk would have matured to a point where it’s consistency can’t be questioned, but hey, as long as it’s just the GM doing the houserules and bugfixes, and the players have fun, I can live with it.

Perhaps I’ll be able to appreciate the system more in a few more sessions, after all I’ve still got 5 more sessions to run.

Genre-Bender: Space Opera Roleplaying

Nothing is as silly in the Philippine mindset as Rockets and Rayguns.

Coming from a third world country, our visions of the future always presented some form of dystopia, where the rich live in their palatial residential complexes and the poor waste away in the dirty unwashed alleys of the City Below.  Rather than shiny space suits and bubble helmets, we look to respirators to keep ourselves from inhaling the deadly miasma that rots the lungs from the inside…

But that’s not what we’ll focus on today.  Today, we look at the fanciful musings of Space Opera…

Champions Online!

(Click the logo to check it out!)

I’ve mentioned before that I’m not really a fan of MMORPGs. The first MMO that really piqued my interest was City of Heroes / Villains, if only because I’m admittedly a fan of comic book heroes and settings. I don’t necessarily collect comics, but I can appreciate a good superhero story when I see one.

That being said, I’m also a big fan of the HERO System, and how it really is the “Ultimate Gamer’s Toolkit.” Imagine my surprise then at the announcement that Cryptic Studios actually bought the IP for HERO game’s default Champions superhero setting. It looks very interesting, and I’m certain that the idea alone of being able to run around an established pen-and-paper setting will tide me over.

Oh, for the record, I know there’s a Warhammer Fantasy MMORPG and a D&D one but for some reason, nothing seizes my attention and smacks it around like this one does.

Killer GMs

I’m not really much of a believer in the GM-vs-Players play style.

I’ve met a few GMs who have taken to quite a sadistic streak towards their players, going so far as to plan specific means to use every single rule in the book to slaughter player characters. Most of the time, the players in these campaigns start developing habits that are very difficult to undo when they finally end up in a game with a less antagonistic GM, resulting in the “Gun nut militia guy who jumps at every shadow” style of play that puzzles me to no end.

Winter Masques Review

Winter Masques is the second supplement for White Wolf’s latest “Fourth Game” six book series, Changeling: the Lost.  This series has impressed me greatly ever since I had the chance to open up the core rulebook, and the supplements continue to leave me with more than a favorable impression.

Cthulhutech at a Glance

I will admit that one of the most powerful reasons I’ve had for wanting Cthulhutech is my prior experience with the classic Call of Cthulhu, specifically having played through part of the Masks of Nyarlathotep adventure. The combination of having to deal with things alien and unknowable with nothing but wits and determination was a lot of fun for me.

Imagine my surprise then, when I discovered Cthulhutech, a game from Wildfire. Instead of having humanity completely at a loss, it envisions a future where mankind has developed technology to be able to fight back against the monstrosities unleashed by the coming of the Great Old Ones. While this doesn’t allow humans to pilot giant robots and punch Cthulhu in the face (as some players I know were hoping for), it’s still an evocative setting that does have more than a few nods to it’s anime influences, such as Evangelion, Robotech and Guyver.

So, what is it like? Well, here are my thoughts on the book after the jump…

Social Contracts 2: Return of the Social Contract!

Hey guys,

After some comments from mrboffo over at The DM’s Blog regarding Social Contracts, I decided to go and ask a few members of my gaming group to give me their versions of the social contract from a player’s point of view. To remain impartial I didn’t tell them about this post, nor did I show them my own list. here’s a few that I got:

From Dulio12385:

“Assuming that the player is joining a new game where the GM and players all don’t know each other: A player must have mastery over the game’s Setting and Mechanics.

For an older group: A player must be able to fit in with the group’s chemistry.”

When I asked him to define further on “chemistry” as well as why it didn’t factor in a new game:

“New groups have a veneer of professional distance. While old groups have idiosyncrasies so its more important to make accommodations for one another.”

As for things that players should not do:

“Bending the rules for the sake of story. It shows a lack of mechanical aptitude. If you have a concept and can’t actualize it, its your fault for not being competent enough to do it.“

And for GMs:

“GM favoritism is a big ‘NO‘ for me. I can handle overpowered enemies.”

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From Silver Countess:

Do’s

“…try to keep in character. If your character says you’re an idiot savant, then make sure your character acts it. An idiot suddenly spouting Shakespeare is rather questionable.
…be consistent, in backstory, and character role playing. No one’s asking for a theater level roleplaying. Just make it consistent.
…be mindful that there are other people in the table whose sensibilities can be offended. A little PC wouldn’t hurt, particularly if you have females in the table with you.
…take it like a man, for every consequence that happens for your actions you do in game.
…help the GM run his plots. It’s nice to diverge but don’t do it completely to ruin it. The GMs usually have a plot, so at least try to run along with it.“

Don’ts

“…interrupt the game when the GM is narrating (particularly cut scenes or running for another player). No one likes a running commentary even if they think they’re as witty as the Mystery Theater. Half they time they aren’t.
…change your character sheet willy-nilly. Emailing changes to your GM and telling him this happened did not happen at all if they were done out of the table.
…tell other players how to run their characters, or make their characters.“

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I’ll probably add more as I get to interview the rest of my gaming group, but it seems that different players do have different priorities. Some individuals see the activity from a completely “game” standpoint while others recognize and acknowledge the relationship aspect of a gaming group over that of just a game of rolling dice.