Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Digital Hellhound]

Interesting! I'd suggest not stressing about the identities of the hundred. Write up those who will be relevant to the players' story to start with, think up and work in more as you go along. It's a big galaxy - I doubt all of them are going to be 'on screen' all the time.

Are you thinking suggestion game, multi-player RPG, strategy, or what? I assume the player(s) would play as one of the Hundred?

[Mesa]

Well, the most sensible thing to do from my perspective would to either have a handful of players playing as part of one Pantheon (though it would get awkward in situations in which one of the players would want to leave for one reason or another), or have everyone control only one Emperor character (it would certainly ease off a lot of workload for me as a GM).

As for genre, I'm torn between suggestion game, and a strategy-RPG (multiplayer would be cool but seems beyond my ability). The former is more in line with what I've been doing with half-decent success on B12, while the latter is closer to what I'd have in mind if this were a full-scale game but I don't have the resources or game design genius to pull that off, so I'm thinking of just going down the SG route.

[My Name is Immaterial]

How do you people manage to run forum games for weeks, months, -years-, without just suddenly losing interest halfway through? I don't understand and I'm envious of it because it's really no fun that I can never actually finish anything that I start. ;-;
_{(inb4 the answer is "well it just works for me" and it turns out that my brain is simply not compatible with any sort of long-term projects, at least not without medication/therapy)}

When I ran my game, which did run for over a year, I did lose interest occasionally. I was lucky, because I was running from a premade campaign, so I always and something easy to do/post. My advice: plan ahead, take breaks when you need it, and keep yourself accountable.

[Rolepgeek]

Alright, with that mental handicap in mind, I've had this one setting in mind that I would like to use for...something, and a forum game could make for one such use. However, it has one problem that is pretty much inherent due to the theme (read down below) that could easily make it a pain to actually manage, and we all know how well I handle pretty much anything, but especially complicated things.
Not to mention that I have not a damn clue about what mechanical system to actually settle with (or go full-on narrative-only, in a classic Maks fashion) because while I spent an okay amount of time on this setting, it was never really within the context of a Bay12 forum game.

With this two-paragraph disclaimer out of the way, here's the primer for The Hundred Emperors, a setting of soft sci-fi coolness, badassery, and tricky quasi-politics.

Spoiler: Spoiler because this also has a (dirty) logo, by yours truly. (click to show/hide)

The year is 4000. The 41st century dawns upon not only humanity, but the many other species and civilizations of the Milky Way galaxy. Intragalactic trade is blooming, and it would seem that interstellar peace has been achieved...

But, under this veil of galactic balance lies a great deal of chaos. Pirates roam the deep space and prey upon unsuspecting merchants and civilians alike, workers in remote outposts are under constant threat from local fauna and flora, shady organizations create further instability on civilized worlds, and it would appear that a great war between the galactic superpowers is imminent.

To counteract all these problems and upkeep peace and harmony in the Galaxy, a small handful of the strongest, smartest and most unusual individuals from all the known areas of civilized space have been assembled, to protect the Milky Way from all sorts of threats.

Super soldiers. Wizards. Scientists. Adventurers. Robots. Mutants. Artificial intelligences. Deities.

Collectively they are known as The Emperors, and there can only ever be but a Hundred.

However, their original founders did not predict just how much dispute and disagreement there would be in such a large and diverse group - everyone has a different set of priorities and means of upkeeping the law and peace, so it was inevitable that the Emperors would form into like-minded groups - Pantheons. Functioning as sovereign entities in the vastness of the galactic space, every Pantheon has their own rules, agendas, private supporting forces, spaceships, facilities and internal dynamics.

Either through defeating of previously existing Emperors, assassinating them, or just stealing a vacant spot through sheer luck and good timing, you all made it into the elite circle of the Hundred Emperors, and are ready to protect the Galaxy, either on your own, as part of an existing Pantheon, or by forming your own. How will the Galaxy remember you?

The above is basically the most cheesy and poorly written description I could possibly muster, but you can see the gist (and the problem) of the whole thing - it's 80s sci-fi superhero shenanigans mixed with a layer of politics, and some Highlander-esque dynamics ("There can be only one...hundred.").

There's fighting pirates, giant alien spiders, cultists, actual military, as well as other superheroes that you may not exactly be great pals with. There's also managing your own private forces of common soldiers and workers to man your spaceships, space stations, and planetary outposts.
And of course, dealing with other Pantheons / independent Emperors, the public (don't wanna wind up in some scandal that gets broadcast on galactic news and ruins your public image) and the officials like military leaders, CEOs and other people of status.

All while making sure you don't die or go missing, in some way or another.



Either way, the problem is that this is a lot of stuff to keep track of, especially in the "big dogs" dept. - one hundred 'main' characters (not all of whom may be of equal importance admittedly, and many would be only found only in presence of their pantheonmates anyway) that may or may not also be on...err, rotation, is quite a lot and I'm not sure how to properly deal with that.

No clue about extra overarching plots but it seems pretty feasible to have things that would attract the attention of most of the Emperors, like an impending war between galactic superpowers, or a shady cult's plan to unleash an elder god upon the galaxy, or a great zerg-esque swarm from another galaxy trying to consume the Milky Way...all of which sound very grandiose, I'm well aware of that.

Still, I feel like it's a great foundation for a cool epic-scale game, but I have not a damn clue how to actually pull it off, you know, mechanically.

Goddamn, did you do that art?

Sorry, but I've been holding off on trying to run some games I've wanted to try for a while because I've wanted some specific art to go with them.

Oh, also I do have ADD and I have found it difficult to keep up with games I've tried to run. Partially because once it gets into two or three hours to run a turn, it just gets too time-consuming, partially because I find myself putting off updates, and sometimes because I just get too into it in my head and the real thing can't match up and I lose interest.

My first piece of advice is this: if you come up with an idea, write it down/hash it out as much as you like, but wait a month. If you're still interested after a full thirty days, you still like the idea, then odds are it's original and actually interesting for you. I don't know how many game ideas I've had that were just the result of a movie or book I liked.

Though also I have meds that work really well.

For me, my less-planned games have been the ones to get farther, probably because I've got a bit of a perfectionist streak so the more I plan the more it has to adhere exactly to that plan. Although hyper-focus helps with the design part, like this or the absurdity that was this.

I would kinda suggest just going for a basic game that you don't need to do very complicated work to run, but you know you'll enjoy.

[Chiefwaffles]

Oh jesus.
Way to make me feel bad about abandoning a game three years ago. Now rebooting that game is going to be on my mind all week. You're just the worst, Rolepgeek, and this is 300% your fault and absolutely not mine at all.

I can't believe you've done this.

[Harry Baldman]

For me, my less-planned games have been the ones to get farther, probably because I've got a bit of a perfectionist streak so the more I plan the more it has to adhere exactly to that plan. Although hyper-focus helps with the design part, like this or the absurdity that was this.

The thing that a less-planned game avoids is the unfortunate tendency to frontload a game with exposition and prologues that draw everything out and aren't decently paced or made with any kind of schedule in mind. A well-planned start, however, avoids both that and having no plan at all, which brings the GM to the question of "what now", the answer to which is "I'll stall the players with some bullshit until I have a better plan" at which point you're just wasting time.

[Mesa]

For what it's worth the THE setting has been on my mind on and off in some form or another for well over a year now, if not even longer (any chance y'all remember my Chrono Warriors thread with a bunch of character designs that I made in August 2015? This is basically a spiritual successor of that universe.), so it's already got a better run than some other of my things because, if nothing else, it's something that I like going back to, a soft sci-fi setting of awesomeness, even if I might not be the best at actually 'sharing' that setting with others in a meaningful way (ie. not just infodumping about some plotline to someone).

So in that regard, it's in the same vein as Wasteland&Wonderland (Gun Francisco), that I don't feel like I will ever completely drop the concept, even if it's changed a lot since its original incarnation. (anyone who's been following my nonsense trains of thoughts long enough to remember the early iterations of Gun Francisco will clearly see just how different it is from where it's at now, and a similar thing has happened to THE.)

I don't have them on hand on this laptop but I do have some more lore written up on my desktop, including a few Pantheons and their members, and some locations, even if I have not updated them in a while.

Basically all of this is a very verbose way of saying "I'm enthusiastic about this enough to keep working on it in some form or another over the course of a longer period of time, so I feel like I could see myself following through with it as a forum game", though I feel like I might have gotten overly defensive about it.

Then again I don't feel like the opportunity cost of starting and failing to properly maintain a text forum game is particularly large (except maybe further damaging my reputation as a GM, but I have not run a game in years anyway), so I might give it a shot pretty soon.

EDIT: Also before I forget, yes, I made that logo.

[OceanSoul]

Recently, I was considering a simple system for making short, one-off games. I'm not sure what the mechanics of the actual games would be, but then again, it doesn't need to be anything specific, so the style and mechanics can be up to the hoster. The way one would make a game is simple to randomly generate a few (1-3) details about the main character, premise, and event separately. I'll make an example for 2 details each, and borrow Fniff's generator for this (Fniff, if you're reading this, this was not the game I mentioned to you).

Character- Tunnel, Broken.
Premise- Betrayal, Ferret.
Event- Prayer, Disappear.

In the past, ferrets had turned on humans, becoming the dominant race. The character(s) would be one of several ferrets whose jobs are building underground passageways for the city of San Furansisco, but most of their equipment was too old and decrepit to work well. One day, the head church of Mustelanity in your city disappears, causing all sorts of end-of-the-world riot in the streets above. Your outdated geological censors suggest that the chapel fell underground, so you all decide to find where the central church went, uncovering  and stopping a human organization trying to overturn the government of their overlords and regain the Earth.

..yeah. Pretty weird, but it could still work for a short while. What do you all think? Not the story itself, the generation. Maybe you should try making a story for yourself this way.

Edit: The generator is Here.

[hachnslay]

Interest Check - "You are The Gamer" based on the Manhwa of the same name.
Just need to find a way to not have you play on the standard world ...

[FallacyofUrist]

Alternative game system, mayhaps.

Caves of Qud's system, maybe.

Or alternatively, give the Gamer power to a character in a different fictional world. Though that's been done quite a bit.

[Liberonscien]

Interest Check- The Cult of Nomic
It is basically religion building with nomic.
Warning, the rule set is for most intents and purposes the same length as the original rules.
Note: I didn't create the rules for The Cult of Nomic.

Anyone interested?

[OceanSoul]

Maybe.

Also, new idea.

YOU ARE PLAYING A SUGGESTION GAME.

You're welcome.

[Greatness942]

So this is a place to store ideas, no? Cool. I'm running three games right now, and I'm afraid I'll forget a certain idea while doing them.

Anyway, my idea: I did two video game adaptation Forum Games. One's dead and was based on Dead Rising 2, and one gets updated so rarely it's pretty much dead, based on Killer Instinct. And I think I know why: the suggestion game is a much better format.

So, enough rambling, how about: A suggestion game based on multiple choice games? My first, and current, idea for this sort of thing would be an SG based on Shadow the Hedgehog, that "edgy" Sonic spin-off that came out in 2005 that got mixed reviews (but I love it.) It would be nice to know who else would think that would be cool before I put it into place/wait for one of my big three to finish/die and then make it.

Too...Medium?;Didn't Read: Interest Check for Future Game: Shadow the Hedgehog SG. Any advice for running such a thing?

[Tyrant Leviathan]

Well my second attempt at adventure is not running smoothly.


Thinking of jumping in on the SG front.



On a large, fictional world with one super continent and islands. Many different stories.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Pangaea Tribes: A clan has been kicked out by a empire and forced to resettle. Cue new land and lots of weirdness.


Exiles: Instead of being settlers your a band of people in middle of looking for a new homeland. While enemies and weirdness try to stop you.


Warlord: Weath of the Heavens: Like tribes but more geared to war. As your to get as much power and fame. And maybe even more land.

Heirs: Speaking of Empire you play as a heir to throne. Problem is dad is dying and one must proof self to be next ruler. By any means necessary.

Any of these sound good? The world setting has so much background may make a wiki page for it.


If anyone is interested.

[RoseHeart]

suggestion game is a much better format

Resist!