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Author Topic: Tabletop Roleplaying Games  (Read 19326 times)

Itnetlolor

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Re: Tabletop Roleplaying Games
« Reply #30 on: May 19, 2014, 05:59:25 pm »

I finally got into a more proper RPG, playing alongside my brothers and a couple of their friends (Kinda a weekly family online meetup thing we do; and if not in the mood, or short some players, we Steam some games like Super Laser Racer, Monaco, and such). FATE is the system we're playing, with my older brother GM-ing. FATE is a more story-driven game system. Less about the stats we have, and more the chances of success, based on a few factors. It's kinda like Roll To Dodge: Tabletop Edition. We just recently finished a story arc.

Basically, the game started off with us in a bar in a space station (screw it, I modeled it after SS-13, and used Roman Howard as my character). We had a shady businessman, a bounty hunter, an extraordinarily lucky ex-soldier, and yours truly, the barman and ex-chemist.

Anyway, business was going well on board the station; the businessman skulked his way through the bar, the soldier had his bit of drunkenness go over his head, and started and quickly ended a fight, and in the process bumped into the bounty hunter; and suddenly, the station was hit by a meteor (or an explosion occurred; I kinda forgot). Evacuation orders were sent immediately, and a shuttle was on it's way. As it turned out, I had a ship of my own parked on the station (bought it with hard earned funds), and the 4 of us bailed out on it. We were lucky enough to make it out in time; seeing as it exploded prematurely. Shrapnel, of course, hitting my ship, and we're forced to recover or crash land. Trusting in my ship, I handled it, despite the better skill of the ex-soldier on the table. Unfortunately, the ship suffered stress damage, and was worse for wear; we HAD to crash land it now.

EDIT: (CONTINUED)
We successfully crash landed the ship, and took refuge in the nearby town. I was getting my ship fixed, while everyone was learning more about what happened. Unfortunately, the Internet equivalent went out, and we were in the dark, and had to investigate the hard/classic way. In the meantime, I was getting my ship repaired, and we got a weird message we had to decipher. I was on the right track most of the way, but after the GM had to drop enough hints, we spent a few too many in-game hours to decipher it, and had little time to react to a new situation. I think some bandit was captured in the process, and impatient as I was, I made some hi-strength LSD+sedative (rolled +2 higher than required) and interrogated the poor sap while wearing a clown mask (okay, the clown mask was made up). We learned of an impending attack.

We managed to fend off the attack, and earned the credit and ire of the local sheriff. Basically, I was assisted with ship repairs, as long as we're out of town ASAP. After that, we took off with a parting gift, and some info.

Of course, something was off. Fortunately, my ship happens to be of AWACS variety (basically, a radar ship; I had it so I could foresee danger, as I was a back-alley chemist, of sorts; and need a heads-up, where business is concerned.). As it turns out, we're being followed by a pursuer craft. Fortunately, the ex-soldier recognized it, and knew it's radar couldn't possibly reach us, especially given my ship class. The others were bothered by that fact as well, and figured we were being tracked by some sort of beacon. Naturally, the lucky guy found the device. What to do with it, however, was another thing. While piloting the ship, I improvised an idea: Strap an emergency smoke bomb I brewed up that fakes a ship crashing, for pranks and misdirection, and strap whatever's broadcasting us to them onto it (I even instructed where the duct tape was, as to avoid a roll). They found the device (it was the gift, naturally), strapped it to the bomb, detonated the bomb, and dropped it out the crapper.

Fortunately, it worked, and in a split moment, after scanning for a landing zone to lay low in, it turned out we had to navigate an extra mile (figuratively speaking), as the nearby town was not safe. Of course, the nearby town was not our actual destination; I only decided to move in that direction to mislead our pursuers, since our last stand earlier. We, however had to spend much fuel to get to the other town in the ass-end of the county. Fortunately, we remained calm and arrived at our destination. That is... Until we came to customs.

EDIT EDIT: (CONTINUED)
At customs, most-all of us passed, except for the shady bureaucrat. He had to falsify papers, and oddly enough, Lucky Buck BS'd his way through and managed to pass through no problem; buying the bureaucrat time to finish pulling some documents out his ass. Why's that good, for him, because we all had to be fitted with some sort of RFID system regardless of our origins and intents, unless you're a local, or some such; which, mind you, the lucky guy successfully BS'd his way as a "local". Fortunately, we had an 'in'. We sent someone in earlier to scout a bar we heard of out, and got our info. Some drugs and such, blue people, and yadda yadda yadda, we got what we needed to know, and I was smart enough to ask a few important questions and develop a few contingencies (after a few weeks of playing, it evolved into a chess match between me and my brother GM'ing.) before we raided the bar. Funnily enough, Mr. Lucky drew the short straw, and had to play Ms. Lucky, and play distraction.

In the background, I was shadow-commanding the operation, and was guiding over the intercoms. Fortunately, my ghetto-chem managed to speed up our raid a tad by ghetto-chemming some thermite to melt a rusty window open with a roll of aluminum foil and a match. It unintentionally gave them an out, as a situation was created by Ms. Lucky, to distract the bouncers and manager, as the bureaucrat barged into the office (where the window was), knocking out 2 guards in the process, and opening a safe in the process. We thermite the lock of that, and opened up the safe to find another safe, except it had an unusual mark. The bureaucrat was able to open the lock, and we found a strange key thing. We bolted out of the place and headed for my ship.

Upon reaching my ship, I prepped the ship for takeoff, and everyone boarded the ship. Oddly enough, we weren't land-locked, but before I had a chance to takeoff, everyone was knocked out, including myself. However, Mr. Lucky was safe enough to take off, only to have land-locking occur during takeoff, and drop back in. After the door got busted open, he got knocked out, and we were then interrogated.

I woke up acting as if I was going to leave, and some hooligans took my ship as I was taking off (essentially, I was throwing everyone under the bus, and saving my own ass). Unfortunately, my company called them before, and I was also caught on camera helping out the raid in the bar. My cover was blown, but besides those bit of evidence, I was convincing. Everyone had a good laugh from that. Anyway, we got cleared on most of our charges (everyone, but me; My company was pissed.); which was especially good, since the "key" we were carrying was a nuclear device. They traced the radiation to our destination.

Anyway, the station being blown up was part of a conspiracy of a federation government thing overtaking the planet, and picked a target to take down, but the networks had to be lacked out and space stations needed to be destroyed to initialize it.

I suspect the next story arc will involve me having to wrangle myself out of my contract or something. Fortunately, my character's already pretty much a Peter Gibbons (Office Space) about his job, and pretty much can give less a crap about his worsening situation with Nanotrasen. If anything, he's full-on Costanza'd by this point.

[END OF STORY ARC 1]
« Last Edit: May 19, 2014, 09:35:57 pm by Itnetlolor »
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puke

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Re: Tabletop Roleplaying Games
« Reply #31 on: May 19, 2014, 07:19:05 pm »

Numenera (Monte Cook's new thing) is on sale over at http://bundleofholding.com/ for a couple more days.  It's pretty good and, even if it isn't for everyone, anyone could probably find a good idea or three in there to mine for their own games.

Core PDF and a few supplements for $20.  Not a bad deal, considering that this may be your only chance to get it DRM free. 

I already paid about that much for a watermarked copy of the main book, or I would be hitting this up.  Not that I'm bitter about having to buy watermarked PDFs or anything.
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Girlinhat

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Re: Tabletop Roleplaying Games
« Reply #32 on: May 19, 2014, 07:28:48 pm »

I've seen Numenera at the local game store, didn't pay much attention.  I prodded at 5th ed Shadowrun book as well, but it seems to be slightly revised rules with a lot of the existing problems still in place - namely that things aren't described well.  For instance, the Commlink is used by EVERYONE to do EVERYTHING, it's basically your iPhone of the future.  But it's never described what it is.  It can be implanted as a bionic, but can also be handheld, and it isn't defined if it's like a tablet, a laptop, an orb of glowing colors, or if it's just a wifi card that you then attach your actual laptop to.  Similarly, vehicles and weapons have poor descriptions, making it difficult to tell if something is a rifle or a bazooka, or if it's a sports car or a tank.  Would LOVE to run a Shadowrun game, but there's just way too much ambiguity in items.

Remuthra

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Re: Tabletop Roleplaying Games
« Reply #33 on: May 19, 2014, 07:30:36 pm »

I've seen Numenera at the local game store, didn't pay much attention.  I prodded at 5th ed Shadowrun book as well, but it seems to be slightly revised rules with a lot of the existing problems still in place - namely that things aren't described well.  For instance, the Commlink is used by EVERYONE to do EVERYTHING, it's basically your iPhone of the future.  But it's never described what it is.  It can be implanted as a bionic, but can also be handheld, and it isn't defined if it's like a tablet, a laptop, an orb of glowing colors, or if it's just a wifi card that you then attach your actual laptop to.  Similarly, vehicles and weapons have poor descriptions, making it difficult to tell if something is a rifle or a bazooka, or if it's a sports car or a tank.  Would LOVE to run a Shadowrun game, but there's just way too much ambiguity in items.
I would recommend an unofficial codification. Define what is ambiguous, and problem solved.

hermes

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Re: Tabletop Roleplaying Games
« Reply #34 on: May 19, 2014, 07:52:26 pm »

PTW.  Also, Wizards of the coast just announced release dates and prices for DnD Next.  Wanted to get it but am super poor right now so can't spend $150... Probably just get the starter set.  Also also, I'm enjoying reading the Numenera book and I like what this guy does on YouTube, that's a Numenera one shot.
« Last Edit: May 19, 2014, 07:56:39 pm by hermes »
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We can only guess at the longing of the creator. Someone who would need to create one such as you. - A Computer
I've been working on this type of thing...

puke

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Re: Tabletop Roleplaying Games
« Reply #35 on: May 19, 2014, 09:20:14 pm »

I prodded at 5th ed Shadowrun book as well, but it seems to be slightly revised rules with a lot of the existing problems still in place

Oh, lord, its unplayable.  The rules revisions are huge, and they have some really clever ideas in them.  There are some brilliant concepts, but horrendously implemented.  poor, poor execution.

You can't run a combat without an app to track your initiative as it changes from phase to phase depending on what sort of actions you take.  Seriously:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/next-pass-initiative-tracker/id727797069?mt=8

You have derived stats and limits, but they change as your base stats change.  and the base stats change as you take drugs, activate cyberware, or perform any number of other activities.  I had a character that I had to calculate their "mental limit" for six different possible scenarios, depending on what combination of stuff he had active.  It was absurd.

And the writing... Most RPG books are pretty bad, but this really hit my pet peeves.  Game mechanics buried within paragraphs of text.  Use a call-out box!  use a bullet list!  highlight the stupid mechanics!  Instead it makes you read through big chunks of their prose and solve word problems before you can figure out what the rules are supposed to be.
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Girlinhat

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Re: Tabletop Roleplaying Games
« Reply #36 on: May 19, 2014, 09:48:06 pm »

I really like the ideas behind Shadowrun, but the rulebooks are obtuse.  I've been debating running a game, or maybe Eclipse Phase, though looking into Cyberpunk may be decent too.  They're all somewhat the same.  I've also been writing up the rules for my own RPG...

puke

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Re: Tabletop Roleplaying Games
« Reply #37 on: May 19, 2014, 11:22:47 pm »

I really like the ideas behind Shadowrun, but the rulebooks are obtuse.  I've been debating running a game, or maybe Eclipse Phase, though looking into Cyberpunk may be decent too.  They're all somewhat the same.  I've also been writing up the rules for my own RPG...

I've been playing SR since 1st ed, that probably says horrible things about me.  The rules ARE obtuse, which I think is part of the appeal.  There are lots of fiddley bits to optimize and tweak.  If your players dont get off on min-maxing, it is probably the wrong game for you.  I thought 4th ed was the cleanest, but its all subjective.

Eclipse phase has similar problems, as it was written by former shadowrun people.  The rules are presented better, but they are just as fiddley if not more so (no only do you have all the pieces and parts to fiddle with, but now you can jump bodies).  It isnt anything the same, setting wise though.  It is sort of David Brin meets Richard K Morgan (plus a whole slew of others...) in a bizarre utopian anarchist dystopia.  The anarchist rhetoric gets laid on a little thick sometimes, but I do love the setting.  I think the rules got a big revision and cleanup in the latest release: Transhuman.  Have not read it in detail.

Cyberpunk 2020 is fun, but it shows its age.  It has never been updated beyond its early-90s vision of the future.  CPv3 was a tragedy that everyone should pretend never happened.

I will point you to the brand new edition of Mindjammer, by Sarah Newton.  Transhuman SciFi, written for FATE Core.  It reads just like an RPG version of Ian Bank's "The Culture", which is to say it's freakin' awesome.

But it's Fate, so you have to be willing to be a bit fast and loose, and to buy into how Fate games play out.

Speaking of Fate SciFi, I would be remiss not to mention Diaspora by VSCA.  It is much closer to Traveller than Cyberpunk or Transhumanism, but it is a great little book packed full of awesome ideas.  One of my favorite things ever, and I would never have started playing Fate if I hadn't been exposed to how Diaspora does it (not a fan of most of the other early products, like Dresden or SotC).
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Mephisto

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Re: Tabletop Roleplaying Games
« Reply #38 on: May 20, 2014, 07:49:50 am »

The newest and shiniest isn't always better. From what I've read, Shadowrun 5 doesn't sound like my cup of tea. My old group played 4 for ages, though, and a number of groups play 3 to this day.
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Fniff

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Re: Tabletop Roleplaying Games
« Reply #39 on: May 20, 2014, 08:10:26 am »

I consider myself a roleplayer, though the only ones I know the rules of properly is Paranoia (sort of) and the New World of Darkness because I don't get to play in real life. This is annoying since IRC tends to attract drama for some reason and forum roleplays just don't scratch that itch entirely, but it helps great for learning how to homebrew. I should take on that advice about finding groups, I can think of a few places I could ask around at.

UristMcDwarf

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Re: Tabletop Roleplaying Games
« Reply #40 on: May 20, 2014, 03:26:16 pm »

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Mindmaker

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Re: Tabletop Roleplaying Games
« Reply #41 on: May 20, 2014, 04:45:54 pm »

I hope my first real game will be something like this.
it will be
It was.
Highlight was one of our group deciding to confront the big bad all by himself, telling her all about our plan, following her invitation behind a barn to let her "show him something", getting mind-controlled, getting told to kill another party member, nearly dying in the process and letting the big bad escape in the process.
Not even the DM knew how to deal with this retarded turn of events, so we decided to call it a day.
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Neonivek

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Re: Tabletop Roleplaying Games
« Reply #42 on: May 21, 2014, 10:49:48 pm »

Man been looking at Pathfinder and I love that it has a lot of officially sponsored Lovecraft creatures (Including a fully stated out Cthulhu, who is so ridiculous I have honestly tried to think of reasonable scenarios where he honest to goodness could be defeated).

Yet apparently it includes one Godzilla creature (CR 27 if you are wondering... and oddly enough rather do-able for a 20 level party). It is Agyra the two headed lightning spewing flying dragon.

Honestly, say what you will about pathfinder... It at least puts it all out there. Even World of Darkness in their creature books often only gives you enough for a few good ideas... and I had to pay for that.

I wish DNDNext did something similar where it had a huge free online database stuffed full of enough creatures and classes to host a game... but then included books that were stuffed full of great stuff.

I have also wanted to run mock battles involving creatures against a town's defenses to see how they would work.

In other news

I want to run a pathfinder game so much, but I have no idea where to find players anymore. Since I feel like I honestly used up the good will here after the last two attempts (though, the first time was because the game just kept having bad sessions... and the second time was because I couldn't guarantee game days anymore).

Whelp I guess I am going to read up on how to find online pathfinder players. I have 1-3 already but all of them are friends who agreed to play.
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Girlinhat

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Re: Tabletop Roleplaying Games
« Reply #43 on: May 21, 2014, 11:10:09 pm »

It seems I'm going to run a Pathfinder campaign...  In the steam chat for Therian Saga I agreed to run a 'godslayer' campaign.  Players must start with 'normal' characters, nothing brokenly minmaxed without justification, but once the campaign starts they can do pretty much whatever they want.  The ultimate goal of the campaign is to kill a god, including epic level rules, army combat, and nation management to accommodate this.

It's intended to start at level 1 and 'fast track' reward options and ending when things get done.

MaximumZero

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Re: Tabletop Roleplaying Games
« Reply #44 on: May 21, 2014, 11:14:25 pm »

I would be very, very remiss if I didn't post in this thread. For reasons. >.>
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Holy crap, why did I not start watching One Punch Man earlier? This is the best thing.
probably figured an autobiography wouldn't be interesting
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