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Author Topic: Spirit of the Century  (Read 1520 times)

Sergius

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Spirit of the Century
« on: August 06, 2010, 10:04:30 pm »

I searched the forums and found nothing about it (which means either nobody ever mentioned it in any thread, or there's a problem with the search).

Anyway, the purpose of this post is to find out:
1) What kind of experience anyone here already has with the system.
2) What interest is there in running/playing something in this system here, either on play-by-post or real time chat/tabletop/whatever. Of which I may or may not be the GM, depending on how confident I feel about it and if I can find a suckermore experienced Game Master.
3) What would you like to know about the system (I have browsed the book, not to huge detail but I think I kinda understand the basics, plus I can point to a couple other places with nice summary of the rules and actual play reports).

Either way, I think I'll start with the basics. In my own words.

What is Spirit of the Century?
It's an RPG game, based on Fudge, using the FATE 3.0 rules (which don't yet exist in generic form but will someday). It uses the resolution system of Fudge, which assigns to skills values such as Good or Legendary and uses 4dF (basically d3 labelled 0, +1 and -1) to find out how well you did an action.

The setting is about pulp heroes, greater than life people like Indiana Jones or something, which are at the peak of their abilities (so no "leveling up"), which are born in a special day (in 1901, I think) and are the stars of pulp novels like "Doctor Maximus and the Octopus from Outer Space". Character creation is... interesting.

It uses "aspects", of which each hero has 10, which act both as advantages and as hooks to get the character in trouble. You spend FATE points in invoking an aspect to your advantage, or are compelled to do an action by the GM (thus gaining a FATE point, unless you spend one instead being a party-pooper and avoid the situation). Also there's Stunts, which I guess could be called "super-abilities" of some sort. You get 5.

There's a SRD here, which is basically the entire book but with all the specific examples removed. So you don't get to read the little excerpts like "John has a shooting skill of Good, and tries to hit Ron with a pistol, and rolls the dice and blah blah blah" which, granted, make the whole thing easier to understand.

So you won't read this:

Quote
Example: Jet has the aspect “Motorhead”, which he’s explained to the
GM means that Jet has a fascination with engines, which can help him
do better when he’s working on engines, but also means that he can
become fascinated to the point of ignoring other things. Jet’s looking at a
new engine when an ambush drops on him and the group. Normally, Jet
would roll Alertness to try to avoid surprise, but the GM pushes forward
a fate point and says “Jet’s a Motorhead – I’m not sure he’s gonna notice
the ambush until it’s too late.” Jet’s player can now choose whether to
take the fate point – in which case Jet doesn’t roll Alertness, he’s simply
assumed to fail the roll – or spend a fate point, pulling himself out of the
engine and getting a chance to avoid surprise with an Alertness roll.
« Last Edit: August 06, 2010, 10:06:57 pm by Sergius »
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Grek

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Re: Spirit of the Century
« Reply #1 on: August 07, 2010, 12:19:43 am »

I would be willing to run/participate in a game of SoC.
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Lucus Casius

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Re: Spirit of the Century
« Reply #2 on: August 07, 2010, 12:30:16 am »

Posting to watch.  Might join a game if someone wants to start one.
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EagleV

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Re: Spirit of the Century
« Reply #3 on: August 07, 2010, 06:10:14 am »

I used the fate/fudge system before, and it works quite well. I'm watching this, but probably won't join.
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Quote from: Robert Donoghue and Fred Hicks
There are three things you must learn if you wish to defeat me, my young pupil. First, you must look within yourself and find your core of strength. Second, your mind and body must be in perfect unison. Third...
*WHACK*
Third, stop listening when you should be fighting.

Armok

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Re: Spirit of the Century
« Reply #4 on: August 07, 2010, 04:38:35 pm »

The system sounds interesting but I absolutely do not have the time to be in any more RPs.
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Sszsszssoo...
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III...

EagleV

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Re: Spirit of the Century
« Reply #5 on: August 07, 2010, 04:42:17 pm »

Well, if we play by post, I will join.
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Quote from: Robert Donoghue and Fred Hicks
There are three things you must learn if you wish to defeat me, my young pupil. First, you must look within yourself and find your core of strength. Second, your mind and body must be in perfect unison. Third...
*WHACK*
Third, stop listening when you should be fighting.

Samthere

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Re: Spirit of the Century
« Reply #6 on: August 08, 2010, 07:02:44 pm »

Watching. Probably interested - will read more after sleep.

Sergius

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Re: Spirit of the Century
« Reply #7 on: August 09, 2010, 04:48:55 pm »

Here's a good read on an Actual Play, to get the feel of the game. I've been looking several up, and I remember this one was one of the most engaging/educational ones:


Episode 2 includes GM commentary on actual gameplay mechanics, which is very interesting.
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Samthere

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Re: Spirit of the Century
« Reply #8 on: August 10, 2010, 11:51:59 am »

If we can find a time to play live I'd like to play. If we're playing by post I'll likely sit out.

Grek

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Re: Spirit of the Century
« Reply #9 on: August 12, 2010, 07:17:07 pm »

So, who would be in for a PBP game? I've got an idea for a game, if I can get some players.
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Imakuni

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Re: Spirit of the Century
« Reply #10 on: August 12, 2010, 07:25:14 pm »

I'd probably be interested in this, but I'd like to watch how one works out here first.
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Urist McImmigrant: "Whhaa---aaaARRGHH OW!  MY PANCREAS!  AAAAGGHH!! THAT'S MY - NOOOOO---AAARRGHGHHH!!!"
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Sergius

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Re: Spirit of the Century
« Reply #11 on: August 12, 2010, 08:17:16 pm »

So, who would be in for a PBP game? I've got an idea for a game, if I can get some players.

I would like to try playing a play by post game. Maybe eventually GM my own, but for now being a player is enough.

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RAM

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Re: Spirit of the Century
« Reply #12 on: August 12, 2010, 10:59:31 pm »

*stares at people*
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Read the First Post!

EagleV

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Re: Spirit of the Century
« Reply #13 on: August 13, 2010, 02:34:49 am »

PBP would work for me.
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Quote from: Robert Donoghue and Fred Hicks
There are three things you must learn if you wish to defeat me, my young pupil. First, you must look within yourself and find your core of strength. Second, your mind and body must be in perfect unison. Third...
*WHACK*
Third, stop listening when you should be fighting.

Sergius

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Re: Spirit of the Century
« Reply #14 on: January 24, 2011, 09:43:26 am »

*bump for great justice*

I just wanted y'all to know this topic isn't dead.
I have been busy. Actually, I have been busy reading the whole SoTC book on my free time, which is a tad big, so that I can run a campaign. Holidays are a bit distracting too ;)

I wasn't feeling secure enough until I got to the "how to make up a cool pulp plot" part, which is near the ending of the book. Haven't thought of a plot yet, but that's my next step.

The idea is to run a 100% vanilla pulp game with the rules as-stated, mainly to get the right feeling for it, before (potentially) moving on to more flexible settings/character advancement options.

I'll be reposting shortly when I have something more tangible, but feel free to post any opinions or questions or requests.
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