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[IronyOwl]

But what if a player does survive the initial weakling period? If the goal is to survive, all the players are put in the same situation, and they get stronger over time, then the rate of player fatality will ultimately decelerate to almost nothing as an elite few lucky players survive to become ultra-powerful.

This assumes the fatality level ever reaches 0, or more importantly, that it does so quickly or common enough to make the game lose purpose. Powerful minions are still minions, prone to heroic smiting and execution for failure/bad moods.

EDIT: But at a certain point maybe I could let them become full-fledged lieutenants, responsible for ruthlessly murdering the newer players for incompetence.

I suggest that the players should start out as GODS, and lose their powers over time. Thus, players who have been in the game longer are more likely to die horribly.

That'd frontend the game completely, though. TURN 1: ALTER TIME. TURN 2: Create interdimensional dungeon. TURN 3: Give self sword. TURN 4: Try not to die to that troll. TURN 5: That goblin's going to one-shot me, isn't it?

But what is the end all goal? whats the end game? At what point do you 'win'?

What Darvi said. Also, killing all the heroes and/or your boss and becoming the new boss.

[monk12]

Roll to be a Cultist!

Everyone knows the return of the Great Old Ones is inevitable, but the job of a cultist is to make sure your Old One returns first! Players are cultists trying to summon their Elder God of choice (including such luminaries as Cthulhu and Shub-Niggurath,) and the players can choose to either team up and serve one Old One, or choose their own and work at crosspurposes. Cultists need to acquire weird ingredients for their rituals while competing with the cultists of other Old Ones and eluding hapless investigators.

Although combat elements would be present, most competition is more subtle than that- the real danger is insanity. Players have a Sanity pool, which can be damaged by standard sanity-rending things. More excitingly, it can also be used as a Mana Pool to cast spells and summon (not necessarily friendly) Eldritch Horrors. When the Sanity pool is depleted, the Cultist suffers from one random Temporary Insanity and one Permanent Madness, drawn from appropriate tables. Insanities and Madness each have associated drawbacks (and the odd bonus) and can have a wide variety of neutral effects.

[Toaster]

Interesting.  You should probably handle teams pregame, though- it'd be a bit silly to have cultists change sides.  (They're supposed to be fanatics, at least.)

[Theifofdreams]

Interesting.  You should probably handle teams pregame, though- it'd be a bit silly to have cultists change sides.  (They're supposed to be fanatics, at least.)

Well, no. Any cultists worshipping the same elder god would be on the same team, working together. After that, any cooperation is up to them (whether they work with the cultists of that other elder gods to get what they need, then screw the opposition at the last moment [classic], or just work to cripple everyone else at the same time as progressing). Clearly, elder gods with more cultists will have an easier time of it.

[IronyOwl]

At a bare minimum, you'd probably need to flavor the gods to provide different benefits and effects, then. Otherwise the most popular god is always the most likely to succeed, plus thus the best choice for even more popularity.

[Toaster]

Well, no. Any cultists worshipping the same elder god would be on the same team, working together.

I guess I missed that obvious connection, derp.


Would/should there be a maximum number of cultists per Elder God?

[monk12]

Were I doing it, I think I'd strengthen the weak teams somehow, either by giving the shorthanded players meatshields NPC allies or more powerful equipment. This has the obvious downside that most players will immediately sign up one to a God so they get to be Archpriests, which I suppose isn't really a downside depending on how you look at it. Alternate solutions would be to force even teams at the start of the game, or adjusted victory conditions for underpowered factions.

But who cares about that when we can play with random madness tables! I loves me some random tables. Assuming some basic stats and common rolls, I whipped up a Madness table (influenced heavily by vairous DnD splatbooks and wikipedia)

TEMPORARY
1- Fainting Spell- unconscious for a turn
2- Screaming Fit- penalty to hiding and any social interactions
3- Panic Attack- flees until player regains control
4- Hallucinations- details at GM's discretion 
5- Eating Abnormality- player must eat something wierd or take San damage
6- Axecrazy- player attacks at random

PERMANENT

1- Persistent Hallucinations/Delusions- always fun
2- Psychosomatic Disability- loss of sense/limb despite nothing actually wrong with it
3- Phobia- consult phobia chart! penalty when dealing with phobia
4- Manic/Depressive- randomly shifts between manic (defense penalty) and depressive (attack penalty)
5- MPD- player has an alter ego that influences their actions and periodically tries to take over (shut up it totally works that way)
6- Lucky Charm- player develops irrational attachment to random item/person/whatever in line of sight, must always stay close to it to function

Obviously room for expansion, and I was mostly sticking to things that have mechanical in-game consequences. Note that the Sanity pool is assumed to refill after these tables are rolled on.

[Theifofdreams]

These make sense, and are awesome. But where are the disembodied voices, and being forced to see what is truly there, on those sheets?

Also: I'd totally go for Nyarlathotep, or Shub-Niggurath. Cthulhu would be last on my list of personal preferences.
Also also: This makes me sad that it's not being run yet, and that my lack of free time will more then likely prevent me from getting in until after all slots are full.

[IronyOwl]

You know, sometimes it surprises me how many good, fairly obvious RTD ideas there are that have either never been used or had a combined total of four turns between them.

Like, I don't think we've ever had a proper Odyssey/Sinbad-style one. Bunch of warriors on a ship, trying to get somewhere, keep landing on enchanted islands and getting mauled/seduced by sirens/dire penquins, plus dealing with arrogant, corrupt nobles and meddling gods. It's pretty much ADVENTURE! in a can.

[Tarran]

You know, sometimes it surprises me how many good, fairly obvious RTD ideas there are that have either never been used or had a combined total of four turns between them.

The main problem is that there are a limited number of GMs and a limitless number of ideas. It's kinda sad, really.

[IronyOwl]

Do you think there's anything we can do about that? What about some sort of "How to run an RTD" sticky? Even if it'd be fairly obvious and short, just having a "Here's how you can do this!" thing sitting up there might convince people to give it a shot.

[Tarran]

It depends. From what I've seen, 99% of GMs are also players. And, in fact, I believe 90% of said players have made an RTD before.

So the main problem is actually the small community we've got, directly leading to few GMs. If we want more GMs, we need more players.

[Yoink]

I know! A 'How to Run an RTD' RTD, where people sign up and... I don't know! I fail at GMing, myself. I'll take notes!

[fergus]

Do you think there's anything we can do about that? What about some sort of "How to run an RTD" sticky? Even if it'd be fairly obvious and short, just having a "Here's how you can do this!" thing sitting up there might convince people to give it a shot.

We could probably still benefit from this.

[lawastooshort]

Do you think there's anything we can do about that? What about some sort of "How to run an RTD" sticky? Even if it'd be fairly obvious and short, just having a "Here's how you can do this!" thing sitting up there might convince people to give it a shot.

We could probably still benefit from this.

I think this would be pretty good. Just a collection of tips or whatever?

Could the FGRp forum be used to somehow draw players in to the rtd forum a bit more? Cos really, who wouldn't want to play a good rtd?

I know! A 'How to Run an RTD' RTD, where people sign up and... I don't know! I fail at GMing, myself. I'll take notes!

"Run a RTRTD RTD"!