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[Elephant Parade]

Uh-oh. Urge to RTD is rising, yet I lack a set idea of what I want to run.
This never ends well...

Run minimalist nonsense.

[Digital Hellhound]

Never run minimalist nonsense.

@Fniff: I'm not sure how the 'field reporters' set up would work with rolls. Cecil would obviously have to step in to describe roll results, unless you'd give freedom and roll powers to the players.

[SeriousConcentrate]

Night Vale RTD? I'd totally play.

[Tiruin]

Never run minimalist nonsense.

^
Run minimalist RTDs.
NEVER NONSENSE.

Night Vale RTD? I'd totally play.

Also +1

[sjm9876]

Would anyone be interested in a Night Vale RTD?

I had a fun idea for how it could work. The posts would all be Cecil describing what is happening in the RTD at that current time, with the players being "reporters" who roleplay as being live on the scene and talking about what they're going to do on the radio. I had an idea that they'd be interns, but even RTD players are not that expendable. Anyway, character progression would work like this. Since the players would be out-of-towners (With maybe a few Night Valeians who moved out a while back and have now moved back to their terrifying hometown) there would be a Sanity number and an Acclimatization number.

Sanity is how rational you are in real, non-Night Vale terms: consider it your "Thinking Like Carlos" meter. Acclimatization is how rational you are in Night Vale terms: it's your "Thinking Like Cecil" meter. Every point in Sanity gets you a skill you can choose. Skills are mundane things like firing a gun or being good at maths that give you bonuses to that action. Every point in Acclimatization gets you a oddity. Oddities are strange things you can do like being able to manipulate the minds of helicopter pilots or being able to turn your entire lower body into a horrid mass of tentacles.

I'm not sure how both should be earned mechanically. Sanity should be earned by doing things rationally and normally, while Acclimatization could be earned by doing things Night Vale style. Any ideas on that front?

HELL YEAH.
As for sanity/acclimatisation, probably one per successful mission, depending on how they completed it. The things described sound powerful enough to make them rather sparse.

[Fniff]

@Fniff: I'm not sure how the 'field reporters' set up would work with rolls. Cecil would obviously have to step in to describe roll results, unless you'd give freedom and roll powers to the players.

I think I could have the field reporters chip in with what's happening in the turn post. Though of course I'd say this in the RTD beforehand and make sure that their characters sound right.

*snip*

HELL YEAH.
As for sanity/acclimatisation, probably one per successful mission, depending on how they completed it. The things described sound powerful enough to make them rather sparse.

That sounds pretty good! I think individual points for players. Perhaps I'll go in-depth and have it so that there is also some "bonus scoops" that if you find them, you can get extra Acclimatisation/Sanity points. They'd be hard to find, of course, but well worth the trouble.

[sjm9876]

I imagine that'd work well. Especially as this is night vale, and weird stuff happens every day

Although if you wanted to avoid misplaying the field reporters, you could always have the radio follow them - it isn't exactly without precedent

[darkpaladin109]

Roll to randomly generate. Like the name implies, you randomly generate a character using Seventh Sanctum Generators, then do whatever the hell you want, I guess. That's as much as I've got anyway. Otherwise, I'm thinking of running a BIONICLE based RTD if I can find a good premise for it.

[The Ensorceler]

What era? Rakshi and spider-clysm had a good variety of creatures to work from... Maybe players could work for the archivists, trying to reclaim stasis cylinders and their former contents, collecting artifacts and documents to try to keep the cities' history from being erased forever. I suppose that would play like a combination of D&D and X-Com, but I'm not sure what you were going for.

[Samarkand]

So I might have free time this summer, I might not. I'm thinking right now about what game I could potential run if I do, and I wanted to run something in the same world as my Roll for Hire game. Here's one of my thoughts, not fully fleshed out but I want to know if I should flesh it out further, or go in a different direction. In particular, I want to know if you think the lore restriction makes this unfeasible.

A Brief Description
This is set in the same world as Roll for Hire, and takes place 73 years prior to the War of Metallodominance. As such, all lore sections located here apply, unless it mentions something during or after the war, or references specific names. This also means that the actions of those playing this game could potentially build the lore for that game, and any others I run in this universe.

While most RtD's focus on actions which take place over the course of minutes or seconds, this RtD has a turn length of a week. Players choose how their characters will allocate time over the course of that week, and the character's success in those actions will be rolled according to the rules below. Basic needs of the character will be important, but they will also have the chance to aspire to grandeur.

Five characters will be accepted, based off of the goals and descriptions of those characters . Keep in mind that this is not a minimalist RtD, and that some lore is already established. This means that there are several goals which are not feasible, including but not limited to world domination, invention of gunpowder, or anything which opens the valley up to its surroundings. I know this is fairly limiting, but I wanted to set the game prior to Roll for Hire, and so some limitations are necessary. Anything which expands the existing lore, but not in a way that negates existing lore, is allowed and encouraged.

Spoiler: Character Sheet (click to show/hide)

Name:
Age:
Description: You're human, but what else is there worth knowing about you
Goal: Want to be head of a guild? What about building something great? Any lore-friendly goal, put it here.
Inventory: A couple small items you have. Not for utility, more for flair. (Dice for a gambler, a journal for a potential author, etc.)

Spoiler: Mechanics (click to show/hide)

You must allocate the time of every day between activities which occur without roll, such as consuming food and sleeping, and activities which do involve rolls, such as producing goods, training in different skills, working at a job, or anything else. A full week is rolled every turn, and so you may work in as many contingencies as you like (i.e. spend 3 hours practicing archery. If that succeeds spend 3 hours visiting with Frank, if not then practice again)

Spoiler: Basic Needs (click to show/hide)

Lack of shelter for more than two days will impact your character's ability to effectively perform any action.
Coupled with this is the need for sleep. Failure to get enough sleep will result in difficulty performing anything other than simple tasks.
You also need to find some way to reduce the stress of your character, nobody can work seriously constantly.
You also need to feed your character, without which your character will die. Drinkable water is also important in this.

Spoiler: Character Growth (click to show/hide)

Character growth occurs based off of how many hours a character has successfully devoted to a task. For most skills, the following form describes their development.
Unfamiliar: Less than 8 hours (Basically any task is difficult)
Familiar: 10 hours or more (Tasks either get a small modifier, or are reduced in difficulty)
Practiced: 80 hours or more (Further reductions in difficulty or modifiers, possibly value modifiers to product if applicable)
Skilled: 150 hours or more (Many rudimentary tasks are simple, or even simple with a bonus, products command higher prices, very few tasks are truly impossible, though some remain difficult)
Accomplished: 250 hours or more (You are renowned for this ability, its hard to match your workmanship or the ease with which you work.
Mastery: 400 hours or more (You have truly mastered this skill, there's little that's even difficult for you)
Legendary Skill: 750 hours or more (You are now the god of (insert skill here))

For some skills performing a simple task repeatedly will not advance beyond a certainly level, like carpentry. In others, simple tasks will advance the character further, such as in swimming. What level a given skill can advance to with simple tasks will be determined on a case by case basis, and if players would like appeal a decision they are welcome to do so.

[darkpaladin109]

What era? Rakshi and spider-clysm had a good variety of creatures to work from... Maybe players could work for the archivists, trying to reclaim stasis cylinders and their former contents, collecting artifacts and documents to try to keep the cities' history from being erased forever. I suppose that would play like a combination of D&D and X-Com, but I'm not sure what you were going for.

I've had several ideas so far, though the creatures aren't really a problem for me, since there's a lot of them to pick from. One of the premises that's the most thought out so far would be the players being one of the earlier Matoran to arrive at Voya Nui, and basically colonizing and exploring it. I know how the sheets would work, but I'm still brainstorming other ideas. Other ideas are something taking place during the Great War, though I don't know what exactly it would be about, or players being resistance members during Teridax's Reign.
The Voya Nui idea is the most fleshed out of them, in my opinion, and I do have an idea for character sheets if me or anyone else wants to run that.

Spoiler: WIP Sheet (click to show/hide)

Name:
Matoran Type: Mostly the main six Types (Fire, Water, Air, Ice, Stone, Earth), though others could be chosen. I only have the main six statted up so far, and even then I'm not sure about everythign they'd get.

• Ta - Resistant to higher temperatures
• Ga - Can swim, increased lung capacity
• Le - More agile when on taller structures and areas, but clumsy on ground
• Ko - Resistant to lower temperatures
• Po - Stronger than most other Matoran
• Onu - Stronger than most other Matoran and have limited night vision, but their overall vision is hindered in sunlight

Tools:
Previous Proffesion:
[/list]

[Digital Hellhound]

I've been returning to my Transdimensional Adventurers idea, heavily built on Fniff's excellent generators. The basic idea is a mix of Borderlands and Ratchet & Clank; our band of greedy, borderline-sociopathic heroes has been pressganged into the service of HEROISM and THE GOOD GUYS, and trawl the galaxy (or galaxies) looking for fame, treasure and guns. Lots of guns.

Generationin' will have results throughout the game. In their home base ship, our heroes can use the onboard Fabricator to create all kinds of guns, drugs, protection, vehicles and other useables... and atleast at the start, all of their creations will be thoroughly random, based on Fniff's generator list. They fight randomized enemies in the Simulation Deck and beyond. Enemy bosses will have randomized qualities. A glorious, endless world of possibilities, heroism and loot awaits.

Fniff's Excellent Generators can be found here, if you're wondering.

[Yoink]

I certainly hope you go ahead with the idea, it sounds excellent.
Getting to roleplay R&C's derpy "good guys" pretence would be excellent fun.
Man, now I kinda want to play those games again... well, the first couple of them, anyway.

[Fniff]

I suggest if you do it, you should have the fabricators start out with a limited number of elements. Say, the first ten on the effects list. The players could then be rewarded elements as rewards or find them around the place. You could also get stuff as loot but the problem being that it doesn't scale, so it could be utterly crap due to being way below your current experience level.

[Digital Hellhound]

What I was thinking of was that the elements wouldn't be limited, but the quality of the gear will be random, and the Fabrication Tokens limited. So if you spend your Token on what turns out to be an unreliable [Drunken] [Drama] [Unlucky] gun, you're stuck with it until you can get your hands on another.

I'm not quite sure how I should assign actual damage/power - possibly just arbitrarily, based on the qualities and my mental image of the weapon, or possibly actually rolling them. I had a fairly complex system of randomized stats in my first RTD, For Science!, and I might do something similar.

Not scaling is interesting. Maybe I should have it so you can get more power with more Tokens put in - but that still doesn't make it any less likely to be prone to blowing up in your face, or to have a treacherous AI inside, or to be a joke item (if a very powerful one). I'll probably not let you take normal mooks' weapons (or make them so low-level it's useful only when your existing weapon is just downright dangerous to use), but enemy bosses will also have randomized, usually powerful, gear.

Finding elements around the place has a pretty funny Little Big Planet vibe, though. I was thinking that eventually the heroes might find some kind of intergalactic repairmen to get the 'out of order' slots in the Fabricator fixed, and thus actually be able to choose what to produce, so gathering the elements to use there could be nice. Hmm.