Call for players

[Spriggan]

Boy the intrest in forum games must change with the phases of the moon.  Any way I've been readin "Star Wars: Galitic Game Guide" from Wizards (expect a review this week), and I've decided to follow the books suggestions on designing a game and running it.  I think a lot of their suggestions will work realy well with a forum RPG.  

First off I'm going to let you tell me what you want to play (but I'm keeping it in the Star Wars Universe for reasons that will become apperent thoughout this post).  What timeline do you want to play in (Episode 1-3 time, 4-6 time, after the movies, before the movies), who you what to play (rebels, jedi, imperials, bountyhunters, biker gang, there's countless possibilites), What you want out of the game (I'll go over this more in the next paragraph), what you expect from me (in return I'll tell you what I expect of you), any house rules you might want to adapt (there needs to be a broad consenis), How long you want the campaings to last, etc.

Ok tell me what you want out of this game.  What does starwars mean to you?  To one person it might be great military battles, to another it might be a heroic quest.  How important is your character's background to the adventure?  Do you want people from your past poping up as NPC or even other PC's?  And how should the players know each other?  What are your characters/group goals, these will be shaped by the adventures as the span out, but there are seveal that can be defined at the start.  Like you character wants to be a Jedi, or the best pilot, maybe your characters loved ones were killed and you're out for blood.  These goals can help shape the adveture and would help me "personalise" the campaign for each player.

[Spriggan]

Setting the Mood

The feal StarWars is very important and something that I feal players want.  There are things in SW that seperates it from other space sagas.  So to do this I've got some ideas.

First off I want you too feal free to add things to the game as we play.  There are some limitations to this.  This is mainly done in your posts.  Take the following setting and well expand on this idea.

You;re on a rebal ship, you're just returned from a misison and you need to deliver a message to the captin of the ship.

So you;re in a hanger on a ship.  When I say that everyone has a different mental image of what's going on in that hanger.  One person might imagning droids and mechanics working on fighters, others might imagninge a squad of piliots getting ready to leave.  But from that discription you're left 100% up to your own imaginenation.  But what if I say it like this:

"Your shuttle comes to a bumpy land in the hanger, during the shootout with the pirates the shocks must have gotten hit.  As the exit ramp lowers a flood of sounds assults you, lifters moveing, droids beepings and mechanics scurring around like rats."

That makes a difference dosen't it.  Now lets look at a player responce.

"I hurry out of the ship and head to the bridge."

Yawn..but players aren;t use to describeing what they see or interact with, allwayse worried that the GM might not like what they say.  But I want you too, so lets looks at a better respoinse:

"Not one to wait I jump down to the hanger floor, the ramp not yet down.  Message in hand I weave between piles of suplies, parts and workers, nearly triping over some cords laying on the ground.  I wave off the flight commander telling him to talk to one of the others, and start to make my way to the bridge."

Ok so that might not look to impresive, but look at one thing I did there.  The GM never said anyting about a flight commander (well I'm not sure what to call them, but some middel guy you'd report to about your misson once it's over), so that player just added an element for others to work with.  So the next player can give a report to the flight commander if he wants, another can talk to the mechanincs, or they can all ingore that.

[Spriggan]

You can add all the stuff you want, and I'll take things you say and add them to the adventure.  Say, for example, you forget to mention that shock problem with the ship to a mechanic, the mechanic may not find it and that could lead to other problems.  Or say you describe a group of mechanics working in a hallway trying to fix a problem.  Then another player mentions that they're working on a power conduite (you can add to another players descriptions, but don't contradict them).  So later the ship comes under attack and low and behold the power gets knocked out, all because it was in your descriptions.

I;m doing this for a few reasons.  The first is that it add's emotion to the game, you can sence as if this is actualy going on and that there's lots of things going on in the background.  There's almost allwayse things going on around your characters (watch the movies and you'll see lots of it) and it adds depth to the game that a lone GM couldn't do without lots of time.  It also adds an emotional investment for the players, not only are you in the game but you have say what's going on.  This, I hope, will keep intrest in the game.  It also makes it more fun.

You can do this in combat too, but keep it resonable.  If your inside and my description of the room wouldn't contradict what you wanted to do then do it.  So say you wanted to shoot a chandelear down and have it land on a guard.  If you're in a room that might have one, assume the guard is under it.  But a barrick isn't going to have something like that, so don't try it.  This speeds up combat and adds a cinimatic element to the combat.  You are the heros afterall.  It'll take a bit to get use to this, but I think it'll be worth it.

Now there are some limitations, and I have the right to gointo your post and edit something I don't like (i'll post why I changed it).  I'm not going to go crazy and change everything, but if you type somethings that I or a majority of other players feel is outragious then I;ll change it.  So no bringing in other genras (There are no hobbits or phasers in SW), don't say you walk up to Han Solo and he gives you the Millenium Falcon (though you could try and persuaide someone you know Solo), or if a player is in coversation or describeing an interaction with certain NPCs (like ones from your background, I'll let you control them in some cases) but out unless you know that NPC or are a part of that conversaion.

Lots of long posts, let me know what you think and if your intrested in playing.  I don't have any set ideas yet except for the following:
It's starwars
minimum 2-3 players

[Spriggan]

In the previous post I had orignaly posted that I wanted 6 max players, while setting out breakfast at work that number kept on nagging me.  I realy don't want to set a max limit.  What I want to create is a game that is constently changeing and that includes who the cast is.  I know that people lose intrest in games and may want to quit/take a break, I feel that Star Wars allowse me lots of leway to remove players and add players, theres just so much going on that almost any reason would do.  People that may not want to play because they maynot be able to keep an intrest in the game or those that have time now and may not have any later on are totaly welcome, I can work around you.  Those that want to be added can jump in.  And maybe, depending on how things go we can add another GM just to run small mini adventures (that only last a coupple of weeks).  Also if Fell says its ok, let people who are allready in two other games jump in when their game pauses for weeks at a time for any reason, or jump in and if they're haveing trouble keeping up in all three they can easly jump out of this game.

I want to keep everyone intrested in the game.  So the long posts are ment to give you an invested emotion in the game, and to make things move faster.  Not so much getting people to post more often, but to get more done with a single post.  Maybe even go as far as do realy long posts, almost like a round robin story but with a GM to take care of important conversations and combat etc...  Also haveing lots of small adventures so it seams like every month or so its different, so that players don't think they;re stuck on the same goals/adventure for months at a time.

This will take a lot of investment from me and a few other dedicated players (even though you're welcome to leave when ever you want, I do think I need a few people to stay for long times to help keep things together).

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

couple things. I thought the general rules were that players could play in two games, but it requried GM approval for more than that (GM from every game). That being the case, I'm officially giving permission to AORP players to join a third game if they want. Frankly. AY and BfS move pretty slow (AY hasn't had gm attention for weeks) so I think people can handle it. I'm also asking for permission to join a third game. Looks like it might be time to bring back Isaiah "Izzy" Thomas, the lethargic, unmotivated pilot. (just kidding!)

I think I'd prefer an Old Republic game. Part of Star Wars to me is epic plots: things that can change the universe, but I DON'T want to have to mince around with continuity of the rebel alliance in IV-VI and I REFUSE to deal with the Yuuzhan Vong. (if you put it in New Jedi Order, I'll probably drop out. in the Rebellion era, I'll consider it). The ideal game will take advantage of character skills. If someone has tons of ranks in piloting skills, create situations where using that skill becomes important in more than just a general way. But it should always have an epic outcome. A good mix of massive battles and small running encounters is ideal, though you don't necessarily need to separate them so completely like Lucas does.

I'm still deciding what kind of character I want to play.

[Spriggan]

I'd perfer to stick to one of the movie eras, though Rebellion is my favorite (more for sentamental reasons).  I plan on makeing sure no matter what your player concept is you'll be as important as a jedi would be.

And as for the multiple game thing, I kinda thought it was an issue for all GM's and Fell together.  I'm sure this wont be a big deal but I don't want to go over his head.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

well, I'm sure that Fell will post his opinion soon.

I still like the Old Republic, but if the gm says no, than the gm says no. I'd prefer fall of the Republic than (eps I - III) for gaming. I like IV-VI better as films, but I think there are more options in I-III. Actually, I've decided that's more the GM in me speaking, so I think i won't have a problem playing in IV-VI if that's what the people want. As long as Continuity won't be an issue.

I'll come up with a character idea later today.

[Spriggan]

woh woh I didn't say it would be rebellion era, that was just a comment.  The time is player choice, so you guys come up with a consensius.  If no one oposes you SE or replys at all then you've got you Old Republic.

[Spriggan]

And while you can come up it ideas right now lets lets get the era first before we get to the next step.  Then we're going to discuse character creation/development and such (which is a whole nother discusion).  There's a lot to discuss here so take it in strides.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

Yay!
Ok, now I wait for other people to talk about it.

[Spriggan]

Just so people know I will only veto things on rare ocasions,  unless I say I veto an idea take anything I say here on the campaign setting as my opinion.  Hopefuly this will keep misunderstandings  to a minimum.

[Entsuropi]

I'd be game. I'd like to play... a criminal mastermind. Or a bad guy. I wanna be evil in a RPG for once, being nice is dull.

[Lieutenant Kije]

I'm interested.  I'm in 2 already, but Saint gave the go with AORP.  So if Jeffe(BFS) or anyone else objects, speak now or forever hold your peace.  I'm a consistent poster on both the games I'm in and based on my current post load don't see a problem with a third.

I'm fine with any era.  I'm most familiar with rebellion because I'm most familiar with those flics, but any time is fine as long as the setting is expalined generally.  So whatever for me, eh?

[Spriggan]

ok sofar 3 people have chimed in, and it looks like Old Repubic is the favored so far.  We'll give this another day to see if people who haven't posted yet do, or to see what else you guys have to say.

We're also going to have to discuss the campaign 'setting', which is what you're going to be doing.  Go ahead and say what you'd like to do in the adventure.  When I've got time at work tonight I'll try to type up some speific questions for you all to answer.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

nah, I was against the rule anyway so have fun, just keep checkin in to BFS