Timewaster's Guide Archive
Alternate Realities => What's this? => Topic started by: Spriggan on October 13, 2003, 06:36:12 AM
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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.
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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.
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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
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Yay!
Ok, now I wait for other people to talk about it.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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nah, I was against the rule anyway so have fun, just keep checkin in to BFS
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Ok here's some questions to ask yourself when comeing up with what you want to do in the adventure. You'll need to come up with a flexable character concept with this as well. This is so you can adjust your character idea with what the adventure becomes. Once we have a setting and era decided then well go into detailed character ideas.
1) What is my general character concept.
2) What is it theam of this adventure.
3) what is the major conflict at the start.
4) what is your role in that conflict.
5) What do you want out of the adventure.
6) Is there anything that I have negleted to ask that you feel is important.
7) Any aditonal comments
I'm not doing this because I'm lazy (which I am) but so I can make something YOU want to play. So far the only takes are SE, Entropy and Kije. But anyone else is welcome to suggest ideas even if they aren't planning on playing right now. And, again, anyone is welcome to join at any time. I want make an adapting game that people feel that can enter and exit at any time.
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I will have to pontificate. I have some vague ideas right now, but nothing to report yet.
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1) I wanna play Woody Allen. Or a novice jedi, of either orientation.
2) How about a conspiracy story?
3) A conspiracy of senators trying to destroy the Jedi order by pulling a knights templar.
4) None. Novice jedi too busy training y'know.
5) No force powers. Only say, force push and pull and jump 3 metres, not that wizard a like thing you have in KOTOR.
6) "Why did the special effects in Ep2 look so fake?", "Just what is up with female hairstyles, anyway?", "What does Chewbacca do after going to the loo? Does he use a special wiping machine to clean up the rear access mess, or does he let it accumulate and form chunks?".
7) Tread new ground. I don't want a KOTOR, with a darth vadar enemy, a battle station at the climax, a wookie sidekick, blah blah.
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!!!!!!!!!!!
For a second there I thought it was Gemm posting.
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zing
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Hmmm. As far as characters go, what I know now is that I don't want to be a jedi, or anything like it. I don't think that would limit settings at all, because we can work characters in together creatively (what is that proverb about odd bedfellows? I forget, but it applies here.)
And as far as setting and conflict go, well, I have two feelings. First, I like the suggestion that was made that it not be too formulaic (with a wookie sidekick, blah blah.)
Second, I understand where you are coming from in wanting to tailor to the desires of the players. My desires along story lines are to discover what the story is as my character discovers it. I think that's a good part of the fun. So we could do whatever and I'd be great with it. I'd even enjoy the irony of a huge wild goose chase, just so long as the characters get to be who they are during it. But if we're to create it as players, then I will follow the lead of whoever has significant opinions about this, and weave my way into that story.
Please inform me if I am being too ambivalent. :)
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If the GMs don't mind, I'm fine with players playing multiple games. I ask you to be considerate, however, and if you start to lose interest and drop out of one or more of them, please make arrangements with your GM instead of just disappearing.
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Of course.
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With plot, yeah, I don't want ot know what the plot will be. But I think Sprig is asking for a general conflict that exists. Even that, though, may give a lot of control to the players they don't need.
I'm going to email you some more details about my character, stuff the others don't need to see (I like having dirty little secrets. But here's in general.
I'm going to play a scoundrel (are we doing d20 or d6?). If we're doing d6, probably some sort of gunslinger. I hate Jedi (maybe they killed someone in my past), but I've got no love for Sith (if I even know of such a thing). I'm cockey, but a lot of it's based on truth, I'm VERY handy with a gun, and I can fly a ship or whatever if I have to (not such a hotshot with those, but competant). I've got a weakness for good Corellian Spiced Wine, but like a drunken master, if anything, it helps my aim. Besides being cockey and drunk, I'm a pretty friendly guy (if you're not a Jedi) and I get along with a lot of people. I'm a good guy, and so long as it doesn't put me or people I like in undue danger, I'll do what needs to be done. In fact, I'll often take some risks to help people out. Ok, all the time. But stop counting on me when you're surrounded by armed beasts riding Banthas, ok? One time I'm not going to get there in time.
I think it'd be fun to do something like 7 Samurai or the Magnificent Seven. Mismatched experts get together to help people out, or whatever. I'll post more if I think of it.
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I'm not going to let you shape the plot, but I want to make sure I'm doing what will intrest you. I'm just following the advice in the aformentioned book and it says to have the players actualy help design levels and stuff, but I;m not going that far.
I asked for the inital conflict because it will be what you're involved with and give reasons for you being together. But as with all star wars movies the confilcts change so it won't be the main conflict, just something that will point me in a direction I think you'll all want to go. It could also be the background conflick, ie the stuff all the NPC's and background characters are concerned with that will affect you somewhat but has little to do with the main story.
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Hmmm.
As I'm not familiar with systems, hwne we get down to the nitty gritty you'll have to let me know what I need to do for character creation. But I'll come up with something basic a la Saint and post it probably tomorrow.
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Ok, well, what I said still stands.
So, are we using d6 or d20? and either way, can I make my character? (which goes into mechanics, are we starting at first level, or what? -- depending on how you plan to arc the story, it can be fun to start with a few levels so you can build a character that fits your image of him.
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it'll probaly be D6 for 2 reasons.
1) I like it better
2) I don't have SW D20 Revided rule book
wait to send me stuff for the character. I'm going to post the adventure concept tonight and questions I'll want answered in your character description.
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cool. I like d6 better anyway, as you may have picked up.
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I've got a few ideas for the advenutre, but I'm trying to figure out how to get all you you together. So you have the option of just haveing me start you all off in the situation or, since there are only three of you atm, I can one by one do a mini advenuture, like 20-30 min, to set you all up in the situation for the start of the adventure. Then once we get going I can easly throw in new players as they come.
The time setting is going to take place about a year before the second move (attack of the clones), so we wont be at the start of the cone wars just yet.
questions for character generation:
1) what is your character concept. This has nothing to do with stats just yet (SE you've got the rule book so go ahead and do what you want).
2)What is your relation to the other players (if any).
3)List in detail any NPC's from your past (ie before the adventure starts) that might have a role in the campaign, and what their relation to you is. Go crazy and I'll let you know if there's anything I don't like.
4) A detaild description of your characters past listing anything you feel significant to your characters personality, life (like he became a bounty hunter to find his parents killer, or was filthy rich and lost everything in a gamble and now is a 2 bit thief). and related info. This can be a list, timeline, story, or what ever coveys the info to me.
5) Any personal goals your player has. Like finding the murder of your parents, become a true Jedi, own you own casino, etc
6) any mannerisms, quirks and flavor things to make your character more realistic.
7) any equipment you want or have. This should be balenced, You can have a starship if you give a good reason to have one and for something that good you have to have something bad to off set it (like debt, a major enemy, one leg or what ever)
What I'm going to do is award you points (which can be used to raise skills or gain aditional equipment) for doing this. You'll get 5 character points for completing the list to the bare miniumums and a possiblity of 5 more for going into more detail. Also another bouns of doing this is it gives me a better feeling of your character so I can award you more playing in character bonus points and special ponints for completeing goals you specify, and any other reason I might find later on. Go ahead and e-mail them to me. Then we'll go into stats and such (again SE you can do it yourself and after I get your description I'll tell you what bonuses points you get).
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oh and FYI you can goto the starwars website for info on races, places and other things to help you with all the character stuff.
http://www.starwars.com/databank/
and feel free to come up with your own races,planets and stuff like that.
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You want all this by email, right? I'll send that today (instead of working on Entropy's and my side project </tempting hint>)
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yes that way anything you may not want the other players to know (like you background, and NPC's you know) will be kept sceret.
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k, sprig, I just sent you a rather long email about my character, Torgan Blisfel. I'd like some more info about the other characters, just basic stuff, so maybe we can get connected. If you want to just throw us to gether with an adventure, that's cool, but all we know to connect each other so far is that Entropy is a Jedi and I hate Jedi.
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looks like I won't have the stuff to you until late tonight or early tomorrow. Sorry. I'll just send it to the email that's on your profile.
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any basic info you can report here? then we can connect everyone.
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No hurry Kije, just get to it when you can. SE's right posting a quick description of your character is a good idea. You don't have to know each other before this adventure, I can work it eather way.
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So what would be a good name for the new game forum?
1) "Death to Lobsters"
2) "Wack a Saint Elhers"
3) "Entropy isn't Brittish, he's Scottish you knob!"
4) "I don't know enough about Kiji to make a joke"
5) "Fell don't look here"
6) "StarWars forum game"
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1) good, but does that mean we'll only fight lobsters?
2) that'd be great, but it'd imply there's more than one of me
3) yeah, but he lives in Britain, not Scotland, so that's ok
4) learn more about him, you anti-social swine!
5) yeah, stay out. this is secret. There are no plans for world domination that necessitate your death by flying porcupine fish here
6) doesn't really have a ring to it
Maybe we could call it something having to do with the plot?
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Well the plot will change, there's not going to be just one campaign (I hope). So I want a name like AORP, because it's a StarWars PRG.
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SWARP
Star WArs Role Playing
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Cool, Fell can you make a topic and transfer this thread there?
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Or maybe you can try "Airborne Butt-Monkey Attack"
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Okay, here's a brief profile (the rest is coming real soon, Sprig2):
Tels Ferrans is an independent engineering contractor affiliated with the Techno Union. He’s qualified to create, repair, or alter just about any device you’ve got ranging from the smallest blaster to most ship systems (except the hyperdrive. He never got around to learning that. There were always hyperdrive specialists at hand, and no one needed him for that kind of specialist work.) His forte, and favorite, are droids.
As an independent contractor Tels travels from site to site, hopping planets, systems, going wherever the new job takes him. He enjoys the freedom this allows, although the pay isn’t quite as good as it would be if he were to sign on permanently with a large Union firm.
Tels knows how to use most of the common devices that he knows how to repair. If it’s an uncommon or highly specialized device he can usually figure it out if given a bit of time to study it out.
While there are some aspects of his personality that are less than social Tels is a nice guy, maybe slow to make good friends but generally polite and well-mannered. He always tries to dress pretty sharp. He's no clotheshound, but he likes looking good. Besides, the fashion industry is one of the few galactic organizations that isn't corrupt to the core.
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Oh, and he's human.
Sprig2, I just now sent the character info.
And I like SWARP by the way.
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Kije, any chance Tels has gotten into trouble on Tatooine before and had to escape quickly with a scruffy gunslinger in tow when the Hutts came after him?
Just wondering....
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"Just wondering" my ass...
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Not literally, that is.
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shut up, Jedi Poodu.
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Sure! Tels has only been to the outer rim twice. We could say that the last time was for a job with a Hutt out there. And we could say that some disagreements arose between the Union and the Hutts, which led to the abrupt cancelling of the job, at which point Tels was informed that he should get the heck out of Dodge (so to speak.)
Flash forward to some Mos Eisley alley where some thugs are chasing down their prey, and a scruffy gunslinger notices that he's suddenly running alongside a scared engineer with a nice haircut. And the scared engineer notices a scruffy gunslinger at his side, and they both look back and realize they're running from the same thing.
So a few alleys and dodges later the engineer finds his hanger, grabs his compadre by the collar, and yanks him through the door and into the starship the Union had there waiting to evacuate him. And off they go.
How's that sound?
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It needs more monkeys.
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Oh, I didn't tell you? They ran past a monkey in one of the alleys, and the thugs shot it. There.
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I also think a demon fish is needed.
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My name means demon fish in Huttese.
Anyway, that sounds great. We could be at that point right now. We just have to work the Jedi in
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So is he a full-on Jedi, or just working up to it?
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I think he told me he's a young Jedi, so like Anakin in AotC, only without the pretty-boy sneer and hopefuly without the attitude. But that's just my extrapolation. Entropy, feed back?
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I'm working on an over-earnest and rose coloured mirrorshades jedi, either ending or just having finished his padawanhood or something. Spriggan wants to use the jedi master chap as a NPC i think.
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so uh... how you connected to the rest of us
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Nope Entropy you're still in your traning, altough you're almost done. Once you're done with the mission you're on you were going to take the test to become a Jedi. And again you don't have to know the others at all.
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Well, let's get the stats done then. I think Sprig should get us in touch with the Jedi through a scenario or something. Kije and I already handled our connection. BTW, Torgan let's Tels know why he was on Tatooine in the first place: He was trying to free a few of Gardola the Hutt's slaves.
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Ya Entropy is still working on his character. I was supposed to chat with him yesterday when I was at work, but it was the evening shift which was realy busy I didn't even have time to pull out my lap top. Kije I like your stuff, you send a lot more the SE did so you'll get the 10 bonus points. Anyway I can send you stats from a template and tell you how to custimise your skills or you and I can do it over AIM, MSN. I've been trying to do a flash program that will handle this stuff so that everytime someone wants to join (which I hope happens) I can just direct them to that so I don't have to chat eveytime.
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Kije sent more than me? wow. I want to see that history.
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I didn't write a novel. I just answered the questions. :)
Um, Sprig2, why don't you send a template and tell me how to tweak or customize it. Or direct me to some information that will tell me how to do it. There's got to be a site out there somewhere that explains the basics of the system (whatever system we're using.)
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Since the D6 system is used for the matrix and star craft games, which i linked to somewhere (either in webcomics or RPGs, i forget which) and is explained in full there, i suppose you could read up on it there. There. Yeah.
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I have some of them on my hard drive if his site is having problems, as it sometimes does
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I couldn;t find that stuff you mentioned, Entropy (but I didn;t search exhaustively.) I did find a summary on the WEG site. Are we doing d6 classic or d6 legend?
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umm....yes. It's probaly D6 classic since it was about 6 years ago that the last version of the SWRPG game out.
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From what I understand classic adds point totals on dice against a difficulty rating from 1 to 30+, and legend makes each die a "success" or "failure," and you have to have enough successes to meet or exceed the difficulty rating (1 to 7+) of the action.
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yep its classic
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the essentials on progression: it costs as many CP to get a "pip" (+1 to the die) as you have basic dice in that skill. After you have +2, the next pip gives you another die (and future progression becomes more costly)
This means if you're min/maxing, alter the template itself to give you the most dice in the attribute you want most, then add up 2d of the dice you get for a beginning character to the skills you want, because progression will get slow pretty fast.
(sorry, had to throw that out).
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I'v eheard it mentioned before, but what exactly is min/maxing? Is it spending the least amount of points to get the most benefit? Or something like that?
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essentially yeah. The reason why it's disparaged is that it focuses on numerical superiority rather than character -- especially as regards to effectiveness in combat. however, if your character is based around being amazing in some area, then your numbers go there and that's normal. Rest assured I'll have a high gun skill.
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Min maxing is far more intricate than that. It involves conscious spending of points in a clever way, of course, but the true art of Min/Maxing is that of opportunity cost. You try and focus your character in such a way that you make his strengths very strong and his weaknesses very weak, then you put him in situations where his strengths come into play a lot, but his weaknesses are rarely an issue.
For instance, in D&D, a min-maxed wizard will have a very high intelligence, making is spells extremely powerful, but will have another stat that is very weak (say, charisma) that doesn't come into play very often. He casts spells all the time, but he doesn't often have to try and persuade people to believe him. It is more complex than this, of course, but that's a basic example.
Min/Maxing has a poor reputation in gaming, especially amongst those who try to pretend it isn't 'realistic.' That, of course, is a foolish belief. In real life, we min/max ourselves to the greatest of our abilities. Don't let SE chastise you for it, however--he's the only guy I've ever met who's as good at Min/maxing as I am.
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I didn't INTEND it to come out as a chastisement. After all, I DID give advice for starting to min/max.
However, I do think it's a problem if you don't make your character conform to your stats (or preferably, vice versa). Making a fighter with really high Strength and Constitution and an incredibly low intelligence is fine, but if you then play him so that he tries to outthink all the opponents .... well... now you're roll-playing...
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One thing I like about role playing is working with weaknesses. If min/max characters are built to succeed all the time by only relying on strengths and never letting weakness come into play I don't think I'm for that, but that's just me. I think it's just as much fun to fail as it is to succeed, if you play it right.
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It definitely can be. Esp. if the gm makes sure he knows your character and plays to your characteristics. Usually I include some kind of weakness or flaw, and hope the gm will see that and play an adventure where it becomes an issue, so I have to do something about my weakness. Note, that this is different than having a lack of skill and then having that be important to the campaign. It takes some skill to negotiate that.
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Entropy-I'm still waiteing for your character info.
My flash program that will help with character creation is almost done. I won't let you make Droids or new races, but it should cover everything else. It'll even have most of the templates from the book (I took out a few because they were dumb or repeats) Once you finish (by clicking a button) it'll send a copy of the stats to me and you via e-mail.
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here's an update on how the game will start, I figure this will help you with figureing out your characters relations and such.
For some reason (your choice) your on a transport ship (entropy your master is there, your on your way back to take the test to become a jedi) and it crashlands on a small moon that's the opposite of endor (ie rocky and no cute laser fodder).
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Well, Tels can be out to the Endor area headed towards some kind of odd job. Maybe Torgen (did I get the spelling right there, Saint?) and I have kept in touch and when he heard I was headed out that way he tagged along 'cause he's always wanted to see ewoks. I don't know. Maybe his mother was an ewok. Who knows. :) And who knows why Jedi are anywhere? Probably some conspiracy. So there we are.
So is that flash character generation thing working?
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It's almost done, I just need to allow you to adjust skill/attribute stats. I was going to finish it yesterday at work, but I wasn't feeling well. If I grid my teeth and just work on it all tonight it should be finished.
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I think better would be that we got off the ship out of Tatooine, and since Tels had somewhere to go, and Torgan didn't, he decided to tag along when Tels hopped on the ship. I'm human, but I've never heard of Ewoks (I don't think anyone has, at this point)
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SE's right Ewoks are unheard of, well maybe some alienology professors somewhere, and Endor is basicaly another moon that no one cares about. You are returning from the outer rim to the coreworlds so if you want make up a world, who knows if it's cool you might return there for somereason. Or if you want I can use the random world generator in a book I've got and just say that's where you're comming from.
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Can I play?
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Of course Jeffe. I've stated several times that this game is welcome to who ever wants to join, when ever they want to. It's going to be as open of a game as I can make it. Read through this thread for info on character creation and other stuff then e-mail me your character background/concept.
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Yeah, I was jibing about the ewoks there. Saint's explanation sounds great.
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Ugg there's a lot of monotonous typeing for that program, doing all the templates,skills, races and their various descriptions. And what do I do to take a break? More typeing! Well at least this is something that requires thinking.
A note on backgrounds and your reason for being on this transport ship: Don't forget you're hero characters, not only are you better then the adverage person statwise but I'm also giving you extra experence/character Points to show some extra experence. You're not "First Level" here, true you can be like Luke if you want and have little experence in things but you're more like Han Solo here and have traveled all over. There's no reason to only have visited places/planets that were in the movies or to be on a routine, boreing mission. Who knows maybe something exciting happened when you were in the Outer Rim. But if you want it to have been uneventful then go ahead, I just don't see uneventful things happing to Hero characters in the Starwars universe. But they're you're characters, you decide.
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Well, i'm sticking with it, because my vision is of a lone gunman sort of thing, the wandering old west guy or the ronin. He just wanders, and thing either happen to him or he runs into something happening, and he gets involved. Plus he just came off a failure, so he's trying to figure out how he can rectify that.
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I wasn't speaking to anyone in general, and I know both you and Kije have things in their characters backgrounds but I was just posting that because no one has come up with exactly what their characters are doing ATM of the campaign start. Also some players may have had a GM that was very restrictive on what their characters BG could have been.
Character Generator update: Well I'm not going to have it out today for two reasons: One is that there is a lot of descriptions to type after 2 hours of working on just that tonight I'm not even a quarter done. And two, while codeing the skill system I decided that the interface was too clunky and if I stuck with it the stage would be too crowded and confuseing. So I'm reworking a major part of it. This is actualy the second time I'll have reworked this part, and each time it gets more effecent. And I think you'll all like how it works.
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oh, don't worry, I wasn't taking it personally, I was just further considering what I was doing.
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Well, I have to admit that "hero" wasn't the first word that came to mind when I made my character. And I didn't know that our characters were to be significantly above average, either. Neither of these poses a problem. I'm just a really good engineer/mechanic. Really really good.
I was having a hard time finding a heroic reason for a really good mechanic to be in the Outer Rim. Maybe it's kind of as Saint put it. We hopped on the ship from Tatooine, had fears that we were being tailed, and got off earlier than expected and took the nearest transport to wherever just to lose the pursuers. That planet would be the one where we just left (be it invented or not.) And now en route to the core, we crash. That's a little more adventurous, eh?
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Ok the new interface has been finished and I've finished all the classes/templates and races. I have yet to finish the player defined class and skills. It won't take long to add the player created class so I'll probaly get it done today. Skills I'm not sure on, considering I have to write all the skill descriptions, but another day or two and I should have everything done.
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cool
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I've finished watching episodes 4 and 5, and will start on 6 soon to get into the mood.
I know the campaign's set around the time of 2, but I only own 4-6.
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I can't watch them with the kids around, apparently, so I haven't watched any lately.
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There. I just finished 6.
It may be years, but I'm confident you'll be watching them with at least one of your daughters sometime in the future, and you both will be enjoying it very much.
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I know NaNoWriMo is occupying some of us, but I was just wondering if interest has flagged. I'm still in.
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I'm still in. I think Sprig just wants to finish his program first.
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Im not sure I'll have time to play right now, I've decided to put in overtime at work to pay for worldcon
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You can jump in at any time, apparently.
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yep he's allwayse welcome. But you can't blame a guy for working ovetime to save up for somthing like Worldcon.
Anyway as a not I'm STILL waiting on Entropy. Also FFXI has taken a lot of my time. But I'm at the point now where I don't want to play it for more then a few hours a day. So I'll have some things up soon. One last thing, I talked to SE about postponeing the game until the novel thing is over. He said he probaly could handle both but I wanted to ask Kiji and Entropy their feelings on this. Because I don't mind waiting a few weeks. It would just give me more time to work on things.
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just for the record, I won't be broken hearted if you DO wait, I just don't want anything post poned on my account. I can keep up.
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Well I realise that the novel takes presidence over my game and I don't want either to suffer becasue of the other. So I'm cool with what ever you all want to do.
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I'm fine with now or later. Maybe I'm wrong and it should be, but a forum game isn't all that time-intensive for the players. At least for me. I'm keeping up alright with the other games I'm in and it hasn't influenced NaNoWriMo for the worse.
Whatever's best for you, Sprig.
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yeah, i don't think we'll have a problem. You see that, despite Entropy's prediction/vain hope, I still post a LOT on the msg board, and I'm doing really well on my novel. So I can start full throttle as soon as you're ready. But take your time and feel comfortable first.
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Here's what I've got for the character creator program so far. There are several things I haven't done yet and some I may not do. Such as limiting skills to only be raised by 2d, adding skill specilizations, Player defined Races, adding racial bonuses directly to the skills, force stuff, skill descriptions and lists. There will be some of this info in the other tab once I decide what to do there.
http://www.monkeyslothstudio.com/SWCsheet.html
here's a quick guide of how to use it:
*you enter Name, sex, age, hight, and weight directly to the main fields themselfs.
*The templates are directly from the book. The ones not included are: Droid (droid creation rules are completly different then standard rules), Revwien Tyia Adept (ya whatever, this class was to show you how to have a "force character" with out calling the "force" the "Force" Ie is some mystical power), and Rookie New Republic Pilot (this class is exactly the same as the Brash Piliot).
*to make a player difined class, please select one of the other classes first. I don't have it's rules made yet so nothing will happen if you don't. You can then enter the Class name in the text field below the raido button.
*Selecing a species: Every species has a min/max for each attribute. If this is in contrast to the class set attributes those attributes will be adjusted accordingly and the extra attribute points will be added to your total pool.
*The reason there's a species/race fields is becasue there can easly be different races inside a species. For example I'm a Human/Cacuasion. Another example is Han Solo is a Human/Corillian. Feel free to make your own species or to use one from the movies. races don;t have any different racial abilites or attributes, this feature is for Flavor only.
*A note on Humaniods: Humanoids are basicly a bipideal non-human alien that has no special racial abilitles. Thusly their attribute min/max are the same as humans. In the field below this selection you can enter the name of your humanoid (feel free to make your own) so you are not stuck with Humaniod stuck in the Species field. Once the Other tab is implented you'll be able to describe your new species
*Raiseing and lowering attributes: After selecting your class and race you can use the arrows next to each attributes name to change the score. Unless you lower an attribute or have selected a class/species that are different stat wise (see above) you cannot raise an attribute (ie your attribute points are 0 at the start of the program).
*About skills: When you choose a class the skills are atomaticaly selected to that classes default. These skills are the most common ones used in that class (or so the game designers feel). Except for advanced skills (like brain surgery, enginering, ie things you'd need to goto college/university for) any skill in the SW game is useable wither or not it's on your list. All skills (except for advance skills) defaullt to the attribute score for die rolls. Note: When you change an attributes value all the linked skills values will change with it.
*Changeing skills: Right now the only ways to change the listed skills is to either select a new class or to highlight the skill in the main window and type a new skill name. Skill lists/discriptions have not been added yet but will be accessable from the skill tab.
*changeing skill values: goto the Skill Tab, then select what attribute based skills you want to work with. Notice how the names of the skills now appear below. To raise or lower a skill value use the arrow key to change the value, no skill can be lower then it's base attribute's value. At first you only have 21 points to raise skills with (this does not include the free one's I gave you for sending me your character info). Also note that game rules do not allow you to increase any skill more then 2D, this feature is not yet implented. Also the radio buttons next to the skill names are not yet in use.
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so uh... rules changed from 1st edition? Because in 1st edition you had 10 DICE which to add at creation. You're saying I have less than that?
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It's allwase been 7D SE, I checked my 1st edition book and 7D is listed there. See page 8, right collum, 3rd paragraph down.
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maybe I did my math wrong then. But the program won't let me add all the skills I want. It stops responding
maybe it's my crappy connection and/or box
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not sure I follow you? You can only add 9 skills to each attribute. How does it stop responding?
Also check to see if you have flash player 7 installed
you can get it here: http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash
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well, it still does the mouseovers, but it doesn't increment the skills when I click. I add about 4 dice worth and then this happens. Waiting doesn't do anything.
But I redid the math. With 7 dice for character creation, and then 10 more points for awards, my math is right. My understanding is that at character creation, you add the pips without a point cost, up to 2 dice (or 6 pips) per skill. Then with advancement, it costs as many points as you have dice in the skill to get one pip. Does it work this way?
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yes, during initial creation it's on a 1 for 1 basis. So raiseing a skill 1D would cost 3 points no matter what the skills level. That's why your limited to only 2d.
In second edition you have to option to do skill specilzations which work at a 1 for 2 basis. So raseing the skill 2D would cost 3 points, I have not dicided how or if I'm going to do this.
Also I had just uploaded a new version, I had a bug that when you chose certain classes it set your total skillpoints to 10 (this was my inital value used during testing because I forgot to bring my rulebook to work). This was probaly your problem.
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also notice at the very bottom of the page is the SkillPoint value (ie how many you have left). Use the full screen option (f11 in IE) if you want the page to fit completly in the window without scrolling.
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cool, i'll try it again in a little bit.
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So how are things for people? Is it time to get this going again?
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I'm all for it.
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Ya it is. I'm working on stuff for Ninja day, so assumeing Entropy gets me his character info we can start next week.
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Now it's been a while since I looked at it, but I remember having trouble using the character development program to get what I wanted. I know droid repair and programming were applicable skills, and repulsorlift (if I remember it right) stuff is probably applicable too, but I don;t know what a repulsorlift is. There wasn;t a skill that seemed to help with general repairs and mechanics as opposed to specifically repairing droids or repulsor-whatevers.
And I remember you had said something about how we could create a class (which seemed appropriate) butthat it wasn't currently available in the program. Maybe you could make suggestions, Sprig, based on the info I sent you about my character, as to how he shouldbe built. But if that's too much work (and it may be) then let me know and I'll try and work it out myself with what I can learn.
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I just read my own post, and noticed that I made a funny typo. I merged "but" and "that" into one word, and when I read it to myself I pronounced it butt-hat in my mind. Ha!
I guess I easily amuse myself.
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butt hat. Heh. We should market that.
Repulsorlifts are things like Luke's landspeeder in Ep IV or the speeder bikes in Return of the Jedi, or, presumably, the air cars all over Coruscant in the prequels, as well as the tanks the battle droids use in Phantom Menace.
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I see. That's a handy thing to know how to meddle with, then.
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Hmm...you said you could join any time, right? Since I'm not in any games at the moment, if you don't mind another player I might join. Sound ok? And can you remind me what I'd need to do for a character again?
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Yes Jam you can join. I'll post later tonight what you need to do for character creation. I'm short on time now, got to get ready for work.
The character creation program is farther along then the one online now, I'm reworking some of the interface (again). And I've got most of the skill stuff done. While hover tanks are repulsorlifts I'm going to give a minus to repair military harware unless you have a military backgroud or take a military repulsorlift repair skill. But speeder bikes, and anything else is fine. I just don't think most people have had exposure to tanks and the big stuff.
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Cool. Four players!
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none of the following post is new, it's just a mesh of a few previous for JP so he dosen't have to look through 9 pages of posts:
The time setting is going to take place about a year before the second move (attack of the clones), so we wont be at the start of the cone wars just yet.
questions for character generation:
1) what is your character concept. This has nothing to do with stats just yet (SE you've got the rule book so go ahead and do what you want).
2)What is your relation to the other players (if any).
3)List in detail any NPC's from your past (ie before the adventure starts) that might have a role in the campaign, and what their relation to you is. Go crazy and I'll let you know if there's anything I don't like.
4) A detaild description of your characters past listing anything you feel significant to your characters personality, life (like he became a bounty hunter to find his parents killer, or was filthy rich and lost everything in a gamble and now is a 2 bit thief). and related info. This can be a list, timeline, story, or what ever coveys the info to me.
5) Any personal goals your player has. Like finding the murder of your parents, become a true Jedi, own you own casino, etc
6) any mannerisms, quirks and flavor things to make your character more realistic.
7) any equipment you want or have. This should be balenced, You can have a starship if you give a good reason to have one and for something that good you have to have something bad to off set it (like debt, a major enemy, one leg or what ever)
What I'm going to do is award you points (which can be used to raise skills or gain aditional equipment) for doing this. You'll get 5 character points for completing the list to the bare miniumums and a possiblity of 5 more for going into more detail. Also another bouns of doing this is it gives me a better feeling of your character so I can award you more playing in character bonus points and special ponints for completeing goals you specify, and any other reason I might find later on. Go ahead and e-mail them to me. Then we'll go into stats and such.
oh and FYI you can goto the starwars website for info on races, places and other things to help you with all the character stuff.
http://www.starwars.com/databank/
and feel free to come up with your own races,planets and stuff like that.
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Have I mentioned how much I hate typeing in all the skill/class/race descriptions to my program? No? Well I do. I loath it almost as much as cleaning my room.
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I believe you DID mention that before. BUt thanks for doing it anyway.
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Ok, I'll come up with an idea and start getting it together tonight, and e-mail you tomorrow then.
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Newer version of the program can be found here:
http://www.monkeyslothstudio.com/SWCsheet.html
I posted it now becasue of the skill list being on there, all be it messy. There's still no description for the skills, but most are understandable. To see a list goto the Skills Tab and the select and attribute who's skills you want to see. The program automaticaly lists all the skills for that attribute in alphabetical order. To make things somewhat easier to find I have added different catagories you can sort them by.
Again WEG Star Wars is simple in design, so with the exception of "Advanced Skills" (ie anything you'd goto a college/university to learn) any skill is useable by any class. There are also no limit to how many you know (though the program limits it to 9 because that's what the character sheets limit you to), the ones listed on the program are the most common skills. Players are welcome to inquire about adding one they can't find (like say Acrobatcis).
You can change a skill by selecting it in the main screen and just typeing a new one in. Eventualy you'll also be able to change them via the skill menu.
A few changes have been made, most noteably the graphics and how you adjust attribute and skill values. Skill die values are no longer changed via the skill menu. Instead skills, and attributes, are changed from the main screen. When you mouse over a skill or attribute it becomes highlited, either blue or red respectivly. Clicking on the skill/attribute will enable the arrow keys for that skill or attribute. However, before this will happen you need to have selected a class and a species. There is a bug that I haven't gotten around to fix yet that can be rather annoying. This is when you move from one arrow key to another they both dissaper. Until I recode this just reclick on the button to bring them both back.
The class and species menues have been changed as well. Now instead of a radio button, you just click on the desiered class or species. Your current selection will be highlighted in orange.
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Few more things. The "other" tab will become the "Force" tab, here your force attributes will be displayed as well as force abilites/skills.
There are some sounds now (ok just one sound reused a lot, I'm still looking for some more that will work with the tab buttons). They're not loud, but they cannot be turned off.
Also I'm planning on allowing you to switch the current main screen with one that will display force info, species/race info and more character stuff that you'll be able to fill in yourself.
And I'm mulling over an idea that would put a link to Starwars.com's database for races, it would open up an new window that would take you to the species you inquired on. This would allow a player to see pictures and read a better description.
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Got you're character info JP, sorry about the slow responce. School's ending so I've got tests this week and finals next week.
A newer version of the program that should be complete for the most part will hopefuly be up next week. The hosting companie that MSS (monkeyslothstudio) is with is changeing servers and plans, so my site is off line till sometime next week.
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Yeah that's fine. I know what it's like having tests.
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JP IM'd me last week asking me if this was still going, and that he was still intrested in playing. I know I've put if off becasue I haven't finished all the things for it that I wanted to do, nor have I gotten all the character info.
If you're still intrested post here, and if there's intrest I'll get something started sometime soon, hopefuly.
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I still need something to take up more of my time online. I'm in.
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me too!
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Ok, sorry for the massive delays on this, but I have some good news. In the next few days (probaly tomorrow or Saturday) you'll be able to log into MSS and create an account. This will let you as players and GM's (in the case of me and MR.P) manage site info and character accounts for the game. Both Advast ye! and my starwars game will have this feature.
For advaste Ye! you'll be able to edit you're character stats and info, as will as IM other players, and the GM. Also you'll have the option to e-mail the players and GM. This feature can also be turned off if you don't want people e-mailing you. The e-mail function will not open a new window or outlook, but will be sent to the address in your account via MSS. At no time (unless you want it to) will the other players be able to see you're e-mail. Also to e-mail something you have to have a MSS account.
For my starwars game you'll be able to create and edit your character via the program I've been makeing, as well as the other options.
As a GM you'll be able to post articels to you're assigned site, upload graphics, appoint someone an assistant GM, invite/add/remove players from your game. As well as any of the IM/e-mail options. Also a special map grid feature will become avalable to you sometime (when I get to makeing it).
I'll let you know as soon as I'm finished.
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cool
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well I'm still building the data base at the moment, trying to find out how I want them organized, but you can create an account now.
http://www.monkeyslothstudio.com/
go ahead and try it, but FYI for those of you not in avaste ye! there won;t be much for you to do for a few weeks. Let me know if you find any problems.
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Ok, I've encoded a user profile feature that lets you change a few things about you (includeing your password). Please try this out and report any errors you find.
www.monkeyslothstudio.com
once I'm sure this is working I'll start adding the game features.
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I'm adding GM functions now, I'm going to be adding some things to the player functions too. All I can think of right now is hideing e-mail address from view.
I'm still working on character sheet/data pages. I'm not sure how I want to store the info yet, so as soon as I get what I like those pages will be up. But I'm looking forward to recodeing my flash SW character program (ugg), but it'll be realy cool to have that interface.
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Wow I'm realy enjoying useing PHP & MySQL to make a website. Probaly some of the funest programming I've ever done.
So I've got a game page system page up, you can see it here in the Avast Ye! (http://www.monkeyslothstudio.com/game.php?gameid=1) page. Besides adding a link to the game forums and a link to another site (if there is one), what, if anything, do any of you think could be, or you would like to see, added to a sites intro page? Even if this is something you realy have no intrest in, I'd appreacate any comments. I'm running out of ideas.
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Links to the system rules/explanation, links to the setting, the character info, plot so far, maps, etc. Everything originally planned for the flash site.
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Well The flash site is still going up, this is just me messing around. Actualy sometime I'm going to make a all flash interface for everythign you see, it's just flash takes so much longer becasue of it's high design/graphics requirements. That haveing been said if someone wants a game info section there it would be nice to have a way for them to do all those things with out me makeing a flash site.
I haven't decided how to do character info storage yet, because I'd like to use the same database for all games, but yet all games aren't alike. So who knows. As for summeries, well the GM can add, change, as much of the intro text that they want to do (it can be about 65k characters long) so that's upto them. A sepreate rules page would be nice though.
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brainstorming here. This may take up a lot of spece and time, let me know.
THe DB could have fields for ALL games. Each character entry also has a value for what system it uses. That system refers to another variable: an array listing the fields the game uses.
To say it another way, you have a bunch of arrays, one for each game system. Each array is a list of the fields that particular system uses. Then each character entry has a field that declares which of those arrays it uses. Then the actual display only shows the fields listed in that array.
My first thought was just to have all the fields in each character entry, and to only display fields that have information. But this would allow you to show even empty fields if they're just incomplete and that would let the viewer know that there is missing data there.
The question with this method is whether it would take too long to pick through the fields and only display the appropriate ones.
And implementation question is whether you want fields to have type requirements. Like, if you were to do WEG d6 and WotC d20, would you use the same field for "strength" even though in WEG the value would look something like 3d6+1 and in d20 it would be a simple integer. That, I think, depends mostly on whether you want the program to flag which fields are required and whether they have valid content.
Let me know what's wrong with this little brainstorm.
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ya that's what I was thinking of doing, but I was trying to see if I could come up with a way to do it with out haveing to write a new parser for each gametype. But I don't think there's anyway around it.
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Well some modertly good news, if you're still intrested in this that is, I've almost got the Character Generator program finished to the extent you could make charcters. Everything but skill discriptions will be done in the next little while (like next week).
But I'm takeing a cue from Blizzard, it donse't mean the game will be ready at that time. I have several other (one quite complicated) to get done for the game before.