The Official OTC TBRPG Planning and Organization Topic

[Dibble Flubwibbler of DOOM]

yeah,he got it.

[IcarusBen]

I'd like to remind everyone that I posted a full RP and no one has even given it a how-do-you-do.

[Wyrd Bid Ful Araed]

I'd suggest posting the full version rather than a link, Ben. Harder for people to miss it or skim over and ignore it

[shadow pridak money gang]

He has a bunch of already made characters that people can use.

 

At least that's what it looks like what he meant.

 

that defeats a lot of the point of character creation. it's like going to a build a bear workshop where you can only buy bears

 

-Tyler

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

Adding to Tyler's point, I feel that having players create their own characters is a good way to gauge how well they write, and gives you a good idea of how they're intending to play the game.

 

On the Fallout RPG concept... It seems to me that a lot of how it's written is still very much couched in video game mechanics, rather than having been translated over to how a text-based RPG - itself more of a story written by multiple authors with often conflicting goals than a traditional game - works. 

 

Like, does alcoholism really need to be written in as, basically, "Status Effect: Alcoholism"? Can't it be an RPing choice the player makes if they decide they want to go down the road of writing about their character coping with addiction?

 

Does it really need to be said that food won't repair a gunshot wound to the stomach? Does any OTC RPG - the context the players would be coming from - work like that? Or is food generally understood to just be food, not a full first-aid kit?

 

What I'm seeing in the rules is a lot of stuff that takes the idea of damage as "You now have 15/398 HP, better drink a healing potion" rather than "You have a piece of shrapnel in your leg, a bullet has shattered your humerus at the shoulder, and you've been shot in the stomach. Maybe you shouldn't have charged those raiders with a spoon."

Edited August 12, 2015 by Ymper Trymon

[shadow pridak money gang]

So... I found this thing;

https://www.dropbox.com/s/22r44p0eksc4aph/FalloutToA.pdf?dl=0

It's an old Fallout RP I wrote but never finished until now. It takes place in Arizona in 2299 after a Wild Card ending in Fallout: New Vegas. Arizona's a place I know pretty well (at least the White Mountains area) so I think putting an RP there would be pretty cool.

 

what happened to fallout: the big easy

 

-Tyler

[Dibble Flubwibbler of DOOM]

well, even so,I still think that either a reboot or a new non-pre-established universe superhero rp would benefit this forum.maybe even a HEROES rp, to celebrate HEROES,REBORN's launch.

[shadow pridak money gang]

Except Heroes was a bad series, so no.

 

-Tyler

[Wyrd Bid Ful Araed]

With the exception of the current Marvel-based RPG and its predecessor, RPGs based on pre-existing superhero universes have generally been greatly outshone by RPGs formed around original superhero universes

[Krayzikk]

To be entirely fair, the current Marvel RPG basically is the old one. Just a rebranding.

But Adders has a point; original universe superhero RPGs do have a better track record, current Marvel game notwithstanding. The last DC-based game never broke ten pages, and before then, the only superhero RPG that actually stood out for any long span of time was TSTW. 

 

Sometimes basing an RPG off of a preexisting franchise causes more problems than it solves.

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

Mmh. And a reboot, in my experience (Hi, everyone else who remembers the horror-show of flopsweat and shame that was Reality) tends to be something that needs to be approached very carefully - with a critical appraisal of everything that made the original successful, and everything that could have been done better, sometimes meaning a total overhaul if the relaunch is to achieve anything like the success of the original.

 

For Reality, using an example familiar to me, what made it successful was the fact that barely any of us had any idea what we were doing, we weren't self-aware enough to realise how unintentionally ridiculous the whole thing was, and nobody was applying any reasonable restraints to the nonsense. What could have been done better is basically literally everything, as we found out when the reboot shuddered, groaned and thumped its way to an "early" grave, unable to sustain itself through nostalgia alone.

 

TSTW!, obviously, would be a bit easier to successfully relaunch, but it still requires an honest appraisal before jumping in.

[IcarusBen]

Adding to Tyler's point, I feel that having players create their own characters is a good way to gauge how well they write, and gives you a good idea of how they're intending to play the game.

 

On the Fallout RPG concept... It seems to me that a lot of how it's written is still very much couched in video game mechanics, rather than having been translated over to how a text-based RPG - itself more of a story written by multiple authors with often conflicting goals than a traditional game - works. 

 

Like, does alcoholism really need to be written in as, basically, "Status Effect: Alcoholism"? Can't it be an RPing choice the player makes if they decide they want to go down the road of writing about their character coping with addiction?

 

Does it really need to be said that food won't repair a gunshot wound to the stomach? Does any OTC RPG - the context the players would be coming from - work like that? Or is food generally understood to just be food, not a full first-aid kit?

 

What I'm seeing in the rules is a lot of stuff that takes the idea of damage as "You now have 15/398 HP, better drink a healing potion" rather than "You have a piece of shrapnel in your leg, a bullet has shattered your humerus at the shoulder, and you've been shot in the stomach. Maybe you shouldn't have charged those raiders with a spoon."

Really? I did my darndest to make it as.. Non-gamey as possible. Those rules are just common sense rules because I know someone wIll loophole their way into something; food heals in the game,I just want it to be known that it doesn't in the RP.

 

BTW, in that last example, those two aren't mutually exclusive, but also I'm seeing more of the latter.

 

As for why I don't post the full link, I've had this problem where copying things into the forum screws up the formatting.

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

Yeah, copy-pasting things into BZP is frequently a nightmare, and I avoid it whenever possible. When it absolutely does have to be done, I try to make sure that, one, the original formatting is as plain as possible - avoid anything that's not bog-standard for that as much as possible - and two, that I go over every part of the pasted version with a fine-tooth comb twice. Once before I hit post, and again immediately afterwards. If sections seem to have gone irreparably eldritch even then, well, you're gonna have to retype them.

 

Posting it long-form straight into the planning topic is a good thing, because it makes it way more likely to be noticed, and it lets us all gauge the length. If what you're intending to put into the first post of the RPG won't fit into a post, for instance, you've got a problem.

 

As for the issue with the mechanics of the game, particularly the rules and things that seem a bit too video game-y... I don't know an easy way to explain it that will get across, and I really wish I did know. The best I can say in general is to maybe look at the rules of the Marvel RPG,

 

Rules

 

1. No godmodding. This includes metagaming, autohitting, bunnying, and performing actions your character should be incapable of doing.

2. Use IC (In-Character) and OOC (Out of Character).

3. OOC only posts are forbidden. That’s what the discussion topic is for.

4. Profiles should be posted in the discussion topic for approval. The phrase “Darkest Days” must be included at the beginning of said post to prove that you have read these rules.

5. Respect the staff.

6. This game uses a tier outline for its punishment system. We do, however, reserve the right to skip over a tier if the offense warrants it. The first offense will result in a warning. The second in either in-game character injury/death, or a temporary ban. The third offense will result in a very weighty consequence, while the fourth and final offense will result in a permanent ban.

Pretty well-constructed, and they're short while still giving the staff room to act whenever and however necessary. Rules that are genuinely just "common sense" can probably be left out, honestly - I think we all know that if you swing down to Chile nestled in the landing gear of a single-engine Cessna on a midnight flight to purchase and then inhale some weasel dust of questionable purity, you just might be forming a chemical dependency that will eventually end your career, tear your family apart, and leave you with no other outlet for your frustrations but critiquing RPGs on a subsection of a fansite for a toyline from the early 2000s. I mean, we've all been there, right?

 

Right?

 

So, putting things bluntly, you don't need a rule that chowing down on half a charred rat (I'm not saying which half!) won't set broken ribs. People know this, and they know that when that does work, it's a video game mechanic, not a text-based role-playing game mechanic. Just like, in a TBRPG, you're not going to have inventory slots or a +10 breastplate of sweetrolls, or a health bar, or any of the things you see in video games but never in ink-and-paper stories. I've never seen a healing potion in an RPG here, and by Mora I swear I've looked. What I have seen are characters who know how to apply a tourniquet, maybe who even have a precious supply of medical supplies, and who might derive the purpose of their actions and interactions in the RPG from those skills.

[IcarusBen]

That incident with Tyler and Ghost Buster taught me a valuable lesson: when you assume something as common sense, someone else just... Won't.

 

Also, when I copy It, it looks alright till I post it. Then it goes all Yog-Soggoth on me and... Bleh.

[shadow pridak money gang]

a. ghostbusters is a movie, not a video game (or at least not a very good one)

 

b. ghost buster wouldn't have been as bad as you thought he would be

 

c. seriously, why did you randomly switch to arizona, which looks like the end of the world hit it to begin with? i was getting moderately hype for a post apocalyptic nawlins and i'm not even a fallout fan

 

-Tyerl

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

1. You really need to either sort the Ghost Buster thing out yourself, or let go and have a little bit of faith in the players.

 

2. That's why you go over the post again after it's been posted, check for formatting errors, and fix them.

[IcarusBen]

A. Nawlins, as it turns out, has NOTHING in Fallout. Meanwhile, I know Arizona like the back of my hand, and after F:NV, it's at the center of politics.

 

B. I'd forget about Ghost Buster, but every RP I've ever run has had someone just like that. *cough*Jeff*cough*

 

C. I do. Once it's in the editor, it looks normal until I post it again.

Edited August 16, 2015 by IcarusBen

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

On the post editing, you still know where the errors are when you open it in the editor. If nothing else, you may end up having to retype the sections that go funky, but at least it'll be up instead of hidden behind a link.

 

Regarding Ghost Buster... Look, with that, honestly? Joke characters are much less disruptive if you just kinda roll with them, or if you ignore the profile entirely/give a clear, reasonable rejection of the profile. It helps when you have a co-GM you communicate clearly and consistently with, and who is going to make reasonable decisions when left to their own devices.

 

Finally, on Nawlins vs. Arizona... I'd go Nawlins all the way. You'd have much more room to make your own creative decisions with the setting (players like these things!), it brings something new to the Fallout universe, and you have the bonus that post-apocalyptic Louisiana is probably a bit different from normal Louisiana.

 

Do you end up with a swampy wasteland, sickly-looking trees the only things you can see rising from the grey, evil-smelling water? Are the ruins of the city itself partially underwater, as it was after Hurricane Katrina? Are there freaky, mutated, up-to-11 descendants of alligators, ready to chow down on anyone unwise enough to brave the swamps alone? Is this the one place on the continent that Deathclaws don't even bother with, because they're afraid of what lives there? Go wild with it.

[shadow pridak money gang]

and after F:NV, it's at the center of politics.

 

i also wouldn't rely too heavily on people knowing everything about the 15+ years of history in the fallout franchise between five or six different games, or create a setting that relies heavily on the immediate aftermath of those games. we tried something like it with ashfall and, well, yeah

 

-Tyler

[Havelock Vetinari]

I'll have to second New Orleans. Alot of ground to cover and have fun with.

 

I'd certainly considering joining up, as some sort of remnant of the DC Enclave. A survivor, perhaps, of their nasty little war with the Lone Wanderer. Just spitballing at the moment. But I think the setting has alot of potential. You could so many directions with it-even if some of it's civilized, whose to say what kind of civilized it is?

[Dibble Flubwibbler of DOOM]

on the topic of the TSTW reboot, i threw together a simple enough story and left most of the existing rules relevant,since they were so effective.

 

To Save The Universe!

 

it has been 50 years since the events of TSTW. the world is now a world filled with supers, to the point where it has become an integral part of society.some jobs even hire people based on their powers,and a large amount of supers live their lives without hiding their identity.the heroes of the last generation are almost all retired or they died off, and a new generation of heroes and villains have come into their own.everything worked, until a new organization with unknown motivation called The Omni Group comes on the scene,strangely investing large amounts of money into the interstellar program,and with the ability to give or take powers from anyone.

 

the descendants of former Coalition of Corruption members continued to fund and recruit for the coalition.however,the League of Salvation fell apart quickly after a promising young hero who was thought to have the power To Save The World,named Vanguard,got in a huge, destructive battle with Doctor Danger's youngest cousin with strong Empathic powers and a collection of powers he had already stolen,called Zaxis.in the end the entire main league base was destroyed, and both Zaxis and Vanguard were thought vaporized in a fiery explosion.the Omni Group covered up the incident,and dissolved the League completely,much to the members' dismay.because of this event,the government made a special strike force to investigate Omni,and discover their true intent, named the Army of Naught.

after another young hero died, the heroes realized they needed to reorganize, and built a new base, uniting under the name The Vanguard League.

 

this is where the story begins.it makes national headlines when a man who looks and sounds like Vanguard,using his powers,kills a young hero and the supervillain that young hero was trying to stop.meanwhile,the Omni Group has been systematically cataloging supers over time and the number of natural supers has dwindled drastically to the point it was at during TSTW.all four groups are intrigued at this new "Vanguard",and go after him,trying to find him to further their own respective agendas.the Omni Group sees the potential of a possible immortal super's powers,the Army of Naught sees him as a serious unchecked threat and decides to eliminate him.and both the Coalition of Corruption and the Vanguard League want to find him to discover his true motivation and what sides he truly is on.

 

the main and most obvious difference here is the addition of two new groups,the Omni Group and the Army of Naught.these two groups were added so that people dont have to feel the need to have a super powered character,or be smart enough to be an Iron Man or Batman character.instead,they can just be a guy.a guy part of a larger group that can fund and arm him without having to give him a huge origin story or something.the idea is that there can be supers in all groups, but the Omni and Naught are mostly for the regular people, in a world of heroes.

 

the two added groups are also to help when one is making a decision on where their character goes,since powers can be from multiple sources.

 

to clarify:

 

omni and naught=70%humans&mechanical/artificial enhancement,30%supers.

 

vanguard and coalition=30%humans&mechanical/artificial enhancement,70%supers.

(artificial refers to temporary boosts,or implants,not permanent artificial power giving events,like an exploding particle accelerator or something.thats a super.)

 

also,while the Omni group are considered under the "evil" umbrella term, and vice versa with the Army of Naught,this doesnt mean that they are not prone to fighting with each other,as Naught are generally distrustful of supers,and Omni are always looking for anyone or anything that will further their agenda.

 

of course, this also means the opposite is true and the teams will be more prone to allying with each other in certain cases.

 

rules (copied) from TSTW:

JoiningTo join, simply fill in this Profile Sheet and post it in the topic.

Real Name (The name of your character when in 'Citizen Mode'):

Alias (Your characters Superhero name):

Appearance (What your character looks like):

Power(s):

Allegiance (League, Coalition, Solo Hero, Solo Villain,Omni,Naught):

Area (Where your character comes from):

Bio (Useful information about your character's personality and history):

I will accept a few spies, but don't everyone become one.

If you decide to kill off your current character, you can create a new one.

 

Rules

• [*]BZP Rules apply, obviously
•  
• [*]No god-modding (e.g. controlling someone else's character, having your character do something impossible). And if someone god-modes against you, don't do it back, tell a Staffie
•  
• [*]This is a Text-Based RPG, so to join in you post what is basically a miniature story for what is currently happening to your character
•  
• [*]Use IC for In-Character and OOC for Out-Of-Character e.g.: IC: Laser Man landed on the streets after jumping from the roof, in hot pursuit of the villain OOC: Hey Randommember1, care to join in?
•  
• [*]Don't bunny (meaning control extensively) other peoples characters without their permission
•  
• [*]Don't kill anothers character without permission
•  
• [*]Two characters per player
•  
• [*]No silliness such as suddenly turning everyone's arms into feather dusters and having a tickle-off. Believe me, it's not as funny as you think
•  
• [*]Don't glory hog or continuously degrade someone else's character
•  

Staff Characters

none,silly.its just a template right now D:

 

Approved Characters

what did i just say?

 

 

so,this is what i got so far.like i said, i write comic book-esque stories frequently.what do you think?

 

edit:fixed barfy green color for a more muted maroon.alliteration yay! : D&comic sans to aid reading.

Edited August 19, 2015 by Dibble Flubwibbler of DOOM

[sonyaxe]

I would love to play this. Seems easy to jump into.

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

Honestly, I know the green text is kinda your thing, but

 

It hurts.

 

Reading it on a white background is just this side of being physically painful, because of the strain required to keep the letters from going blurry. So maybe don't put your draft of an RPG in that colour.

 

I have literally no idea what the Omni Group wants, just what they can do. The Army of Naught is defined solely by their opposition to the Omni Group (I guess Senate hearings are considered passé now), which is simple enough.

 

I find the idea of the Coalition of Corruption being maintained primarily by the younger relatives of villains hilarious. 

 

I honestly don't see the point of having a solid per-player character limit, apart from tying things back to the quaint old days of the original.

 

As I said to IcarusBen, some rules can sort of be filed under common sense, and therefore implied rather than typed out in full. Like having a rule that explains to players what a text-based RPG is. Or a rule that we can't turn everyone's arms into feather dusters.

 

The character profile seems to have gone weird in formatting, to the point that it would require some work from the joining player just to make it usable. It's also somewhat obvious that you copy-pasted that one section, and only that section, from the original, as it's the only one that doesn't require me to lean forward and squint.

 

EDIT: Not really relevant, but it's hilarious to me that Tyler and I, of the major players in TSTW that are still on the site, were the most active on the version after the old forums went crunch.

Edited August 18, 2015 by Ymper Trymon

[Dibble Flubwibbler of DOOM]

the idea is that the Omni Group is thought to be manipulating the government, so the Army of Naught was made under deep cover by a small group of government funded people to make sure Omni didn't interfere.

 

the gimmick behind the Omni Group is just that.no one knows what their deal is, not even its members,possibly leading to some interesting infighting?i guess if anything, it would be that it is in relation to aliens, possibly the ones from Technax's planet?

to add a bit more substance, the Army of Naught was using the excuse of their investigation of Omni group to also start collecting supers for the misguided protection of the human race.

sorry about the green text dude. I tried to change it before when people said an even lighter shade was bad. I'll darken it when I get back on my home computer.

by hilarious, do you mean in a good way or in a bad way?I kept it mostly because I liked the name and to keep it simple for returning people to still call it "Coalition" in shorthand. the Vanguard League used to be called Vanguard Corporation before I realized I needed to keep the shorthand as "League".

Edited August 18, 2015 by Dibble Flubwibbler of DOOM

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

By hilarious, I don't really mean necessarily good or bad. Kinda weird, but it all depends on how you roll with it.

 

Not even members of the Omni Group knowing what they're about would... yeah, definitely lead to decreases in their ability to function. LIke, when your group's goals are *that* mysterious, an infiltrator who knows that you don't know what you're doing could walk in, and let you know that yes, them being there is part of the plan. You not telling your immediate superiors is also part of the plan. Just go with it, it'll be okay. 

 

Which, if that's what you're going for, alright, that's cool. 

[Dibble Flubwibbler of DOOM]

i mean,of course im going to have an upper management.some people have to be in the know,to drive the plot forward.

[Krayzikk]

I honestly would not keep that font for the main post of the RPG. Maybe it's just my eyes, but I struggle to read it.

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

But I bet you five bucks that if I make a character and try to infiltrate, something upwards of 90% of the people that character runs into are not going to be upper management. Not saying that's a bad thing, not saying that's a good thing. Just saying that's a thing you've got to consider.

 

And truthfully, Snark, it's not just your eyes. That font is kinda hard to read.

[Dibble Flubwibbler of DOOM]

I just want to stress that I was not a deeply involved member,and I just realized that TSTW was gone back when I started being more active again. I really wanted to be more involved in it.

 

on the topic of Omni,the higher ups will provide their agents with enough information to complete their objectives.the agents themselves all have an idea of what theyre fighting for.some are selfish,some are more morally driven,and this can cause a bit of minor conflict when people in the company reveal their ideas of what theyre fighting for to each other.however,they do have a vague, but unified goal,and are rational people, so even if some crazy ninja dude jumps in, even if he claims its "part of the plan",they are still going to take him down.

Edited August 19, 2015 by Dibble Flubwibbler of DOOM

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

Okay but why would he look like a crazy ninja dude. That's the worst way to infiltrate anything but a group of crazy ninja dudes.

 

I'd probably better save the spilling of any actual plans for infiltration for when I know the location and actual dress code of the facility/facilities in question. Business casual sounds like it will be far more stealthy than black spandex, though.

 

Anyway, back on the subject of actually critiquing the RPG, rather than rubbing my hands together and cackling in malicious glee, how are you planning on handling rules and definitions for powers, and are you looking at instituting a limit on the number of people who can have similar powers?

[Dibble Flubwibbler of DOOM]

I trust people are creative enough to be able to make unique powers,or take established powers at a different angle.however,it would have to be on a case by case basis,i guess,since i trust not everyone will be a generic flight-endowed spandex man.

first order of business before i ever submit this for approval would be to have at least two other admins with much more knowledge of the tstw lore,especially the arcs involving Technax and his race, as that would be where i would take the Omni Group's arc, if I knew a bit more about it.

Edited August 20, 2015 by Dibble Flubwibbler of DOOM

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

The Technax thing was... kinda weird?

 

Like, it was pretty much Scary Dogmatic Aliens who were there to kill one dude because... reasons*? And then they also wanted to destroy Earth because... that's their thing, I guess**? And then folks made a deal with kinda-worse aliens from Venus*** to get rid of the first set of Scary Dogmatic Aliens, or double-cross them, or something? And then one player's character had his climactic duel with the Big Bad of that arc, and then they were both presumed dead****.

 

Might be better to go with new aliens.

 

*Their genocide against his species was all-but complete, and they were pretty big on 100% completion. Must have spent hours combing through Metroid Prime.

 

**They were mean, and they found that dude on Earth, so... genocide by association, pretty much. See also: they were mean.

 

***They were also mean, but they didn't actually care about destroying Earth, and they had beef with Technax, I think.

 

****The hero-dude didn't die, but he lost a lot of his memory, so things were awkward there for a while. Also he either got or already had an evil twin that was split off from the 'dark' side of his personality, so... there's that. Then the evil twin had his arm ripped off, and was beaten into submission with it. Good times.

[Wyrd Bid Ful Araed]

You say in the intro that the number of supers has increased exponentially but mention later their numbers have dwindled. Which is it?

And what are the tech levels like? TSTW! was supposed to be set roughly in the same time as it took place, and we still had futuristic or extraterrestrial tech showing up. With fifty years of advancement, where do things stand?

 

Also...this Vanguard guy kind of sounds like a bit of a Mary Sue. How he's so super-duper awesome and can beat anyone and everyone wants him on their team (or on no-one's team at all if you're Naught)

[Dibble Flubwibbler of DOOM]

there was a 25 year span, where supers became common,and then over the next 25 years,they dwindled back to the way it was in tstw.

 

the technology is pretty similar,but nanotechnology has advanced a bit more,and neural implants and power armors are more common.the only real difference is in small things.

 

and vanguard is just that.he is really just a huge plot device to kick off the story.i havent yet fully defined his powers,nor if this is the real vanguard,but it was his vague powers that make people so concerned and interested in him.

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

Okay but,

 

-If things are back to the way they were before, then why do we care about that 25-year span? Why do we even need to know about it? Its impact is, as far as I can see, totally negligible.

 

-Do you see a problem in needing a super with vaguely-defined powers, of whose current status and goals even you, the GM, know nothing, in order to make things interesting and give multiple factions their motivation at the start of the game? The way things are put together seems a little flimsy, right now - the Omni Group exists to fulfill goals neither you nor the rank and file membership are totally clear on, the Army of Naught exists to figure out why the Omni Group exists, both are interested in powered individuals and we have naught but your word to tell us this is a bad thing, the League has wrapped itself so far around Vanguard that they've even taken his name, rebranding themselves after a zombie instead of an ideal, and the Coalition has pretty efficiently mirrored the League's obsession with Vanguard while also having members that have so many parental issues/issues letting go that their real superpower is making psychiatrists see dollar signs.

 

To say it more simply, there's a lot that needs to be worked on before the skeleton of the plot is ready to support the RPG, and I would definitely be wary of making Vanguard too important without you, the GM, having an absolutely clear understanding of who he is, why he's important, and what he wants. What you've got has some potential, but a lot of RPGs here have collapsed before they even got rolling, so thorough planning is definitely key.

[Dibble Flubwibbler of DOOM]

i mean, i definitely know what direction i want to take the character of vanguard.when i said i didnt fully define his powers or who he really was,that was in terms of the general story that people are going to be reading.i know his powers and story, etc,which i will reveal over the course of his arc.

 the exposition is kind of there to tell of what happened in those 50 years, so its not a contextless fast forward.it also serves as an origin of sorts for Omni.

I want to leave the Omni's story arc to someone with more knowledge of TSTW, like I said.I definitely want to involve participants more deeply however i can.

Edited August 21, 2015 by Dibble Flubwibbler of DOOM

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

Yeah, but, there's a lot here that seems... really circuitous, honestly.

 

It's a 50 year timeskip in which the number of supers rises dramatically... and then falls back to normal. Seems pointless.

It's a 50 year timeskip in which the League died... and then was reborn under a slightly different name. Seems pointless.

It's a 50 year timeskip in which major villains died... and then their youngest nephews took up the mantle. Seems pointless.

It's a 50 year timeskip in which a new organization became very important... and players who join it still don't get to know what it's about. Seems... not pointless, exactly, but underwhelming nonetheless.

 

And the whole thing seems to revolve around one character the players don't get to know anything about... until such a time as you, the GM, decide you want to reveal it, hopefully dramatically. Seems less conducive to an RPG than to fanfiction.

 

There's only so much mystery you can have about the movers and shakers in an RPG, particularly playable organizations, before it stops being an RPG and starts being fanfic people try to interact with.

 

Marvel isn't mysterious. That oldfangled Pokemon RPG isn't mysterious. To Save the World... okay, parts of that were mysterious, but they were the grindy, slow parts. We all knew who was running the League and why they were doing it. We knew, broadly, what kooky, ill-conceived plan Doctor Suicidally-Depressed Danger* had running.

 

*Seriously I felt bad for the guy more than I wanted to punch him.

[Wyrd Bid Ful Araed]

Yeah the timeskip does seem just...irrelevant. You don't use it for anything. Like, you mention how the increasing number of supers have led to them being included in daily life as more than just heroes and villains, but then their dwindling numbers don't have any impact on that. Are industries like freight and shipping now paying ludicrous amount to the telekinetics and teleporters who made their work so much easier? Are there power shortages because there are fewer supers who control fire and electricity about working to provide energy? Have the remaining supers in regular jobs formed a union? 

 

And you say that tech has barely moved on, and I find that extremely unrealistic. Look how far our technology has moved on in fifty years in the real world. We're sending things into space on a regular basis, our computers can fit into your hand and not take up a whole room, our knowledge of how everything from physics to bacteria keeps moving along in leaps and bounds. And thats without the aid of the advanced alien tech or otherworldly energies that exist in TSTW! I'd be expecting something more like the world of Batman Beyond than our modern age.

 

You are really going to have to define who and what Vanguard is. A Mary Sue is not less irritating just because they're created by the GM and are important to the plot. If anything that just means they're more irritating

[25K Now!]

 

Just something I've been working on for a future fantasy RP.

 

(and no i didn't make the map it's literally been scrabbed from parts of real life maps)

[Onaku]

What with the Ashfall rpg apparently dead, I thought it might be a good idea to try for a different approach to the Elder Scrolls series, that being one that takes cues from the highly successful rpg Corpus Rahkshi, what with constraining the playerbase to a smaller area. To accomplish this, I have an idea for where the rpg would take place.

• Winterhold College: Simple and to the point, this rpg would feature the College of Winterhold as people have come to know and love in TESV: Skyrim. There they could bring their mage characters to life and interact with other people in a small, tightly-knit environment with plenty of interesting possibilities at play. And if players wanted to leave Winterhold, they'd have to get through the various snow-beasts (ice wolves, snow cats and white bears) of the surrounding wilderness, which would not be an easy task at all.
   
• Winterhold Reborn: The Mage's College of Winterhold would be reason enough for why this could be an interesting rpg to play, but in this concept, the plot could be the re-construction of Winterhold, with the addition of something for both warriors and rogue-types. Mages and warriors alike could travel from the corners of the world to the new and improved Winterhold, and bask in the glory of its facilities.

Anyone else got any ideas for locations?

Edited August 22, 2015 by Toa Onaku