The Official OTC TBRPG Planning and Organization Topic

[Lara White]

It wouldn't be fun if we didn't have some flexibility.

[Alex Humva]

Thing is, in this game, aircraft carriers are the bloody harbingers of doom and destruction. Not only are they packed with airplanes, they usually have giant guns and are bloody massive. Your three hundred IP spent on one is well used, as the arrival of one of these things sends fear into the hearts of your enemies. And let's not even get started on supercarriers...But yeah, we take artistic license were it is needed, but me and Koth do have a generalized scale in place and we actually reduced the price of aircraft carriers, so I wouldn't be griping if I were you. Three hundred IP is better than six hundred.

[Lara White]

Three hundred? Wow. That's...a lot. So yeah, not Britain. More like...Israel or some sandbox nation.

[Alex Humva]

Aircraft cruisers, which are smaller and don't carry as many planes, are a good hundred IP less. But yeah, we won't see the first aircraft carriers in this game for a few months, but when we do it'll kick off a new age of warfare.But keep in mind, that's just to build the carrier. Upkeep will probably be lower; I'll have to talk to Koth about it.

Edited January 9, 2012 by Sweetroll Thief Alex Humva

[Kothra]

I thought carriers were 200 and supercarriers were 300+?And no, they don't usually have offensive weapons at all. Even the giant Nimitz-class carriers only carry anti-air missiles.

[Alex Humva]

I thought we decided cruisers were 200, carriers were 300, and supercarriers was something north of that. :|Ok, not that many weapons, but still, there's a reason carriers are feared in the modern day. A ton of fighter jets showing up on your front door is never good, and they're floating cities.

[Kothra]

Aircraft cruisers were going to be 150-200 IP because they hold less aircraft than an actual carrier (20-30 compared to 40-50), but they actually have offensive weapons (and are smaller of course).

[Lara White]

So, er, when do you think this will go into the actual submission? From what I know, there seem to be a lot of people lining up for this.

[Alex Humva]

Whenever I'm sure life isn't going strangle me hard. Prolly this week if no one has any more objections/suggestions.So far we have ten players that have signed up; nine with profiles, one working on it, and potentially one more. So if all goes well, eleven good RPers to go forth in this world and politick, conquer, and spy.This is gonna be good.

[Lara White]

Koth is currently (well sorta) processing my tech sheet, so that should be to you either tomorrow or the day after. By the way, once we've established a base on the mainland, do we keep our mini-continent?

[Alex Humva]

Of course. The smallest continents have four grids, the largest have six grids. That's between 320-480 IP maximum potential. That's a **** lot of IP, the kind that you don't give up. You could run a pretty powerful empire off of that alone.Also, upon talking to my dad, who actually served in the military and is knowledgable about these things, informed me that it is not the carriers themselves that are feared, but rather the carrier battlegroups, as American aircraft carriers never travel alone, instead bringing along destroyers, frigates, and all manners of nastiness. So a carrier is indeed not as menacing as I make it out to be, but if you're smart enough to form up with a battlegroup, then the airsupport is invaluable and will make your enemy have an extremely bad day as you bombard their sub-continent.

Edited January 9, 2012 by Sweetroll Thief Alex Humva

[Lara White]

Oh yes, one other thing--we can clearly attack other minicontinents. Can we capture them?

[Alex Humva]

Yeah, the only sub/mini-continents off limits are the ones not yet taken, so noobs can jump in when they get around to it. If you go and invade someone you are perfectly able to subjugate and turn them into a vassal state, or just plain out annex them into your empire. This doesn't mean the end of the player though; there will no doubt be resistance cells, and the player may eventually retake their nation, either by driving the invaders out via terrorism and strategic strikes, or by calling for international aide. How the conquer deals with this is similarly up to them; just remember, the guy who commits genocide is never all that well liked.

[Lara White]

Except for Stalin, apparently he's still popular in Russia. Go figure.But yeah, thanks for the answer.

[dRoko]

kay, done with my RPG, need a co-host:World Robo BoxingHosts:Onewa25Theme: Rock'em Sock'em like fighting robots in 2025Setting: World Robo Boxing is very loosely based on Real Steel, around 5 years after the events of the movies. Weapons are now allowed, but are very strictly regulated(NO MEDIUM OR HEAVY ONES). Most bots here are in generation 5 or 6, with generation 7 just being introduced.Additional requirements: None. Since this a pick up and play rpg(that is very loosely based on Real Steel.) there are no additional requirements.Rules:All BZPower rules apply. Duh.Ask if you would get an awesome equipment for your robot.Use IB if you want to control your bot. After all, nobody wants to be confused what character you are controlling, right? Also, IC for controlling your human characters and OOC for other messagesBe humble and roleplay good. Do not godmod. after all , who wants to see a IC move like thisIB: God smashed the opposition robot to a bloody pulp.IC: "AWW YEAH!" Minc said.While you can also do this:IB: Crusher was now on the ropes. In desperation, he tried to jab Napalm, hoping to knock him off balance.IC: "C'mon Crusher." Sam said, " I know this would be hard, but I know you can do it. C'mon, let's show them!"Do not play protagonist. This is a forum RPG, not a fanfic.No auto-hitting. And also, do not dodge every time. Get some hits.If your robot should be stunned or malfunction, then do that, unless it have some special things(at the cost of some stat points.).Have fun and respect each other. Do not be scrubby or look high over everybody else.If you are fighting a robot, choose one who are active. No point challenging an inactive character, right?WRB-specific rules:No attacks on the gut.No medium or heavy weapons.Underworld specific rules:No more than 1 crew member if you tour in the Underworld.WRB info:Each WRB fighting robot can fight another WRB robot once in a week for a ranked fight. WRB and Underworld bots can fight unranked matches at any time.Warning system:Warning via PM, and your mechanic got a bolt in the wrong place. Easy fix, but it will take some time .(In short, slight weakening of your robot for 1 day.)Public warning, and your robot suddenly malfunctions. Two days to fix it.(In short, medium weakening of your robot for 2 days.)Your robot decided to damage himself. It takes 2 days to fix it, and you are devoted to it.(In short, banned for 2 days.)Your robot exploded for some reason. Building a new bot costs time, and you are off for 1 week.(In short, banned for 1 week.)Your character got framed and thrown in jail for some reason. You will not go until someone proves your innocence.(In short, banned until I find that you are fit to roleplay again.)Your character got himself killed by a bot explosion.(In short, banned FOREVER! You can discuss your point via PM, but you get little chance that you will get back.)Profiles:Human characters :Operators:BZPower nickname(Duh):Name(How is your character called?):Appearance(How does your character look like?):Nationality(What is your character's culture?) :Bio(the history of your character):helping folks:BZPower nickname(Duh):Name(How is your character called?):Job(what does he do or help?):Appearance(How does your character look like?):Nationality(What is your character's culture?) :Bio(the history of your character):Robots:Robots are more compliciated. They have classes, which dertemine how your bot play like. Here is your robot classes(blatantly ripped of from Real steel wiki):

Jack of All Stats - Generally shortened to "Jack", it has the most balanced stats, but not necessarily the best stats. Almost all starting characters are Jacks.

Fragile Speedster - Speed is king for this guy. While his attacks are weak, the sheer amount that he puts out can equal a single blast from a glass cannon. He can't take any hits, but his speed generally renders it moot.

Glass Cannon - His attacks generally fall under one hit KO, so he doesn't bother with armor. His speed is rather average, but its enough to get his cannon into position.

Stone Wall - No speed, little attack, but this guy can take it until the cows come home.

Mighty Glacier - This one will bear down on you with the millstone of God. However, just as in the poem, it can take a long while before that killing blow comes. Not as defensive as a Stone Wall, but much less frustrating to fight with.

Blitz Cannon - Not as powerful as a Glass Cannon, but his speed has been boosted to atone for his blasphemy against armoring up. Though he usually doesn't OHKO people, his one-two punch is rather deadly.

Demon Wall - He's as fast as a locomotive, and just as subtle, too. Somewhat of an anomaly, as his speed isn't threatened by his armor.

Lightning Bruiser - He was once a Jack of all Stats, but someone gave him a glowy stone or three. High attack, defense and speed values let him curb-stomp most mid to low level opponents.

Brawler - This guy hangs out with "Unnaimed Arrow" in the dictionary. His strategy can be boiled down to "if opponent is standing, then swing." A word of warning: corners are his friends. They will hold you while he asks you politely to curl up and die.

Demolisher - More subtle than the Brawler, but it's the difference between using a nuke or a cannonball to kill a mouse. They tend to save the Signature moves for appropriate moments, rather than the Brawler who will Signature himself out because it looks cool.

Annihilator - Big honkin' hammers. If it catches you, the referee will simply start carving your tombstone. Try to avoid getting caught. It's big, slow, and it just crushes you. Block and one-two low heavy punches are the keys.

The temps:BZPower nickname(again, Duh)Owner(who is the owner of the bot?):Name(what is the name of the robot?):Type(what for type is the robot?):Appearance(How does yourrobots look like?):Weapons(What for sort weapons does he/she got:)Signature moves?(duh):WRB or Underworld(DUH!):Which gen?(choose 5 or 6 if your robot is common, lower if you want it to look older, gen 7 if you are a newbie WRB fighter):Bio:(the history of your bot) Edited January 9, 2012 by onewa25

[Alex Humva]

My eyes. ;.;Some general ideas I saw in the two minutes I looked at this;~Wall of text. Use the space bar, please, it's a must have.~While robotic boxers are cool and all, they just aren't really RP material. It's basically going like "I punched him in the head!" "I punched you in the gut!" "I punched your arm off!". I'm not seeing much RP potential out of the actual fights; Real Steel worked because, one, watching robots beat each other up is epic, and two, the drama actually worked. RPing fighting robots isn't as great as watching them.~Space bar. Please, use the space bar.

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you my portrait of onewa25:Wait, no, sorry, that's the warning sign outside of his house. Carry on.---In other news, I would like to request suggestions for revisions to be made to Starscape once it enters Mk. III, which it looks like it's about to do, given that Mk. II is crashing and burning spectacularly. Apart from fixed goalposts (and they're only as fixed as the GM thinks they are when the game is in-progress, really) and less use of a sliding-scale of tech, what else needs fixed?

Edited January 9, 2012 by The Shadows Out of Time

[Alex Humva]

Massive industrial power bases being able to crush any and all who stand in the path? That stands to mind immediately.

[Lord Kini Hawkeye]

Myself, personally, would like to see Diplomacy, Trade, and some of the sneakier sides of Warfare take, if not a larger role, a more accessable role.In addition to that, the pure and simple ability to devote your own resources to the development of technology that only you yourself can use, rather than having technological advancement be at the whims of the GM, as you've said.@Levs RPG in the Submission Topic.I skimmed. I really, honestly did. But just looking at that makes me think that you've gone the same way as the last RPG you made (in my memory), Elementum. While i will read it eventually, it honestly looks to me like you took skyrim/oblivion, and tried to put it in an RPG. which on one hand is good and cool, but the way it's written (aka massive walls of text) makes it seem like you didn't try to make an RPG based off of it. More like you made it into a tabletop rpg and then tried to make that tabletop into a Text Based.

Edited January 9, 2012 by Lord Kini Hawkeye

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

I'm definitely going to be revising the jump system to make jumping in at the edge of a system a little riskier (though I'm not going to be rolling any dice, thank you very much. I keep my dice with my backgammon set, and nowhere else.) but almost perfectly stealthy. This will promote spying (as you can set up shop in the edge of a solar system, where only a patrolling ship could find you if you're smart about hiding yourself [hide on a moon, shut the ship's engine down, etc.]) and complicate both politics and warfare.One big problem I have with Starscape (and, before, with IL) is that space isn't truly big in those games. If you're in the same system as somebody you can see them, completely ignoring the fact that a solar system is bloody massive. Unless they're jumping in at either a Lagrangian point or a Clarke point, which would be the ideal jump-points for an invasion (more the L-points than the C ones), they're probably sticking to the outer solar system.I also plan to make trade actually impact things. This should make diplomacy a little more obviously useful.Suggestions for how I can make being a small power more viable would be appreciated. In Starscape the smartest thing for the little guys to do is find a big ally.Tech exclusivity will certainly be looked into. A period of time required for reverse-engineering captured tech is being considered.

[Kothra]

I can't see myself playing it.It's all become too grounded in physics I don't particularly care for or want to take time to research.

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

Understandable. Games like Starscape really cater to a niche market.

[Lord Kini Hawkeye]

I'm going to throw this out there for Lev.You posted that straight into the Approval Topic, but if you don't post it here than you have no idea if people will play it. And after actually skimming (because i couldn't bring myself, in good faith, to read every word of that wall) I can truely and honestly say that i would never play that. It's too restricting, too grounded. With no room for imagination. Maybe i'm crazy. I honestly only read to the end of locations before it became too much. But that's what i see so far.I urge - no, I beg you to remember Elementum. There were a multitude of things that happened there and this RPG is already shaping up to go the same way. Don't make me legitimately screw your RPG over again cause i'm pretty much past that stage. Not that I would, considering you didn't learn from the last time. But try to remember that Text Based RPGs are not tabletop.

[Kothra]

I mean, I really like the idea—I LOVE it—but just the way it ends up playing (particularly those who seem obsessed with hard sci-fi) is just about no fun.I have a feeling that I'll like how SK plays because it's actually grounded in things that are commonplace and fairly easy to understand (at least for me, anyway).

Edited January 9, 2012 by Kothra: Sweetroll Thief

[Xomeron]

The problem with Starscape is that it's set in space.A Spaceship is the ultimate weapon of bombardment; it takes a missile the size we use to launch satellites, or an obscenely powerful ground based laser, to defend against a spaceship from the planet; it makes planetary invasions irrelevant and compresses all of warfare into a single field; said field is boring, empty, and idealized for lasers.If Interstellar Line 3 does happen, I might play and run a laser-obsessed race, but if I join, I won't play like I have before. In Interstellar Line, I was playing for fun and to learn. In Starscape, I roleplayed the Syrrinx rather than doing what was reasonable. If this happens, I won't be roleplaying. I'll be playing to win.

Edited January 9, 2012 by King Of Shadows

[Kothra]

Well I might end up actually playing anyway, trying to develop the Kalarii as a race and to consolidate them for use in future fiction (be it RPG or story) more than anything else.I'd like to have some land combat action in a sci-fi setting. Or more like any infantry combat, rather than spaceships just blasting at eachother to see who can knock out who the fastest.

Edited January 9, 2012 by Kothra: Sweetroll Thief

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

Except that I'm going to be making orbital bombardments an impractical way to take a planet - you scare the pants off of the people on the planet, sure, but you also destroy things you could have used if you didn't blow them up.Really, the goal for the person playing should be more along the lines of "make cool things happen" than "ULTIMATE VICTORY ALL YOUR SPECIES ARE NOW MY SPACE-SLAVES". Sure, I've got an interest in having the Diemawr stick around, but if it comes down to either winning or believably playing the Diemawr, I'll take Door #2.

[Alex Humva]

If we set this in a different galaxy or region of space than Starscape, can my Natsirt Exodus fleet arrive wherever we start? I'm even willing to take the industry cut; it'll be interesting to role play the remnants of a dead race.

[Lord Kini Hawkeye]

I myself, would rather lose awesomely, than win horribly.Throughout my RPG "career" I've killed so many characters off for the sake of the story it's not even funny.In hindsight that's probably why Exo liked me enough to put me in charge of a bunch of his RPGs when he disappeared - I've never played to win. I've only ever played to have fun And my supposed knack for the dramatic makes losing just as much fun as winning.Personally winning can be rather... boring.

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

Yeah, I think having it start over would be best. I'll include more than two options for starting out - the most obvious one is the nomad-fleet, composed of a fixed total amount of combat ships and a certain number of colonisers. There's also going to be a balance between worlds, and different world-types you can develop them into. You can go for an agricultural world to feed your empire (this is going to be less clear-cut numbers and more common sense in implementation of what happens if you don't have any ag-worlds) or industrial worlds to build your military. Colonisation of multiple planets within a system is being considered.One definite effect of lacking agricultural worlds is the old guns vs. butter dilemma kicking up unrest within your empire. Now, as the GM, I'm not going to RP instantaneous and unavoidable nuking of your cities, but if you don't feel like doing it yourself and your production of food and civilian goods is low enough to warrant it, I will play the role of rebels. This is another thing, I think, that may curb the power of industrial giants, as the fear of your own people getting sick of you basically ignoring their needs might keep you from focusing entirely on weapons.

[Wyrd Bid Ful Araed]

I myself, would rather lose awesomely, than win horribly.Throughout my RPG "career" I've killed so many characters off for the sake of the story it's not even funny.In hindsight that's probably why Exo liked me enough to put me in charge of a bunch of his RPGs when he disappeared - I've never played to win. I've only ever played to have fun And my supposed knack for the dramatic makes losing just as much fun as winning.Personally winning can be rather... boring.

Way I intend to play I'll probably end up losing. In fact I hope I do, as doing so should bring about characterisation for all

[Xomeron]

So we can't have a planet that supplies the entirety of its own food? Or will Ag-Worlds balance out Forge Worlds and Death Worlds and such?Also: Well then. Guess I better start fluffing up the Reverene.

Edited January 10, 2012 by King Of Shadows

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

Ag-Worlds will produce quite a bit of food at the expense of industrial production. Consumer-industrial worlds don't do much industrial stuff, but are great for artificial things to keep your people happy. Military-industrial worlds make the things that make other things go boom. Balanced worlds can do a bit of everything, but aren't great at any one thing.If I play at all, it will be as a really awful, unpleasant race with no fixed address. The Diemawr will be saved for a later reappearance and their first 100% canon appearance.

[Xomeron]

So it's Civilization again, the eternal balance of Food, Strategic, and Luxury Resources.PLANET OF BARDS!

[Alex Humva]

Though with the Exodus Fleet, it may need to be tweaked so some Kalarii were brought along too, as Koth pointed out to me.I just really really really look forward to arriving in an uncharted, unknown area of space, and RPing a species that has narrowly avoided destruction. It'll take some cloning and weird genetics to get them back up to a reasonable amount of population in reasonable amounts of time but it isn't too bad.

[Xomeron]

And so we begin the eternal strategy game duality of Earth and Space strategy.Really, specialization like that, agricultural, luxury, and production, doesn't occur on the planetary level. More like the city level. Once you start having Planets of Hats everywhere, it just goes all Warhammer 40k.

Edited January 10, 2012 by King Of Shadows

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

Yeah. The main thing here isn't providing different routes to victory, but different ways to have an interesting time playing the game.The route I'm going to take if I play is like the exodus fleet option, except purely nomadic - no planets, no colonisers. Just a stray fleet with a balance of military ships and mid-sized civilian vessels. Perfect for wacky piracy.It's not really a planet of hats, it's macro-organization of planetary resources. You can have a nice, balanced planet, but then it isn't going to have the huge industrial output of a specialized industrial planet.

Edited January 10, 2012 by The Shadows Out of Time

[Lord Kini Hawkeye]

And so we begin the eternal strategy game duality of Earth and Space strategy.Really, specialization like that, agricultural, luxury, and production, doesn't occur on the planetary level. More like the city level. Once you start having Planets of Hats everywhere, it just goes all Warhammer 40k.

Specializations happen on a city based level as of now, but we're also stuck on this planet for now.Who's to say a race who has access to a multitude of planets doesn't look at one and say "This planet could sustain half of our empire with it's agricultural worth alone. Nevermind with Industry. We'll make a farming planet."Going off of Halo here (yes, i'm a Halo Story Nut) Much of the Colony worlds were specialized. (Mars was Industrial, Earth was Utopian, meanwhile outer worlds with very rich soil were Agricultural and barely bothered with the industrialism that other, less fertile planets were)

[Xomeron]

Halo and Warhammer had the same problem, assuming that a planet is the same all over.Partially this comes from the fact that aside from Terra, planets pretty much are all the same; Venus will kill you horribly no matter where on it you stand. But there is temperature variance, and planets like Terra have some of the most noticeable. A world will not be entirely suited for agriculture; one lattitude might be best suited for agriculture, like how in Terra it's the temperate areas, especially the Great Plains. But maybe the equator will be too hot, or the northern reaches too cold. Specialization in a world is silly. I'll only be doing so if I see an in-game advantage.

[Kothra]

Gonna put this out there: the "ð" in Strið Karla is a th, not an o, so if you're going to type it out without copypasting the ð you may as well just say Strith Karla.And it looks more like d than o anyway.