That's awesome I want this!!!
My intro RPG was Vault of the Vampire at 7 or 8, with my aunt reading for me and helping witht he rules. My first GM-ed RPG was Vampire: The Masquerade at age 10...
How was the experience with the little one?
(I wanted to try Universalis once, and "Polaris: Chivalric Tragedy at the Utmost North" a second time... It might be interesting PBP-ing those two -- in case we carry on with Grim's underworld adventure, we could consider one of those two... Polaris has very light rules that can be adapted, but the characters are doomed from the start.)
My little one did a great job! You could see the look on his face when he suddenly realized that the dice didn't just mean 'move your guy this many spaces' but instead meant 'you blaster shot hits, and the extra advantage that turned up means that the bright light from the shot blinds the Guard next to him...'
He was all of a sudden like a kid in a candy store. I think he's hooked!
I'll play Polaris or Universalis no problem. We can hand the GM baton off and I can return the favor of being willing to learn a new system:)
I do want to thank you guys for being willing to try something new and sticking with the game. Everyone has been awesome. Giddyup.
I am having lots of fun; rules lite is my kind of style... Thing is, Universalis and Polaris have no GM :)
I'm also down to play anything, by the end of this campaign I will have a computer again!! Been playing in my phone this whole time mostly lol
I would love to try the new Star Wars system but I don't know if the dice can be adapted.
Wow, i did some research on them. I didn't even know games like Polaris even existed. I'm pretty interested now...
I would play anything though. I will look up Polaris when I get home.
ha, Nadezdha's the best vamipire name ever. I'm going to copy down the vampiress names you guys come up with for my future games!!
:D
Upcoming turns: Rattus and then Bear, Rattus, Grim, Antoni.
Are we facing Lilith?
Sorry for taking so long I'll post in earnest soon!!!
LOL is laugh out loud so LOOOL must be laugh out loooud. I feel dumb asking, but what does the IK mean in 'LOOOL IK'?
LOOOL = me laughing out loud from reading the post up to halfway through my shower :D
IK = instant kill
It was really a nice move by Antoni, I was not expecting that.
ME EITHER! what do you think...is she dead??
Awwwww yeah! ;)
I'd hope so :P
I'm curious about the detrimental side of changing into wolf form. I would say I should lose some stamina and idk if -2 is good enough or if t should e more like -4 because I feel like just changing at any time is slightly too powerful even with 0 luck let me know what y'all think ;)
I thought it was a spell like ability myself.
And really all you ever get to do in combat is shoot your gun I don't have an issue with you having a combat form myself.
I kind of didn't think about that well if y'all are ok with that then so am I ;)
I just wanted to make sure it was fair. I wish I had remembered the crown lol 1d6 dmg for all enemies in 30ft?? AmI remembering that correctly?
Well, sooner than later the shortcomings of the Gift will become evident, I suppose... I for one do not mind the combat form either.
Yeah I figured there had to be some kind of bad thing attached to it lol so I'm curious to find out what but that'll come in due time I'm certain!
This game has been awesome so far but Grim and I have been PMing about a problem: with the rules so lite, designed for one player, and me making up powers and treasure, there will be no balance at all. Some characters could get godlike while others remain puny...
Maybe you guys are fine with that?
Cause we could do something like this: choose to take the underworld tunnel to develop Grim...when you all step into the underworld you would have the opportunity to reinvent your characters to their 'underworld' form, whatever that might be. You provide the backstory for the transformation: a past life emerges? An ancestor of yours manifests to take the adventure?
They would roll up level 1 pathfinder stats. I'd level you guys fast and drop treasure like crazy. Rules would still be lite: I would not bug you guys about your stats or rolls at all unless it effects the fun. And I wouldn't post monster stats or status. It would basically just be a rules lite Pathfinder that would allow us some more balance? This was just an idea we were kicking around. This group seems to have the potential to go on for a long time, so maybe rethinking characters now would be cool?
Otherwise, I'm perfectly happy to just keep on doing what we are doing with very little balance.
What does anyone think?
Well, while I do enjoy the fast and furious nature of the game at the moment, I wouldn't mind putting a little more depth into it. I do feel like Antoni's a little more powerful than he should be with all the gear he's picked up.
Well, early in the game I was already considering that issue, and I tried to work it out in my head, but I ended up asking myself the questions one would ask when developing a combat system. The question is: how can we introduce a combat system that balances randomness and player's choices? How can we generate a combat that is neither too hard nor too easy? Also, we should aim for lite rules, at the same time...
I am not a game designer, I think there is no one answer to the questions above, and ultimately we would have to trade-off control over the combat and simplicity. I think, of course, we should be asking ourselves more fundamental questions, such as: what do we want to get out of combat? Of course, if every combat is a life-death situation, we do not want to ever lose, and that imposes a great deal of weight on the control side. If we can do things in such a way that a failure in a combat does not mean death, but a particular fork in the story -- sometimes with death, yes, but if so choose the players in agreement with the DM --, then we can apply lighter rules to a combat, e.g., roll a d100 with a 70% chance of beating an opponent.
I am fine with using Pathfinder stats if we stick to the Burning Wheel testing principle: we should only roll dice (test) when there is something that we wish to achieve, which, if we fail to attain, will affect the outcome of the story. In their example, you have to climb stairs with no one around, then you just climb the stairs, but if there is a whole platoon after you and you have to climb stairs, you had better roll your [sports] skill with a success, otherwise you will trip and the pursuers will catch you!
Of course, (even) Burning Wheel applies different rules for combat...
That is to say that there's no such thing as "Roll Spot DC 15" "20+10" "You saw nothing, because there is nothing to see."
There are other options, like the system they use in Polaris; you negotiate with the antagonist on the facts (using keywords) until an agreement about what happens is reached, and if you disagree after a couple of negotiation rounds, you roll a d6 to see which of the stated facts happen. You can exhaust themes to achieve particular outcomes you desire, and these themes are refreshed on specific occasions (which we would have to twist for our needs).
I know not about Universalis.
My mind is huge digression.
The bear missed a few rolls when it had SKILL 8, but now with SKILL 11 it is a machine! :D
Well, I am not that resistant to pathfinder rules, you know. I am perfectly fine with us transferring into them and all; I am afraid of the adventure becoming too combat-oriented, something like button-mashing, or those wretched D&D Encounters.
Do you know that feeling when you create a character, that you have to maximize Diplomacy, or damage, or having at least one attribute at 18? I don't like that feeling, but at the same time I don't want my character to be crap.
I will go with anything, really; if I start to feel uneasy, I will complain :)
Anyone have the Beginner's Box? It's more complex than what we have been playing, but much more simple than the CRB. We could give that a try.
Damn I tried to delete that before anyone read it.
I started to ramble there and when I went back to read it I felt like my comments could come across hurtful.
Well, the thing to consider is: Are we happy with the system the way it is now or do we want to change it?
Here is what I love:
The story
The GM
The style of play as in you guys actually crack jokes.
The players
Your characters
The silliness of the castle itself
Here is what I hate:
My character. He is boring to roleplay.
Im not a big fan of:
The combat
We could go real old school and 3d6 straight down. You will have some very non min maxed characters that way.
I also like the idea of a druid that is a bear that can shapechange into a human a number of times a day Lol
I don't feel much attachment to my character myself. He's rather...straightforward. I like Grim's concept, but I understand where you're coming from. And I do agree that the combats are a little too easy, especially if I can kill off a pretty tough villain in one go. It's a little imbalanced. I'd be okay with using another system as long as we don't get mired in the technical aspects.
****EDIT in OOC****
I can think of a few tweeks to pathfinder rules to make things the way Bear is describing, which I like a lot:
1. I can set sort of a blanket DC on each dungeon/area. Players just declare what they are doing, roll their skill checks, and narrate their own result right there in the same post. The DMs job would just be to interfere if a character does something that might wreck the fun. With a group like this I don't even mind if someone narrates that they found a secret door or something. My personal creativity just feeds on stuff like that...
2. Combat: scrap initiative. Just post when you feel like it each round.
3. Combat: I could give the Armor/Will/Reflex/Fort/HP of each creature at the start and players could just roll both attack, damage, and narrate their own results in the same post. Why does a group like this need a DM for this?
4. Combat: for the most part, we can go old school - no maps. Like we are doing now. The fight with the vamps was perfect.
DMs big job would just be doling out experience, treasure, and setting up exciting role-playing situations...
What does everyone think? Anyone think of anything else?
We could take a day or two and really think out our characters. And I could find some really good event-based underworld campaign stuff for you guys.
I was doing almost the same thing in my Legacy of Fire game. The no initiative runs very well in a pbp.
The only problems I am running into with the rules light approach in my game is I got one guy that is a huge rules lawyer. Also my players seem to only read the last thing posted so they never know where enemies are because there is no map.
I do not see this group having that problem.
I would be cool if you made your own pc DM. So you would not be totally absent in combat.
You know, I think I just might do that...or at least accomany you guys with a good NPC.
Let's make sure everyone is in agreement. Rattus??
If so, we can go in character on the gameplay thread and head down into the underworld. I'll tell you what happens as you enter the passage.
This is why RPGs are so cool. We started out hunting a vampire. Now we are off on a totally different adventure and i'm actually pretty excited about it.
Also, let me know if anyone else ever wants to take over DM for a quest or something.
From Dracula to Dante's Inferno. I like it. I'm starting to see Antoni as a sort of holy warrior (with some not-so-nice qualities) who would sacrifice himself to defeat evil, so maybe we can work that in somehow.
Make sure we grab the sword.
Grim is gonna go all preachers daughter and drop the stoic stuff.
Night Shade you can Dmpc what ever it is we first meet.
'Preacher's daughter'? I'm not familiar with that term.
Sorry for the delay, I'm in favor of all of this, the possible system change intrigues me a lot and so does the change in setting. Like I said before I've already got an idea but a day or two will really help to flesh it out!
I like the idea of going a more burning wheel route but a lite pathfinder would work too, I'm still pretty new to burning wheel and idk where y'all stand on that system either. I would just say pathfinder lite mixed in with just some house rules of yours if you want I'm not a rules stickler I'm just a guy who loves to play te game . This feels very organic and awesome, I never thought we would be doing this little adventure into an underworld type place! And that's just awesome!
We've got the chops to make any changes work or even keeping it the same , I think we'd figure it out to maximize fun and minimize min-maxing and make the game something flowy and great to play!
And of course lil' Rattus would love to travel into that portal... Something within him compells him to explore into uncharted depths!!
'Preacher's daughter'? I'm not familiar with that term.
Really? Is that only a southern thing?
It means like rebeling aginst daddy. As in Grim is going to make a 180 in attitude. I may do a barbarian. Lots of rage and emotion.
I know nothing of burning wheel. Can you link it?
Oh, I got ya. I'm a transplanted redneck, I just didn't take the classes when I got here ;)
I'm also in the dark with burning wheel.
http://www.burningwheel.org/
http://www.burningempires.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
Here's just a lil linkage
I will leave this question to a vote of the group...what shall we do, level 1 characters or start at maybe level 4? As a player I always liked starting new chars. Something about 20 levels of bliss layed out before you in all it's glory or something:) But it also makes sense to be a little tougher than that on one's first trip to the freakin' UNDERWORLD!
I would say level 4 it adds to the underworlds allure that we're not fresh, we've got new tools to work with and equally new challenges in how we use those tools in this place. I'm not terribly too decisive mostly but starting at fourth level sounds great to me :)
Makes me feel like something in our characters spirits transcends the earthly plane by a little bit and is always a touch more powerful then they used to be on their home world.
A guy drinking brews a typist does not make
Okay, I like the sound of Burning Wheel, it's similar to WoD, just not as crunchy.
Yea and we have taken down a ghost, headless horseman, demon wolves, a talking door, saved a spirit, and slayed a whole hiram of succubus. So totally not first level!
Maybe if we were minmaxed and took a bunch of stuff from the Book of Feats.
Hey night shade, please keep the game crazy funny and random like it has been! Im excited about this change!