I am up for playing, (maybe helping to GM)
I am very happy to produce materials for distribution.
I am very happy to produce materials for distribution.
Personally I cheat (I'm the GM ... we're allowed/expected to).
I collect pictures that portray the setting I want in my campaign and toss them on the table between the chips and soda for the players to look at.
The one you included in your post has just become one of my collection.
Me too? (Three? Five? Ninety-seven?)
Sounds like it's "Start a new Thread" time.
I was refering to producing stuff like maps, screamsheets, fake invoices, fake legal documents and other such props and handouts.
I have no desire to produce anything for any of you that could be described as "squicky".
I have no desire to produce anything for any of you that could be described as "squicky".
Okay. So, in this mythical Shared-World game we might group-run, anyone have any idea of time period, timeline changes, whatnot? I thought I'd ask an easy one first, before we look at the nitty-gritty of system changes.
Before Fourth War? Classic 2020? Or do we want to suck up 4th War because CDPR has accepted it, and then move ahead with our own version set in 2038 or 2044 or some other period?
Or even a flyer like way earlier, 2015 or something?
Arguments for classic: it's classic. We could limit the heavy tech like ACPA and FCB easily. We have a future timeline to work towards.
Arguments against: we've all been there, a lot. The timeline is already fairly set. ACPA and FCB are coming, as is the 4th War. New players may find it a little close to real world now and a little far from 2077 to be relevant.
Arguments for post 2025:it's new! It's all ours! No timeline. World has been changed and we can set variables as we like. We can up or downgrade availabel tech as well. We could use the new Chromebook whenever R. Tal gets it to us. The tech level seems more realistic to new players from real-world 2014.
Arguments against post 2025: Well, Wisdom will mutter about the 4th War a lot. We will have to figure out some stuff on our own and stick to it. It's new ground and therefor a little scarier. We risk verging into post-human as opposed to transhuman.
Thoughts?
Before Fourth War? Classic 2020? Or do we want to suck up 4th War because CDPR has accepted it, and then move ahead with our own version set in 2038 or 2044 or some other period?
Or even a flyer like way earlier, 2015 or something?
Arguments for classic: it's classic. We could limit the heavy tech like ACPA and FCB easily. We have a future timeline to work towards.
Arguments against: we've all been there, a lot. The timeline is already fairly set. ACPA and FCB are coming, as is the 4th War. New players may find it a little close to real world now and a little far from 2077 to be relevant.
Arguments for post 2025:it's new! It's all ours! No timeline. World has been changed and we can set variables as we like. We can up or downgrade availabel tech as well. We could use the new Chromebook whenever R. Tal gets it to us. The tech level seems more realistic to new players from real-world 2014.
Arguments against post 2025: Well, Wisdom will mutter about the 4th War a lot. We will have to figure out some stuff on our own and stick to it. It's new ground and therefor a little scarier. We risk verging into post-human as opposed to transhuman.
Thoughts?
Ha! Try running your own business and raising a not-small family while planning a major move!
I feel you. This is a sounding out of ideas and preferences at this point. No commitment required. What would you like to see in such a setting?
Well, this is pretty much going to drop me out of the running for people wanting to play if I run, but if I run it will most definitely be in 2020ish (2024 to be exact) canon setting, using the supplemental material from my site, and using IU as the rules (because after all this time, I honestly have a hard time remembering what I have written and what is official anymore on the fly, in terms of both rules and source... it's not vanity, it's just a quarter century of doing it my way on a mostly weekly basis). So I don't expect a whole lot from this crowd to be interested in that...
Well, a) canon setting is certainly a valid option and I have no problem with it. Your supplementary stuff seems to be generally fine - can't think of anything that strikes me as crazy. You?
b)IU is a fine system, but might be a hanging point for those who already know the base rules and don't want ot relearn. Same issue as you, just from the opposite end. Perhaps a conversion method or, really different characters? My only issue with IU was how it complexifies combat, that I can think of.
c) that certainly wouldn't stop you from playing, and of course contributing to the setting and theme. The rules of play, whether they were FNFF, house ruled FNFF or IU, could easily vary from game to game. It's setting, theme and shared story that matter the most.
No, if anything it tones back some of the crazy, which puts you off... for instance in my world, police cruisers are not armed, the US Military and the EDF Military are still strong and to be feared far above any corporation, Night City is sunny quite often, because heat stroke is every bit as oppressive as rainy all the time. My gangs have shifted territories, and the Combat Zone itself has been walled off. The US is engaged in a 3rd war in South America, and is engaged in military action across africa. Nomad markets are mapped out and exist.
Nothing of too much importance to the casual,or even experienced player, but most of the hyperbole has been toned down to more realistic levels.
It looks complex, but it's really really not.... especially if the character sheets are used. There is a bit of complexity at creation, and when leveling skills, but in actual combat everything is already added up if the sheet is filled out correctly. Hell, in general, the character sheets I made for IU make everything run so much smoother it's unreal...
But of course....
I meant gear-wise crazy. Politics and hyperbole vs reality are a subject for another thread. I have no serious issue with the flavour changes you make. I prefer Corps much more potent, but Neuromancer for example still favours a more 20th Century structure like yours. As for weather, it's not that heatstroke can kill you - that'd be an argument for a game set in -40 weather which will kill you faster than anything short of vacuum, which you also don't like - it's that rain is generally oppressive. Seasonal Affective Disorder sets in generally due to lack of light, is the current thinking. Thus the rain, the night, etc. But no biggy.
I think you and I would differ most strenuously in that you really consider Cyberpunk the setting to be Heat or GTA with cyberware, ( which of course I love) whereas I consider it that and so much more. To me, Cyberpunk and CP2020 include Rockerboys, Netrunners, techies messing with crazy cyberware, corporates working with hit teams, vigilantes fighting booster gangs, the question if humanity in the face of the machine, a hope for change in oppression, all that great stuff as well as crime spree games. But I certainly think Heat and crime spree games are a fun part of it.
Well, it is compared to base 2020 rules. Also, you actually wrote that Bruce Lee could lift as much as Arnie and that causes me pain. What else..only the GM can raise Special Abilities is...not great. That should be up to the player, within reason. I love your Fitness/BB skill..I think given your fix to Roles, you didn't need to make Init a skill, but whatever...I like your MA damage fix and the doubled head damage fix...I like your perks, nice addon...
And then we get to the combat section. Reaction Total+ Combat Skill means total actions. 3 types of Combat Actions, each with a different divider depending on Quick, Normal or Full..stuff like lose a Quick Action if attacking more than one target, cumulative effect...after first CA, all following take -1 cumulative..if Weapon BOD is higher than yours, halve CA..A character may even use 2 separate skills to perform multiple Combat Actions, however the number of actions are determined by the LOWEST skill being used..
You know all this. But it's a LOT more complex than FNFF. It's all pretty reasonable and would slide nicely into a CRPG system, but to have players each doing this, new players who've never played, well.
It's a lot to ask, as opposed to, "You can take as many actions as are reasonable, -3 to each one after the first, cumulative."
For simplicities sake, I'd also ignore the Recoil rules. I would include Morale, from IU, which is simple and really sharp. I'd dump the Seeking Cover/Facing Vehicles rules.
Then there is your admittedly delicious HtH section, but yet more complexity.
It's just so much for players to have to factor in before they do something - especially something that might kill them.
That's it, though. I like IU and think outside of the extra detail, ( great for a wargaming table or a room full of experts), it's a solid improvement.
And again except for the actions bit, you could swap rules sets in and out pretty easily.
So I guess,as you say, you can easily dump out the crunchier bits and that is what I would do. If it's not a line or two addition to the rules sets, I'd probably drop it, especially for new players.
Gear wise...... well you have obviously seen my gear catalogues... however what makes it into the players hands is obviously less than what exists, Crazy shit exists, but what reaches the players tends to be balanced towards the scale of game I am running. Gotten pretty good at that over the years. And generally for starting street characters, I limit gear to whats in the core book.
As for the weather.... well, it always being rainy gets kinda boring tridiculously hot, to be honest, I like to mix shit up....once I even had a blizzzard hit... Other days it's just ridiculously hot, with a ridiculously high humidity... it's hard to feel cool and suqve when your crotch is a swamp. And then there are some days that are just beautiful sunny days.... because the weather should be as much a character as anything else in the game.
You would actually be kind of surprised with the kind of game I actually run, as to the kinds of things I say on here... I mean it shouldn't come as much of a shock if you actually read my fluff on DF, but politicking, crazy techies, fixers, corps, whatever, get their share of play, if anything, my games look more like The Shield or Sons Of Anarchy or even Breaking Bad in terms of action to non-actiony stuff most of the time... Depending on my players. Rockers don't though musicians do, as do Instigators... but due to their inherent nature, either the game focuses primarily around their characters, or they are kinda worthless... It's like Cops... I love cop characters, but mixing in a cop character with other edgerunners is really difficult, unless you are running a cop based game...
But again, my style of GMing is long drawn out, like an open ended series, as opposed to others who run campaigns with a set end point.... more like a movie.
When it's up to the player, they spend all their IP on special abilities before anythign else, so you have Solo's with combat sense 10 as starting characters... fuck that.
My way the GM gives them points specifically to IP based off the characters experience.... though for an online game, would probably alter the rules becuase its too much of a pain in the ass to go over skill at the end of a session to award IP individually. I would probably limit it to special abilities can only be raised by one point per session, jsut to keep an even keel on shit online.
The character sheet has this all broken down and filled out...
All this is typically GM headache, not player headache... but it is also all optional, including the whole combat action bit... it is not necessary. It's for the pro gamers, it's for me, because I like multiple actions, but I like them to make sense.
Which is why it's optional.... in an online game, I would leave the combat action stuff out... unless shit started getting crazy, but even then I would just use it as my own basis for what I would allow and what I wouldn't, no need to bog down the newbs...
Again... it's all optional, there for those times when you need the complexity, and ignored when you don't... Hell I don't use half the rules most of the time because they aren't necessary to the story I am telling... but if it does become necessary, I have something to fall back on. As I have said, rules are suggested guidelines to me, not scripture. RPG's are not competetive, they are co-operative, and rules should serve to create fun and arbitrate awesome, not get in the way of it.
Hell right now I am working on a way of delineating initiative based on the method used in Epic Role PLaying. But just like Combat actions and the more pedantic rules, it's very unlikely to ever be used in an online game I run....
Sounds good to me.
Well, see I have read some of that. The Autumn...whatsit..Blade? Rain..No, it's Autumn Blade. Anyway, yeah, I was surprised when you first started posting with such a focus on GTA and open world over story and such, since your actual material is ripe with loads of detail, plot stuff, alternate tech tricks, etc. Quite a contrast to a run-and-gun style game.
Hmm? I know relatively few GMs that set up end-games. Like we're that organized. I wish I was, it really makes the story timing easier. I wonder how @suhiir or @blank_redge do it?
Yeah, absolutely. It would be lots of fun to run a game with all the crunchy goodness in there, nerve-cluster strikes, ( I love that and immediately wanted to make Remo Williams in CP2020) but it would be a headache if it came up everytime your newbie player just wanted to bounce some ganger off a wall a few times.
What I want, what I require from a video game, is different than what I want or require from an RPG. The violence has to be there in a video game, the exploration... teh video game is never going to be as as good a gm as the people I play with, so it better let me get my fun in different ways, and ignore the story altogether when it suits me... the open world is far more important to me in a video game than anything else... even a shitty sandbox like Just cause, provided me much more entertainment than the best linear games I have ever played, like Last Of Us.... and certainly gave me more of an "rpg" feeling than anything I have ever seen classed as an rpg save for fallout.... which mized both...
Most GM have a story they want to tell, and when its done the campaign is over.... some do it quickly, others may take a few months, but either way, they have a set end game or conclusion in mind... be it save the world from the whatsis, or rescue the princess from the whozits, or just finish the dungeon...
This is why gaming conventions hold zero interest for me... because any game run at a con affords me zero time to actually bond with my character, which is the best part of playing for me..
Hell even with my long time players, I don't use everything all the time... that would be ridiculous.... it would be like rolling for random encounter everytime someone walked across the street...
And you did realize Sinanju is included in my martial arts list didn't you
To have more fun with Just Cause because Last of Us isn't "perfect" for your RPG needs....that's not totally rational. Simile: it's like you enjoy a so-so meal that looks like a hamburger but lets you put on what toppings you want - when you want - because the top sirloin that was just ground up and barbecued perfectly then put into a bun with cheese and bacon...didn't let you choose what toppings you got or when they went on.
Yeah. I try to pretend I never saw that. The Sun Source...statted. No. Just..no. Chiun would probably only hurt you agonizingly for awhile for that. And maybe take an eye.And you did realize Sinanju is included in my martial arts list didn't you
Anyway. I don't see your attachment to IU being an issue at all. Time is much more likely to be a problem.
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Back in the Old Days, when Gygax was king, we had modules. Individual, stand-alone sessions. The games I run are closer to those, rather than an ongoing campaign.
Given the pool of characters I have to address, I put together a scenario and an objective, or several objectives, each unique to each player, depending. (To wit: refer to the second Triad job I ran.)
Out of game, during the week leading up, I'll email / text my players, addressing them by character, with their objective. I email / text them as their point of contact for the Job. This is typically in secret, particularly if I have players with objectives that don't dovetail, or intentionally conflict. Heh.
I'm slowly putting together an overarching story, but knowing said overarching story isn't necessary to get involved in the Job for the night.
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