Author Topic: Everyone is John  (Read 7527 times)

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veekie

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Everyone is John
« on: September 08, 2010, 01:20:24 PM »
Quote
Everyone is John

A competitive roleplaying game for three or more people.

Everyone is John is a humorous, competitive roleplaying game about playing the various personalities of John, an insane man from Minneapolis. One participant is the GM, or, in Everyone is John lingo, "Everyone Else." All of the other players are Voices in John's head.

Everyone is John uses six-sided dice (you really only need one, but it might be easiest if every participant carries one) for play.

Voices
Voices are the Player Characters of Everyone is John. They are defined by a simple character sheet:

Willpower
    Willpower is a pool of points that the Voice can spend to take control of John or improve its chance of success in any given action. Willpower will go down and up a lot in the game, so it might be easier to represent it with tokens rather than numbers on a page. Willpower starts off at 10 for most Voices.
Skills
    Each Voice has two or three skills. This is a freeform game, so just write down a short description of the skill, like "Drives well," or "Good at persuading people." Most Voices have two skills, but you can have three if you start at 7 Willpower instead of 10.
Obsession
    This is kind of like a winning condition: if you complete your obsession more than other Voices complete their obsession, you win. Obsessions come in three grades: Level 1 (pretty easy to accomplish, like "Pigging out on candy"), Level 2 (more difficult or risky, like, "dressing up in women's clothing and hitting on strangers,"), and Level 3 (nearly impossible to accomplish, like, "Blowing up buildings"). The harder obsessions count more than the easier ones.

If you're going to seriously compete with the other Voices, you probably should keep your sheet a secret.

John
John is a totally insane man in Minneapolis. He is controlled by the Voices in his head -- one at a time, of course.

John is not terribly competent; he has difficulty with a lot of things that you and I might take for granted. Whenever John attempts anything that an ordinary person might have any chance of failure at, he needs to roll for success.

The Voice who is currently in control of John does the rolling. If that Voice has a skill that covers the challenge, the Voice needs to roll a 3 or higher on the single d6. If it doesn't have a skill, it needs to roll a 6. However, before the roll, the Voice can spend any number of Willpower points to get a +1 per point spent on the die roll. This can make success automatic.

Becoming the active Voice is a bit of a challenge, though. Whenever John wakes up or gets hurt, a test for control of John happens. Also, whenever the currently active Voice fails a roll or completes its obsession, a test for control of John happens.

When a test for control of John occurs, all of the Voices who are interested simultaneously bid one or more Willpower points (if you're using tokens for Willpower, it's easiest for everyone to just hold out the tokens in their closed hands, and then, when everyone's ready, reveal the number of tokens). Voices don't have to bid if they don't want to (and you can hold out zero tokens if you want to fake out the other Voices). The highest number of Willpower becomes the active Voice. If multiple people bid the same highest amount, then they roll off to see who becomes active.

The Voice who becomes active loses the amount of Willpower it bids. All others keep their bids. It's perfectly acceptible for the previously active Voice to win a bid and remain active.

Whenever John wakes up, the struggle for control of John happens before the GM describes the situation John wakes up into.

John is pretty easily distracted. Whenever nothing exciting is happening for ten minutes or more (such as on a bus ride or the like), the GM should roll a die. On a roll of 4 or higher, John goes to sleep and wakes up whenever (prompting a struggle for control of John). When John naps like this, all of the Voices gain one Willpower.

Playing
Sounds like a fun one shot.
The mind transcends the body.
It's also a little cold because of that.
Please get it a blanket.

I wish I could read your mind,
I can barely read mine.

"Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. At 2:15, it begins rolling up characters."

[spoiler]
"Just what do you think the moon up in the sky is? Everyone sees that big, round shiny thing and thinks there must be something round up there, right? That's just silly. The truth is much more awesome than that. You can almost never see the real Moon, and its appearance is death to humans. You can only see the Moon when it's reflected in things. And the things it reflects in, like water or glass, can all be broken, right? Since the moon you see in the sky is just being reflected in the heavens, if you tear open the heavens it's easy to break it~"
-Ibuki Suika, on overkill

To sumbolaion diakoneto moi, basilisk ouranionon.
Epigenentheto, apoleia keraune hos timeis pteirei.
Hekatonkatis kai khiliakis astrapsato.
Khiliarkhou Astrape!
[/spoiler]

There is no higher price than 'free'.

"I won't die. I've been ordered not to die."

PhaedrusXY

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Re: Everyone is John
« Reply #1 on: September 08, 2010, 01:27:10 PM »
Sounds hilarious, and also like a fun way to introduce roleplaying to people who have no experience with it, and/or don't like the fantasy elements of more traditional RPGs.
[spoiler]
A couple of water benders, a dike, a flaming arrow, and a few barrels of blasting jelly?

Sounds like the makings of a gay porn film.
...thanks
[/spoiler]

Bozwevial

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Re: Everyone is John
« Reply #2 on: September 08, 2010, 02:50:39 PM »
And then John was a zombie. ;)

This actually does sound like it'd be interesting to play.

ShadowViper

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Re: Everyone is John
« Reply #3 on: September 08, 2010, 05:39:33 PM »
Aye sounds like an interesting little game.
I hear it's amazing when the famous purple stuffed worm in flap-jaw space with the tuning fork does a raw blink on Hara-Kiri rock! I need scissors! 61!

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X-Codes

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Re: Everyone is John
« Reply #4 on: September 08, 2010, 05:43:13 PM »
I would absolutely play this game.

awaken DM golem

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Re: Everyone is John
« Reply #5 on: September 08, 2010, 07:35:17 PM »
My Kitty avatar finds this very disturbing, but perhaps a teaching moment ...  :debate
(wink)

PhaedrusXY

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Re: Everyone is John
« Reply #6 on: September 09, 2010, 01:11:49 PM »
My Kitty avatar finds this very disturbing, but perhaps a teaching moment ...  :debate
(wink)

Yeah, I think you play this game every day, ADMG.  :D
[spoiler]
A couple of water benders, a dike, a flaming arrow, and a few barrels of blasting jelly?

Sounds like the makings of a gay porn film.
...thanks
[/spoiler]

awaken DM golem

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Re: Everyone is John
« Reply #7 on: September 09, 2010, 08:31:38 PM »
I don't.




EDIT - my kitty avatar begs to differ.

EDIT2 - hey I didn't edit this ...  :o

veekie

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Re: Everyone is John
« Reply #8 on: September 10, 2010, 06:20:40 AM »
Guys, we have found John.
The mind transcends the body.
It's also a little cold because of that.
Please get it a blanket.

I wish I could read your mind,
I can barely read mine.

"Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. At 2:15, it begins rolling up characters."

[spoiler]
"Just what do you think the moon up in the sky is? Everyone sees that big, round shiny thing and thinks there must be something round up there, right? That's just silly. The truth is much more awesome than that. You can almost never see the real Moon, and its appearance is death to humans. You can only see the Moon when it's reflected in things. And the things it reflects in, like water or glass, can all be broken, right? Since the moon you see in the sky is just being reflected in the heavens, if you tear open the heavens it's easy to break it~"
-Ibuki Suika, on overkill

To sumbolaion diakoneto moi, basilisk ouranionon.
Epigenentheto, apoleia keraune hos timeis pteirei.
Hekatonkatis kai khiliakis astrapsato.
Khiliarkhou Astrape!
[/spoiler]

There is no higher price than 'free'.

"I won't die. I've been ordered not to die."

Nanshork

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Re: Everyone is John
« Reply #9 on: September 10, 2010, 01:18:40 PM »
This is awesome!  I'd definetely play.
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veekie

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Re: Everyone is John
« Reply #10 on: September 10, 2010, 04:00:58 PM »
It's actually simple enough to set up on the PbP or playground. Pretty failproof even with a rotating pool of players.
The mind transcends the body.
It's also a little cold because of that.
Please get it a blanket.

I wish I could read your mind,
I can barely read mine.

"Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. At 2:15, it begins rolling up characters."

[spoiler]
"Just what do you think the moon up in the sky is? Everyone sees that big, round shiny thing and thinks there must be something round up there, right? That's just silly. The truth is much more awesome than that. You can almost never see the real Moon, and its appearance is death to humans. You can only see the Moon when it's reflected in things. And the things it reflects in, like water or glass, can all be broken, right? Since the moon you see in the sky is just being reflected in the heavens, if you tear open the heavens it's easy to break it~"
-Ibuki Suika, on overkill

To sumbolaion diakoneto moi, basilisk ouranionon.
Epigenentheto, apoleia keraune hos timeis pteirei.
Hekatonkatis kai khiliakis astrapsato.
Khiliarkhou Astrape!
[/spoiler]

There is no higher price than 'free'.

"I won't die. I've been ordered not to die."

X-Codes

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Re: Everyone is John
« Reply #11 on: September 11, 2010, 12:28:27 AM »
It's actually simple enough to set up on the PbP or playground. Pretty failproof even with a rotating pool of players.
Yeah, it probably doesn't even need a PbP thread, just a couple posts in the playground.  One post for the rules of the game and character "sheets" and one game thread per week.  People can message their Willpower bids, when necessary, to the current GM.  The winner starts the next game.

dna1

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Re: Everyone is John
« Reply #12 on: September 14, 2010, 01:41:31 AM »
lol looks awesome. i want to try it so bad
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dither

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Re: Everyone is John
« Reply #13 on: September 14, 2010, 05:43:14 PM »
And then John was a zombie. ;)

Yes sir. You win. :D
"Stuck between a rogue and a bard place."

vanity
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Dither's Amazing Changing Avatars

[spoiler]
Quote from: Shadowhunter
Quote from: Flay Crimsonwind
"Vegeta! What does the scouter say about Dither's power level?"
It's over nine thousand!

Quote from: Bauglir
Quote from: Anklebite
Quote from: dither
Well blow me down! :P
A SECTION OF THE CAVERN HAS COLLAPSED!
dither, Miner, has died after colliding with an obstacle!
[/spoiler]

awaken DM golem

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Re: Everyone is John
« Reply #14 on: September 17, 2010, 05:07:27 PM »
dither - the other voice inside my head, says your avatar looks a lot like the Katy Perry videos I just hacked.


{ ... insert technically that was a compliment smiley face ... }

awaken DM golem

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Re: Everyone is John
« Reply #15 on: October 19, 2010, 07:46:09 PM »
Wait a minute ...  :bash ... dang it ... it didn't work.

dither

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Re: Everyone is John
« Reply #16 on: October 20, 2010, 07:40:11 PM »
dither - the other voice inside my head, says your avatar looks a lot like the Katy Perry videos I just hacked.

(I'll give you that, but my avatar isn't Katy Perry.  :smirk)
"Stuck between a rogue and a bard place."

vanity
Read my webcomic!
Dither's Amazing Changing Avatars

[spoiler]
Quote from: Shadowhunter
Quote from: Flay Crimsonwind
"Vegeta! What does the scouter say about Dither's power level?"
It's over nine thousand!

Quote from: Bauglir
Quote from: Anklebite
Quote from: dither
Well blow me down! :P
A SECTION OF THE CAVERN HAS COLLAPSED!
dither, Miner, has died after colliding with an obstacle!
[/spoiler]

awaken DM golem

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Re: Everyone is John
« Reply #17 on: October 20, 2010, 09:48:24 PM »
dither - the other voice inside my head, says your avatar looks a lot like the Katy Perry videos I just hacked.

(I'll give you that, but my avatar isn't Katy Perry.  :smirk)

umm ... You'll give me "that" as in my other voice inside my head  ???
 ;)

Gods_Trick

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Re: Everyone is John
« Reply #18 on: October 21, 2010, 11:27:53 AM »

Dither stop getting into 'John's' head, we haven't started playing yet!

dither

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Re: Everyone is John
« Reply #19 on: October 22, 2010, 03:27:58 PM »
dither - the other voice inside my head, says your avatar looks a lot like the Katy Perry videos I just hacked.

(I'll give you that, but my avatar isn't Katy Perry.  :smirk)

umm ... You'll give me "that" as in my other voice inside my head  ???
 ;)

Nonsensical statement is a banana.
"Stuck between a rogue and a bard place."

vanity
Read my webcomic!
Dither's Amazing Changing Avatars

[spoiler]
Quote from: Shadowhunter
Quote from: Flay Crimsonwind
"Vegeta! What does the scouter say about Dither's power level?"
It's over nine thousand!

Quote from: Bauglir
Quote from: Anklebite
Quote from: dither
Well blow me down! :P
A SECTION OF THE CAVERN HAS COLLAPSED!
dither, Miner, has died after colliding with an obstacle!
[/spoiler]