Author Topic: What game to run?  (Read 4417 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Gods_Trick

  • King Kong
  • ****
  • Posts: 787
What game to run?
« on: October 09, 2010, 04:13:35 AM »

  So I've been in Msia and realise that the gaming scene here is hack and slash with mostly 4E. So PbP, either here or RPG.net. What to run though? So polling for some thoughts, since I'll probably be recruiting players here.

  I'm been set on 2 different campaigns for awhile as a I slowly change some of the base classes to something inline to what I like. A Fate/Stay Night type setting, which will have a metric ton of house rules to make it work. Or a FR world where Mystara gets ganked and the non-Vancian casters have to stop invading armies.

  I'd like to encourage players who aren't currently in a campaign presently, and will probably not be going to high level, since CoP effectively turns games into Xanatos chess.



 

veekie

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 9034
  • WARNING: Homing Miko
Re: What game to run?
« Reply #1 on: October 09, 2010, 11:21:47 AM »
Heh, if you want to do Fate/Stay Night, Mutants & Masterminds would be pretty ideal for the game and is d20 based.

As for ideas:
-Apocalyse Now, instead of post apocalypse, you throw your low level PCs into an idyllic village at the ass end of the plague. The PCs go out to see what happened and discover the apocalypse well in progress. Maybe an open portal to the abyss spewing more demons than the world can handle, maybe a zombie armageddon, maybe a dark lord conquered the world and missed that corner. They're coming.
-Around the World, the party, amongst other competing teams, seek to be the first to circumnavigate the globe in a low magic world. No long distance transportation, but there are natives and local routes. See the world, meet(and fight) interesting creatures.
-The Great War, set it in any setting, in the opening salvos of a war. Lots of opportunities here for sabotage and stuff.
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."

Gods_Trick

  • King Kong
  • ****
  • Posts: 787
Re: What game to run?
« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2010, 05:06:13 PM »

  Thanks Veekie. I've never tried Mutants & Masterminds, but I'll see if I can score a copy of it, sounds interesting.

  I'll mull around your ideas, but really I'm looking for player interest between a Fate premised campaign or a non-Vancian casting one. Though I do like the Apoc Now idea  :smirk

  Quick confirm. Mystara governs all spellcasting in the FR. This includes druidic and other nature type magic? Also, does that mean outsiders draw from a different source? I'm thinking Kaorti, Sharn, etc.

veekie

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 9034
  • WARNING: Homing Miko
Re: What game to run?
« Reply #3 on: October 09, 2010, 05:58:58 PM »
I think you mean Mystra, but yes, she governs all proper spellcasting except for Shadow Magic(which is the domain of Shar). Whenever she gets taken out of the picture magic still works but becomes increasingly wild and difficult to control. All vancian magic, magic items and SLAs included(though I think some artifacts are self powered), though innate racial 'magical' abilities are not. Psionics seem to get mostly untouched.

As for the Mutants & Masterminds thing, something can be arranged via PMs.
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."

Agita

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 5465
  • SFT is mai waifu.
Re: What game to run?
« Reply #4 on: October 10, 2010, 11:16:53 AM »
I think you won't have trouble finding interest in a FSN campaign. Count me in, for one. If you put a post in the Anime/Manga thread, you'll get another batch too.
Also, seconding MnM. It's pretty much perfect for running FSN without too many houserules, although there are admittedly fewer players for it.
It's all about vision and making reality conform to your vision. By dropping a fucking house on it.

Agita's Awesome Poster Compilation
Lycanthromancer's Awesome Poster Compilation

veekie

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 9034
  • WARNING: Homing Miko
Re: What game to run?
« Reply #5 on: October 10, 2010, 01:47:58 PM »
Also, seconding MnM. It's pretty much perfect for running FSN without too many houserules, although there are admittedly fewer players for it.
I'd suggest PL 9 Masters and PL 12 Servants, like the games elsewhere, but with their one unique skill(Noble Phantasm for the Servants, some speciality/hidden ace for the Masters) to have a rank cap 2 PL higher, 3 PL higher if the special skill is exceptionally draining or limited use(Rin's gems, UBW Arm, Excalibur's mana cost).

The more practical question is how to team up honestly. If it's few players(4 or so), it might be more feasible to play as two allied Masters-Servant pairs. If it's many players you'd have to work on secrecy and multiple threads working at once.
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."

Gods_Trick

  • King Kong
  • ****
  • Posts: 787
Re: What game to run?
« Reply #6 on: October 11, 2010, 01:20:58 AM »

  I'm going to have Casters and Servants much further apart than that in level, FSN is an asymmetric setting, no doubt about that. I'm debating between setting in in quasi RL setting and using canonical heroes of history, or setting it in a D&D-scape with only the Grail Wars aspect enshrined; so a complete freedom of Servant choice.

  If the former I'm leaning towards the M&M system, from what I've read so far.

The_Mad_Linguist

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 8780
  • Simulated Thing
Re: What game to run?
« Reply #7 on: October 11, 2010, 03:33:36 AM »
I'd be interested in doing some sort of FSN thingy.  I'd assume it would be at least partially PVP.

Not familiar with M&M, but I have access to the books if needed.
Linguist, Mad, Unique, none of these things am I
My custom class: The Priest of the Unseen Host
Planetouched Handbook
Want to improve your character?  Then die.

veekie

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 9034
  • WARNING: Homing Miko
Re: What game to run?
« Reply #8 on: October 11, 2010, 04:05:12 AM »
Well, remember, Masters can fight Servants and win, but they must be fighting using their strongest point and against the Servant's weak/mediocre points, hence the stated gap(A 3 PL gap between the baseline means the Master can make a stand via power stunts or their speciality, provided the Servant isn't using their Noble Phantasm, they can even pull off a close call win if they used their most powerful ability, with severe drawbacks and power stunting to fight a Servant that's arrogant enough not to use their strongest weapon).

Highlights are(Spoilers, if anyone looking into this game doesn't know already):[spoiler]
-Rider vs Kuzuki, it's offscreen, but presumably she got surprised the same way Saber did. It's unlikely to be Caster given the close quarters and the lack of smoking craters.

-Kuzuki vs Saber(using his martial art against her, with Caster bolstering his damage and stun DC, Saber is not using Prana Boost nor Excalibur yet)

-Rin vs Caster(using her limited use(10 gems) magic to counter Caster's baseline magic and punch through her toughness, Caster's Noble Phantasms not used, not in her workshop with the precasted artillery arrays)

-Shirou vs Gilgamesh(using his strongest ability, Unlimited Blade Works and power stunting like mad, to constantly counter Gilgamesh's own 'baseline' ability of Gates of Babylon, Ea, as his strongest Noble Phantasm was not used, nor was Gilgamesh's armor.)

-Shirou vs Archer didn't really count, considering Archer was likely throwing the fight. It was a battle of ideals, not skills


-Matou Zouken vs Archer, Zouken is 'killed' but he manages to survive using his unique skill of being a Worm that Walks. This allowed him to also survive being smashed by Kotomine and then by Sakura.  Being a 'soft' defensive ability, it's hard to gauge it's effectiveness.

-Kotomine vs True Assassin, Kotomine holds his own in a fight using one of True Assassin's weak points(Hassan's not a great fighter for a Servant) and uses his special ability(heartless? hes certainly hard to kill) to counter True Assassin's Noble Phantasm. His Keys manages to pin True Assassin, but are themselves limited ammo.

-Shirou vs Berserker, Shirou uses Archer's arm to fully project Nine Lives Blade Works, to defeat Berserker's Noble Phantasm of God Hand. Archer's Arm is his special ability in this scenario, with an extra nasty flaw in that it kills him with overuse. It's probably mental stat drain.

-Sakura vs Gilgamesh, Sakura as Embodiment of the Black Grail uses the shadow to eat Gilgamesh and use his energy to regenerate her wounds from Gates of Babylon. Gilgamesh's fatal flaw is that he was going to let her bleed to death, instead of killing her thoroughly. As the Embodiment of the Black Grail, this has a bunch of drawbacks, but mostly, that it makes her evil and very hungry.

-Shirou vs Dark Saber, Sparks Liner High is one of the premier cases. Shirou uses Archer's arm to a fatal extent to beat Saber, but up until he ran out of things to drain, he was dealing with it blow for blow.

-Rin vs Dark Sakura, technically not a Master vs Servant fight, but it's arguable that Rin replaced her 10 gems(which weren't used) with the Sword of Zeltretch and started hurling Servant class beamspam around. Being a projection, the Sword probably wouldn't have lasted very long, so it as only good for a single fight.
[/spoiler]


In either case, it is your game, don't feel particularly compelled to follow the above. Masters beating Servants happen, not often, but they happen.

Still, how do you plan to work the game?
One player running a Master/Servant pair?
A player running a Master or a Servant, linked to another player with a matching unit?
Are players allied(2 Master/Servant pairs teaming up) or is it a free for all(every man for himself)? The former is better for small groups, the latter needs secrecy, or at least a gentleman's agreement not to peek in the other team's activity.
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."

The_Mad_Linguist

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 8780
  • Simulated Thing
Re: What game to run?
« Reply #9 on: October 11, 2010, 04:33:23 AM »
Come to think of it, the dresden files system could actually work really well for a FSN game.  The magic systems are similar enough, and it'd prevent a lot of the micromanagement high level d20 games run into.

Statting out Shirou looks like it would be really easy.  Give him an aspect of "I am the bone of my sword", an item of power and sponsored magic (unlimited blade works) for thaumaturgy at the speed of evocation (weapons only), and you're pretty much done
Linguist, Mad, Unique, none of these things am I
My custom class: The Priest of the Unseen Host
Planetouched Handbook
Want to improve your character?  Then die.

PhaedrusXY

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 8022
  • Advanced Spambot
Re: What game to run?
« Reply #10 on: October 11, 2010, 07:16:31 PM »
I think you mean Mystra, but yes, she governs all proper spellcasting except for Shadow Magic(which is the domain of Shar). Whenever she gets taken out of the picture magic still works but becomes increasingly wild and difficult to control. All vancian magic, magic items and SLAs included(though I think some artifacts are self powered), though innate racial 'magical' abilities are not. Psionics seem to get mostly untouched.
Is this actually detailed out somewhere? This is exactly how I was dealing with it in my games, but I thought I just made that up for the most part... :P I know magic supposedly entirely quit working briefly when that netherese archmage killed her...
[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]

Gods_Trick

  • King Kong
  • ****
  • Posts: 787
Re: What game to run?
« Reply #11 on: October 11, 2010, 09:51:57 PM »
I think you mean Mystra, but yes, she governs all proper spellcasting except for Shadow Magic(which is the domain of Shar). Whenever she gets taken out of the picture magic still works but becomes increasingly wild and difficult to control. All vancian magic, magic items and SLAs included(though I think some artifacts are self powered), though innate racial 'magical' abilities are not. Psionics seem to get mostly untouched.
Is this actually detailed out somewhere? This is exactly how I was dealing with it in my games, but I thought I just made that up for the most part... :P I know magic supposedly entirely quit working briefly when that netherese archmage killed her...

Going but what I recall FR mentions for the Time of Troubles, yes.

veekie

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 9034
  • WARNING: Homing Miko
Re: What game to run?
« Reply #12 on: October 12, 2010, 03:21:32 AM »
I think you mean Mystra, but yes, she governs all proper spellcasting except for Shadow Magic(which is the domain of Shar). Whenever she gets taken out of the picture magic still works but becomes increasingly wild and difficult to control. All vancian magic, magic items and SLAs included(though I think some artifacts are self powered), though innate racial 'magical' abilities are not. Psionics seem to get mostly untouched.
Is this actually detailed out somewhere? This is exactly how I was dealing with it in my games, but I thought I just made that up for the most part... :P I know magic supposedly entirely quit working briefly when that netherese archmage killed her...
Karsus didn't exactly kill her, he seized control of the Weave from her, and was suddenly "OMG, I'm supposed to administrate THIS?!".
Boom goes Karsus from mismanaging at least one of the gazillion energy flows.
Mystryl then died to patch the Weave before it fell apart completely.
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."

Gods_Trick

  • King Kong
  • ****
  • Posts: 787
Re: What game to run?
« Reply #13 on: October 19, 2010, 06:25:44 AM »

  On Heavens Feel of the F/SN, holy crap, I doubt 3.5 is sufficient to cover half of the awesome/Lovecraftian crap they do. New question is Mutants and Masterminds or Dresden Files, and am I up to it?

  We shall see.

veekie

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 9034
  • WARNING: Homing Miko
Re: What game to run?
« Reply #14 on: October 20, 2010, 04:32:52 AM »
Heaven's Feel is a bit special, but if you count Sakura's Shadow as a Servant(with Servant appropriate power), it kinda does work.

Sakura herself is defeatable(Rin vs Sakura in the end shows that, she has massive and inexhaustible(but human level) attack power, but only the one trick of summoning shadow titans and shadow spikes, against Rin's own inexhaustible source), her Shadow is however, a Servant level power with abilities focused against Servants.
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."

Gods_Trick

  • King Kong
  • ****
  • Posts: 787
Re: What game to run?
« Reply #15 on: October 21, 2010, 11:00:11 AM »

  I meant things like [spoiler]Agrya Manyu counting as a Wish that the Grail grants, and the Shiro's ability to pick up techniques used with Noble Phantasms[/spoiler] - kinda blows away the mechanics to D&D.

  Its not so much the power levels as the cool magic-physics of the world. Too cool for Vancian casting I feel.

P.S> I suspect the Shadow could be way, way more scary if Sakura were a better magus or more creative.

 

veekie

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 9034
  • WARNING: Homing Miko
Re: What game to run?
« Reply #16 on: October 21, 2010, 12:30:10 PM »
^^
Fits right into M&M though.

The Grail itself is of course an X class power(but note, the Grail itself just grants infinite mana(i.e. infinite pp), but the amount that can be accomplished with it is limited by the user's skill(PL caps).
Shirou's ability is a variable power set attached to a horribly debilitating drawback.
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."

saethone

  • Ring-Tailed Lemur
  • **
  • Posts: 80
Re: What game to run?
« Reply #17 on: October 21, 2010, 09:48:04 PM »
mystryl created the weave and mystra / midnight simply maintain that weave. they can deny access to it and do in effect govern casting, but its the weave itself that allows mortals access. i believe su and ex abilities are unaffected by this but sp abilities are.

psionics is unaffected by this, despite the psionic/magic transparency, because psions generate their own microweaves.

shar maintains the shadowweave, but when midnight is killed she loses the ability to maintain it.

veekie

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 9034
  • WARNING: Homing Miko
Re: What game to run?
« Reply #18 on: October 22, 2010, 03:59:05 AM »
psionics is unaffected by this, despite the psionic/magic transparency, because psions generate their own microweaves.

shar maintains the shadowweave, but when midnight is killed she loses the ability to maintain it.
For the shadowweave matter I'd take it with a pinch of salt, the previous times that Mystra died nothing happened to it, it was an edition change thing.

Psionics, if I remember my magibabble right, yeah, the psionicist's mind acts as his own personal Weave, but more limited because it has to come from within himself.
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."

Agita

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 5465
  • SFT is mai waifu.
Re: What game to run?
« Reply #19 on: October 22, 2010, 06:57:36 AM »
(Su) abilities, if I recall correctly, also use the Weave.
It's all about vision and making reality conform to your vision. By dropping a fucking house on it.

Agita's Awesome Poster Compilation
Lycanthromancer's Awesome Poster Compilation