Some things to ponder
Hey, so I'm pumped for this idea, but there may be some kinks that we'll have to work out. Some things that I could see being a problem:
Whatever we play, everyone would need a book. This limits us down a ways, but there are a few ways to get around it. If all the AA people could cram into one room, or a lonely computer lab, we could share books, or there are online PDFs of many books that we could keep up as a reference. Just some ideas.
Also, stories would take a lot longer to complete, especially combat. Combat online takes forever, so we'd have to find a way to avoid or streamline any combat system.
On the positive side:
Posting story/character ideas will be very easy and abundant and fun, so that will be exciting to do.
This setting can allow the individual character more fun in descriptions, more time to shine in the spotlight as well. When you type, it becomes more like a story, and as such, more descriptions and mood come out as well.
Finally, when you aren't in the scene, you are by yourself by your computer, so you can do homework, read, write, etc.. And we can make a special private message noise so you get an audio cue as to when you have to do things.
As for games to play, I think Vampire may be easiest. We have the most books for vampire, so that would be easy. Exalted would be fun, but we'd have to streamline combat significantly.
My two cents for now.
Mark
posted by Mark VK @ 10:07 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Firstly, the thought of Mark, Sarah and I in a computer lab doing this is almost making me giggle out loud.
I think I'm down with playing Vampire, as I have acquired plenty of resources for this and would be able to study up, which always makes me more comfortable, and it would be the game that we probably have the most shared collection between the west coast and A2 - Jason has a lot of books, and so do I, which I think is very helpful. Also, unless Ian gets in on this, we'd only need one more core book for Sarah for all of us to have one, and they're pretty easy to find.
About the combat, I think it would be an interesting challenge to see if we could modify the system ourselves without making the characters less kick-ass. I also wonder if we could keep things interesting and dangerous without having massive initiative-rolling-type combat battles...another worthy challenge. But, if we use the conventions, I think Jason has a storyteller's screen, as do I, so if indeed those of us in A2 are all in the same space, that might also help if we can reference things more quickly.
I think we'll all have to do a little homework for this to go well. More knowledge of what you can do and how to do it, at least for me, especially, will certainly help all aspects of the story.
Mark, when you're talking about "stories taking longer to complete," do you mean actual sessions, or the campaigns? Because I think without the all bullshitting we do when we're all together, it'll probably even out.
However, I have to say that there will probably be just as much bullshitting online, which leads me to one concern: how "seriously" are we going to get about this? I suddenly have this fear that things could become bogged down in procedure and protocol and goofing around could be viewed as wasting time. This almost leads me to suggest investing in some more books and playing Exalted, simply for the generally more light-hearted nature of it...seems less likely to get so intense. I don't know...any thoughts on this?
Hmmm...as i have only played Exalted (of the ones mentioned), i really have no opinion as to what we play. I really like the idea of Exalted, but i am always up for new stories.
As far as us wasting time, i think if we kept the bullshitting to windows other than the main chat room window, we would cut down on time wasted while actually playing...we could get all of our witty side comments out while having "character building" side conversations.
Now, i have an idea for combat, but as you all know, this is not my strong suit. So here is really an idea to serve as a jumping off point. Is it possible to keep initiative roles, but then only have the story teller have to role during actual fighting. For instance, somebody describes whatever kick-assed-ness they are up to, then the story teller roles, and below a certain value the player wins and thus the story teller then describes their own defeat, but above a certain value, the story teller wins (whatever character they are narrating at the time) and then they describe how they kick-assedly countered the attack. Then, to figure out damage, just look at the magnitude with which the story teller either won or lost. For instance, if the value scale is 30 (d-10s are the normal die, right?) - with anything above 15 a victory for the story teller, and anything below a victory for the player - and the story teller roles a 17, then the player takes 2 points of damage (on a 15 point scale). Similarly, if the story teller roles a 13, the character the story teller is playing takes 2 pts of damage.
Then, is there were characters who were stronger or weaker, you would just adjust how much damage they take or give. Example:
Ober-badass character
=> cause = every +/- 1 = 4 damage
=> suffer = every +/- 1 =
.5 damage
Pansy-ass character
=> cause = every +/- 1 = .5 damage
=> suffer = every +/- 1 =
4 damage
The margin wouldn't necessarily be this dramatic and you would have many levels of character in between, but that's the idea.
And lastly (for this post anyway), is it important for everyone to have their own computer? I definitely think the AA folks should congregate to play (at least sometimes because otherwise it would just be weird, i feel), but we are all going to want to be signed on at the same time. Do people have laptops, or is a computer lab more the way to go? Or do we all need to be signed on at the same time?
So yeah, those are my thoughts. In any case, i am really excited for this, and Kate, i think the name fits perfectly.
Oh, and by the way, how did Demon end? I feel i missed the last session.
The thing about this idea for combat is it really isn't eliminating any dice rolling, I don't think - simply making one person do all of it. As I understand what Sarah wrote, it seems like with such a cut/dry system, the advantages of more or less dots to combine or certain powers would be muted, or all have to be assigned and simplified ahead of time - perhaps I'm not exactly sure what you're saying.
I think it would get rid of a lot of dice rolling in that after everyone initially roles initiative once, then there is only one more role for an action. I think what tends to bog down playing is the fact that for every one action, there is dice rolling for success, then dice rolling to counter, then dice rolling for damage, and dice rolling for soak. When live, this is really only two roles as foes role simultaneously, but online, it would be four roles that would then have to be communicated.
That said, it probably only saves a few seconds, and Kate's right, as it stands, it does severly limit the use of extra dots in different skills. We could maybe work the dot system into the dice system proposed, but it would take a lot of upfront calculations and fanagaling.
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