RPGHQ

Post here if you're open to playing with other RPGHQ losers or you want to pitch your game.

I have been thinking about running a game where the players explore a mysterious island in a near-future setting with options for mutations, psychic powers and super science. I haven't yet decided on a system.

This is a perfect opportunity to bring this thread back up for an official RPGHQ dice roller. I'm surprised it didn't get more traction.

viewtopic.php?p=21753-request-dice-roll ... ler#p21753

I am pleased to see this thread, but sadly I can offer my participation neither as a player nor as a GM at this time.

Emphyrio wrote: ↑ September 29th, 2023, 21:14

I have been thinking about running a game where the players explore a mysterious island in a near-future setting with options for mutations, psychic powers and super science. I haven't yet decided on a system.

Is this the one for which you were interested in a system that models large adventuring bands?

I'd be interested in playing a medieval-based, fantasy game using OSR rules, i.e. Swords and Wizardry, Old-School Essentials, Basic Fantasy, B/X, etc.

Seconding a site-wide dice roller.

Another pitch: A separate forum focused on PnP and Let's Play threads.

WhiteShark wrote: ↑ October 2nd, 2023, 09:22

Is this the one for which you were interested in a system that models large adventuring bands?

Yes. My idea was Lemuria re-emerges, wrecking coasts with tidal waves and blocking out the sky with ash. Even after that, there's worldwide dangerous, freakish weather, mutations, and disturbing dreams. The island continent can't be mapped from space because of the ash or by plane because electronics go crazy. A glider pilot was able to create a rough map from a distance, but couldn't get too close because of strong winds. Weird things were observed, like the fact that this island that apparently just erupted out of the sea is partially covered in jungle, and giant bat-like creatures patrol the sky.

Players would have the objective of exploring the island, and identifying the source of the strange phenomena if possible. They would have the backing of a billionaire and a very large budget for the expedition.

The way I imagine the game, the players explore a grid, have lots of hirelings if they want them, maybe making war on the island inhabitants. They have to manage food/water supplies. I don't think there will be a "story" planned out. I'm going to populate the island with locations and encounters, and things could go in any direction depending on what the players do.

I haven't decided what system would be best. ACKS might be close enough, but I've only looked at the mass combat rules so far.

Nemesis wrote: ↑ October 2nd, 2023, 13:26

I'd be interested in playing a medieval-based, fantasy game using OSR rules, i.e. Swords and Wizardry, Old-School Essentials, Basic Fantasy, B/X, etc.

Seconding a site-wide dice roller.

Another pitch: A separate forum focused on PnP and Let's Play threads.

YOU ALREADY HAVE ONE MOTHERFUCKER

Nemesis wrote: ↑ October 2nd, 2023, 13:26

Another pitch: A separate forum focused on PnP and Let's Play threads.

wot

Kalarion wrote: ↑ October 2nd, 2023, 19:36

YOU ALREADY HAVE ONE MOTHERFUCKER

I'm interested in rolling a character and playing in a play-by-game post.

rusty_shackleford wrote: ↑ October 2nd, 2023, 20:03

wot

I briefly forgot HQ Plays existed. Sadly, there's only one thread from James Dixon (RIP).

I'm going to go with Conspiracy X 2ed for Lemuria. It already has rules and stats for acquiring all kinds of vehicles, bases, science facilities, guns, hirelings, supplies, psychic powers, mutations, and monsters. The only necessary modification is ignoring lore and professions that obviously don't fit the mission, and giving the PC's a big multiplier on their resource points. It doesn't have large-scale mass combat rules, but it does have optional "cinematic" combat rules that use averages for npcs instead of rolling.

Nemesis wrote: ↑ October 2nd, 2023, 13:26

I'd be interested in playing a medieval-based, fantasy game using OSR rules, i.e. Swords and Wizardry, Old-School Essentials, Basic Fantasy, B/X, etc.

I would also be interested in playing but not GMing this.

I'm in to play barbarians.

I'm in to play kobolds.

I'd play old school vtm or werewolf. Always wanted to play one of those and never did. I've never really done much tabletop and I think LARPing is gay, so I'd probably be the quietest guy in the room though.

GhostCow wrote: ↑ October 12th, 2023, 00:26

I'd play old school vtm or werewolf. Always wanted to play one of those and never did. I've never really done much tabletop and I think LARPing is gay, so I'd probably be the quietest guy in the room though.

Well it's a good thing you chose WoD PNP as the one you want to play, then, the system that involves by far the most amount of larping of the well known popular PNP systems.

I was like you when I tried to play Dark Heresy with some people on codex, I said like one line the whole session.

GhostCow wrote: ↑ October 12th, 2023, 00:26

I think LARPing is gay,

LARPing in a tabletop setting is incredibly rare in my experience. You occasionally might find a DM who does voices sometimes, but that's about it.

When I read larping I tend to think of acting in-character, doesn't have to be super theatrical just talking like you are the character in that situation, which when I've played PNP has been pretty standard, usually only being out of character when you want to ask about rules and stuff. Is this not common. Or maybe we're talking about larping like people running around in the woods in outfits.

agentorange wrote: ↑ October 12th, 2023, 02:13

When I read larping I tend to think of acting in-character, doesn't have to be super theatrical just talking like you are the character in that situation

Yeah, this is what I was referring to

theater kid shit is something that used to be restricted to WoD weirdos until shit like critical role became popular

Speaking in character can be fun, but it is not a requirement for roleplaying games and never has been. It's enough to tell the GM the gist of what your PC says. Fundamentally, roleplaying is about deciding what your PC (or you, depending on the school of thought) would do in the current situation, not playacting.

WhiteShark wrote: ↑ October 12th, 2023, 03:27

Speaking in character can be fun, but it is not a requirement for roleplaying games and never has been. It's enough to tell the GM the gist of what your PC says. Fundamentally, roleplaying is about deciding what your PC (or you, depending on the school of thought) would do in the current situation, not playacting.

This is basically what I meant.

I don't really know what constitutes theater kid shit, but role-playing games do have a fundamentally theatrical quality to them, doesn't mean you have to speak in thees and thous and try to be quirky all the time and you don't even have to adopt a fake accent. Taking on the role of a character you made and making choices in-character and interacting with other characters that way is part of the fun of role-playing games, though. Stuff like critical role takes it too far and makes it the be all end all which is cringe, which then has the added negative effect of making people think all role-playing is like that, but there's an infinite gradient between going full retard like that and not doing anything in-character at all.

Yeah, to be clear, for @GhostCow's sake, I've never been in a game where anyone is critical of someone for *not* speaking in character and just using 3rd person all the time ("my character does x"). If someone isn't over the top, they won't care about speaking in character too much either.

If everyone else is in character and you're sitting there like a lump on a bog then you're bringing the game down.

I'm open to playing, though haven't ever played much pnp.

Well, every opportunity to play a Bard-like character is a good one for me

I've heard that Savage World with superhero overlay is good for settings including mutations, psychic powers and super science.

I even have a character (mostly) ready

i've been dipping my toes into PnP this year. I mostly play solo, but i also GM'ed a game for my brother and enjoyed it. I'm Interested in participating as a player though.

There's a few systems that interest me, on of them being HarnMaster. its a fairly simulationist game but the mechanics are interesting. There's also an RPG called Dominion Rules which is interesting. but both of these are obscure so idk if there's really people who'd want to run a game of Harn and Dominion Rules.

For more mainstream PnP stuff i'm interested in the horror RPGs like Call of Cthulhu and Delta Green. The earlier editions of DnD is also pretty cool (B/X till about 2nd Edition stuff is pretty neat). Other than that probably something like Vampire the Masquarade might be really cool to participate in.

What are your guys' preferred methods for hosting games? Here on the forum, a VTT, or something else?

For play-by-post games, I ran them in the forum. I made my own maps and handled dice rolls either with Roll20 or Unseen Servant.

As soon as rusty gets the dice roller up and running, we can host games here.

Acrux wrote: ↑ November 9th, 2023, 20:29

As soon as rusty gets the dice roller up and running, we can host games here.

any day now............

but really though does anyone want to get a game going, i'd be down to play anything.

SiMtRy wrote: ↑ December 1st, 2023, 21:04

any day now............

rusty_shackleford wrote: ↑ November 30th, 2023, 13:59

xcluding me being called into EverQuest again, I'll probably finish up one or two things on The List in December. Think I'll tackle dice rolling, seems fun

GhostCow wrote: ↑ October 12th, 2023, 00:26

I'd play old school vtm or werewolf.

I somehow completely missed this thread. I blame work, the flooding and wymminz, not necessarily in that order. I use to be an oWoD Storyteller, back in the '90 and early '00, Werewolf being one of the earliest systems I GM'd ever and one of the few I hold very close to my heart. I also had my fair bit of experience with Vampires ofc, more or less ruled all the supernaturals, altho I do have a clearcut preference for some.

Unfortunately tho, they are systems that lend themselves poorly to online play. It's certainly doable, but you'd need the playing group to be accepting a number of pretty hefty limitations:

1) WoD isn't exploration driven, it's scene driven. It's usually designed with less but more meaningful combat. The location around you can vary wildly, during a scene. Which means a Storyteller could intend to initiate combat at any given moment the group performs 'x' but find himself in location 'z' intead of 'y'. This is a problem because while irl you don't really need a map to play WoD, it's basically impossible to coordinate more than 2 people in any somewhat complex scenario online without one, even if the OG system doesn't really contemplate it. As a GM you're forced to find creative solution to that, I have such creative solutions at my disposal (modular maps) but still, it won't cover fully what I need, the group will have to fight on somewhat blank, ugly maps, from time to time.

1-b) To add to point 1, Werewolf has Umbra complicating mapping endeavours. As a Storyteller I can certainly prepare some of those beforehand but, technically speaking, one of you could decide to hop in anywhere and start subjugating spirit in an unadvised but far from undoable manner. Having resources at hand to cover all that is, simply put, impossible. This may seem moot but when your only connection with the other players is an electronic voice, the GM and the story itself, a working map is incredibly important to put all players on the same page.

2) WoD is heavily politicized. You can certainly have it rely heavy on action and be spectacular while you do so, but the correct way to play it, is to understand the laws and rules that move the world around you. You're suposed to feel like a pawn in a bigger game. This means that, altho what people before me wrote about interpretation is true, you don't need to act in character and can pretty much do everything in 3d person, you should expect to discuss stuff with your fellow players and the Storyteller (taking the role of various NPCs) much, much more than in other systems. Games like D&D/Pathfinder allow much more breathing room to shy people as you can simply sit there, pay attention, participate in combat and interject briefly whenever the group is discussing something, maybe to point out something you noticed but the other didn't. (This is how you slowly build camaraderie and start actively playing with a group). In WoD you're expected to be interjecting your character personality, flaws and motivations each time you can. Hell, your frickin' xp gain is based on that. Not for everyone.

3) Imbalanced af. OG White-Wolf stuff is gud. It's also bad. Talk about clans/tribes/disciplines/gifts/antagonists eveything is written by different hands following the rule of cool. Nothing is balanced against anything else. Of anything you can play out of the box, Werewolf vary from power level 12/10 to 6/10, Vampires are from 9/10 to 2/10 and there are 2 more major and 2 more rare categories of supernaturals that somehow need to factor into the equation. Discussing WoD balance is teh hard because some stuff is very useful but, when compared to say, the effects of Celerity 5 in combat... well...


All this wall of text to say that, I've been itching to do something with WoD for a long time. I'm currently busy tho and don't know how to properly tackle all the issues. If and when the situation changes AND if we manage to find a group that understands the basic tenets of playing WoD it can be done. Sorry if I cannot be any more definitive about this but such projects require time and testing the waters is the first step.
Iirc you never played pnp or have very little experience with it tho? The best course of action, imho, would be to maybe first try a small adventure in a more manageable system. Werewolf or Vampire could give you the wrong impression about pnp in general, even more so if you don't strike the correct group balance. just my 2c ofc!