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Selachian
Oct 9, 2012

LongDarkNight posted:

Way of the Wicked - Book 1 - All Twisted Up


In practice, I found the Nine Lessons to be a tedious linear dungeon crawl. If I ever run WOTW again, I'd probably cut most of it and just use the final fight with Sir Balin as a "test."

I was a bit concerned about the contract because you know how players get at the slightest hint of something that impinges on their free will, but there was surprisingly little grumbling. Some were concerned over the clause that required them to obey Cardinal Thorn's every commandment; it might be better to edit that to only commands relevant to their mission, or something like that.

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PurpleXVI
Oct 30, 2011

Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!
I think the contract is where a lot of players would balk, because of that delightfully vague reward. "As they deserve"? Well, they're going to be murdering assholes. So is what they "deserve" not really a swift kick in the rear end? Is it ten dollars and a pat on the head? I don't think you'd find many PC groups willing to go for THAT one.

ZeroCount
Aug 12, 2013


Yeah seriously, 'you'll get exactly as you deserve' has been used as the lead-in for a betrayal roughly a million times across every form of media

The Lone Badger
Sep 24, 2007

"50% down, 50% on completion. Cash only, no credit, objets d'art or foreign currencies."

Cythereal
Nov 8, 2009

I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

ZeroCount posted:

Yeah seriously, 'you'll get exactly as you deserve' has been used as the lead-in for a betrayal roughly a million times across every form of media

Also, it's a game about playing lawful evil. Of course the guy's going to betray you eventually, the big question is whether you'll survive and rules lawyer your way out of it.

Green Intern
Dec 29, 2008

Loon, Crazy and Laughable

Just summarize the whole contract to "Don't stab each other in the back because you think it's funny, you chucklefucks."

SirPhoebos
Dec 10, 2007

WELL THAT JUST HAPPENED!

Re: Cyberworld: I also noticed that the game was really ripping off Cyberpunk. It even had the same formatting on the cover.

LongDarkNight
Oct 25, 2010

It's like watching the collapse of Western civilization in fast forward.
Oven Wrangler

Selachian posted:

In practice, I found the Nine Lessons to be a tedious linear dungeon crawl. If I ever run WOTW again, I'd probably cut most of it and just use the final fight with Sir Balin as a "test."

I was a bit concerned about the contract because you know how players get at the slightest hint of something that impinges on their free will, but there was surprisingly little grumbling. Some were concerned over the clause that required them to obey Cardinal Thorn's every commandment; it might be better to edit that to only commands relevant to their mission, or something like that.

Our group went through it in one session but yeah it's not the most exciting section of the AP other than for showing that Thorn is willing to let them die.

I told my players about the contract before character creation to make sure everyone would be on board.

Cythereal posted:

Also, it's a game about playing lawful evil. Of course the guy's going to betray you eventually, the big question is whether you'll survive and rules lawyer your way out of it.
This 110%. The contract is vague, one-sided in favor of Thorn and open to interpretation. Even when Cardinal Thorn does betray the PCs they are still bound by their side and need to get creative to get out of their end.

Doresh
Jan 7, 2015

theironjef posted:

You're way outside the scope of the game. It's a regular light hologram that's invisible, and also it can't touch people or things. Also it can go anywhere even though it's apparently broadcast by a satellite from space. If it wants to hack something, that player needs to mimic the effect of diving into that specific thing in the game world (door lock, computer), then put up that left hand to let the players know they're currently in the Virtnet and not the real world. Then they roleplay the story of casting a hack spell to get into a dungeon to fight a daemon, and once they kill it (with violence), they can turn off that CPU, which has the side effect of killing any hacker that was controlling that CPU. Fun!

So this is basically astral projection, except they tried to explain it with science and cyberspace?

Grnegsnspm posted:

The thing that has bothered me the most about the VirTech hologram thing lately that I am sad we didn't mention on the podcast is this. What exactly does the VirTech see as a hologram? Like, the body you run around as is just light so it's not like there's some camera giving you a first person view. So are you just Google Earth-ing it from the same satellite that sends down your avatar? If so, how is that somehow "so real that you experience pain as if it were actually happening"? You should basically be having a top-down view that should be giving you greater awareness of your surrounding. It's like saying that if you play a MOBA, you're going to confuse it for reality. God drat I hate the entire concept of the VirTech so loving much.

Man, can you imagine a game set in a RTS world?

Nea
Feb 28, 2014

Funny Little Guy Aficionado.
Question to you all. I remember a fate and friends of a game where everyone played an orc, there was much infigtimg, and every player also played gods, who all hated the orcs. Goblins may or may not have been date points. Can anyone think of what the title of this game is, or am I imagining it?

The Lone Badger
Sep 24, 2007

Great Ork Gods?

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib
Yeah, that sounds like The Great Ork Gods.

Young Freud
Nov 26, 2006

SirPhoebos posted:

Re: Cyberworld: I also noticed that the game was really ripping off Cyberpunk. It even had the same formatting on the cover.

I thought you were being facetious about this but, holy poo poo...

Almost uses the same box copy and sentence structure as the R. Talsorian game.

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!
Yeah, it's not terribly subtle.

wiegieman
Apr 22, 2010

Royalty is a continuous cutting motion


I can't tell if this is a case of them not getting it or the joke not landing.

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib
From the review, I think it's a case of "I can do better than that!" when he really, really couldn't.

Young Freud
Nov 26, 2006

JackMann posted:

From the review, I think it's a case of "I can do better than that!" when he really, really couldn't.

I'm wondering if he was exposed to the same Cyberpunk LARP game that my friends had played, if not at Origins 1993 then maybe the previous year at San Jose 1994, Like I said, it was semi-official with R. Talsorian, I believe developed from some writers at the time (only one I can remember is Ross "Spyke!" Winn) and I got the impression that it was something they were testing out for an eventual release. I'm not sure where the base rule set came from, but since it was entirely card-based, it could have had a market. I need to see if I can find the stuff I polished for later games, I think I still have a binder as a backup.

I do remember one of our friends wasn't satisfied with the simple card-based rules and we would later develop a more complex rule set, instead of just ripping off Mind's Eye Theatre and Laws Of The Night. It didn't have the same pratfalls as Cyberworld, but it was too close to the tabletop game that it probably would have been easier to just use the tabletop rules and have everyone roll dice instead of our method of randomization, pulling from a deck of playing cards.

Doresh
Jan 7, 2015

Young Freud posted:

I do remember one of our friends wasn't satisfied with the simple card-based rules and we would later develop a more complex rule set, instead of just ripping off Mind's Eye Theatre and Laws Of The Night. It didn't have the same pratfalls as Cyberworld, but it was too close to the tabletop game that it probably would have been easier to just use the tabletop rules and have everyone roll dice instead of our method of randomization, pulling from a deck of playing cards.

This reminds me: Are there any LARPs out there taking advantage of everyone and there mother now walking around with a random number generator in their pockets?

Midjack
Dec 24, 2007



Doresh posted:

This reminds me: Are there any LARPs out there taking advantage of everyone and there mother now walking around with a random number generator in their pockets?

Too easy to subvert. If you control the hardware you control the result, and LARPers will totally do that for an advantage.

Doresh
Jan 7, 2015

Midjack posted:

Too easy to subvert. If you control the hardware you control the result, and LARPers will totally do that for an advantage.

Then we just need a dedicated App with draconic DRM. Just like a video game!

Simian_Prime
Nov 6, 2011

When they passed out body parts in the comics today, I got Cathy's nose and Dick Tracy's private parts.

Midjack posted:

Too easy to subvert. If you control the hardware you control the result, and LARPers will totally do that for an advantage.

The LARP would still have a Director/ST to observe results just like a RPS match. As long as you have the player generate numbers in full view of a moderator (and perhaps a pre-game session to make sure all players' generators are calibrated properly), I don't see the problem.

Bieeanshee
Aug 21, 2000

Not keen on keening.


Grimey Drawer
Have everyone put a d20 in a capsule toy container. That way they have one less excuse to be loving around with their phones at a social event.

Doresh
Jan 7, 2015

Bieeardo posted:

Have everyone put a d20 in a capsule toy container. That way they have one less excuse to be loving around with their phones at a social event.

Preferably one you wear on your wrist like a watch.

Waffleman_
Jan 20, 2011


I don't wanna I don't wanna I don't wanna I don't wanna!!!

Make it a pop mechanism like in POP-O-MATIC TROUBLE.

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

I'm surprised we haven't seen those dice rings become a regular LARP thing.

Only registered members can see post attachments!

Bieeanshee
Aug 21, 2000

Not keen on keening.


Grimey Drawer

Waffleman_ posted:

Make it a pop mechanism like in POP-O-MATIC TROUBLE.

There was a guy on Etsy who did that, but I think he cannibalized Trouble boards for 'em.

Waffleman_
Jan 20, 2011


I don't wanna I don't wanna I don't wanna I don't wanna!!!

A preview of Slayers d20.



This is a viable character.

Prism
Dec 22, 2007

yospos

Waffleman_ posted:

A preview of Slayers d20.



This is a viable character.

Is the hat required or can we sub in some kind of a staff?

Like a stick.

A fish stick.

Midjack
Dec 24, 2007



Simian_Prime posted:

The LARP would still have a Director/ST to observe results just like a RPS match. As long as you have the player generate numbers in full view of a moderator (and perhaps a pre-game session to make sure all players' generators are calibrated properly), I don't see the problem.

You are grossly underestimating the lengths to which hardcore LARP players will go to ensure the supremacy of their characters, and unless you go full crypto paranoia you'll never bust them. You can make a tampered app that looks just like the real one and run that during the game to defeat pregame verification. You can use your own DNS or hosts file to redirect to a tampered clone of an online tool.

Simian_Prime
Nov 6, 2011

When they passed out body parts in the comics today, I got Cathy's nose and Dick Tracy's private parts.

Midjack posted:

You are grossly underestimating the lengths to which hardcore LARP players will go to ensure the supremacy of their characters, and unless you go full crypto paranoia you'll never bust them. You can make a tampered app that looks just like the real one and run that during the game to defeat pregame verification. You can use your own DNS or hosts file to redirect to a tampered clone of an online tool.

Hardcore LARPers like that aren't the kind of people I want to associate with anyway.

I know that sounds a little trite and snobbish, but the thing I've learned over years of gaming is that the answer to avoiding dickwad behavior in games is not associating with dickwads.

Simian_Prime fucked around with this message at 04:22 on Nov 26, 2016

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Waffleman_ posted:

A preview of Slayers d20.



This is a viable character.

The Fishmen are universally great, it is known.

Midjack
Dec 24, 2007



Simian_Prime posted:

Hardcore LARPers like that aren't the kind of people I want to associate with anyway.

I know that sounds a little trite and snobbish, but the thing I've learned over years of gaming is that the answer to avoiding dickwad behavior in games is not associating with dickwads.

Yeah me neither. I don't LARP but nothing in that thread is inconsistent with stuff I've seen in my brief exposures to it.

In general unless you're rolling more dice than you can fit in your hand the computerized RNGs don't offer much advantage and introduce a bunch of problems which, while not a big deal if everyone is cool, are amplified by bad players.

Bieeanshee
Aug 21, 2000

Not keen on keening.


Grimey Drawer
I wish I could remember the name of this Laws of the Night heartbreaker my friends found in the late Nineties. It called out LOTN on the back cover as a bad translation of a tabletop game, and the front cover was this poorly posed group photo with a trick mirror that didn't show their reflections.

Inside was... bad. Synnibar-looking numbers, every last power and idea ever associated with vampires in any medium, all coded with this weird combination of colours and playing card suits. Unfortunately, it was printed in black and white... so you had to flip back to the front in order to see what specific shade of grey 'blue diamond' was in comparison to 'green diamond'. For all its writers sneered at MET for being a lovely tabletop knockoff, this looked like the same thing, with a few extra decimal points.

Doresh
Jan 7, 2015

Waffleman_ posted:

A preview of Slayers d20.



This is a viable character.

I see nothing wrong with this character.

Bieeardo posted:

Inside was... bad. Synnibar-looking numbers, every last power and idea ever associated with vampires in any medium, all coded with this weird combination of colours and playing card suits. Unfortunately, it was printed in black and white... so you had to flip back to the front in order to see what specific shade of grey 'blue diamond' was in comparison to 'green diamond'. For all its writers sneered at MET for being a lovely tabletop knockoff, this looked like the same thing, with a few extra decimal points.

So are there powers for sprouting a bunch of eyeballs and summoning a dog-shaped mass of blood and shadow?

Green Intern
Dec 29, 2008

Loon, Crazy and Laughable

Doresh posted:

Preferably one you wear on your wrist like a watch.

This is quickly turning into Yu Gi Oh duel disc technology.

Waffleman_
Jan 20, 2011


I don't wanna I don't wanna I don't wanna I don't wanna!!!

Yes, good. Now we need hologram projectors

Bieeanshee
Aug 21, 2000

Not keen on keening.


Grimey Drawer

Doresh posted:

So are there powers for sprouting a bunch of eyeballs and summoning a dog-shaped mass of blood and shadow?

If it was available in the mid-Nineties, it was probably in there. The powers list was absurdly long.

Doresh
Jan 7, 2015

Green Intern posted:

This is quickly turning into Yu Gi Oh duel disc technology.

LARPs are the best time for a d-d-d-d-duel.

"Did you just summon a bunch of monsters in one turn?!"
"Duh, I have caster supremacy!"

Waffleman_ posted:

Yes, good. Now we need hologram projectors

Or AR goggles. Heck, I think at least one of the last two shows acually did that. And Pokemon Go proves we're definitely getting there.

Bieeardo posted:

If it was available in the mid-Nineties, it was probably in there. The powers list was absurdly long.

Sadly not. drat, I didn't think about the release date. So I also can't turn into a supersonic murder machine with the hardness of diamond for the low price of sparkling in daylight or going berserk when smelling blood (aka have a good excuse to murder stuff)? Dammit.

Doresh fucked around with this message at 15:22 on Nov 26, 2016

Waffleman_
Jan 20, 2011


I don't wanna I don't wanna I don't wanna I don't wanna!!!

Doresh posted:

Or AR goggles. Heck, I think at least one of the last two shows acually did that. And Pokemon Go proves we're definitely getting there.

Or even VR.

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Ewen Cluney
May 8, 2012

Ask me about
Japanese elfgames!

Waffleman_ posted:

A preview of Slayers d20.



This is a viable character.
I should see about at least writing up a summary, but there's a Japanese book that collects a column on weird American TRPGs, and it includes a replay of when the author roped the writer and illustrator of Slayers into playing Slayers d20. One of the PCs was a weirdly cute fish boy.

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