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PipHelix posted:Hey, btw, been meaning to say. I feel this could be a fun game, but without an example, it's hard to argue for trying something new when I'm just going on my gut here. Anyone running these games that someone could drop in on?  Your first step is to stop playing with these sex perverts.
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Jul 23, 2020 11:11
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Thiiiis doesn’t seem like a problem with the module, my man.
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Jul 23, 2020 12:46
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Yeah dude, sounds like you’ve unwittingly participated in the GM’s weird fetish instead of module content. Flee while you can.
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Jul 23, 2020 13:13
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Secret Machine posted:Yeah dude, sounds like you’ve unwittingly participated in the GM’s weird fetish instead of module content. Flee while you can. I googled it and got an rpg.net review that points out that it does contain a lot of sex and sexual decadence as part of playing up the Weimar Germany setting. It didn’t mention drinking breast milk by name, but it honestly seems plausible as a piece of horror content.
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Jul 23, 2020 13:18
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Arivia posted:I googled it and got an rpg.net review that points out that it does contain a lot of sex and sexual decadence as part of playing up the Weimar Germany setting. It didn’t mention drinking breast milk by name, but it honestly seems plausible as a piece of horror content. Big oof, that’s a shame because the general backdrop for a mythos campaign sounds cool. Just keep the weird sex stuff out of role playing thx
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Jul 23, 2020 13:29
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Isn't the Berlin campaign like, a new product too? Either the Keeper is way overblowing the sex stuff or Chaosium needs to hire better writers.
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Jul 23, 2020 15:37
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Secret Machine posted:Big oof, that’s a shame because the general backdrop for a mythos campaign sounds cool. Just keep the weird sex stuff out of role playing thx There is a show on Netflix called Babylon Berlin that my friend, who is a Call of Cthulhu player, says is a great background for a Cthulhu Europe game in the 1930s. I have not seen it myself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon_Berlin I was hoping the Weimar Germany sourcebook would be more like this, than whatever it is that PipHelix experienced.
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Jul 23, 2020 15:40
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This seems like a pretty in-depth (and spoiler heavy) review of the setting https://rossonl.wordpress.com/2019/10/28/berlin-the-wicked-city/ and yeah, it seems....transgressive for the sake of being transgressive? I think you could mine it heavily for inspiration but I don't think I'd run any of the scenarios "as written" and you'd definitely want to use X-Cards. I think there's a real place in Call of Cthulhu for a sort of florid sensuality (I think the best example is the line from Stephen King's "Desperation" which goes something like "the kind of things you'd want to do but would never tell your friends about" which is also a pretty good way to just let your players do the heavy lifting in their own heads) but yeah, this PipHelix posted:seems written by a really horny 14 year old.
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Jul 23, 2020 17:15
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RudeCat posted:I think there's a real place in Call of Cthulhu for a sort of florid sensuality (I think the best example is the line from Stephen King's "Desperation" which goes something like "the kind of things you'd want to do but would never tell your friends about" which is also a pretty good way to just let your players do the heavy lifting in their own heads) but yeah, this You cannot take that for granted. Con modules can often do it because, basically, the GM creates the entire network and the main question is whether you get 6 players out of 8 and still have a dynamic web of interrelationships.
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Jul 23, 2020 21:11
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I should mention that the whole orgyverse module has been run by DM # 3, who is a good guy, not an RPG guy at all, and part of our friend group that's been split up by joblosses and moves. Therefore I don't think he's likely enjoying this, I can only imagine he even agreed to play because he moved to a brand new state just as the lockdown locked down and I can't see having any social life under those conditions for the last 4 months, I don't think he's going off-book, I think he's more likely straight plugging with a gross script assigned him by DM#1, which he tried doing to me, who would be DM#2. Last module I ran I did a fully homebrew Terminator/Metropolis crossover cause I was sick of the nonsense and I wanted to do something actually, you know, fun, while not chucking the 1920s Central European Aesthetic. He tried assigning me some crap out of the book as a base for it, and I was like, nah I'm good man. Discussing our next game over zoom I brought up all my complaints again (like, how was I supposed to not guaranteed-condemn my character by doing a disgusting thing I didn't want to do in the first place) and he mentioned he sent me the sourcebook PDF when he was trying to get me to pick a sexytime module, so I'll report back. Honestly, my background in Tabletop prior to this is some podcasts and WTF!D&D, and this seems of a piece with the Kult and Exalted reviews they did. But I'm pretty sure this is just the misogyinistic 'Twizted Adult Xtreme' poo poo that's been free floating in the nerd culture, since, God, at least Heinlein getting past Chaosium's editorial division. E: I think I'm about to hit a rich vein of 'content' so what are the forum conventions/rules/laws around copy-pasting Sourcebook info? I know it's technically stealing IP, which in real life I could not give a poo poo less about but I don't want to get myself banned or the site in trouble. I never heard of X-cards before, and I do like the idea. However we basically hit on that idea instantly in that last module - When the 17 year old hooker was introduced I immediately said 'Or maybe she's 18 or even like 20?' and to his credit the DM just didn't really dwell on her looks or 'profession' much after that, basically expositon dump and beat it. On the way out, when DM#2, the guy who is driving us down this whole road, announced his PC asks for her number, the lone female in the group immediately says 'she gives you a fake number' he argued that since she was a hooker she wouldn't do this. Like, are you planning on going back to this imaginary hooker later when we're all split up, dude? Did you think that you banging her would be part of the module content? Also FFS, pick up on these hints that are at the limit of what politeness allows. Not to say I'm going to let politeness constrain me if this poo poo keeps up, just, still. Jesus. I don't want to have to stand up and Bella Abzug this goddamn RPG from a soapbox but if I have to I have to. PipHelix fucked around with this message at 22:53 on Jul 23, 2020 |
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Jul 23, 2020 22:32
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TK_Nyarlathotep posted:Why would you admit this. What in particular? I thought it was a pretty good protest character. Mechanically the games are dry as toast. We walk into a room, everyone punches Spot Hidden/Persuade/Charm/Initimidate/Fast Talk and with 5 separate rolls are almost guaranteed success. DM gives us info based on the success, we move to the next room and repeat. So I played a mute, illiterate clown with no interest in being particularly helpful but also more than willing to gently caress with any NPCs assuming the GM would come up with reactions for them other than 'I am outraged! Get Out!'. The making GBS threads the pants, that started based on him getting hit by a fear spell. I had to describe the effects and the first thing that came to mind was 'obviously, he loads his pants'. Then that became a running gag, pretty much the only thing I was allowed to do (which was fine by me turns out I wanted to have as little to do with this content as possible) besides mostly get bodied by spells or get thrown out of places by bothering NPCs, was to come up with elaborate reasons to poo poo my pants and procure new ones. And frankly, given that it means that canonically I was the character with the least exposure to this nasty-rear end module's magic McGuffin is fine by me. Even if it didn't keep me from getting killed by it.
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Jul 23, 2020 22:44
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FATAL and Friends is a good place for sourcebook review and content, but uh, if you're at the point of creating "protest characters" and just seeing the game as a situation where you are going through a series of rooms rolling a few stats, it sounds like you're not having fun at all? Even if you want to hang out with these guys, play Catan or something. You are sounding like a miserable rear end in a top hat. If y'all aren't committed to keeping the same crew of characters, use one of the other modules floating around. Dead Man Stomp was pretty good.
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Jul 23, 2020 22:52
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Nessus posted:You are sounding like a miserable rear end in a top hat. I am definitely miserable and I'm trying not to be an rear end in a top hat. 'Protest' as in, this PC and his skillset/lack thereof is not going to be anticipated by the sourcebook, I'm not trying to gently caress things up for people (which is how DM#1 has played his PC's) but I'm gonna role play a chaos Muppet to the hilt, so you'll have to stretch as DM to accomodate him. I gave him massive (canonical, IMO) points in a made up skill called 'Distract/Annoy' which seems self evidently useful and which I tried to use a couple times, including once in a situation where a character was literally hypnotized by the goddess and someone had to snap him out of it. Sourcebook only allowed for someone to hit him for 1HP, which is what I ended up doing after rolling a hard success on Distract/Annoy. I also gave him huge (Marx Bros Canonical) points in Music, and when told sourcebook says I need to pick a specialization picked 'Clarinet' cause it seems like the dumbest funniest option. We ended up getting a chance to play a magic, evil piano, but since I was only, like, Boston Pops level skilled in Clarinet I was of course flummoxed by a piano. Since nothing was given for him to do, I basically did nothing, which to me was fine and it kept me mostly out of everyone else's way. The first couple one-off modules which we played were fun since we were all new and goofing around and the herky-jerkyness of the script and mechanics was fine since none of us could be expected to anticipate that and correct for it in advance. I've also like DM-ing, but that's also true of every egomaniac playground tyrant. To the extent I think I'm -not- that, what I liked was the ability to improvise with a completely free hand without asking permission from someone who is either too nervous about getting off script to grant it, or someone who doesn't want to deviate from xtreme sexytimes. As well as to excise that kind of gross business or tone it down or redirect it as I saw fit. I think I would have fun with this game with a different dynamic, partly because I literally have, and honestly, that's really what this questioning is becoming. Like, if I were to do this elsewhere, with other people, what are things I should try/look out for. But basically, I've straight up said everything that bothers me with how this game is played and this other guy has essentially said, 'no, gently caress that, we need to do this as written'. So we've both staked out pretty hard, irreconcileable positions, the next move, even just walking away, is going to be an escalation on that. And given that it's going to be 4-5 months at the earliest before I can interact with any of these people in any other way, it will be a bummer in a big way to do so, if it seems like I'm vacillating and venting instead of taking action. E: As to Dead Man Stomp, we did run a one-off module from that book (or is that the module's name?). But since pretty much the beginning DM#2 has been talking up some campaign that is going to be a single, uninterrupted story, run by DM#1, that will last for probably a year of real-life time at our once-a-week pace. I've had misgivings from the start and have also said I don't think this is a good idea, and have been straight up refused. So that avenue has been tried and foreclosed. Yea I know I know, bail it's the only option. Also, we're all adults, I'm not worried if the tiff will blow over, but I'd like to do something with my quarantine besides water the plants, play video games and jerk off. Or at least now I would, after 4 months of doing all three to the point of abusrdity. PipHelix fucked around with this message at 02:36 on Jul 24, 2020 |
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Jul 23, 2020 23:11
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I feel there are like four vectors here, only one of which you have direct control over. I understand that it is frightening to consider the feeling of isolation and the risk of lost contacts, but you are clearly not enjoying this time with them from everything you are saying. You may want to bring this up in the Philosophy of RPG thread or in some other spaces to some extent -- I can tell you that Call of Cthulhu is honestly not usually run in this sort of a way, and while it is a somewhat more archaic system than some of the more recent ones, there is nothing saying "no, you all have to stay on the train the GM is running." e: They also have a game space there that was being used to rehabilitate Hyphz. If you are interested in RUNNING Call of Cthulhu I imagine you'd get players.
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Jul 23, 2020 23:30
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It sounds like there are a lot of miserable people involved in this game, most of which aren't even happy with the game they're running/playing in? Protest characters of any stripe are just bad for literally every person present at the "table." And yes, this game would be radically different with different people, preferably ones that wanted to be there and were all on the same page about the type of game they were playing and the story they're telling.
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Jul 24, 2020 00:04
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Nessus posted:If you are interested in RUNNING Call of Cthulhu I imagine you'd get players. I am SO interested. I really liked my first homebrew, thought it had some potential, and with a second chance could be even better, and likewise, feel like if I had shook the book off from the start in running Crimson Letters that could have been more fun. I also homebrewed a Vietnam Scenario that turns out, in outline essentially the same as the instigating event for Delta Green. However I've got sense enough to know that my enthusiasm is way outstripping my breadth of experience and probable skill level. Anyway, if anyone absolutely NEEDS to put a super problematic whore in their game, here's two full pages of it, with the in-one-case-only-not-a-huge-red-flag* discussion of Age of Consent included:   Turns out I never got sent scenarios, just seeds. But from a discussion of the scenario we ran, emphasis mine: uneral processions with tiny children-caskets are seen everywhere, and the police, flooded with calls for help, have their hands full every minute. Within days the Bacchanalian revelers who follow Abyzou are openly raping and killing anyone weak and helpless, especially children, wherever they can find them. The corpses of children and infants are being dumped into mass graves. The PCs, if they play their cards right, may eventually receive help from a young phone girl (a teenage prostitute catering to the elite), who is actually a manikin that was given life as part of the ritual that summoned Abyzou. Again, I can not recommend enough that people not give their money to Chaosium for this book. It's hosed and they should get hosed financially for having put it out. *Call me a hypocrite if you must, but you wanna talk about Age of Consent in this specific context, I'm your huckleberry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ahU-x-4Gxw Dumb anecdote, once while teaching a college level course, this song came on random on my ipod I had playing through the speakers on low as background as the class filled in. Some zoomer kid was blown away by the baseline and kept asking me what the name of the song was. I hope he eventually found it and realized why Mr. Pip kept looking side to side and sorta coughing into his arm and muttering it's a "Hem cough ahem by a band called New Order" when asked. At least a Joy Division song didn't come up. Speaking of Nasty German Sex poo poo, I was very troubled when I learned what that name meant. E: I just now realized Shazam was totally a thing at the time, he probably had the title on his phone by note three and was only asking to wind me up. If so, well played, Zoomer. PipHelix fucked around with this message at 02:30 on Jul 24, 2020 |
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Jul 24, 2020 02:23
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I think that if you approach things with the attitude of "I am new to GMing this, so we're going to do some module one-shots so we can all get our bearings" you will get happy uptake from bored people in lockdown. You may wish to post fewer sex worker charts. If you are interested in one of the classic works, "Beyond the Mountains of Madness" is a very "scientific adventure eventually develops into something more" story, while I think Masks of Nyarlathotep is more of a globe-trotting pulp adventure. I have never given Masks a deep read but BTMOM's most problematic content is some period sexism. Well, and the horror stuff, but it's not porn horror stuff.
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Jul 24, 2020 02:32
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Nessus posted:I think that if you approach things with the attitude of "I am new to GMing this, so we're going to do some module one-shots so we can all get our bearings" you will get happy uptake from bored people in lockdown. You may wish to post fewer sex worker charts. If you are interested in one of the classic works, "Beyond the Mountains of Madness" is a very "scientific adventure eventually develops into something more" story, while I think Masks of Nyarlathotep is more of a globe-trotting pulp adventure. I have never given Masks a deep read but BTMOM's most problematic content is some period sexism. Yea, like I said, I wasn't sure what the mores/rules/laws are regarding that. I spoilered it up and heavily advertised what it was and thumbnailed it so it wouldn't be legible if the mouse passes over it. If you think it should go, sure, but for real. This is actually tame compared to the scenario material. Should I trash it? No problem if so. So 'Philosophy of RPG'? I'll check it out. What's Hyphz, btw? E: Checked it out. Seems like this guy was a no-good GM? I'll read a bit to figure out what NOT to do, at least. EE: JEEEEEeeezus Ceeeerist. And I was self conscious about the page and a half I've monopolized with MY bitching. Holy gently caress. I'm fine with the sexism stuff, every character I've played has been deliberately awful people played for maximum buffoonery. I've been a murderous feral street urchin, a more mean, dumb vicious harpo Marx (though the aggressive woman-chasing went out the window once it became clear who the women NPCs were gonna be). I once decided to roll a 'simple country lawyuh' type, and essentially made Matlock. Trying to figure out how to give him combat usefulness, doing the math on a 75 year old man in 1920, I made him a sharpshooter during the Civil War for the 'good guys' and a total refusal to discuss the matter further. Then turned out the module was Dead Man's Stomp, in Harlem. I like to think I played him so that he was the butt of every joke. Introductory line was "Nice to meet y'all, can I just say how COMPLETELY at my ease I am here and how randomly I selected the only five whites in this bar to beeline towards?" I get the other side of the debate but I'm fine with an outre rear end in a top hat protagonist as long as it's clearly a critique of that kind of rear end in a top hat. I just don't see how you can Will-Ferrel-as-a-petulant-manboy-but-thats-supposed-to-be-the-joke the sexual exploitation of children or the hentai level of sexual deviancy in the last scenario. PipHelix fucked around with this message at 03:05 on Jul 24, 2020 |
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Jul 24, 2020 02:51
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I don't follow you here. It kind of sounds like you're bragging about playing a racist rear end in a top hat? Like I get the feeling this is more confused turns of phrase than anything but it's a persistent thing here. You aren't going to make for fewer assholes at a game table by being one yourself.
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Jul 24, 2020 03:11
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PipHelix posted:Some zoomer kid was blown away by the baseline.
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Jul 24, 2020 03:20
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Nessus posted:I don't follow you here. It kind of sounds like you're bragging about playing a racist rear end in a top hat? Like I get the feeling this is more confused turns of phrase than anything but it's a persistent thing here. You aren't going to make for fewer assholes at a game table by being one yourself. I didn't have him say or do anything racist. I had him behave, essentially, the same way my mom did when she'd come to visit in Harlem. A lot of protest-too-much compliments, most of which were backhanded, and a lot of comically over stated caution. The kind of way a person who "doesn't have a racist bone in his body and doesn't care if you're black white yellow or purple with polka-dots" behaves when in an actual diverse/poor/both neighborhood. He was also a blowhard and a dullard. I guess, I'll try and un-confuse it. I'm trying to play along while playing a character who is more than just a skill sheet. I can code up a python program to roll my rolls for me at an appropriate time if all I wanted to do with Tabletop RPGs was just roll my way to the end of the story. Given the time period, the author of the setting, and my friend group's penchant for comedy based on that sort of Will Ferrel-y unpleasant, overconfident moron (we're all millenials who came up right as Judd Apatow and Adam McKay were cranking one of those out every two months it seems like) the characters I make are generally unpleasant people who were mechanically useful to the party, but as role play content were mostly a sideshow to crack the jokes I'd be cracking if me and these people were hanging out at a bar. The Feral Urchin was Fourvel from Comedy Bang Bang, then Matlock, then Harpo. I think I'm gonna bail on the Year Long Slog, but the two characters I'd rolled for that were basically Teddy from Bob's Burgers and a cross between Buster Bluth, Jay Gatsby and Trump, Jr. Just a worthless, stupid, sullen failkid who's spent his entire life getting kicked out of different colleges and buying his way out of trouble but never got a job or learned any skills other than making the helps' life miserable. Given our politics, playing this character as a miserable, spoiled, self-defeating (except in combat and rolls) jackass will serve the same function as bitching about the news, while being slightly less repetitive. Maybe I'm off base, but no one has complained about it, other than the constant joking can be distracting from the action at hand, which I think is fair and I'm trying to balance. PipHelix fucked around with this message at 03:33 on Jul 24, 2020 |
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Jul 24, 2020 03:23
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Yeah, have you tried making a character who is interesting and who engages with the game world instead of one who grinds against it? I don't know your table, maybe everybody makes those characters but then it seems like everybody would be in a constant battle to one up each other in bastardness and nothing would get done. Which if that's what you want, go for it, but you might have more fun doing it in something like ParanoiaXP.
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Jul 24, 2020 03:23
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RudeCat posted:Yeah, have you tried making a character who is interesting and who engages with the game world instead of one who grinds against it? Fourvel (I named him L.P. Hovercraft cause it was my first character and I was being an rear end in a top hat) was an 11-year old threshing machine, as is canon for the knife-crazy orphan character. I gave him all brawl and steal and sneak cause I didn't know what else to do with my first character but go hard archetype. Our first one-shot was the one where you crash at a light-house and Deep One Young come at you. He single-handedly killed two of the three when one member was crazy and the another was dead and saved the party. I'm not trying to spoil the game or go OOC or make life tough for the other players, here. Let me explain the 'protest character'. We have a person who naively rolled a photojournalist in our first ever session. Other than a quick early death in the first module, which we all agreed would have been different if the GM had understood combat mechanics better, leading to a ret-conned revival, she's our longest running character. For the sake of role play the player filled the character with stuff like photography, chemistry for developing pictures high points in English cause she writes her own stories, and stuff like that. No combat skills. This character has been almost completely sidelined in every module we've ever played, except for my homebrew where I specifically arranged the story such that the photos she takes and the story she writes affects public opinion for or against the different sides, leading to them waxing or waning in relative strength throughout the campaign. I specifically took the time to explain to her that her character was going to be critical in the module, spoiling some of it, because I knew she'd gotten so used to hanging back that it would be multiple days before she put together how she was affecting gameplay. That was a not subtle and a big lift to include for that one character but I also put in a car chase, for the guy who'd rolled a racecar driver and put 75 points in the till-then entirely unused Drive Auto. If there was an astronomer or an accountant or a tugboat captain I'd have figured out plot-critical things for them to do. I want the player to not only have to, like, roll Accounting to read the governments budget to realize the skynet project is eating up the whole budget under different contractor shell companies but for the group to go HOLY poo poo YOU DID IT, MAN when that turns out to be somehow a critical and necessary thing to help them win. I want them to be happy they picked Accountant and feel like that guy is something badass and be invested in the character. The point of brewing the module was 'The god-drat book doesn't tell you anything but what a charm or spot hidden roll will reveal. If you instead deviate from the book you can make something for everyone to do and create a more fun time.' The next module we go back to examine abandoned crime scenes and interrogate witnesses. Charm/Spot hidden. So I roll a character that would be totally useless to the module as I would assume it would be written (and it turns out I wasn't wrong). But by pulling another combat character out of the PC pool, there was essentially no way for the group to win the final fights that had to that point been the ending of every module (we ended up pushing the god into a hole and she died). And by making the party 3/5 characters with out the default skills the pre-written modules lean most heavily on, I was hoping the GM would recognize it. If that sounds passive-aggressive, when I had the idea I got on the group chat and went Me: "Holy gently caress New Character Idea! Harpo Marx!" lovely GM: "That's gonna be impossible to play, how are you gonna talk to anyone?" Me: "Doesn't seem to stop him from saving the day in, like, every one of their movies. Make something up like I did for the Journalist." Days later at the first session of the new module: lovely GM: "Ok so you're that Lawyer Kentucky J Mooseknuckle right?" Me: "No Dude I'm Chumpo Marx, like I said" lovely GM: "Nah man how the hell is he gonna fit? You guys don't have any ranged combat that way. You're the lawyer." Me: "Dude, you're gonna make this all up, so (discussion of sheet, Harpo in the movies is all stealth/steal/disguise/distract the villain) here's how I'm playing him, make something up." I think I made it pretty clear why I was doing what I was doing, and within the confines of not saying to a friend "Dude gently caress you, this isn't fun you're sidelining two friends for up to 5 hours each evening we play, until that changes I'm siding with them and playing their kinds of characters that are totally available to roll but have no ability to interface with this Choose Your Own Adventure Level Play" I'm being as confrontational and explicit as I can. If I'm wallpapering this thread with self-justification I just want to make it very, very clear that I'm specifically trying to not be the kind of player being critiqued here. And that's because I think critiques of those players are valid. I want a game that is fun, amusing, and engrossing for all. I'd like it free of the Taxi Driver kid hooker poo poo. I'd like it maybe a little better written and plotted than these modules have been, but that's not necessarily something every GM can guarantee. But they can at least do a little more work on the back end to give us something to engage WITH, than just read the PDF from top to bottom, with pauses for where it says 'Players can roll Spot hidden to..." My instinct since I was a little kid was when I see someone getting sidelined or bullied or made fun of was to go over to them, and tell the other people 'gently caress you, I'm with them, do it to me too.' That's what I'm doing here. Maybe I'm not making it clear in the game, maybe I'm not making it clear on the board. PipHelix fucked around with this message at 04:36 on Jul 24, 2020 |
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Jul 24, 2020 03:58
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I think then that you need to be the one who runs these games, because you're not going to change hearts and minds by playing a meta-game against the GM while the other game is running. That's going to be the best way you can make sure that people aren't getting bullied or sidelined.
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Jul 24, 2020 04:36
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RudeCat posted:I think then that you need to be the one who runs these games, because you're not going to change hearts and minds by playing a meta-game against the GM while the other game is running. That's going to be the best way you can make sure that people aren't getting bullied or sidelined. Yea I hit that realization several posts ago. Like I said, I tried polite and subtle, then I tried teasing and tweaking, then I tried coming out and saying it flat and got a hard 'no' that leaves me nowhere to go but over the top. It's just so alien to me to be told 'hey man you're kinda bugging your friends' and not get a 'sorry', not get a denial, but get a 'no actually this is good and you like it and I'm changing nothing.' Funny how life works. I coulda gone my whole life and never knew this guy had a lovely DM inside him if we'd never been quarantined.
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Jul 24, 2020 04:38
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I think we've all got a lovely DM inside us, fighting to get out.
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Jul 24, 2020 04:50
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Alright, the scenario they're playing is Dances Of Vice, Horror, and Ecstasy from Berlin: The Wicked City, and having skimmed it, it absolutely reads like the author Magical Realming his CoC campaign, but they published it. It opens with no warnings, has everything PipHelix said it has AND MORE (giantess fetish and mind control, anyone?), and as far as I can tell isn't even possible to actually win, so you can just assume Berlin became a post-apocalyptic bone zone in 1933 or whatever. Very historical. I'mma be real, I'm gonna be super hesitant to give Chaosium more money if this is the quality of stuff they're putting out these days. Edited to add: Seems they really took this poo poo seriously and I did not consider it as having as many warnings as it does. Doesn't make it in good taste, but it does mean they warned you. Indeed the book is full of warnings to the Keeper NOT TO SPRING THIS poo poo ON YOUR PLAYERS WITHOUT TALKING ABOUT IT. Helix, dump your loving group, dude. From the credits page: 
sasha_d3ath fucked around with this message at 10:40 on Jul 24, 2020 |
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Jul 24, 2020 09:52
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TK_Nyarlathotep posted:Edited to add: Seems they really took this poo poo seriously and I did not consider it as having as many warnings as it does. Doesn't make it in good taste, but it does mean they warned you. Indeed the book is full of warnings to the Keeper NOT TO SPRING THIS poo poo ON YOUR PLAYERS WITHOUT TALKING ABOUT IT. Yeeeup. Guess which of the members of the group is the only one with access to the unexpurgated, unabridged text, warnings an all. He did mention the 'adult' themes, and I'm like, ok, I'm fine with that to a degree. I'm an adult, I've done the sex with other people some of whom have liked to do stuff I would not have thought of myself. I've done all the non-gas-station-synthetic drugs from alcohol up to opium. Sure lets rock. Then it's like, a 13 year old kid's sleepover bullsession. Everything is described with the maturity and versimillitude of the 'bags of sand' monologue from 40 Year Old Virgin, or like, Go Ask Alice. If LSD had been invented yet you'd have to roll SAN to not jump out a window trying to fly. Which, again, wouldn't be a killer because none of us would know it's in the book if the DM would exercise restraint and judgement, but I'm of the opinion you basically you can't say 'Its in the book' as DM. That the words left your mouth at all is a tacit endorsement. And you were wondering why I went scatological when I needed my clown character to react to fear. That was about the only fetish that module DIDN'T rub our noses in (heh) so it kinda just seemed appropriate. Also thanks for the phrase 'Magical Realm', I just googled that. E: I was reading around on people's thread reccos, and one of the goons made a cheap game called Hard Fast and Loud which I picked up. It seems like the antidote for our groups woes (or at least mine). Gonna suggest we try it out, or at least try to break off a subchunk to try it with. It essentially provides *nothing* not even a setting or antagonist, the group needs to collaboratively determine all that before the game starts. It's the 180 degree opposite of how we've been running things and it would be a refreshing change of pace at least. EE: Re-reading my own effort post, re the Accountant's Hero's Journey, I gotta go back and watch Untouchables.  Every game should end with a dork of a character like that ripping poo poo up out of nowhere. Or at least contain the potential for that to happen. PipHelix fucked around with this message at 16:04 on Jul 24, 2020 |
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Jul 24, 2020 15:48
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Speaking of modules, I'm currently running 7e Masks (we'll probably be through Peru in two more sessions) and I'm having another player join after the prologue. I'd like to run another scenario, kind of a prologue part 2, to introduce them as well as make Elias feel like more of a permanent fixture. Are there any short-ish scenarios that could be recommended, particularly ones that take place in a Boston adjacent area (the incoming player is a journalist from Boston)?
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Jul 24, 2020 21:53
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RPPR's Ross Payton, on the advice of Adam Scott Glancy, used the first scenario from Shadows of Yog-Sothoth to space things out a bit when he did a Masks campaign when the PCs decided to ignore some of NYC to hide out from the heat by running to Boston. The intro module is mostly just about looking into a Yog cult that takes the form of a Bostonian mystery cult/gentleman's club where there's an immortal rear end in a top hat wizard running the show and breaking up the cult. Could be good for giving the PCs a glimpse at other movers and shakers in the Mythos, giving them access to some knowledge and letting them shoot a wizard.
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Jul 25, 2020 01:24
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Hostile V posted:let That sounds perfect, thank you very much!
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Jul 25, 2020 02:40
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Hostile V posted:RPPR's Ross Payton, on the advice of Adam Scott Glancy, used the first scenario from Shadows of Yog-Sothoth to space things out a bit when he did a Masks campaign when the PCs decided to ignore some of NYC to hide out from the heat by running to Boston. The intro module is mostly just about looking into a Yog cult that takes the form of a Bostonian mystery cult/gentleman's club where there's an immortal rear end in a top hat wizard running the show and breaking up the cult. Could be good for giving the PCs a glimpse at other movers and shakers in the Mythos, giving them access to some knowledge and letting them shoot a wizard. That's good advice, and if there's one thing Glancy knows it's spacing things out.
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Jul 25, 2020 03:45
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Anyone running for Gencon Online? I'm doing three Delta Green games, trying to get the Club Apocalypse whiskey glass from ARC DREAM.
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Jul 30, 2020 19:04
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TK_Nyarlathotep posted:It opens with no warnings, has everything PipHelix said it has AND MORE (giantess fetish and mind control, anyone?), and as far as I can tell isn't even possible to actually win, so you can just assume Berlin became a post-apocalyptic bone zone in 1933 or whatever. Very historical.
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Jul 30, 2020 23:49
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Hey all, is there a Lovecraftian game that I can play with my wife and 14 year old, that doesn't involve reading an elaborate rulebook? I'm looking at Arkham Horror, and the learn to play stuff seems fairly straightforward after you get it set up, but I wasn't sure about any of the others. I'm still researching, but I figured I'd ask the experts. Probably sticking to a board- or card-type would be best, as I doubt the rest of the fam would be thrilled about doing RPG stuff like character creation, etc.
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Jul 31, 2020 04:20
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a mysterious cloak posted:Hey all, is there a Lovecraftian game that I can play with my wife and 14 year old, that doesn't involve reading an elaborate rulebook? I'm looking at Arkham Horror, and the learn to play stuff seems fairly straightforward after you get it set up, but I wasn't sure about any of the others. I'm still researching, but I figured I'd ask the experts. House on Haunted Hill is, in my memory, significantly less cranky than Arkham Horror to set up.
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Jul 31, 2020 04:22
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Nessus posted:What's your desired game experience? Just a spooky evening? Do you specifically need the HPL branding? Good point, probably just a spooky evening. Lovecraft name is not required!
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Jul 31, 2020 04:59
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I see, it's Betrayal at House on the Hill. You actually get to find out what game you're playing in the second half and it's different each time! I recall options included "the Ritual," "the House is now flying into the air," and "one of you is Count Dracula."
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Jul 31, 2020 05:01
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a mysterious cloak posted:Good point, probably just a spooky evening. Lovecraft name is not required! If you do want the Lovecraft Brand, though, some editions of Cthulhu Dark are less than 5 pages long. It doesn't matter which one you get, they're all pretty good. Here's the free 2010 edition that started it all.
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Jul 31, 2020 10:03
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Warthur posted:You sure about that? In my copy various ways of resolving it are discussed on page 190-192. Yeah I looked into it and there's way more and better warnings than my initial skim found. 2020 is absolute Fuckworld and I'm on pins and needles about poo poo like this :S
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Jul 31, 2020 10:04
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