Home » The Crystal Hall » An Online Role Playing Game? » Whateley The Game
| Re: Whateley The Game [message #35796 is a reply to message #35740 ] |
Mon, 13 April 2009 16:18   |
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 Anvildude
Messages: 1931
Registered: November 2008 |
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Yeah, I'm usin' flaws. Since my powers are based on a point distribution system, the flaws will give bonuses to those, mostly. Certain ones, like Monstrous GSD might also give bonuses to intimidation checks, while giving penalties to diplomacy type things. I've gotten a few, sort of joke, sort of not Heroics from some comments on the forum. Things like "Insufferable Cuteness" and "Big Sad Puppy Dog Eyes of Doom", and then from that, "Heart of Stone" as a way to resist it.
I know one of the basic Heroics (feats) would be Flight. A good generalization, since it can come from wings, TK, energizer, Man, Dev&Gad, &Warp. Same with invulnurability, giving bonuses to not getting hurt.
Hmm. I wonder... Do you think it would be better to have everything a person can do with their powers be Heroic based, and then just give them a lot of those, or would it be better to let them have all the basic skills, (a Fire Manifestor would have flame blasts, summoning flames around their bodies, fireproof, etc,) and just have the Heroics be specific things that aren't included in the basic package (flight, fire shield, cages of fire, not burning a specific person or thing), control stuff, like that?
It's a sad thing when your paraphrase is longer than the original quote.
Survivor of the Great Crash of 2011
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| Re: Whateley The Game [message #35809 is a reply to message #35796 ] |
Mon, 13 April 2009 17:29 |
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rasufelle
Messages: 33
Registered: December 2008
Location: Arkansas |
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Hmm, I'm not sure. The second example would probably work better, and allow you to put more limitations on what can be done. I think the biggest challenge in either one of our systems isn't going to be making sure people can do lots of things, but making sure there are barriers in the RIGHT places to keep people from abusing the rules to the point it breaks the game. True, a lot of that will be GM stuff, but so should a lot of the other detail things.
Sorry, back to the point. A big advantage to the 'heroics' based idea would be that it would be more customized. Not every fire manifestor can shoot fireballs, just like not every one can encase themselves in flames. There might even be some who can hardly create a flame to match a candle. When you mentioned the two, were you going to have any limitations whatsoever in the 'heroics' only system? If not, you'll end up with people who take combinations of powers without considering how they match up, like having flight combined with empathy on a gadgeteer. Why? Because they could. That kind of thing doesn't need to be left GM control only, so you'll at the very least want people to have to choose categories of powers they are limited to choosing from. An Esper who uses TK to create and control fire, for instance, would be able to also use that TK to shape the fire into cages and things like that, or dragons heads or whatever else they wanted it to look like. Someone who merely manifests the fire with no TK control over it would not be able to have the same level of fine control, but would be able to be fireproof or encase themselves in a blaze, things like that. A Devisor or Gadgeteer might be able to create flame throwers that mimic effects from both sides, but to a lower degree of effectiveness.
Melanie E.
Like hey, like wow, like totally freak me out okay right on!
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| Re: Whateley The Game [message #35812 is a reply to message #35809 ] |
Mon, 13 April 2009 18:16 |
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Anvildude
Messages: 1931
Registered: November 2008 |
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Yeah, yeah. Well,the limits would be more GG's discretion, on power types. They'd first pick what powers they want, spending points on the various traits. The way I set up the point buy system will hopefully make people concentrate on one or two traits, instead of having five wildly differing ones. So there could be a TK brick with Empathy, or a Gadgeteer with Empathy, but hopefully the GG would work with the player to find explainations and limits to that combo. But I'm gonna have a list of specific Heroics for each major trait, along with General Heroics that deal with stuff that anybody could have (like super strength or a rich family) and Technology Heroics that would be for Gadg and Dev, and Paragons or Knack pickers, or people who could buy the stuff. The basics of what they could do would still be defined by the Powerset they initially chose, but they'd get like, five Heroics every level, so they'd choose whether they want to fly and shoot fire or sheath themselves and have a Fire Shield. Sort of use that to determine Blaster or Brawler or Buffer. So a Wiz could get at first level: Mystical Shield, Mental Barrier, Flight, Mage Armor (prereq: Mystical Shield), and Healing; setting them up for a support role. Or, they could get: Elemental Evocation(ice), Weapons' Skill(Javelin), Elemental Ray(ice; prereq Elemental Evocation(ice)), Powered Weapon(Ice Javelin), and Ice Armor; and be a much more combat oriented character.
I'll probably give everyone a few free Heroics at first level anyways, and they'll be given out a lot faster than Feats in D&D, but this way has a lot faster progression down a path, while the other way would have only one Heroic per level, and fewer specific Heroics, putting all the things like Elemental Ray and Mage Armor as uses of the Heroics Elemental Evocation and Mystical Shield, respectively. So it would be about the same speed of progression, but in one you'd be more limited by your choices, and in the other more limited by your imagination and what the GG allows.
It's a sad thing when your paraphrase is longer than the original quote.
Survivor of the Great Crash of 2011
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| Re: Whateley Academy RPG [message #35813 is a reply to message #34007 ] |
Mon, 13 April 2009 18:21 |
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Anvildude
Messages: 1931
Registered: November 2008 |
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I'm trying to make this rather professional and shiney, with tables and an actual book format, and I'm trying to find pictures to put into it, like pictures of examples of the various mutant traits, some powers being used, like flight and super strength, and that sort of thing. I'm also looking for good ideas for a cover pic, or even a good cover pic. This is a call to all artists on the site that would be interested in making those pictures, and letting me use them in the book. I hope to eventually release it as a PDF here, and would love it if I could give something that looked professional.
It's a sad thing when your paraphrase is longer than the original quote.
Survivor of the Great Crash of 2011
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| Re: Whateley Academy RPG [message #35887 is a reply to message #35813 ] |
Tue, 14 April 2009 02:44 |
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rasufelle
Messages: 33
Registered: December 2008
Location: Arkansas |
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Actual book format! What?
Hehe, no, mine's gonna look better too, I've just been posting things the way they are written n my 'rough draft' copy, since the better version isn't much beyond a table of contents yet.
The only problem I can see with your heroics idea is that you'll need to be careful about drowning players in options. How fast would leveling up be? Also, if you want to leave a lot of things under GM discretion, having literally hundreds of powers and points to choose and add would make that unwieldy or even impossible, given that anything someone might WANT to do with a power there's already a highly specific skill for, cutting down on the spontaneity and improvisation that always strikes me as a major part of the whole superhero shtick. Options options options is great in theory, but in practice too often plays to being far too pedantic about details. 'You can't do that, your rope tying skill is only a five- you need a six in order to use that skill', 'but I was trying to tie my shoes!'- that kind of thing. And keep in mind the more powers someone has, the more powers not only they but also the GM has to keep track of, so the slower the game is going to move. Think in terms of a character sheet- it can slow down games enough when someone has to constantly flip back and forth on a sheet of paper, then check the books to make sure they can do what they're trying to do. The more powers and abilities and so on you try to detail, the more this will happen, and the more controls there will be on what and who characters are in your game. The math will be there to back every single claim up, but unless you're into gaming on an intellectual level rather more than an imaginative or creative level, it could get very tiring very quickly I'd imagine.
Then again, that's just based on the way I tend to play and see the gamers I play with act. For my group of three to six gamers, fourth edition was a godsend since I run a 'story first, rules secondary' game, and the people I DM for like it that way, so that's what I tend to engineer towards.
Also, keep in mind- not everything has to be about combat abilities. In your list, I saw attack, defence, etc. What about a spell for, say, glamour? Not only that, but especially in the Whateley universe, a lot of things have similar effects but very different origins, even with magic. A system that relies on the use of very specific 'spells' and such might provide a lot of utility, but it might not fit the universe as well as a purely effect/affect based system. Again, a mage who creates a fireball through summoning a flame spurt from an alternate universe versus one who uses a spell that gives them minor TK control and ignites the air before them versus one who controls a fire elemental spirit and supplements it with their own magical abilities- three different ways to perform the same task, all that would have very different ways of locking them down and neutralizing them, and all three that would have very different noncombat utility.
Melanie E.
[Updated on: Tue, 14 April 2009 02:52]
Like hey, like wow, like totally freak me out okay right on!
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| Re: Whateley The Game [message #36182 is a reply to message #19828 ] |
Thu, 16 April 2009 02:12 |
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neko ewen
Messages: 24
Registered: March 2009
Location: Northern California |
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So, this wacky idea popped into my head the other day. I'll have to use it in something somewhere, but I think it'll work well for doing Whateley type stuff.
Absurdity Points.
Basically, the GM assigns a pool of points that players can spend on making their characters weird and improbable. So for example, being a TG mutant would cost a certain amount (though in the canon stories the "GM" clearly houseruled it to zero), unusual power combinations (gadgeteer and deviser) or crazy backgrounds (estranged mutant son of the Goodkind family, due to a freak accident looks like Ryoko, etc.) would cost more, and stuff that for the setting is supposed to be truly rare (being an adult age-regressed mutant) would cost a ton.
How many Absurdity Points your character spent should affect something during play, but I'm not sure what.
DeviantArt | Yaruki Zero Games
"I dream heavy metal, but I live whiny punk rock."
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| Re: Whateley The Game [message #36504 is a reply to message #19828 ] |
Sat, 18 April 2009 09:32 |
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rasufelle
Messages: 33
Registered: December 2008
Location: Arkansas |
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That might, in fact, be the IDEAL way to handle GSD. Roll for a number of points characters have to take in weird physical/psychological characteristics, not all necessarily bad, but unless a player rolled double zeros (in my die system) for 0 points it would guarantee they would have some form of distinguishing mutant characteristic, and they could take more if they wanted to, but no less unless they get special dispensation from the GM or certain combinations, like say wings, a tail and talons all three together would actually use up more points than their sum because of the combo.
Would you mind if I used this in my system?
I should probably say at this point that I'm not going to include things like being TG or a lot of other character development type things in my rules. If I player wants a TG character, or a gay/lesbian character, or a character who is rich, or super poor, or anything else like that, it will be by GM discretion only. I see things like that as not really being something you can quantify with numbers- well, okay, the money things are, but that's not the point. Those rely more on a story and character decision than a game rules decision.
Besides, including a lot of that kind of thing in the rules is kind of silly unless I also make it so people have to use points to take 'being straight' or 'fundie' or 'bigoted a***ole' or any number of other things. Just because it's a major part of the STORIES doesn't mean it will necessarily impact my game- I'm not going to have any kind of abilities for being a Guardian of the Wood or a Reincarnated Space Pirate or anything like that either.
If people want that- shiny, talk to the GM. If I recall, even in the games people have been playing already on here, it's been specified that if your character is TG, they are stealth. For a game like this to work, I see it operating the same way- making something like that a big deal is just asking for a reason to force parties apart since it would almost require all the other members of a team to take a similar whatever-you-wanna-call-it just to keep the team together.
Melanie E.
[Updated on: Sat, 18 April 2009 09:47]
Like hey, like wow, like totally freak me out okay right on!
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| Re: Whateley The Game [message #36772 is a reply to message #36521 ] |
Sun, 19 April 2009 21:46 |
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rasufelle
Messages: 33
Registered: December 2008
Location: Arkansas |
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Indie gaming scene- yes, I can see that 
Nice podcast, by the way.
Actually, I don't have any experience with Indie RPGs- like I've said before, my experience is limited to basically DnD and Vampire:. If you were willing to suggest a few games, I would be interested in checking some of your games and such out. I just don't wanna jump in without a guide and point of reference- it's a big world out there, after all.
I could use the additional experience to make sure my game holds up well. Would you be willing to help me, maybe, with my game? PM me if you would.
Melanie E.
Like hey, like wow, like totally freak me out okay right on!
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| Re: Whateley The Game [message #37262 is a reply to message #19828 ] |
Thu, 23 April 2009 22:14 |
VeryZenn
Messages: 114
Registered: April 2009
Location: The barren wastes of the ... |
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So has anyone here tried Truth and Justice by Atomic Sock Monkey Press?
It is far and away the best Super-hero RPG I've ever played in or run. It is very simple (making a character, at least once you get how it works, is 15 to 20 minutes and the character will be PRETTY CLOSE to what you wanted.
To be honest it's the only super game I really consider to work simply because it works at recreating comic books not superpowers.
I mean there's an actual reason for Batman to silhouette himself against a lightning bolt while his cape billows over his enemies: It generates a fear attack and causes them failure ranks (think temporary damage). I think it's awesome and highly recommend it.
OK. I'm done shilling. Go about your business.
~Matt
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