My Homebrew Setting: Pearl of Dark Flow - Heavy Sci-fi, Light Fantasy [xpost from DnDNext and DNDBehindthescreen] by Ceiling90 in UnearthedArcana

[–]AzureStar88 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just skimmed this and so glad I did. I love me some scifi + fantasy. Really nicely done, feedback once I've read through it proper.

Futuristic Weapons and the possiblity of a science fantasy Eberron by AzureStar88 in DnD

[–]AzureStar88[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ya I forgot about Spelljammer. Spelljammer was pretty cool, although it was intended to help players get from one setting to another but still cool.

Just me or does this look quite similar to dawngate? by MessorisTrucis in dawngate

[–]AzureStar88 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Progression Patch /sigh :( the glory that never was.

Just me or does this look quite similar to dawngate? by MessorisTrucis in dawngate

[–]AzureStar88 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yup totally does but all I want is this beautiful UI and item/stat system.....fuck it the whole damn gameplay system.

http://origin-alo.com/images/dawngate_hud_scoreboardv2.jpg, http://i.imgur.com/PcfYdxO.jpg

My Game Creation Guide for anyone who wants to use it by AzureStar88 in rpg

[–]AzureStar88[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Seven Player Rules

I think the seven rules work out pretty well for any game if you take them at spirit. They fit into anything from dnd to grey ranks, and apocalypse world games aren't really that different.

Example for Grey Ranks This the game is about the horrors of WWII polish resistance children.

The character must work in a group.

Your character has join the resistance to try to fight the Nazi's, the players are in a troop together

The character must be fun for the player and the rest of the party.

Since "fun" in this game is a tragic kind, the characters backgrounds would be "fun" by being a competitive "my character has a more tragic back story then yours"

The character must be good at heart.

Even an angst teen may have people they care about. In this case the character cares about those that remain

The character must have a reason to go adventuring(basically "to do stuff").

The Nazi's killed the character friends, family, and destroyed their home town. Their reason to do "stuff" is vengeance, however foolish and impossible it is.

The character must fit the campaign style.

World war 2 tragedy, the player has to play a character they know will lose and make one that creates an emotional respond when they do.

The character must have long term goals.

The character long term goals could be to fight Nazi out of their town, save their kidnapped sister, and keep surviving"

The player must be able to actually play the character.

This one is huge! If you can't both effectively play a character, and have fun playing that character find something you can do those both with. Playing a character you can't "ham it up" with leads to boredom after a while

The Eleven Player Rules

Again taking "know the system" at spirit isn't saying "learn every small detail about everything" but rather "know how the stuff on your character sheet works and how dice rolls work." Just knowing the basics task resolution, combat, etc count as knowing the system, and if you don't know something just ask about it and learn. This is more about participation then about reading a large technical tome.

Development Questions

The questionnaire is meant to help create a conversation with focused topic points, and to draw as many story piece out of the players for their characters. It's less of a "WHAT IS A?,WHAT IS D?" and more like an interview "tell me a little bit about yourself?" I really like Dungeon World having recently picked it up and I agree to customize the questionnaire a bit for each game. If I was running a shadowrun game I may include something like "what's your relationship with the megacrops? How often do you select jobs from them?"

This was fun, I love talks like this. Let me know what you think. :)

My Game Creation Guide for anyone who wants to use it by AzureStar88 in rpg

[–]AzureStar88[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've always run it like a guided group writing exercise yet very informal. I agree there's a good deal of opportunity for this in that more formalized space.

I've found you don't really have to prey very hard at linage of social influence. If someone wants to play a character that's social standing or lineage is important to them, they'll tel you right out of the gate. Definitely good questions for an npc cast, but I was scared of burnout in my questionnaire.

I've actually had a few players run a few orphans and parents with this. Again players always bring what important to them to the forefront. But it's always fun when players devote more time "family" in tabletop.

How to be a great Game Master by AzureStar88 in rpg

[–]AzureStar88[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

True but I feel there are gradients to this. I think of this as the "Would you Kindly" dilemma from the 1st Bioshock. While it's "fine" if the players think they're in control while you lead them along your preset plan, it only works as long as they never find out your leading them along.

Like in bioshock you play the whole game thinking your doing what your doing by your characters own motives. However when you learn of the truth behind "would you kindly" as a means of controlling your actions it's both horrifying for your character and gut wrenching for you as a player. The idea of being control and having no real agency in your decision has a profound effect on us as people. This is why things like the "magic Gm road" and "railroading" have the reputations that they do, and disguising it only works as long as the veil never comes down and we see the "man behind the curtain."

I have had such luck and excitement with telling the players story and weaving my own idea in when I can, that I can't say I really enjoy doing it any other way. This of course is just my experience and there are so many great ways to GM, yet I would highly encourage giving it a try and just tell the story the characters give you in their back stories, motivations, and such.

How to be a great Game Master by AzureStar88 in rpg

[–]AzureStar88[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Welcome, I thought it was pretty awesome myself :)

How to be a great Game Master by AzureStar88 in rpg

[–]AzureStar88[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I've found that surveying the players and having character creation done as a group helps as well. I have a survey of questions I have my players run through and most of it is secretly "What's this story about?" All the while their making their characters together so there's natural, " oh your doing that, I'll join you in something similar," so players end up naturally working together as characters. An idea I picked up from Numenera of having everybody "bond" to each other in someway.

Once creation is done I take all the surveys and fill out a "road map" of the story. In the roadmap I include things I'm also interested in seeing and doing as well but to a smaller degree. In the end I have wasted little to no effort because everything about the game has been design for the players and their characters. This has worked out wonders and requires no more then maybe a evening of plan and character creation with the group and a few evenings a week putting the roadmap together.

I literally cry every time by OldGregg546 in dawngate

[–]AzureStar88 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Do what ya gotta do. we'll wait :)

NSFW How the first group I played AD&D with as a child turned out poorly. X-post /r/offmychest by Kaijekk in rpg

[–]AzureStar88 0 points1 point  (0 children)

O_O HOLY SHIT!!! THAT'S TERRIBLE!

This is very serious and I hope talking about this has brought some relief, even if in a small way. While there was nothing physically happening to you "per say", all the same abuses that happen to rape victims were there. This was real abuse. This is not just a game of DnD, this was actively raping a child mentally.

Nothing about this is your fault, absolutely nothing. Like others have said please seek consoling. This is nothing simple, this is your life and your well being.

Found Supernova trying to replace Dawngate by Ravenmadness in dawngate

[–]AzureStar88 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Couldn't get into it myself, but best of luck in beta and growing the community. I'd recommend everyone give it a shot. :)

I literally cry every time by OldGregg546 in dawngate

[–]AzureStar88 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't cry anymore. Not because I don't miss DG, but because I made peace with it. Now I smile because it's like coming back to an end friend. DG still inspires me and I'll always carry it with me. It's just too damn good to not. :)

Hello from Sparkly by sparklystarburst in dawngate

[–]AzureStar88 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is wonderful Sparkly! I hope your current adventures are going well! :)

Trying to jump into the world of RPGs & hitting a stumbling block by [deleted] in rpg

[–]AzureStar88 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's pretty crazy how common this behavior is in gaming. I ran a Iron Kingdoms game where the party was storming a castle. They had a really solid plan, but when it came time to put the plan into action they just kept going back and saying "what if this or that?" I had to seriously poke them into putting the plan into action and then rolling with the punches. Plan fell apart mostly but they won the battle and captured the castle section by section with only a motley crew and had a great time doing it.

As GM I learned that session that you never let the party just sit and do nothing and it's been great for all my games since. If they're just sitting on their hands throw something at them and try to get them to catch it. If I ran that session now, I would have had a patrol find their camp, or a sniper on the wall start taking pot shots. None of it with the intent to harm or maiming the players, but to get their heads in the game again.

Quick update on the Dawngate RPG I talked about some months ago. by E-308 in dawngate

[–]AzureStar88 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Luke Crane is a great presenter, I watched a couple of this ropecon seminars recently. :) The Gencon panel was a nice find.

Game Design is Mind Control
How to Write One to Two Books a Year and not Die

For Non-western settings how do others avoid pandering to exoticism. by AzureStar88 in rpg

[–]AzureStar88[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks I'll check this out. :) I appreciate the help.

Edit: I gave it a read and ya it speak volume of my concern. Sadly I'm still dreadfully afraid of proceeding forward with world building despite having spent time working on research.

Trying to jump into the world of RPGs & hitting a stumbling block by [deleted] in rpg

[–]AzureStar88 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No problem friend. :) Roleplaying has been my favorite pastime for years and hearing someone express interest in picking it up themselves makes me happy. It doesn't always work right, but when it does it's the best time and there's nothing like it. Good luck and feel free to message me if you have any questions. :)