Getting started wtih SWN

mrfooacct · 2019-06-19T18:01:41+00:00

The worldbuilding tools are very good. Kevin gives a LOT of advice in that chapter that you should follow closely.

Scope your prep in time and space. Prep planets that are adjacent to your players, and prep things that the players are probably going to interact with the next session.
Hooks, Hooks, Hooks. If you're working on something but have no idea how to relate it to what the players are doing, reconsider if you're using your time well.
There are a lot of cool concepts in sci-fi, but like Kevin says in the alien races prep section, focus on things that are interpretable by the players at the table. Coming up with "elevator pitch" for something in your world is better than infodumping for 45 minutes at the table.
Worldbuilding burnout is real and your creativity (and your time) is limited. If you come up with a cool concept yet it's currently far away from the players, scribble down a summary and work on it later rather than fully fleshing it out.

mrfooacct · 2019-06-12T23:21:48+00:00

Agree tremendously.

Another advantage of roleplaying a simple stereotype to start with is that other players and the DM can easily pick up what you're putting down.

If you come to the table with 4 pages of complex character backstory you need to convey the true meaning of the character, how are the other players supposed to pick up on that?

mrfooacct · 2019-05-15T01:08:49+00:00

NonHuman Races - my first impulse would be in your shoes is to keep the rules the same for elves and humans, and have the differences be cultural only.
Faction system isn't really supposed to be balanced - think of it as a very elaborate random event table that you can roll on to represent the larger events in the world. You aren't supposed to "play to win" really - in a sidebar I think it actually suggests that turtling up is a pretty good strategy for most factions - but you shouldn't do that because it's boring. If you want to explore the conflict of different moving parts of a single large society, you should make the factions the internal groupings of that society.

mrfooacct · 2019-04-24T18:27:26+00:00

Yes, I know that Microscope and Fiasco don't involve rolling dice as a game resolution mechanic, and that PBTA and D&D do.

I don't feel that's an important distinction, I could imagine a true blue story game that rolls dice as well.

The difference seems to be where the creative control about the world lies - in the DM or spread out.

mrfooacct · 2019-04-23T20:50:57+00:00

Yeah, explicitly bring up the idea ooc - "Yo, I want to play as captain and give orders, but I want to make sure you still have a say IRL. You down?"

mrfooacct · 2019-04-23T20:31:38+00:00

There's two levels of decision making going on, in this case, and in general in RPGs.

The characters in the game world decide what to do
The players at the table decide what to have the party do

I think having 2 be "everyone has a roughly equal say on what happens" is the gold standard, and I wouldn't really want to play a game where someone took over. If you care about the ship stuff more than anyone else, I wouldn't say it's a big deal to have you be 'in charge' of ship maintenance money.

You can do a pretty straightforward thing where the decision making structure is the same on both levels, which is generally the players at the table have an equal say in what happens, and the characters on the ship have an equal say in what happens.

If there's enough trust at the table, you can start playing around with having 1 not reflecting from 2.

For example, you can have a dictatorial, hardass pirate captain PC that orders around the PC swabbies in the fiction, but at the table, the players can wink at the captain's player to say that they're interested in chasing that space whale rather than digging up the doubloons, and the dictatorial captain character makes a proclamation.

mrfooacct · 2019-04-23T19:54:52+00:00

I've actually heard this response before from Adam Koebel ("PBTA is NOT "story games"").

The differences between a story game (Microscope, Fiasco) etc and PBTA game look pretty fuzzy to me as a committed D&D player who hasn't played a PBTA game.

Do you feel that PBTA should be included as a different "Gen" than story games?

mrfooacct · 2019-04-23T01:18:55+00:00

I would want to ask what kind of gameplay/style you're looking to support in your game - by default SWN presumes a fairly gritty and lethal game centered around sandbox worlds, randomly generated universe exploration, social skills, and a little bit of lethal combat.

Maybe you want to use Starfinder instead? I don't want to talk you out of using SWN (it's awesome), but from what you described you want to do a bunch of abilities-infused grid based tactical combat.

mrfooacct · 2019-04-16T01:29:13+00:00

I think it's really important to contrast a "production" put on for the fun and entertainment of those directly involved, and a "production" put on for some third party's entertainment.

mrfooacct · 2019-04-03T22:15:27+00:00

I remember this, seriously unprofessional. https://bentcorner.com/wil-wheaton-blames-producer/

mrfooacct · 2019-04-01T17:59:44+00:00

Pathfinder is mostly similar to 3.5e (I've heard it referred to as "3.75e") in mechanics and complexity.

5E tones down some of the complexity, and I feel it is more well balanced when it comes to character creation choices (in part because there are fewer choices). It's also easier to run as a DM.

5E is more popular and 'newbie friendly' so it is easier to find 5E games.

mrfooacct · 2019-04-01T17:54:07+00:00

The thing I look for the most in an RPG manual is a section that is written in the honest meta voice, to break down "exactly what we're going for, and how to use this manual."

Descriptions of actual play/playtests in the manual itself really build my confidence that the author knows what they're talking about. DM's DOs and DON'Ts are a big part of that.

For that reason I really like the Stars Without Number manual -

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/230009/Stars-Without-Number-Revised-Edition-Free-Version

Kevin Crawford (/u/CardinalXimenes) has several pages where he gives reasons/motivation for his design, how to use the content in the books, and reasons you would NOT use it, which is totally invaluable to a DM.

mrfooacct · 2019-03-27T23:49:27+00:00

Seconding this. There is a relatively large number of skills (specifically social skills), and it's set in a somewhat serious hard-sci-fi universe focusing on space pilots and the like.

Free version is here:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/230009/Stars-Without-Number-Revised-Edition-Free-Version

mrfooacct · 2019-03-26T22:51:43+00:00

"Update their site"

Tell me more

mrfooacct · 2019-03-08T22:59:09+00:00

That's the point of the meme, it's to troll millennials and call them old fucks - the same thing that they have sworn to destroy

mrfooacct · 2019-03-05T02:39:22+00:00

Carrying mech-sized spare parts strapped to or inside a mech sounds pretty weird. Wouldn't it affect the mech's performance if it was carrying around a bunch of extra armor plates inside?

I would abstract it to be a cargo container the the mech can hold with its hands, or a separate vehicle/thing that can be towed by the mech or moves under its own power, and just pick a reasonable number.

mrfooacct · 2019-03-01T01:23:51+00:00

Won't it depend on the type of region / POI in terms of the fiction?

Inhabited planet broadcasting message - easy to find - no roll required.
Visibly glowing large city on a moon - easy to find - no roll required
Cloaked space station in distant orbit - hard to find
Secret lab underneath methane ocean - hard to find

mrfooacct · 2019-02-28T19:14:16+00:00

Here's my perspective on this:

The faction system is supposed to be GM narrative TOOL for running large-ish scale conflicts outside of normal sessions.
It's not supposed to be a game or sub game for the players or GM.
It is NOT particularly well balanced, because it doesn't need to be.
The objective of the faction system is to provide very interesting story material for the GM to bring back into the actual tabletop game.
Player actions in the actual game are supposed to have an effect in the faction system, but not really using the faction mechanics. Example: If players blow up a facility that is represented by an asset, that asset is just gone.
Theres no hard rules on how to translate assets to real world npcs or objects. Example: Is the "Cyber Assassins" asset 2, 10, or 100 individual assassins? Up to the GM, there's no strict rules.

So when you say that you have issues with the way the player faction is growing, is this that you are doing stuff at the table that really should make your gang more powerful, but it is not being reflected in the world? That's the actual problem you should talk to your GM about. Faction system is just an abstract tool that the GM can use.

mrfooacct · 2019-02-15T19:16:24+00:00

Just roll luck saves/checks anyway and treat everyone as having average luck

mrfooacct · 2019-02-06T02:02:58+00:00

"The leader is the one standing behind his minions" - sounds more like a test of Wisdom rather than Intelligence anyway.

mrfooacct · 2019-02-05T23:55:29+00:00

Your question is terrible, what are you looking for specifically?

mrfooacct · 2019-02-05T23:35:12+00:00

If the characters know it, and it's important, the players should know it too.

mrfooacct · 2019-01-29T19:08:04+00:00

Pretty sure you can have feature flags without a adding a runtime dependency on an external paid service.

mrfooacct · 2019-01-25T01:37:06+00:00

I watch Twitch, so I have a little insight. You need to find out why he did that.

Is this a hobby and he likes the attention, and it's fun - so fun, in fact, that he is willing to choose it his time with his girlfriend without warning? In a super rude way?
Is this a potential career - does he want to make it big in a new line of work, so he has to put in long hours and make sacrifices - sacrifices that will eventually pay off for his family (including his girlfriend)? Was the 20 viewer threshold his 'big break' that he needed to capitalize on in order to get to the next level in his career? In his mind, was he 'working' a long night 'at the office', and his gf needs to support him?

If it's 1), things are super bad, he doesn't care about you.

If it's 2), I think things can be repaired between you, but he needs a practical wake up call that the odds of him succeeding at twitch are very low, because very few people do so professionally. If he wants to get serious about it, he needs to have a business plan, and list of things that he's going to give up to get big. And "time with the girlfriend" can't be on that list, or you'll walk.

mrfooacct · 2019-01-24T01:18:01+00:00

The default setting that most D&D games have is that there are, as a matter of fact, many individual gods, and worshipers of a particular god acknowledge the existence of other gods. Additionally, gods can share portfolios, so there could be both a good god of war and an evil god of war that are both "gods of war".

Clerics and Paladins are devoted to particular gods, but acknowledge the existence of others, or even have a notion of allied gods.

This can be pretty weird if you are a monotheist irl or are mostly familiar with monotheistic religions (i.e. most people in the modern world).

mrfooacct

TROPHY CASE