Okay, so Issue 15 of City of Heroes has been announced... and I have to say that as a long-term existing player, it looks SHIT.
I'm not a big one for swearing, even online, and at least one of my friends will be looking at this post and quaking in her boots about how SEVERELY pissed off I am.
On the basis of the original announcement, here's what I15 has in store...
A new TF and a new SF
Some new cossie options
Tweaks to an existing feature
...
Yes, that's it.
Champions Online is just around the corner, and THAT is what the Paragon Studio developers have decided to combat it with.
Now, in fairness, Positron is making an announcement tonight (at stupid o'clock in the morning, UK time), and there's a chance that he will tell us something that will wow me and turn my mood around, but if that is the case, here's a message for NCSoft's marketing department: YOU FUCKED UP THE ORDER TO DO IT IN.
If Positron's address had come first, and if it does wow us all with what we can expect, then people wouldn't mind so much about the dearth of content in I15. But this... this is MADNESS.
As it stands, I'm unlikely to just quit CoH. I love the game, I love the content, and I made some damn good friends from playing it, but I need something to blow me away. Something to make me sit up and beg for the wondrous new content and options the devs are giving us.
If I don't get it... well, I'll seriously reconsider paying for my accounts. I know for a fact that I'm not alone.
Tuesday 28 April 2009
Wednesday 22 April 2009
City of Heroes: Rolesnoring
I might need a time-out.
For the first time since 3rd September 2005, I'm finding it difficult to log into City of Heroes and actually have fun.
To be quite honest, this bothers me more than it perhaps should, but the fact of the matter is that until very recently (towards the end of last year) I was constantly excited about logging in to the game.
For the first several months, it was all about levelling up my main, Shadowe. It was a new game (to me), my first ever MMO, and I was enjoying PuGs and just bimbling around putting the smackdown on every bad guy I could find.
Then I decided to try and mix in my other passion - roleplaying. I'd never RPd online before. I was a strictly Pen and Paper guy.
Shadowe is a character that I originally created back in 1999/2000. Perhaps unfortunately, perhaps fortunately, I was in a really bad state back then. I won't bore you with all the details, but the term "EPIC FAIL" pretty much describes what my life was like, with the sole exception of my girlfriend (now wife). I'd managed to scrape together enough cash to support my RP habit, though, and had managed to get my hands on a copy of the 2nd Edition of the DC Heroes RPG. Nice system, really, as long as you don't try to read too much into the character stats.
Anyway, I created a hero. Richard Huntington, scientist extraordinaire. Sort of a cross between Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark - more money than God, genius intellect, high-tech - and created a backstory (a slight twist on the traditional "radiation accident") to cover the powers I wanted. I simultaneously created his sister, Samantha, and an enemy. Cool. But no one to play with.
That original write up for Shadowe is currently languishing in my DC Heroes RPG box, which is on the bookshelf behind my PC desk. Since then, Shadowe has been written up for Champions and Mutants & Masterminds ( http://www.chemlak.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Shadowe.pdf ), but he's been played in City of Heroes.
I started RPing in City of Heroes in 2006 - somewhere around May or June, I think - and have been doing so almost non-stop ever since. And I really do mean non-stop. The only thing that's prevented me from doing so has been not actually being at home or other roleplaying commitments.
As I've mentioned elsewhere, I play on the European servers, primarily on Union, and that's where my RP takes place.
3 years. There have been ups and downs, stresses and laughter, and overall it's been a lot of fun, but recently it feels as though the shine has come off. There's a lot of factors in this, notably that a number of people have left the game, and I miss them and their characters, and a lot of the "new blood" seems to be... well, the word that springs to mind is "uppity". That's a little ridiculous, I know, but I have 3 years of history for my character - he's been saving the City and the world for 3 years, and I've put a lot of love and effort into him and his relationships, and to have these young whippersnappers turn up and devalue and dismiss that effort and time... yeah, it gets on my nerves. Like I said - ridiculous, really, because RP online is PRETENDY FUN TIME GAMES ( http://wadewilson.livejournal.com/11285.html ).
However, that doesn't change the way I feel, which is almost marginalised. I sometimes wonder if a decent, wide-reaching plotline of the sort that happened shortly after I started RPing in CoH would help things, but the fragmentation of the RP community simply puts me off.
Thus I've diversified my RP, by starting my Sunday night M&M game, among other things, and I'm hoping that in the near future inspiration will strike me, giving me even more reason to dive back into my spandex and superpowers. Because the plodding along that I'm doing right now is quite dull.
For the first time since 3rd September 2005, I'm finding it difficult to log into City of Heroes and actually have fun.
To be quite honest, this bothers me more than it perhaps should, but the fact of the matter is that until very recently (towards the end of last year) I was constantly excited about logging in to the game.
For the first several months, it was all about levelling up my main, Shadowe. It was a new game (to me), my first ever MMO, and I was enjoying PuGs and just bimbling around putting the smackdown on every bad guy I could find.
Then I decided to try and mix in my other passion - roleplaying. I'd never RPd online before. I was a strictly Pen and Paper guy.
Shadowe is a character that I originally created back in 1999/2000. Perhaps unfortunately, perhaps fortunately, I was in a really bad state back then. I won't bore you with all the details, but the term "EPIC FAIL" pretty much describes what my life was like, with the sole exception of my girlfriend (now wife). I'd managed to scrape together enough cash to support my RP habit, though, and had managed to get my hands on a copy of the 2nd Edition of the DC Heroes RPG. Nice system, really, as long as you don't try to read too much into the character stats.
Anyway, I created a hero. Richard Huntington, scientist extraordinaire. Sort of a cross between Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark - more money than God, genius intellect, high-tech - and created a backstory (a slight twist on the traditional "radiation accident") to cover the powers I wanted. I simultaneously created his sister, Samantha, and an enemy. Cool. But no one to play with.
That original write up for Shadowe is currently languishing in my DC Heroes RPG box, which is on the bookshelf behind my PC desk. Since then, Shadowe has been written up for Champions and Mutants & Masterminds ( http://www.chemlak.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Shadowe.pdf ), but he's been played in City of Heroes.
I started RPing in City of Heroes in 2006 - somewhere around May or June, I think - and have been doing so almost non-stop ever since. And I really do mean non-stop. The only thing that's prevented me from doing so has been not actually being at home or other roleplaying commitments.
As I've mentioned elsewhere, I play on the European servers, primarily on Union, and that's where my RP takes place.
3 years. There have been ups and downs, stresses and laughter, and overall it's been a lot of fun, but recently it feels as though the shine has come off. There's a lot of factors in this, notably that a number of people have left the game, and I miss them and their characters, and a lot of the "new blood" seems to be... well, the word that springs to mind is "uppity". That's a little ridiculous, I know, but I have 3 years of history for my character - he's been saving the City and the world for 3 years, and I've put a lot of love and effort into him and his relationships, and to have these young whippersnappers turn up and devalue and dismiss that effort and time... yeah, it gets on my nerves. Like I said - ridiculous, really, because RP online is PRETENDY FUN TIME GAMES ( http://wadewilson.livejournal.com/11285.html ).
However, that doesn't change the way I feel, which is almost marginalised. I sometimes wonder if a decent, wide-reaching plotline of the sort that happened shortly after I started RPing in CoH would help things, but the fragmentation of the RP community simply puts me off.
Thus I've diversified my RP, by starting my Sunday night M&M game, among other things, and I'm hoping that in the near future inspiration will strike me, giving me even more reason to dive back into my spandex and superpowers. Because the plodding along that I'm doing right now is quite dull.
Monday 20 April 2009
Weekly Games: M&M
Wow.
Considering what happened last time we actually played my M&M game, I'm really chuffed with how last night went.
Exercising my rights as a GM, I finished the previous scene with an outcome that was both suitable and probable - Tia Henderson's children were rescued, the crooks were carted off to jail, and the old lady had a collapse requiring her to be taken to hospital. That cleared up what happened to the players who didn't show due to other commitments. Oh, and gave me a good excuse to hand out a hero point to all of the players.
Everyone else headed back to the school, the kids in tow, and we could move on to the real crux of the session - the introduction of Gemini and the news that the PC's identities have been compromised (and before anyone panics and thinks "Ebil GM has ruined secret identity RP!" - no, I haven't. I always leave myself an out).
Liberty Belle, in her secret identity of Tia Henderson (and I still get Agent Smith in my head saying "Ms. Henderson"...), has noticed that she is being watched. She reveals that information to Special Agent Brown of the FBI, in the hearing of the other heroes, who suddenly (okay, sometimes the d20 system gets a little silly) get cautious and start looking around themselves... and manage to identifty their own stalkers, who are all engaged in a discussion over short-wave radios.
Oni (awesomely powerful and generally ultra-dude) blasts himself up to full speed (which is pretty insane - IIRC it's 22,000 feet as a move action) and tries to steal a radio... which he does. Phew.
Rapscallion (tech-dudette and pistolier extraordinaire) uses her cloaking device and intimidates her stalker into surrendering his radio.
All well and good.
Then ensued one of the most fun conversations I've had in a while.
A woman comes on the radio, and starts a dialogue with Oni - calling him "Oni", "Target 2" and "Jason", just to drive the truth home about how much deep doo-doo he's actually in.
"... actually I was getting sort of attached to being called 'Target 2', but you can call me whatever you like."
"Well, given that I'm currently watching you down the barrel of a rifle loaded with an armour piercing bullet, how about I just call you... dead?"
BANG!
...
Okay, I'm not that cruel. She actually shot the stalker, not Oni. It was deliberate, intentional, and oh so damn cold.
While everyone at the school panics and scrambles inside to get under cover, Rapscallion handcuffs her stalker to a railing-fence... and he then gets shot, too.
Gemini is a cold-hearted bitch.
Scouting the area, Rapscallion spots a figure on the roof of the school... but it turns out to be a man in the uniform of an air-conditioning repair and maintenance firm. He left (the huge wall of spandex was pretty scary, really), and the heroes quickly checked the rooftop... only to find two bullet-casings.
The mystery deepens.
*****
Okay, that was pretty much the entire session - which was about an hour and a half of play-time, all told. None too shabby, if you ask me.
I've now introduced (formally) Scorpio, Pisces, Virgo and Gemini. There have been others, too, but I'm keeping quiet about who and when they were met.
Here's hoping that the next session goes as well as this one did.
Considering what happened last time we actually played my M&M game, I'm really chuffed with how last night went.
Exercising my rights as a GM, I finished the previous scene with an outcome that was both suitable and probable - Tia Henderson's children were rescued, the crooks were carted off to jail, and the old lady had a collapse requiring her to be taken to hospital. That cleared up what happened to the players who didn't show due to other commitments. Oh, and gave me a good excuse to hand out a hero point to all of the players.
Everyone else headed back to the school, the kids in tow, and we could move on to the real crux of the session - the introduction of Gemini and the news that the PC's identities have been compromised (and before anyone panics and thinks "Ebil GM has ruined secret identity RP!" - no, I haven't. I always leave myself an out).
Liberty Belle, in her secret identity of Tia Henderson (and I still get Agent Smith in my head saying "Ms. Henderson"...), has noticed that she is being watched. She reveals that information to Special Agent Brown of the FBI, in the hearing of the other heroes, who suddenly (okay, sometimes the d20 system gets a little silly) get cautious and start looking around themselves... and manage to identifty their own stalkers, who are all engaged in a discussion over short-wave radios.
Oni (awesomely powerful and generally ultra-dude) blasts himself up to full speed (which is pretty insane - IIRC it's 22,000 feet as a move action) and tries to steal a radio... which he does. Phew.
Rapscallion (tech-dudette and pistolier extraordinaire) uses her cloaking device and intimidates her stalker into surrendering his radio.
All well and good.
Then ensued one of the most fun conversations I've had in a while.
A woman comes on the radio, and starts a dialogue with Oni - calling him "Oni", "Target 2" and "Jason", just to drive the truth home about how much deep doo-doo he's actually in.
"... actually I was getting sort of attached to being called 'Target 2', but you can call me whatever you like."
"Well, given that I'm currently watching you down the barrel of a rifle loaded with an armour piercing bullet, how about I just call you... dead?"
BANG!
...
Okay, I'm not that cruel. She actually shot the stalker, not Oni. It was deliberate, intentional, and oh so damn cold.
While everyone at the school panics and scrambles inside to get under cover, Rapscallion handcuffs her stalker to a railing-fence... and he then gets shot, too.
Gemini is a cold-hearted bitch.
Scouting the area, Rapscallion spots a figure on the roof of the school... but it turns out to be a man in the uniform of an air-conditioning repair and maintenance firm. He left (the huge wall of spandex was pretty scary, really), and the heroes quickly checked the rooftop... only to find two bullet-casings.
The mystery deepens.
*****
Okay, that was pretty much the entire session - which was about an hour and a half of play-time, all told. None too shabby, if you ask me.
I've now introduced (formally) Scorpio, Pisces, Virgo and Gemini. There have been others, too, but I'm keeping quiet about who and when they were met.
Here's hoping that the next session goes as well as this one did.
Thursday 16 April 2009
Oh, Chem, where art thou?
I'm sure my faithful followers have been missing posts from me for the last couple of weeks. (If you haven't, there's no need to tell me.)
Why, when I run two weekly games and spend an inordinate amount of time RPing, have I not posted, I hear you cry?
Well, it's mostly been as a result of my personal life - Easter is always busy at home - and my wife's job. So I actually haven't RPd as much as I would normally like to. So, no updates on my regular games at the moment, I'm afraid, which leaves me wondering what to write about.
I could write about City of Heroes Issue 14: Architect.
I could write about the troubles I'm having RPing in City of Heroes right now.
I could write more thoughts about Dungeons & Dragons 4E.
I could tell you all some really boring stuff about my job.
Well, okay, I'm not going to discuss that last one, but I will talk about Architect for a while and see if I can write a post that at least has some purpose.
Architect
Those geniuses at Paragon Studios (previously NCNorCal) have recently released the latest update for City of Heroes - Issue 14: Architect.
In short, this update is a roleplayer's wet dream. I'm really not joking. Customisable, player created content. Craft your own missions and story arcs, share them with friends or with the player base as a whole. This update blows the curve of potentiality in an MMO, and I love it. I've already written two published arcs (Training Day and Psychotrauma) under my CoH pseudonym of Shadowe. I have several more in the works right now, too, including one that's shaping up to be a personal favourite.
Of the two arcs I've previously written, Psychotrauma is something of an ego trip, featuring a number of my own characters in what I can best describe as a "non-Unionverse" arc. (For those of you who might not be in the know, I roleplay in CoH on Union server in the EU server list, and the RP community as a whole try to keep a consistent canon-esque reality that is known as the Unionverse. Psychotrauma does not (currently) fit within the Unionverse continuity.) I have tried very hard to ensure that my characters don't steal the show in the arc - it's all about the player(s) helping them deal with a particularly troublesome supervillain (also one of my characters, converted using Architect to more accurately reflect the capabilities he should have, based on my original version of him... and that's a whole post in itself, so more on that another day). It's lighthearted fun, and introduction to my characters. It was never meant to be a great work of fiction, and I will admit that it does feature two of the most painful high-end standard villain groups in the game - Malta and Knives of Artemis - which means that it can be very painful to anyone not used to dealing with those groups.
Training Day was an attempt to create something as close to a "standard" mission as I could manage, using standard game resources. The premise is simple - it starts of with a hero being trained by Ms. Liberty, who assesses the hero's success or failure. There are a couple of plot twists in it, that I won't ruin by mentioning here, and is aimed at high-end characters, utilising Psychic Clockwork and The Carnival of Shadows, to name two of the villain groups in it. ArchVillains appear throughout the arc, so it's not a bad idea to be ready for them.
Away from my own arcs, though, I've played a few arcs by other people - mostly friends of mine, but every now and then I pick a random arc and give it a go - and I have to say that overall things are looking good.
There are some problems with it - mostly to do with obvious limitations of the Architect system in its current form - but this a tremendous step forward for the game. I'm looking forward to using Architect to run some custom semi-GMed RP plotlines in the near future.
Hmm... I was hoping to write more, and if anyone has any comments that spark more thoughts, I'll try to be as detailed and complete as I can.
Why, when I run two weekly games and spend an inordinate amount of time RPing, have I not posted, I hear you cry?
Well, it's mostly been as a result of my personal life - Easter is always busy at home - and my wife's job. So I actually haven't RPd as much as I would normally like to. So, no updates on my regular games at the moment, I'm afraid, which leaves me wondering what to write about.
I could write about City of Heroes Issue 14: Architect.
I could write about the troubles I'm having RPing in City of Heroes right now.
I could write more thoughts about Dungeons & Dragons 4E.
I could tell you all some really boring stuff about my job.
Well, okay, I'm not going to discuss that last one, but I will talk about Architect for a while and see if I can write a post that at least has some purpose.
Architect
Those geniuses at Paragon Studios (previously NCNorCal) have recently released the latest update for City of Heroes - Issue 14: Architect.
In short, this update is a roleplayer's wet dream. I'm really not joking. Customisable, player created content. Craft your own missions and story arcs, share them with friends or with the player base as a whole. This update blows the curve of potentiality in an MMO, and I love it. I've already written two published arcs (Training Day and Psychotrauma) under my CoH pseudonym of Shadowe. I have several more in the works right now, too, including one that's shaping up to be a personal favourite.
Of the two arcs I've previously written, Psychotrauma is something of an ego trip, featuring a number of my own characters in what I can best describe as a "non-Unionverse" arc. (For those of you who might not be in the know, I roleplay in CoH on Union server in the EU server list, and the RP community as a whole try to keep a consistent canon-esque reality that is known as the Unionverse. Psychotrauma does not (currently) fit within the Unionverse continuity.) I have tried very hard to ensure that my characters don't steal the show in the arc - it's all about the player(s) helping them deal with a particularly troublesome supervillain (also one of my characters, converted using Architect to more accurately reflect the capabilities he should have, based on my original version of him... and that's a whole post in itself, so more on that another day). It's lighthearted fun, and introduction to my characters. It was never meant to be a great work of fiction, and I will admit that it does feature two of the most painful high-end standard villain groups in the game - Malta and Knives of Artemis - which means that it can be very painful to anyone not used to dealing with those groups.
Training Day was an attempt to create something as close to a "standard" mission as I could manage, using standard game resources. The premise is simple - it starts of with a hero being trained by Ms. Liberty, who assesses the hero's success or failure. There are a couple of plot twists in it, that I won't ruin by mentioning here, and is aimed at high-end characters, utilising Psychic Clockwork and The Carnival of Shadows, to name two of the villain groups in it. ArchVillains appear throughout the arc, so it's not a bad idea to be ready for them.
Away from my own arcs, though, I've played a few arcs by other people - mostly friends of mine, but every now and then I pick a random arc and give it a go - and I have to say that overall things are looking good.
There are some problems with it - mostly to do with obvious limitations of the Architect system in its current form - but this a tremendous step forward for the game. I'm looking forward to using Architect to run some custom semi-GMed RP plotlines in the near future.
Hmm... I was hoping to write more, and if anyone has any comments that spark more thoughts, I'll try to be as detailed and complete as I can.
Monday 6 April 2009
Okay, so what's M&M?
What follows is an email I sent to Rockjaw (that's Stephen Reid to some of you) about Mutants and Masterminds, the Open Gaming License and why I think M&M is the bee's knees for Superhero RPGs.
Right, a quick rundown on OGL stuff, first. The vast majority of them are
fantasy games, and *do* require the D&D 3.5E rulebooks to run. Exceptions to
this that spring to mind are Spycraft and M&M.
At its core, the d20 system is very clear and simple (here's the 3.5
System Reference Document:
http://www.darkshire.net/~jhkim/rpg/srd/srd_revised_html/index.html), but
any given OGL can pick and choose which parts they want to use. So, M&M uses
Basics and Ability Scores, Skills I, Skills II, Feats, Carrying Movement and
Exploration, Combat I and Combat II. The rest of the system is homegrown by
Green Ronin.
The system itself is simple and relatively intuitive - roll 1d20, apply
modifiers, try to equal or beat a target number (known as the Difficulty Class,
or DC). In M&M *absolutely everything* is resolved with rolls like that.
Want to see if you can hack into a secure computer system? Roll 1d20 plus
modifiers. Resisting damage from an attack? Roll 1d20 plus modifiers. In fact,
that last part is probably the single largest departure from "normal" d20 rules
- there's no Hit Points and no Damage Rolls. Which, quite frankly, is great! It
certainly saves on the types of dice you end up using.
Another thing about M&M that differs from standard d20 rules is
that it's not a level-based system. You don't start at 1st level and work your
way up. Instead, the GM sets the campaigns starting "Power Level" (typically 10,
and *roughly* analogous to levels in D&D), which determines the number of
Power Points on which you can build a character. Pretty much everything (Ability
scores, Combat Attributes, Saving Throws, Skills, Feats, Powers, Equipment) is
purchased from that pool of points. As far as Powers are concerned, the system
for determining the cost of a power is almost as diverse as that from Champions
(to use a system I know you're familiar with), but it doesn't need a calculator,
since it deals exclusively in whole numbers, for simplicity.
Essentially, it has the versatility of Champions as far as character
creation is concerned, combined with the simplicity of the d20 mechanic for
rules resolution.
And that doesn't even touch on some of the interesting features of the
GMing system.
For example, in almost every other game I've seen, what Champions would
call a DNPC (a child of your character, for example), would be a drawback or
disadvantage, granting extra points with which to build your character, M&M
doesn't do it that way. Instead of giving you extra points, it considers one
those things to be a "Complication". Complications are basically things about
your character that are story-based, rather than being directly tied to the
character's capabilities. Other examples would include having a tyrannical boss
at work, having a secret identity or being a child and needing to go to school.
Whenever the GM throws something at you that ties in to a complication (stopping
the bank robbery will make you late for school, for example), you get a Hero
Point. Hero Points are the M&M version of what many games call Action
Points, or similar - a pool of points that you can burn to give yourself
temporary buffs, or improve rolls and so forth. Plus, it is *explicitly stated
in the rules* that at any time the GM
may exercise GM's Fiat to force an
outcome (say, allow the Supervillain to escape), but doing so grants all of the
PCs a Hero Point.
I love that last bit - it's saying "We know you GMs are going to cheat
to help the story... so we're going to build it into the rules, and give the
players a reward whenever you do it".
That's pretty much it. The rest is all the nitty-gritty of the rules
themselves.
Pros: Detailed character creation to rival any other system; simple
rules mechanic; flexible and story-driven GMing system.
Cons: Detailed character creation can mean that it takes *hours* to
tweak a character; "Yet another" d20 game, which will put some players
off.
Weekly Games: M&M
Okay, firstly, my apologies. I'm running on about 4 hours sleep, not enough caffeine, and a lot of frustration.
Last night I tried to run my weekly Mutants and Masterminds game. I love the system, for a lot of reasons, and I have a pretty hefty plotline on the go (okay, so some of it is being constructed on the fly, but I've left myself a lot of wiggle room, so that's okay).
For any of my players reading this - there are some spoilers in here, so please try to maintain Player vs. Character knowledge separation.
The Situation
As a result of interfering with the Zodiac group's plans once too often, a group of stealthy watchers (ninjas? Maybe) have been sent to follow the heroes. Thanks to this, one of the characters' secret identities has been effectively blown, and the bad guys have decided to make their displeasure known - by kidnapping said character's children.
(For anyone interested, I used the tracking rules from M&M, and no, not one of the heroes has noticed that they're being followed. Yet.)
This is a side-plot. A use of a complication to enhance the story a little. The kidnappers are negligible in threat to the PCs - if they can stand for more than two rounds of combat against the party, it can only be as the result of some abominable dice rolls.
In fact, the main aim of the scene is so that at least one of the players can find out that they're being followed.
All well and good. Now for the frustrating part.
The M&M game is being played over IRC, on a private server. We have two channels dedicated to the game on that server - an IC channel and an OOC channel. All game mechanics are dealt with in the OOC channel (we even have a dice bot on the server to allow public rolls), with the IC channel reserved for descriptions and IC speech.
In addition to this, I, as the GM, have the following running when we play a combat scene:
HeroLab with a profile containing all of the characters in the scene.
HeroLab Tactical Console for tracking damage and initiative.
HeroLab Dice Roller for GM only private dice rolls.
All 6 characters open in their own tabs of a web-browser, for another reference source.
Plus I have the M&M rulebook, Ultimate Power and the Freedom City campaign setting books within easy reach, or open, with bookmarks to important or relevant pages.
I do not use mapping software, preferring my own imagination to paint the scene. I might change this practice, after last night.
During a fight, I have to keep track of the IC channel, the OOC channel, HeroLab Profile, Tactical Console and Dice Roller, as well as the combat system from the M&M rulebook. I've never run an M&M game around a table, so my knowledge of the combat rules is a little sketchy, despite its similarity to D&D.
Maybe I'm taking on too much, and should share some of the responsibility. On the other hand, I'm trying to keep as much of the mechanics invisible to the players, so that they can focus on description and heroism.
The Scene
The kidnappers have made a potentially fatal mistake - they had to stop for fuel only a short distance away from where they snatched the children. The heroes have raced to the gas station, because the security cameras managed to peg the SUV's license plate and alerted the authorities.
I based my mental image of the petrol station on one I use a lot, close to my home. There were three vehicles refueling (one of them being the SUV, with a man who wasn't the driver actually at the pump), a fuel truck refilling the station's storage tank, and an old granny using the ATM.
What Happened
Things went swimmingly for the first couple of actions. Sure, the players didn't do what I was expecting, but I've always maintained that no plot survives contact with the players, so that wasn't a surprise. We have the makings of a gunfight on a petrol station forecourt.
AWESOME!
Two of the PCs were standing beside the SUV, having both attacked the guy fueling it at short range. The driver of the SUV slammed his vehicle into reverse, hurling it backwards a few feet, hitting the obnoxious guy waiting behing him in a sports car, and sending both vehicles into a spin.
...
So I don't think it's all that unreasonable for the two characters standing next to the rear end of the SUV before it started moving to be at risk of being hit by it as it spins, so I call for Reflex saves from them both.
Not according to my players.
To be fair, I may not have described the scene well enough. They may have had a poor understanding of position and where the vehicles were.
I have 11 screens open on my PC to manage this scene. I'm trying to update information and provide descriptive text in realtime to ensure that it goes as smoothly and quickly as possible, so that the players don't have to wait while I trawl through notes and information and stuff in books before typing things up.
The last thing I need at a time like that is a rules discussion. Heck, not really a rules discussion, but an objection to my interpretation of the scene.
If a 15 foot vehicle that you are standing within 5 feet of goes into a flat spin, you are at risk of being hit by it. That's simple geometry. I do not have time to discuss geometry while I'm trying to keep a fight moving smoothly, alt+tabbing between 11 different screens, clicking, adjusting, typing descriptions and so forth.
To answer the objections that were raised would have resulted in the scene grinding to a halt. We hadn't even finished the first round of combat, and already the scene was at risk of stopping.
Combat scenes in this game are slow. They take forever to resolve. I love the game, I'm enjoying the plot and the story that's coming out as the players get involved and regularly bend the plot over a barrel, but any amount of fighting is a pain in the ass to resolve. It's the most stressful thing I do on a regular basis, in fact. Work is a doddle, compared to the prospect of running a fight in my M&M game. Which doesn't stop me enjoying it. It's just a lot of stress, and a lot of work.
So... I logged out. I really couldn't handle it, and I didn't want to get involved in a discussion with six other people about why I was unable to handle it - the management of the game is meant to be invisible to the players. They have no need to know how much work I do to keep things running, because all I want is for them to enjoy the story.
We'll undoubtedly resume next week, hopefully with me in a better frame of mind.
I'm seriously considering some sort of mapping software, though. Not an online tabletop, though - just a shared map. That would really help, except for the fact that I prefer non-mapped RP combat, and M&M's combat system is designed to be non-mapped.
We'll see.
Last night I tried to run my weekly Mutants and Masterminds game. I love the system, for a lot of reasons, and I have a pretty hefty plotline on the go (okay, so some of it is being constructed on the fly, but I've left myself a lot of wiggle room, so that's okay).
For any of my players reading this - there are some spoilers in here, so please try to maintain Player vs. Character knowledge separation.
The Situation
As a result of interfering with the Zodiac group's plans once too often, a group of stealthy watchers (ninjas? Maybe) have been sent to follow the heroes. Thanks to this, one of the characters' secret identities has been effectively blown, and the bad guys have decided to make their displeasure known - by kidnapping said character's children.
(For anyone interested, I used the tracking rules from M&M, and no, not one of the heroes has noticed that they're being followed. Yet.)
This is a side-plot. A use of a complication to enhance the story a little. The kidnappers are negligible in threat to the PCs - if they can stand for more than two rounds of combat against the party, it can only be as the result of some abominable dice rolls.
In fact, the main aim of the scene is so that at least one of the players can find out that they're being followed.
All well and good. Now for the frustrating part.
The M&M game is being played over IRC, on a private server. We have two channels dedicated to the game on that server - an IC channel and an OOC channel. All game mechanics are dealt with in the OOC channel (we even have a dice bot on the server to allow public rolls), with the IC channel reserved for descriptions and IC speech.
In addition to this, I, as the GM, have the following running when we play a combat scene:
HeroLab with a profile containing all of the characters in the scene.
HeroLab Tactical Console for tracking damage and initiative.
HeroLab Dice Roller for GM only private dice rolls.
All 6 characters open in their own tabs of a web-browser, for another reference source.
Plus I have the M&M rulebook, Ultimate Power and the Freedom City campaign setting books within easy reach, or open, with bookmarks to important or relevant pages.
I do not use mapping software, preferring my own imagination to paint the scene. I might change this practice, after last night.
During a fight, I have to keep track of the IC channel, the OOC channel, HeroLab Profile, Tactical Console and Dice Roller, as well as the combat system from the M&M rulebook. I've never run an M&M game around a table, so my knowledge of the combat rules is a little sketchy, despite its similarity to D&D.
Maybe I'm taking on too much, and should share some of the responsibility. On the other hand, I'm trying to keep as much of the mechanics invisible to the players, so that they can focus on description and heroism.
The Scene
The kidnappers have made a potentially fatal mistake - they had to stop for fuel only a short distance away from where they snatched the children. The heroes have raced to the gas station, because the security cameras managed to peg the SUV's license plate and alerted the authorities.
I based my mental image of the petrol station on one I use a lot, close to my home. There were three vehicles refueling (one of them being the SUV, with a man who wasn't the driver actually at the pump), a fuel truck refilling the station's storage tank, and an old granny using the ATM.
What Happened
Things went swimmingly for the first couple of actions. Sure, the players didn't do what I was expecting, but I've always maintained that no plot survives contact with the players, so that wasn't a surprise. We have the makings of a gunfight on a petrol station forecourt.
AWESOME!
Two of the PCs were standing beside the SUV, having both attacked the guy fueling it at short range. The driver of the SUV slammed his vehicle into reverse, hurling it backwards a few feet, hitting the obnoxious guy waiting behing him in a sports car, and sending both vehicles into a spin.
...
So I don't think it's all that unreasonable for the two characters standing next to the rear end of the SUV before it started moving to be at risk of being hit by it as it spins, so I call for Reflex saves from them both.
Not according to my players.
To be fair, I may not have described the scene well enough. They may have had a poor understanding of position and where the vehicles were.
I have 11 screens open on my PC to manage this scene. I'm trying to update information and provide descriptive text in realtime to ensure that it goes as smoothly and quickly as possible, so that the players don't have to wait while I trawl through notes and information and stuff in books before typing things up.
The last thing I need at a time like that is a rules discussion. Heck, not really a rules discussion, but an objection to my interpretation of the scene.
If a 15 foot vehicle that you are standing within 5 feet of goes into a flat spin, you are at risk of being hit by it. That's simple geometry. I do not have time to discuss geometry while I'm trying to keep a fight moving smoothly, alt+tabbing between 11 different screens, clicking, adjusting, typing descriptions and so forth.
To answer the objections that were raised would have resulted in the scene grinding to a halt. We hadn't even finished the first round of combat, and already the scene was at risk of stopping.
Combat scenes in this game are slow. They take forever to resolve. I love the game, I'm enjoying the plot and the story that's coming out as the players get involved and regularly bend the plot over a barrel, but any amount of fighting is a pain in the ass to resolve. It's the most stressful thing I do on a regular basis, in fact. Work is a doddle, compared to the prospect of running a fight in my M&M game. Which doesn't stop me enjoying it. It's just a lot of stress, and a lot of work.
So... I logged out. I really couldn't handle it, and I didn't want to get involved in a discussion with six other people about why I was unable to handle it - the management of the game is meant to be invisible to the players. They have no need to know how much work I do to keep things running, because all I want is for them to enjoy the story.
We'll undoubtedly resume next week, hopefully with me in a better frame of mind.
I'm seriously considering some sort of mapping software, though. Not an online tabletop, though - just a shared map. That would really help, except for the fact that I prefer non-mapped RP combat, and M&M's combat system is designed to be non-mapped.
We'll see.
Thursday 2 April 2009
Weekly Games: D&D 4E
Right, so this is the first of my regular RP updates, focusing on... well, whatever springs into my memory, really.
This session was rather light on actual roleplaying, since the characters are currently trawling through a dungeon, and there were basically no opportunities for non-combat interaction with NPCs last night.
The weekly D&D game starts (officially) at 7.30 in the evening, and runs until at least 10.00, usually later. Last night ended just gone 10.00. For once we actually started on time, continuing from last session.
There was the obligatory chattering, description of various things the characters could see as they made their way deeper into Skalmad's lair, and by about 8.00 they had found a room with some nasties in it.
Since I don't particularly want to spoil the adventure for anyone reading this, I won't bore you with all of the details, but here's an interesting factoid:
Combat in 4E takes a lot longer than it ever has before.
I don't mean a bit longer. I mean a lot. In fact, last night's session consisted of the grand total of one single combat encounter. That's it. By 10.00 my wife was falling asleep in her comfy chair, so conversation with the rescued NPCs was put off until next week, but from 8.00 to 10.00 was one combat encounter.
2 hours.
11 combatants.
Now, time for the caveats: Adam had never played the character before, and indeed had never played 4E before, so we were teaching him as we went along, and leaping into playing an 11th level character is a lot harder than playing a 1st level character, so that slowed it down... a bit. But not by more than 20 minutes over the whole session.
It wasn't that the fight was hard, either - it's just that it took a lot of time, with all of the consideration, movement, reactions, interrupts, options and... well, the list just goes on and on.
Whereas in 3.5E a party could easily crack through 3 or 4 encounters in that length of time, the sheer (and almost overwhelming) array of choices has slowed the combat system to a crawl. I won't deny that the combat system is better, at least in terms of ensuring that everyone, regardless of their character, remains interested throughout, because they always have options on what to do next, but every single action taken involves an in-depth discussion of tactics that just eats away at the available time.
I'm certain that, with practice, it will get faster, but I doubt it will be by much.
Because of this extensive tactical consideration, my perspective of 4E as "a very good, detailed miniatures system" has been reinforced yet again. Where was the chance to try talking? Where was the interesting discussion about trapped doors, detailed searching, and witty banter with the NPCs? It didn't happen, but only because there wasn't time for it to happen.
Next week should include that side of the RP experience, and I'm really looking forward to it. It'll make a nice change from spending 2 solid hours running a single fight.
This session was rather light on actual roleplaying, since the characters are currently trawling through a dungeon, and there were basically no opportunities for non-combat interaction with NPCs last night.
The weekly D&D game starts (officially) at 7.30 in the evening, and runs until at least 10.00, usually later. Last night ended just gone 10.00. For once we actually started on time, continuing from last session.
There was the obligatory chattering, description of various things the characters could see as they made their way deeper into Skalmad's lair, and by about 8.00 they had found a room with some nasties in it.
Since I don't particularly want to spoil the adventure for anyone reading this, I won't bore you with all of the details, but here's an interesting factoid:
Combat in 4E takes a lot longer than it ever has before.
I don't mean a bit longer. I mean a lot. In fact, last night's session consisted of the grand total of one single combat encounter. That's it. By 10.00 my wife was falling asleep in her comfy chair, so conversation with the rescued NPCs was put off until next week, but from 8.00 to 10.00 was one combat encounter.
2 hours.
11 combatants.
Now, time for the caveats: Adam had never played the character before, and indeed had never played 4E before, so we were teaching him as we went along, and leaping into playing an 11th level character is a lot harder than playing a 1st level character, so that slowed it down... a bit. But not by more than 20 minutes over the whole session.
It wasn't that the fight was hard, either - it's just that it took a lot of time, with all of the consideration, movement, reactions, interrupts, options and... well, the list just goes on and on.
Whereas in 3.5E a party could easily crack through 3 or 4 encounters in that length of time, the sheer (and almost overwhelming) array of choices has slowed the combat system to a crawl. I won't deny that the combat system is better, at least in terms of ensuring that everyone, regardless of their character, remains interested throughout, because they always have options on what to do next, but every single action taken involves an in-depth discussion of tactics that just eats away at the available time.
I'm certain that, with practice, it will get faster, but I doubt it will be by much.
Because of this extensive tactical consideration, my perspective of 4E as "a very good, detailed miniatures system" has been reinforced yet again. Where was the chance to try talking? Where was the interesting discussion about trapped doors, detailed searching, and witty banter with the NPCs? It didn't happen, but only because there wasn't time for it to happen.
Next week should include that side of the RP experience, and I'm really looking forward to it. It'll make a nice change from spending 2 solid hours running a single fight.
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