Manofmanychars
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Posts
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Joined
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Well, sales numbers and convention turnouts don't agree. Fewer people are buying tabletop games, and fewer people are going to tabletop gaming conventions. It's like one of those cartoon graphs that's just a straight diagonal line from the upper-left corner, down off the graph, and then into the floor. John Wick was talking about it back at RinCon last weekend, it was pretty depressing, but it means we need to work harder to get new people playing.
His suggestion to get gaming wider appeal is to stop pushing D&D as the "beginner's game". To paraphrase, he thought it was stupid that the flagship PnP game was a five-hundred page tome with about six trillion supplements and if you do not memorize every single one then all your gaming buddies will make fun of you and hog all the treasure. He suggested simpler games, like Amber Diceless, or Toon. Simple games with simple rules. A player will learn how to roleplay eventually if he's ever going to, no matter what game he's playing (yes, even the so-called "advanced" Amber). But if you stick him with a complicated game with complicated rules, that'll turn him right off.
To quote John Wick himself (but not exactly, in fact, it's more like paraphrasing, or maybe paraquoting?):
"A guy wants to get into gaming, so he goes in, and what do we give him? *slams imaginary giant RPG book on nearby table* THE RULES! 'These are the rules and you shall live by them!' That's just stupid, when you could use a game for *airquotes to emphasize pompousness* 'advanced roleplayers*, like Amber? A little sixteen-page pamphlet. *flips through imaginary pamphlet towards audience* One page of rules and fifteen pages of examples and explanations. So, would you rather have *intense both-hands-waving-down-with-palms-vertical-towards-imaginary-giant-RPG-book* THE RULES or *waggles imaginary pamphlet* this?" -
I'm genuinely surprised that so few people have responded. I thought we were all into tabletop games, but maybe it's just a few of us. I guess John Wick was right when he said that tabletop gaming was dying.
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Quote:I never considered backstory to be part of actual chargen, that's more like preliminary development.Originally Posted by Kelenar
But it's one of my favorite comedy books! ... wait, what do you mean, it's not supposed to be funny. People are intended to actually play it? O-oh... oh my god...
Hell, most systems I play have chargens that can over an hour, easily. Exalted just because there are several dozen books containing options for some characters, let alone another fifty or so just of fluff stuff that might apply. Exalted and Changeling just because you have to put a good bit of thought into the character's backstory. Shadowrun... well, in Shadowrun, I just end up spending two hours picking out all the neat implants I want my character to have, then another hour picking the ones I can live without since I don't have enough points. -
Quote:Here's my basic rule of thumb for chargen:Originally Posted by Zekiran_Immortal
lol
Well there are 12 stats, but they're organized sensibly. (Physical and Social.) Chargen rolls ARE kind of stupid, I will admit, but I did a LOT of work to get them to be where I want em. The fact that there are 6 'breeding levels' gives your character the potential to either be 'normal' or 'insanely amazing', so...
... Orifice. lol. There's no magic, but it might as well be, they've got psionics. So the side effects are ... well, less thrilling than anything you'd find by rolling on the "Grimiore of Questionable Spells"...
I actually suggest creating the character's 'to hit' matrix by yourself because I was too lazy to make one
Plus knowing the math is either right there in front of you with a calculator (halves, -30s etc) or pretty easily eyeballed, I didn't bother with it. Too many charts. I've got plenty of charts, plenty of my own darn artwork (I am so sick of my own artwork...) and MORE than plenty of my own characters created over the last 20+ years... ugh. So. Many.
Heck here's the bulk of it (mostly social info, but some raw character generation info)
http://www.droppin-the-fork.com/zeki...zekira/woz.htm
Plus a character generator that actually uses all my hard-earned math to create randoms...
http://www.droppin-the-fork.com/zeki...oz-random2.htm
If it takes over an hour without using a web utility, you're either playing Palladium or you're playing a bad game (and the line between the two is fairly blurry). Or you're pulling from a lot of sourcebooks at once, like, so many that you'd pretty much HAVE to be playing D&D for there to be that many books to begin with. -
Quote:I doubt I'd be much use as a serious playtester on any game that's less than 75% done, but I could always run it through my patented "Is it in any way similar to FATAL" test. I check to see if it is in any way similar to FATAL, and then if any of it is, I will alert you of it immediately so that you can rectify the problem. Some general tips to pass the test the first time:Originally Posted by Zekiran_Immortal
I live in San Diego and have no regular games any more, because my car insurance is gone and I can't legally drive.
However, I *AM* writing and almost finished with the bulk of my "World of Zekira" rpg which is badly in need of actual playtesting. I've been writing the darn thing for over 20 years now, the game system itself is done, the basics of character creation and combat, etc those are all done. Details on the world and animals, not fully done. ... If anyone's interested I can slap my current files into a pdf zip and let you look em over. It's not meant for "immature" players, nor "inexperienced" ones, because of some of the subject matter.
Also, it was created when I was around 15. I am a girl. I loved horses. No it's not Barbie lol but it's more geared toward female players (that's my guess anyway). System and world are flexible enough that you could have a variety of genres for play style: horror, political intrigue, exploration, comedy, superhero, furry, pretty much anything's up except 'cyborg' stuff because the characters would lose any powers they've got with implanted stuff.
-Do not calculate ANY stats for ANY bodily orifice.
-No racist magical items.
-Nothing even REMOTELY similar to the Jar of J****** *** (it's that bad).
-Rolling d10000000 ever: BAD IDEA
-Keep the number of stats manageable (like ten or less).
-Make chargen rolls not stupid (5d100/5-1 is no good, especially not for 24 different stats).
-Wacky magical failure effects should be stolen from the Wild Magic tables, not the Book of Erotic Fantasy crossed with Black Tokyo (do not look Black Tokyo up, trust me on that one) and an Excel spreadsheet.
-Leave the critical hit tables to Rolemaster, or at least cheat off them.
Since you're female, I assume you'll avoid most of the horrors Byron Hall inflicted on womankind with his PDF of infinite badness. -
Well, if there's ever a Dresden Files MMO, I know the reason the players will be needed:
"Harry? I think he's on vacation in Rhode Island or something." -
Quote:Oh, well, that's another thing. Since we all know each other kinda, age won't be a factor!Originally Posted by NinjaPirate
I would love to find a regular gaming group but the last two I located in my area, turned out I was almost twice their average age.
Was kinda awkward.
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Well, it would be great for this thread to be stickied!
We could use it as a way to hook up for tabletop gaming. It'd be like a thread for trading identification codes for some sort of hypothetical electronic device, but way better, because it's LIVE interaction! -
See, the way I figure it, there's no mathematical way for this to fail.
There are over five-thousand people on the boards right now. Assuming even a few of them live in the same general area, that's a gaming group right there, no muss, no fuss. I only need .1% of the people currently online, out of the entire CoX community, to live somewhere in the East Valley (or even the West Valley if they don't mind a bit of a drive). Just five people, and that's a healthy gaming group.
If we made a Meetup group, we could even bill ourselves as a group meant for people of all regions to get together and game, and then we'll have even more people to draw from for gaming.
There's no way this plan won't work if we give it our best shot!
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Well, I'm broke, but it would be interesting to have one great big Meetup group for all CoX players to use to coordinate gaming. I know I'd join.
By the way, here's the Big List of my RPGs:
Blood & Honor (a realistic RPG of Tragic Samurai by John Wick, nothing like L5R)
7th Sea (the 17th century RPG, seafaring is strictly optional, also by John Wick)
Tri-Stat dX (a universal roleplaying system that allows infinite crossover opportunities)
Four Colors (if you liked the old Marvel Heroes RPG, this is pretty much a retro-clone of it)
Genius: The Transgression (fanmade WoD splat, be a mad scientist!)
Normality (AKA House of Leaves the RPG)
Stickguy RPG (for first-grade artists with first-class imaginations)
Heroes Unlimited (because who doesn't like Palladium?)
Mutant City Blues (Law & Order with low-level superpowers)
Paranoia (formerly Paranoia XP, MS demanded the XP be removed)
Ars Magica (a historical game of magi and the people that work with them in Mythic Europe)
Don't Rest Your Head (The Phantom Tollbooth redone by Tim Burton and Frank Miller)
Pokethulhu (based on the hit children's show about young cultists and the unearthly monsters they train) -
Hey, everyone! Are any of you guys sick of having trouble finding players with which to share tabletop games? Me, too.
So, here's an elegant solution: We all love tabletop games, give or take, so let's play them with each other! Seriously, there's a ton of us here, it shouldn't be hard to find sufficient numbers in various regions for us to go to our local game store and play games regularly. It should be fairly easy to organize and execute, and the only info we need share is what city we live in (which many of us do already). Heck, us CoXers are close-knit enough already that we probably should have thought of this years ago.
I'm in Mesa, AZ, and I like to play at Gamers' Inn, at Stapley and Southern. I've got a ton of different RPGs and other tabletop games we can play, and I enjoy learning new games, too. Saturday is what I'd like since we could play pretty much all day and even into the night since there's no worries about work or school.
How about you guys? Just let us know your city of residence and how you like to play, and before you know it, you'll be up to your armpits in players! Never again will you buy a new RPG book only to realize with despair that you have nobody to play it with! -
Meh.
I'm not excited until we have giant mechsuits powered by mysterious energy sources that for some reason only ever get piloted by hot-blooded teenagers.
Dibs on Daitarn 3. -
Brian Clevinger of 8-Bit Theater fame had a very good essay on the topic on the old website, but it (and other great essays, and all of the cool side materials) were eliminated in the redesign.
EDIT: Courtesy of Mister Peabody. -
D'awwwww.
This gets my seal of approval. -
Quote:Then get an old 360!Originally Posted by BlackArachnia
I don't have steam yet either, but I want to try Mass Effect, and I do not have the money for a new 360.
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Quote:It's not even DRM in the same way SecuROM is DRM. It's a client that launches the games, it doesn't fill your computer with nasty spyware crap.Originally Posted by Cantatus
Steam certainly is a DRM, but it's an example the industry should be looking at as to how to create a DRM that doesn't raise the customer's hackles. Most DRM seems to operate from the point of view that everyone is a pirate, and therefore we must all be punished. The limited activations is an example of this. No one could possibly have a legitimate reason for wanting to install a game multiple times! Ubisoft's "must remain connected to the internet at all times" is even worse as it's like they need to constantly check up on you.
Steam is better because, while it is DRM, it's a form of DRM where the benefits outweigh the negatives. While it combats pirating, it also has features like the instant messenger, game management, instant patching, and the store. It stops pirating in a way where legitimate customers don't feel like they are being inconvenienced, which has always been my main complaint about DRM. -
Quote:But there's a ton of online guides for how to play Steam games independently, IIRC.Originally Posted by Dark One
Steam itself is the DRM. Since games bought from Steam need that launcher/whatever the hell it is, iirc, in order to function. The Steam client itself is the DRM. At least that's my understanding of it.
Not much for DRM, I guess. -
Steam is great. I love it. You can get so many great games at low prices. I would never have paid full price for most of the games I got off of Steam for a song (Ghost Master, Freedom Force, X-Com, Uplink, Spellforce, etc.). As for DRM, it doesn't seem to have any except what's native to the original game. If Steam has its own, then it's damn unobtrusive.
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Quote:While I could easily list all of the JRPGs that defy your claims (in a PM, naturally, since public discussion of specific games is forbidden), I agree that the linked article is beyond stupid. "A couple new characters" means entire new forms of gameplay in fighting games, where the actual football players on your roster don't seem to have a huge effect on the game, as they're all basically all the same guy with different skins on top.Originally Posted by Lastjustice
Sure there's plenty of fighting games who's stories are nothing more than a bunch of characters from around the world having a giant **** measuring contest for whatever personal reasons.(that's like 90% of them which this tourney will some how decide the fate of the world...like being the best fighting is how people get elected or something.) Street fighter has gotten mindblowingly stupid infact as it's story is best ignored.
But many types of games can be thrown under the bus for having paper thin or little to no story. Megaman for most of the original series was Doctor wily (or someone fronting for him.) has created 8 robot masters...blow em up. Beat em up were usually someone got kidnapped and rather than call the police(because the justice system gotten so bad that it's no logner an option.) lets go take justice into our own hands and pile driver every hapless idiot that walks up to you. (which I wish more of life's problem could be solved that way.)
Most Jrpgs are so cliched that there's an entire page outlining them all. Basically some 12-15 year old boy needs chase after some girl he just met and kill monsters which will somehow lead to him saving the whole planet. (thank goodness for teenager hormones being the catalyst for saving planets.) Most genres have a mountain of games with the same formula for stories. Fighting games really aren't any worse offenders than the rest.(which if I had say the two best story lines of fighting games I'd say Mortal Kombat and Soul calibur ..atleast till recently in 4 were among the two best.)
I think gaming really needs work on being more than a thinly veiled excuse for people to beat up or shoot stuff. That's really the whole gaming culture as a whole not just fighting games. -
Quote:Fixed.Originally Posted by Mr. DJ
I think currently...Japan's equivalent of Rob Liefield is Kubo Tite >.>
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Quote:They're what people hide behind when accused of being wrong.Originally Posted by Cowman
Ah, so you have hard data for this then.
"'Opinions'? What are those?"
All I need to point to is DC and Marvel. They make up far more of comic books than any of the crappy stuff does of anime/manga. -
Quote:Guess which makes up a greater percentage of the medium.Originally Posted by Cowman
And I've seen ****ing awful anime. What's yer point?
Hint: It's comic books. -
Quote:Except none of them are on the level of Superman or Green Lantern or even Hawkgirl. Not in Japan. Head on up to my list, those things are as huge as today's major superheroes.Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
Ichigo from Bleach. I don't read it, still know of it.
Edward and Alphonse Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist, a very good manga and anime series that I have yet to finish but really, really like. It's also a lot better than a good many western comics, IMO
Alucard and Seras from Hellsing. Hell, Alucard pretty much wrote the book on badass vampires. Probably in blood.
And I've only read and watched the last two. So theres 3 more for ya.
Trivia: Gurren Lagann didn't have nearly as much impact over there compared with the US. -
Quote:Fixed. I've seen the recent crossover events.Originally Posted by Cowman
Yeeeaaaaaahh........
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Also, manga and anime are not just equivalent to superhero comics. They are also equivalent to cartoons, and pretty much every animated/drawn subset of media, including non-superhero comics (I don't hear Racist Man complaining about Archie being forgotten). That's why there's so much more anime than superhero cartoons. It's because in order to compare it fairly, you'd have to stack it up against every single bit of our media in which a pen hits paper.