Special Announcements

[atpollard]

My family time gets hectic around Nov 15 and returns to normal around Jan 15, so the Feb 1 date proposed above works for me ... or whenever.

[Rukellian]

would love to, but I am still getting my sh-t together on all of this. Reading your guys' posts is helping though. Once I get a decent amount of time on my hands, I will sit down and take a look at what I am doing here. I think one of the main things I need to tackle is to get you all together so that there is more oppurtunities for character dialogue and interactions. The open world attempt on my part did not translate too well considering how you are all accustomed to playing. I'm taking note of that. When I get back, the tasks will become more clear and specific, the npc descriptions and roles more.... well more than they were before.

Edit: What really tired me out though... now that I think about it, was the idea of playing so many npcs at once, characters that were either abandoned by players or brought in by me to keep things moving. As the DM, I shouldn't have to do all that. Right? When I seriously come back into this game, whether it be in a month or two months from now, I want to make sure that all of my ends are covered and that the same mistakes won't be repeated again.

Seeing you guys having your bit of fun here, it has got me thinking... what is it that you all missed most about CoH, for those that played it I mean? For those who haven't but are attracted to this kind of game world, what really keeps you going each day, make you look forward to playing this? I'm asking these questions because I think I've lost sight of this part way into the game. Once I know for sure what those answers are, I can move forward with my planning in the right direction, introduce more of what you guys want and have been looking for in our current/previous session.

While waiting for everyone's schedules to settle down after the holidays, and after giving Ruke a break, I wanted to set up a quick question and answer list here. The questions will be the ones I stated up above, and I would like EVERYONE to answer over the course of the break, new players coming into the game as well (Looking at you Mister-Kent ).

[atpollard]

For those who haven't but are attracted to this kind of game world, what really keeps you going each day, make you look forward to playing this?

Something of a strange question for me to answer ... I am generally playing a villain in this game, and chose to do so because I was basically 'double dog dared' to ...and who can resist a double dog dare?

On the other hand, I am also the one who wanted to play enough that I created an NPC to insert into the hero thread ... just because I could. So I guess that I do want to play, which qualifies me to answer your question.

I am still adjusting to the superhero tropes. I find that I tend to think too small for the world that I am adventuring in. I plan to build a car bomb ... and the companies ... not even superheroes, just corporate America, is researching teleportation machines.

But I am having fun ... both as a villain and just playing. I think that the WHY lies in the 'anything is possible' nature of the rules. Just think of something to do, roll a semi-related skill check and poof ... success or failure.

Right now, in real life, I am working 80 hour weeks ... 19 days in a row so far ... and I really NEED to find something to do that doesn't involve civil engineering. THIS game, gives me a place to play 'make believe'. I can be someone else ... anyone else ... and interact any way the mood strikes me. And someone will interact back. It's the magic of Let's play make believe. I enjoy it. I enjoy the challenge. I enjoy the interaction. I enjoy being surprised.

Today, a grumpy doctor got into an argument with a grumpy old nurse in a burned out war zone and a superhero got to protect them from an angry girl ... nothing epic. No great master plot. Just fun ... and make believe.

My advice, remember that play is supposed to be fun, so do what brings you pleasure.

I hope that answers your question somewhat ... It is the best that I can do at 3 minutes to midnight ... the end of another 18 hour day.

[Mister-Kent]

I love playing in superhero games that really feel responsive and alive, that reacts to the players actions. I've never played CoH, but if I played MMOs I think I would have loved it.

I wholly embrace and enjoy superhero genre tropes, and I also love playing with them--which is why it's always interesting to be the supervillain. I haven't really played a supervillain in an RPG, but I like writing badguys from the GM perspective and in my comics. So this will be extra fun for me!

[Zhym]

It's hard to describe what was great about CoH. A lot of little things. Flying, or super-jumping, or super-speed was fun. The Rikti War Zone, where heroes and villains teamed up to take on a greater threat—I really liked that. Missions were good, if a bit repetitive after a while. The teaming system worked well, I think, and task forces were particularly cool (if you could devote the time to finishing them).

But, really, it boiled down to the ability to fly/jump/run/teleport around and kick villain butt.

[MonkeyWrench]

I never played CoH and I don't read comics so... you could say that Rebirth of Power was my first real attempt at getting into the superhero thing, yeah I've known about superheros and everything but I was just never really into it, I blame my upbringing

As for the game, I enjoy playing it. I enjoy playing the likeness to Doctor Manhatten from the watchmen, only a sneaky bird guy. And I hope you all enjoy his little phrases and how out of touch to reality he is, that whole thing was planned out to cause more grief to my character and maybe some interesting development when we face off against Rooke Industries.

I also really enjoy playing as the psychopathic killing machine Victor, or really "The laughing Genocide", specimen EX100334502-EFR. Becomes sometimes its always good to get into that mind set, lose the complexity of the situations, always trying to see what the moral side of it all is, he doesn't care, if it's fun then it's fun.

I will agree with you Ruke, you can't play as a bunch of NPC Characters as well as run an open world, it'll just burn you out. NPC's are fine, and a lot of them gives games more texture, but you don't need those NPC's tromping the sewers with us you know?

[GreyWolfVT]

well MW you do make a good riddler joker mix for a bad guy.

[MonkeyWrench]

Thank you kindly GW

I was initially going to do the rhymes for all dialogue but got tired of that real quick, so I switched it to him only doing that when he is having "fun" with others.

[Rukellian]

The Rebirth of Power campaign will officially start back up on February 1st. If everyone decides that an earlier date would be better, I will consider it, but some time after the new years please.

Things that will happen upon restart:

PyroArrow, if you are still with us, you will need to drop one of the two supers you are playing, Aether/Max or Flicker/Steve. I believe that if you focus your attention on just one super, it will help with your posts and allow you to go further than just the bare minimum.

Permafrost will be dropped and potentially Vorpal.

Current missions will be cleaned up and reorganized to be more clear and specific. Some hand-wavium may be in order.

Two new players will join us with their characters. Let's try and get them ready by Feb 1st guys.

There will be more action for both sides, hopefully.

Player input and questions are welcome.

[MonkeyWrench]

Elsa is getting dropped!?

But who will be Ravens straight-man now?! His comedic efforts will go on deaf ears!!

[GreyWolfVT]

Hmm Hot Streak might have to leave so I can be Vorpal

[Rukellian]

Hmm Hot Streak might have to leave so I can be Vorpal

A character swap eh? I can give you the stats for Vorpal if that is the case. Will leave it up to you in the end. May I ask why though, just out of curiosity?

Elsa is getting dropped!?

But who will be Ravens straight-man now?! His comedic efforts will go on deaf ears!!

Yeah, ever since Tooley left her on my front doorstep, she's just become another thing I have to worry and keep track of in my list of npcs. Unless another player picks her back up, which I am not going to push for, she will probably be cast to the side and hand-waved into the game's background story doing something behind-the-scenes and all that.

[GreyWolfVT]

Why I say Why not. Vorpal kicks ass and takes the damage something Hot Streak cannot do.

[Rukellian]

Why I say Why not. Vorpal kicks ass and takes the damage something Hot Streak cannot do.

Fair enough. We will have to come up with a good plot twist for Hot Streak then, turn him into a background npc nuisance or put him through a 'tragic' accident.

[GreyWolfVT]

I would hate to see Vorpal leave I'd be happy to just have him as my henchman or something.

[Rukellian]

A heads up for everyone. I will be away from the computer while taking a vacation. This will occur June 22-26 this summer.

[GreyWolfVT]

no a problem most of us have hung in there during the other game pauses it bothers me not at all Ruke

[Rukellian]

For those who are still with me, I'd like to make an announcement. I am currently in the process of wrapping up both of my games on this forum. My fantasy one, Fabricator of Planes, and my superhero/villian one Rebirth of Power. However, I am not done with them, at least not when it comes to story plot. These games were my testing grounds, to see what rule systems worked best for me. I have thoroughly tested each one, but for the players' sake, especially those who hopped in at later dates, I don't want to end it all just yet.

Here is what I am proposing. I am currently learning a new game system on the side right now that offers a fantastic level of character building customization, much like BRP for those who are familiar with Tooley's campaign Silverymoon. It's called GURPS and I'm currently using 4th edition. When I finish each of my games at a certain point, I will archive them as completed and start setting up a new one using the GURPS rule system. In this system, you can choose to build your character in terms of stats, abilities, skills, and even slap on some disadvantages and weaknesses if you prefer. It's all points based and no dice rolls are needed. Lot's of min and maxing, might not be for everyone. But for those who cannot resist the invitation to build a character exactly the way they imagined it, this new game of mine might be for you.

Those in my fantasy game, Fabricator of Planes, can convert their characters over while maintaining their stats and proficiencies and equipment. The story will be picking up after the events of the Fabricator of Planes and will interact with my Rebirth of Power game in a unique way. Some character creation flexibility will be allowed, giving players the opportunity to further develop their characters the way they originally intended them to be.

Those in my Rebirth of Power game can convert their characters as well over to the new game too with relative ease. The story will be picking up after the Green Storm incident and the reprecussions that follows, allowing the group of supers to interact with the heroes of Fabricator of Planes in a unique way. With the GURPS system, you will all be able to create your supers the way you originally imagined them, not being forced to settle for random power rolls, it will be the ultimate character creation process where 4C failed.

This is a lot to spring on to you guys at once, but its not a forced decision either. If none of you care to try out or play the GURPS game system, I will carry on the respective games as they were using the previous characters and rule systems in place. It will just take some time for me to get everything organized.

[GreyWolfVT]

I responded to this is your Geetings post back in the main site. But I am game to learning GURPS and sticking to the game here. I don't wish to leave. So you're stuck with me Ruke. Even if you let MW kill my 2 villains.

[Zhym]

Cool. I have one of the old edition GURPS books but never had a chance to play it. It'll be interesting to see how the characters are converted.