Currently, we have FSZ ansd Caltak with finished PCs.
Keith and Baliadoc with ideas, unfinished PCs.
And Gemm interested in joining.
There's opening for 1 more player, max.
And the site is up at #game1.
Sunday, March 28, 2004
Friday, March 26, 2004
UA Snippet
Just one of those weird ideas... and, hey, you might meet this person :)
Lines (Mar 2004)
There's always a point where I go too far. I can feel it coming, when my fist impacts your face like putty, when the dog stops whining, when the other people stares at me in shock, trying to disbelieve what I've done. I can feel the lines. Right and wrong, good and evil, smart and stupid, pleasure and pain - all of them, and more besides. Some things don't even seem to have lines, but there are boundaries even there. Sanity and insanity, reason and unreason, love and hate.
It started when I pissed in the pool, when I was six. We'd been told not to, but I did it anyway. Everyone saw. Everyone left the pool, and my mother screamed at me. Perhaps it was then. Or when I was twelve, and masturbated in front of the class for show and tell. Or when I was ten, and ate a handful of live bugs just to prove I could. I was fourteen when I first cut myself. A knife, red hot. My own personal tattoo, on my arm.
Mom made me wear long sleeves. She took me to a shrink.
All I learned from her was that it's the people who think they're in charge who are more messed up than anyone else. They've seen real power, some of them. And they turn their backs on it. She told me she'd done crazy things when she was young, to get attention. But it's not about attention. It's about Power.
Real power lies in going too far, in going where other people won't, saying what they won't say, doing what they're too afraid to do. She'd had sex with her father, and her brother, and let her mother know. She'd had power, and she ran away from it.
It's what the shrinks do. Them, and cops, and anyone else. Authority exists to take away power by giving them power. Only those who want to abuse it last in it, because it feeds them. So they make laws, and lines, and signs. And those with real power cross them.
Sometimes it's a step. Sometimes it's more. Sometimes you get gunned down by fully automatic weapons in front of kids at a playground. Sometimes you start screaming one day and never quite stop. It's about pushing things, and seeing if they push back. Bending them. Breaking them. Watching things just give way under your word or action.
I'm not sure where it will end. I could cut my fingers off, or my ears. Or cut into my face and let everyone see what we all look like inside. Get a sex-change operation, and then a change back. I don't know. I don't know how far I can push the boundary before it tears. The light the religious freaks speak of when they die; that's one. But I want to do it and live to shove that into the faces of all the cowards who hide behind laws, and order, and normal.
I want them to see the prisons they've built for themselves, and hear the sound as the walls come tumbling down.
I want to go beyond all boundaries, to the places where power has no meaning, and be free.
I want to go beyond my freedom.
I want to go too far, and never stop.
And I want you to come with me, to see what I can show you. It's not hard. We can screw in public, to start. A threesome, if we can get one. Anymore and we'd be called a cult, or something. No. We just need to journey, and let everyone else be voyeurs.
Trust me. It's like sex, but it goes on forever.
Let me take you to real power, beyond the boundaries.
All we need is laughter, and love, and time, and perversity.
Come with me and go too far.
Do it. I dare you. Step over a line, and live.
Lines (Mar 2004)
There's always a point where I go too far. I can feel it coming, when my fist impacts your face like putty, when the dog stops whining, when the other people stares at me in shock, trying to disbelieve what I've done. I can feel the lines. Right and wrong, good and evil, smart and stupid, pleasure and pain - all of them, and more besides. Some things don't even seem to have lines, but there are boundaries even there. Sanity and insanity, reason and unreason, love and hate.
It started when I pissed in the pool, when I was six. We'd been told not to, but I did it anyway. Everyone saw. Everyone left the pool, and my mother screamed at me. Perhaps it was then. Or when I was twelve, and masturbated in front of the class for show and tell. Or when I was ten, and ate a handful of live bugs just to prove I could. I was fourteen when I first cut myself. A knife, red hot. My own personal tattoo, on my arm.
Mom made me wear long sleeves. She took me to a shrink.
All I learned from her was that it's the people who think they're in charge who are more messed up than anyone else. They've seen real power, some of them. And they turn their backs on it. She told me she'd done crazy things when she was young, to get attention. But it's not about attention. It's about Power.
Real power lies in going too far, in going where other people won't, saying what they won't say, doing what they're too afraid to do. She'd had sex with her father, and her brother, and let her mother know. She'd had power, and she ran away from it.
It's what the shrinks do. Them, and cops, and anyone else. Authority exists to take away power by giving them power. Only those who want to abuse it last in it, because it feeds them. So they make laws, and lines, and signs. And those with real power cross them.
Sometimes it's a step. Sometimes it's more. Sometimes you get gunned down by fully automatic weapons in front of kids at a playground. Sometimes you start screaming one day and never quite stop. It's about pushing things, and seeing if they push back. Bending them. Breaking them. Watching things just give way under your word or action.
I'm not sure where it will end. I could cut my fingers off, or my ears. Or cut into my face and let everyone see what we all look like inside. Get a sex-change operation, and then a change back. I don't know. I don't know how far I can push the boundary before it tears. The light the religious freaks speak of when they die; that's one. But I want to do it and live to shove that into the faces of all the cowards who hide behind laws, and order, and normal.
I want them to see the prisons they've built for themselves, and hear the sound as the walls come tumbling down.
I want to go beyond all boundaries, to the places where power has no meaning, and be free.
I want to go beyond my freedom.
I want to go too far, and never stop.
And I want you to come with me, to see what I can show you. It's not hard. We can screw in public, to start. A threesome, if we can get one. Anymore and we'd be called a cult, or something. No. We just need to journey, and let everyone else be voyeurs.
Trust me. It's like sex, but it goes on forever.
Let me take you to real power, beyond the boundaries.
All we need is laughter, and love, and time, and perversity.
Come with me and go too far.
Do it. I dare you. Step over a line, and live.
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
UA Update
The game is being set in the small town of Millhaven, Neb.
The PCs are students at Centennial High, the local High School.
Currently we have Keith (PC unnamed) the groundskeeper/janitor
Caltak, playing Hugh the antisocial goth
Bali, who may be playing a military brat
An NPC named Alexander, just a normal kid.
The PCs are students at Centennial High, the local High School.
Currently we have Keith (PC unnamed) the groundskeeper/janitor
Caltak, playing Hugh the antisocial goth
Bali, who may be playing a military brat
An NPC named Alexander, just a normal kid.
Sunday, March 21, 2004
UA CAMPAIGN
Time: Mondays, 10pm EST (1st and 3rd of each month). I'd like to do a planning session this monday (the 22nd) at 8pm EST. It'll go until 10, when Aftermath'll run. If you can't make it but would like to play get ahold of me with character ideas etc. Sunday. Thanks.
This is going to be a new campaign. Characters from previous ones CAN be used (and are more than welcome :)). What I need from all of you is:
1) Who wants to play? Why?
2) What KIND of game do you want? Lots of horror? Lots of tragedy? Lots of magick?
3) What kind of setting you want.. large city? Small town? Trailer park in the far end of nowhere?
4) General Brainstorming.
This is going to be a new campaign. Characters from previous ones CAN be used (and are more than welcome :)). What I need from all of you is:
1) Who wants to play? Why?
2) What KIND of game do you want? Lots of horror? Lots of tragedy? Lots of magick?
3) What kind of setting you want.. large city? Small town? Trailer park in the far end of nowhere?
4) General Brainstorming.
Why am I here? says the PC....
Just some thoughts on why characters get involved in games, and with other PCs, especially in existing campaigns. I for one tend to suck at introducing new PCs into games, and (hopefully) will remedy this somewhat in lolad and amber. Then I got to thinking about the entire player/GM relationship ....
The GM can put out the Plot Hook, and the PC not follow. Hell, it happens. A lot of the time. Or sometimes they see the Plot, and don't go for it, for whatever reason. What then? Well, says I, screw them. No, seriously. (But not literally.) Kill the PC off, or something. Tell the player to make a new one. Of course, this isn't always sensible or viable, but sometimes it has to be done.
The Plot is there for a reason, generally. Playing in RPGs is not like the movies, where you go to watch the scenes, and eat popcorn. Players need to WORK to get themselves into the plot, and stay with the others. The GM should guide them along, give them hints and ideas, but is not obliged to force feed them to the party. If the PC can't/doesn't work with the others, the PC won't be in the game. At least, that's my way of looking at things.
There are exceptions of course (see Vora :p) but in general GMs have enough to do without having to fit people into the plot like jigsaw puzzles. Want your PC to be a main character and do kewl stuff? Then get into the game and interact. It's not a movie, it's a joint effort and you'll only get out of it what you put into it.....
The GM can put out the Plot Hook, and the PC not follow. Hell, it happens. A lot of the time. Or sometimes they see the Plot, and don't go for it, for whatever reason. What then? Well, says I, screw them. No, seriously. (But not literally.) Kill the PC off, or something. Tell the player to make a new one. Of course, this isn't always sensible or viable, but sometimes it has to be done.
The Plot is there for a reason, generally. Playing in RPGs is not like the movies, where you go to watch the scenes, and eat popcorn. Players need to WORK to get themselves into the plot, and stay with the others. The GM should guide them along, give them hints and ideas, but is not obliged to force feed them to the party. If the PC can't/doesn't work with the others, the PC won't be in the game. At least, that's my way of looking at things.
There are exceptions of course (see Vora :p) but in general GMs have enough to do without having to fit people into the plot like jigsaw puzzles. Want your PC to be a main character and do kewl stuff? Then get into the game and interact. It's not a movie, it's a joint effort and you'll only get out of it what you put into it.....
Friday, March 19, 2004
Violence in RPGs....
Just some thoughts....
Violence isn't bad. RPGs are about FUN, primarily, and getting to do violence on others tends to be part of it. The problem I tend to have is HOW it's worked out ...
The hack'n'slash/D&D mentality: This is basically the mentality of teen novels. No adults, and you have to solve the problems because they're not there to do it. It can quickly get out of hand as a result (hend the hack'n'slash reputation), but the idea that It's Up To Us is a very old old, and extremely durable meme. Those who can do something are helpless and it's up to the New Generation to save the world/day/whatever.
But when you get rid of authority figures, you run into lots of problems. Mostly that of PCs doing whatever they like since there's no laws etc. stopping them. (I say bandit, you say hero....)
The "Tree hugger" mentality: These RPGs stress that violence is NOT a good thing and combat isn't something ever entered into lightly. They're largely modern games, and generally the moment someone uses guns you can kiss your PC goodbye.
But regardless of the game, the key seems to be violence being done OUTSIDE the law. The PCs are rarely FBI agents, or city guards, or law-makers. They're almost lnvariably roges, adventurers, hunters after insane evil cultists ....
So, instead of harping about it being good or bad in a game, try one with the PCs as law enforcers and see what happens. Hollywood does it. No matter how much blood and gore is involved and how maverick they are, the good guys are almost always police officers and the like....
Violence isn't bad. RPGs are about FUN, primarily, and getting to do violence on others tends to be part of it. The problem I tend to have is HOW it's worked out ...
The hack'n'slash/D&D mentality: This is basically the mentality of teen novels. No adults, and you have to solve the problems because they're not there to do it. It can quickly get out of hand as a result (hend the hack'n'slash reputation), but the idea that It's Up To Us is a very old old, and extremely durable meme. Those who can do something are helpless and it's up to the New Generation to save the world/day/whatever.
But when you get rid of authority figures, you run into lots of problems. Mostly that of PCs doing whatever they like since there's no laws etc. stopping them. (I say bandit, you say hero....)
The "Tree hugger" mentality: These RPGs stress that violence is NOT a good thing and combat isn't something ever entered into lightly. They're largely modern games, and generally the moment someone uses guns you can kiss your PC goodbye.
But regardless of the game, the key seems to be violence being done OUTSIDE the law. The PCs are rarely FBI agents, or city guards, or law-makers. They're almost lnvariably roges, adventurers, hunters after insane evil cultists ....
So, instead of harping about it being good or bad in a game, try one with the PCs as law enforcers and see what happens. Hollywood does it. No matter how much blood and gore is involved and how maverick they are, the good guys are almost always police officers and the like....
Monday, March 15, 2004
And Behind Door #2...
After Aftermath ends (Which, hopefully, should be soon, provided it plays...) the schedule for Monday will be as follows:
Week 1, 3: Unknown Armies, 10pm EST
Week 4: Paranoia, 10pm EST (Week 2 is possible as well, but not until 12:30 AM EST)
Month with a week 5 Monday can be either one, or UH or LOLAD depending on people.
Week 1, 3: Unknown Armies, 10pm EST
Week 4: Paranoia, 10pm EST (Week 2 is possible as well, but not until 12:30 AM EST)
Month with a week 5 Monday can be either one, or UH or LOLAD depending on people.
Is Ios Over?
Since it's been asked ..... technically, no. But I can't get Saturdays off, Sundays are always iffy for me (and I'd like a night free of sutff :), and Monday and Tuesday are both taken up with games.
It WAS going to end in 2 sessions anyway, at least the first Book, coinciding with the saving or destroying of Quan and the loss to of temporary setback of the Unnamed and the House.
Book2 was going to be about the invasion from the South and the threat of the Shadow King in the rest of the world. (It had been my hope the PCs would split up, with Ryu doing a whole Frodo thing. :)
Book 3 was going to be a confrontation with the Shadow King, one that (unlike dealing with the Unnamed) PCs actually standed a good chance of winning, if they made it that far and had learned certain things about the SK and some of the PCs (and Lisha, possibly one of the first quadruple agents in the history of espionage :p)
However, after 1 was over, I was basically going to ask if people wanted to continue or not. It *can* still be continued at some date, but currently is on hiatus. If players say "no, we don't want to continue" then I can tell you some of the evil plots that could have been.
It WAS going to end in 2 sessions anyway, at least the first Book, coinciding with the saving or destroying of Quan and the loss to of temporary setback of the Unnamed and the House.
Book2 was going to be about the invasion from the South and the threat of the Shadow King in the rest of the world. (It had been my hope the PCs would split up, with Ryu doing a whole Frodo thing. :)
Book 3 was going to be a confrontation with the Shadow King, one that (unlike dealing with the Unnamed) PCs actually standed a good chance of winning, if they made it that far and had learned certain things about the SK and some of the PCs (and Lisha, possibly one of the first quadruple agents in the history of espionage :p)
However, after 1 was over, I was basically going to ask if people wanted to continue or not. It *can* still be continued at some date, but currently is on hiatus. If players say "no, we don't want to continue" then I can tell you some of the evil plots that could have been.
Tuesday, March 09, 2004
What makes someone a superhero?
Currently writing about that for a game idea. People like, oh, that Millenium fellow, aren't superheroes. You can have powers, gifts, etc. and still not be a superhero. Why? What makes one person a superhero and the other just some bloke with a neat trick?
Any answers appreciated :)
Any answers appreciated :)
Friday, March 05, 2004
Paranoia!
ATTENTION CITIZENS:
Paranoia back!
Friend Computer demands you do not buy it! Knowing the rules is treason. Thank you for your cooperation.
Paranoia back!
Friend Computer demands you do not buy it! Knowing the rules is treason. Thank you for your cooperation.
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
WITH GREAT POWER ...
Comes this rambling.
Yes, it is I, Alcar, on the ye olde topic of super heroes and rpgs. Today I am going to begin with the evil known as tone and go from there. By tone I mean: the comics age a story is set in. The Golden Age (Superman's debut - the end of WWII) was the age of the classical super heroes fighting evil and injustice with their titanic powers. For example. Superman once brought Stalin and Hitler to the UN in some pre-WWII comics. The supervillain only showed up rather late. The Silver Age (aka the marvel age) changed heroes, and made them human, gave them flaws, but still saw them fighting the Good Fight (very few of them ever killed, and fewer died). After this (1970 ish), things get hazy. You get the Bronze Age (roughly the death of Gwen Stacey, introduction of the Wolverine type etc.) that lasts until the early 80s, where you get Watchmen and the Dark Knight Returns, which basically deconstruct (or, perhaps, respect) the superhero and examine it in rather gritty, nasty terms. The result of THAT was the 80s Angst Shinola with lots of whining, anti-heroes etc.. The 90s were mostly flashy, image-driven comics with the substance of tissue paper as far as the super hero genre went. Then you get Astro City that sets super heroes in the real world, but keeps them heroic.
So, to sum up:
Golden Age - four-colour, Fight For Truth, Justice, And the American Way.
Silver Age - Heroes become Real People With Real Problems, but still do the above. (Some of that can be attributed to the comics code authority, iirc. Golden age heroes would incinerate nazi spies without a twinge of remorse. The silver age was filed with codes against taking life.)
Bronze Age - Angst Angst Angst, anti-heroes, angst, wolverine clones abound. Take self way too seriously.
The 90s - All Style, no Substance. (Incinerate innocent bystanders without remorse.)
What's this have to do with super hero games? Why, everything. For better or worse, most games are set to work in one (or more) periods of comic history. The key point in these games is hero. The characters are above the common man, and superior to them. Sometimes this is because they do the Right Thing, othertimes it is because they do the Right Thing in spite of Being Hated. (For example, a group of heroes sworn to protect the people who hate them. They are known as homo stupido.)
The problem inherent in super heroes as RPGs seems, to me, is both a question of tone and playability. Tone works if the players and GM understand what kind of game is being run. Games can have super-powered types and not be superhero games quite easily (i.e. the TV show Millenium): it's more a question of the how and why the powers are used. The super hero is above everyone else, superior to them, whereas someone with a cool trick may not be. Their powers are greater, and so too are their faults.
With that out of the way, the playability issue comes into games. One, no one is going to play Superman. For a few reasons. The biggest is that, frankly, who would want to? He's bland, and boring. The other is that he is way too powerful for a game to really be fun (Though a Smallville-style variant could work). This presents a problem: How can a game account for heroes that range from Batman the normal to Iron Man in armour to Superman, except to put them together, and then expect it to work. IMO, it can't.
So a superhero game needs to define the limitations it's putting on powers, but also keep in mind that they need to remain superhuman and yet, after all is dead and done, be able to be challenged by threats. But some players take offence to the idea of the PCs having limits, even of what powers they can acquire. To each his own, but no game has worked that can incorporate all the power levels to my knowledge. It simply doesn't work for starting characters.
So we need a focus in tone (and the next time I pick up a Dystopian America setting I may scream), power levels, and finally theme. Do you make a character first and build powers after, or powers and then character? Do they have family? Secret Identities? Work for governments? Take down dictators? Live in the "real" world? All these need to be addressed, if only from a setting perspective. What kind of weaknesses are allowed? phobias? Do we want heroes, or basketcases? How do you ensure the characters DO heroic things? And, most importantly, if you want to use comic-book style, how do you prevent them from dying?
I could go on. For various reasons the superhero RPG is probably the hardest to create (it's not that big for that reason more than most others, I think), and the problem of the powers is one not likely to be resolved in most games, not if they want a rules-light system .... so, any ideas? Thoughts? I am half-tempted to look on this as a challenge and try to design a workable rules light superhero system....
Yes, it is I, Alcar, on the ye olde topic of super heroes and rpgs. Today I am going to begin with the evil known as tone and go from there. By tone I mean: the comics age a story is set in. The Golden Age (Superman's debut - the end of WWII) was the age of the classical super heroes fighting evil and injustice with their titanic powers. For example. Superman once brought Stalin and Hitler to the UN in some pre-WWII comics. The supervillain only showed up rather late. The Silver Age (aka the marvel age) changed heroes, and made them human, gave them flaws, but still saw them fighting the Good Fight (very few of them ever killed, and fewer died). After this (1970 ish), things get hazy. You get the Bronze Age (roughly the death of Gwen Stacey, introduction of the Wolverine type etc.) that lasts until the early 80s, where you get Watchmen and the Dark Knight Returns, which basically deconstruct (or, perhaps, respect) the superhero and examine it in rather gritty, nasty terms. The result of THAT was the 80s Angst Shinola with lots of whining, anti-heroes etc.. The 90s were mostly flashy, image-driven comics with the substance of tissue paper as far as the super hero genre went. Then you get Astro City that sets super heroes in the real world, but keeps them heroic.
So, to sum up:
Golden Age - four-colour, Fight For Truth, Justice, And the American Way.
Silver Age - Heroes become Real People With Real Problems, but still do the above. (Some of that can be attributed to the comics code authority, iirc. Golden age heroes would incinerate nazi spies without a twinge of remorse. The silver age was filed with codes against taking life.)
Bronze Age - Angst Angst Angst, anti-heroes, angst, wolverine clones abound. Take self way too seriously.
The 90s - All Style, no Substance. (Incinerate innocent bystanders without remorse.)
What's this have to do with super hero games? Why, everything. For better or worse, most games are set to work in one (or more) periods of comic history. The key point in these games is hero. The characters are above the common man, and superior to them. Sometimes this is because they do the Right Thing, othertimes it is because they do the Right Thing in spite of Being Hated. (For example, a group of heroes sworn to protect the people who hate them. They are known as homo stupido.)
The problem inherent in super heroes as RPGs seems, to me, is both a question of tone and playability. Tone works if the players and GM understand what kind of game is being run. Games can have super-powered types and not be superhero games quite easily (i.e. the TV show Millenium): it's more a question of the how and why the powers are used. The super hero is above everyone else, superior to them, whereas someone with a cool trick may not be. Their powers are greater, and so too are their faults.
With that out of the way, the playability issue comes into games. One, no one is going to play Superman. For a few reasons. The biggest is that, frankly, who would want to? He's bland, and boring. The other is that he is way too powerful for a game to really be fun (Though a Smallville-style variant could work). This presents a problem: How can a game account for heroes that range from Batman the normal to Iron Man in armour to Superman, except to put them together, and then expect it to work. IMO, it can't.
So a superhero game needs to define the limitations it's putting on powers, but also keep in mind that they need to remain superhuman and yet, after all is dead and done, be able to be challenged by threats. But some players take offence to the idea of the PCs having limits, even of what powers they can acquire. To each his own, but no game has worked that can incorporate all the power levels to my knowledge. It simply doesn't work for starting characters.
So we need a focus in tone (and the next time I pick up a Dystopian America setting I may scream), power levels, and finally theme. Do you make a character first and build powers after, or powers and then character? Do they have family? Secret Identities? Work for governments? Take down dictators? Live in the "real" world? All these need to be addressed, if only from a setting perspective. What kind of weaknesses are allowed? phobias? Do we want heroes, or basketcases? How do you ensure the characters DO heroic things? And, most importantly, if you want to use comic-book style, how do you prevent them from dying?
I could go on. For various reasons the superhero RPG is probably the hardest to create (it's not that big for that reason more than most others, I think), and the problem of the powers is one not likely to be resolved in most games, not if they want a rules-light system .... so, any ideas? Thoughts? I am half-tempted to look on this as a challenge and try to design a workable rules light superhero system....
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