Fools who can't come up with their own topics

Y'know what I find funny? When somebody who claims to hate rpg.net with a raging huge hard-on, and yet still has to steal topics from there for their own forum. Yeah RPGdipshit is at it again.

Does it bug you when a player has been participating in a game for several sessions, and still doesn't know how to do basic things in spite of having done them multiple times, and had it explained to him multiple times?

Would it make a difference in whether it bothered you if the guy was generally dim, or if you had the sense that he just doesn't care enough about learning the rules? Or if you got a sense that he won't learn the rules specifically because he knows everyone else will tell him how to do stuff?

An amazingly obvious copycat thread starter like this one over on the old big purple.

What do you do when a player simply won't learn the rules of the game.

He lacks so much in originality that he has to lift ideas from the place that he is constantly bitching about. Well the number of threads being updated per day seems to be down so I guess it is about time for him to start doing this in an attempt to get posting back up. He did the same when rpghaven was first trying to start up.

Guess that what has to be done when your raging epeen filled with anger online persona stops attracting the folks.

The Other Side: Skill resolution mechanics

Skill ranking and mechanics idea. One main goal is to just use six sided dice since they are my preferred die type and easily available.

Most likely I'll be using cascade style skills like out of Unknown Armies or broad traits like Over the Edge. Either way there will be three rankings when you choose them skilled, adept and expert. This will tell you how many dice you roll. But you only keep one, the highest. Unless you are trying something you have absolutely no skill, in that case you keep the lowest.

unskilled roll two dice and keep the lowest
skilled roll one and keep the highest
adept roll two and keep the highest
expert roll three and keep the highest

Some skills would be listed as NA for unskilled and impossible to do without possessing it.

Target numbers would depend on the action. Some would be based off a preset difficulty. For example with lockpicking the lock would have its own number that needed to be reached. 2 for the easiest and 6 for the hardest. Others such as dancing would depend on a number determined by the GM, with 2 being easy and 6 being the hardest.

Target numbers for hitting somebody would depend on the weapon and range/actions of target. Examples: Long range would add one, moving target would add one, duress would add one, weapon is low quality adds one, things like this. So if you are trying to hit a perfectly stationary target at normal range the difficulty would be 2. But a target at long range that is running and you are being shot at also (duress) would be a 5.

Of course this could make combat pretty deadly with expert fighters. But then again, shouldn't it be that way?

Thinking of some sort of instant success choice with easy task. Like the take 10 and take 20 rules from 3rd Edition D&D. Where a skilled character spends extra time to make sure he is doing it correctly and is careful.

The Other Side: The Sight

The Sight

In the world of The Other Side there are people who have a gift of sorts. It's a gift that allows them to see what most others cannot, they can see through the veil of our reality. The structure of our world has a tendency to try and protect those who reside in it. First step in protection is simply hiding what does not belong. So the cracks in the walls, creatures who have slipped through, people who have figured out how to use powers that are seeping in; all of these, they are covered up. Only those with the Sight can see or detect them.

They, of course, are the player characters.

Hopefully this will allow the game to be ran in a few different ways by game masters. From a group of monster hunters, to a occult detectives and people thrown into the power struggles between beings from another world who are using our reality as a battleground. It will also add in the extra antagonists of law enforcement agencies and such who will see an assault against an otherworldly humanoid predator as an assault on a strange acting homeless man. So there can be plenty of material to work with.

Now of course not everybody can see as good as the rest. The Sight will have a skill rating and anything that is hidden by the veil will have a difficulty number to beat in order to see. But everyone with the site can see the cracks, of course that's not necessarily a good thing since by seeing them you risk getting pulled though without a choice.

Why some people are able to see like this and others are not is a subject of great debate... among those who know of it. Common theories are human evolution in defense against a growing enviromental threat, influence by some as of yet unknown race from the Other Side who are secretly aiding us, even some think that it's caused by the amount of dependency that we have on avenues of escape from the world on a daily basis. The actual truth is nobody really knows. I don't even know and I'm never going to make a set reason. This is something of the cosmological setting in the game that will be left open for GM's to fill in for themselves if needed. Or they can use the same answer I will be 'nobody knows'.

Again idiots keep babbling on

The RPGdipshit continues his usual tirade showing his true colors. Basically this post of his boils down to 'run games like I do or you are running it wrong!'.

The Swine mistrust both setting and players.

Look at the Call of Cthulhu Swine, when they insist that players should not be allowed to have a high percentage in gun skills, or want to actively punish those who do. That's distrusting the player, and/or the setting. Its assuming that the player will not themselves have the sense to know when to use the weapons or not; or for that matter, the setting won't have the sense that if a player doesn't use his judgment about when to shoot or not to shoot, the setting will kill him.

But the Swine have never cared very much about emulation, I guess.

So yeah evidently all players all over the freaking world are just like his players (okay some of his are probably imaginary). Sorry but some GMs have to put some of their own rules in place to make their games run how they like them. It's an age old tradition in gaming called 'house rules' he may want to check those out.

The Other Side - The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Pulling the name from my never finished system for Dark West on this one. I've always been a fan of having advantages and disadvantage in my games. It helps add depth to the characters and gives the GM a bit more insight into what the players actually want to do with them. So nearly any system I come up with is going to have these. Just sometimes how they work may vary a bit. Here are some details on how I see them working in The Other Side at the moment.

The Good and the Bad.

First thing out of the box I am not going to allow these to give the PC's any sort of financial or material gains. Turns it into more of a 'look what I get to start with!' situation. Instead they will be about their actual body of the character. Things that will affect their physical, mental and social abilities. They will be subdivided down into those three categories as well (hat off to the old WoD on this).

Now what I haven't decided on is how to figure out how many of each the players can choose. There is always the point buy method of varying degrees. Massive point pool to buy the entire character with, but this doesn't fit how I see the rest of character generation. Point swap, where the Bads would give you points to buy the Goods with, this has potential. Then there are a few random methods as well. Rolling dice for the number you get is an easy out but lacks flair. Or maybe even the lifepath set up that is used in games like Cyberpunk 2020. I just want to make it match the feel of the game somehow, exactly how to do this is the big question.

The Ugly.

Now this idea is lifted pretty much straight from the Kult rpg and honestly it's probably the main thing about character creation that I loved in it. Every character has something they don't want others to know, part of their past that makes them what they are today. They all have a dark secret. Nearly anytime I've ever ran anything horror related other than Kult I wished that I had put this into it. So much to use is just handed over on a silver plate to the GM. So I am damn sure going to be putting this into The Other Side.

Now I always like it when players make their disadvantages/advantages all cross into each other and with their dark secret. Suffering from nightmares from when they were the victim of a medical experiment, cold blooded because years back they were in a situation where they had to kill other people to survive, these sorts of things. So I'm going to work in a way to reward players for doing this. Depending on how I end up making the resolution mechanics it may be chances to reroll per game, extra dice in die pools, or bonuses. Maybe even all of them based on how the relation is done.

I want character generation to make the players think about how they want their characters to really be. All the way to the core. This seems to be a good step in that direction.

Old post from livejournal.

Fired up my old livejournal account and was looking back through some of the posts. Now over there is where I first started using the 'stupid shit' tag for special posts that just really made me go "What an idiot.". So after looking at a few of these I figured I would repost one of the old ones here. So dating back from April 23, 2009 here is one I titled 'What a twit....'.

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Marcus King, the owner of the retail store Titan Games and Music, bitches about companies giving discounts on their pdfs but not to the brick an mortar stores. The article is here:

http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/14705.html

Now I would like to add that the reason these publishers gave these discounts is due to the fact that WOTC pulled all their pdf titles down and the publishers were trying to help the pdf sellers 'keep afloat' or some such. Basically they are trying to keep another seller of their product healthy.

Now back to Marcus. I've met Marcus once at a con, didn't seem like that much of a dick. But after reading this article I've got to say he really looks like one now.

Bitching that he wants free copies of Exalted to give away. Guess all the point of sale boosters like posters, quick play guides and discounts for buying quantity at release points don't matter. Oh lets not forget the free VTES starters they gave out there for a while, or the free promo cards they used to give out. Shit guess he forgot about all that.

I used to play the hell out of the Cyberpunk CCG. I got into it when the local shop gave me and a buddy a couple of decks that he was sent FREE. Once we got a few others playing the shop sold several boxes of the game. 7th Sea was the same, walked into the shop and the owner handed us a couple of free starters he got from AEG.

You see many publishers have been BENDING THE FUCK OVER BACKWARDS to help out the brick and mortar shops for years now. I've seen it. Seen free books sent to shops, free give away stuff, free this and free that. Discounts at conventions to retailers buying straight from the publishers there. So when they go and try and help the pdf shops he gets all pissy about it.

Fuck him. I hate people with selective memory who forget things to make their own arguement more valid.

You don't see him bitching about internet discounters cutting into his bussiness though do you? Amazon sells a metric assload of rpg stuff for cheaper prices than the shops. But since he sells on amazon I guess he keeps his mouth shut there.

Liquid Television back on the air, well at least the net.

MTV has finally did something really good for once. They created a Liquid Television website and uploaded, as near as I can tell, everything that ever aired on the show. This included a lot of animation made by very small studios, films that were a labor of love for these people. This included...

Aeon Flux.

Still one of the most surreal cyberpunkish series of shorts that I have ever seen.

Liquid Television - The alternative to reality.

Hell I still love that tagline for it.

Screams from the Outhouse: Todays dice.

One of the first visuals that comes to mind when you mention role-playing games to anybody who has had any experience with them is that of dice. We seem to have a love affair with our dice. From people who collect endless amounts of sets and varieties to rituals that some do at the table to help their odds of rolling good numbers. Don't even try to grab somebodies little pile of polyhedrons without first asking for permission, you can lose a finger that way. It's in our blood to roll these things, the clickity clack of the plastic across the table is forever ingrained into our minds.

But usually the image in all our minds has pretty much remained the same. The colors may change, the six siders may have pips or numbers, the one may be a little picture instead of a number. But they all have nice, flat, solid sides. Koplow, Gamescience, Chessex and many other dice makers have their own fans who say they are the best, but in the end they all end up looking pretty much the same. Even when Crystal Caste turned up with some neater looking designs and the 'rolling log' appearance most still remember the ones they have spent years with.

However things are changing in the dice market now. The technology used to etch or laser craft dice has become more available over the years. People can now operate out of their homes, basements and garages in the dice business. The base unetched dice must still be bought from suppliers because, lets face it, plastic injection mold machines are a bit much to get into. So now you can have custom made dice for your specific game or campaign made just for you. Want a D6 with the symbol of the ruling empire in your game on it? It can be done, just decide how many you want and they'll send you a price. Combine this with blogging about all your new creations, your successful (and failed) tests and you can build up some popularity.

Dicecreator

However for some this is not enough. If a technology is out there and it can some way be used to fulfill a gamers dream then by god somebody will use it. Enter the age of 3D Printers. For those of you who don't know these are damn near micro factories that can print full three dimensional objects in a variety of materials. You just design the item you want, or scan the hell out of an existing one and let the printer 'build' it for you. They are truly wonderful things.

So of course people are breaking the mold in how dice should look. Especially since the 3D printers break all the rules of the old injection mold technology. Things that would have required multiple pieces and be glued together can now be built as one object. Over on Shapeways there is starting to be a large variety of these dice being made available all with some very interesting designs.

Made by Wombat

Masterworks

These are just a couple of what is there. Plus there are many other sites offering up 3D printer created objects. Prices will vary a lot from maker to maker of course. But this is the start of a movement into smaller independently owned creators and away from the mass quantity companies of the past. Will Chessex and their like go away? I doubt it. But they will have some unique competition now.

Story out of Sequence part five

“Vehicle is a white Monte Carlo year 1980, excellent condition, plates number is SD4 56T. Doors appear to be locked; windows are rolled up, no keys present in ignition.” Detective Samantha Haberlin circled the vehicle talking into a small recorder in her hand. “In the back seat there is a plastic rifle case, several boxes of ammunition and a closed green sports bag. In the front there appears to be an empty bottle of Jack Daniels, an unfolded straight razor, loose cartridges for a pistol on the floorboards and a photograph of a girl. Oh and a sealed blank envelope on the dashboard.”

“You always seem to beat me to the scene Sam.” A voice sounded off from behind her.

“That’s right Murphy, always have and always will.” She turns to see the detective making his way around the police cruiser blocking off the alley. He looked like death warmed over this morning, probably hung over again. “Rough night?”

“As usual. It locked up?”

“Yeah, we’re supposed to get the keys for it sent down here once Julia gets done with the shit bag down in the morgue.” After pulling a five out of her coat pocket Samantha flags an officer over to her. “It looks like we will be here for a while why don’t you go get us all some coffee. Make mine black.”

“Same here.” Murphy spoke in as he peered through the side window of the car.

“Yes ma’am.” The officer turned away and headed off towards another patrol car on the street.

“So you think it’s going to be awhile before we get the keys Sam?”

“Well the body got pretty well ventilated. Jones is the one that finally took him down and you know how trigger-happy he is. With the way this guy went off you know he didn’t spare him any lead either.”

“Last count I got on the way up here was nine dead and fifteen wounded. With two of the dead being cops. I just can’t wait until we get a bullet count of how many rounds he put into him.”

“Detective Haberlin?” An officer approached from the end of the alley. Sam turned and gave him a nod. “Miss Bates down at the morgue wanted me to deliver you this. She said you wanted it as soon as possible.”

“Thanks.” Sam takes the envelope and looks inside, “Better glove up Murphy. For once somebody worked in our favor. They went ahead and sent us the keys.”

“I call dibs on the trunk.”

“I figured that much.” She sat the envelope on the hood of the car and slipped her gloves on, then pulled the keys out. “Quite a few on here, guess later we get the honor of trying to find out what they all go to.”

“Yeah lots of fun that will be. Hopefully he had some local next of kin to help us out when we get ready to do that.” He made an angry face as he pulled his gloves on with a snap.

“You always look like you’re about to give a cavity search every time you do that.”

“Yeah but the guys down at the jail hate it when I do one, my hands are to big for their tastes. Now come on let’s open the baby up.”

Sam looks through the keys a bit before finally selecting one out. She slides it into the lock on the trunk and turns it. “Well time to see what a psycho gun nut keeps in his trunk.”

“Oh didn’t know we were going through Jones’s car.” Murphy said with a grin as the trunk rose. “Okay now that’s not what I expected.”

“Holy shit…” Sam raises the recorder up to her mouth, “Inside the trunk there are several knives lined up in a rack, varying in size. A box of latex gloves, plastic bags, several rows of duck tape, rope, a Polaroid camera and some storage boxes.”

“I’m opening one of these boxes.” His hands gently lift the top of one of the boxes open while attempting not to disturb anything else. “Pictures, um … nothing special just a few… wait a second.”

“What is it?”

Murphy stood back up and goes through a hand full of Polaroid’s while Sam looks over his shoulder. “Victims I assume. Bound up and apparently being cut to death.”

“I recognize that person. She’s one of the victims of that serial killer that disappeared about a year ago. You remember that?”

“Yeah the one who got nicknamed the slow slasher since he took his time killing the victims. That means our man lying on the slab at the morgue is probably him.”

“I’m gonna go call this in. This pulls it out of our jurisdiction now.”

From the mouth of a fool

Okay I haven't made fun of the RPGdipshit in a while so I think now is the time. Over on his forums there has been a poll with various games listed and the question is 'which of these are storygames?'. Now the raving fool is all mad because his favorite game is scoring high as a storygame. He makes this comment:

This is a stupid thread. You don't vote in a poll to decide what's a storygame or not. Its a question of the landmarks that define gaming. If the majority vote differently, all that means is that they are misinformed.

Now keep in mind this is the guy who thinks that HE decides the landmarks and writes the definition of what is an RPG. He will completely refuse to see another persons point of view if they think differently and label them as 'swine'. He is like Ron Edwards but only with a different set of favorite games... although they both hate White Wolf stuff most likely because they will never be that successful.

Yeah so his thinking is that everyone is misinformed because they refuse to follow HIS set of rules. Ron Edwards all over again. He is what he hates.

The Other Side visuals

This is what you find when you make your way to the other side. The bleed was at an amusement park, one minute you were walking through the crowds of people smelling of popcorn and sweat. Then you saw the crack and you stared at it a few seconds to many. Then in a blink the people are gone and all you can smell is the mold and stagnant water.

You really don't want to be caught there once the sun goes down.

The Other Side - quick overview.

A few notes about 'The Other Side' which I'm currently getting ready to start working on. It's my own personal little horror setting with influences from a bunch of different places. Some of the terms I have used before with other ideas or in various discussions about games I've ran. But they all seem to just lead right back to one place.

The reality we know is only one of many. They sort of exist like a spiders web, all tied together by various strands. Some exist right next door to us while others we have to cross more than one world to get to. Problems arise when the walls between these realities begin to weaken or crack and they start to bleed into each other. This also allows for things to travel between them.

Our little world is nearest to one that most simply call 'The City'. It mimics that which bleeds into it better than most others. Most of the surface is covered entirely by a city in various states of ruin and disrepair. Through it is how we gain access to others, but it's a dangerous place and many do not live to tell of their travels there.

Humans have souls, something that sets them apart from many other... things out there. Although there is no heaven and hell or angels and demons as we know them. There are, however, the places and creatures that provided the inspiration for the stories about them.

The characters will be those who are able to see the cracks in the walls of reality. For some unknown reason their minds are able to catch a glimpse of what others cannot. A few think this is an a sign of evolution, others think it's the laws of another reality bleeding into ours, many wish they never had that sort of sight at all. Because when you can see the cracks it tends to be easier to accidently slip over to the other side of them.