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Trinity Universe: For the love of God, why? Looking to start an Adventure! game.


Heritage

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This is a very good question; my own posting schedule has fluctuated a lot the last few years, but now that I have several internet options, my access is fairly consistant. At this point, I guess I would be looking at say, oh, one post every two days? More frequently if possible, and probably less over the weekends.

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Hopefully the potential work schedule I will have will not be a crimp on this. Shouldn't be. Still waiting on the interview.

But I am confident I should keep up.

Addendum: Who can we get back for this? Luckily all the posted characters from previous startup are still up. Outside of Grim and myself sounding on for this.

Think we can take new guys too?

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Believe in me, who believes in you!!!

Yea, like I said, I'll at least give this the old college try. Just not looking to have online RP dominate my life like it kinda did back in college. Slippery slope and all that.

Anyway, that said, this is quotemyname's new subaccount for Tarik. DO NOT SEND MESSAGES to the old account. I'm no longer going to be checking it. It was created back when I didn't know subaccounts actually existed. This may look like the same account, but it's not. The old one had spaces in the name (old: Tarik The Turban) the NEW one does NOT have spaces (new: TarikTheTurban). So get it right! ;)

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Okay, due to a profound lack of sleep last night, I'm not gonna be around much today. I can say that while we're bascially using the game setting as it occurs in the rulebook 'right out of the box', we are jumping ahead 14 years; this means some of the characters written up in the book will be dead or missing, or working for someone else. Also I am hard at work generating a whole NEW rogues' gallery of fascist finks to suppliment the ones included; I want there to be a lot of room for fun and surprises in this game!

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A few other ideas.

1. Instead of going the Aeon route, players can pick pretty much any Allegiance they want as their primary allegiance. However, the also get a free dot in backing: Special Branch (or another equally cryptic name).

2. What is Special Branch? It's one of those shadowy organizations that popped up before WWII as a way for the not-yet-Allies to obtain intelligence on the growing fascist threat without directly involving the nation.

3. The team would be based out of the British Museum, or rather the secret cellars below it.

Any thoughts?

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:D Oh yes, that's what I like. Lots of unknowns yet... one thing is certain. We're gonna do a lot of running, punching, shooting, and probably running the other way. If only to repeat the process. B)

Ohhhh... and I like our base of operations! Might modify my allegiance a little.

Oh! I know! the Air Circus! She would still be with the 99's that Amelia Earhart founded, but Anne would probably have heard of the Flying Circus through them!

Brilliant!

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A few other ideas.

1. Instead of going the Aeon route, players can pick pretty much any Allegiance they want as their primary allegiance. However, the also get a free dot in backing: Special Branch (or another equally cryptic name).

2. What is Special Branch? It's one of those shadowy organizations that popped up before WWII as a way for the not-yet-Allies to obtain intelligence on the growing fascist threat without directly involving the nation.

3. The team would be based out of the British Museum, or rather the secret cellars below it.

Any thoughts?

What do you intend the focus of the stories to be? Investigation, exploration, adventure, combat against XYZ?

I haven't decided if I want to dip my toes into the pool again (seeing as basically all my other games around here are dead/super slow) and I want to make sure my sensibilities align with your plan, which I think they did not with the Supers game.

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What do you intend the focus of the stories to be? Investigation, exploration, adventure, combat against XYZ?

I haven't decided if I want to dip my toes into the pool again (seeing as basically all my other games around here are dead/super slow) and I want to make sure my sensibilities align with your plan, which I think they did not with the Supers game.

Fair enough, it's always best if you have a good idea going in what the focus will be.

I'm not 100% down with the secret government branch concept, since it might cause as many problems as it soloves but I like operating out of the British Museum. Perhaps a whole new faction? Anyways, I guess I always liked the way they handled it in the Indy movies: there are powerful artifacts/knowledge/technology out there that we want to keep out of sinister hands, and if at all possible procure for (in this case) Britain. So in some ways all four of the points you stated, sort of in that order.

Another possible idea for the affiliation: the team are the research arm of the Museum's Special Collections department, which does a lot of fieldwork, up to and including being shot at from time to time.

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I'm not 100% down with the secret government branch concept, since it might cause as many problems as it soloves but I like operating out of the British Museum. Perhaps a whole new faction?

[snippage]

Another possible idea for the affiliation: the team are the research arm of the Museum's Special Collections department, which does a lot of fieldwork, up to and including being shot at from time to time.

What I'm seeing here is the GM answering a question with a question and with a suggestion. Please don't take offense but ... Do you know what you want this game to be? It's ok if you don't but it's hard for potential players to create characters and get excited for a game that is a moving target. "Secret Agent pre-WW2" game is wholly and entirely different from "archaeologists and explorers: the game".

I'm gonna keep an eye here for now, but I am not throwing my hat in until I see signs that this game has a shape other than "amorphous pulp thingy".

Sorry for the bluntness, if it offended it was not intended to, I merely want to be clear.

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Yeah... definitely a we gotta stay under the wire on things too. I guess that is where the "Secret Agent" thing is coming up.

Perhaps we should just accept facts and just realize that our characters are about to get drafted to fight on the weirder front of the Second World War, a covert, and I cannot overstate weird front.

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What I'm seeing here is the GM answering a question with a question and with a suggestion. Please don't take offense but ... Do you know what you want this game to be? It's ok if you don't but it's hard for potential players to create characters and get excited for a game that is a moving target. "Secret Agent pre-WW2" game is wholly and entirely different from "archaeologists and explorers: the game".

I'm gonna keep an eye here for now, but I am not throwing my hat in until I see signs that this game has a shape other than "amorphous pulp thingy".

Sorry for the bluntness, if it offended it was not intended to, I merely want to be clear.

No, I'm not offended, and if anything I prefer a little bluntness :D

I should say that this thread was sort of exploratory in nature, and to that end I wanted to get an idea of what people wanted to see in WWII-era pulp game; I'm pretty flexible by nature, so I was tossing out a few ideas to see what folks were most interested in, with the intent to flesh out whatever type of story got the strongest response. So in many ways, we can sort of think of this as the pre-recruitment thread: once we have a better idea of the tone folks want to see most, I will open a wider thread, since I think this one is very confusingly titled, which is my own damn fault. I think only you, Kam, Quote and myself even know what's going on in here ;)

A lot of this apparent vagueness is I'll admit due to the failure of the OS1 game, which I finally ended, because it was built on a poor foundation; I want to make sure this game is built on solid ground. To that end, I will ask the group currently posting in this thread, would you prefer a somewhat looser game set in the world of fringe academia, or a somewhat more structured game with more direct ties to the government/military? I am fine either way.

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"Do you smell fudge?" Is from Warehouse 13. Great show, check it out.

Heritage:

Personally, I love love love the Indiana Jones series. Which I would say qualifies as 'fringe academia' if anything. However, I think a game like this would benefit from having more structure. Therefore, my vote is going toward the government/military (though if I'm outvoted it won't be any skin off my back). I think that if there is an entity 'calling the shots' as it were (telling us where to go, who to talk to, or even just giving us mission objectives from time to time) the game would flow better. We'd have clear cut objectives, story arcs, adventures, etc. I think this would work even if said entity was behind the scenes, like some mysterious benefactor, or perhaps a fake organization set up as a front for something bigger and more far-reaching. Hell, the entity could even be, say, Oxford. A college or something that would provide us with an interesting bit of research and spark us wanting to investigate further (sounds like something that would happen in the world of Indiana Jones).

That's my 2 cents anyway.

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Ah, smart, find out what we want on the pizza. Alright. I like a straight shooter.

I have always taken this as we are that happy "middle ground" between the comic books and mundane reality. We're more extraordinary than the ordinary public, so our lives will, at least in the classic epic or dramatic sense will be just as interesting. We're Ulysses, Myamoto Musashi, Wild Bill Hickok, The Red Baron. There is the potential for legend around us, or at the very least we end up at the right place at the right time.

I liked the idea of our group getting tied up with a British Museum "Warehouse 13" scenario, Which seems to feel like the final death-knell of the concepts of Victorian England for the more modern era that will come to be after the Second World War. If anything, we are very, very good repo men at worst, militant antiquarians at best. If anything this could also (depending on how light things are outside of the darker moments) could shape up like a late 1930's "The Librarian" if you've seen those movies.

We just stepped into a strange, crazy world, and it's about to go to war. I can fully imagine facing Nazi or Japanese mad scientists with various, mind-blowing wunderwaffe-type weapons ready to be unleashed on a unwitting free world. Hitler looking for some serum he can give himself and his SS to grant them superhuman invincibility. Or even find a set of artifacts that can serve to protect America in it's darkest hour.

I fully expect not to be dressing up like circus acrobats with masks and capes. We are definately not leaping tall buildings in a single bound here. (Although it might be doable in multiple as a precursor to Parkour with Stalwart ability, but I digress) We're skilled, talented, lucky, and blessed with gifts that give us a greater edge. We're the best at what we do.

What better to ensure that the forming Axis doesn't get ahead? What better to stop the rogue madman or traitor to the crown? The world's busy preparing for war. We're here to sort out the bloody nutters!

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As I am running something along the Warehouse 13 lines for my TT group (using His Majesty's Order of the Fox as the player organization) I'd prefer something more structured. Since my bluntness was also welcome ( ;)) I'll also say that I think what hurt my involvement in the supers game was that it was a little too open and a little too reliant on players as investigators instead of characters as investigators. For me I was left flailing about unsure how to proceed because unlike my PC I have no investigation experience. It left me cold and with the then erratic posting pace caused me to drift away from which I was unable to recover. Not that the style can't work for other people, but it doesn't for me.

For my part I'd like something like Atomic Robo or Hellboy/BRPD myself. Something where we can expect to know somewhat up front what the goals of the "mission" at hand are. Later, once the game is successfully moving under its own power for more than a single chapter, things can merge with a more player led style as the PCs start to make plans against antagonist individuals and organizations, but still within a structured group with goals that at least on the surface are straight forward and clear.

As for theme and tone ....

  • I prefer pulp over supers - lower power, lower scope of power, and generally a little more "grounded"
  • I'm pretty A-OK with steampunk/clockpunk/deiselpunk ... hell, I would consider playing an Atomic Robo style "automatic intelligence" as a PC depending on the game (though the A! rules pretty much mean that would be lame as crap)
  • I'd like to avoid the tongue in cheek silliness that Warehouse 13 brings to mind (lets face it, its a dramady at best) but likewise would rather not be drenched in the drab and dark grimness of neo-noir-pulp. The best parts of Indiana Jones always toed the lines of silly and serious while riding in a firmly centered balance. (as much as I love Dr. Dinosaur from Atomic Robo, that kind of thing does not work well in an RPG unless everybody is in on the joke.)

All of this said, I don't expect to receive special treatment. I honestly don't know if I will play even if it's exactly what I am looking for in a game. That is why I suggest that whatever you do do Heritage, make sure that it is what you want to do. Nothing is worse for a game than a GM who is compromising for the PCs but not really happy with the result.

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James has some points.

After the first couple of adventures, I am sure that a good number of us will have some enemies we want to deal with and probably a conspiracy or two to trip over.

I'll be honest, I do sort of like hunting down clues and all, but unlike my character in HoH, I don't have a near-200 IQ, And my best detuctive skill usually draws from my obsessive watching of the BBC's Sherlock.

That... and I'm a notorious airhead. Derp seems to be my neutral quantum state.

But, once the evidence comes together I tend to get my act together.

As for technology, I definately would like to see a transition from the Pre-War methods and asthetics into what we see during and after. Alot of what would be used in WWII we might run into as prototypes, I'm just not sure where the supersience would stop.

While I don't mind wild-and-wahoo, I think with this at least a little bit of care would probably need to be observed by our characters. And as for danger... well I fully expect that... a pistol can be quite a bummer if those bullets hit. Yes we're great, but still vulnerible. I like that. We're NOT Novas. We can bleed, we can be hurt, and potentially we may die.

Not sure if I'm on your vibe, Heri, but I think I am close. And I do like most of Jameson's observations. But I also think the crazy stuff could appear once in a great while, as a breaking beat in the story. Something fun but not necessarily a beat in the main rythym of the overall story you wish to tell.

Also, do you wish to do this as more episodic stories that may or may not relate to each other, or as one ongoing plot where each story dove-tails into the next (with necessary downtime calculated in)?

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I agree with pretty much everything that's said in the past 3 posts.

The main selling points I'm interested in are:

- A little bit of structure - I'd like for you, as GM, to tell us what the mission is, give us a few leads, and have at least a few "final battle" scenarios in mind for each adventure / story arc (for example, 3) in preparation for us being A: really successful, B: A little successful, or C: Botching up (The villains get away and we have to face them again). Give us the beginning, lead us toward one of a few possible endings, but leave the choice of roads we travel to us.

- I like my OJ Lots of Pulp! - When my character punches someone, I want to hear someone breaking a 2x4 to produce the sound effects (a la Indiana Jones). When we confront the villains, I want to hear an evil diatribe telling us what they were REALLY up to this whole time ("Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to my secret underground lair"....) And I fully expect the villains to be as witty as we are ("No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die.")

- Stand and Deliver - You're going to the trouble of asking us what we want out of this game. That's got me interested. We're returning the favor by spelling it out for you. Don't drop the ball ;)

Otherwise...

pre_1354108577__dr_orpheus_approved.jpg

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Okay, it seems everyone (including me) agrees that more structure is better, and Jameson I feel your statements about the confusing storyline in HoH was pretty much dead-on, and something I want to avoid. With the bank robbery, everyone knew exactly what needed to be done, and then it was just creative problem-solving; the early Bird case was an experiment that taught me a lot of things, many of which I want to apply to this game.

So let me propose this scenario:

England, 1938. Another war is looming in Europe, less than a generation after thirty-seven million men, women and children perished in the so-called 'War to End All Wars' - if only that were true.

Disturbing reports are filtering back to British intelligence about the true goals and methods of the Third Reich and Fascist Italy, reports that border on the realm of science-fiction. It soon becomes clear that this impending war will be a very different struggle, once for which Britain is woefully unprepared.

What England needs now is men and women of vision and accomplishment, comfortable in the dark corners of the world where the lines separating truth, history and legend blur. Men and women of outstanding courage and innovation, who have seen the future but are not afraid of what lies ahead, individuals who will use the amazing gifts Providence has given them to throw a beacon into those dark corners, and drag those who lurk there out into the sunlight.

His Majesty's Government has begun quietly reaching out to these sorts of individuals to recruit them into a very special, very secret new endeavor, in fact so secret that only a handful even know it exists. Housed with the walls of the esteemed British Museum and known only as the ‘Exotic Acquisitions Department’, this team of scientists, explorers and men of action are tasked with a singular mission: to explore new technologies and find rare artifacts that might help the coming war effort, and perhaps more importantly, to keep them from falling into the hands of madmen.

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And I FOR ONE think that should be the starting post for a new thread. I love it! Lets take it to broadway!

Yeah, that's pretty much the plan, dude. Oh, and I made a few minor edits to the post, many fixing the speilling of 'acquisitions' and to modify this part: 'to explore new technologies and find rare artifacts that might help the coming war effort, and perhaps more importantly, to keep them from falling into the hands of madmen'. I just like the emphasis on how in someways it's more important to keep stuff out of the bad guys than to get it ourselves; if we get it, great, but if we fail, let it be in such a way that no one gets it!

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Oh heck yeah! Oh and for some morale boosting in a pin-up way. "Remember to always read up on what you're gonna be dealing with before a mission, agents! Even Lady Aceworth brushes up on her Tesla Deathrays. And she can build them! Knowledge is Power!"

Yeah, slightly pin-up on this pic. Someone drew Anne and I was amused. What she does to increase morale.

1353969744721.jpg

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