Stheno Posted June 24, 2001 Share Posted June 24, 2001 Has anyone else out there had any experience of running or playing campaigns at the 75NP plus level ?I'm running a game at that level of power...partly because I'm stealing ideas right left and centre from Iain M Banks and Planetary and Julian May (not to mention all the fiendish little plot hooks I've *ahem* borrowed from the august members of this forum), and I'd rather not kill off all my PCs, and partly because this is a group of players I get to run games for every 3 to 6 months or so, if that much, so I wanted to give everyone the chance to have some fun.You know, to play the really, hugely powerful characters we've all dreamed of, but never get the chance to play (and let's face it, it's more fun to get there by yourself most of the time).Seems to be going well, but a lot of that is due, I think, to the fact that I have a small group of players, and all of them are more interested in coming up with a good story than kicking Pax's ass...Just don't ask them about brains in goldfish bowls, mechanical/electronic enhancement of the MR node (it's addictive, you know...) or the Giant Squid Which Ate Pax's Foot.Yes, I am serious.And no, it was not played for laughs.And yes, it really was Pax's foot.Stheno"Oh hell, it's a giant calamari. I don't need a forcefield to handle that!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kane Knight Posted June 25, 2001 Share Posted June 25, 2001 I'm planning on running a game where each Nova is allowed 100 NP to start. It's going to focus on extreme power in a world of baselines, and how human mentality changes when able to do what humankind has only dreamed of for thousands of years.Where it goes from there depends. Depends on what me players want. Depends on what their characters are like. Depends on what kinda ralism level I think they want and I think I can pull off.------------------The Eleventh Wonder of the World.Hype, Sacrelige, Uniforms... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jager Posted June 25, 2001 Share Posted June 25, 2001 We tried a little excersise with starting characters and xp. 750 xp, that is.Before you go all ga-ga, though, remember this; it takes 25 nova points to get a level three power to 5. You can expect 15 min. to go into Quantum. That would be about half of their points gone.It takes 7 nps to get all your stats to 5, 81 points to get all your mega-stats to 3's. Those points go away fast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wizard Posted June 25, 2001 Share Posted June 25, 2001 My campaign used a default of 45 NP with the ST willing to allow more to those that provided an appropriately entertaining rationale. I think the initial group was a Spiderman built on 25 NP and an Iron Man wannabe on 68.It didn't really change the roleplaying aspects all that much since we were still interacting with humans and nova of lesser levels. Therein lay our weaknesses for those that aspired to godhood. While possible to destroy or render unusuable vast areas of the Earth, those with destructive power still couldn't achieve any but the most mundane of goals based on sheer power alone.Needless to say, canon wasn't that important to us. But then again some portions of canon are a little silly. A railgun satellite that can't be detected? How about following upward the line drawn by the ionized air trail as the 'bullet' enters the atmosphere and burned downward. Amazing what a little perception can do.Puh-leeze. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stheno Posted June 25, 2001 Author Share Posted June 25, 2001 In fact these characters were all 130 to 150 nova points...and those points sure did go away fast.The most munchie (potentially) of the party was the character with Quantum 6, Quantum Construct 5 (Mastery 1, Sentient extra).As it happened, not one of the players abused their characters powers. The whole excercise was a lot of fun, and I intend to continue.The funniest thing was this load of apocalyptically powerful novas wandering around Salzburg dorm'ed down looking for the bad guys (like The 4 from Planetary...I tend to have "cosmic vacuum cleaner" campaigns...), all of whom are Pre-Galataea novas (it's an idea I've played with since I started running Aberrant...so much fun...).The character who started with Amnesia as a flaw was the one who decided to go and talk to the first one of them they met.Now, I had told the players that, upon examining a photo of these 4 novas, this particular woman very closely resembled Sonja (the character with amnesia).She was still kind of surprised to find the woman in question calling her "Mother" though... Not to mention that this left them enough information to establish that poor Sonja was actually born in 1892.Hell, I get to run it once every 3 months.Might as well rock the world while I can.I have to say, Wizard, the game you mentioned sounds very interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wizard Posted June 26, 2001 Share Posted June 26, 2001 Quote:Originally posted by Stheno:I have to say, Wizard, the game you mentioned sounds very interesting.The characters or the railgun reference?The initial troupe was an even mix of plagarized heroes and original charcters. Lots of fun as a group since we all had our areas of specialty. The group included:Elizabeth Dowling: a Directive agent and mole.Titanium: The Iron Man wannabeSpidermanJackal: A stealth expert, thief and pranksterFate: A molecule control freakFlash: A speedsterThe railgun story was the first time I've ever seen our ST really to sweat as we calmly discussed ways to either take it or destroy it. We decided that IC, our initial response would be to destroy it as we were (mostly) acting to preserve life and limit the damage. We received the standard canon responses and then acted to trash the thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jager Posted June 26, 2001 Share Posted June 26, 2001 Wizard, you are forgetting that PreCognition was outlawed along with common sense."What, you didn't 'feel' someone about to punch a hole in the earth? What kind of psychic are you?"Come on now! I know that even Inner Space is a vast place, but look for the thing that goes boom in your mind. You have superpowers, ya know.Maybe something was shot at Bahrain and the island went boom. I am not so sure the shooting and the boom were directly connected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stheno Posted June 27, 2001 Author Share Posted June 27, 2001 I think Wizard is talking about Worldwide Phase II and the silly anti-nova ortrillery being given a "trial-run" on Ibiza in the final adventure (destruction of the Amp Room).As to Bahrain...well, it's mighty convenient for Aeon that it went boom, isn't it ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wizard Posted June 27, 2001 Share Posted June 27, 2001 WW PII was the source of the reference although it took place a little earlier in our campaign than canon would place it. Our ST felt that it was only an outgrowth of previously sketched ideas that were in the prototype stages of development by the time of the Galatea.I can understand that the writers would want a cool toy to send shivers up the spine and remind novas that baseline humanity still has technology to even the odds but the set up on that was a little stupid. Not the field test, I can actually picture that one being argued as "no one will ever figure out what really happened." But to arbitrarily decide it couldn't be located?Our ST made the assumption that it was similiar in design to the mega-warheads used in the Kingdom Come limited series, designed to spook or spoof all known meta-powers, and therein lay it's downfall.We just followed the air disturbance, visually, back and sent a series of homing Q-bolts up the line of bearing. No muss, no fuss. The only quandary of the ST, as he decribed it later, was whether we killed the satellite or they shut it down because it was under attack. Since we only wanted it shut down, one is as good as another.[This message has been edited by Wizard (edited 06-27-2001).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coriolis Posted July 17, 2001 Share Posted July 17, 2001 Sorry Stheno, I never did understand your obsession with having the pcs play walking gods. (Yeah, I play Nobilis but read it, that is very different.) I remember going to sleep one day and waking up with Animalism 4, having had none the previous night. I liked Bagman's response best of all, he spent all his extras in one of your games on the most useless skills available to mankind. Can't remember what, possibly advanced knitting and teaching penguins to tango. ------------------Bast protect us all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stheno Posted July 17, 2001 Author Share Posted July 17, 2001 I don't have an obsession with having PCs be walking gods.I like running games a certain kind of way.Sometimes it works out well, sometimes it doesn't.It seems that you, the Bagman and the Ranger don't like that style of play. Fine.I don't want to get into _that_ argument again. You run your games one way, I like mine another. Sometimes.The game I referred to when starting this thread was something I intended to run as a one-off, and it worked out very well.The power level of the characters fit well with the level of the story.---I remember going to sleep one day and waking up with Animalism 4, having had none the previous night---Well, there was a reason for that.It was a mistake, mind you. But I did have a reason.---he spent all his extras in one of your games on the most useless skills available to mankind---Did he ?I don't remember that at all.It does sound like the kind of thing he'd do, alright.---Yeah, I play Nobilis but read it, that is very different---Don't have the opportunity to read it. I think the problem is that you, the Bagman and Ranger all thought I had an obsession with godlike PCs, when what I was trying to do was run games in a certain kind of way...and not succeeding, obviously. No one is perfect.Especially not me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winter_Heart Posted July 17, 2001 Share Posted July 17, 2001 Having god-like character does sound found.Even tho, if you ask me, 100 NP shouldn't be considered godlike in many case....The only problem with truly godlike character is... what the hell do you do with them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coriolis Posted July 18, 2001 Share Posted July 18, 2001 Sorry Stheno, that wasn't meant as a barb, we've all known each other too long for that. We've had some cool games and I'll let the point rest. Myself, Ranger and Bagman do favour a different style but even amongst ourselves you couldn't find a lot of similarities, the guys claim (LORD KNOWS WHY!) that I'm obssessed with time travelling Nazis. Ah well.------------------Bast protect us all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coriolis Posted July 18, 2001 Share Posted July 18, 2001 As for Nobilis, I sent Ranger a copy of the playtest for the new edition, its cool. I think you'd like it. Rather Sandman in ways.------------------Bast protect us all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stheno Posted July 18, 2001 Author Share Posted July 18, 2001 Sorry about that.I was in the middle of completing an assignment for my OU course...and I was a bit touchy.As to Nobilis...I'll grab it off the Ranger.Or I'll steal it from his house while he isn't looking.And you are obsessed with time-travelling nazis.Nothing wrong with that, though.They make for such...interesting plot options.I think I've got the powerful PCs thing licked though.It works in some games, and with some stories, and more importantly, with some players.Werewolf, on the other hand...Werewolf requires PCs who are so wimpy the Bone Gnawers look down on them and think, "Poor schmucks"... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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