lategaming

OMG, I’m feeling the love for Planetary all over again.

I’m itching to run a Planetary-like game using Wild Talents. Soooo much….

“Blood running in the streets. Mobs of rioters and demonstrators threatening banks and legislatures. Looting of shop and home. Strikes and unemployment. Trade and distribution paralyzed. Shortages of food. Bankruptcies everywhere. Court dockets overloaded. Kidnappings for heavy ransom. Sexual perversion, drunkenness, lawlessness rampant. The wheels of government are clogged, and we are descending into the vale of confusion and darkness. No day was ever more clouded than the present. We are fast verging on anarchy and confusion.”

And things seem okay.
Still somewhat frustrated that the theme keeps dropping and I’m not aware of any log files/errors.

Annoying.

Codename: Warhead AKA David Bruce Brandon
Appearance: Warhead is an 8 ft tall humanoid suit of armour. Brandon is a slighty overweight man with unkempt brown hair and bushy eyebrows.
Background: Dr David Brandon is a robotics engineer. He discovered his electrical generation powers as a teen and quickly started to use it to power small devices. The Warhead armour was the culmination of a series of inventions which, while they seemed revolutionary, could only be used by him. Along with the armour, he has a motorcyle and an electric car; neither of which have batteries. David loves the thrill of adventure when in the suit.
Known Talent Abilities: David can generate electrical energy. It’s of a sufficiently low level that it cannot be used to create dangerous attacks but it has been use to power the warhead armour removing the need for bulky power supplies.

• Harm (AU) - Shock only

The Warhead Armour provides the following advantages

• Armour (Heavy Armour)
• Strength (HyperBody)
• Protection from cold, heat, pressure, oxygen (Immunity)

Sparkle AKA Helen Louise Ross
Appearance: Sparkle is a blonde caucasian woman in her mid-thirties. She’s attractive but her demeanour is very downtrodden. She is surrounded by sparkling motes in the air around her.
Background: Helen was a normal working mum with 2 kids, a busy husband and a dog. She was driving her children home from school when a car ran a red light and was about to hit her car when it was enveloped in sparkling light. The car was hefted over her car and into oncoming traffic causing a 7-car pile-up. Thankfully no-one died. She drove home, shaken more by the Sparkles which still surrounded her, than the accident. Her husband was not understanding, however, and within a matter of weeks she was homeless, presented with a restraining order preventing her from contacting her children and facing charges for criminal damages to 7 cars and 13 personal injury claims. These days, bankrupt and with a 2 year probationary sentence, she work on a construction site as a Lifter and has fallen in with a Talent support group.
Known Talent Abilities:
Sparkle can generate a visible telekinetic field within a short range of her body. The area effect of her ability is indicated by the movement of sparkling motes in the air which affect her ability to remain concealed. She calls this her “Sparkle Effect”.

• Telekinesis (ADU) - Obvious
• Flight (U) attached to Telekinesis - Booster, Multiple Targets

Inferno AKA Brad Nelson
Appearance: A well-built caucasian man in his twenties with blond hair
and grey eyes. When using his power, his hair and eyes are usually ‘leaking’ flames.
Background: Brad Nelson was always spoiled. He was tall, good looking, excellent at sports and graduated valedictorian of his class. He had it all and he was a Talent. But, like all spoiled brats, he was greedy. Brad debuted as a supervillain known as Phlogiston in New York. On his first outing, a bank robbery, he was utterly defeated and catapulted into the Hudson. It was desperately humbling. His resolution: become a hero. He took acting lessons, spent more time in the gym and at the dojo, moved across the continent and got himself a PR Agent. He’s not rich, not yet…
Known Talent Abilities:
Inferno can release flame from any part of his body. The shape and intensity of the flame can vary in intensity and he is immune to it’s effects. He cannot lessen ambient flame nor can he shape it into anything other than a burst, though he can reduce the effects.

• Harm (ARU) - Burn, Killing Only, Engulf, Spray, Obvious
• Immunity to Flame/Heat - Endless

Hemlock AKA Robert Gage
Appearance: Hemlock is a powerfully built human male who usually wears a close fitting impermeable black garment underneath his normal clothes. His gloves and mask are removable.
Background: Robert Gage developed his toxin producing abilities during gestation and as a result his mother died during an emergency procedure. As he was being delivered, his poisons killed two nurses and incapacitated his doctor. His father fled and refused to have anything to do with him and he was given to an orphanage. He spent his entire youth in isolation, limbs wrapped in plastic, terrified that his touch would kill. Always studious, he was awarded several scholarships, none of which he could accept. After his 16th birthday, he left the orphanage and attempted to make his own way in the world - not an easy task considering his isolationbut he muddled through gaining many useful contacts. Three years later, he was contacted by a lawyer as the sole inheritor of his father’s estate. No longer with any need to work or interact with others for money, he is free to do as his heart desires.
Known Talent Abilities:
Hemlock’s body exudes a powerful toxin which renders a target into an intoxicated delirium and, in very high doses, will kill. He has no control over this effect and therefore gauges the dose as best he can. (Using his poison skill to try to reduce damage).

• Skill: Poison (to gobble Harm dice)
• Harm (A, R) - Always On, Touch Only

Alpha Flight used to be my hero team of choice but this doesn’t make any sense. How many times must a guy die?

Well, they were my favourite Marvel team. My favourite DC team were The Outsiders.

Real Creepy Places is a link for myself.

Any self-respecting GM should be able to pastiche one of these into a game.

“Six(1) words(2) can(3) tell(4) a(5) story(6) (while five is too small). Constraints (write without the letter “e”; use only one-syllable words; make every sentence exactly N words ) can force me (and you!) out of windbaggery and make certain things possible.”

It was only recently that I covered Only Six Words To Say Everything, Six Word Stories Redux, One Sentence Settings and One sentence True Stories

It’s probably fair to say that I get it.

One of the hardest things to manage when GMing a game is portion control.

Traditionally we game in the evenings starting at around 7 pm and finishing up around 10 pm or 11 pm. It’s long enough to get something done and relax and make it a social affair. When I gamed in school it was gaming during the 40 minute lunchtimes and for 80 minutes on a Friday evening after school. On the weekend when we were young we might meet up around noon, start a game at 2, finish much later and at times, stay over so we could game more the next day. We had few responsibilties so it worked out well. These days, a 3 hour session is lucky to have because we have these responsibilities to family, spouse, work, other hobbies and being social. We have to therefore tailor our games to these times. Finding the right amount of material for a 3 hour session is not as simple as it sounds. Preparing too much material (or if your players are being a little dense or distracted) is not a major issue as you can pick up next time. Preparing too little is a pain because when the session ends and there’s still a good hour to go, you can feel somewhat disappointed. The time we have for gaming is precious and we want to use it in the right fashion as much as possible.

Enough of a challenge or are they swamped?

When playing an investigative game, it’s important to force feed a lot of players with clues and leads. Why? Because just because the players have characters who are investigative reporters, private detectives, research scientists and other smart professions, it doesn’t follow that the player is any good at looking at the evidence and deducing what happens before the Great Old Ones rise and the world ends. At the same time, don’t make it a railroad where the clues may lead somewhere but it doesn’t matter what they do because they’ll be drawn into the final struggle anyway.

The same extends to ‘combat-oriented’ games. Deduce the appropriate level of challenge and don’t have the half dozen player characters swamped with hundreds of enemies who can’t pose any real threat (due to armour or magic on the part of the PCs) but they do just carry you away from the goal. Once it’s novel, twice it’s amusing, three times and you’re an ass.

Be especially careful of the challenge level you present if there’s real possibility of player character death. Players don’t generally like it when their characters die. Sometimes it’s thematically appropriate and yet, at other times you have the annoyance and boredom of going through the numbers and generating another character.

Ma’ Johnston’s Dinner Recipe

My mum has always cooked extra. It comes from me and my siblings having big appetites and there usually being an extra head at the table to feed because one or more of us brought a friend. As we’ve gotten older, the portions got larger and now I know she actually cooks two dinners when she knows we’re calling over for dinner. This is why you can end up with a plate of spagetti, bolognaise sauce, a pork chop and some broccoli bake on the same plate. It’s because she loves feeding people and making sure everyone gets enough.

Apply the same thought to gaming. Overprepare on the materials but don’t get frustrated if the PCs seem to be getting through it slowly. I’d also recommend having a side order of something left of field just in case they get distracted or they do manage to resolve the issues very quickly.

Also…it is okay to just close the book and say “That’s all for tonight” and not game for the last hour or so. Most players these days have also worked as GMs and there’s a spread of ability. Some people work from published adventures, some from their copious notes and other still from their fevered imagination. Good players will understand.

I’ve finally finished reading the system bits of Wild Talents and I do wish I’d read it earlier as it is a pretty solid action system with a lot of crunch and grit.

It’s honestly the first time since reading Marvel Super Heroes by TSR that I felt like I could reliably model any power. MSH will always have a special place in my heart because it modelled things so well (in truth, it did no modelling, it was all narrative).

Essentially Wild Talents uses a system where you buy dice in ’stats’, ‘powers’ and ’skills’.

Powers are, ironically. the cheapest thing to buy (which I suppose is fair enough in a superhero game.). The base cost of every power is 1 point for 1 dice. It’s when you add qualities to it that the cost increases.

e.g. We want to create a power called “Fire Generation” which will model the power in the MSH Ultimate Powers Book. To keep the Math simple we’re going to guy one normal dice in it which is the logical equivalent of getting the power at Feeble (2) rank.

1 point spent in Fire Generation allows you to generate a plume of flame. It’s a showy effect but not useful for much else.

Each quality added increases the dice cost by 1 per die.

• Adding the Attacks quality adds a single point cost but it means that the fire can be directed into an attack. Of course, with 1 dice in it, it’s actually useless but bear with me here.
• Adding the Defends quality means that the fire can be used to defend against attacks by, burning attackers, destroying missiles and the like. Again, with one die it’s useless but you get the drift.
• Normally, if you get hurt or otherwise distracted, the power cuts out, and in this case, the flame plume would just stop. The Robust quality means that it keeps working even if you are hurt or distracted but it still stops if you’re knocked out.
• Fire Generation is a ‘fighting’ power but the ability to generate fire has other uses outside of roasting bank robbers. To be able to cook with it without turning the food to cinders, or light a cigarette without roasting someone alive or even just use it to light a room in the absence of a torch means you have to take the quality “Useful Outside of Combat”.

This means there’s an incredible range of Fire Generating Powers available.

It’s possible to buy Fire Generation with only the Useful Outside of Combat quality. Your character could have a career being a human barbeque, being able to perfectly create a Souffle or warm a room with his presence.

It’s also possible only to buy it with the Attacks quality so that it can only be used to blow things up.

This means a somewhat useless Fire Generation power costs 1 point per die, but a Fire Generation that allows you to attack, will defend you from attacks, will continue to defend you even if you get hurt and can be used to toast marshmallows and keep your coffee warm will cost 5 points per die (because we’ve added all four qualities). That’s quite expensive in points so how do we reduce it? By adding Flaws which reduce the cost per point. More on that later.

Very flexible.

In the next WT post, I’ll talk about the dice conventions, the names of which were a major reason for me to have ignored Godlike and Wild Talents for so long.

Brooklun Superhero Supply Company

Sadly just a graphic. Always wanted to find a thrifty place to get new Anti-Grav Boots.

But there is a STORE

Here’s the Times article talking about Microtrends. The idea that you can ultra-specialise in something and establish enough of a presence that your store becomes a tourist attraction

I’d like some canned antimatter.