Poll

What sort of campaign would you be interested in (vote as many times as you like)?

Dresden in Asia
12 (38.7%)
Viking Age Historical Campaign
6 (19.4%)
The 17th Century Turned Up to 11
7 (22.6%)
Sword and Sorcery
4 (12.9%)
Other (describe below)
2 (6.5%)

Total Members Voted: 16

Author Topic: [Gauging Interest] Text-based online Dresden RPG game  (Read 9087 times)

Offline SoulCatcher78

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Re: [Gauging Interest] Text-based online Dresden RPG game
« Reply #15 on: February 17, 2010, 02:55:25 AM »
Chung-hee Kim.  Sounds very workable.  Depending on the power level you plan on running, I'm looking at either a minor talent (dealing with either spirits or veils...maybe both) or something similar.

Offline Bosh

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Re: [Gauging Interest] Text-based online Dresden RPG game
« Reply #16 on: February 17, 2010, 03:04:29 AM »
Blaze: that would be much appreciated.

breaker: cool :)

Wizard H: you don't necessarily have to do all that much research if roll up a character who doesn't know much about Korea. The main groups of Westerners in Korea (in roughly descending numbers):

-English teachers (probably the single biggest group, estimated at about 50,000).
-GIs (there's about 8,000 soldiers in the Yongsan Garrison in Seoul, right by Itaewon).
-Military contractors
-Corporate types, mostly in the main business area in southern Seoul.
-Embassy types.
-Professional sports players in the Korean leagues (especially basketball).

Also lots and lots of ethnic Koreans with foreign passports working in various capacities (including a good number of people who were sent abroad in international adoptions and are now coming back), especially since a lot of richer families have their kids born abroad in order to get foreign passports for them so that they can avoid military service.

Set the Korean thing about 50 years in the future and include a larger American presence and you have a sweet deal there.

Setting things in the future always gives me a headache, but if some of the character live in the Yongsan region of Seoul (which Itaewon and the US military base are part of) there'll be quite an American presence

Offline Bosh

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Re: [Gauging Interest] Text-based online Dresden RPG game
« Reply #17 on: February 17, 2010, 04:05:31 AM »
SoulCatcher: the power level will be based on what makes the most sense for the kinds of characters that the players think up. Right now it seems that people want either pure mortals or people with just minor magical talents so that means a relatively low-powered game.

Offline SoulCatcher78

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Re: [Gauging Interest] Text-based online Dresden RPG game
« Reply #18 on: February 17, 2010, 08:46:14 PM »
Chung-hee Kim:
High Concept Aspect; Minor Power (TBD)
Trouble Aspect;  Lonliness of the long distance runner.
Phase 1 Aspect; Stranger in a strange land.
Phase 2 Aspect; I'm just a face in the crowd.

Born in the United States (2nd generation immigrants) Chung-Hee listened to stories of his family's homeland growning up from his Grandmother (Soon-yi) while his parents worked.  Both parents were killed when he was still young (15) and he was raised by his Grandmother until her recent death.  Chung-Hee has become disillusioned with the US and he wants to immerse himself in the culture described by his Grandmother.  Chung-Hee has used his remaining money from his parents/grandmother's life insurance policies and the proceeds from selling his parents business to finance his move.  What he doesn't realize is that Korea has changed radically in the last 50 years.  He has no relatives (that he is aware of) living in the south but has decided to begin his new life in Seoul.

Quote
"Stranger in a strange land" You're suprised that most of what you thought you knew about your new home is either outdated or based on a more idealized memory.

Invoke: When dealing with older beings (spirits, older humans, etc) you are able to adapt to their expectations easier than the typical "younger generation" group which you belong to.
Compel: Dealing with people your own age can be difficult because of your expectations of others (honor, duty, self sacrifice, etc).

"I'm just a face in the crowd" Being able to become one of the faceless masses gives you a sense of security and belonging.

Invoke: You can blend in with a group and use them as a natural camoflage when in crowded areas (on the train, at the market, etc).
Compel: People have trouble remembering you unless prompted .

"Lonliness of the long distance runner."  Chung-hee needs to find someplace that he fits in.  He needs it so badly that it often leads him into situations better left alone.

Invoke: Able to dive headlong into conflict for the sake of a friend without hesitation.
Compel: Drawn to helping others, even if it's not the best option.

Offline Bosh

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Re: [Gauging Interest] Text-based online Dresden RPG game
« Reply #19 on: February 17, 2010, 09:42:39 PM »
Good character draft.

High concept is still fuzzy for obvious reasons :), I like his phase aspects they very clearly give him some edges in things that could be useful while tying into his history and causing him problems. I can feed you information for the stranger in a strange land, if you want to do research for that an awesome source is Andrei Lankov's Korea Times column "The Dawn of Modern Korea." Unfortunately, The Korea Times has a crappy website so they don't keep many articles archived and I'm not finding a good archive of the columns on google, I'll look more later.

"Lonliness of the long distance runner." hmmmmmmm, I like the idea but maybe make it a bit more personalized. Being lonely works well, but maybe try to work in why he's lonely and what he does about it into the text of the aspect?
 

Offline breaker

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Re: [Gauging Interest] Text-based online Dresden RPG game
« Reply #20 on: February 17, 2010, 10:34:16 PM »
Concept: The usual suspect that the police can't touch.
Name: Anton Alexandrov
Quirks: Thrill Seeker, Germaphobe, Enjoys Dangak

Anton's family had always been on the edge, of his father's three brothers, two had joined the mafia and one was already dead. His father, Alexander, however, was determined to keep Anton away from such influences, and he was like-was protected from his extended family's activities until he joined a University. Two weeks after he'd left home, he got a call telling him that his father had been killed in his burning office. Anton rushed home immediatly, only to find that his mother had (suppossedly) abandoned their home, she was no where to be found. He then fell under the wing of his uncle, who had offered him a job, this clashed with his University studies, so he was forced to drop out. He's worked for his uncle and been given his fair share of mafia exeperiences for his age. His talent for hiding 'hot' individuals from many people impressed his uncle and he was sent to their Seoul wing recently to assist in setting up a cross-national operation. Sadly, for the now thrill-seeking Anton, most of it had been dealt with by the time he'd arrived in Seoul, with the family already sitting on a comfortable piece of territory. Anton was left to entertain himself, getting called in by the family for this or that every few days. He adopted the practice of attempting petty, but risky crimes as practice for himself, and this occupied most of his time until a clothing store that had been owned by the family burned down, and Anton saw who did it... and man.. they weren't ******* human. Anton has now taken it on himself to dab into the magical underground with only two goals, keep all the magical creepy crawlies of the family's doorstep and have himself a hell-ofa good time.

keeping up with soul here XD

"This ain't my home, but it'll do" You're rather adaptive when it comes to living in out of the ordinary, unusual, or downright strange places. You know how to relax, and the troll in the room isn't going to stop you.
Invoke: You are able to stay calm in unusual places and continue thinking logically. You can also demand attention in a crowd of strangers or strange things without breaking a sweat.
Compel: You have a habit of making yourself at home in places you shouldn't and often leave a negative impression on people who are as hard-headed or as territorial as you.

"I'm not touching that, are you kidding?" Your fear of many things unclean sometimes inspires you to go great lengths to avoid doing literal dirty work. You can be quite persistant and unbudging on the subject.
Invoke: You're used to talking your way out of things that include getting grit under your nails. Sometimes a new option will present itself when you politely tell the informant that if he doesn't cough up another way into the baddy's hideout that doesn't involve the sewer then he'll soon be eating the bribe money.

"Danger makes life worth living" The value of your own life comes second to a descent challenge of your criminal skills. You jump at the opportunity to show off or show up authority.
Invoke: You're good at walking the metaphysical tight rope. You can keep your cool in dangerous situations and often know better, all be it flashier,  ways to get out of them when the time arises.
Compel: There isn't such a thing as an unnecessary risk.
 
Phase 1: This isn't my home but it'll do.
Phase 2: Danger makes life worth living.

Vanilla human, young, arrogant, acrobat and mugger. The bigger and shinier the gun, the better. Also Russian ( character in a nutshell)

Offline SoulCatcher78

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Re: [Gauging Interest] Text-based online Dresden RPG game
« Reply #21 on: February 17, 2010, 11:40:47 PM »
"Lonliness of the long distance runner." hmmmmmmm, I like the idea but maybe make it a bit more personalized. Being lonely works well, but maybe try to work in why he's lonely and what he does about it into the text of the aspect?
 

"Lonliness of the long distance runner."  Chung-hee needs to find someplace that he fits in.  Growing up in a small rural community in the US, Chung-hee was always the "different one".  The only people who he could identify with (his immediate family) are now dead and his need for belonging drives him to do rash things in the name of friendship. 

Invoke: Able to dive headlong into conflict for the sake of a friend without hesitation, this blind determination can push him past all sensible reasons not to (bonus against intimidation attempts, even by obviously more dangerous beings).
Compel: Drawn to helping others, even if it's not the best option (brins him into direct conflict at the worst possible times).

Offline Sorryman105

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Re: [Gauging Interest] Text-based online Dresden RPG game
« Reply #22 on: February 18, 2010, 12:44:57 AM »
Setting things in the future always gives me a headache, but if some of the character live in the Yongsan region of Seoul (which Itaewon and the US military base are part of) there'll be quite an American presence

The reason I said you might want to is the freedom of choice you have in terms of what happens between now and then. NK might have attempted an invasion and the US/China intervened. It would mean a short but game changing war that ended with a major occupying force and no NK. It would make it much easier to blend in international flavors since the UN would probably be involved and SK would have to be involved in reconstruction in a major level. There's a lot of possibilities inherent in how things workout. However, if you think its to much of a hassle it will be fine.
Forevermore we shall giggle and snicker in our rightful place, this place, OUR BAR!

Offline Bosh

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Re: [Gauging Interest] Text-based online Dresden RPG game
« Reply #23 on: February 18, 2010, 01:43:48 AM »
Sorryman15: the thing is that I'm enough of a history geek that if I made a 50 year future timeline I'd want to do it RIGHT and have everything be realistic and once I got my head down that rabbit hole I wouldn't come out until I had a twenty page history write up that nobody would want to read through :) In any case, for me the main benefit of setting things in Seoul for me is that I live here that unless we change something the setting is damn easy for me to figure out (for example in a bit I'm going to teach a lunchtime English class to some doctors at a hospital, so if the PCs end up in the ER and get attacked then I KNOW the location since I walk past the ER four times a week).

If I did a future game I'd probably set things in Boston or something since it would be easier for the players to get the hang of the setting.

In any case in a game set in the present there's no reason why NK can't be up to all kinds of fun stuff (passages through the Nevernever to send spies past the DMZ, etc.).

SoulCatcher78: looks good, a rural location is great since it helps the fish out of water feeling and it keeps him away from other Korean-Americans growing up.

breaker:

re: Dangak, you might also want to check out Bbong-jak ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trot_(music) ), especially the stuff from the 1970-80's, it's like listening to the mutant offspring of Sinatra and Big Band Jazz, especially the stuff with a strong brass beat. Cheesy as all hell, but fun and a hell of a lot better on modern K-Pop (think Britney Sprears/Backstreet Boys with even less soul/authenticity and more techno/voice editing).

breaker: like the aspects, very evocative. I can imagine him putting his feet up on a vampire's desk or doing his best to keep his suit clean through an entire adventure.

Maybe have your high concept aspect mention something about being part of a Russian crime family, that way you can use it for relatives that show up to help and/or cause problems, anti-Russian prejudice (like "Boris" in Season 2 of The Wire), sticking out like a sore thumb in an Asian crowd, having Koreans have a hard time remembering much about your facial features besides you being foreigner ("all those foreigners look the same"), being good at intimidating criminal small fry (they're mostly scared of the Russian mafia), etc.

« Last Edit: February 18, 2010, 01:45:48 AM by Bosh »

Offline Sorryman105

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Re: [Gauging Interest] Text-based online Dresden RPG game
« Reply #24 on: February 18, 2010, 05:35:06 AM »
Sorryman15: the thing is that I'm enough of a history geek that if I made a 50 year future timeline I'd want to do it RIGHT and have everything be realistic and once I got my head down that rabbit hole I wouldn't come out until I had a twenty page history write up that nobody would want to read through :) In any case, for me the main benefit of setting things in Seoul for me is that I live here that unless we change something the setting is damn easy for me to figure out (for example in a bit I'm going to teach a lunchtime English class to some doctors at a hospital, so if the PCs end up in the ER and get attacked then I KNOW the location since I walk past the ER four times a week).

If I did a future game I'd probably set things in Boston or something since it would be easier for the players to get the hang of the setting.

In any case in a game set in the present there's no reason why NK can't be up to all kinds of fun stuff (passages through the Nevernever to send spies past the DMZ, etc.).

I know what ya mean and for the record I would read the 20 page history.
Forevermore we shall giggle and snicker in our rightful place, this place, OUR BAR!

Offline Blaze

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Re: [Gauging Interest] Text-based online Dresden RPG game
« Reply #25 on: February 18, 2010, 11:20:06 AM »
Hey I read the whole Silmarillion so that I understood my Elven Cleric's religion (when I was 20.)  It came in pretty handy too.  Ever god call Eluvitar and crap out and end up with Loviatar?  Bummer!

I always have full motivations and back drops for all the main villains/npcs and broad strokes on secondary ones.  Just as if I was writing a history.  Shakespeare may have trundled into Motiveless Malignity1, but I need my bad guys to have purpose.  Or think that they do. 

History in an RPG world is very important to me as a GM.  It doesn't matter if most of the PCs don't get it. Look at how many people run around in the real world and never bother to figure out why the things that are happening are happening!  After all, it is so common for people to NOT learn history (or from it) that we have the old adage.

1 - I have a book somewhere about his villains with that title, which I love-- the title not the book, albeit a decent book.
Chi pò, non vò; chi vò, non pò; chi sà, non fà; chi fà, non sà; e così, male il mondo va.

Offline Bosh

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Re: [Gauging Interest] Text-based online Dresden RPG game
« Reply #26 on: February 19, 2010, 06:09:13 AM »
I'm sure most players are willing to do a lot of research to get their characters right but I think expecting them to have a good grasp of the Dresden Cosmology AND Korean culture AND a 50 year future history timeline/tech outline is probably just a bit too much to ask unless some of those elements aren't needed in order to play the game (for example Post-Apocalypic, a game that isn't too heavy on social interaction, etc.).

If I was to run a FATE sci-fi game I'd either avoid magic and focus on the sci-fi elements or have it be a Space Opera game inspired by The Dragon Never Sleeps By Glen Cook crossed with a bit of Dune and adapt the Dresden rules for aliens and whatnot.

Offline Sorryman105

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Re: [Gauging Interest] Text-based online Dresden RPG game
« Reply #27 on: February 19, 2010, 09:09:16 AM »
I'm sure most players are willing to do a lot of research to get their characters right but I think expecting them to have a good grasp of the Dresden Cosmology AND Korean culture AND a 50 year future history timeline/tech outline is probably just a bit too much to ask unless some of those elements aren't needed in order to play the game (for example Post-Apocalypic, a game that isn't too heavy on social interaction, etc.).

If I was to run a FATE sci-fi game I'd either avoid magic and focus on the sci-fi elements or have it be a Space Opera game inspired by The Dragon Never Sleeps By Glen Cook crossed with a bit of Dune and adapt the Dresden rules for aliens and whatnot.

You wouldn't really need a perfect grasp. Most of that would be found out as you go. A player just need to know the current events and enough information to form a background.
Forevermore we shall giggle and snicker in our rightful place, this place, OUR BAR!

Offline Bosh

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Re: [Gauging Interest] Text-based online Dresden RPG game
« Reply #28 on: February 20, 2010, 07:42:38 AM »
OK, to the original list of four games I'll add two more futuristic ones:

E. Near-future Apocalyptic: An apocalyptic event brings human civilization tumbling down and things get very messy very quickly. I'll keep the exact nature of the event under wraps, to give the players some surprises but it's one that (I think at least) is quite a bit nastier than your standard Zombie Apocalypse. After the initial adventure play would continue (with some big time skips in between adventures) into the Post-Apocalyptic period so players could do some society-building and whatnot (if that's what they're into). Low-powered, nasty, brutal and depressing but focusing a lot on what hope remains in the ashes.

F. Far-future Space Opera: basically the specifics of the setting would be mostly player created but the broad outline is that it's (mostly) science-based but science that's damn weird and functions a lot more like magic than the sort of science we're used to (i.e. psychics, nanotech, strange bio-engineered creatures, trans-dimensional critters that live in the warp that function a bit like Nevernever critters in Dresden, etc.):
Inspirational sources would be:
-The Dragon Never Sleeps http://www.kentaurus.com/dragon.htm
-Dune
-In Conquest Born http://www.amazon.com/Conquest-Born-Daw-science-fiction/dp/0886771986 and some of C.S. Friedman's other sci-fi books to a lesser extent.
-Star Wars
And Dresden of course :)

Higher powered and a bit gonzo but also a bit more philosophical (what does it mean to be human?), etc.

Anyone interested in those two? Those are the sort of sci-fi games I'd be interested in running. Other sci-fi games not so much...

Oh and this is required viewing for anyone interested in the Seoul game ;) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KWBMx-jg0c&feature=related
« Last Edit: February 20, 2010, 07:57:47 AM by Bosh »

Offline breaker

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Re: [Gauging Interest] Text-based online Dresden RPG game
« Reply #29 on: February 23, 2010, 02:39:43 PM »
From the looks of it, about 20 people have voted, so I'm wondering when we'll start seeing other auditions for characters.

Also, Bosh, I'm loving the amount of work you're putting into this, especially for a text based game. Thank you.