Miami; the Makeshift Mermaid and other Yarns

[zegion]

you guys sell your self short. Ever wonder why your traditional gang banger has his associates around? If marty is talking and Red Neck and Peles Flame thrower, stand behind marty and look intimidating then you are adding to the situation. Your helping marty accomplish what the party wants. Were a big team and none of us can do it our selves.( Not to mention Marty cant fight his way past a 5 year old boy scout, thats why he has people.)

If both of you Tag an Aspect for Marty, ON TOP of Martys already formidable social skills....holy crap......

Even if you cant add to the social situation that doesn't stop you from being eyes and ears, taking a perimeter post to get another view, watch people backs etc. During a surprise round, you might be the only one to act because you tagged your self with "over watch" or " totaly suspicious" or a million other things.

And remember a Fight Avoided is a Fight won, and that is always a success.

Part of the reason I and marty are always involved, in my opinion has a lot to do with who we are as people, because we (as in the real us) asks a lot of questions and we try to eliminate possibilities and find answers, were natural talkers. We still dont ask all the right questions or get everything done that we need, but thats why there are others around. None of us can ask all the right questions, i try, as an military/police officer I'm used to asking a ton of questions but i still dont get it right.

The whole team in my opinion has the ability to offer to the group, and Ren has done a great job at getting us involved. Melony actually has a higher investigation then Ian Fabian, Gloria and Le Flur are going to shine when we get into those chase scenes coming and our full wizzard is a researcher not a fighter. Bottom line is we are a team. Marty, Gavin and Ian cant ask every question. And sooner or latter there is going to be a lot of combat going on. Hell Ren even mentioned in his case files on the front page of the obsidian portal. Martial Law is coming to town and were about to be stuck in the middle of a 4 way war (sun fun and the need for guns).  And if the lobzillas are any indication of how brutal things are, im not sure Ian Fabian is going to make it. You actually have the ability to survive shots.

In the social situations certain characters are going to take a back up role, but that doesn't mean your not involved. In Combat most of us are going to be supporting those that can actually fight or running away to the sound of "brave sir robin." The difference is no one is going to die from purely social combat.

Its just a case of your time will come, hell you saved have the partys bacon once already.

[Malkyne]

So far the five most unused characters are Brian, Mike, Ethan, Melon, and Gloria.  Then again, with Gloria it's more an RP thing than anything else.  She's supposed to keep her mouth shut.

Well, there's also the matter that she's the type who gets information from people by establishing a rapport.  She makes them feel comfortable, safe, and important.  She wants a client (or other potential information source) to feel like he is special, favored, and that she has his back.  The objective (whether conscious or not) is to get people to offer information, willingly, as an exchange that further solidifies that imagined bond, rather than to pry it out of them.  Unfortunately, this style is rather difficult to pull off when she has a small mob of potentially intimidating companions with her, and she only has a sort of vague idea of what information they're trying to get, in the first place.

There might be some cases where it might make sense to tag social maneuvers, to take advantage of her less direct approach.  For example, if Donovan had been resistant to helping Gavin find out about the sea spider, Gloria's established rapport with him as a client and her surprising display of compassion and humility in fetching him and his lover coffee might have easily tipped things in the team's favor.  (Luckily, our specimen was interesting enough that it piqued his interest without any further necessity for buttering him up.)

[zegion]

^ see team work, at its best.

[BumblingBear]

In the social situations certain characters are going to take a back up role, but that doesn't mean your not involved. In Combat most of us are going to be supporting those that can actually fight or running away to the sound of "brave sir robin." The difference is no one is going to die from purely social combat.

Its just a case of your time will come, hell you saved have the partys bacon once already.

When I'm not doing anything for an hour but notionally playing cards with Brian, that is not a backup role.  That is having nothing to do.

I don't mind being in the background but investigations bore Ethan and he doesn't have much to do during them.  ::shrug::

Since 2/3 of the game is investigation-based, I'm struggling to find a way to get my character more involved.  I don't think the problem is my aspects - I have great aspects.  I guess I just wish I felt like more of an asset to the group.  Even in combat that's not too big of a deal.

I mean, if I weren't there for the lobstrosities, people could have just taken concessions to escape.  Not every battle has to be won.

My point is that other characters always have something to /do/ when they are on stage.  Ethan does not - unless I were able to play the way I wanted to... and I can't.

If it were up to me, I think my character would have been razing people to the ground a while ago.  I was RPing (you weren't there, Z), but I really think he would have kidnapped a were-alligator.

Ethan doesn't know a lot of people in Miami, he's not really super into investigation, and most importantly, he doesn't really care.  He's there for the money, but as for the actual case/mystery, one of his aspects is "Magic is the answer to everything."  He probably would have done rituals and gotten information from demons or something.

[quizboy]

While I agree that there are a couple of characters that don't get the attention a few others do, I've seen this before.  It's actually one of the big drawbacks for having such a large group.  To be honest, Ian has avoided so many of the pitfalls I've seen so often with large groups; it must be due to his experience.

I know Ian was reluctant to run a game with so many players, and I have gamer friends who won't play in a game with more than six.

With larger groups of players, there are more and more times that players won't be active.  It makes it easier to get bored.  There are some options to work with this.  Take another player aside, and roleplay while you don't have the spotlight.  I'd like to talk about some of the rules during down time.  Try out some little side adventures (get in a bar fight for real!  with consequences, tags (like bruised, and drunk), and maybe a fate point or two.

I've seen lots of crunchy games and lots of story games; DF seems to come down more on the story side to me.  It's got the crunch, but the aspects are a big part of the game.  Other systems have numbers to indicate a characters' statistics, but DFRPG has one sentence stories for stats!

Like many other story games, DFRPG seems to hand over narration to the players more often than most games.  It takes some getting used to, but it's a good thing

I really like our group, and I miss the players who can't make it.  It would be really odd to play with only five now.  We've only been at this a month or so, we're still learning it.

Let me know what I can do to help, and I'll work on it.

--Steven

[Malkyne]

Take another player aside, and roleplay while you don't have the spotlight.

I GMed an Amber DRPG game for an entire year with about ten players, and this is the only way I survived to tell the tale.

[BumblingBear]

While I agree that there are a couple of characters that don't get the attention a few others do, I've seen this before.  It's actually one of the big drawbacks for having such a large group.  To be honest, Ian has avoided so many of the pitfalls I've seen so often with large groups; it must be due to his experience.

I know Ian was reluctant to run a game with so many players, and I have gamer friends who won't play in a game with more than six.

With larger groups of players, there are more and more times that players won't be active.  It makes it easier to get bored.  There are some options to work with this.  Take another player aside, and roleplay while you don't have the spotlight.  I'd like to talk about some of the rules during down time.  Try out some little side adventures (get in a bar fight for real!  with consequences, tags (like bruised, and drunk), and maybe a fate point or two.

I've seen lots of crunchy games and lots of story games; DF seems to come down more on the story side to me.  It's got the crunch, but the aspects are a big part of the game.  Other systems have numbers to indicate a characters' statistics, but DFRPG has one sentence stories for stats!

Like many other story games, DFRPG seems to hand over narration to the players more often than most games.  It takes some getting used to, but it's a good thing

I really like our group, and I miss the players who can't make it.  It would be really odd to play with only five now.  We've only been at this a month or so, we're still learning it.

Let me know what I can do to help, and I'll work on it.

--Steven

I pretty much agree with this whole post.

As for a barfight - who would run it, though?  We've got pretty much two little groups that operate independently of each other so in order to run a fight with one group while the other group is "on stage", a person from the focus group would have to step out and run the conflict.

I'm not sure that would work....  hmmm.

This is a great game.  I just want Ethan to feel more useful.  I don't think there's anything wrong with the character, it's just that a magical and combat oriented PC isn't finding much of a niche yet I don't think.

In many ways he is not beholden to the laws of magic.  He honestly could have summoned a demon and just asked about some of the stuff going on but I'm not sure that would fit in the story.

[BumblingBear]

Just a reminder for the players -

We have a wiki page started now to stat out how our various aspects can be compelled or invoked.  This is a valuable tool for everyone in the group - including ourselves.

I've also been reminded by Ren that my 3x3x3 could use some work so I will be working on that.

Ren has a lot to keep track of with so many players - let's make it easier for him and the rest of us too.  I'm going to really start putting my money where my mouth is and trying to self compel, compel others, and create as many aspects as possible next session.

The thing about Fate games is that it's not just the storyteller's job to work the aspect angle.  The players have to be involved too.  I plan to start putting more effort into it. 

Like... instead of standing around and listening to others talk, I can use a fate point to make a declaration that would allow me to self compel an aspect.  If the compel is successful, I'd get the fatepoint back and both be involved in the story while making it more fun.

[fantazero]

Grrr, you wont have to worry about me this Sunday, looks like I wont be there till 6  at the earliest.
Talked to the boss lady, basically gonna to start working Sat instead of Sunday, I just need to finish out the schedule we have up, and the dog training classes I have on Saturdays.
Also my wing contact isnt working this sunday  It's the worst day ever

[BumblingBear]

I am starting construction of Ashley's katana right now.

In the story, (quite appropriately) Ethan is going to be making it and giving it to her.

[Ren]

God I love this group...
Yes I do have several side adventures planned for various folks. Going with the idea of people taking each other off to the side to do some one on one stuff that's more than fine in fact I may set up some scenarios to give to folks to run individually for a small group while I'm running another scene for a larger group.

I will definitely work out some additional background scenes for individual and I have some ideas already and I've got some other ideas to implement as well.

I liked the idea of Melon learning her new skills from a ghost via the Camera and have a slightly alternative idea to offer that also ties in another character. Mike's Pirate-Ghost has decided that he likes Melon but she needs to learn how to fight...more importantly learn how to fight to win. He will push Mike to help her learn via using the Camera to talk to her and instruct them both. So this will give Melon a reason to learn combat skills; thought it will be a rapier instead of a Katana and replace throwing stars with throwing knives. If Ashley is okay with this then will run with that route and that should be some fun.

[zegion]

Im down for helping GM side quests when next i see yall. But for it to work to support the main story, we are going to need some over view from Ren (sheesh, switching between handles, character names and nick names is starting to become a chore, almost need a whos, who just to converse) on the who, what, when, when, where, and somewhat of a how. The last part would be for the stand in GM to do mostly but this is Rens story, and I dont want to throw such a spanner in the works that it derails the rest.

I actually like the idea. That would mean, that when you get back to the "main table" other characters are going to have to fill you in on what you missed.

and now for something completely different: The kitten just discovered dog food, and loves it. He now is attacking my water buffalo for his food. Its quite funny to see a 125lbs dog, that stands to my wifes waist being run off by something smaller then some of the dogs waste.

[fantazero]

Ian, I mean Fabian, I mean Zegion, I mean Z I mean Captain Z I mean Officer Matthew...THAT GUY! Is right about the name thing. I  had several people call me Brian outside of game and it freaks me out. I can't see this happening in D&d when everyone is Lulu the troll king or schuster mcfancybottom.

[BumblingBear]

Ian, I mean Fabian, I mean Zegion, I mean Z I mean Captain Z I mean Officer Matthew...THAT GUY! Is right about the name thing. I  had several people call me Brian outside of game and it freaks me out. I can't see this happening in D&d when everyone is Lulu the troll king or schuster mcfancybottom.

You should feel lucky.  I get called, "Volcano Boy."

[BumblingBear]

I liked the idea of Melon learning her new skills from a ghost via the Camera and have a slightly alternative idea to offer that also ties in another character. Mike's Pirate-Ghost has decided that he likes Melon but she needs to learn how to fight...more importantly learn how to fight to win. He will push Mike to help her learn via using the Camera to talk to her and instruct them both. So this will give Melon a reason to learn combat skills; thought it will be a rapier instead of a Katana and replace throwing stars with throwing knives. If Ashley is okay with this then will run with that route and that should be some fun.

I actually think she would like that.  She likes rapiers.  That would probably be easier to hide from the world too since she could just say she's a fencer.

I will run it by her today.

Since I made her a katana last night/this morning though she'll be bringing the katana as a prop until she gets a rapier... lol.

But if she were getting taught by a pirate, I'd think a scimitar or a cutlass would be more appropriate. Maybe even a falchion.