News?

[Soundtrack]

Come now, Ms. Lackey... you need to keep a stiff upper lip! We're not done yet...not by a long shot!

Those shoes you were going to use on people who shared this same sentiment just a few days ago...those shoes need to have you standing tall!

Maybe there are some clouds on our horizon... but clouds can make things darker...but they can also block out glaring sunlight, allowing us to see in better definition.

Not only is the proverbial fat lady NOT singing... but she's not even clearing her throat.

We keep on keeping on...being what we were born to be.

Heroes.

And I'm proud to be a hero alongside each and every one of you!

[Osborn]

How would that work on not-exactly-broadband?   

I live in very rural Oklahoma, on a wireless-tower connection which allows me to run City, but with noticeable lag, and sometimes unplayable lag.    There is no prospect of increasing our bandwidth and there is no other option.  We tried the Google Hangout the other day and the only way I could run it without disconnects was to turn all the cameras and video off.   

Skype voice chat should work alright on that presuming 'not exactly broadband' is 'DSL' and not '28.8 modem and we have a bandwidth cap per month of the tune of 2GB of data' sort of thing. This is presuming you don't try to run screen share or virtual web camera or actual web camera, etc, and just use it for text and chat.

OpenRPG worked fine for me on Windows ME way back in the day, and I know personally it runs alright now on XP, Windows 7 64 Bit, Vista and Mac. I've had it work for a friend on Linux, briefly before said friend had to quit due to time constraints, if you use that as a virtual table top.

Personally I don't even run Skype for games, as I'm terminally shy and find I can't really RP very well 'in person', but I know that some folks absolutely need that personal 'I'm there with my voice' feeling.

I've never run the other program the guys are talking about so they'll have to help you with any technical issues that pop up with that, sorry.

I can help you find legal resources for whatever game you're looking into, if you want.

I've personally ran D&D 3.5, AD&D (though ages ago in middle school so I don't remember it so well), Shadowrun 4th/20th Anniversary Edition, Star Wars 2nd Revised/SAGA (WotC version, not the West End Games version), Hero System 6th, Mutants and Masterminds 3rd, new WoD (Vampire, Mage, Werewolf lines mostly only though), if you need help finding character sheets or resources or even just 'where to buy' for any of that.

If you're looking for a "City of Heroes" game the obvious choices I can think of are Hero System 6th and Mutants and Masterminds. I find the latter is easier to get into but is too heavily constrained by balance to allow for a large variety of strengths and weaknesses (you can build almost anything but a lot of it is mechanically similar), and the former is more robust but comes with a steeper learning curve (it's not actually so hard, it's just that the books themselves are very stupidly organized, I guess, in my point of view).

[epawtows]

How would that work on not-exactly-broadband?   

I live in very rural Oklahoma, on a wireless-tower connection which allows me to run City, but with noticeable lag, and sometimes unplayable lag.    There is no prospect of increasing our bandwidth and there is no other option.  We tried the Google Hangout the other day and the only way I could run it without disconnects was to turn all the cameras and video off.   

We used to run games with the players split between Blacksburg VA and Seattle WA by logging onto a MUD and RPing at each other.   At first used the honor system for rolling dice, then someone wrote up a dice macro.

[Segev]

How would that work on not-exactly-broadband?   

I live in very rural Oklahoma, on a wireless-tower connection which allows me to run City, but with noticeable lag, and sometimes unplayable lag.    There is no prospect of increasing our bandwidth and there is no other option.  We tried the Google Hangout the other day and the only way I could run it without disconnects was to turn all the cameras and video off.   

Assuming tabletop just plain can't work out, IRC is my preferred online mode of gaming. It's pure text, and it's lower-tech than some chat programs, but its format has worked very well for me and my online group of friends. I'm even in a 2e Mutants and Masterminds game that runs every Friday via that medium. (We typically use an OOC channel for all mechanical discussion and OOC chatter, while using an IC channel for describing everything that happens in-game. It winds up reading like something between a stageplay script and prose.)

[SithRose]

Assuming tabletop just plain can't work out, IRC is my preferred online mode of gaming. It's pure text, and it's lower-tech than some chat programs, but its format has worked very well for me and my online group of friends. I'm even in a 2e Mutants and Masterminds game that runs every Friday via that medium. (We typically use an OOC channel for all mechanical discussion and OOC chatter, while using an IC channel for describing everything that happens in-game. It winds up reading like something between a stageplay script and prose.)

The server I'm thinking of is Darkmyst, which is set up for gaming purposes already. It's even got multisided dice commands programmed into it.

[downix]

We used to run games with the players split between Blacksburg VA and Seattle WA by logging onto a MUD and RPing at each other.   At first used the honor system for rolling dice, then someone wrote up a dice macro.

I've been seriously pondering starting a CoH themed MUD.

[epawtows]

I've been seriously pondering starting a CoH themed MUD.

That might be low-level enough that you could get away with copying the IP and nobody would care. 

Well, the names, anyhow, would be tough to copy the art.

[Osborn]

Side note: I know that pidgin instant messenger had (and probably still has) a dice rolling plugin available for it, which you can then use in any of the IM systems that it supports (that is if i am remembering correctly at 4:47am >.> )

AIM chat rooms can use "//roll-diceX-sidesY", without the quotes, and with X and Y being the dice and sides you need. I might have sides and dice mixed up, it might be //roll-sidesX-diceY.

I believe though it can only roll 1-15 dice and 1-100 sides at a time though, but that should be enough for most things aside from like.. Shadowrun or World of Darkness.

AIM doesn't automatically throw in calculations like OpenRPG does (You can't have [1d20+5] => [6,5] = (11) with it auto calculating) and it has no map feature (obviously).

But it's good for if you're playing a game that doesn't particularly need a map.

[Osborn]

That might be low-level enough that you could get away with copying the IP and nobody would care. 

Well, the names, anyhow, would be tough to copy the art.

It might be 'illegal' in the same way that someone selling a picture they drew of Charizard to their friend in middle school for 50 cents is illegal, but I'm doubting that  NCSoft will realistically be able to or care to shut it down if it's a tiny MUD between all of a handful of friends.

[SithRose]

I've informed my husband that he needs to chime in on this thread. I only GM White Wolf and Star Wars (West End version.) He's the Pathfinder/D&D guy.

[Segev]

What kind of White Wolf? (Crud, just about to go to bed. I'll have to be sure to check this thread tomorrow!)

I am a big Exalted fan, and I've always liked oWoD Changeling despite its...well, I'll be honest, incomplete mechanics. oWoD Mage is fun, too. Never did get a chance to play V:tM. Nor have I done anything with nWoD. (I do own Innocents and Changeling: the Lost; the latter I was determined not to like because of its lack of anything I liked from Dreaming, but it's...got potential, I'll admit. Harks to the fair folk of Exalted in some ways, which are my favorite splat. I've also been tempted to try to run a game that merges Innocents and Abyssals. >_> <_< Because there's a Deathlord just BUILT for that...)

[TimtheEnchanter]

I've informed my husband that he needs to chime in on this thread. I only GM White Wolf and Star Wars (West End version.) He's the Pathfinder/D&D guy.

I've been wanting to try SW for an eternity. And of what little I got to play of World of Darkness, I absolutely loved.

[Osborn]

What kind of White Wolf? (Crud, just about to go to bed. I'll have to be sure to check this thread tomorrow!)

I am a big Exalted fan, and I've always liked oWoD Changeling despite its...well, I'll be honest, incomplete mechanics. oWoD Mage is fun, too. Never did get a chance to play V:tM. Nor have I done anything with nWoD. (I do own Innocents and Changeling: the Lost; the latter I was determined not to like because of its lack of anything I liked from Dreaming, but it's...got potential, I'll admit. Harks to the fair folk of Exalted in some ways, which are my favorite splat. I've also been tempted to try to run a game that merges Innocents and Abyssals. >_> <_< Because there's a Deathlord just BUILT for that...)

This is my two cents, and you may disregard it, but I prefer nWoD due to the games being mostly balanced between each other and having the same mechanics throughout. That is, elements from one, do not necessarily invalidate or overwrite elements from another.

Some people though consider this the blackest of heresy and consider these possibilities to be points against the system, though. So, grain of salt and all that.

I find that the more invested you are in the oWoD metagame being 100% set in stone canon, or if you don't mind your players being pawns that can never truly get anything done who absolutely has to differ to the will of their superiors will majorly determine whether or not you prefer oWoD to nWoD. A lot of people believe the 'you are alone, and you are screwed' vibe of oWoD fit it better than the 'there are mysteries and you can solve them' vibe the new has more of, and didn't mind their players being semi-passive observers of the metastory (which in itself sort of prevented crossover teams) as it unfolded around them. Because they really liked the metastory. I personally felt the opposite and that if I wasn't capable of getting things done on the scale that the NPCs were, that I didn't feel like the 'main character' of the story, but I felt like the scenery of another person's story as it played it. Again, your mileage may vary.

I've been wanting to try SW for an eternity. And of what little I got to play of World of Darkness, I absolutely loved.

My problem with the Star Wars d20 games was there was a sort of severe lack of real.. progression to be had with your character.

I mean, I guess finding loot wasn't a thing in the movies and everybody sort of started out with most of everything they were going to ever have (I mean there's no scene where Han Solo trades in his blaster for a +1 blaster), but the lack of equipment or 'things' to have sort of slowed the enthusiasm for the game down after players got enough experience to finalize their original concept.

[Knightward]

I ran a oWoD Demon game off and on for a few years in college, it was a hit.  House-ruled a fair amount, but I'm yet to experience a game that didn't involve house-ruling at one point or another.  Can't say I've ever really been interested in the nWoD though.  Mechanical improvements aside it just doesn't have the same character to it; the setting feels too generic to me.  It's my purely subjective opinion at any rate.  But then I was also fortunate enough to game with people that were willing to take liberties with the various metaplots as they needed and avoid railroading the game.  Actually, I was in one Werewolf game that was regularly railroaded; it got dull fast.

I always suspected a lot of the "You're a helpless pawn in a grander scheme than you can imagine," schtick came from GM's complaining about powergaming players, which is why I've always been of the opinion to slap said players when they do that.  That would be hard to do over Skype though.  I ran a brief Vampire Anarchs game just so I wouldn't have to come up with Elders overhead for the players.  Heck, I ran my Demon game explicitly saying at the start, "Be ambitious!  Do what you want!  Just be prepared for the consequences of your actions."  Again, the players loved it.

The one-off Mage game I played was fun, and the metaplot never came up.  I played a Professor Farnsworth-esque Etherite who had a robotic familiar named Welder.  It was totally worth it.  Wouldn't mind playing old-school Mage again one of these days.

That all said I do think they got better at it by the time they made Exalted.  The metaplot there is essentially, "Ok, this is how the stage is set before you show up.  Go nuts!"  But it's late, I'm tired, and my ramblings may not be coherent, so I'm gonna quit while I'm ahead and sleep.

[Olantern]

Regarding the CoH MUD,

It might be 'illegal' in the same way that someone selling a picture they drew of Charizard to their friend in middle school for 50 cents is illegal, but I'm doubting that  NCSoft will realistically be able to or care to shut it down if it's a tiny MUD between all of a handful of friends.

That is probably correct.  It's arguably more in the line of out-of-game RP stories shared among friends (which NCSoft wisely hasn't even considered touching) than an MMO based on the same IP as the original (which it probably would go after).

***

This discussion of PnP RPG's over the internet is interesting, especially since I keep trying to convince my CoH channel-mates to start one (I keep wanting to try a Dresden Files RPG set in Anchorage) ...

[DrakeGrimm]

Regarding the CoH MUD,

That is probably correct.  It's arguably more in the line of out-of-game RP stories shared among friends (which NCSoft wisely hasn't even considered touching) than an MMO based on the same IP as the original (which it probably would go after).

***

This discussion of PnP RPG's over the internet is interesting, especially since I keep trying to convince my CoH channel-mates to start one (I keep wanting to try a Dresden Files RPG set in Anchorage) ...

* DrakeGrimm shows up on Olantern's digital doorstep, dice in hand.

Where do I put my duster? >.>

[SithRose]

I ran a oWoD Demon game off and on for a few years in college, it was a hit.  House-ruled a fair amount, but I'm yet to experience a game that didn't involve house-ruling at one point or another.  Can't say I've ever really been interested in the nWoD though.  Mechanical improvements aside it just doesn't have the same character to it; the setting feels too generic to me.  It's my purely subjective opinion at any rate.  But then I was also fortunate enough to game with people that were willing to take liberties with the various metaplots as they needed and avoid railroading the game.  Actually, I was in one Werewolf game that was regularly railroaded; it got dull fast.

I always suspected a lot of the "You're a helpless pawn in a grander scheme than you can imagine," schtick came from GM's complaining about powergaming players, which is why I've always been of the opinion to slap said players when they do that.  That would be hard to do over Skype though.  I ran a brief Vampire Anarchs game just so I wouldn't have to come up with Elders overhead for the players.  Heck, I ran my Demon game explicitly saying at the start, "Be ambitious!  Do what you want!  Just be prepared for the consequences of your actions."  Again, the players loved it.

The one-off Mage game I played was fun, and the metaplot never came up.  I played a Professor Farnsworth-esque Etherite who had a robotic familiar named Welder.  It was totally worth it.  Wouldn't mind playing old-school Mage again one of these days.

That all said I do think they got better at it by the time they made Exalted.  The metaplot there is essentially, "Ok, this is how the stage is set before you show up.  Go nuts!"  But it's late, I'm tired, and my ramblings may not be coherent, so I'm gonna quit while I'm ahead and sleep.

They deliberately built Requiem and the other New WOD games without a metaplot or linking to anything overarching. The WW people in control at the time wanted to make the game impossible or at least very difficult to play on a large scale. There was a change in management, and the management at the time was extremely unfond of certain large gaming groups...and wanted to actively discourage them. So yeah, there's a reason that most of the NWOD games are less suited to a larger scale and are more generic. Personally, I can't stand any of them except Lost...and Lost was written after *another* change in WW management strategy. Geist looks interesting, but I can never find a decent game.

That said, OWOD Mage is perhaps my favorite LARP game when the ST is a good one. (When you have a bad ST...it sucks. Badly.) I have...um...extensive experience in running all venues of the Old WOD. Very extensive. In the "Lead Venue ST for a game of several hundred people" extensive sort of way. And in the "still mad at WW for not giving me partial author credit in the Revised Tremere Clanbook" way. So does my husband. I will say that OWOD is a much more fun game when you have active engagement in the metaplot, and intelligent, responsive people running the top levels of said metaplot. I much prefer LARP for my OWOD games, because it's a setting that is much more interesting when you have people actively playing everything from Elder to Neonate, or Apprentice to Primus. (You also don't get as much of the "you are alone and screwed" vibe as you do of the "you are in WAY above your head...but you're going to do your best..Oh, and those guys over there? They're manipulating the heck out of you." vibe.)

(I am going to have to disagree with whoever liked Changeling. But I had some very...unfortunate...experiences with OWOD Changeling players. Like the guy who sent me an application for a Satyr Setting writer...with a link to pictures of him in full Satyr costume. With *ahem* prosthetics. Yes, I mean the NSFW kind. No, he didn't get the job.)

And now we have COMPLETELY hijacked this thread. We should probably move this conversation somewhere else or something.

[Segev]

Please do drop a link for where it gets moved to. My love of Changeling has more to do with liking the core conceits than... well, honestly, I wouldn't have ever thought of that problem, SithRose. Ugh. My Sluaugh would have mocked such a creature and my Sidhe would have made a point of ignoring or kicking it out for being uncouth. And my Sidhe is generally NOT prone to anything but friendliness towards commoners. ^^; (For a Sidhe, he's even a little shy)

[Knightward]

Please do drop a link for where it gets moved to. My love of Changeling has more to do with liking the core conceits than... well, honestly, I wouldn't have ever thought of that problem, SithRose. Ugh. My Sluaugh would have mocked such a creature and my Sidhe would have made a point of ignoring or kicking it out for being uncouth. And my Sidhe is generally NOT prone to anything but friendliness towards commoners. ^^; (For a Sidhe, he's even a little shy)

http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,5389.0.html

[kerensky914]

As to the second....Tim, I live in rural Oklahoma.  We have been trying and failing to get a tabletop group together for the last 10+ years.

I always forget you're a fellow Okie.  I live in Norman, and getting a gaming group together here isn't much easier - our core group has been on hiatus for about 5 years.  It's hard when adult things like full-time careers, kids and their activities, etc. all get in the way.    It's just hard to find a night where we can all get the time free.

The non-bandwidth issue presents a big hurdle for a skype-rpg group.  Any chance you've got a compatriot a bit closer to Tulsa with decent broadband that could host you on gaming nights?  Or maybe string up some homemade yagi antennae and relay a wireless signal from somewhere?  I read an article years ago abotu a dude in California who lived on the other side of a mountain from a town.  He climbed up the mountain and hung an antennae made from pringles cans, washers, and allthread, and bounced a wireless signal 8 miles to his house.

This discussion of PnP RPG's over the internet is interesting, especially since I keep trying to convince my CoH channel-mates to start one (I keep wanting to try a Dresden Files RPG set in Anchorage) ...

I keep meaning to pick up a copy of that.  Years ago in college, Jim ran our gaming group.  Gawd, he's an awesome GM, it's fun to watch him think on the fly.  Anyway, Fred Hicks, one of the guys responsible for the Dresden RPG, would drive down from Stillwater to join our group.  Heh, I'd kill to talk them into running a game together.   My first scrapper on CoH was an import from Jim's original Dresden campaign.  It'd be fun to dust him off again.