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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Reference The Game Group

Discussion in 'Role Playing Resource' started by Winged_Jedi, Jan 18, 2012.

  1. Winged_Jedi

    Winged_Jedi Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 28, 2003
    The Game Group

    [​IMG]

    Introduction

    Welcome to the Game Group. If you're a Game Master or you want to be, then you're in the right place.

    In this thread, we discuss everything to do with being a GM. That includes but is not exclusive to designing a game, writing an opening post, attracting players, accepting sheets, running a game, working with co-GMs, dealing with player departures, and ending a game.

    We will also discuss general gaming "philosophy" (for example, the merits of large, sandbox-style games versus smaller, more linear games) as these discussions normally take place from the GM viewpoint.

    If it's characters you want to talk about, and all the intricacies of crafting and playing one, then this is not the group you're looking for. That would be The Roleplaying Group.


    Reference Links

    From which we can learn a great deal. These old threads are repositories of much wisdom and occasional foolishness. Take a look.

    As this community's primary hub for analysis and discussion, anything of your own creation that you post about here is considered fair game for critique. So if you don't want other people's opinions on it, don't mention it.

    In addition, all feedback regarding another user's idea is expected to be constructive in nature. Suggestions for improvement are welcome. Blunt put-downs are not.

    The forum moderators will serve as administrators and chairpersons. Do not be fooled by their cuddly exterior. Their wrath is swift and terrible- so try not to give them a reason to bring it down upon us. Play nice with each other and don't steal ideas.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 13, 2023
  2. Winged_Jedi

    Winged_Jedi Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 28, 2003
    [Placeholder]
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 13, 2023
  3. SirakRomar

    SirakRomar Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 30, 2007
    Thank you Winged and I am happy to see this group finally come into existence!

    My game . . . well a few words before I post it. The name of the game originates from a game by Winged, I believe. A long time ago it didn´t happen. I believe LordT was the GM originally designing this game and it´s backstory and when he left he handed it over to Fin, who recently handed it over to me, when he realized he would not do it. I fell in love with it, had a few rewrites and a brand-spanking-new story attached to the setting and here we are.

    Ladies and Gents, what do you think of this . . . everything is welcome, especially I wonder how I "adjust2 rules and players to this kinda setting. I play with thei idea of doing small groups, then again, which game has too many players these days, hm?



    [i]
    [link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srrAm9Eiqcw&feature=related]Darkness.[/link]

    You think you know darkness, do you?

    You know nothing.

    The Dark Side? This parasite, feeding on anger, fear and pride? Oh yes, I know the Dark Side. Believe me, nobody knows the Dark Side better than me.
    But darkness? That is not the absence of light. It is the absence of everything.

    A complete end to things.

    A void.

    When the force began to die, we learned what true darkness meant.[/i]

    [hr]
    [hl=black][color=orange][i][b]Millions of Voices[/b][/i][/color][/hl]

    [hr]

    [image=http://wallpapersdepot.com/wallpapers/burning-planet-1920x1080.jpg]

    Chaos had reigned for many years in the galaxy, when the end came. The way it played out was a surprise for all of us, certainly. But that the galaxy could not go on like this forever had been something a whole generation of living beings had been born with.

    They called it the Final War. Nice name, hm? Yeah, they always were good in giving fancy names to their wars. But this one was different. I think it started out as all those other wars did between Jedi and side, light and dark. But then it became something different.

    I remember the armies of force-imbued shock troops, pushed forward by the high screams of their disembodied masters on the fields of Dantooine. The undead armies of the Sith rising from the ruins of Christophsis, covered in the diamond dust of the ruined cities. I remember the Jedi´s own soldiers, forced into force-sensitivity and left on Corellia to make their last stand. I remember the greatest of the Jedi Masters duel a dreaded Lord of the Sith in the endless ruins of Coruscant. But most of all I remember the endless fleets of ships, build from resources that left systems on both sides drained and so numerous, they could darken the skies. I remembered their weapons and the terrible effects both fleets could bring. Dying suns, lasers that could rip apart planets, rockets that could destroy the suns themselves, oh I remember. The Jedi and how they turned the Republic into a dictatorship one abandoned law at a time, until the Republic was no more and the galaxy itself was drafted into service for their righteous cause. The Sith who became a death-cult of desperate and undead warriors and their living minions. The rotten flesh in the corridors of Korriban and the sickly yellowish eyes that lurked in the dark. How could I forget? Oh I remember. And I remember The One, the great Messiah of the Jedi and Grand Master of them for hundreds of years meet with the Grand Lord at last and how they were never heard of again. I remember all of it. And I wish I could forget.

    200 years of war I do remember and they have blinded me to the truth.

    [image=http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs13/f/2007/018/0/d/The_Oracle_by_urq.png]

    Nobody remembered which Sith War it was, really. There had been so many, the galaxy itself had lost count. After trillions had died it stopped abruptly though when both Warcouncils felt a disturbance in the force unlike any other before. Then the screams began to echo in the force. Billions of voices screaming out and falling silent. First it was once, then twice. And then the force did not stop to echo their screams, like a wave mov
     
  4. Ramza

    Ramza Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 13, 2008
    I love how it's called the Operating Table now.

    [image=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/34/Severed_survival.jpg/220px-Severed_survival.jpg][face_skull]

    Anyway!

    From a purely aesthetic standpoint, that's a very solid OP. To get the single-most obvious issue out of the way: The first image is too big. It creates a noticeable gap in scrolling, which I've always loathed, and I'm sitting on fat pipes. Users with slower connections are going to have a hard time getting through the OP. That's alterable with some basic image resizing, but I would consider it fairly high priority. Nobody likes an interrupted OP reading experience.

    Other than that, I'd have a hard time finding any serious flaws with the game. The setting is intriguing and well developed through the opening narration. And the time frame is then reinforced in the "chunkier" bits of gameplay specifics, so there's very little room for confusion.

    On more minor notes:
    • Not sure what's meant by "training game" in the first rule. That's the first mention of anything to that effect, and is probably just going to make things more confusing for prospective players.
    • The information on the planets would be better suited to a second post, to help keep the OP concise.
    • I think the opening flavor text might be a bit redundant considering the lengthy exposition that follows. I'm holding final judgement until some other folks sound off, but right now I'm leaning towards advising you to cut it.
    • Rule #2, as I have always said, will continue to say, have openly mocked, and can now state with an official air, is not needed. Players agree to our rules every time they post here, and you can always PM a mod regarding inappropriate content. That's more of a preference thing than anything else, mind you, but it's such a niggling little pet peeve of mine. :p


    Hope that all helps.
     
  5. Saintheart

    Saintheart Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2000
    From my perspective, any complaints I'd have really amount to just aesthetics. For the most part I'd concur with ramza: the opening italicised text probably isn't necessary, the flavour text generates sufficient bleakness to convey the sense of desperation you're looking for.

    Me personally I'd pump up the 'hope' just a tiny bit. At the moment, and it's just my personal view, probably in the extreme minority, it's a really, really bleak setting and doesn't personally inspire me to create a character who wants to do anything but top himself the first chance he gets. Like I said: it's just me.
     
  6. DarthXan318

    DarthXan318 Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 12, 2002
    I have a formatting nitpick: inconsistent spacing between sections.

    It's because JC markups introduce random newlines everywhere (I know this because it really bothers me and I've spent a lot of time learning to work around it, I know it's OCD, hush). So for instance, your header looks like this in markup:

    [hr]
    [/b]k][color=limeg[b][/b]reen][i][b]Millions of Voices[/b][/i][/color]
    [hr]

    Looks fine, right? Logically this should be perfectly consistent. But it's not, because the [hr] tag introduces a newline directly after it, so what gets rendered on-screen is this:



    [hl=black][color=limegreen][i][b]Millions of Voices[/b][/i][/color][/hl]
    [hr][/blockquote]
    To get it to be consistent, you therefore have to either (1) add an extra blank line before the second [hr[b][/b]], or (2) begin the [hl=blac[b][/b]k] on the same line as the first [hr[b][/b]]. That title would therefore look like:

    [blockquote][b](1)[/b]
    [hr]
    [hl=black][color=limegreen][i][b]Millions of Voices[/b][/i][/color][/hl]

    [hr]
    or

    [b](2)[/b]
    [hr][hl=black][color=limegreen][i][b]Millions of Voices[/b][/i][/color][/hl]
    [hr][/blockquote]
    This also goes for the rest of the [hr[b][/b]] tags in your OP. The boards add a stray newline, so you've got to compensate for that. The line you have above the "Characters" section is perfectly spaced, but the others have wonky amounts of whitespace around them.

    ... Possibly this doesn't bother you or was even a conscious design choice. If so, feel free to disregard this entirely. :p

    (It also bothers me that your entire Rules section is in bold text, but that's a valid design choice to emphasise that section.)
     
  7. DarkLordoftheFins

    DarkLordoftheFins Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 2, 2007
    Okay, if it was a conscious design choice, I really think you should consider doing it Xany-style. It looks strange and takes away my attention from that title, which is so perfect for the game (since LordT aquired the rights from Winged, nobody ever wanted to change it, right?)

    Bold rules (which I think you have copy/pasted in the last second, did you? Training game? You stole them from a training game? Really? :p) look a bit . . . too much. Otherwise . . . I agree with Ramza´s first take on it and talky guy I am I would like to elaborate.

    The intro-text is great. I felt so hopeless after it, I wanted to grab my SW DVD box and move to the cellar. Seriously, if you want to deliver the endtimes, you need to deliver the endtimes. And that is what you do. The whole Sith and Jedi story is layered and subtle. I already suspect that the Lightsiders might not have stayed so Lightsided and the Darksiders might have faced an even greater darkness . . . maybe that is just a vibe I get, but if you get such ideas from an OP, it works fine. A minor storytelling thingy. That it is actually a Sith who gives us his oral history of the "fall" is a good twist that catches your attention right at the end. That italic text beforehand already hints that. Might be more effective to avoid that. Just an idea. Anyway, Ramza´s idea of cutting it altogether might be a good idea. It is less effective than what follows.

    I have no scrolling problems, but I´ll take Ramza´s words on it. Actually the planet looks not enough "breaking apart" to me. When I was handed the thing two years ago by LordT there was a better pic in place. Maybe you should reuse that one! The other pics are incredible subtle. What the hell is this thing floating in space? The faces are nice and the last pic . . . nice.

    Music . . . I consider this to be a stand-in for this draft. There are certainly better choices even from THAT soundtrack. It just wasn´t "dark" enough for me. I would look into the suite for your favourite game ;) It might be a perfect fit, right?


    Hope. Well, reading it, I think this isn´t as bleak a game as the setting, right? What you expect from your players is the mother of all rescue missions. Heroes against which Luke will look like a schoolboy. Save the cheerleader, save the Galaxy! Resurrect the frakin force itself!

    That sounds like a great adventure and amazing heroism here. It is a fine angle to a game like this. Give them a crappy world and make them repair it. To better the world through going through the ordeals is . . . after all . . . a classical heroes hourney as Campbell would have loved it. But it is probably hidden tooooo much between the lines. Seriously. I read it out of two sentences, while bleakness owns the first two thirds. From a dramatic point of view I think to "get players" you should give them a clear path to heroism, if that is what you are aiming for anyway. Because that will be most effective, once you got us all depressed, by how these fools messed everything up.



    Otherwise a very fine OP. My love for the idea is obvious. I would have GMed it if I have had time. Although my angle was more BSG - flight to safety like. But I would join without any second thought. It is fresh and it is so well written, I feel there is something great here. An OP that ask me "Do you wanna miss it?" and not "Do you wanna grace that game with your presence?" Yeah, I am that arrogant, I think like that [face_laugh]
     
  8. SirakRomar

    SirakRomar Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 30, 2007
    Short one, as I am at work.

    Well, the rules were attached last minute, as Winged did this group earlier than I expected. So yeah, it is not a training game. By no means. actually as we get no newbiews we won´t need one. I also did exclude the "everybody can join" as this won´t be necessary for the same reasons and took the rest of the rules from Silent cities, by LordT. I am not decided on player-cabs or anything, as I offer sort of an "early look" here. I don´t expect to start it before April, May.

    Most of the critic about the text I totally can see. I will draft a second edition.

    But thanks a lot so far!

    And delays in picture load? could it be? Do you US guys for ONCE have a problem we Eurozoners have not?
     
  9. tjace

    tjace Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 11, 2008
    I'm not a GM, so I can't speak as to a lot of the GM and game design questions, but I have been following along. That game looks fantastic and ambitious, Sirak, and one I'd try and play if I wasn't already in 2 games. Malachor and the Force Wound have always fascinated me, but they are merely a foreshadowing of this disaster.

    Speaking of Kotor 2, she might want to use Peragus [image=http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20071007034348/starwars/images/6/66/PeragusII-K2concept.jpg] or Malachor [image=http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090404033322/starwars/images/e/e7/Malchorvfull.jpg]
     
  10. Ramza

    Ramza Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 13, 2008
    That's not a US exclusive problem, the picture's gigantic so it causes something like a quarter-second delay on up and down scrolling when I pass it because of the way Chrome handles images. Not unreasonable, but invariably somebody's going to be on a really slow connection and then the page will take five to ten minutes to load.
     
  11. SirakRomar

    SirakRomar Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 30, 2007
    Strange I really don´t have that. but I got a Mac now and a good line and grat proxy, so maybe . . . I am on the lucky side of things for once.

    I made EDITs. Only the surface stuff, new pic, new title color and as Xany suggested the proper spaces between words. All text/substantial changes will come a repost of the existing OP in a second draft.

    So far thanks! The input helps a lot! Two people send CS. And right now it looks like a lot people feel to busy to join games, therefore once more . . . IT ISN´T COMING OUT ANYTIME SOON! [face_laugh]
     
  12. Saintheart

    Saintheart Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2000
    Off the topic, but--

    Friends don't let friends use Chrome. Let me give you our card:

    [image=http://thebegavalley.org.au/fileadmin/bega/registrations/community/alanon/aalogo.gif]

    :D
     
  13. Ramza

    Ramza Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 13, 2008
    Considering Firefox and Flash are getting along like oil and water right now, Safari dislikes Adblock Plus, and IE is... IE, the options are a bit limited.
     
  14. DarthXan318

    DarthXan318 Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 12, 2002
    Chrome is the best browser ever. [face_talk_hand]

    Much better, Sirak, and I like the new colour choice too. It matches your first picture better.
     
  15. Saintheart

    Saintheart Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2000
    Yes, and Google knows you think so because they're recording every keystroke you make on the browser. <_< >_>

    :D

    Also like the new render, Sirak. Fabricate it, prep it ... oh, sorry, I was thinking of Iron Man. :D
     
  16. Winged_Jedi

    Winged_Jedi Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 28, 2003
    I wasn't getting the picture delays myself, in either browser, but I much prefer the new choice anyway.

    So...Millions Of Voices! Ah yes, I remember this one. "End Times Star Wars" just hits a narrative sweet spot for me. There's something potentially very powerful about all the classic Star Wars themes and motifs played out against a final, post-apocalyptic backdrop. As Fins put it- resurrecting the Force itself is the mother of all rescue missions!

    If I had to contribute my own personal nitpick to the tiny nitpick collection that we have gathered thus far, it would be that there is not much information on the galaxy outside of Force Users. Perhaps it's my own anti-Force bias after spending countless recent hours with my Imperial Agent character on TOR, but I feel like there might have been some sort of resistance or uprising against the Force Users in those last days. There would certainly have been a lot of hatred towards them, especially with the Jedi mutating the Republic into a dictatorship and forcing their soldiers into Force-sensitivity (that was a very interesting little detail). Were there any galactic or regional movements who tried to retake control, especially now that the Jedi and Sith are completely crippled?
     
  17. Ramza

    Ramza Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 13, 2008
    Bah, computers are made by parts from a bunch of different corporations, any OS that's not Red Hat is at least partially locked off, dozens of satellites are circling around the earth, and my government is trying to kill the Internet. I have other things to be paranoid about.:p

    And because I need to justify this post... um... Winged brings up a good point about attention to non-Force users. I think that's a relevant topic of exploration, though perhaps it would be best suited to a hypothetical second post.
     
  18. SirakRomar

    SirakRomar Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 30, 2007
    Actually I imagined the Jedi and sith of this time were simply too powerful, having fleets were every ship equalled a Death Star in firepower and circles to foresee any uprising and hammer it odwn when it´s leaders were born so to say. And then . . . when the Jedi and Sith were severed from the force, they suddenly saw billions rise against them. And were killed as much by the "Event" than by their former people. Jedi became outcasts and Sith became hunted. So I included it in the text with one sentence, now.

    Did a little here and there, shiortened the beginning, rebooted the character section and I have to come up wiht a mechanism, how I get people to take more non-force users than force users.

    Well, rules have been reworked, too.

    Thanks for the critic, I really feel it slowly comes together, now.



    [i]
    [link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srrAm9Eiqcw&feature=related]Darkness.[/link]

    When the force began to die, we learned what true darkness meant.[/i]

    [hr]
    [hl=black][color=orange][i][b]Millions of Voices[/b][/i][/color][/hl]

    [hr]

    [image=http://wallpapersdepot.com/wallpapers/burning-planet-1920x1080.jpg]

    Chaos had reigned for many years in the galaxy, when the end came. The way it played out was a surprise for all of us, certainly. But that the galaxy could not go on like this forever had been something a whole generation of living beings had been born with.

    They called it the Final War. Nice name, hm? Yeah, they always were good in giving fancy names to their wars. But this one was different. I think it started out as all those other wars did between Jedi and side, light and dark. But then it became something different.

    I remember the armies of force-imbued shock troops, pushed forward by the high screams of their disembodied masters on the fields of Dantooine. The undead armies of the Sith rising from the ruins of Christophsis, covered in the diamond dust of the ruined cities. I remember the Jedi´s own soldiers, forced into force-sensitivity and left on Corellia to make their last stand. I remember the greatest of the Jedi Masters duel a dreaded Lord of the Sith in the endless ruins of Coruscant. But most of all I remember the endless fleets of ships, build from resources that left systems on both sides drained and so numerous, they could darken the skies. I remembered their weapons and the terrible effects both fleets could bring. Dying suns, lasers that could rip apart planets, rockets that could destroy the suns themselves, oh I remember. The Jedi and how they turned the Republic into a dictatorship one abandoned law at a time, until the Republic was no more and the galaxy itself was drafted into service for their righteous cause. The Sith who became a death-cult of desperate and undead warriors and their living minions. The rotten flesh in the corridors of Korriban and the sickly yellowish eyes that lurked in the dark. How could I forget? Oh I remember. And I remember The One, the great Messiah of the Jedi and Grand Master of them for hundreds of years meet with the Grand Lord at last and how they were never heard of again. I remember all of it. And I wish I could forget.

    200 years of war I do remember and they haveleft me blinded to the truth.

    [image=http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs13/f/2007/018/0/d/The_Oracle_by_urq.png]

    Nobody remembered which Sith War it was, really. There had been so many, the galaxy itself had lost count. After trillions had died it stopped abruptly though when both Warcouncils felt a disturbance in the force unlike any other before. Then the screams began to echo in the force. Billions of voices screaming out and falling silent. First it was once, then twice. And then the force did not stop to echo their screams, like a wave moving towards the core of the galaxy.
    There had been those who opposed the Force War from the beginning, but now these independent planetary Governments gathered and smelled their chance. Soon it indeed came. Because . . .

    [image=http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Z26WibiIt6Q/TKtMlTY_ezI/AAAAAAAAAOE/eNj8qDOzBUU/s1
     
  19. LordTroepfchen

    LordTroepfchen Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 9, 2007
    Obviously I am kind of loving the game. what you made out of it really is special for me.

    So, first of all, I love the game is still around. The spin you take on it is a great one. And I am very confident you will give it a lot more human touch than Fin and I would have. I like it you seem to make it the "journey" and I am looking forward to seeing your take on the "end-times-game".

    In a chat a week ago you had this "info nugget" idea, will you still include that one? I think it wonderful potential to develop this strang but epic take on our fav universe.

    So let´s talk about the questions you raised. How to keep everybody from taking Jedi and Sith? Yes, how. I think easiest way would be to limit Jedi and Sith chars. One for each group, probably? First come, first serve. Or if you feel more comfortable with it, hand them out to players you know.

    One thing I doubt will wokr very good is the NPC thing. An extra NPC per player? I don´t know. End times are lonely times, right? I think it may not fit too well and the group might loose focus and actually get pretty big when you get an NPC at least for every player plus your NPCs.
     
  20. Saintheart

    Saintheart Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2000
    On the other hand, if it's the end of the galaxy with thousands of worlds getting glassed left, right, and centre it stands to reason people would cluster towards any safe havens they can find, which raises the odds you'll meet someone important to you again if you met them in the past. Thus, justification for NPCs. :)
     
  21. SirakRomar

    SirakRomar Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 30, 2007
    Yeah, the NPCs, I really like the idea of some people having droids aroudn and so on. Especially because that gives characters something to do when plot and other players are not speeding forward. But . . . but . . . I see the point that the whole me and my band against overwhelming odds isn´t any sharper by adding them.

    Dunno. And how will people react when I begin killing them? because sooner or later there would certainly be someone who will bite the dust.
     
  22. LordTroepfchen

    LordTroepfchen Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 9, 2007
    So two topics burn under my nails, actually. Both kinda spawned by the interviews over at Vox Popoli I wondered. If someone has something else to discuss, I really am more than willing than drop my second and come up later wiith it. I am sure it won´t loose any "urgency" as long as the RPF exists [face_laugh]



    And has nobody congratulated Spycoder for being the first EVER GM of the week? Man, The Darker Tides is something people would have told you can´t happen anymore. And a perfect example how an able and dedicated GM can simply achieve anything! Congrats Spy!
     
  23. Winged_Jedi

    Winged_Jedi Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 28, 2003
    Yes indeed, congratulations to spy. Darker Tides is one of those quiet successes that slips under the radar a little so I wanted to give it some recognition.

    Saintheart actually PMed me a topic a few days ago that I approved, so allow me to update the Waiting Room accordingly:


    The Waiting Room

    1. The teal deer threshold (Saint)
    2. A time for everything...what games fit the RPF best in these times? (LordT)
    3. Players - the unknown factor (LordT)
    4. (add your topic here)


    As mentioned in the opening post, if you have an OP you want critiqued or a topic you want to discuss, PM me or add it to the list! I will move it up the waiting order as appropriate.

    One more day for discussing SirakRomar's "Millions of Voices", so speak now or forever hold your peace!
     
  24. SirakRomar

    SirakRomar Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 30, 2007
    Actually considering nothing very drastic comes up now, thank all of you a lot! I still feel most confused about OPs and you all were a great help in giving the OP the shape I wanna have it. Certainly a few things will change, but all in all I think I got it now. Working out a second post I will probably bring it up this summer, but after the "move" if it ever happens. I would like to see new players join, by any means.

    Thanks a lot all of you!
     
  25. Winged_Jedi

    Winged_Jedi Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 28, 2003
    You're very welcome Sirak. Thanks for volunteering your OP for our dissection! If anyone has anything pressing to add, they may do so, but our focus now shifts toward the next topic...



    [blockquote]
    [image=http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/jude-law-e28093-as-e2809cdr-watsone2809d.jpg]
    [color=indianred][i][u][b]Winged's Weekly Rounds[/b][/u][/i][/color]
    [blockquote]
    [b][u]The Operating Table[/b][/u]

    Our first discussion topic was kindly provided by [b]Saintheart[/b]. I hope he doesn't mind me paraphrasing him a little.

    When you run an RPG in a brand new or obscure setting, the GM will have to provide a lot more explanation and exposition than normal, because the universe is unfamiliar to the players. Historically- with a couple of notable exceptions- these RPGs don't seem to do that well.

    So: how do you sell an unfamiliar setting to prospective players? How much backstory do you need to give in the opening posts? Are there some principles to it? How can people do it better? At what point do players lose interest in a setting, whether because it's too complex or it's all TL;DR?

    And...go!

    [/blockquote]
    [b][u]The Waiting Room[/b][/u]

    1. A time for everything...what games fit the RPF best in these times? (LordT)
    2. Players - the unknown factor (LordT)
    3. (add your topic here)
    4. ...

    [color=darkred][b]GM Of The Week...[/b]is DarthXan318, for injecting exciting new life into the RPF with Corellia: Reach For The Stars![/color]

    [color=brown][b]Did You Know...[/b]that despite Indy's prominence in the current NSWRPF banner, that forum has only seen [link=http://boards.theforce.net/non_star_wars_role_playing/b10755/23277548/p1/?14]a single attempt[/link] at an Indiana Jones game?[/color]
    [/blockquote]