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Post by LabRat on Nov 12, 2012 12:29:55 GMT -6
so we're needing to outline BBEG's motivation (something like, he's trying to collect all the shards of a fabled sword/crystal, so that once they're re combined, he will be granted ultimate power) and we need to figure out if he is the "throw me a firckin bone here" or is he "no Mr. Bond, I expect you to die <insert evil maniacal laugh>" type… I don't think we need to be that specific about his goals—whether or not he's collecting Evil artifacts can change from adventure to adventure, easily enough (unless we want to give him an over-arching goal like that). It would be helpful to determine if he's just after Ultimate Power™ in general, or he's trying to take over the world, or just get revenge on Generica, just want to be loved, etc. Otherwise, you're on the right track. Oooooohhhh, I get what you are trying to figure out. Okay so a bit on bad guy preferences as explained by me. I like the bad guy to be on a bit smaller scale than having a desire to take over the entire world. Doesn't mean he can't get it in his head later if he is successful. I just never saw someone taking over the world as feasible. So that is why I prefer a more intimate motivation between the BBEG and the heroes. The revenge on Generica angle is an example of this. I like my BBEG with a good head on his shoulders....meaning he is more of a smart refined evil-doer than a thug with a lot of power. To me, they are simply more interesting. I also like them having complex motivations, meaning that in some twisted way, his viewpoints make some sense (though this may not work for Generica). I also like tragic background stories for bad guys (as in maybe he was a good guy but just went down the wrong path). Anyway just throwing out my preferences to help fuel discussion. As an aside, the idea of having an common goal arc between GM's does appeal to me. It may not have to be evil artifacts (though McGuffins would fit right in Generica) but it might give a direction for people struggling with their story concepts. Just a thought.
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Post by thedefiantbudah on Nov 12, 2012 12:35:15 GMT -6
so, the puppeteer pulling strings made me think about something...if this takes off and something we all enjoy doing...we could always make the BBEG be a unknowing puppet on someone else's strings...maybe have the "BBEG" be the former head of the guard who "fell from grace" only to be controlled by some other evil
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Post by Gigermann on Nov 12, 2012 14:28:35 GMT -6
One of the questions I keep asking myself is whether to play the Villain for laughs (Dr. Evil's general incompetence, or Megamind's/Syndrome's competent but strategically-flawed plans), or to play it straight. Really, this goes for the whole campaign—goes back to the names and whatnot. Currently, as it was with the original conversation, the genericness is obviously "for laughs," but it doesn't necessarily have to be.
I guess I just need a good benchmark to lock onto in that regard—I'm having trouble settling.
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Post by Gigermann on Nov 13, 2012 9:08:43 GMT -6
I feel like I need to apologize. The ends of my so-called sanity are frayed, of late. In the case of The Overlord, I need to take a step back, and re-evaluate—too focused on the wrong aspects; humor vs genericity(?). So, let's start over with Evil Overlord—probably can't get more generic than this. We've already established a couple of items (or rather, nobody has contested them), and there are a few more "generic" items we know well enough: - Son and daughter, as indicated (names and particulars are still up for grabs)
- Probably a necromancer, and demon-summoner—may have a demon adviser
- Name is The Overlord=bonus points
- The idea of him having a more "sympathetic" background has been brought up—maybe all this is a result of some accident?
There are a few more "options" listed in the article that could stand to be defined. Anyone want to take a different approach? Contest any particular item?
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Post by Rigil Kent on Nov 13, 2012 9:35:04 GMT -6
Clearly, he hates King John because John is (not) responsible for his horrible facial scarring from their days in Generica U.
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Post by WxMAN on Nov 13, 2012 12:20:08 GMT -6
Encounters involving Big Bad- Do we make him part of the background (ie Mortal Kombat style with the way they handled Shang Tsung and Kahn)
- Do we make him “immortal” in early encounters (beaten to near death but can always escapes in the end)
- Do we throw him in the mix and if he dies then we just move to a new Big Baddie
- Any other option that may be discussed and agreed upon
Great post Chris! In theory the "Big Bad" should be relatively high level. He shouldn't notice or care about low level 'heroes' for quite some time as they shouldn't be overly interfering with his plans. If any GM pulls the "immortal" trick I will personally kill their character in the most humiliating way possible next time I GM. So in a "generic" setting a bad guy would typically throw increasingly higher ranked minions at the PCs (once he notices them at all) until he has to deal with them "personally" in which would likely be a "final fight" scenario From Giger:- I do agree with the general consensus to delay defining characters/setting stuff until it needs to be defined—I only want to define the "basics" that people need to be aware of to make decisions about what to GM That is essentially what I am doing in this campaign due to the round robin GM style it requires modification as to how I think I would 'typically' approach the issue. The only parts of the world that exist are the ones directly interacted with. No one has a name unless asked, etc etc. So since I am not yet planning on using the BBEG in during my run he is quite literally non-existent. The seconds someone else GMs and defines something in 'their' world (name, place, etc), it now exists in 'my version' of the world. It may not be the best way to handle it but that seems to make the most sense to me to make things easier to gel together quickly.
- The Overlord will be a feature of my run—#2, IIRC—so he (and his entourage) does need to be defined As above, I was operating under the idea that if I don't define it it doesn't exist. So I won't be using a "Dr. Evil" to your "Sauran" or vice versa.
- My pref: The main NPCs of the setting should have "story immunity" from death—but that doesn't mean they can't be "killed," just that they come back anyway, didn't actually die, had a clone, etc. I hate the idea of no 'real' death. I'm willing to deal with it in this campaign if everyone else prefers this, but I was going to plan on not killing anyone unless they did something VERY dumb, and even then I would warn them that the "gloves are off" if they attempt something like that.
- The gods can wait to be defined later—divine magical concerns cannot, though I presume we take the "generic" approach, that divine magic is just another form of spellcasting That's what I was planning
- I really don't think you can make the case of having a super-tent (Magnificent Mansion, etc) would be unbalancing, exept that it removes the food/shelter motivation from the game—which is something that we typically ignore anyway. That said, it was just a thought, and I really don't care. I will speak no more of it.I do have 'plans' for this during my run where (at least in the short term) food and shelter are not needed.
- "Fantasy Medievalness" comes in a couple of varieties, at least. Standard D&D approach is more-or-less "historical" with allowances for magic and nonhuman races. There's also the modern-in-medieval-clothing type—trying to think of an example…I'll get back to you. Could always be a bit of both, as well.Seems to already be decided to go fantasy medieval
- As with the previous point, there are multiple interpretations of "generic" WRT the standard Fantasy races—hence the question. I guess the "elves" and "goblins/orcs" questions are really the same: are they basically just like humans, with different looks and customs, or are they truly alien? The consensus, thus far, seems to be the former For this campaign, being generic, I was planning on the latter
- My pref: WRT resurrection, just stick to the existing rules; no house-ruling
- My pref: WRT lethality, the real question is whether or not we, as Players, should expect to be killed (which might be the case if we were playing Temple of Elemental Evil or something), or expect the GM to go to some lengths to prevent it, as it normally goes—that's what needs to be decided, and will affect all GMs. I say we should let the cookies crumble, and adapt if we need to—it'll be a good exercise for the noob-GMs to deal with PC death when it inevitably arrives. Being as this is the n00bs first time I plan on being conservative with my initial combats. I'm sorry if they are a 'cakewalk' but I will need to get my guage out to see what you (as the party) can and can't handle. As I said previously I was planning on not killing folks unless they temp fate with something 'dumb'. ie "See that tank over there? I bet my spear can beat it." (Oh Civilization humor)
From Giger:- Son and daughter, as indicated (names and particulars are still up for grabs) We don't need to take the tropes article word for word. Not that ze can't have children, just that we don't need to make the article into a checklist to make sure it is 'generic enough'
- Probably a necromancer, and demon-summoner—may have a demon adviser Probably.
- Name is The Overlord=bonus points
- The idea of him having a more "sympathetic" background has been brought up—maybe all this is a result of some accident? I don't really care overly much if he is sympathetic or not during this campaign
I feel like I need to apologize. The ends of my so-called sanity are frayed, of late. I guess the most important thing I'd like to get across regarding my attitude with this campaign is the MST3K motto "Its just a show I should really just relax". There will be unavoidable 'mood' shifts when switching GMs and whatnot. It'll happen, there'll be retcons, there'll be a moment when the GM before you completely screws your plans, we'll jus thave to take it in stride.
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Post by Gigermann on Nov 13, 2012 12:32:53 GMT -6
@n8: - Learn how to close off your damned colors
- Story immunity for NON-PCs, not PCs—only the guys on the bible list
- "Son & daughter" were indicated in the previous conversations about Generica, and are on the bible list (and haven't been contested)—I did not mean that they were on the article, and therefore, required; that is one of those "optional" things we'd need to work out (and, in this case, already have)
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Post by WxMAN on Nov 13, 2012 12:43:34 GMT -6
- Learn how to close off your damned colors I do what I want!
- Story immunity for NON-PCs, not PCs—only the guys on the bible list I thought we already discussed this? Those 'defined' by the GM are theirs unless asked by another GM. Those in the 'all GM' pool are not really touchable unless cleared by all other GMs?
- "Son & daughter" were indicated in the previous conversations about Generica, and are on the bible list (and haven't been contested)—I did not mean that they were on the article, and therefore, required; that is one of those "optional" things we'd need to work out (and, in this case, already have)Yeah, I f'ed it all up
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Post by Gigermann on Nov 13, 2012 13:31:19 GMT -6
FYI, I think I see where the miscommunication has occurred, now (why now?). The thing I failed to communicate:
Everything currently in the Campaign Bible is spitballing, based on the Previous Conversation, and some stream-of-consciousness records by myself, and are all "Pending Final Approval by the Other GMs" (what I've been waiting for, and why I keep bugging people)
Need to see if there's some sort of "approval" mechanism in Docs we can use.
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Post by WxMAN on Nov 13, 2012 14:07:07 GMT -6
Everything currently in the Campaign Bible is spitballing, based on the Previous Conversation, and some stream-of-consciousness records by myself, and are all " Pending Final Approval by the Other GMs" (what I've been waiting for, and why I keep bugging people) Bible now with more stuff. In orange. Because orange is the best color.
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Post by WxMAN on Nov 15, 2012 11:03:35 GMT -6
Everyone satisfied with the bible? Activity has dovetailed...
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Post by Gigermann on Nov 15, 2012 11:09:04 GMT -6
Everyone satisfied with the bible? Activity has dovetailed... Anything you need to lock down for your run?
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Post by WxMAN on Nov 15, 2012 11:14:25 GMT -6
Character sheets from everyone would be nice.... as well as (updated to match our new 'setting' decisions) backstories from Chris3/Giger
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Post by Rigil Kent on Nov 15, 2012 11:24:07 GMT -6
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Post by WxMAN on Nov 15, 2012 15:55:31 GMT -6
BTW. I'm going with "Homeville" Y Homeville when you could be in Heroham!
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Post by Gigermann on Nov 15, 2012 16:08:37 GMT -6
Y Homeville when you could be in Heroham! I was originally thinking of "Startville." Seems like Heroham (dislike it, phonetically) would have to have a lot of Heroes™ hailing from it—in which case, why do they need a militia, when you have the 20th Level bartender?
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Post by Rigil Kent on Nov 15, 2012 16:10:40 GMT -6
They don't need a militia ... which is why the newbies were fobbed off to the king.
It is an unwritten law: don't screw with Heroham. Every one there is bad ass.
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Post by WxMAN on Nov 15, 2012 16:11:25 GMT -6
[hipster] Its ironically named [/hipster]
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Post by Rigil Kent on Nov 15, 2012 16:15:02 GMT -6
Even better. Nothing good ever comes from Heroham. Fortunately, Alain is Neutral so he doesn't count...
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Post by Gigermann on Nov 15, 2012 16:18:44 GMT -6
Borringham is another good candidate. Or Townsville—can't get more generic than that. Though I'm sure nobody's listening to me anymore…
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Post by WxMAN on Nov 15, 2012 16:22:56 GMT -6
Though I'm sure nobody's listening to me anymore… I fixed it... go vote and convince us (I suggest monetarily) that your name is best I'd also like some sort of consensus from my fellow GMs with a house-rule for Intimidate. It bothers the crap out of me that it is CHA based. I was thinking (1/2 STR + 1/2 CHA) or (1 CHA), player choice Thoughts? Not needed?
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Post by Gigermann on Nov 15, 2012 16:25:07 GMT -6
You can already swap Stats when it's warranted, not that we see it that often. If you're using Str to intimidate, you're using Str to intimidate—that's my 2¢
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Post by Rigil Kent on Nov 15, 2012 16:26:35 GMT -6
That's mostly a house rule, I think, but has always made perfect sense to me.
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Post by WxMAN on Nov 15, 2012 16:29:07 GMT -6
Oh, well in that case... good...... we'll go with that
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Post by thedefiantbudah on Nov 15, 2012 21:05:34 GMT -6
i have my character and spell sheet done...still need to tweak the background...who wants to upload since i don't remember what all i have to do to attach a file on here anymore
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Post by Gigermann on Nov 15, 2012 21:07:13 GMT -6
i don't remember what all i have to do to attach a file on here anymore Reminder
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Post by thedefiantbudah on Nov 15, 2012 21:32:48 GMT -6
so...in 5 months they still haven't resolved it?
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Post by Gigermann on Nov 15, 2012 21:41:54 GMT -6
so...in 5 months they still haven't resolved it? It's a conflict with the dice roller script. The guy(s) who wrote the script never responded to my request for help, nor did anyone else in the coding support forum, and the Proboards people really have nothing to do with it; can't just drop it, either, so we may just have to live with it.
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Post by WxMAN on Nov 16, 2012 11:41:51 GMT -6
Could use Magnimar as the capital if we need a map... There are some really cool Magnimar pics out there... Thoughts from the other GM's? I am fine using this as the template
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Post by Gigermann on Nov 16, 2012 11:48:42 GMT -6
Thoughts from the other GM's? I am fine using this as the template Cool with it. The compass need not be fixed where the image has it, if we need the city oriented another direction.
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