SHADOWTEXT'S PROFILE

Here are a few slogan ideas, keep in mind my mind is in a weird place as I'm writing these:

RMN - Better than being punched in the swim bladder!

RMN - Oh, yeah. We've got ferrets!

RMN - We like things which are nice.

RMN - Silly piggy, that's people food!

RMN - Several months between wolf attacks, GUARANTEED!

RMN - I'm with stupid.

RMN - Pickle!

RMN - To be honest, I haven't even got a swim bladder.

author=Feldschlacht IV link=topic=1340.msg20469#msg20469 date=1213740851

author=WIP link=topic=1340.msg20429#msg20429 date=1213722088
I think the biggest failure with games in the community is the way the story is approached. It isn't about the game's story so much as its implementation into the game.

Skies of Arcadia is a shining example of this. At first glance the story is stock and standard, but the way the game presents it makes it incredible.

I don't know if Skies of Arcadia is a good example to go by, though. Skies of Arcadia isn't just stock and standard at first glance....in basically every way, it should be a mediocre game. But through some sort of sorcery that I don't understand, it's so charming that you forgive it. It's a pure "B" game. Infinitely lovable not in spite of its failings but almost because of them, and yet it's an unironic sort of appreciation. It's camp. Pure camp, not the diluted sort of camp you get when people confuse enjoying camp with appreciating something sarcastically. Camp that comes from passionate failure, and is endearing precisely because it tries so hard but doesn't quite pull it off.

In other words, I don't think Skies of Arcadia should be a role model for game makers because it's almost impossible to make quality camp on purpose. If you want to make quality camp, you have to shoot for the moon. You've got to be Peter Molyneux in ambition and Ed Wood in execution.

I don't think that's a trick that can be taught. I mean I'm not saying it's intrinsic in the sense of being magically gifted to people at birth, but it's sort of a knack that I think can only be developed serendipitously.

Okay, I'm glad there's some interest. But we should probably talk about schedules and suchlike now, to see if any of you are not going to be able to because of schedule conflicts or something. And we haven't settled on the player lineup yet (it'll probably be at least a week or two before I can get a campaign ready anyway), so anyone who's interested please don't feel like you've missed the boat yet! The sweet spot is probably between four and eight players (not counting the Dungeon Master, and it's looking like that means me at the moment)

I live in CST, which is GMT-6:00. I am free weeknights from let's say 7:00 PM to 12:00 PM. Weekends I can make time at just about any time, and Fridays and Saturdays I can go later than 12:00 PM if need be. Weekends tend to be the best time for sessions in case they run long (and believe me, they can), but on the other hand, weekends are also the times that most often get preempted for social concerns. Generally that's not an issue for me, but it might be for some of you.

In my experience it's usually best to plan for about one session a week. Two might be possible, but it'd probably be pretty frantic. I'm not one for logistics, though, so anyone who has any tips here could be a big help.

Also: other than having or not having books, does anyone have any real issues with Fourth Edition, or for that matter any issues with 3.5?

Tentatively, I'd like to look towards OpenRPG as the meeting tool here, rather than IRC. I've always used IRC in the past for this stuff, but OpenRPG has the advantage of having a map / whiteboard dealie that can make things a lot easier. Potential players should have a look at OpenRPG, maybe play around in it and see if they like it to see if it'll work for you.

Once we lock in players, we'll talk about books and how to handle players without access to them (may as well wait until we've written the Engine we'll be using in stone, though). Not having the books will not necessarily mean you can't play, so don't let that scare you off! When D&D Insider comes out, if this stuff is still going well I might subscribe to that, and if so it sounds like there'll be a way for non-subscribed players to use the Dungeon Master's account to use D&D Game Table, which should be the best solution....though it sounds like it's PC only, so it might not be an option if any of you are on Mac or Linux. We'll see about all that in the future, though.

Also, if anyone has special contributions or insights to offer even if they can't play, like Craze's, feel free.

I can't speak for everyone who says that stuff, but the whole reason I say it is specifically to get RPG players to stop being such pretentious douches about their "RPGs are about the story" shenanigans. I tend to assume games are about being games, and there's no reason that someone should feel ashamed or like the medium is less important because of that. But if they're going to sit and tell me that the story is more important than anything else in a game, then hell, yes I'm going to tell them that the story they're working themselves into a frenzy over is crap.

Video Game(including RPG) plots are mediocre pulp fantasy fare at best. But the important point you should be taking from that is not "I need to make my story better to meet Shadowtext's standards of Story." It's "Maybe I should stop beating people over the head with how amazing the story in my game / Game X is if it can't stand head to head with even something as awful as Eragon, regardless of medium, and start giving a little more love to the other strengths of video games, which story-saturated media can't replicate."

I do make a distinction between visual novels, machinima, and video games, though.

PnP means "Pen and Paper". I don't think the term existed before the development of video game RPGs, but it's meant to distinguish between tabletop RPGs and cRPGs.

It's a bit of a misnomer, though, since it's not always played with pen and paper these days. Still, players know what you mean when you say "PnP."