I invite thoughts, comments, suggestions, slaps on the back (as long as they are not too hard), piles of money, and maybe an occasional complaint or two from anyone on this board in regard to Jhiaxus' recent world.
Post Ludum: Jhiaxus' World
(20 posts) (6 voices)-
Tadeusz
MemberThanks, Niko.
And Jhiaxus had a good point in how many superversers he met: Jeff with his cyborg plastic muscles, Nazi Cyborg Stryfe, the big guy with the Gift of Samson who threw Siljonic through a wall, Jak-B-Quik Street Samurai, Unnamed One major magician, and Lisabeth insanely powerful psi, and Bellerophon who he didn't meet but influenced things is even more insanely powerful, Hermes is no slouch although Jhiaxus could probably take him, the newbie Space Commando who is genetically modified to be a supersoldier on Pluto, and of course, Whisp who is very tough indeed.
Fri Sep 3 2010 9:22 pm # -
Jhiaxus
MemberI just get a little annoyed at the lack of and sense of accomplishment in your worlds when set to a task seems I can't get it done. I can see if I was recklace, just seems the deck is stacked. Last world has definatly made me rethink working with other feeders in any sense.
Fri Sep 3 2010 9:35 pm # -
Jhiaxus
MemberSorry was on my phone and it likes to auto correct words it doesn't know like Versers after the fact, so it makes me sound bad. I meant Versers, I think the only two that weren't attatched to me who were decent people, were the Baron and She-who-is-gold, the rest, probably the worst humanity had to offer.
I mean I couldn't accomplish small goals like get married, it's things like that, that make it hard to give any sort of investement in a world. In that last fight, the reason why I had the issues (which is fine, I'm over it) were the following: Seems I had the full attention of the female verser as soon as I came in, she was fighting someone and took her full attention to give me grief? Annoying, illogical, but ok. Siljonic not making an appearance in that fight? Unlikely, Tessa once she saw I was getting attacked by her "friend" not doing anything, Unlikely. I know it was quick, but just seemed like I got two actions to getting fired on 3 or 4 times, having her pin me under a light, getting a point blank shot to the head, surviving, getting stabbed, and throat slashed. I did one possession and one pull of a trigger and was dead. I know I may not be as leet as some of these people but my MSV and RSV are in the 2's and they were getting 4x as many actions/attacks? I think if I combine that with my general lack of frustration to obtaining any psionic, magic or a decent high tech range weapon, and it's like well that was fun. I mean Siljonic teaching me Light, and just Light, would take decades of out of game time to get just the spells he knows. This is a bit of a rant, so I will leave with positive notes:
I liked the story and premise, I just think there needs to me more of a mix of normal versers to give the verser a chance to do something in the story.
I liked the character development, I got a sense for the characters as they were intoduced.
I think a balance between risk and story should come into play. If you want a verser to have a chance to explore the story, if they go about it the right way, they should have a chance to get some accomplishment out of it.
In character, all he sees are arses, and defeat. He gets a little better, and it seems like everyone takes a quantum leap above that. I feel like I'm Vegeta to your Goku in the story.
Fri Sep 3 2010 10:47 pm # -
Tadeusz
MemberI wouldn't call getting married as a 'god' a small goal with the Emperor and thirty to forty versers attending a small thing, and I think Whisp has 3@ martial arts skills so yeah, I was giving him two shots of his 3 shot gun per every action you had.
But I think I did too much damage with her knife with you having a 2@ divide by two damage thing.
I had Siljonic circling the room, and once Whisp saw Siljonic, Whisp chose to head into the center of the room to jump you guys and avoid Sil.
Hopefully I'll do better in the next world.
Sat Sep 4 2010 12:02 am # -
I just think there needs to me more of a mix of normal versers to give the verser a chance to do something in the story.
That is a point. I've run a lot of people, some of them for a lot of years (decades), and most of them are still pretty normal people. Even in that batch of elder versers in the referee's rules, sure people like the Architect, the Psiontist, Michael di Vars are powerful, and they have a few quirks, but they're relatively normal people if you sit and talk with them. Whisp seems an exception, but that's because his player was then a cad in real life as well as reckless at the gaming table, and it added up to a powerful oddball. (Oh, yes, and I forgot that before he was a verser he had been recruited by the Dar Koni to be a galactic mercenary in their war against the Kreelak--the races were developed in an earlier unpublished game entitled "Aliens In Your Living Romm" in which humans were kidnapped by aliens, impressed into military service, and retrofitted with powerful enhancements.) Mother, too, is exceptional, but her entire existence revolves around the fact that Whisp drove her insane to the point of suicide--and she never was a player character.
Eric's super versers are always interesting, but they're interesting because they are unusual even for versers. I would expect to encounter versers like that maybe one in a hundred gathers, unless it happened that one of the other player characters in my cycle became such a person. I would think encountering two (not connected like a married couple) in the same universe would be unheard by most versers--it never happened to any of them, and they never heard of it happening to anyone they have met.
So I'm inclined to agree with Adam here: if there are a lot of versers in a world, ninety-nine out of a hundred are going to be quite ordinary people with some extra skills and equipment.
I've lost count of how many players I've had in my games, but I have never had one that I recall who wanted to rule a universe, or even, when I think about it, a kingdom. It makes the super versers less credible for me, because I don't know any real players who thought that way.
--M. J. Young
Sun Sep 5 2010 6:10 pm # -
Tadeusz
MemberI do tend toward ham. It makes a character and the conflict more dramatic and quickly accessible. Add too much, and you can make a character cartoonish. But I'm learning to handle character. One thing more than subtlety that I'm focused on right now is providing a diversity of character.
Architect, Di Vars, the Kid with the Stick...relatively normal? Which part of 'I'm going to train my third grade classmates to be assassins' sounds normal? Which of the many characters in Jotunn would not look askance at such an idea? I'm sure the Nazi Cyborg would have thought it was just great, even if a bit weird. But I really doubt you want him as a character witness. Smile.
Are versers limited to coming from worlds similar to our own, and to humans, and to from a time like ours?
Did Ghost not create the Reformed United States of America, and then later go on to almost overthrow a galactic empire? Am I chopped liver? Smile.
Now, I did put too many superversers in there. But I'm also fairly certain that MJ's 1 in a hundred is a vast overstatement not supported by good reasons. I've read your books MJ, and realized I needed to learn a great deal. I've also read your books, and realized you needed to learn a good deal.
Sun Sep 5 2010 7:13 pm # -
O.K., the Kid with the Stick is definitely anti-social; I admit to having overlooked him, and am embarrassed to have done so. And I admit that explaining how he came to that particular outlook only reinforces the fact that he did.
I did think of you, particularly as the Ghost creating the Reformed United States of America; but you were never looking to be its ruler, only its restorer. I have repeatedly seen you dig in and fight oppression and evil wherever it was found, and to overthrow unjust authorities. I have never seen you decide arbitrarily that you wanted to be emperor and had the power to do it.
--M. J. Young
Sun Sep 5 2010 8:18 pm # -
Okay then, it appeared that my other or my future self was once emperor there. After the pirates were defeated and people saw how the emperor's ship seemed tailor made to me (the only human they know) they added two and two together. Furthermore future me appearance guided me through most of this as a cloaked figure only I seemed to see. At the end he revealed himself to me as me and we had a talk.
A post by post read-through of my adventures in that world can be found here, and it stops where I dropped out and if Eric sees fit can start again sometime.
Sun Sep 5 2010 10:05 pm # -
Tadeusz
MemberI'll try to restart that game in a week or two. Just reread that thread, need to think a bit on where to go next with it.
Edit: There's the Greater Shadows that live in the Dark between the Stars, and Pirates, and the Establishment which is Christian, but not inclined toward seeing God work.
Mon Sep 6 2010 1:56 am #
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