I'm flexible on where, and I'm guessing that the most equitable solution would be to have a rotating schedule of hosts. But I will also listen to the democracy if there are better ideas.
As for when - well, that depends on everyone's schedules, but if we could eke out sometime twice a month (or every other week, if that's how you like to think of it) I think that would be good: enough to keep things rolling, but not so much as to create stress. Some people asked about whether it would be a weeknight or a weekend time slot: personally, my weekends are pretty packed, so I was thinking about a weeknight. You know, instead of poker night, game night. I think it would work out well if we could get 2.5 to 3 hours at a stretch (e.g. 7pm-10pm).
And when do we start? That could be as early as November if we can get a large enough party by then. The only problem with that is the holidays which are likely to complicate everyone's schedules; we might just get started and then not be able to meet again until early 2009. So that is the other option: simply wait to start until January. I'm willing to give it a go earlier if everyone else is on board.
Because the party size will hopefully be around 5 or 6, I think we should implement a quorum system. The reason is, I think it is likely that there will be a number of times when someone has to excuse themselves because of last minute issues, and it would be disappointing to always be cancelling and rescheduling game times. The idea of the quorum is that if at least most of the group, let's say four people, can make a scheduled game time, then we move forward and things don't get bogged down.
Those that could not make it will have a sort of amnesty where their characters cannot be harmed or killed, although the rest of the party will still have the benefit of those characters in combat situations ( I, or somebody else, would play them as NPCs in battles). As for missing part of the story, or a key part of a puzzle, that is where this blog comes. It will serve as a way to keep everyone in the loop as to what's going on in the campaign.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Your Characters - Part II
So, you will also need a list of possible character races, and their attribute bases. And, if it has been a while, or you're new to Palladium, you'll need the lowdown on the whole character creation process. It might not be possible to complete all of this ahead of time, but the more that can be done now, the less time we'll have to spend on this process once we start playing.
There will be a separate post about the race options for your character, and another about putting the pieces of your character together. If you are already familiar with Palladium/Rifts, you can be almost any kind of race or OCC you want; just let me know what you plan to do so I can help you out.
Some of you have expressed interest in the Rifts aspect of things, so I have provided an initial way in for you with an OCC/Race of my own creation, the Skedic. I will provide a whole post about this OCC and it origins for you to check out.
Be creative and wise in your choice of skills and former backround since this will effect some of the information that you receive. For example, someone who chooses to study Ancient Elven lore might find themselves in possession of detailed area maps of the Old Kingdom as well as legends and myths of the Elven people ( = treasure ). And the son or daughter of a merchant might know the ins and outs of the larger port cities around the world (and where to find difficult to locate resources).
There will be a separate post about the race options for your character, and another about putting the pieces of your character together. If you are already familiar with Palladium/Rifts, you can be almost any kind of race or OCC you want; just let me know what you plan to do so I can help you out.
Some of you have expressed interest in the Rifts aspect of things, so I have provided an initial way in for you with an OCC/Race of my own creation, the Skedic. I will provide a whole post about this OCC and it origins for you to check out.
Be creative and wise in your choice of skills and former backround since this will effect some of the information that you receive. For example, someone who chooses to study Ancient Elven lore might find themselves in possession of detailed area maps of the Old Kingdom as well as legends and myths of the Elven people ( = treasure ). And the son or daughter of a merchant might know the ins and outs of the larger port cities around the world (and where to find difficult to locate resources).
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Your Characters - Part I
Those of you familiar with Palladium FRPG already know that there are many types of characters (O.C.Cs) that you can play, as well as many different races. And, per player suggestion, Rifts elements will also be incorporated, so the palette of possibility is very large (although I will have to clarify how the Rifts elements will work in a later entry). I encourage diversity, so take some time to browse through the possibilities! Down at the bottom you will find some links to sites that provide things like character sheets for all OCCs, and "complete" skill lists which you might find useful for creating your character.
I do have a couple of rules regarding your characters, though. First, no one in the party can be of an evil alignment. Selfish alignments are okay, and obviously, good ones are just fine. I know, it seems like it might be a cool idea to have that one diabolical mastermind in the heart of the good guys team, but it really won't work, to start with anyway. Truth is, as I've found it, whenever you have good vs evil in the party, someone's going home in a body bag and it becomes a drag for everyone else caught in the middle.
Second, I urge you to create balanced characters that have both strengths and weaknesses. They are more fun to play, and I can tell when you cheat on your dice rolls. I am a mathematically inclined person (nut) so I've actually calculated what the average attribute scores are for most of the major races; and then I found a program that some like-minded OCD individual made that does it for me. The point is, I can tell how unlikely your character is based on their attribute scores. So, if you rolled a super-awesome character with all 16 to 18 stats, be prepared for me to be skeptical.
To help you figure out this attribute score issue, let me paint an example. If you played a human, which gets 3d6 for all 8 attributes, then the total sum of all attribute scores would be between 72 and 80 most of the time. Or if you are a percentile person, the 50th percentile, roughly speaking, is populated by people with a sum score of 76. That means that each attribute individually would be either a 9 or a 10 out of 18.
So, I am likely to believe a human character whose attributes' sum is 88-92 or less. That equals a score of 11 across the board, which is definitely an above average character. So, if you want to create a human character, you could just give yourself 88 to 92 points to spend and distribute them across the attributes however you desire. This could be very helpful if you have your heart set on a particular OCC that has heavy restrictions. If you want to play a different race and do the same thing, let me know and I'll give you the numbers. Of course, you can always do the traditional die rolls; I am really less concerned with how you get your attribute scores than the fact that you have fun creating your character and that the character has a good balance between strengths and weaknesses.
Why balance and weakness? To give you room to grow and to provide some challenge, and to force you to make tough decisions about your character and...need I go on? Starting off with a power-character isn't fun, at least not in this campaign. You will need to become that power-player through the fiery forge of the campaign.
And you might want to create two characters, just to have a back up ready to go. I'll probably say this again elsewhere, but, your first character (or second, for that matter) could quite possibly get killed. It's a dangerous world out there. The dice roll the way they will, and there are some really tough opponents out there. If there wasn't any real danger of your character getting whacked, you probably wouldn't feel the appropriate sense of fear, terror, and dread when you realize the sleeping dragon whose lair you're in isn't asleep! To soften the blow of having become a tasty snack, I allow everyone to bring a back-up character into the campaign near the same level as the one lost.
This site has a lot of interesting information, including Palladium religions and skills. The custom character sheet downloads are at the bottom.
Here you will find the official published character sheets for Palladium characters.
I do have a couple of rules regarding your characters, though. First, no one in the party can be of an evil alignment. Selfish alignments are okay, and obviously, good ones are just fine. I know, it seems like it might be a cool idea to have that one diabolical mastermind in the heart of the good guys team, but it really won't work, to start with anyway. Truth is, as I've found it, whenever you have good vs evil in the party, someone's going home in a body bag and it becomes a drag for everyone else caught in the middle.
Second, I urge you to create balanced characters that have both strengths and weaknesses. They are more fun to play, and I can tell when you cheat on your dice rolls. I am a mathematically inclined person (nut) so I've actually calculated what the average attribute scores are for most of the major races; and then I found a program that some like-minded OCD individual made that does it for me. The point is, I can tell how unlikely your character is based on their attribute scores. So, if you rolled a super-awesome character with all 16 to 18 stats, be prepared for me to be skeptical.
To help you figure out this attribute score issue, let me paint an example. If you played a human, which gets 3d6 for all 8 attributes, then the total sum of all attribute scores would be between 72 and 80 most of the time. Or if you are a percentile person, the 50th percentile, roughly speaking, is populated by people with a sum score of 76. That means that each attribute individually would be either a 9 or a 10 out of 18.
So, I am likely to believe a human character whose attributes' sum is 88-92 or less. That equals a score of 11 across the board, which is definitely an above average character. So, if you want to create a human character, you could just give yourself 88 to 92 points to spend and distribute them across the attributes however you desire. This could be very helpful if you have your heart set on a particular OCC that has heavy restrictions. If you want to play a different race and do the same thing, let me know and I'll give you the numbers. Of course, you can always do the traditional die rolls; I am really less concerned with how you get your attribute scores than the fact that you have fun creating your character and that the character has a good balance between strengths and weaknesses.
Why balance and weakness? To give you room to grow and to provide some challenge, and to force you to make tough decisions about your character and...need I go on? Starting off with a power-character isn't fun, at least not in this campaign. You will need to become that power-player through the fiery forge of the campaign.
And you might want to create two characters, just to have a back up ready to go. I'll probably say this again elsewhere, but, your first character (or second, for that matter) could quite possibly get killed. It's a dangerous world out there. The dice roll the way they will, and there are some really tough opponents out there. If there wasn't any real danger of your character getting whacked, you probably wouldn't feel the appropriate sense of fear, terror, and dread when you realize the sleeping dragon whose lair you're in isn't asleep! To soften the blow of having become a tasty snack, I allow everyone to bring a back-up character into the campaign near the same level as the one lost.
This site has a lot of interesting information, including Palladium religions and skills. The custom character sheet downloads are at the bottom.
Here you will find the official published character sheets for Palladium characters.
My Style
Every GM has their own style which is reflected in the stories they tell, the game mechanics they use, and the tone that is set for the game. My goal is is to make it fun - a real page turner of a game - where you can't wait to get back to it to see what happens next. But, wouldn't you know it, fun is a fairly subjective sort of concept, so I also take my cues from what the players think is fun.
It has been said elsewhere before that role-playing games are essentially members of the narrative form family. There is a lot in common between a good RPG campaign, and a movie, or a comic book or a novel. You have characters, plot and an arc; a beginning, middle, and an end to the story. What perhaps separates RPGs from other narrative forms, with the exception of video games, is that it is dynamic. Player Characters (PCs) interact with the storyline, changing the outcome of events.
So why bring up the obvious? I like to run the sort of a game where a bunch of unsuspecting characters, out for their own self-interest, get swept up in the current of events much larger than they are, and which force them to make decisions, and take sides in a conflict of ever growing magnitude. This is not (necessarily) about "saving the world" nor is it an aimless GTA style do-whatever-and-see-what-happens world. There is an overall story arc to this campaign, so while some events must necessarily be scripted, the outcome at any of several critical junction points can radically change what happens next. In the end you will either become heroes of legend, or legends of infamy, or maybe just the forgotten ones who made the game saving assist.
So, expect change. If you are a fan of the Final Fantasy series, or of serial pulp fiction, you know the kind of change to expect. And your characters will change, too. Maybe several times. I also like to add a healthy dose of mystery, and a puzzle or few.
As for dice: my rule of thumb is to use them whenever it would be fun to do so, or when there must be an element of chance in the gameplay. Interestingly, the two situations most often go hand in hand. That being said, I hate rolling just for the sake of rolling. For example, if picking the lock on that door isn't going to effect the outcome of play or of the story, why bother rolling?
It has been said elsewhere before that role-playing games are essentially members of the narrative form family. There is a lot in common between a good RPG campaign, and a movie, or a comic book or a novel. You have characters, plot and an arc; a beginning, middle, and an end to the story. What perhaps separates RPGs from other narrative forms, with the exception of video games, is that it is dynamic. Player Characters (PCs) interact with the storyline, changing the outcome of events.
So why bring up the obvious? I like to run the sort of a game where a bunch of unsuspecting characters, out for their own self-interest, get swept up in the current of events much larger than they are, and which force them to make decisions, and take sides in a conflict of ever growing magnitude. This is not (necessarily) about "saving the world" nor is it an aimless GTA style do-whatever-and-see-what-happens world. There is an overall story arc to this campaign, so while some events must necessarily be scripted, the outcome at any of several critical junction points can radically change what happens next. In the end you will either become heroes of legend, or legends of infamy, or maybe just the forgotten ones who made the game saving assist.
So, expect change. If you are a fan of the Final Fantasy series, or of serial pulp fiction, you know the kind of change to expect. And your characters will change, too. Maybe several times. I also like to add a healthy dose of mystery, and a puzzle or few.
As for dice: my rule of thumb is to use them whenever it would be fun to do so, or when there must be an element of chance in the gameplay. Interestingly, the two situations most often go hand in hand. That being said, I hate rolling just for the sake of rolling. For example, if picking the lock on that door isn't going to effect the outcome of play or of the story, why bother rolling?
Friday, September 26, 2008
Welcome!
If you have been given a link to this page, then you are being invited to join a Palladium Fantasy/Rifts RPG campaign run be me. On the other hand, if you have randomly stumbled upon this page...well, enjoy! This blog site will host information about the game, including background information, history, lore, game mechanics issues, and anything else that might be helpful for you to have reference to over the course of the campaign. It will also serve as way for everyone to communicate with the group as a whole, should issues or questions arise, whether about real world scheduling, or "in game" problems.
So, if you are interested in joining the game, why not subscribe to this blog? That way you won't miss any important information...
If you are an experienced RPG player and/or know the Palladium/Rifts system well, you can probably gloss over many of the early posts here.
So, if you are interested in joining the game, why not subscribe to this blog? That way you won't miss any important information...
If you are an experienced RPG player and/or know the Palladium/Rifts system well, you can probably gloss over many of the early posts here.
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