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RDU Neil

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RDU Neil last won the day on July 10 2019

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About RDU Neil

  • Birthday 08/04/1967

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  1. https://io9.gizmodo.com/spider-man-will-no-longer-be-shared-by-marvel-and-sony-1837416155?rev=1566332112242&utm_medium=socialflow&utm_source=io9_facebook&utm_campaign=socialflow_io9_facebook&fbclid=IwAR39NBisvBHg5RRL4y2MzvoK0qbrO2gfpllJxqqvMG3KfcOjDg4k5QxQHF0 Whoa... this could suck... big time.
  2. You know James Bond is Time Lord... right? https://www.tor.com/2012/11/16/skyfall-proves-that-james-bond-is-a-time-lord/ It really is the only explanation that works.
  3. Have you read Jason Aaron's The Mighty Thor? With Jane Foster? It is one of the best Thor runs ever, and I've been reading 'em a long time. Hands down some of the best writing and art ever, and is a perfect use of the "sick/lame human becomes a god" schtick that started it all back in Journey Into Mystery... since the entire mythos is built on "Whoever holds this hammer..." bit.
  4. Please tell me John Ostrander is still alive to reap the rewards of this.
  5. This is very true, and why I've all but abandoned HERO for actual play. The fact that it became a system for engineers and coders to play around with how sophisticated their builds could be... and not really an RPG for actual play... has eventually worn me out. I'm actually writing a PbtA style RPG for supers that rejects this mentality completely... and embraces the above. Mechanical sophistication and complexity is often the bane of a good game.
  6. I'm confused. It sounds like audio from a couple years ago? A glimpse at Infinity War at SDCC? Why is it labeled 7/19/19?
  7. Totally agree with this... and maybe one of the reasons I have knee-jerk issues against "immersion" which I used to love. Too many times, players did disruptive things and just wrote it off as "in character" which may have been true... but the point is, the play group and play dynamic is what is real and important, not the character. If being "in character' messes with the play dynamic, that is wrong, no matter how "in character" the behavior is. Hopefully, some regular metagame discussion minimizes the situations where things go 'too far.'
  8. I was referring very specifically to Spence's version of backstory... the player showing up with a preconceived tome they are emotionally attached to and expecting it to be accepted into play by the group. I prefer players to be arriving to the game, and even during play, in an open state of mind to who their character is and how they will play out. Sure, I have a Secret ID, but I didn't work out every detail about why or how... and if during play it turns out this doesn't really fit, or needs to change, or it takes on a different form, based on the way the story is unfolding... ok then, make that shift. It might just be me, but I tend to approach things in a very sketched out, vague, general direction sort of way. Like, maybe I'm GhostGirl's player and I usually don't go for emotional drama, but during play I find that coming out, and being very natural as I discover who GhostGirl the character is right along with everyone else... and that kind of play is now important to me and I never would have stated that early on. So many times we had players have a character built or written out a certain way, but into play, that isn't working the way they thought it was, or that aspect of the character is just not applicable to the story, or it turns out not be fun... so things get changed. Just as the GM should be open to what stories they are going to structure based on what their players express interest in, players should be open to being malleable to what comes out in actual play, rather than be married to a pre-conceived idea.
  9. Yes. That's my point. I should have opened communication with the other players before going on being all "immersive." On this point, have any of you played with the "X" card? This is usually used in Con games... where it is just a card sitting in the middle of the table with a big black X on it. Everyone knows that if someone reaches out and taps the card, play stops... whatever was being done is rewound until we are at a point where the offending bit started, and play goes in a different direction from there. The player tapping does not have to explain why, just that "I don't like that" and it backs up. In Drunk's story, the other player could have used the X card and such, but as much as it is around in Cons, I've never used it in play with people I really know. Still, just the concept... "Things may arise in play that are uncomfortable/disturbing to a player... X card nixes those, out of hand" gives people leeway to stop things. Interesting that I've never seen it used in some game that got pretty dark and ugly. In fact, the only time I saw it used was around one player Xing out certain actions of another player because the game was very serious and those actions were silly and whimsical and broke the "feel" of the game. Again, I'm not sure I'd suggest it for a regular play group, but the mentality of play it generates simply be being there... which is, "Hey, consider how your game actions might affect the players" is real.
  10. yeah... it is unfortunate that RPGs have turned "character development" into "leveling up." I still think of it from a literary POV, where character development is the whole point... to experience the growth of the characters, changes in their values, mores, expectations and beliefs, through the fictional events. I've seen some RPG related quotes about "Character development is bullshit. Character growth is what is important." Again... a shift in the meaning of terms based on context. A discussion of leveling up vs. growth could be fun, but actually a different thing altogether than what we've been talking about here. Either or both is possible in either style of gaming we've been talking about. Leveling up vs. growth is one of the "goal differences" Hugh was mentioning... not necessarily a style play.
  11. Funny... but seriously... I hate this stuff. Backstory is awful... it should be developed in play. Nothing I'm talking about has anything to do with backstory... which is just a pre-play form of solipsistic "role play".
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