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What original theme interests you?
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@Cobalt said in What original theme interests you?:
I’ve heard some support for the soap opera game but I have mild concerns about creepers there too.
I will say that “I must go, my planet needs me (Poochy died on the way back to his home planet)” is a fairly common trope in soap operas due to actors not getting contracts renewed and the writers needing to bail quickly on any storylines the character was involved with. It won’t stop creepers, but it might make dealing with the aftermath as soon as they are expunged easier.
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@Cobalt said in What original theme interests you?:
I have mild concerns about creepers there too.
There’s always going to be creepers, no matter the genre, the playerbase, or whoever is running the place. Creepers are people, if you have people you’ll eventually get creepers.
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@STD said in What original theme interests you?:
@Cobalt said in What original theme interests you?:
I’ve heard some support for the soap opera game but I have mild concerns about creepers there too.
I will say that “I must go, my planet needs me (Poochy died on the way back to his home planet)” is a fairly common trope in soap operas due to actors not getting contracts renewed and the writers needing to bail quickly on any storylines the character was involved with. It won’t stop creepers, but it might make dealing with the aftermath as soon as they are expunged easier.
Either that or “this character is suddenly being portrayed by someone else, with completely different hair.” (And hopefully a completely different understanding of good taste and boundaries)
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@bear_necessities Just easier to deal with them when they do the things they said they wouldn’t. Boot, and no worries.
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No matter what type of game your going to deal with creepers. You could make a Rainbow Brite, or Sailor Moon theme and still have creepy creepers. You’ll probably deal with some of the same people again no matter what theme you make.
Whatever game you make, just make sure you staff it with others. I think those extra sets of eyes and presence could really help you. So your not taking on all of a staffing burden yourself.
Having someone else on your level on staff can make it easier to bounce thoughts off. And just ask - I need a second opinion, is this creeping behavior to you?
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@Gasboy Isn’t that exactly what caused The Pack to close?
I’m all for making new games. Please keep doing so.
Just do not expect a new theme to solve the same old problems. You will still have creepers and weirdos.
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It’s interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a game without creepers - even if I didn’t hear about some of the creepers until years later. The only game I don’t think I’ve heard ANY creeper stories about was the Greatest Generation, and that one was a) a real niche game with b) a lot of character risk, and c) so much plot going on that it probably scared off a fair number of the people who were primarily there to try and dare people to enter their magical realms.
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Creepers often do not realize or accept that they are being creepy. So yeah, it definitely happens on every game! Interpersonal interaction with emotional investment is tricky, no community handles it flawlessly.
Something I did try to stress in my time staffing was labeling/outlawing behavior, not people. I mean - obviously there are exceptions, but mostly it’s just “we don’t do that here”. It isn’t a character judgment on them as whole people, and it is also not a RL harm to be barred from one individual text based roleplaying game.
What were we - oh yeah
ANGELS AND DEMONS -
I’m trying not to get too excited about the prospect of an angels and demons theme, because it is one of my FAVORITE THINGS in the whole world and I don’t want to just bust in an break out a laundry list of Things I Wanna See. XD
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@Pyrephox I thought of you when I saw it was an option and cast my vote accordingly, tbh
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@Pyrephox said in What original theme interests you?:
I don’t want to just bust in an break out a laundry list of Things I Wanna See. XD
Talking about these things is one of the real delightful things this place offers and you only live once, DO IT, DO IT
Myself, I’ve been kicking around a game in my head for a while now revolving around a group of fallen angels that are the central suspects in a divine whodunnit where God is missing and Lucifer got murderated. The gimmick would be that the fallen angels require squishy host bodies but the angels can return fairly easily after death, so new players app into an ongoing character with their own twist on the personality and mortal backstory as each host gets killed off, and the group has to fight off legions of demons and other angels while they try and solve the mystery and clear their names.
I feel like Ares would make this so easy to put together it’s basically an internet crime I haven’t just tried it yet.
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Honestly, my desire for an angels and demons game is basically In Nomine with a better system.
I love the idea of angels and demons being celestial beings who were never human, but who are - by the nature of their making - deeply concerned with the human. I want a bit of eldritch horror there, with true forms of multitudinous wings, eyes, and rings of divine fire. But I want a bit of fallibility there, too, with even angels sometimes confused on what the Right Thing actually is, and even demons having friends and things they want to protect, even when it goes against orders from below.
I want good and evil that don’t shut out the human; Free Will being something that humans have that is a power even celestials respect. I don’t want religions to necessarily be validated (I’m fine with a monotheistic Creator cosmology with a Devil equivalent), but I also don’t want it to be an excuse to slag off on a whole lot of faiths I don’t share but other people sincerely believe in. I’d probably prefer something along the lines of "Celestials know that a Godhead exists, but it doesn’t fall into male, female, or even singular form very easily, and religions are humanity’s way of trying to make sense of celestial presences, funneled through their own understanding. Sometimes angels (or even demons) find comfort in those religions, and might support or even profess belief in them - but the ultimate Spiritual Truth is as far out of a celestial’s reach as it is a human’s.
I’d like a cold war, with occasional flare-ups, where a lot of things are done by influencing and championing humans, whether it’s the crypto-bro encouraging everyone to embrace Greed, or the young politician who is full of idealism and Justice.
I want hard choices for both angels and demons. Some divine prohibitions or dictates that sit poorly on the average angel’s shoulders - do you trust that your superiors have a better knowledge of the Divine Will than you do, or do you do what YOU think is right? Infernal campaigns that threaten what a demon has become invested in, so they have to try and figure out how to save the stuff that’s important to them, and deflect the fallout on others, without being caught.
Some reasons for angels and demons to occasionally work together, but stakes and consequences high enough that it’s a dangerous proposition.
Occasional opportunities to really cut loose, go all flaming swords and infernal fire without it being the end of the setting or the game, or causing major disruption. Honestly, something like X:1999 where two combatants can pull each other into an alternate dimension where the cityscape exists but is empty and they can go HAM on each other would be fun.
Lots of magic. I like lots of magic. Also, I’m not that big a fan of the Masquerade - I’d be delighted with an angel/demons setting where angels and demons were at least known OF, even if most people will never meet them, and you have, like, demons running nightclubs where people can sell their souls for a hit of the best drugs ever, or halfway houses for LGBT teens where the angelic guardian will break you in half for bothering their charges.
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I’m still trying to figure out what would be the motivation for characters to interact in a game with this setup. If the main concern of PCs are manipulations of the NPC mortal world, what are two PCs going to RP about other than telling each other the details of presumably GM-narrated scenes where they are doing stuff to mortals?
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@shit-piss-love said in What original theme interests you?:
I’m still trying to figure out what would be the motivation for characters to interact in a game with this setup. If the main concern of PCs are manipulations of the NPC mortal world, what are two PCs going to RP about other than telling each other the details of presumably GM-narrated scenes where they are doing stuff to mortals?
Cuz they’re people. Played by people.
If you’re taking inspiration from In Nomine (which isn’t necessary, but does make a good starting place to look for inspiration) then none of the Archangels or Demon Princes actually agrees on HOW the War should be won. Every Superior has its own philosophy on what its celestials should be doing, and sometimes that’s “help a fellow Archangel develop this community center”, and sometimes it’s “sabotage this fellow Archangel’s community center because it will mess up this plan that we’ve been working on for five decades”. And SOMETIMES it’s “hey, angels, help out these demons figure out how to stop these other angels from burning down a building with a lot of innocent people inside to destroy a demon-run laboratory; ideally, get some intel on how we can stop the demons later, but first, save the people”.
Things like Cobalt’s suggestion to give each angel/demon PC a celestial goal are ripe for creating clear means to cooperate or interfere with each other - if one angel has been told “bring as many people in this neighborhood out of criminal behavior as possible”, one demon has been told “encourage addiction in this (same) neighborhood” and another angel has been told “show divine wrath to those who abuse others in this (same) neighborhood”, then those PCs have PLENTY of reasons to interact, and with different degrees of hostility/cooperation, depending on how each character interprets their goal.
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@Pyrephox said in What original theme interests you?:
I want a bit of eldritch horror there, with true forms of multitudinous wings, eyes, and rings of divine fire.
I mean, I’m not saying this should be mandatory on any game like this but also yes I am
@Pyrephox said in What original theme interests you?:
Also, I’m not that big a fan of the Masquerade - I’d be delighted with an angel/demons setting where angels and demons were at least known OF, even if most people will never meet them, and you have, like, demons running nightclubs where people can sell their souls for a hit of the best drugs ever, or halfway houses for LGBT teens where the angelic guardian will break you in half for bothering their charges.
Honestly Masquerade was the most 90’s thing ever and just doesn’t work/isn’t fun in this format imo, but especially in a setting with literal angels and demons doesn’t even make sense to me. Why would they have any interest in pretending to not exist, unless that served some deceptive purpose on an individual level? And it kinda seems like there would just be a natural sort of light veil anyway where people would believe or not until they couldn’t refute the evidence.
Games like that are a perfect excuse to put your Big Thinky Hat on and get into philosophical or ethical debates, muse about existence, etc all from the POV of a being that can have a vastly different experience and outlook than a human but also be very familiar. It can be fun to explore what the implications of that world are!
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@Pyrephox I’ve read many good things about In Nomine, and I’d invest in the line. Buy some books, learn about it, probably build a game around it.
But SJG is so hostile to MUSHes I won’t even bother.
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@Polk said in What original theme interests you?:
@Pyrephox I’ve read many good things about In Nomine, and I’d invest in the line. Buy some books, learn about it, probably build a game around it.
But SJG is so hostile to MUSHes I won’t even bother.
Oh god don’t.
It’s not even a matter of the hostility (you can work around it - I briefly costaffed a game that did), but the system is TERRIBLE. Nothing is balanced, the powers are a pain in the ass for GMs, and it’s a trivially easy system to break. I would play it in a tabletop with a small group who all agree on what the aim of the game is and restrain themselves. I would not do a MU* again.
That said? The THEME and the VIBE are top notch. You can easily tune it up or down for your preferred darkness, and you can get a fantastic amount of good RP. Some of the favorite games I’ve ever been in have been In Nomine.
But take the setting/theme as an inspiration, and set the mechanics on fire.
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@Pyrephox Aww.
I just know when I played Demon the Fallen briefly, what I was really wanting out of it was In Nomine.
And I have a friend who has spent many years writing In Nomine source materials which always intrigued me.
I absolutely BELIEVE you though that the game system, which wasn’t written by SJG but rather just bought, might be just plain terrible at scale.
But I still have fond thoughts about that kind of setting. A light-hearted but earnest-not-satirical game about leading man to good or evil.
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@Polk said in What original theme interests you?:
@Pyrephox Aww.
I just know when I played Demon the Fallen briefly, what I was really wanting out of it was In Nomine.
And I have a friend who has spent many years writing In Nomine source materials which always intrigued me.
I absolutely BELIEVE you though that the game system, which wasn’t written by SJG but rather just bought, might be just plain terrible at scale.
But I still have fond thoughts about that kind of setting. A light-hearted but earnest-not-satirical game about leading man to good or evil.
It can be terrible even right out of the box. There’s no real attempt to balance any of the angelic/demonic resonances or powers, so one angel can walk out of the box with ‘immune to fire and summons laser beams at will’ and the other has ‘can talk to fish’. Literally. Fish.
That said, it’s a GOOD TIME with the right players and a GM who can say, “I don’t care what the book says, you’re not starting with 6 celestial forces and a resonance roll that can only fail on an hostile intervention”.
I just wouldn’t MU* it again, without a different system. Some friends and I who were involved in the IN community actually started on a revised fan update, but like a lot of those things, it faded away.
