/tg/Station 13

by **Timbrewolf** » Tue Jun 21, 2016 5:22 pm #188769

It's slanted for me. Now that my whole business shebang is working I actually have a ridiculous amount of free time.

So for me I have all this time to pour over really interesting bits of lore and come up with really deep, rich characters and plotlines and shit.
...and my friends don't. My playgroups don't. They don't want to play a low-key game of intrigue and suspense. They want to hit a goblin in the face with an axe and get some treasure and be home by 10pm.

You say this RPG kinda looks like STALKER and Rogue Trader had a baby? What the fuck are those? Can I just shoot stuff?

by **EndgamerAzari** » Tue Jun 21, 2016 5:23 pm #188770

I've got a sizable collection of obscure/indie pdfs I've gathered from /tg/'s sharethreads over the years, I could upload them somewhere for you to peruse at your leisure.

by **Timbrewolf** » Tue Jun 21, 2016 5:29 pm #188772

I already have Magical Burst and the Juggalo RPG. I don't know what more I could want.

by **EndgamerAzari** » Tue Jun 21, 2016 5:36 pm #188775

Magical Burst is actually pretty good. I probably would have enjoyed the game more if the GM hadn't literally been running us through the plot of Madoka Magica. Fucker doesn't have an original bone in his body, I swear to God.

Don't tell me you don't have CAR LESBIANS

by **Wyzack** » Tue Jun 21, 2016 5:41 pm #188777

>Players just want to murderhobo

I certainly get a lot of that too. They can appreciate intrigue to a certain degree but after a while they just wanna stab. I try to balance both as best i can. They are a good group though, we have shitloads of fun and they don't make me GM every single game we play, we switch it up quite a bit.

by **Timbrewolf** » Tue Jun 21, 2016 5:42 pm #188778

I already have the definitive version of Car Wars. I doubt adding lesbians and removing all the crunch will make it a better game.

EDIT: First sin of the new CthulhuTech is really an old sin that they're inheriting

Part of the setting is that this corporation (The Chrysalis Corporation) is actually controlled by an evil cult that wants to work doomsday on the entire planet
And it's a huge corporation that controls all this stuff blah blah blah...Being cliched isn't really the problem here
It's that you can't really have that kind of hidden knowledge on that scale in an RPG like this. So all the players know "Hey, Chrysalis are one of the BBEG's of the setting, don't fuck with them" but at the same time they all have to find a way to suspend that disbelief in every campaign they play (or until they figure that out, or whatever).

That's dumb. Here is a plot twist that you will have to constantly twist (or untwist) while your players have to keep track of whether they have experienced the twist or not in this "life".

by **Maccus** » Tue Jun 21, 2016 6:42 pm #188794

I'm in a Fallout game irl and I need a mini for a super mutant, and I can't find one. Can anyone help? I'd rather not just hack away pieces of an Ork until it works if I can help it.

by **Timbrewolf** » Tue Jun 21, 2016 6:57 pm #188800

Just get a D&D half orc.

by **XSI** » Tue Jun 21, 2016 9:14 pm #188840

Wyzack wrote:>Players just want to murderhobo

I certainly get a lot of that too. They can appreciate intrigue to a certain degree but after a while they just wanna stab. I try to balance both as best i can. They are a good group though, we have shitloads of fun and they don't make me GM every single game we play, we switch it up quite a bit.

I had a case of "Murderhobo" last Pathfinder session I played in. Sometimes it's less that players want to stab things, and more that stabbing things is the sane thing to do sometimes.

Group clears out floor 1 of a demon-worshipping temple, with some lesser demons in it
Down to floor 2
Find a succubus sprawled out on an altar, seductive pose, skimpy outfit, the works. Even had bat wings and all that obvious stuff.
She speaks to the group, suggests a deal- We let her go free to do whatever and she tells the group everything about the other demons in the temple
Group is paranoid but tells her they are willing to talk, even though some of the more sane characters are practically foaming at the mouth and telling the others to start killing
Succubus then says "Oh by the way if you even consider threathening me I'll call everyone on this floor here at once and I'll have you killed"
Group all charges the succubus and beat her to death with cold iron weaponry
The GM's response as the succubus gets slain by a group that prepared to slay every single demon in that temple?

"Uh, guys, she was supposed to be a social challenge"

by **EndgamerAzari** » Tue Jun 21, 2016 9:20 pm #188842

The proper response is "Well, we're socially challenged, so it worked out."

by **ShadowDimentio** » Tue Jun 21, 2016 9:31 pm #188844

XSI wrote:"Uh, guys, she was supposed to be a social challenge"

>Group is prepared to kill all the demons
>Demon wants to live and then threatens the group
>GM is surprised the demon dies

GM pls

by **Wyzack** » Tue Jun 21, 2016 9:35 pm #188845

That dm has dumb expectations. Succubi are literally some of the least trustworthy demons in existence. Deus vult motherfucker

by **Maccus** » Tue Jun 21, 2016 11:02 pm #188856

Any DM that expects you to trust a succubus or incubus to not have ulterior motives or double-cross you in some fashion is spanking it under the table, without exception.

by **Timbrewolf** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 3:25 am #188893

If you've had to kill your way to something, suddenly flipping a switch and expecting the group to suddenly talk it out is really...really stupid.

What you should do instead is let them fight it out at first, then when it's clear she's losing, break combat and start talking.

I played an adventure once where we had to kill all these goblins to fight our way to this goblin necromancer guy who was trying to ressurect some warrior or something. He was in the middle of preparing the body when we got there and started talking to us like "you guys better leave!".

So we killed his ass in a single round of combat using our group synergy and twink-itude. He didn't even get a turn before he was dead.

The GM is upset and explains that he was actually just trying to resurrect an old friend, how we should've talked to him, etc.

Players are like sharks or some kind of hunting animal. Once they get a taste of blood, or smell it, they don't stop killing and smashing everything until they get a clear command to stop or run out of things to kill.

by **Wyzack** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 3:49 am #188895

>Horrid goblinoid commiting vile acts of unholy necromancy

Waaah why do you guys never talk to the npcs so i can make them betray you

by **ShadowDimentio** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 4:31 am #188904

Always set up to have something happen if the players start a fight with your NPCs.

by **Incomptinence** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 4:37 am #188909

Yeah like accolades for stabbing that there chatty fella.

by **Timbrewolf** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 5:18 am #188935

Fuck the need to play Eclipse Phase has become crippling

I can't handle this

by **ShadowDimentio** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 5:30 am #188938

Set shit up and teach me and I'll play Anon

by **Timbrewolf** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 5:39 am #188943

Not falling for that again.

/tg/station games never work

by **ShadowDimentio** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 5:50 am #188949

>Be me
>Literally perfect attendance across all three DnD games I've been in for the past year
>This nigga doubting if I'll show up

Very insulted right now

by **Maccus** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 5:54 am #188950

tgstation games have a curse shadowdimentio

by **ShadowDimentio** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 5:59 am #188951

You want to know something funny

The eternally cursed TG games are what got me inspired to actually start playing DnD.

I made a character for one of the games before realizing it hadn't been updated for a fucking month

Then I just went on Roll20 and signed up for a proper game.

Moral of the story: take this shit to Roll20

by **Incomptinence** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 6:24 am #188957

Last time I was planing to be in a tg shadowrun game I basically got ditched before it even started.

by **XSI** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 10:00 am #188977

I remember /tg/station shadowrun, one of them I was in at least
Session 1 people showed up
Session 2 everyone except the GM, me, and one other guy missing and nowhere to be found
Repeat for sessions past that

Every single game I started with people from the IRC crashed and burned too

That said I am up for more games. But my schedule is very limited at the moment and already full of games, so it's unlikely that I'll fit in anywhere

by **Timbrewolf** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 10:58 am #188984

Guys don't do this to me pls

I just want everyone to be space freaks solving crimes and fighting monsters together

EDIT: Okay here we go again. Fuck it. Ruin an old man's dreams. Again.

Accepting Eclipse Phase character applications for a game. Slots are EXTREMELY limited.
Theme is cyberpunk-noir. Characters will be officers working as part of local law enforcement to keep the peace. Rooting out corruption, exploiting your position for profit, or just surviving will be a choice each character will have to make as they go. You'll be unaware of Firewall and its activities, at least to start. That may change as time passes.

Social skills and Investigative skills will likely see much more use than stealth or combat skills.

My initial plan for the game only calls for three players. We'll meet up and play via Roll20 most likely, but for games like this I often just run without any kind of maps or visual aids anyway. We'll see.

I'd like to set a schedule that lets us play twice a month, once every other week. If you can't commit to that don't start with me. The thing that typically murders these games is big groups of people with fluctuating schedules. Keeping it to a very small group should let us stick to a tight schedule and actually play.

If you're capable of committing to that and want to play in a game that is more about role-play than roll-play get yourself stat'ed up and a brief write-up about their character. Honestly, the game is intended to be a low-key low-threat sort of thing (at least initially) so focusing on making a character that is more "real" and less "fantastic" is probably better. A session might involve you guys just hanging out in a bar between cases, chasing leads down, working contacts, etc. If you need a high-octane frenetic kind of game you wont be happy with this.

Someone who wonders how they're ever going to afford that vacation to Venus more than how they're going to avenge their dead brother killed by mafiosos. Your characters don't need to come pre-chip on their shoulder. We'll bang 'em up and give them those kind of plots as the story goes. If you WANT to do something like that inside the campaign though, let me know and we can probably work something out.

Exact location in the solar system we'll work out. There's a lot of cool locales to choose from. Mars is a really gritty, depressing, frozen shithole. Venus is very different and very unique to Eclipse Phase. Jupiter is a oppressive republic we'll probably just avoid altogether because of how restrictive it is (or if everyone agrees to make their characters fit that setting, we could use it). Generic hab in orbit somewhere that allows us to create all our own elements and explore the deep space setting is a potential too.

by **Wyzack** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 4:31 pm #189028

DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIBS

Cyberpunk noir space detective is literally the only game i have ever want to play holy shit my dream has come true fuck fuck

by **Timbrewolf** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 4:45 pm #189030

If you want to play put that character together and send it to me. I'll pick the ones I think will make for the best narrative and away we go.

I'll give people time to get stuff together. Like a week or so. No need to rush.

Think of someone that will be interesting for you to play as but also interesting for others to interact with. Maybe not just interesting in the "argues with everyone all the time and is a pain in the ass to deal with" but then again maybe that's okay. One of the advantages of having a smaller group is everyone gets a lot of spotlight. There's a lot of time for everyone to do stuff like that. It's okay if a sessions stalls up because two people can't agree how to proceed. If it's done in character we're golden.

It becomes more important that the characters have interesting concepts as well, because again there's that much more focus on each person, which is why I'm not just taking the first three people to slam a character sheet down on the table. I'd like to give people a moment to think of something good and then pick the best of the best.

If all the concepts I get are boring or flat I just wont host the game. Sorry if that sounds really stuck up but GM'ing games is a fucking ton of work and there's nothing worse than creating this really lush tapestry for people to explore and play out their own plotlines on only to have everyone just fucking do nothing or squander it.

by **Timbrewolf** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 5:05 pm #189035

There's just so many interesting opportunities and motivations you can play out in this game.

Making a robot officer, do they protect and serve because they feel some sort of guilt over the fall? Or maybe they see how imperfect humans are and they think they need AI's to look out for them? Maybe it's a reaction to all the anti-robotic "clanking masses" prejudice and it's the old classic power tripping shitcurity bot just enjoying strong-arming the organics a little bit and getting paid to do it? Something else entirely?

Eclipse Phase is maybe the biggest setting of any RPG in terms of the variety of stories you can tell. It's crazy how much shit is going on here. Pick a conflict and put it into your character and you'll probably end up getting snap picked for the group.

by **EndgamerAzari** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 5:50 pm #189041

I think it'd be fun to play an investigative reporter-turned-detective. Maybe a synth of some kind, one of the unusual ones like the transforming sort.

by **ColonicAcid** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 7:54 pm #189076

i can join

send me the pdfs

hit my shit up fam

by **THE MIGHTY GALVATRON** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 8:05 pm #189079

ColonicAcid wrote:i can join

send me the pdfs

They're like... free man.

https://robboyle.wordpress.com/eclipse-phase-pdfs/

by **ColonicAcid** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 8:12 pm #189080

yeah but that would involve having to search them up on google and thats like difficult man.

spoonfeed me...................

by **cinless** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 9:49 pm #189115

Hi, I took a while actually finding this sales pitch after XSI told me about it, but I finally am here. Ok.

So this is incredibly up my alley, but I think we need to decide more on a location before we can make proper informed character generation. Certain concepts don't work in certain places, and with the vast distances involved in the setting and how firmly tied to locations many of the factions are (with some exceptions. Looking at you, Scum) having a basic idea to write around would be hugely beneficial. My idea of a disillusioned anarchist beamed in from some isolated Brinker colony to the inner systems to get away from the difficulties of being introverted and not very outgoing in a reputation based society only makes sense if the game is set in one of the more capitalist locations, for example.

by **ShadowDimentio** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 10:40 pm #189129

Fuck dude all this competition dot dot dot

by **Wyzack** » Thu Jun 23, 2016 3:18 am #189184

God damn i did not realize eclipse phase is so wild, it is like ghost in the shell turned up to eleven and tossed in the AI apocalypse meatgrinder.

I am still chewing through the massive intro text, but is it possible to play an extreme bioconservative? Or will not having an ego and morph be to disruptive to the game?

by **ShadowDimentio** » Thu Jun 23, 2016 3:38 am #189185

You could do it, but if you died you'd be fucked five ways to hell, and without any extra lives or implants or anything that'd be damn likely.

by **Timbrewolf** » Thu Jun 23, 2016 3:52 am #189186

Wyzack wrote:God damn i did not realize eclipse phase is so wild, it is like ghost in the shell turned up to eleven and tossed in the AI apocalypse meatgrinder.

Yeah it's prettymuch the "YOU CAN DO ANYTHING" of sci-fi RPG's. The rules for creating custom morphs alone are so vivid and full of potential. Then you get into the crazy economy of rep and the politics and stuff. It's great. It's my favorite RPG that I never ever get to play.

cinless wrote:I think we need to decide more on a location before we can make proper informed character generation.

We can do that. If people want to make more suggestions I already listed a couple in my initial recruitment post.
The character concept you briefly described is pretty easy to plugin to the major locations I was already considering centering the game around. Wherever we end up it will be somewhere populous, I'd like a setting large enough that the group doesn't need to leave it to find things to do but not so large that control over the setting is out of my hands (read: The Jovian Republic)

by **Wyzack** » Thu Jun 23, 2016 4:44 am #189193

I suppose it would be more of a moderate bioconservative. He is against resleeving and is still using his original meatsuit, but has modified it somewhat out of necessity. The permadeath does not bother me

by **EndgamerAzari** » Thu Jun 23, 2016 4:47 am #189195

You guys should record your sessions when you play, sounds like it's gonna be interesting.

by **ShadowDimentio** » Thu Jun 23, 2016 4:54 am #189198

TG's Band of Misfit Spacemen

by **Timbrewolf** » Thu Jun 23, 2016 5:14 am #189203

I'll put something together afterwards, sure.

Getting way ahead of ourselves there, though. Like I said I'm still taking character apps for the next week and then we'll figure out who's on first, where first is, etc.

by **THE MIGHTY GALVATRON** » Thu Jun 23, 2016 5:54 am #189206

Wyzack wrote:
I am still chewing through the massive intro text, but is it possible to play an extreme bioconservative? Or will not having an ego and morph be to disruptive to the game?

Being a flat might be a bit hard, like just travelling to other planets would be tough because you can't ego-cast yourself there, you'd have to travel the slow way. But I bet that whole John Mcclane, NOT GONNA DIE TONIGHT, surviving crazy shit type as a flat would be cool.

by **cinless** » Thu Jun 23, 2016 8:30 am #189224

THE MIGHTY GALVATRON wrote:
Wyzack wrote:
I am still chewing through the massive intro text, but is it possible to play an extreme bioconservative? Or will not having an ego and morph be to disruptive to the game?

Being a flat might be a bit hard, like just travelling to other planets would be tough because you can't ego-cast yourself there, you'd have to travel the slow way. But I bet that whole John Mcclane, NOT GONNA DIE TONIGHT, surviving crazy shit type as a flat would be cool.

There are plenty of natural born morphs other than flats, and it sounds like the game is going to be fairly low on travel so a moderate biocon could be a workable concept.

Edit: Mars!
Mars Mars Mars Mars Mars Mars!
(Maybe Luna)
(Luna is pretty cool too)

More edits:
We should get an irc channel or a discord or something

by **Timbrewolf** » Thu Jun 23, 2016 9:50 am #189231

Permadeath isn't that far away from anyone at the lower, more "realistic" tiers of play.

When playing as a Firewall agent you've got a nigh-infinite amount of resources and shady connections behind you. It's not a big deal if you die and need to be resleeved, even repetitively.

For the working class nobodies out there though, morphs are expensive and there's a giant waiting list of people who died in the fall that are still waiting to be resleeved.
If you're wasteful and keep getting murdered, or don't have the resources to keep settling up your tab after you die, you'll wind up slipping downwards into shittier morphs, ultimately becoming relegated to either an infolife or just going back into storage at the end of the line.

by **cinless** » Thu Jun 23, 2016 10:03 am #189232

Apropos of working class nobodies, should we adjust the character generation to reflect this somehow? I have no suggestion as to how to do this, chargen in EP is deep and murky and few men understand it, but it seems more geared towards creating seasoned operatives than the one step up from beat cops.

by **Timbrewolf** » Thu Jun 23, 2016 10:36 am #189233

No, it's quite alright for you guys to be at that power level.

by **cinless** » Thu Jun 23, 2016 10:57 am #189235

is #eucalyptusphase okay for a temp irc channel?

by **Timbrewolf** » Thu Jun 23, 2016 11:04 am #189236

If you add me on discord I'll add you to our group. We can make a separate channel or just talk about EP in the general chat.

An0n3#9823

I'll be going over the source material a bit over the next few days to make sure I get the setting right and to refamiliarize myself with the rules.
I may need some random volunteers to do some combats or skill checks for random things. I'm in the middle of upgrading the discord with some bots for music and dice rolls. We'll probably be able to avoid using Roll20 altogether.

Which is nice because I've never really cared for it.

by **Incomptinence** » Thu Jun 23, 2016 11:21 am #189237

Well I hope you all enjoy yourselves and develop a habit of showing up.