"There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things. Things which act against everything we believe in. They must be fought." - Second Doctor
Kit 8th Incarnation Lord of the Living Void member is offline
Joined: Nov 2009 Gender: Male Posts: 735 Location: Las Vegas Karma: 16
Re: Smallville RPG Out « Reply #1 on Aug 6, 2010, 8:54pm »
"There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things. Things which act against everything we believe in. They must be fought." - Second Doctor
Kit 8th Incarnation Lord of the Living Void member is offline
Joined: Nov 2009 Gender: Male Posts: 735 Location: Las Vegas Karma: 16
Re: Smallville RPG Out « Reply #3 on Aug 20, 2010, 5:39am »
Re: Smallville RPG Out « Reply #5 on Nov 14, 2010, 11:34am »
Has anyone given any thought to using this for Doctor Who?
I've just picked this up, and will be starting a read through next week ... looks interesting, but it seems to be aiming for shows where one of the leads is more of an antagonist than a protagonist (e.g. LEX LUTHOR in Smallville, SPIKE in Buffy/Angel) and everyone has their own secrets/agendas to provide inter-character drama and a source of plots ...
So I'm either misreading what little I've read so far or I'm not sure how you'd apply it to Doctor Who ... assuming you've not got a player with a pressing need to play Turlough
CharlieBananas 1st Incarnation The Master's Ghost member is offline
Joined: Nov 2009 Gender: Male Posts: 77 Location: U.K. Karma: 2
Re: Smallville RPG Out « Reply #6 on Dec 12, 2010, 3:29pm »
So far we have been playing around with character generation, it’s so different that I would advise at least two dry runs before you attempt to actually generate your characters, just to make sure everyone is on the same page. We have had a lot of fun with it, and no-one has set out to build an antagonist, but we have all ended up with multi faceted characters with a few secrets.
The first session included three players (myself and two others), and was called “Metropolis Lowlife” we had decided that for the first attempt we would stick close to the source material. I created a streetwise tough whose brother had been killed by the mob, taking the law into my own hands I started a one man war on crime, eventually pushing too hard and killing the brother of my brother’s killer. I was located in the Suicide Slums and my mentor was a beat cop called Malory. Sandra one of the other players created a cop who was in the pocket of the Luthors, her character had grown up in the suicide slums, Lionel Luthor had groomed her and others and placed them in key position throughout Metropolis and the world, she was being fast tracked to become commissioner. At present she was a detective and was formally partner to officer Malory. Keith the last player seemed to have trouble getting to grips with things, his character broad and unfocused, this left him isolated as both Sandra and myself couldn’t get a lock on the character. He was a kind of sorcerer supreme from a long line of mystic guardians. His connections to our characters were that he was in trouble with the mob and knew the location of a demon gate in the suicide slums.
Session two was a Victorian Steampunk setting called “Steamville”. The three original players had a lot of fun and we found it a lot easier going. Keith had a Chinese stage magician kind of a “Talons of Weng Chiang” vibe, and was sharp and focused allowing both myself and Sandra to bounce ideas off of and through him. As background Keith Geoff and I have been in the same group since the early eighties, this was Geoff’s first go at Smallville, and like Keith before he defined his character in broad strokes and kept his cards close to his chest. So much so that we didn’t know that he was an Assassin until after the session. The last player was Geoff’s son Harry, he grasps system very quickly, but he had no great knowledge of either the Victorian setting or Steampunk, and was a bit lost.
We will have a third session, I’m thinking Sci/Fi maybe Travellerville. These sessions have shown me that once every one is familiar with the rules you could have a lot of fun creating a campaign, but we would get the best results with some prep beforehand. Could Smallville rpg do Dr Who, yeah but I don’t think it would be a great fit (Leverage would be better in my opinion), Dr Who just doesn’t have the melodrama that Smallville has and that the system is designed for, Torchwood on the other hand might be a different proposition.
So far we have been playing around with character generation, it’s so different that I would advise at least two dry runs before you attempt to actually generate your characters, just to make sure everyone is on the same page.
How do you rate the mechanics/system?
So far my only complaint is the organisation. There's no index, and some mechanics seem to have their rules all over the place.
I'm going to be running this next Tuesday with a completely improv background and plot. Should be ... interesting
CharlieBananas 1st Incarnation The Master's Ghost member is offline
Joined: Nov 2009 Gender: Male Posts: 77 Location: U.K. Karma: 2
Re: Smallville RPG Out « Reply #8 on Dec 12, 2010, 10:23pm »
I've had the same issue with the game, but it seems a simple system when it comes down to it, but the book doesn't help matters. It's really different to anything else I've ever played, but I am enjoying it. The fact that everything is resolved as opposed rolls goes against the direction I've been leaning to recently, but I like the way you can build suspense/tension by increasing the "trouble" pool as the session progresses.
I've had the same issue with the game, but it seems a simple system when it comes down to it, but the book doesn't help matters.
Yeah. I wouldn't say it was crunchy, but it's certainly ... finicky, perhaps. With the rules spread out it's a bit tricky to fully get to grips with.
Quote:
Edit - let us know how it goes.
Week 1, three hour session ...
Haven't even finished character generation! Gah!
On the bright side, the players certainly seemed to enjoy weaving the relationship map and plotting the various relationships between themselves. In fact, the plotting slowed the character gen down a bit more than our unfamiliarity with the rules I feel, though that helped a bit.
The setting (totally improv) has now been set as modern London, with the game having a Heaven/Hell motif instead of random supernatural monsters. One of the leads is a fallen (more gently sauntered downwards, as Pratchett might put it) angel, and the other leads seem to be either his bastard offspring or in some other way corrupted by him.
This led to some interesting quotes, such as 'You know what this game is really missing? Sex. Hot, angelic sex!', 'We need more depravity! I want to up the depravity by at least 30%!'' and ...
WT : 'So, just to check ... your goal is to release your brother from hell.' Lead 1 : 'Lucifer, yes' WT : 'And the other leads are trying to stop you?' Lead 1 : 'I guess so.' Lead 2 : 'Yes. ' Lead 3 : 'Actually, some of us are kind of warming to the idea ...'
CharlieBananas 1st Incarnation The Master's Ghost member is offline
Joined: Nov 2009 Gender: Male Posts: 77 Location: U.K. Karma: 2
Re: Smallville RPG Out « Reply #10 on Dec 16, 2010, 11:32am »
Yeah I've been finding Chara Gen takes about 3 hours upto Life Changing Event, but its good fun and we've been looking at it as a game in itself. What I really like is the way the players plot things out for you as a GM, giving a shed load of hooks to get stuck into.
Your game sounds as if it is going to be really cool, can't wait to hear more.
Yeah I've been finding Chara Gen takes about 3 hours upto Life Changing Event, but its good fun and we've been looking at it as a game in itself. What I really like is the way the players plot things out for you as a GM, giving a shed load of hooks to get stuck into.
Your game sounds as if it is going to be really cool, can't wait to hear more.
Yeah, I tried to make notes of all the stuff that was just being rapidly thrown around between the five players (OK, you have as an extra the guy who assassinated your mum ... really? OK. What's his name? You don't know? OK, we'll go with Mister Nobody for now ... oops, I just made Mister Nobody a feature. I think we'll stick with that name, mwahaha'')
But I just couldn't keep up - I can't write that fast. For future sessions I think I'm going to have to record things.
Fortunately I have a really good Snowball microphone
One thing they did which I'm going to have a think about. They drew a line between a diamond ('The block of flats I live in') and another diamond ('The Gates of Hell'). I'm not sure what I can do with that
Re: Smallville RPG Out « Reply #12 on May 27, 2011, 12:54am »
The Relationship map is a little (as in gianticly) complicated, but the system is fairly easy to run. It is basically a soap opera system after all. It has an 'organic' experiance system though...which can run the gambit from DWAiTaS to DnD depending on dice rolls...still it should be okay unless you go overbored with the heirtages.
@ kaemaril - A hellmouth is a little obvious, but still...It has poetenial.
I'll add that kaemaril has chosen to delete his account himself, in case anyone assumes he was banned -he wasn't. He is welcome here any time he wants to return, in a different regeneration or his old guise.
I don't think this person may be back (maybe as a lurker)
![[Search This Thread]](http://images.proboards.com/new/buttons/search2.png "[Search This Thread]")
![[Share Topic]](http://images.proboards.com/new/buttons/share.png "[Share Topic]")
![[Print]](http://images.proboards.com/new/buttons/print.png "[Print]")
Author
![[avatar]](http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/4407/image2plw.jpg "[avatar]")
Logged![[avatar]](http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b36/KitKindred/pimpernelpic.jpg "[avatar]")
![[image]](http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/1831/ck1pn.jpg "[image]")
![[image]](http://img830.imageshack.us/img830/7074/72339970.jpg "[image]")
![[avatar]](http://www.curufea.com/images/curufea_anim80b.gif "[avatar]")
![[homepage]](http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/2660/sonicscrewdriver.png "[homepage]")
![[avatar]](http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/gallery/avatars/100/01.jpg "[avatar]")
