"I'm Retired."
"Well, let me show you some stuff anyway. For old times sake."

My friends, it has been a long time. Last time I was here trying to run a game, I was in between undergrad and grad school. With the beginning of grad school, though, I found myself unable to keep up with anything, be it other peoples games or my own.

Because of this lapse in time, I will understand completely if people have doubts in my ability to run a game now.

Nevertheless, thanks to my friends SSJBunBun and SSJared stepping back in to the ring, I too desire to put on the GM's hat again and give it another go.

Don't worry, Master Wayne. It takes a little time to get back into the swing of things.

These last few years have given me time to think, and reflect on my previous games. The biggest mistakes I have made have been overcomplicated gameplay systems and overcomplicated settings, scope bombs of the highest caliber.

I'll be having no more of that.

Deshi Deshi Basara Basara Deshi Deshi Basara Basara

However, doing things completely simple still isn't my style... and as I started thinking of what kind of game I'd like to run, I came up with not one, but three possible options.

And so, I would like to pitch the basics of my ideas to you.

The following are three ideas I have crafted. They're still rough, and could use some serious polishing, but I want to run all three and it's tough to pick just one.

That's where you come in.

I'm putting it to a vote.

Take a look, feel free to ask questions. And when there's a clear winner... that is the game I shall run.

If even one of these ideas catches your interest, let me know.

This...

is HimizujinEternia’s Project Triple-S

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Seven Squalls Sector
-A Space Opera Adventure for 6 Players-
In the distant future, humanity has left the humble pale blue dot from where it was born and has taken to the stars. Ships travelling in every direction, seeking new homes, created settlements in new regions of space.
This is the tale of one such sector, the Seven Squalls Sector, which consists of Seven planetary systems. It is a Sector filled with Drama, Intrigue and Adventure, and thus is ripe for Piracy among the Stars, and it will be designed by YOU! Yes, before the game even starts, use the Diaspora Cluster Generation System to design one of the seven systems and add your own personal fingerprint to the entire setting!
You will take the role of members of a Space Pirate Crew. Start as crewmembers and work your way up to the top! You can pirate vessels, take on tasks, participate in space races, whatever your heart desires! With the money you earn, keep your gear in shape, customize your own Corsair mech with new equipment, or help pitch in to help the captain buy that shiny new wave motion gun for the Galleon! But be careful how you spend it; space is a very dangerous place and technology is at the point where the only thing that CAN protect you is your gear...

Seven Squalls Sector contains the following features:

A “Light and Loose” combat system based around simple, straightforward traits
An Attribute driven character creation system where keywords grant special traits
An adaptation of Diaspora’s Cluster Generation System to help craft the setting
An upgrade system focused around cash to buy and repair gear, customize a personal mech, or enhance your crew’s ship
Be a space pirate!

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Sixshooters, Shamans & Steam
- A Wild West Fantasy for 5 Players -
The Western United States, 1848. The Industrial Revolution brought great change to the world, but most important was the advent of Steam Technologies. Gold, once only an important material for focusing the magic of mystic traditions such as Shamanism and Alchemy, was now also used in the Boilers needed for the fantastic Steam-powered vehicles and devices that had reshaped life in the city. When settlers discovered the abundance of Gold in the West, the great frontier became a hotbed of commerce.
It is in this Gold Rush that our story begins. You will play one of the many adventurers and opportunists in the Gold Rush, and can take on one of six professions! You could be a Peacemaker, a gun wielding warrior of the west, skilled with firearms of all shapes and sizes. Or you could be a Shaman, mystic masters of the spirits of nature. Perhaps a Virtuoso of steam technology is more your speed, a clever gadgeteering rogue.

But of course, those are only the “pure” professions; there are also those that combine aspects of these jobs to make something completely new. Runeslingers use special pistols which fire magic by enchanting the hammer with various runes, the most to-the-point of the magic using professions. Goldsmiths are Alchemists which have adopted Steam technology into their work, creators of enormous steam machines imbued with magical powers. And Desperados, steam using demolitionists who use the heaviest artillery around.
The choice is yours; the Spirit of Adventure rewards all who seek glory, fame, and Gold in the Wild West of the Steam Era.

Sixshooters, Shamans & Steam contains the following features

A class system focused around six professions, three “pure” classes and three “hybrid” classes
A combat system focused around the traits and resources of the professions; pure classes use a single resource and hybrid classes use two resources
Gun using classes (Peacemaker, Runeslinger and Desperado) use Focus as a resource which builds with some abilities uses and is spent with others; balanced by having to manage ammo
Magic using classes (Shaman, Runeslinger and Goldsmith) use Mana as a resource, which is spent by abilities and must be charged to restore.
Steam using classes (Virtuoso, Desperado and Goldsmiths) use Steam as a resource, which builds over time at a constant rate and care must be taken to avoid using too much, or else time must be spent bringing steam to a head again.
Characters grow and learn new abilities based on their fame
A unique, Magic-meets-Steampunk in the Wild West setting!

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Solitude: Soul Sanctum
- A Fantasy Horror game for 5 players -
Dark times have befallen the land of Sanctum. No one knows when it began happening, but slowly over time the forests have become darker, the air has grown colder, and the people have grown frightened. It probably began when that primal force of nature, Magick, was first discovered. Magick is neither good, nor is it evil. It is simply power. The power to protect, to cure, to injure, to destroy. And it is all around us in Sanctum.
The Elders warn us not to use Magick by ourselves. Only in the village rituals can we be safe. Those who fail to heed this warning fid their souls slowly corrupted and destroyed, as they slip further and further into madness, becoming Demons. Frontier settlements that did not hear this warning in time have already been laid to waste, and only in the Great Citadel of Sanctum are people truly safe from the increasingly large demon threat. The frontier villages that have not fallen to the curse must band together if they wish to survive.
And that is where you come in. As a Demon Slayer of Sanctum, you are trained in the weapons and magicks which can fight back the marauding demons and protect the frontier villages. Demon Slayers are selected not just by their strength, of body, mind and soul, but also in how they bond with others. For there is strength in Solidarity... but in Solitude, there is only despair.

Solitude: Soul Sanctum contains the following features:

A magic system based on group rituals
Demon Slayers are trained in schools of magick, and call forth their magickal power by combining their magicks with another Demon Slayer
The bonds forged between the Demon Slayers and with members of the village increases the potency of magick
A Medieval/Gothic horror setting!


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Feel free to ask anything you like, or suggest things that can further flesh out an idea. I like all the ideas, and I like taking input on them as well.

Thanks for hearing me out. Let's have some fun.

Two questions come to mind Mr. Wayne.

1) -- If you're going to choose and run 1, when it's done are you going to run the others?

2) -- Do you wish for public or private votes? I don't know what to chose yet, but when I do, I want to know if you'd prefer it public, private or possibly whatever said party decides to do with their tally?

1.) I would most certainly love to run the others once one finishes if there's enough interest. Of course, that will rely on me finishing one, so I'll make sure I don't overscope on story.

2.) Private voting is preferred, but I would like some public discussion before I kick off voting.

Questions with regards to the Wild West setting.

Gold is obviously important to the setting, if it's used as the main focus for magic and such.

Does more gold = more magic power?
Are we going to see shamans and such trying to build up stockpiles of gold? Or is it closer to the idea of 'the spice must flow' sort of deal from Dune, where it is starting to be key to economic progress, so everyone is going to want to be trading small quantities around unless some Goldsmith somewhere wants to build something crazy big?

For that matter, is gold an absolute must for Steam tech, or can it be built without it?

Then, game-wise, how would a lack of/surplus of gold affect our characters (other than a surplus potentially making us rather rich)?

I've always wanted to play as a traveling dealer of space junk, but then again gothic horror has always bee deeply fascinating. Consider me intrigued.

Think of Magic like supernatural Electricity. It needs a highly conductive path from the spiritual world to our world; practitioners of the various magical arts within the world need gold as a focus for their abilities. More Gold doesn't necessarily mean more magical power, but it does increase the amount of magical energy that can be controlled and transferred. Shamans use Gold Tipped Staffs to call forth spirits to aid allies and attack enemies, Runeslingers use golden hammers to imprint magical runes on to special bullets, and so on.

However, thanks to Steam Technology, gold has become even more useful; the power generated by steam also needs a conductive path to flow through. Because of its highly prized nature in magical arts, it earned a reputation for use in steam tech as well. Goldsmiths need more gold than any other profession due to their specialized alchemic batteries with gold cores.

I don't expect to turn gold into a major resource for the game if it gets picked, but I do expect it to be a big plot coupon. Depending on how things go, however, I might make gold more important to gameplay as well (I've only put a limited amount of thought in to each of these concepts.)

Edit: For the record, any conductive material is effective for steam technology; silver and copper are better at it. However, gold is the most effective magical conductor, and therefore has a stronger reputation in the steam technology community.

Theatricality and deception, powerful agents for the uninitiated.

Good to see you moving forward on this. We're all waking up, the deep sleepers of ages past. (seriously, most of us have 10 years on this forum, thats a long time in the internet.)

I guess im just going to ask so you can explain it to others. How would the diaspora system work in this environment? (And you can tell them about it too)

Also, are you using any specific game systems for character creation for any of them?

You do not fear death. You welcome it. Your punishment must be more severe.

Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb.

I'm glad you asked, Jared. Basically, the Diaspora Cluster generation system is a group effort to make star systems. Each player (including the GM) rolls some basic stats, Technology, Environment, and Resources, ranked on a scale of -4 to 4 using the Fate system of rolling dice. In laymans terms, you roll four six sided dice and calculate a value from the results. 1-2 gives -1, 3-4 gives 0, and 5-6 gives +1. So for a test roll, I just rolled (3 2 2 3), or -2 after calculations. I won't be using all of diaspora's terminology, ("Slipstreams" for interstellar warp, etc.) but I like its system for generating planets and coming up with ways that the planets in a sector communicate. Anyway, after system stats are generated, each player will start giving their system an identity, first with a name with a unique starting letter. From there, players select Aspects to further define a system, two to a system. Then, the routes between systems are established through randomization. After that is final customization of the system identities.

That's a rough rundown and there's some more to it, but for the most part that should explain the basics. I think it's a cool way to make a unique setting with lots of players able to contribute, and it's one of the reasons I have a slightly larger player cap for Seven Squalls Sector.

As far as game systems go, I have no actual written systems planned, though if hard systems are recommended I'd be more than willing to hear them. For what it's worth I'm a huge fan of systems with simple stats, like True20, so if anyone has any suggestions for light and loose rulesets that are flexible, I'd be happy to hear them.

While you might not use the entire system, the Fate system for Spirit of the Century is fairly lightweight and loose. There's also the Dresden Files RPG, which uses a form of the same system with the addition of magic + supernatural powers. We've had some success running it on these boards, but it does take a bit of bookkeeping on the part of the GM to keep track of all the skills, stress tracks, and use of Fate points. I've generally found in my experience that the more involved the system is, the worse they tend to do when converted to forum RPGs (rather, the more burden it puts on the GM, which leads to taking a longer time to post), so you definitely want to keep it lightweight.

Of the choices presented, I think I like Seven Squalls Sector the best. I love a good space setting. And what's not to like about personal mechs?

I really like the social interplay in Solitude, Himi. The thought that your ties to the community and your fellow Demon Hunters aid you in a material way is fascinating. As is the thought that Demon Hunters are chosen because they are good with forming connections.

A dark fantasy setting where the dark loners are discouraged? That sounds like a fun game to try out!

This is a hard call. All three concepts look like they could be fantastically well-executed. I love the Persona-ish twist to the Demon Hunter game, the Steampunk Magic West game is just a fantastic kitchen sink that still sounds like it'd actually work, and I'm always up for a good space game.

Since I know the most about Six, let's get a bit more info on Seven and Solitude. For Seven, we'd be starting out as low level crew to an NPC pirate, yes? I'm anticipating sort of mission-based gameplay, at least at first - is that about right? How much freedom would we end up having under those guidelines? What sort of progression would you be thinking of as well - would we basically just get enough gold to differentiate ourselves into one makeshift class or another, or would overspecialization like that breed weakness? How long does it take to go from Planet to Planet? System to System? Are all the planets explored, or are there others waiting for exploration and exploitation? What's the law enforcement like?

In regards to Solitude, what sort of magic are we looking at? I know you mentioned group rituals in the village, but that implies planned out and plot-based rather than as a tool. Would we also be using field magic? If so, how risky is it? What about combining our powers - would that end up with a Chrono Trigger like Dual Tech system, or just combining spellpower to make bigger magic? Would our Demon Slayers specialize in types of magic, or would they draw power specifically from the connections that they made? Would we be traveling from village to village, or pick one village as a base of operations and just protect it? If we did move, what would happen to our connections? Also, what are demons like?

Hope you're not too overwhelmed =P

@Sal

Regarding Seven Squalls Sector:

You'll be starting as low level members under an NPC pirate captain, yes, though I don't expect that to last very long, whether it's through mutiny against this captain or going off to start your own crew (I'd lean more to the latter myself). One special rule I've been toying around with in my head is having a special "captain" trait that whoever is the captain of the ship can take; their responsibilities are greater and can be overthrown by mutiny, but they have more influence on the other NPCs in the crew because of rank. Perhaps a ranking system itself would be cool to implement...

I want to start the pirate story off fairly freeform, so yeah, there will be plenty of freedom in the missions you pick, and I'll try to come up with a variety of missions to give you guys plenty of choice. Progression will be in two parts; Money, for buying gear (allocated at the end of missions as a cut of the haul or just cut of the pay) and Traits, which are simple descriptors similar to the Knack system in Jared's game. At the end of major missions, I'll let you have another Trait, is what I'm thinking. Traits will be the big things that distinguish you from each other, but I'll try to come up with enough depth to the gear that variation helps there as well.

As for the nature of the star systems themselves... The technology for short range "Leaps" exists, and there are charts for navigating the sector. I don't know how many systems are fully explored yet just because... they haven't been made yet! That's part of the Diaspora planet creation system that's so interesting; while there's definitely going to be a main hub world, I expect there will be at least one "backwater" system that has lots of room for exploration. I imagine there would be some kind of peacekeeping force within the sector, especially with all the piracy running around, but its exact nature will probably be defined by the system creation.

I hope that answers those questions well enough.

Regarding Solitude:

I've not fully fleshed out the Magick system, but I'm leaning towards something like Telemic Mysticism (since that's the first thing that really caught my eye on random wikipedia trawls.) Demon Hunters will be trained in more advanced magic than the group rituals of villages, and as such can draw upon magickal power without using a ritual. This is very risky, and I'm thinking there will be a system in place to represent that; use too much magic and you risk becoming a demon yourself. I'm planning on there being several schools of magick, and demon hunters are at most trained in only a few (and are encouraged to diversify within a group). For combining powers, I'm thinking a sort of tiered system based on your (for lack of a better word at the moment) social link with the person you're teaming up with. Stronger bonds equals more powerful effects, based on combining your schools of magick and personal uses of it. These bonds can be improved upon through role play. I see it as traveling between villages, so I'll have to work out how connections with those NPCs will work; however, there will probably be a base of operations in the Great Citadel, since that's the central city of Sanctum, so permanent NPC connections can be established there. As for demons themselves... there are many varieties, perhaps based on the schools of magic which the human overused. It's still something I'm working out, of course, but I expect their various forms will be tied in to the magic system for that reason.

I hope all this helps! Let me know if you have any more questions or need some more clarification.

With regards to Seven Squalls Sector; how do you feel about non-human characters? Aliens and/or AIs and/or robots?

I'm going to leave "aliens" to chance due to the nature of system generation, but I fully expect humans will have robots and other AI, so I don't think I can decline those. I think if the nature of the planets allows it, I can permit one other alien race (while it still will have its more sci-fi aspects I at least want the sector to reflect the reality that humans coming as colonists would probably not encounter another civilization unless they got lucky.)