Omorka's Lair

Question for my gamer readers -

What is the minimum number of basic statistics needed for an RPG game with multiple sorts of player/player and player/other conflict?

Does it matter if the game in question is LARP, tabletop, or play-by-email? (I'm excluding LJ-style RP here, as it's more explicitly an effort in collaborative fanfic.)

Does it matter if the game is supposed to be low-combat versus high-combat?

Does the genre matter?

Lay some opinions on me!

MovieBob hits it out of the park twice in a row.

Happy St. Gygax's Day!

I need to make up a calendar for my set of saints - wonder if I should add St. Jones to it . . .

Okay, so I've been turning the idea over in my head for a LARP based on the Phonogram comics, to be run "under Masquerade," as it were, during the Spouse's DJ nights. Here's the basic idea:

Each phonomancer would have a schtick - the way s/he accumulates musimagickal energy; two tricks - the effects s/he can produce with the energy; and one ritual - a long procedure requiring preparation that produces a longer-term or more intense effect.

Examples:

Schtick - [Canonical] Kohl's is analyzing a song; Penny's is dancing. [Non-canonical] Singing (either along with a song or performing), Playing an instrument, Critiquing a song/piece, Writing music, Building a mixtape/CD/playlist

Tricks -
The Nudge - Implants a simple suggestion for someone to do something that is not outside their normal realm. Examples from the canon: Kohl and Penny both do this to get into clubs by suggesting that they're on the guest list. Won't make someone do something they wouldn't normally do, i.e. serve you a free drink. Phonomancers get to resist (if they win at rock-paper-scissors, they can ignore it).

Glamor - Makes the phonomancer appear more attractive/intelligent/assertive/etc. than they actually are. Pick one attribute to enhance; Glamor (appearance) and Glamor (trustworthy) are two different schticks. Penny has this one in spades; The Girl appears to also have it, and Kohl might.

Lay Down The Whammy - Hexes the target with minor bad luck, such as running into someone they dislike briefly, making their record skip, spilling their drink, etc. Seth does this to himself in the canon.

Blink - Makes the phonomancer unnoticeable to the target(s) for a few seconds. This is more of an SEP field than true invisibility, more useful for blending into a crowd or a quick slip out the door than picking someone's pocket or even stealing their drink.

Spirit-singing - Allows the phonomancer to speak with a spirit resident in a specific location. This does not summon a spirit that isn't already there. Note that if a spirit decides to speak with a phonomancer (as the memory-She does in the second book), they can do so whether the phonomancer has this trick or not; this is required for the phonomancer to initiate the contact.


Rituals have to be developed individually: the Memory Realm ritual, various grimoire-writing rituals, the self-rewriting ritual that Emily used on herself, the more potent version of the Nudge Kohl uses on the Kenickie fangirl in the first book, etc. It's unlikely that these will be used in-game, and they'll all require items of significance - the 45" with the pentacle on the back, the makeup for the Memory Realm ritual, etc.

Everyone starts with enough mojo for two tricks, and can gain back 1 mojo by performing their schtick for 10 minutes of game time.

Anyone interested? Hit me up with character ideas if you are, and I'll see about fleshing out something resembling an actual system.

Finally made it to Owlcon - for a total of five hours. They were very sweet to me and didn't make me lift heavy things for set-up for the CoC LARP; we started handing out character sheets at 9:30, since large enough groups were already there. We actually started play at about 11:00, which is half an hour later than the schedule said but actually not bad compared to previous years. (Official start time is 10 pm.)

I stuck around through the end of the party sequence, transitioning into the exploration phase; I figured at that point anyone who had any big character questions would have asked them. The Spouse took some photos and a bit of video on his phone. They were way, way behind schedule - I suspect they'll be running until 4 am or later. I'm sad that I can't stay to the end, but my eyes were already starting to burn.

On the way out, we passed a guy knitting gigantic tube socks on DPNs, so I stopped to ask him if he was doing an afterthought heel, and we ended up fibergeeking for ten minutes. So that was fun, too.

Looking forward to the keeper debriefing. Hope everything goes well.

. . . Spouse and I are both still (a) headachy and logy, and (b) very clearly contagious, so I don't think we'll make it to Con-Jour after all. *mopes* I was looking forward to it, too. But I also don't want to be the source of a round of con crud. *sigh*

Okay. Let's lay this out on the table:

1) Games that require aim are right out. I can't shoot straight for crap. My physical aim with an air rifle is significantly better than my aim with either a game controller or a mouse.

2) I like games that require long-term planning and slow build-up.

3) I'm really not all that into combat. I understand it needing to occur occasionally, but the ability to avoid it through diplomacy or stealth is really a good thing for me. But turn-based combat is infinitely preferable to real-time.

4) Character development is great, although I can handle a game without it if the strategy element is compelling enough and the world is interesting.

5) Puzzle games rarely work for me for more than a few hours total. Either I've figured it out by then, or I get bored., or I get frustrated and abandon it.


My idea of the Best Game Ever is StarCon II, but I like playing it with a college-aged boy to do the impossible combat bits, at least until the mothership is kitted out and I can blow Ur-Quan out of the sky in three volleys. I am also very, very fond of Civs III and IV. Majesty was a lot of fun, if kind of trivial. Age of Empires II had its irksome aspects, but overall I liked it. Warcraft I and II and Starcraft, ditto. (Warcraft III has never done much for me, although I'm not sure why.)

My favorite game, as opposed to the one I think is the best, is still Masters of Orion II. MOO I was also a lot of fun, if kind of primitive by current standards.

Which bings me to the question: I'm looking for a new favorite waste of time to keep in the iPod Touch. Has anyone seen anything MOO-like, or, failing that, either StarCon-like or Civ-like, out there in the wacky mishmash of iPhone apps?

• Leave me a comment saying "Resistance is Futile."
• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity
• Update your journal with the answers to the questions
• Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions

From tfbretz:

1. Tell me of your dice. Mere tools or boon companions? Do you use whatever works or are you picky about color/composition/etc.?

2. Sushi or pizza?

3. If you didn't teach, what would you want to do with your life?

4. How did you get into writing fanfic?

5. Have you ever encountered a ghost?

( Answers Behind the Cut )

The question has come up in a couple of different online contexts, and one RL one, relatively recently:

Do you have a game system of choice? Why that one? What attracts you about it?

( I ramble about Game Systems I Have Known behind the cut )

"bibulb, stop talking to the underage girls about the hot, hot yaoi action."

--

Need to make it out to Midnight more often. Also, flirting with the cute geeky clerks is a lot more successful when I'm wearing a ridiculously cleavage-tastic dress. I didn't realize how cleavage-tastic it was when I got dressed this afternoon, but boy howdy, did it get attention!