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1999 #1
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1999 14:55:00 +0000
From: Charles Prevatte
Subject: Re: Roleplaying through Starship Combat...
At 08:10 PM 1/11/99 PST, you wrote:
>>Greetings, All,
>>
>>I'm looking for information on how to present starship combat in a
>>more fluid manner.
>
>IMTU, I run starship combat so fluid that many referees may cringe. I
>use phrases like, "The enemy vessel is at medium range, and has fired a
>Remember, Jason, I've been called a Dramatist. I plead guilty.
>
>Roger Barr
I've been GMing various games for 18 years. I'd call you a GM that likes to get to the meat of the game and avoid all the time wasters. In short a GOOD GM. I'd play the above scene in nearly the same way.
To many games devolve into BS sections with little gaming if the GM does not keep the game moving or lets it bog down in the dice rolling contest or rule hunts. All those I GM know my tag line, "Let's PLAY not talk about playing!" as the signal for the real Game to start. I also usually send the BIG NASTY (tm) at the worst offenders first. Beats random rolls for who get what opponent and my players know I do this so it's real BAD to be the last kibitzer. (Grin) It's more bluff than fact but is does get the game going on time.
With mature gamers (those that work for a living) this is rarely a problem. Most want to PLAY not BS but everbody slips every now and then. It helps if there is time set aside for set up and socializing before the game is suppose to start. A pizza dinner right before the game give everybody time to BS and get psyched as well as killing the munchy monster. Pizza, on paper plates, is also easy to clean up if you are hosting. I usually do host. I have a big living room and as host my share of the food is FREE (clean up compensation).
As for drama, a RPG would get pretty boring without the drama. In one game I am playing my Knight is trying to woo a fair maiden and everybody else who is anybody in the castle is playing spoiler (the lady's two maids and one young household maid are helping the courtship). Don't know why exactly, but it has to do with the line of succession in her family and that she is under the power of a guardian UNTIL she marries (my character has a lot of irons in the fire looking for a more details to this situation but it could also be a red herring to distract him. Beautiful rich girls tend to be in to short a supply to have one just appear at court just when the hero needs to be distracted. Paranoia is like red pepper, a little goes a long way!)
They don't want this lady marrying anybody much less one of the King's examiners. My character nearly had the lord's right hand man hung for tax fraud and embezzling. He mannaged a "plea bargin" at the last moment...but it's not over till it's over! I love detective story RPGs! My character is a medieval Elliot Ness to the the local Lord's Al Capone (the GM admitted it when I call her on the story line but that just adds to the fun). The whole lording is full of corruption and payoffs.
This could easily be adapted to the 3I. A Fleet escort with the empire's 'untouchables' arrive on planet to see who is cooking the books... The money could be going to finance a military action agianst a neighbor or for a rebellion against the empire itself!
Charles L.
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1999 #5
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1999 13:14:10
From: Ian or Katts
Subject: Re: (was) Roleplaying thru Starship Combat, now ???
>This could easily be adapted to the 3I. A Fleet escort with the empire's
>'untouchables' arrive on planet to see who is cooking the books... The
>money could be going to finance a military action agianst a neighbor or for
>a rebellion against the empire itself!
This would be the elite Ministry of Justice 'Strike Audit Team', yes ?
I posted a para about a Marine who was cross-attached to it talking about a drop in '47 ... they took 40% casualities in 16 hours, but at the end of it, the target planet's government archives were in their hands ...
Ian Whitchurch
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1999 #8
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1999 14:13:28 +0000
From: Charles Prevatte
Subject: Re: (was) Roleplaying thru Starship Combat, now ???
At 01:14 PM 1/13/99, you wrote:
>>This could easily be adapted to the 3I. A Fleet escort with the empire's
>>'untouchables' arrive on planet to see who is cooking the books...
>
>This would be the elite Ministry of Justice 'Strike Audit Team', yes ?
Not quite. The investigators are "protected" in that if something "funny" happens to them the 3I comes in hard but otherwise they are on their own with only limited powers and little serious firepower. If you can just shoot your way to the records and be lifted out there is little to role play AND what if the record you took are the ones the local government WANTED you to take. You look like a fool, the locals look squeaky, and you have a big damage and wrongfull death bill to pay.
First you need to find the real records (if they exist), and cooberating evidence, bills of lading, etc. Then you have to find out who was cooking the books and FOR whom. That was my characters problem, the Al Capone effect. I sent the little fish up, the big fish made sure that the little fish got a gold plated cell with maid service (very atractice and 'friendly' maid service), the big fish walks because he never had his name on anything, and his other flunkies got to see that they (and their families) will be well taken care of (better than when they were free) if they 'go up the river' and keep their mouths shut like honorable crooks.
My character's comment on the situation would not be printable. The Lord was tipped just in time to let him CYA. Their's a rat in the wood work that needs smoking out before my character can go after the big fish again BUT then maybe this captive lady and the reason for her captivaty will provide a different way to hang that #$%#@^@! Or she may just be the pretty bauble the magician uses to distract the audiences attention. The game is definately afoot! to steal another detective tag line.
Don't over look the old detective stories as a source for material. With a little adatation they work very well in other eras. My charater is 'packing his gat' (broadsword), getting a call from head quarters (messenger), roaring off chasing leads (on horse back), questioning informants (with gold coins and brass knuckles as needed), placing informants, (scullery maids and stable boys), winning friends (pages out to become squires, and small time crooks looking for a friend in the magistrates office), and putting the heat on the street (mass arrests for small offences) untill something shakes loose. All good old street cop stuff and it has shook loose some clues.
If anyone has and other ideas I'd appreciate it.
>I posted a para about a Marine who was cross-attached to it talking about a
>drop in '47 ... they took 40% casualities in 16 hours, but at the end of
>it, the target planet's government archives were in their hands ...
It may come to that IF I can find out where the real books are and if someone other than the toadie I've already caught is also cooking the book. I think that he may have been it but that there are other scams doing on that my charater has not yet caught onto. I was consentrating on the 'cooked books' end of it to start with due to good leads in that ditection but even after shutting down the money mill things are still running fairly smoothly for his lordship. He's getting extra $s from somewhere else that my charater has not been able to trace yet. There are no records of the money. The books have been checked and rechecked by the king's best number crunchers, no more wholes, but there is to much $s floating arround in the wrong hands. There is another scam running.
Any ideas for any of you Watsons?
Charles L.