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Messages - Jimmy

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61
DFRPG / Re: Vampires Lore
« on: May 17, 2012, 03:08:56 AM »
Is it possible that the zombie level BCV are the result of turning Dominated mortals, whereas the smarter and tougher ones are either willing or at least freewilled?

My 2 bob.

62
DFRPG / Re: A House Rule For Social Combat
« on: May 17, 2012, 03:06:00 AM »
Quote from: Silverblaze on May 17, 2012, 02:15:06 AM
I understand when to get mental consequences, but if after an arguement (said arguement's goal is to convince me to change my mind ) I'm told that would be mental.  however, the goal of the social combat as to get me to change my mind.... so it would be social yes?

As stated YS217 mental conflicts are the rarest and most profound conflicts a character can get. They go beyond just changing your mind or making you angry, they attack the core of who you are, send you crazy or shatter your psych. The kind of abuse necessary to inflict this kind of damage require a great deal of time and energy, the result of established relationships going horribly awry.

So instead of adding weapon ratings to your social attacks, have it bumped up into the mental stress track instead of social stress. Most mortals have very little defence against this sort of attack. Think the difference between the police trying to convince a felon that violence is wrong, as opposed to Clockwork Orange treatment. Your family is being threatened? Thats cause to bump the conflict up into the realm of mental conflict in my books.

Being taken out socially usually only results in a lost argument or egg on your face, whereas a lost mental conflict you can go into psychosis or worse.

63
DFRPG / Re: Planning vs. Winging It
« on: May 17, 2012, 02:54:11 AM »
Yeah I agree with most of you here, you need to at least have something concrete about the motivations of the antagonists involved. Winging it after that is easier, or you can end up just having a random mish mash of dungeon crawling monster stomping and no story. Memorable characters always makes for a good story.

64
DFRPG / Re: A House Rule For Social Combat
« on: May 17, 2012, 01:03:56 AM »
Quote from: Silverblaze on May 16, 2012, 12:57:55 PM
How do people unblur the lines between mental and social consequences?

You should really only get mental consequences when you pit your will against anothers, rather than your wit (a fine line I know) and its still negotiable what you get and how you handle getting taken out.  There is still that element of overlap with social and mental consequences but all they really are is flavour, the mechanical aspect (no pun intended) is just where to place them on your sheet (either in the mental spot or social spot) and unless you can take aditional mental or social consequences it really doesn't matter where you got them.

As for Aspects only working once, that is true, it can also represent the fact that you can only be affected by the factor a limited amount of times. For example, Mr Big and Scary might be able to use his aspect on you, but sooner or later you're going to get used to it. You can use the hostage situation the same - "I know you got my kids, you told me already and I've taken the requisite stresses/consequences to go on regardless". All it would take to continue having those things apply their benefit is for the bad guy to spend a FP.

65
DFRPG / Re: A House Rule For Social Combat
« on: May 16, 2012, 01:32:32 AM »
I think that if the social conflict in question is that important that it can change your core concepts and beliefs...this should NOT be down to a few dice rolls, it should be roleplayed. The Social Conflict rules are in place for a different reason than what's been used as most of the examples. They're for when you want to bluff your way past that bouncer to get into a nightclub. They're for when you want to stare down Mr Hardboiled Detective On Your Arse. They're for when you want to achieve objectives that rely not only on you having a good idea or plan to out socialise an objective and but also on your character's ability to pull it off.

You need to keep the attention of the casino floor boss while your team mates pick his pocket for the vault room door key and then give them enough time to crack the safe? Engage in a social conflict with him, where taking him out means you got him, or being taken out means he loses patience with you and shoves you aside to continue on his rounds, or gets suspicious about why you're talking dribble with him.

Taking consequences is to represent the amount of effort you're willing to put into it. You've begun to doubt your own abilties or starting to feel like you can't contribute to the team as much. You lose your cool etc. The use of Aspects can be used to represent the reasonable social advantage you're suggesting. The bonus to intimidate due to having a hostage - used either as a tag or a compel of He has my daughter! Aspect. Your opponent is also Big and Scary!? hey that can be tagged or have fate points spent on too. No need for weapon ratings for social conflicts when there are already rules in place to reflect this.

66
DFRPG / Re: Planning vs. Winging It
« on: May 16, 2012, 12:33:14 AM »
I like to use a mix of plotting and improv. I tend to set up flavoured text for different encounters that I WANT in the story, and just outline possible outcomes for different conflicts, whether combat or social. I tend to structure my write ups into scenes and chapters, with a bottom section to each scene in note form suggesting where the players could gravitate to from here or ideas for possible complications due to player interaction (such as the party just shooting up the house instead of interrogating and questioning).

I've gamed with my usual group for over 10 years now so I'm pretty adept at predicting how they'll behave and can plan accordingly, but they occaisonally get more creative than usual. I know one player is always going to take money over honour for example, while another is always going to want to shoot his way out rather than sneak past. Leads to interesting set ups of scenarios where the characters themselves are the main antagonist to an objective.

Player 1 Our spaceship doesn't have shields? So what? We've got a big gun!

Player 2 Engineering! Shut down power to the main battery! Quickly!!

Player 1 Ok, I've going to try and reroute power to guns and get them online again!

Player 3 I'm leaving the cockpit and heading to the escape pods...

With players like this I don't NEED to plan anything more than the bare bones haha.

67
DFRPG / Re: Neutral Grounds other than Bars?
« on: May 14, 2012, 12:24:00 AM »
I run a game in Sydney, Australia. The ANG is a barber shop and occult bookstore thats actually a real place (the owner is an eccentric hippy musician who occaisonally does free music and cuts your hair). I lent it a little more size and flair and didnt even have to add much more in the way of flavour.

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