MapTool nights

Here are my projects about MapTool, providing you're not all bored with the concept and decide to sail to new horizons.

Current :
- Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Ed. : played on week end. I'm running the Thousand Thrones campaign and stop to let someone (called Rhino) gamemastering something for a change of pace, then I plan to continue. Likelihood : alternating WHFRP and Star Trek TOS w/HeroQuest rules.

Upcoming :
- Jovian Chronicles : on Thursdays, this is a single (but developed) story I'm going to propose. This isn't a campaign, the story has a begin and, more importantly, an end. Likelihood : 4-6 game sessions to play it entirely (faster is possible but it depends a lot on our gaming pace)
- Icons of World War 2 : Superpowered roleplaying with the Icons system (very rules-light, it reminds me the Marvel Super Heroes RPG of the 80s), set in WW2, Golden Age style, fight nazi superscience and defeat the evil Axis powers. I have 9 scenarios to play. It isn't necessary to play everything during a long uninterrupted campaign. Interesting point : it has an end (called the end of WW2) Likelihood : 1-3 game sessions each. Option : play it with ties to the Champions universe, making it basically the "past" of our modern Champions campaign (Champions' WW2 isn't very defined, it leaves room for creativity)

On demand/depending on my mood :
- Star Trek Independance w/HeroQuest or HERO system rules
- Champions w/HERO system rules

Projects considered :
- Teen Champions, the adventures of the children of Diana (the new holy virgin) and Jada. No ruleset defined (HERO for detailed rules, Icons for quick and simple, Mutants & Masterminds for middleground).
- Hellas : Ancient Greeks in space, yeah ! No really, the idea sounds weird and it is weird. But it's truly well done. It works with the Omni system that I'm not fond of (the one used in Talislanta RPG) but it serves its purpose
- Icons of the Cold War : the 70s, the last years of the Vietnam War, the Rolling Stones, afro haircuts and disco music. And of course spies from the cold and superheroics (played with the Icons system, as hinted). Option : set the era to the 50s and play the characters from Icons of WW2 but ten years later.
- Clockworks & Chivalry : pseudo-steampunk (since there is no steam) set in the 17th century England, during the Civil War between Royalists and the Parliament. Alchemy, automatons, knights and commoners fight for the Cavaliers or the Roundheads.
- more Jovian Chronicles stories (will be on demand actually)

Warhammer: I'm not familiar with it and I guess I don't have a great interest in it.

Jovian Chronicles: I have there also no clue. Maybe I'll like it, maybe not.

Icons of WW2: The tie-ins are great. I have there two possible ideas who I could play. Either someone from the Sisterhood of Truth (which somehow continued to exists more or less after ancient adventure in greece) or the father of Alfonso Crey (who will marry later his wife who's going to be the archvillian we all know). I believe both have good chances to get equally into some stories. The sister vs. axis force with their religious believe that they are the dominating race and set so by the grace of god (if it's true I don't know, but it fits quite the megalomaniac attitude of the 3rd Reich) or Mr. Crey (need a forname for him) vs the Nazis and their project ubersoldier.
In short I'm game for it.

Star Trek Independence: Well, I'm running it currently and I have still some stories in store.

Champions: I believe the HeroQuest rules will enhance the game pace. Maybe Knuto is good to use for a change.

Teen Champions: Now that I have the feeling that CO is becoming a better game (hideouts, new adventures) I think it is finally becoming a place for our teen heroes there. I'm not sure if Jada is that heroic before she got her tights.

Icons of Cold War: It tempts me to play here a soviet instead US hero. Nikita, the russian superspy or so.

Seetherius wrote:Jovian Chronicles: I have there also no clue. Maybe I'll like it, maybe not.

After much pondering, I opted for a new approach with characters. I'm offering to play fully defined characters, in terms of background.
So it will be playing a role but other than one you create yourself.

Icons of WW2: The tie-ins are great. I have there two possible ideas who I could play. Either someone from the Sisterhood of Truth (which somehow continued to exists more or less after ancient adventure in greece) or the father of Alfonso Crey (who will marry later his wife who's going to be the archvillian we all know). I believe both have good chances to get equally into some stories. The sister vs. axis force with their religious believe that they are the dominating race and set so by the grace of god (if it's true I don't know, but it fits quite the megalomaniac attitude of the 3rd Reich) or Mr. Crey (need a forname for him) vs the Nazis and their project ubersoldier.
In short I'm game for it.

The Sisterhood has more potential, to me. The Crey link may be too weak to use (too narrow, too focused in scope).
Also, while Jovian Chronicles will come with defined backgrounds (but not game traits), it's the opposite with Icons. Character creation is, by default, entirely random. Meaning you get a character with power and abilities. And you build a background around it.
With good interpretation, you can adapt almost any character roll.

Teen Champions: Now that I have the feeling that CO is becoming a better game (hideouts, new adventures) I think it is finally becoming a place for our teen heroes there. I'm not sure if Jada is that heroic before she got her tights.

CO, actually and while better and better, isn't very adapted to Teen Champions. There is a load of missions and story arcs which are militarized (Canada & Steelheads, Desert & PRIMUS, the adventure packs & UNTIL, Argent, VIPER). It doesn't leave much room for lighter crimefighting. Still doable.

Icons of Cold War: It tempts me to play here a soviet instead US hero. Nikita, the russian superspy or so.

As long as every player is on the same side of the Iron Curtain. But the default is to play the West.

Upcoming :
- Jovian Chronicles : on Thursdays, this is a single (but developed) story I'm going to propose. This isn't a campaign, the story has a begin and, more importantly, an end. Likelihood : 4-6 game sessions to play it entirely (faster is possible but it depends a lot on our gaming pace)

Can you say something more about the setting? All I know that it is somewhat as old Buck Rogers RPG (humanity has settled only solar system and political/corporate intrigues).
I have no problems with playing pre-defined roles too.

- Icons of World War 2 : Superpowered roleplaying with the Icons system (very rules-light, it reminds me the Marvel Super Heroes RPG of the 80s), set in WW2, Golden Age style, fight nazi superscience and defeat the evil Axis powers. I have 9 scenarios to play. It isn't necessary to play everything during a long uninterrupted campaign. Interesting point : it has an end (called the end of WW2) Likelihood : 1-3 game sessions each. Option : play it with ties to the Champions universe, making it basically the "past" of our modern Champions campaign (Champions' WW2 isn't very defined, it leaves room for creativity)

I don't mind any style of play or even if we fully randomly roll characters. Be it tie-in or not, it sounds fun.

- Champions w/HERO system rules
Projects considered :[/u]
- Teen Champions, the adventures of the children of Diana (the new holy virgin) and Jada. No ruleset defined (HERO for detailed rules, Icons for quick and simple, Mutants & Masterminds for middleground).

I would definitively like to go back to heroes. Be it old guard or the next generation. As Angie would say... system is irrelevant. I would be quite fine with HQ rules too.

- Clockworks & Chivalry : pseudo-steampunk (since there is no steam) set in the 17th century England, during the Civil War between Royalists and the Parliament. Alchemy, automatons, knights and commoners fight for the Cavaliers or the Roundheads.

I am a sucker for "past imperfect" and alternate history settings, so I'm quite interested in this too. Can you say something more on this too?



Also for now I'll keep running ST:TOS on Sundays since it seems to be best for everyone and I have more story ideas ready.

Rhino wrote:- Jovian Chronicles
Can you say something more about the setting? All I know that it is somewhat as old Buck Rogers RPG (humanity has settled only solar system and political/corporate intrigues).

If Buck Rogers is piloting a mecha, then yes
Otherwise, yes, it's the solar system starting to be colonized by humans. It leans more on the hard science side of things, rather than space opera.
However, while it tries to get some credibility, it's still SciFi. And mechas.
The setting can be used for frontier adventures with space/colonial exploration, war stories, political entanglements. And mechas.
Personally, I twisted a bit the setting to better fit my view (and the story I written). I borrowed some elements from the jewel that is Transhuman Space RPG (the books are giving a really credible and more detailed description of life in space and what human colonies on other planets could be).

- Champions w/HERO system rules
- Teen Champions

I would definitively like to go back to heroes. Be it old guard or the next generation. As Angie would say... system is irrelevant. I would be quite fine with HQ rules too.

Hehe, you're now hooked to HeroQuest (what a flexible system, we played Star Wars and Crimson Skies with it too).
The HERO system may not be, actually, that good for our style of gaming and MapTool. It gives a lot of room to details we rarely use. STUN and END points, for example, are rarely used as combats are few and short.
Icons is on the other end of the spectrum with general directions and abilities for powers, rest is defined during the game, if needed.
Mutants & Masterminds may be the best solution as a compromise between rules and simplicity (you don't track Stun, Endurance, no speed chart etc) while defining relatively precisely powers and abilities (without the level of detail from HERO).
HERO is a good system but it may be better when used in tabletop than MapTool.

HeroQuest, of course, can always be used.

Indeed, the question is "how detailed we want the rules and the system to be ?"
It's HERO -> Mutants & Masterminds -> Icons -> HeroQuest

- Clockworks & Chivalry
I am a sucker for "past imperfect" and alternate history settings, so I'm quite interested in this too. Can you say something more on this too?

It's a Runequest II (from Mongoose Publishing) I recently bought in PDF format.
The setting is very narrowly focused (as said, English civil war in 17th century). The main theme being the civil war, the characters are supposed to side with Royalists or Parliament and live stories of intrigues, spying and war.
It's a recent acquisition so that's why it's a distant project and why I can't tell you that much more

And mechas.

Sold! That was all I needed to hear!

As for the rest, aside from being hooked on HeroQuest, HQ is in my opinion perfectly suited for online play, simply because its simplicity, speed and narrative play. On the other side, while I like M&M ruleset, I did not try ICONS... and since it's from Cubicle 7, I would like to try it too.

Other distant wishes :
(ie : ideas barely formed)

- 50 Fathoms : save a drowning (fantasy) world from its watery curse (probably with HeroQuest rules)
- A Time of War, fight in your 'mech, in this Robotech rip-off that got its own life over two decades (can be conveniently be coupled with MegaMek for combat)
- Space 1889, visit Mars, the jewel of the English Crown, in this Victorian setting. Cloud captains, ether airships & colonial adventures (classic d6 version)

Diurne wrote:Other distant wishes :
- Space 1889, visit Mars, the jewel of the English Crown, in this Victorian setting. Cloud captains, ether airships & colonial adventures (classic d6 version)

This!

By the way, what are we playing on next thursday ?

My sensors are reading Star Trek Independence for Thursday 8th September.

What about next week now ?

Either Mesoc keep rolling with Star Trek Independence
Either I can propose we start the "icons of World War 2" or the "teen heroes" in Ravenswood.

If Mes finished his story I am all for some action. Just for novelty's sake we can do WW2 a bit?

Sure thing and we do have characters ready.

At some point, rolling the Ravenswood characters may be needed (no hurry however).

I'll write an epilog of last episode and then you have green light to start something different. No preference here what it shall be. Star Trek Independence will have a pause then.

- Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Ed. : played on week end. I'm running the Thousand Thrones campaign and stop to let someone (called Rhino) gamemastering something for a change of pace, then I plan to continue. Likelihood : alternating WHFRP and Star Trek TOS w/HeroQuest rules.

This one is a bit pending until we find a way to remove the bounty our ex-employer put upon us after some blackmail attempt

- Jovian Chronicles : on Thursdays, this is a single (but developed) story I'm going to propose. This isn't a campaign, the story has a begin and, more importantly, an end. Likelihood : 4-6 game sessions to play it entirely (faster is possible but it depends a lot on our gaming pace)

I'm a bit biased on this one: I'm not fond of mechas - especially if they are central to the story - and I'm very reluctant toward everything "vintage" (you know, the kind of thing nerds find classy while every normal person find it just "ugly or silly for the sake of being different").
Therefore, I know you won't choose the easy road an make something solid here.

- Icons of World War 2 : Superpowered roleplaying with the Icons system (very rules-light, it reminds me the Marvel Super Heroes RPG of the 80s), set in WW2, Golden Age style, fight nazi superscience and defeat the evil Axis powers. I have 9 scenarios to play. It isn't necessary to play everything during a long uninterrupted campaign. Interesting point : it has an end (called the end of WW2) Likelihood : 1-3 game sessions each. Option : play it with ties to the Champions universe, making it basically the "past" of our modern Champions campaign (Champions' WW2 isn't very defined, it leaves room for creativity)

Fine by me. Unlike the previous one, I have no problem with golden age, and "superhumans versus nazis", as ridiculous as it may sound, can be done in a "not caricatural" manner.
Besides, chars are already rolled.

- Icons of the Cold War : the 70s, the last years of the Vietnam War, the Rolling Stones, afro haircuts and disco music. And of course spies from the cold and superheroics (played with the Icons system, as hinted). Option : set the era to the 50s and play the characters from Icons of WW2 but ten years later.

I... don't know. While not fond of the era, this may open to more various plots than the previous one.

- Teen Champions, the adventures of the children of Diana (the new holy virgin) and Jada. No ruleset defined (HERO for detailed rules, Icons for quick and simple, Mutants & Masterminds for middleground).

Good for me as well. The idea of playing teen superheros is very appealing, managing superpowers and teen-ager standart issues at the same time...
Plus, I know we're not gonna end with some "Twilight" setting
I'll have to redesign one of my "never introduced" chars for TC (the speedster, or the Ice girl, probably).
I assume we'll still use Hero System.

- Hellas : Ancient Greeks in space, yeah ! No really, the idea sounds weird and it is weird. But it's truly well done. It works with the Omni system that I'm not fond of (the one used in Talislanta RPG) but it serves its purpose

No viewpoint on this one. To be honest, I don't visualize it at all

- Clockworks & Chivalry : pseudo-steampunk (since there is no steam) set in the 17th century England, during the Civil War between Royalists and the Parliament. Alchemy, automatons, knights and commoners fight for the Cavaliers or the Roundheads.

Not fond of steampunk, usually...

- A Time of War, fight in your 'mech, in this Robotech rip-off that got its own life over two decades (can be conveniently be coupled with MegaMek for combat)

sounds a bit too mecha-centered for me

- Space 1889, visit Mars, the jewel of the English Crown, in this Victorian setting. Cloud captains, ether airships & colonial adventures (classic d6 version)

We already discussed about this one. I remember reading part of the original book, about 25 years ago...
Not fond of the d6 system, mainly because of Star Wars d6 (WEG), but why not



As a sidenote, I think you should spend a bit of time re-explaining how specific the Heroquest system is, focusing on the various paces (from things that are resolved by a very single roll to crucial moments resolved by biddings).

Cheetah.

Marvel wrote:- Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Ed. : played on week end. I'm running the Thousand Thrones campaign and stop to let someone (called Rhino) gamemastering something for a change of pace, then I plan to continue. Likelihood : alternating WHFRP and Star Trek TOS w/HeroQuest rules.

This one is a bit pending until we find a way to remove the bounty our ex-employer put upon us after some blackmail attempt

Actually, I proposed to play again Champions instead of continuing Warhammer because I thought Coile would join and see a MapTool game.
It was in early august and I didn't talk or saw him since

Otherwise, we can resume it once this Paradox episode has ended. There is still a way to continue the campaign.

- Jovian Chronicles : on Thursdays, this is a single (but developed) story I'm going to propose. This isn't a campaign, the story has a begin and, more importantly, an end. Likelihood : 4-6 game sessions to play it entirely (faster is possible but it depends a lot on our gaming pace)

I'm a bit biased on this one: I'm not fond of mechas - especially if they are central to the story - and I'm very reluctant toward everything "vintage" (you know, the kind of thing nerds find classy while every normal person find it just "ugly or silly for the sake of being different").
Therefore, I know you won't choose the easy road an make something solid here.

Mechas are as central to the story as swords are central to D&D games
Like with anime, you're giving to much credit/role to the machines. When they are just tools.

And it's not vintage at all. Rhino assumption was wrong. Jovian Chronicles is trying to be modern, credible hard SciFi.

- Icons of World War 2 : Superpowered roleplaying with the Icons system (very rules-light, it reminds me the Marvel Super Heroes RPG of the 80s), set in WW2, Golden Age style, fight nazi superscience and defeat the evil Axis powers. I have 9 scenarios to play. It isn't necessary to play everything during a long uninterrupted campaign. Interesting point : it has an end (called the end of WW2) Likelihood : 1-3 game sessions each. Option : play it with ties to the Champions universe, making it basically the "past" of our modern Champions campaign (Champions' WW2 isn't very defined, it leaves room for creativity)

Fine by me. Unlike the previous one, I have no problem with golden age, and "superhumans versus nazis", as ridiculous as it may sound, can be done in a "not caricatural" manner.
Besides, chars are already rolled.

It will be a fine line and a challenge (for me I mean)

- Icons of the Cold War : the 70s, the last years of the Vietnam War, the Rolling Stones, afro haircuts and disco music. And of course spies from the cold and superheroics (played with the Icons system, as hinted). Option : set the era to the 50s and play the characters from Icons of WW2 but ten years later.

I... don't know. While not fond of the era, this may open to more various plots than the previous one.

I'm not certain myself

- Teen Champions, the adventures of the children of Diana (the new holy virgin) and Jada. No ruleset defined (HERO for detailed rules, Icons for quick and simple, Mutants & Masterminds for middleground).

Good for me as well. The idea of playing teen superheros is very appealing, managing superpowers and teen-ager standart issues at the same time...
Plus, I know we're not gonna end with some "Twilight" setting
I'll have to redesign one of my "never introduced" chars for TC (the speedster, or the Ice girl, probably).
I assume we'll still use Hero System.

No idea for the system. The three rules system I mentioned have their virtues and flaws. And I have no real preference because of that.

- Hellas : Ancient Greeks in space, yeah ! No really, the idea sounds weird and it is weird. But it's truly well done. It works with the Omni system that I'm not fond of (the one used in Talislanta RPG) but it serves its purpose

No viewpoint on this one. To be honest, I don't visualize it at all

It's more in the "pet project" category. But it's a nice game, really.
And it's truly what I said : ancient greeks in space. Well almost

- Clockworks & Chivalry : pseudo-steampunk (since there is no steam) set in the 17th century England, during the Civil War between Royalists and the Parliament. Alchemy, automatons, knights and commoners fight for the Cavaliers or the Roundheads.

Not fond of steampunk, usually...

It's not steampunk. Essentially because there is no steam. It's the 17th century England. So it's Renaissance with a weird twist.

- A Time of War, fight in your 'mech, in this Robotech rip-off that got its own life over two decades (can be conveniently be coupled with MegaMek for combat)

sounds a bit too mecha-centered for me

One day, you'll say Pendragon is too sword-centered

- Space 1889, visit Mars, the jewel of the English Crown, in this Victorian setting. Cloud captains, ether airships & colonial adventures (classic d6 version)
We already discussed about this one. I remember reading part of the original book, about 25 years ago...

Not fond of the d6 system, mainly because of Star Wars d6 (WEG), but why not

Well, that one is much closer to Steampunk than Clockwork & Chilvary

As a sidenote, I think you should spend a bit of time re-explaining how specific the Heroquest system is, focusing on the various paces (from things that are resolved by a very single roll to crucial moments resolved by biddings).

Cheetah.

Yes, I was thinking about doing a "holodeck training" with you to show the way to use the system.

Weren't bidding dropped in new revised version?
Also by comparison of old and new, I cannot see any real merit of bidding system than that it just slows down the game by adding a complication, so I kind of understand why it was dropped.
So as someone who never really touched old edition (until today to read how bidding worked) my question is why would we reinstate the bidding system? What does it give to current gameplay that we already can't do without it easier?

Rhino wrote:Weren't bidding dropped in new revised version?
Also by comparison of old and new, I cannot see any real merit of bidding system than that it just slows down the game by adding a complication, so I kind of understand why it was dropped.

Bidding allowed (us, at least) to tie description to game mechanics.
The new version is much more classical as you roll the die and simply store successes until one side reaches victory (then the margin of success is deduced by the respective accumulated successes).

In the first edition, the player decided what risks he was taking/was describing the action and the bid was evaluated. Then the die was rolled.
In the second edition, just roll the die and thus deduce what happened (like in every other RPG under the sun actually).

In the first edition, you could "play safe", buy time, take risks and so on.
In the second, just roll the die and see what happen.

As for slowing down it depends on the player group. If the players are good with spontaneous descriptions of their actions, it can't be slower than describing after the die was rolled (like in the second edition)

So as someone who never really touched old edition (until today to read how bidding worked) my question is why would we reinstate the bidding system? What does it give to current gameplay that we already can't do without it easier?

Actually, I didn't want to propose to use the bid system. Just give an example of the extended contest and, in my mind, with the second edition rules.

Personally, I find the second edition rules for extended contest just... classical. There is nothing new in them. The first edition idea was more innovative.

Ah, I don't mind anything about that.
What I'm concerned about is game time. On normal tabletop difference in bidding or classical method is only in seconds, but during MapTool play may take minutes (and more) as we all know. I would rather use these minutes for pure RPing than rules step.
Novelty aside, originality does not necessarily means that it is suitable for this kind of play. On tabletop, yeah sure... throw anything new to me. But here when we have limited time and everything goes much slower, I really don't want to clutter the game time with extra rules time (and I'm quite sure that there will be pauses to think how much APs will be bidden on what and there will be also discussions on how, what, and how much). That is why I fell that classic method may be more appropriate (especially since with HQ rules now we have speed up the game considerably).
So that's my only concern. I honestly don't care about the rules or which ones are they (I would even play Rollmonster if I don't have to be a GM), I just want to spend more time playing than fiddling with mechanics.

Updating :

Current
- Teen Champions w/ICONS game system

On reserve and ready
- Jovian Chronicles : Hard SciFi with a strong mecha component (one story)
- Anima : anime inspired fantasy (mini campaign)

On hold/dropped
- Icons of World War 2 : noone ever asked for it again after the failure to save Atlantis, I guess we're feeling better with Teen Champions
- Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Ed. : the first scenario conclusion somewhat made difficult to continue. There is still, luckily, one chance to keep going on with the child-sigmar-reborn story.

Projects considered
- Hellas : Ancient Greek-styled SciFi in space.
- Clockworks & Chivalry : pseudo-steampunk (since there is no steam) set in the 17th century England, during the Civil War between Royalists and the Parliament. Alchemy, automatons, knights and commoners fight for the Cavaliers or the Roundheads.
- Glorantha : non traditional fantasy setting in a late bronze age world, one of the best and oldest RPG setting, with several original ideas
- Pendragon : the great classical RPG of chivalrous knights and damsels in distress set in Malory's Arthurian Britain.
- Space 1889 : alternative victorian world where space travel is possible and Mars is the new colonial ground.

The fantasy post-apocalypse corner
- 50 Fathoms : piracy in a water world (campaign, ready)
- Runepunk : techno-magic in a dark and cursed city-world (considered)
- Sundered Skies : skyships among lands drifting in the air (considered)
- Hellfrost : in a world freezing to death, magic starts to fail (considered)

Edited the above as I forgot a few games