Roleplaying: A General Planning Thread

So I had this idea for a roleplay and I was going to start a thread for it, then I thought "hey, why not make this a general thread and start off with my idea?" so here we are.

I'll leave the idea out of this post in case I have some reason to edit links or something in later.

Okay, so with that done, here's the idea for a roleplay I had. This is a bit crazy, but it could be fun to try.

The basic idea is that this is a game with multiple GMs. And each GM will be handling a different genre.

So, for instance, the players could be spies infiltrating a secret base... and then suddenly they're an adventuring party in a fantasy setting. And then another GM could make them superheroes, or space explorers, or whatever.

Obviously, though, this would take some planning, and there are details to hammer out. But I'd like to get a sense of who's interested and then we can start figuring out how to do it.

I would be pretty interested in whatever. GMing or charactering.

Also fun: straight-up Dungeons and Dragons is pretty cool. I haven't gotten much of a chance to play it, and I think a few other people thought it might be fun?

DungeonCrawling is a pretty fun genre. I am running one on MSPA, although with GURPS. Because I GURPS. Although we have not got to the first real dungeon yet. Random encounters, buh.

Also I want to challenge people to use hooks from the Steve Jackson Games Twitter. They range from horrible puns

#hook The tower's pinnacle is above this dwarven-scaled level. Do the heroes have time to get through a short story? -sjm

through silly...

#hook While outrunning ravenous wolves, the heroes encounter clowns! Can the PCs take care of two problems at once? -sjm

to interesting

Half of the players have psychic powers. The other half only hallucinates that they have psychic powers.

to even more puns.

#hook Trying to earn rocketry/psychology degrees, Tom is possessed by his satellite. Can the PCs on the ground control two-major Tom? -sjm

And lets not forget the one with origami wrestlers.

I'd kind of like to play straight-up D&D. I've had a fleeting, if quite odd, experience with it, so I'd be interested in doing it properly. Not sure if any of us are secretly experienced DMs, though.

If I could get helped a bit through character creation, I would love to play some straight up D&D.

I'm familiar with a whole mess of systems so I can definitely help with character creation. Depending on when this takes place I might even throw my hat into the GMing ring.

I wouldn't mind running a mechanicsy game (if people would actually post :,<), and I have a fair amount of GMing experience, but... I've kind of gotten tired of D&D.

It's just, like, GURPS is better in every conceivable way.

A Slorange GURPS game? I would join! :D (Again. I would also post this time. There would be many posts. I promise.)

Technomantic escape, you were so young. I never get to play much with my skill-less but lucky bastard character. ; -;

I would play, since 90% of the GURPS games I am in, I am the GM. And I would like to play sometimes. ; -; Last time I played as a lizardman martially artist, the Naturally Chosen one. I enjoyed being a LARGE HAM, although one player was quite annoyed :B

I cannot GM but can generally promise to be a (mostly-)attentive and hopefully not too irritating player (once we get past the character creation stage).

So this is my "Totes most certainly in"?

I have always wanted to play GURPS but never found a group nor the time. I'd need some help with character creation probably (also I've got a lot to do oh no) but I'd at least attentively follow any GURPS games that go down.

I didn't expect this much response! I guess I'll start mulling over some campaign ideas in the old thinknoggin.

Anything prospective players would particularly like in terms of setting, style, or tone? Power level? Length? If you don't have any preferences, that's cool, but if you do I'd love to hear them.

Hum. I would prefer a lighter thing with fantastic elements. Silly space opera? Eldritch Gangsters? I always wanted to play as Herb the Psychic Plant but perhaps that is TOO silly.

I am so in for this Slorange GURPS thing. For uh lessee elements of the campaign...I'm not all that picky, but I have one requirement: I need to be able to wield stupid weapons. I'm talking things like chairs and pens. Because I know what I want my guy to be able to do. :D

I do tend to prefer more fantasy-oriented elements in roleplaying campaigns though.

I'm not too familiar with GURPS -or tabletop in general- but I'm interested. Any chance I could start here?

Most of the improvised weapons just use the weapon closest to them at a skill penalty, like pencils as daggers. The Improvised Weapons(type) Perk allows you to use certain related items at no skill penalty, or to have no penalty for a certain skilltype.

Example: Bartender allows you to wield cutlery, mops and broken bottles at no penalty, while Knife allows you to use of Pencil (stabbing) and Credit cards (for cutting). I would allow chairs as two handed maces or maybe even with brawling...

Ooh, GURPS. If only I weren't in like four games already. :<

I...have no idea how this'll work

RECIPE FOR SUCCESS! (innnn I gueeeesss?)

Well let's see

Of the people who have put forth opinions "fantasy" and "fairly light" have been fairly consistent soooo

Anyone object if I make this the maiden voyage of my GURPS Discworld book?

That was a rhetorical question, right?

All I can say on the subject is and .

I haven't read Discworld ; -;

I can't find a physical copy and I just can't read books online without giving up on them halfway through when video games become momentarily more exciting.

Is reading Discworld a prerequisite to playing in the game, or will that just mean I won't get a few jokes here and there?

I haven't read Discworld ; -;

I can't find a physical copy and I just can't read books online without giving up on them halfway through when video games become momentarily more exciting.

Is reading Discworld a prerequisite to playing in the game, or will that just mean I won't get a few jokes here and there?

If the GM, as I suspect slorange is, is a decent GM? It will likely be the latter.

It's more likely that you simply will not recognize certain canon characters as who they are. Which is fine.

I haven't read Discworld ; -;

I can't find a physical copy and I just can't read books online without giving up on them halfway through when video games become momentarily more exciting.

Is reading Discworld a prerequisite to playing in the game, or will that just mean I won't get a few jokes here and there?

Nah, you don't have to have read them; you'd actually be in the interesting position of having more to discover about the setting and plot than other characters and players, which could itself lead to Hijinks™. That's practically what Discworld stories are all about, so it can only be a good thing.

Since I am likely to be the only one playing to have the GURPS Discworld book, I think character creation needs to be a bit more personalized than usual. If you've got a copy (or can find one online (it is so refreshing not to have to dance around talking about piracy!)), then feel free to build your dude on your own, but otherwise send me a PM, catch me on IRC, or hit up my AIM (BlobbyAdventurer) and we'll work together to get your character made.

I'm not going to set a power level for this group, or even a point cap (but do try to be reasonable; I'm sure I can trust a fine group like this not to build any demigods that aren't hilariously inept); you don't all have to have the same, or even similar, point totals, because I'd like this game to be about telling a fun story in an interesting world rather than exacting mechanical combat all the time. An eclectic group has a lot of potential for interesting stories, and I firmly believe that it's the duty of the GM to make a game that's fun for everyone even if they characters are unbalanced. Or the players are

Anyway, all interested players should start sending me character concepts and working with me to flesh them out into characters and sheets; for a campaign like this, I think they story and so forth should arise organically from the characters and their potential interactions rather than trying to force the characters into a story of my own, so your decisions and interests will shape the way the game will go. Keep in mind that a weak-but-interesting character is going to be a lot more fun to play than a bland but min-maxed superfighter in this style of campaign.