A place to talk about stuff.

How ocme so many VnV games lose their GM's?

Is it b/c it's somewhat challenging to GM?
Or is that rpol can often slip when 'real life' starts?

In reply to MoSqUiTo (msg #2):

I think it's the latter.

I've seen it in tons of games, not just V&V ones.

That Naptown Knights game actually had a really good GM that was very attentive and just kind of all around excellent.  He was always super respectful of everyones time and very honest about what he could and couldn't do, right up until he vanished.

I honestly hope and believe he will return when RL settles down, because he was so consistent.

Maybe not though.  You never know.

I think he was running New Dawn as well. He was excellent.

I too hope he returns.

I only played briefly, but it was good.
I believe that GM said 'mother had broken hip', which is a devastating one.

One strength of RPOL (no nagging emails -- or at least, I shut mine off!) is also a weakness, b/c I think there are some friendships on here that'd outlast a game, but I haven't had any friendships come off the server ... yet.
:)

I think a lot of us gamers in that VnV game would like to check in on that GM, no?  Just to see how he's doing, etc.

It's another of the challenges of this vs F2F gaming.

I don't think it's related to the game system at all; just a fact of life in online games, and RPOL.  :(

I think it is across the board as well.

It's too bad, because some of the games I've been in that have died out had marvelous characters - in terms of others' characters to interact with, and enjoyment level of playing mine.  And when the game goes, it's like a world dying out. :(

In V&V, I've found it even more permanent, because most V&V games I've seen online insist you roll a character in game using the dice server.  Though, to be fair, I've never actually ASKED if I could bring in an orphaned character instead...

That is one of the reasons I started this forum. I think we all play in a pretty small world here. I think that many of us play with one another and that GMs might be open to having characters appear in their game that played in the games with others and possible the GMs themselves.

VnV, what a blast from the past! LOL

It was the second 'proper' system I used in my FtF superhero games and lasted a long, long time!

Anyone recall any of these or are you all new to VnV with the Monkeyhouse relaunch?

Superhero 2044 (terrible)
Various homebrew systems (so, so)
VnV (Lasted years, a ton of fun!)
Superworld (awful)
Golden Heroes (good, but not great)
Marvel Super Heroes (Amazing![50])
Champions (Bad)
MnM (Average)

MSH lasted the longest, as there was nothing easier to run and understand, it was a big hit. VnV was played for years and years though, in a time when it was really the only system around which had such a superhero feel to it, rather than the 'make it all up yourself' nature of what had come beforehand. :)

I couldn't afford the scenarios in my youth, but I recently picked up a few and have been skimming through stuff. :)

 I played and GM'd both V&V and CHAMPIONS for years.  Big fan of both systems for different reasons, although NOT a fan of where they've taken Champions since 4th edition (they're on 6th now... ugh).

Of the others, I've played MSH (fun but fluffy), Superworld (not all that good, but interesting reading and liked some of the art), DC Heroes (the Mayfair version, what's now Blood of Heroes), and a couple minor systems.

Of late, we've discovered ICONS, which is a lot of fun.  If you like Classic MSH, you'll love it.  It keeps the best ideas and ditches the funky action table and wonky d100 die curve.

Hey, here's a thought.  What about a thread for posting villains from games gone by? Our own creations, of course.

I forgot about DC... with the combat wheel and the 'bidding' system. Never played it, but owned it. (bad)

And Silver age guardians (bad)

And Heroes Unlimited (bad)

Could have a thread on comic book character conversions, naturally. :)

Yeah, Adventurer's Club (HERO Games, makers of CHAMPIONS) published conversion tables for both Marvel and DC RPGs to CHAMPIONS.

Most Wanted Vol. 3 for V&V had a conversion to CHAMPIONS too.  So after a while you learned to convert across most systems.

Heck, I still have the "Different Worlds" issue where they published stats for the New Teen Titans in CHAMPIONS and V&V (and Superworld too I think).

Oh, and a game that I really loved was the Marvel SAGA RPG, about 10 years old now I guess... it used cards instead of dice and made for a fast-paced, fun game.

AWFUL -- but it also had Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rules (which also sucked) but was fun when I was ... um, 10.  Sorta.  Not really.
Who thought of that game system?!?!

Forgot Gurps as well, which lacked the heroic feel I like.

Gosh, superhero games are crawling out of the woodwork *Laughs*.

Let's not forget to tip our hats to Heroclix as well, eh. :)

The thing is that (like MSH), VnV is easy to explain to newcomers and then get on with it, since a lot of choices and decisions are made on the fly.

Try explaining point based character creation to a newcomer *Screams*

Oh, agreed.  Our old group, back to high school and beyond, played CHAMPIONS longer and more than V&V.  But that's because we got past that point of learning curve... mainly because everyone let ME buy the books, learn the rules, and explain everything... :/

V&V was always fun too.  Of course, we played ourselves as heroes.  But that's a lot more fun when you're 19 than when you're 40-something... :D

*Laughs* No one ever played themselves, the first thing I did when I got the rules was convert all my original characters over to it, as well as stat out the Avengers and the X-Men!

I remember changing various rules right then, (Iron man's armour doesn't just fall off him like an ADR rating, but Invulnerability doesn't cut it either... since no matter how many bullets you shoot him with, none are going to get through.

So we just let Invulnerability count against every attack. :)

Random generation has more chance of capturing a superhero from the comics. With points based, certain characters would never happen.

"Cyclops? Just a blast? What about some armour... a forcefield, maybe flight by shooting beams out of his feet... I have the points left over!" LOL

Of course, you may have to roll up about four characters to get one you would like to play. Thankfully at that point my players all had heroes they were playing already, which illustrated another point. In points based, some characters cost ridiculous amounts, even though they are relatively weak in their original system.

VnV avoids that with plenty of hand waving and 'make it up yourself' options :)

V&V was always my favorite growing up- and we had all of the supplements- even the strange, not so good one towards the end.

And we figured out that certain powers offered secondary powers, and we really went to town rolling "randomly" until we fished those powers. "No, the dice was off the mat, let me reroll that one d10- which one was the ten and which one was the one? Oh look- I rolled animal / plant powers!"

But my friend Jacob, who used to GM, got tired of the system and began insisting Champions was better- which I always thought was NOT.

Anyways- good times back then.

Trying to make my current game (which can't handle anymore players) as fun. We'll see.  :)

Keep your fingers crossed!

*Laughs* Animal powers was like 6 extra powers for free!