UNLIMITED REQUESTS TO JOIN!

So here's the thing. I don't want to recruit characters. I want to recruit players. Get the right players together and it'll be great no matter what they're playing. Get it wrong and it'll crash and burn no matter what.

In my experience running Palladium games both on-line and around tables for Lo these many years, is that people who enjoy Palladium games come in two broad camps (plus or minus X amount of over-simplification and Y amount of overlap).

The first group seems to show up mainly for the crazy, gonzo flood of wacky ideas and in-world funhouse craziness that Palladium games do so well. This group tends to be mostly concerned with what fancy RPG's call 'following the fiction' and see the system and rules the way one might a well-loved B-movie you watch with friends just to snark off about it.

The second group often seems focused on simulating a realistic, detail-oriented, tactical war-game-like experience. This group tends to play military or military-adjacent characters and they tend to see the rules either as a puzzle for which there is a single correct solution or as a mini-game within the main game that they can use to gain advantage in encounters. This group also tends to be the most interested in the equipment-related minutiae ("gear porn") that Palladium also does so well.

The first group tends to enjoy 'kitchen sink' games where there's lots of colourful, crazy things happening and everyone is mostly reacting and improvising. The second group tends to enjoy 'tower defense' style games with lots of planned, measured incursions into impregnable fortresses.

As a GM, I am good at (and enjoy) kitchen sink. I am not good at (and do not enjoy) tower defense. And so people of the first group tend to have fun in the games in I run (and I tend to have fun running games for them). People in the second group tend not to have fun in the games I run (and I tend to have less fun trying to run games for them). [I hate doing this, but this is important, so please put your favourite breed of dog somewhere in your RTJ so I know you read this.]

No judgement stated or implied in either case. Everyone should have the fun they want to have. This is just a pattern I've noticed over time, and trying to accommodate both kinds of player in the same game has caused difficulty in the past (you'll notice, for example, that this game has a handful of posts but the Cast tab says I have over 50  - the extra were from a prior run at this).

So, when applying, please just be aware that, if you're often concerned about tactical distance and sightlines and black market prices and guard shift rotations and adequate cover along probable attack vectors, that's all awesome, but you might find this game frustrating.

That being said, here is what I would like to see in your RTJ. I don't need or want novels for any of this. 50 to 100 words should do for most of them. Less is more so long as you get the job done.

CHARJUNK
1. The Elevator Pitch. Give me a short, punchy, high-energy character sketch that highlights what's exciting about this character. What's so cool about them that we want to spend a year or more telling a story about them? Imagine you're in an elevator with a Netflix executive and you have until it reaches the top floor to convince them to greenlight a mini series based on this character. What would you tell them? That's what I want to hear.

ANSWER ONE OF THESE

2a. With Great Power. Tell me one thing your character did (or failed to do) when they were just starting out that went totally sideways. Something that they will regret forever. Something they would do anything to take back.
2b. Comes Great Responsibility. Tell me one large, powerful, intractable commitment or obstacle in their life that makes operating as a super-hero really, really hard (over and above how hard it would be for anyone).

AND ONE OF THESE

3a. Dial H for Hero Tell me one established hero that's doing things exactly the way your character things they need to be done. Your hero's hero, as it were. Why do they think they're so awesome?
3b. Into the Sunset Tell me one overwhelming goal or motivation that drives the character. Something so important that, if they ever achieve or resolve it, their story would be over we would fade to black.

PLAYERJUNK
A. With all the newer, better, more streamlined and sophisticated options (especially for superheroes), why play a Palladium game? What's the point of Heroes Unlimited?

B. Do you think female characters in RPG's should have a strength penalty? Why or why not? If you think they should, would you balance that penalty with a benefit of some kind? If so, what would that be?

C. Imagine we've been playing a while and I PM you and say that this thing your character does, while perfectly within the rules, is causing a problem for me in the game (messes up the story, trivializes a common obstacle, I just don't like it). And I'd like you change it for something else or agree to stop doing it (or change the way you do it). What would you say? What if it was the thing you really wanted to do, and was the entire point of playing that character to begin with?

D. Imagine we're in the middle of combat and you have a great idea that's just going to SMASH this encounter in two. And halfway into it we hit a tricky rules thing and I make a call and say the plan won't work. Now you're boned. Just boned. You might get killed. You might lose a really important piece of gear. You might use up that thing you've been saving for just this kind of occasion. Further imagine my decision was a bad call. An objectively bad call. So bad that you wonder if I don't understand the rules. So incomprehensibly bad, in fact, that you suspect I just don't want you to crush my sweet encounter. You politely bring up your concerns, I don't agree. My reasons for not agreeing are terrible. I suggest we just move on. But we're still in combat and you remain totally boned. What do you do?

(please note that I'm not asking for, and don't want, a character sheet at this point. Fluff first, crunch later)

That's it! I look forward to hearing from you.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:33, Thu 04 Mar 2021.