In reply to Unseen (msg # 732):

I joined this game because I knew the system. Changing systems would probably screw me up at an epic level.

I’m here for the story we tell together. I loved FASERIP, but understand how simplistic it may seem. The imposed conditions, opposed rolls, and knowing when to use them (and what all to use) can get a little confusing with MHR. It’s not a dealbreaker for me, though.

On the topic of MHR:   Do we have any scene or relationship dice available, right now?

I'd like to do something, but my none of my specialties apply, and I'd rather roll more than three dice to do it.    (without spending a PP)

Just FYI, a lot of my mental energy this week is being used up by the leaked Supreme court draft overturning Roe, with mentions that decisions regarding gay marriage and access to contraceptives were also decided incorrectly.

While I'm in a safe northeastern state and am not immediately affected, I now need to worry about losing federal recognition of my marriage if Obergefell is overturned.

All my creative energy right now is being spent in asking the company that I work for why we have company pride and women's groups if they're not willing to make a statement when 50 years of rights are stripped away.

___

Regarding Sue's question about dice, I intend to add some asset dice involving teamups with Conan, Betres, and Nathan once I get things moving again.

What a bummer!   Sorry you have to go through that.   It really is crazy and cruel.

In reply to GM (msg # 736):

I'm so sorry to hear that it's impacting you. I wish we could vote against Supreme Court nominees, or something. Ugh. You have my sympathies.

I’m also LGBTQ, and in a relationship, so I feel your very real anxiety about the attacks on us, and anger at the assault on reproductive freedom for women.

I have no desire whatsoever to live in Gilead.

So... how is everybody doing?

I'm fairly well. The usual futile battles against human stupidity and human authority (but I repeat myself), but I just culled my RPG collection and I'm getting a bunch of 4e and Starfinder stuff on Friday, plus my first real hardcopy of Swords & Wizardry. I was hoping to start running a table at my local games store but in a cruel perversion of the natural order, there aren't enough players to go around; otherwise, everyone seems to think that me running White Star is a great idea.

I've started work on a new project... a "D&D in Space" sort of space fantasy (tentatively) called Knights of the Astral Tides. Thinking it might share a system with Shroompunk. Eventually. Right now it's a jumbled mess of 80s anime tropes and that time I got half a degree in political science.

I'm not trying to ignore the real problems... I'm just trying to avoid making them worse.

Many thanks to Vic Doom our former Gm, for help at a rough time. I'm managing my depression not so well, and have had computer issues.  Plus I've gone manic, which is not a common thank for my bipolar as its type 2. My new med has me restless in my own skin--like I can't get comfortable, and can't sit still which is aggravating my bipolar. Ugh. Anyway, I live! I hope y'all are doing better! Much care, love, whatever you'll take from my heart.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:13, Fri 10 June 2022.

I'm mostly managing, but some things (like rpol) are suffering at the moment.  Which is probably better than in the winter when I was doing fine here and my work performance was suffering.

I am at least managing to balance work and home stuff pretty well, which has also been a lot.

I should be able to get this game back on track next week.

I've become familiar with some of the so-called "retro clones" while playing on Rpol.   That one, in particular, is pretty good.   But, I say so mostly because the author is actually a writer; I like the way that book goes into the cosmology, and gives a sense of what the game universe is supposed to be like.

I also kind of like "Old School Essentials," that includes all the classes and races from the old Unearthed arcana book, and makes them old style D&D suitable.

Is Shroompunk your own system, then?


@Tigro -- sorry things are rough - I have a family member with bi-polar, I know that can be a real battle.   If things don't even out with the new med, soon, make sure to speak with your doc!

Best wishes to anyone struggling; these are unusual, very volatile times.   What the world will look like in another ten years, I can only guess...

I'm only just familiarizing myself with it for the first time-- I'm not (yet) a huge fan of Swords & Wizardry itself, but there are tons of offshoot games based on it that I'm really excited about and... I want the extra context.



I am, however, a huge fan of OSE and Necrotic Gnome and I'm really looking forward to the different fantasy genre sourcebooks that Gavin's been promising-- eventually.



Yeah... it's a number of different things right now.

It's a sub-genre of sword & sorcery fantasy fiction and a sub-genre of fantasy roleplaying that I'm trying to codify and popularize: ultra-low fantasy with ultra-high magic, driven by fairytale logic, and inspired more by classic videogames than mythology and folklore.

It's the setting I am worldbuilding for that fiction/gaming genre-- an infinite, sprawling network of Worlds connected by the living, dungeonlike Warp Zones; populated by planetouched humans, honorable tortles, mischievous robotic tinkers, and more. My WIP novel is titled The Oathbreaker King: a Shroompunk Tale and it's about two brothers on a quest for a crown and throne that neither of them wants.

And yeah... my primary objective is to publish Shroompunk as my own "unique" RPG system-- it's a mashup of modern D&D mechanics and OSR gameplay principles, that I'm hoping to be able to reuse with my Knights of the Astral Tide space fantasy setting, which is what sparked my recent interest in Phantasy Star and Starfinder.

I still exist too. A month-long move turned into several renovation projects, along with finishing my ESL teaching certification, and adopting a very energetic kitten, on top of the usual full-time job. So while I've been a bit burnt out, I'm game to continue here whenever it's convenient for the GM. I hate to hear they've been personally affected by the disastrous Supreme Court ruling. You've got allies here in California who are likewise worried about the state of the country. I can't say it was ever a goal of mine to fight rising American fascism in my lifetime, or that I'd be talking about it on a roleplaying forum of all things, but here we are.

I miss this game.

Ditto.

On Facebook I saw a post that... I thought y'all might appreciate it. It's kinda like what we're doing here, but it's take one Marvel character and one DC character and combine them..

My immediate instinct was Kaine Parker and John Constantine and then I lost the plot in favor of trying to mash-up the entire Spider sub-mythos with the DC mystic/JLA Dark cast. That means Peter is the "golden child" version of John Constantine, Jessica Drew (1610) is John Constantine. Miles? Gwen is Astra Logue. Venom is Etrigan, though Eddie's just Eddie. Madame Web/Madame Xanadu. Ezekiel Sims/Phantom Stranger. Cletus Kasady as Zsasz, but also bound to Etrigan. (History with Eddie per Let there be Carnage.) I would read the everloving shit out of this.

Of course... my second instinct, is that I've fought off suggestions of allowing DC content into this game every time I've run it-- I don't have the DC chops, for starters, and it'd make the game less recognizable-- but what if the Marvel/DC mixing was allowed, but mandatory, like an Earth-37 eXiles; everyone has to take an A-or-B-list Marvel or DC character, and mix them with a similarly iconic character from a different franchise (could be Marvel/DC or could be one of those plus one of else) and all of the timelines are horribly Earth-27 mashups of different superhero "events" and one of the things that changes between timelines is who's combined with whom.

I dunno, I still kinda think it would lose the things I like from a Marvel eXiles game, but there are a lot of different things that I could like about it.

We could bandy some of those around a little bit while we're waiting.

I'm still planning on getting this back on track in the near future.  I will warn you that I'm not going to be available in September for medical reasons (I'm fine, it's a planned surgery) so there will be another break.

There is an official Amalgam universe that combined Marvel/DC characters in the 90s - I doubt it's been updated and I suspect it's not very good.  They're published under the label of Amalgam comics.  I would say that that universe is fair game for this game if it's still recognizable as a marvel character.  Ororo of Themyscira would fit in just fine, after all.  There's a whole bunch of them: https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki...arth-9602/Characters

The Amalgam premise is a published thing, and I've seen offerings for it on Rpol, as well.  Never read it, nor played.   But could be interesting.

Now, I've thought about offering an adventure for this group.

Of course, I think about lots of things, and then think about many more things, and never commit to a start.  ;)

But, I do have a scenario in my head, that I believe could be fun, and I'd enjoy enough as a GM that it wouldn't end up feeling like work.   (as is typically the trick)

Any of the eXile characters would be suitable, or if someone wants a new face, that'd work too.  This could accommodate most characters, as long as you're not pushing for unbalanced or over-the-top advantages.

I'd run it with MHR. With the caveat that, if at some junctures I see the need to push the rules into the background, and just narrate, then that's the way it's gonna roll.  This would only affect outcomes, and never your freedom of choice.   And I wouldn't be over-liberal with it.

This would either be a window out of the current scenario (since we've seen just how non-linear time is), or could be presumed to occur sometime after the present adventure's resolution.

No Timebroker, no Tallus.  You're a task force pulled in by a sorcerer supreme everyone's familiar with.

This wold be a hunt -- seeking an item vital to the integrity of the cosmos -- in a certain urban setting (of my own devising), that includes a cast of npcs similar to the eXiles.  Variations of canon Marvel characters, that is.

There is a main villain whose plot you'd have to stop, before it comes to fruition. And once that's done, it's end-of-game.  This being a one-off adventure, and not a campaign.

But it could give the group something to do over the summer, or perhaps in September, when Gwen goes on break.

Feedback/questions, if any.   I won't be bummed if no interest.   Because this isn't a firm offer yet.

I was in an Amalgam-themed game here on RPOL, a few years back. I amalgamated Superman and Thor into Rao, the Kryptonian Sun God. Unfortunately, it was subject to the two major causes of a game's demise here on RPOL: the GM didn't know what to do with the game, and most of the players vanished after they introduced themselves. It died a very quick death.

Amalgam gave us Storm as Wonder Woman, Dial “H” for H.U.S.K., M.J. Watson mashed up with Lana Lang as Insect Queen, Artemisty Knight.

I once played a very, very short-lived Amalagam game here as “White Halo”, a mashup of Emma Frost/Halo, a different psionic power for each color of the rainbow.

@Unseen That campaign sounds like a lot of fun. Count me in if you decide to run it.

I'm in fact beginning to flesh it out, type it out, and see how it sounds and looks outside my head.

If I do run this thing, I'll preview it to this group, first.

So... are we dead?

Sadly, I think so.

Unseen, if you start that game, I’m interested.