What do we play? (OOC)

Probably worth discussing what people might want to play...

Here are some options I currently own.

The Machine

Orbital

You are in a tavern

Thoughts, feelings, preferences?

I have none of those games, but I’m guessing the rules will be very light :)

So… totally useless for the final decision but:

* I’m very curious about the machine.
* My next game will be sci-fi, so I could get more useful inspiration from Orbital.
* Of course the tavern is the safest bet as most players are familiar with fantasy (I assume)

So yeah… not useful:)

The rules for the machine are very short, about two pages total. It would also be easy to manage since only one person "plays" at a time, before handing things off to next player. Eventually I'd like to give all three a try, but I lean slightly towards the Machine.

I can easily post up the rules gor the machine as images if need be.

The Machine... Hmm so we play parts in a machine? I guess I should probably read instead of assuming we're all Gogs, but can Murphy honestly go any slower?

Nat 1, the gremlins get a bonus in the machine...

The Machine does look wicked. I'm on board with that.

I posted The Machine in a separate thread.

The link for You are in a Tavern doesn't offer any real information about the system.

Orbital looks very similar to Kingdom, which I'm currently 'playing a game' of but I'd be curious how different the two are. I probably won't enjoy the war theme, though. Also, the similarity with Kingdom is a bit off-putting for me.

The Machine looks good but, while one person writes their bit, the rest of us will be doing nothing.

I'm not especially keen on any of the options but would like to know a bit more about the Tavern option. I'm considering not playing at this point.

I'm ready to be rando person x that spirals down myself. Dibs on the machinist for a pc avi...

I'm with Remnant. A few randomly generated characteristics could be gold in a game like this. Really looking forward to it.

Hey Astroloma, I'm fine with discussing what could be a good game for everyone. I'm not familiar with Kingdom, but would you have suggestions of an alternative?

The stuff I linked to is stuff I paid for and own. I'm open to suggestions, but I'm trying hard to play what I have. Desperately resisting the urge to adding weight to my already struggling bookcase, be it digital or physical.

I'll put up some threads for the other two games, although I have to say The Machine would require virtually no changes to be playable in it's entirety.

Thanks Phil_Ozzy_Fer. I'm getting cold feet but it's been a long day so I'll revisit this tomorrow afternoon.

Okay, I think I'm much less ready to play another of these sorts of games than I realised so I'm going to bow out. Sorry about changing my mind.

And then there were three...

No pressure, but if everyone is still up for it, I think we should vote on what we want to go ahead and play.

I'll go ahead and say that I think "The Machine" would be my preferred option. It'll be the easiest to run, and 'probably' won't impact other gaming commitments.

How about the rest of you?

Agreed with The Machine

Same on vote for machine.

Sounds good :D My main worry is the waiting time between players will make this feel like a succession of single players. Though that is also the strength ozzy mentioned :S

It's decided then! The Machine it is. Does anyone want to go first, or should we roll for it? d4? The lowest number starts?

Rolling suits my nature. I'll roll but if anyone is keen to start that's fine with me too.

Rolling it is

rolls

Wins might not be the right way to say it. "Loses first"?

Interesting side note: my wife and I are currently amidst our second watch through of Person of Interest which is entirely about a computer AI that they refer to as The Machine.

😂😂😂


So... are we looking into a group of evil military trying to bring about the singularity?

Before I start, did we want to agree on anything, or are you all okay with inheriting my crazy? Location, the nature of the machine, any lines and veils?

I'm okay personally (For X's and Veils), I figure you'd start a new thread though. I guess I should ask about time skip flashbacks or flash forwards if they're cool? Like the machine has people working on parts of it throughout all time and putting them together? Yeah I'm watching Loki but valid question I figure.

It's your turn to drive. Whatever you want to do is good. I'll start a couple more threads for the game.

I deleted the threads since we aren't playing them, less clutter. If you want me to put something back up, just let me know.

You can use GP's decks easily for that :D
There should be the option to create decks on the game details page somewhere under the player's names

Just don't shuffle or draw too many cards, heh.

Either or works. I'm comfortable with assuming no one is going to try and "cheat" at a solo journaling game.

I mean if the get an ace and two jokers... thats kinda like getting cheated though.

First ace, on the second card. I'm not sure how many of these I want to do per day. I'm cognizant that y'all be waiting for your turn. But I think the medium requires some meditation and may benefit from mood changes.

I also decided to flip a card at the end, rather than wait and flip it at the beginning. Ill see if this seems like cheating.

Take your time @Qralloq. If it helps, we could always try and set word limits if it looks like the entries run the risk of becoming too long. The way this game is structured should, in theory, allow it to be played around other obligations.

oh wow! that was a great start! Pretty sure I can't match that even on my best days 😅

I'm sure you'll be fine! Looking forward to your contribution.

Holy smokes! The revelation!
We finally "know" the true form of the strange musical device we will die for! 😅

I only focused on the fact they didn't order the rabbit a drink so he's just smiling and happy to be there...

And of course, the song they chose in true karaoke bar fashion would have to have been something by Bon Jovi, or maybe Journey.

I'll wrap up my turn tonight. I'll also list the attributes I used and the cards I drew (through random online card drawing sites) so the next person can avoid duplicates.

I am done. That was dark. Who's next?

wow, that was great and far too quick :D

CESN good luck you got this, well it'll go horribly wrong eventually though but still I'm sure everything is fine... eheh...

Update: @Qralloq unsure if it's appropriate but *beatnik snaps*

Thanks, Qralloq! That was indeed super dark, but it was great.

CESN, I'm sure what you have to offer is going to be fantastic. Do whatever feels right, we're all in this together.

It was a pretty good start. I like the tie in, the stumbling upon the diary.

😁

I had just read your and it looks like a good excuse for a physician XD

I'm curious if these translate over:

Looks good so far CESN!

Also, those do appear to work, Remnant. Except that the Spade is tiny and there doesn't appear to be a value for the card next to it.

As an aside, CESN, I don't know if you like horror, but there's a World of Darkness novel about a pathologist called "Strangeness in the Proportion". Your first journal entry reminded me of it.

Did they modify the card draw so you can't add it to posts anymore? Started a new Savage Worlds game?

You need to enable a deck from the Game Details, but it still works for me.

Ah sweet! Been a while since I actually started a Savage Worlds game.

What version of Savage Worlds are looking to play/run Remnant?

Still running SWADE ETU in Nevada for some peps and a starter game in a SWADE Sci Fi setting.

Ah, OK. I had seen the thread for people looking for games, and there were two entries for Savage Worlds. One that said "Savage Worlds", and one marked "Savage Worlds" (SWADE).

Have you ever tried running an 80's-style over-the-top action movie with Savage Worlds? I feel like it would work really well.

Not in Savage Worlds, Cyber System has a flavor where everyone is playing a teenager that has super powers via rando 80s things (troll doll, garbage pail kids rare card, electrocutes slap bracelet, nifty safety pin charm for your denim jacket) when they keep them... don't tell adults cus they'd like try and take them away and ground us.

Actually maybe I did for a horror game one shot for SWADE when it came out, college kids going to one person's Aunt's cabin for summer break. Zombies. Didn't think we finished. Yeah it was 80s since shutter bug student and you had no cell phones. Plus pay phones.

Pay phones! There are stiill some of those by me, believe it or not. Although no corresponding zombies.

Those are also fun ideas for 80's themed games, especially the one with the kids.

Additionally, someone asked they could on the game. At this point, I'd probably just have them close out the the sequence of turns if you're open to another player.

PbtA also has Action Movie World...

I'm open to another player, for sure.

Oh yeah I'm open to another player but via another game make sure they understand what the premise they're getting into is.

Thanks for the suggestion for PbtA. I didn't even know that one existed.

Sorry, the interest ended up being a false alarm. The person asked to join, and then backed out. Oh well. Thank you for being open to sacrificing more people to The Machne.

hey guys, I'll be away for about a week or so and my post rate will be very likely affected. I'll still try to keep up, though I'll probably take even longer to get a post ready :(

Don't sweat it. The game won't be impacted at all if you need to step away for a bit. Take your time.

Hey guys! I'm back now. Need some time to catch up but will try to get (at least) a post through this week

Quick question.

My last card is Q-D, which also happened to be Qralloq's last card!
We can pick the same cards right? It's a different deck for each player, no?

There is a line in the rules (in the section of things you will need) that the playing cards are not shared between players.

Sidenote: I like the idea of drawing all your cards so you can see the flow of the story you'll need to write out personally.

I'm good with this approach Go for it!

true. Noting in the rules prevent you from drawing all the card right? Though they suggest you go away and take a break from writing :D

I did it just to have an idea how long I still had. Kind of helps with the building up. But now that I have it all mapped, I have an idea of how it will go down and, if you guys are ok, it may touch some sensitive subjects. I mean, it's nothing unexpectedly bad, after all, we're playing a depressing game, but it would have a little warning if it was a TV series xD

As long at you don't summon a furry cat priest that wins the world poker tournament or something in the middle of all if it I should be okay.

For my part, go hard on the sensitive subjects.

I'm fine. You don't have to worry about where the story goes for me. As far as I'm concerned you can push as far as you need to tell the tale you want. I'm not sure that I even have any sensibilities to disturb.

Kitten doing taxes with glasses on while smoking a cigar?

I like it.

How about a taxidermied kitten tea party?

That's the most creepy use of the word taxidermied I've ever seen. Kudos!

I know you'd expressed reservations about your creative writing CESN, but your entries have been great.

nice to hearread you're enjoying it👍 I think having something to start with helped a lot and knowing I'm about to die...just need to freely spiral down now :D

I agree, it's interesting to read how you approach the spiral down.

Well done, CESN. The descent to madness was fun to read.

I enjoyed it I mean I feel sorry for them but *Cthulhu beatnik tentacle snaps* man.

I'll do some research and think before I start 2017.

I feel like we're just putting our own variation on a theme. The different perspectives are fun to see develop and resolve. Also, good job CESN! I enjoyed it. We've donated two bodies to the machine. Still, a couple more to go...

thanks :D

Looking forward to see how this cruel mother from haiti takes the risk ;)

*Smoke cigarette* If you're living still you are taking a risk sweety, it's just how much they they try take for the reward you think you should be given or you earn in return eh? Just take it, no one will give you more than you fair share. Everyone is greedy.

Alexander Calder? I like the Gif.

Imma try and blow through my cards Wednesday night/Thursday. My apologies for dragging this out.

No problem, @Remnant. The beauty of this (grim) game is that it doesn't really matter how long it takes you because it won't impact anyone else.

Dealing with some things and didn't have time, it would probably be easier to just void my turns from the game currently though. My apologies.

I hope this just means that you've been given an incredible promotion at work and have simply been too busy being awesome. Otherwise, if it's not positive, hopefully, the negative is short-lived. I'm guessing this means that I should move ahead via segue and start my turn? Just let me know and I'll get it sorted.

Well not a lot of positive but yeah go ahead and segue away.

So let negative stuff since I worked thru my priority #1 fubar situation.

My turn went fairly quickly, but how did you all feel about the game? More importantly, thank you all for indulging in this little experiment. I really appreciate all of you being willing to travel down this dark GM-less path with me. Also, I promise I won't post anything up like this on GP for a while. This one was a little dark.

I’m away for the moment so I haven’t read your part yet :(

I really enjoyed the concept and think it worked nicely for PbP, though it lacked a bit of the player interaction we’re used from the more common RPG systems. The card randomisation is a really nice touch :)

I agree with CESN. It was neat to see how we each interpreted the cards, which obviously left a lot of leeway in setting up the scenes. The sense of impending doom and walking toward certain disaster was great.

Cool! I'm glad this was a worthwhile experiment. The Machine is particularly well-suited for PbP, and I fully agree that seeing the different interpretations of what is essentially a single question was interesting.

I'll leave it up for a bit longer in case CESN wants to see what I put up and will take it down before the holidays.

Thank you again to all of you for being willing to do this with me!

Finally read it all :) great ending 👍

Thank you, CESN!

Closing out the game.