OOC Thread

This is where you can ask questions about rules or really whatever you want. I am open to constructive criticism of my game, the setting and rules included.

In particular I want to read your thoughts on:

1. How well the game plays.
2. If it is similar to other game systems (to the point that it seems to use their rules to the point of copying, or even copyright violations). **Admittedly, I have borrowed thoughts or ideas from other games, but my goal is to create something new and different.
3. If you are enjoying the game and if you would play with others.
4. Where you see need for improvement. I'm not a writer and I know my ideas can be polished.

Just for the sake of reference in testing the game, I'm designing the character around my personal history (as far as skills and attributes go)

I'm assuming Computer Use is too general a skill? Should I break that down into things like Networking, Programming, Hardware?

Based on reading through everything, here's my first crack at this:

---

Edgar Harkener
Occupation - Agent, Greenflame Institute

As a young man, Edgar witnessed the deleterious effects of bargaining with demons for powers. His father was a violent man, constantly abusing both his wife and his child. His mother turned to the demons out of desparation, a last ditch effort to save her life. They complied with alacrity. The next day, she used her power to sear her husband's brain from his very skull. Over the passing years, Edgar watched as she was consumed, turning toward more and more violent means of getting her desires. On his 16th birthday, he ran away from home, afraid for his life.

This flight took him north, nearly to the Canadian border in Minnesota where he quickly made a life for himself as a trapper. Some years after, his powers began to manifest. From there, it didn't take long for Greenflame to find him.

The Greenflame Institute offered him a job as a junior agent, in return they would offer training and enhancement of his psychic powers. Agreeing to their deal (and their paycheck), he took the job. For the last 5 years, he's worked diligently and has risen to the rank of Agent in the institute. He specializes in tracking quarries down, using all manner of mundane and psychic abilities.

Edgar, by virtue of his time in the outdoors, is very hearty and has a relatively high degree of coordination. He's a good shot with all manner of long-arms and is a fair close quarters fighter. Unfortunately, his homelife left him without much formal schooling until his time with Greenflame.

The Greenflame Institute is a somewhat mercanary group of anti-demon psychics that sell their services to private entities as well as the government to provide protection, investigation, and recovery services.

Attributes
Brawn - 9
Coordination - 10
Reason - 5
Instinct - 9

Defense
Stress 0 / 8
Wound Threshold - 9

Skills
Firearms (Long guns) - 2
Firearms (Pistols) - 1
Tracking - 1
Stealth - 1

Powers
Apportation - 3
Dowsing - 5
Psychometry - 4

Yes. Computer use is too specific. That short list is a good start.

I had another thought while making another character. If it would be a college major it is to general. If it would be a college course it probably works.

@Dramasailor - Wow. I haven't checked your math yet, but I gotta say, it seems you figured out character creation.

I mean i hoped it wasn't to complicated, but that was faster than I expected. I like it too. It fits my vision well. And you have given us a something to develop in the Greenflame institute.

If players are interested we could start there, give everyone at least a connection to the institute even if they aren't agents themselves.

The only 2 spots I was fuzzy on math with was the starting attribute points and Stress.
I worked it on the powerful character side for attributes, starting each at 3 and then dumping 21 other points in and around.
For stress, since Average will yield partial points, I just figured a partial point isn't a point and did round down for everything. Is it supposed to be the rule of 5 for rounding (8.5 becomes 9, 8.4 becomes 8)?

I used all 21 there, used 5/7 skills, rolled 2 into 12 points for powers with no burn.

Alright, stats and whatnot are done, just have to come up with the backstory. How much leeway do we have with making stuff up?

That checks out. I thought I had included rounding some were but now I don't see it. Maybe I accidentally edited that section out. But yes, x.4 is rounded down, x.5 is rounded up.

Well, you have a lot of leeway within the confines of the world. Magic can practically do anything at the cost of human souls. The issue is we only have one to give, generally. A charismatic cult leader might get people to give up their souls willingly, but most of the time you can't sacrifice an unwilling person. The Demon will just make them an offer to keep living and the person doing the sacrificing will have to deal with an angry magic user throwing fireballs at them all of a sudden.

Demons also seem to want to stay in hiding. I think of it like Fight Club rules. Rule #1 is you don't talk about Demons. Rule #2 is you DON'T TALK about Demons. And yet...week after week they get called on by more and more clients. One "theory" is that they don't want to "over fish" and kill the species.

So beyond that, we have the world. It is like our real world. All the countries exist. Magic and Psycics are hidden, but it is very likely that the US government is experimenting with both. All the superpowers really.

If you can work within those guidelines, have fun with it.

Dramasailor has created the Greenflame Institute. We can work on fleshing that out more if we want, or you could make a rival agency if you want.

Sounds like a good place to start, really. A common ground, at least.

Cool, so we have a somewhat mercenary agency that contracts with government and private concerns.

PCs do not have to be agents, but they might be in the process of recruiting them. Or something else you think of.

I can do more of a write up about greenflame if you want. More structure instead of wispy shadows.

Yes, you can add details. Leave a little room for others work in details...but you can start.

Of course!

Here's what I have so far. Mainly a bit of rank structure and some little operational things. Should still be a lot of room for fleshing things out.

---

The Greenflame Institute
Field Operative Rank Structure (Individuals that operate throughout the country, fulfilling contractual obligations):
Agent Candidate
Junior Agent
Agent
Staff Agent (Staff Agent is an administrative position, reserved for Agents unable to perform in the field any longer).

Administrative Positions (Individuals that keep everything running in the Institute's headquarters):
Clerks, Quartermasters, Contract Negotiators, Agent Handlers, Psychic Trainers, Recruiters (Usually started as agents)

Institute Leadership (Executive control positions. Typically requires some experience as a Field Operative):
Sector Director (Controls a smaller geographical area, up to 100 total Agents of different levels)
Regional Director (Controls either the Eastern or Western half of the country)
Institute President (In charge of the whole program)

The Greenflame Institute was founded several years ago to address a growing need of talented and trained psychic combatants. Selling their services like mercenary companies of old, they take missions as small as protecting a single family from the scourge of the demons up to an assembled squad on loan to the government as a special operations team.

Headquarters is in Northern Minnesota, on a pristine lake, in the middle of the woods. Meetings to negotiate contracts happen at the clients. Headquarters location is typically kept secret from all but the most sensitive clients.

Cool. I like where this is going. I am going to add one detail more position to the Agent Ranks. That of Senior Agent. This is more of a designation that is assigned for each mission. Senior Agents are in charge of the individual teams, they are the leaders and it is expected that their orders are to be followed unless countermanded by someone of the Director level. Generally speaking, the position of Senior Agent is held by the Agent with the most experience, however, it an Agent has particularly specific knowledge, skills or abilities that pertain to the assignment.

For example, if an Agent used to be a gang member in South Central LA and the mission involved locating a witch turning gang members into zombies, and Agent from the area might be given the position of Senior Agent over someone with more time in the field.

This info will go in The World thread.

That makes sense Maskcot. I toyed with the idea of throwing that in. I like it. :)

How we doing on this? Any questions or anything I can help with?

I'm excited to get running.

Now that I've got a concept up and such, do you have info or thoughts on things like equipment/gear? For example, you've talked about how your skills and such can modify your TN. But would using different weapon types also have an effect? Like a rifle with a scope adds 1 or 2 to your TN when making aimed shots, automatic weapons having an option to attack multiple times at a slightly diminished TN?

Sorry, I still have to write up a backstory, just been busy at work lately. I should be able to get to it today, especially now that Greenflame is written up a bit.

Name: Alexander Sanderson
Occupation: Computer Programmer/Agent in training
Backstory: Alexander grew up in Michigan, preferring to spend his time in the 'nerdier' pursuits in life rather than sports and girl-chasing like most of his classmates. He spent his time learning computers, playing dungeons and dragons, and learning martial arts.

When he was 22 he was offered a job in Northern Minnesota at a company designing programs for tracking 'talented' individuals, as well as other, more mundane things. He gladly accepted, looking forward to seeing people with abilities like he'd read about in books. Perhaps it was just late in coming, or perhaps it was a result of seeing it, but soon, Alex, too began to manifest abilities of his own.

It wasn't long before he had gained an understanding of his powers and began his training as an agent. He has shown great ability in understanding how things work, specifically electronics, as well as logical thinking and problem-solving.

Attributes
Brawn: 7
Coordination: 8
Reason: 10
Instinct: 8

Defense
Stress : 8
Wound Threshold: 7

Skills
- Computer Networking (1)
- Computer Programming (2)
- Computer Hardware (1)
- Firearms/Pistols (1)
- Running (1)
- Jiu Jitsu (1)

Power (10 points)
- Psychokinesis - Energy (5)
- Hypnosis (2)
- Telepathy (3)

Wow...where is my brain. I have a bit of info that I will add to the rules section. I'll warn you they are a little rough, I would even go so far as to say they are likely to change. For now, equipment will provide bonuses just like you are thinking. Also, I feel bad about not remembering to include equipment because you can train skills in equipment to get better bonuses with it. I will add them to the one of the rules sections. Like a skill in "Small Arms Fire" then when you are shooting with a pistol you'd get the bonus. So if you want to tweak your skills that's fine.

Since we are playing "agents" of the Greenflame Institute, I think we will play it a little freeform. You will be allowed to requisition a reasonable amount of equipment that you think you need. Your psychic powers are considered your most valuable assets, but equipment that is useful in the field is available. If it seems reasonable that you could get it as a civilian, then you will be able to acquire it from the Greenflame quartermasters.

Actually...looking at the two concepts you guys put forward, you actually intuited that option...so I guess it isn't such a big deal. Well, once I get the rules posted you can review them and ask questions and adjust concepts if you want.

As for stuff changing, that's the point of an alpha isn't it? :)

How soon do you want to get this rolling? Also, how simple is this to learn? From the character sheet it looks simple enough, but I don't want to hold the group back if you guys are about ready to go bc I have some reading to do.

You are right. I just want to be up front with my thought processes. I played a D&D game once where the "house rules" changed session to session. It was incredibly annoying, and ended up killing the game.
Well, there's the three pages of rules between Character Creation, System and Equipment. I don't think they are very long, but I'm making the game. As of right now no one has submitted a character, but I was working on Equipment rules.

We are playing mercenary psychics who respond to government contracts and elite private clients. You can, but don't have to be an agent of the Greenflame Institute. You could play a local consultant who serves as a liaison to the party.

My goal is to get through one "mission" and see how the rules are working.

Once I get to work, I'll throw my guy into a character. :)

I'll try to find time to get it done, but I might not get around to it since I'm now running a campaign and with limited free time I feel like that is first priority. I'm not saying I can't do it - it sounds amazing! - I'm just trying to give fair warning.

Ok, well...shall we start with two and see where we get?

If you want, we can. Since there wasn't a ton put out yet about whether or not leveling is a thing (and what effects it would have if it is a thing), it'd be easy enough to roll in other people as time goes on.

Leveling will be a thing, but it will be between missions I think, not on the fly.

I am good to go :)

Sorry guys, but I'm getting swamped by life/running a game/playing a lot of games so I'm going to pull out and stop holding you guys back, but if you do a game that's not a playtest, lemme know and I want in!
Thanks for the invite, I hope I get another shot at Darkwatch!
Couch

I thought I had posted here, but I guess I missed it in my attempt to catch up. I am sorry for not posting. I had my furnace go out right as the weather here dropped below freezing and I got sick (I think because of the intense cold). I needed a few days of sleep to recover, but I am back and will get to posting today. Just a few work tings to knock out first. Hope you will hang with me...I really want to get this game up and running.

Oh I'm still here. I'm excited to go galavant.

I'm still here :)

Hmm... our GM has been inactive for 23 days... Is he perhaps MIA?

That's my thought. Which is sad, since maskcot is also running the Atomic Robo game.

Gonna drop this game. Maskcot, if you come back, please re-invite me!