sotcmexico

OK, I may have jumped the gun by creating a Yahoo group before everyone had a chance to respond, but I'm always concerned about letting a new game sit for too long without gaining momentum. Everyone should have received an invitation to a Yahoo group; don't worry about the fact that it shows old post counts, this was an inactive group I owned for a game now deceased. Reduce, reuse, recycle...

Anyhow, if anyone has objections to using Yahoo groups, let me know; this was just a 5-minute job to rename an old group, that's all.

Poll #1319046 Platform Options
Open to: Friends, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

What is your preferred platform for the new SotC game?

Are any of those options definite deal-breakers for you?

Hmm, I thought I was being clever when I created this LJ community to support the new SotC game; after all, every single player who signed up was already on LJ so that meant I wouldn't be asking anyone to move to a new platform, and everything would be available for easy viewing. But now I'm starting to think this is not such a bright idea; my primary problem is that when people respond in comments, not everybody notices the response so there is no feedback. It will also be more difficult than I had realized to have a threaded discussion.

I just changed every member to a "maintainer" (i.e., Admin) to see if that helps; I expect that should at least mean that people will be notified of comments posted. (And by the way, we're still missing tfbretz.) But I'm wondering if I didn't just pick the wrong platform. I could move this to a Yahoo list, or a Google group. In fact, even a Wordpress or Facebook site would at least allow people to subscribe to comments via RSS; as far as I can tell, LJ only offers RSS feed for posts, not comments. What do people think? My current inclination is to go for a Yahoo list; it's simplest, but the features are a bit outdated and the story would probably read more smoothly on a Wordpress blog (more like a regular webpage).

Alas, moving the game over to its own LJ community has not taken off that well so far. I suspect that most invitations sent though LJ just disappear into the cybervoid -- or spam filters. I'm trying to corral the discussion back here, but if this turns out to be a poor idea, I'll go for a Plan B. Or C.

In a recent comment -- overlooked because I was checking for responses over here! -- scurvy_platypus talks about "grounding the characters, giving them some sort of territory, cause, network, or home ground. This is something they can regroup around, balance against sacrifices, get haven from, or fight for.

It is, in other words, a big fat Aspect that might be applied to one character, to a few, or to all of them: it can help the characters, but it can also get them in trouble and it is something the players want to see come into play in the story.

One way to establish some connections between characters and provide grounding for the players who are interested is to assign connected Aspects to the player characters. scurvy_platypus brings up the example of the Firefly television show as one where the characters were "rooted" around a ship, Serenity. So if we were trying to mimic this, perhaps each player would take an Aspect connecting her or his character to the ship:

• "Why would I want to leave Serenity?"


• "Ship like this, be with ya 'til the day you die."


• "I'm not on the ship. I'm in the ship. I am the ship."


• "That's my good girl."

Etc. It doesn't have to be the same Aspect; indeed, it's more interesting if they are different takes on the subject.

The best way to do this would be for players to discuss the setting and decide what they'd like to use as anchor point(s), if any; then make the grounding Aspect part of the SotC character creation process. Any interest?

Characters in Spirit of the Century are defined by a cool name, an interesting backstory, up to 10 Aspects, up to 15 Skills, and up to 5 Stunts. Players in our game are welcome to leave some slots empty if they want to start with a streamlined concept and flesh it out in play.

If you do not already own SotC and don't plan on buying it for now, there is a free version of the System Resource Document (SRD) available. It will help you follow along during this discussion, and I will link to it for details.

So, in order to make a character, first pick a concept. The book suggests a dozen archetypes, but don't feel held to these; what's important is a strong, simple, pulpy idea of your character's role. The ones outlined in SotC are generic; I expect most players to come up with something much more personalized, perhaps "Tenure-tracked authority on Icelandic myth" rather than simply "Academic", or "Agent of the Bavarian Illuminati" rather than "Operator", etc. And while you're at it, give your hero a good, ringing name.

Then, as you work through your background story, you get to pick Aspects. Aspects fulfil several roles:

1. Provide the occasional boost for your character when it comes into play, by letting you re-roll, add +2 to a roll, make up a detail about a scene, etc. This is called Invoking and Aspect.


2. Provide a source of Fate Points, which you can use to obtain other benefits. The GM can offer Fate points as a bribe for letting your character be pulled into trouble by an Aspect, or sometimes you may choose to do this yourself in order to ask for the Fate points. This is called Compelling an Aspect.


3. Provide story hooks that will involve your character and background.

You should choose Aspects that are interesting for your to role-play and make for stories that rock your boat. The best Aspects are ones that can be either good or bad for your character depending on circumstances. This is another good opportunity for personalizing the material, rather than sticking to off-the-rack descriptors.

SotC's character creation process involves you picking those Aspects gradually as you establish your character's background. Here is the process: you create your back story in five phases -- your background, what you did during the Great War, your character's novel, and two guest star appearances in other player characters' novels. At each step, you get to write a little bit about your character -- a sentence or two is fine -- and select up to two Aspects.

Next, you will want to pick up to 15 Skills from the list. Characters' prowess with skills is described with both a rating and a descriptor, ranked on a ladder ranging from Terrible (-2) to Legendary (+8). PCs' skills are arranged as a pyramid: one at Superb (+5), two at Great (+4), three at Good (+3), four at Fair (+2), and five at Average (+1). Anything else, you're assumed to be Mediocre (0) at.

This makes you a pulp hero, much more capable than the average person: "Most people are Average at the things they do for a living, like Science for a scientist, and are Mediocre or Poor at most other things. It is only when they are driven to excel that they surpass those limits." Your 15 skills and your ratings of Great and Superb make you a giant among mortals (though not when faced with the Immortal Emperor!) Again, you do not have to decide right now on all your skills; you may opt to fill only a few (at least the top three) and wait until later to define the rest in play.

Finally, you get up to 5 Stunts. These are shticks that let you do something out of the ordinary. I use the word advisedly, as they remind me a lot of Feng Shui. And like in Feng Shui, they tend to align on a path and build up. Stunts are attached to specific skills which they extend. In general, you're going to want your stunts to be linked to your better skills.

Because of the synergy between stunts along a given path, you tend to get extra oompf every third linked stunt, so taking three linked stunts is likely to give a more impressive character than three stunts for three different skills. Once again, feel free to leave some slots open if you're not sure what to pick yet.

Ideally, players should discuss their character concepts so we can make a halfway decent team without too many collisions, and so you can guest star in each other's novels. For inspiration, browse some of the pulp links I posted in the navigation sidebar.

(Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.)

In my last post, I talked about two setting thumbnails I found that tickled my imagination: one with Antonio López de Santa Anna as an immortal emperor enhanced by alien technology ("Eagle and Serpent"), and one very much like Big Trouble in Little China: 1889 ("Celestials"). I have heard from only one of the people who said they were interested, em_gumby (he has a bit of an advantage in keeping up with news); he favoured Eagle and Serpent. That was also, of the 80 or so campaign seeds I read, the one that interested most. I can lots of over-the-top yet tense pulp action scenes, it offers opportunities for Explorers, Defenders and Missions, in short it seemed like a good concept to mine for stories.

Here are some of the images that popped to mind when I read princeofcairo's story seed:

• A team of Pinkertons, G-Men, Texican rebels, and Zapatista sympathizers, briefed by FDR


• A fight between Federales and Century Club agents atop a train at night under a full moon


• A lopsided dogfight between a biplane and a very 1930 UFO in the night sky


• A break-in to steal some of the alien technology that give Emperor Antonio his overwhelming advantage


• A chase through the crowded and colourful streets of Mexico City


• Huge crowds gathered on the Plaza de la Constitución, filmed Nuremberg Rally-style by Salvador Toscano Barragán which is the Leni Riefenstahl of this parallel Earth


• A giant golden nanite-powered mech suit for Emperor Antonio which looks like a conquistador armour drawn by an Aztec priest


• The search for a secret mountain-top Andean fortress


• Space gods come to fight the Greys


• Etc.

I originally received some expressions of interest from doccross, tfbretz, scurvy_platypus, ratmmjess, and em_gumby. What do you guys think? Anyone else?

(Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.)

If I'm going to make life easy for myself in running a play-by-email game, I might as well see what ideas from pros out there provide a juicy start. Here's a couple that I found inspiring:

Kenneth Hite's Eagle and Serpent: Crash at Roswell July 4, 1827, the second of his Six Flags over Roswell.
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Daniel Bayn's Celestials from his Sanctum system-less meta-setting.
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I've been plotting and planning, and possibly scheming over a pulp-inspired play-by-email (PBeM) that will use the Spirit of the Century (SotC) system. (In case you care to follow this reflection, here are Part 1 and Part 2.)

Now I'm pondering the types of overarching stories one can tell in a pulp game that will rely on an ensemble cast. It seems to me some of the main ones include stories about exploring places, defending a group or cause, or accomplishing a complex task. (I'm making this up as I go along, although I'm certain many people have already established much better categories.)

Explorer Stories
This type of story is based on the travelogue and exploration of exotic locations, including the Lost Worlds I was discussing in my previous post. Although there are subplots, the bulk of the story revolves around finding and /or exploring a strange world (and sometimes ruling it). The story will involve overcoming natural and supernatural threats, visiting grandiose settings, encountering baffling customs, earning the friendship of enigmatic strangers, and of course fighting a local evil power. Good examples of explorers include Allan Quatermain, Axel Lidenbrock, Captain Hatteras, Professor Challenger, etc. Examples of stories include a large number of novels by Jules Verne, H. Rider Haggard, Conan Doyle, Pierre Benoit, etc.

Defender Stories
In this type of story, the main characters are championing a cause, defending a group, or opposing a peril or enemy. The story will generally involve a good amount of fighting the enemy, of course, but also setting and evading traps, pursuits, and sometimes investigation. Good examples of this type of story include the adventures of Zorro, Batman (who was created in the pulp era), or the Scarlet Pimpernel.

Mission Stories
Although the other categories could be called subsets of this more generic type, I'm using this to describe a lot of stories that don't fall in the other two types. The main characters have to accomplish a multi-step task in order to succeed in obtaining or creating something, or in evading or defeating an opposing force. Step A has to be completed before Step B can be accomplished, and so on; often in a race against an opposing force; most detective stories belong here. Scenes include investigation, traps, verbal confrontations, capture of the heroes, and fights. Maurice Leblanc's Arsène Lupin series falls in this group, as would Jules Verne's Mysterious Island and Tolkien's The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings (though the latter aren't considered pulp and also contain Defender elements).

Naturally, most series contain stories that mix these types. In Tarzan, Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon stories, Explorer and Defender overlap; the Scarlet Pimpernel adventures are often complex Missions as well as Defender stories; etc. It's common to alternate themes from one story arc to another.

In my most recent post, I was pondering a play-by-email game that would use the Spirit of the Century system. I was mostly talking about system, and I planned on talking about setting next. Alas, I've been doing more Website updates and other noodling for Emerald City Gamefest instead of working on my own game -- which is precisely why I need to run a game. It's time I got back to actually gaming rather than organizing games for other people.

So I have not worked much on setting, except to realize that one trope I really enjoy for ensemble cast pulp adventure is the quest for a Lost City or Lost World. I'm thinking of King Solomon's Mines, the Lost World, Shangri-La, El Dorado, Atlantis, Lemuria, the Kingdom of Prester John, etc. (or the real world examples of Troy, Palenque, or Machu Picchu).

Of course, Hollow Earth Expedition would be a suitable example, but there are many more possibility. Another game that provides a good source of inspiration for style and scenes (though not for actual source material) is Eric J. Boyd's Committee for the Exploration of Mysteries, a very well-written game.

What I like about this type of story is that it provides for a lot of different scenes, a lot of danger and action that is not only combat, and a lot of opportunities for a variety of character archetypes. I also like the exploration theme, and it reminds me of the books I loved best when I was a kid, thrilling with images of mysterious, exotic locations and secrets to uncover. What do folks think? Is that a theme that resonates with potential players?

Since we moved away from our friends and our regular gaming circle, I've been pondering running a play-by-email (PBeM) game since we don't have a local circle and the RPGs pool here is shallow. It would also potentially give me a chance to play with my online pals I can never play with in person because they are too far; I intend to limit this game to people who are on my friends list -- no general fishing for players on RPG.net. I considered several systems and settings.
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