User:BenofZongo
My Games:
BWWWWAAAHHHHHHHH!!!! GAMES!:
The House of Usher (no! No violate the copyright! Bad Ben!)
For one shots, etc. once the rules are actually released and found to be adequately "good": Unhallowed Metropolis [1]
Games I'd like to Run:
1.) High Fantasy: true high fantasy, in the vein of dungeons and dragons, with all sorts of monsters, dragons, faeries, whatever, and magic/magic items, and all of it known to the characters...the characters would definitely be meeting in a bar on a dark and stormy night. Ignore what I wrote below...that was pre gemini, and I don't think that sort of storytelling is well suited to our group. Now I'm thinking I'd probably use Gemini or the Hero system for this game, with the characters starting at 150 or 100 points respectively, and gaining around 30 xp per session (!). In the case of the hero system, characters would probably earn about 10-15 points of xp per session, and the more I think about it, the more I think hero is the system I would use...xp would need to be used to buy gear that you want to keep beyond one scene.
I looked over my old notes for this about two weeks ago, and overall I like the world I created when I was working on it: a series of small island continents and islands in the spirit of Earthsea. Different empires and/or kingdoms are in control of different parts of islands, with the vast ocean around all the islands in the hands of the (always) mysterious elves. As I envisioned it initially, there are many different factions, most of them human. In addition, there are all the standard fantasy races, though they are more "stereotyped" in some respects than usual: The Dwarves are Norse: quick to anger, obsessed with honor and the hoarding of treasure, the only producers of magic items in the world, fond of drink and fighting (preferably together), etc. The elves aloof and distant, the master traders of the world, except for the blood elves, who are, like warhammer dark elves, pirates who deal primarily in slaves and stolen goods. I think this world would have a strong "heroes" component to it, ie champions represent a major component of each faction, sort of like the iliadic setting, or warhammer fantasy battle. I also really like what I've heard of dawnforge in the sense that I like the idea that the characters have it as an express goal to become the stuff of legend, and that would be something I would strongly like to incorporate into a high fantasy game.
Of Amor, Armor, and Alchemy
2.) WH40K: Characters would play space marines. 3x6-7 week sessions encompassing 3 interlocking stories.
both 1.) and 2.) would use Gemini or a similar system. Characters would advance very rapidly (20 xp or so per session, in the gemini system), but use xp to buy gear that they want to keep long term (ie magic items) as well as trait advances.
3.) White Wolf-esque world: inspired by night watch, in concept, maybe. Possibly a "changeling: the whatever" like game, also. I've finally come up with some ideas for this, centered around the idea of Dreams, and the land of dreams, as a parallel world which intersects with our reality. Magical creatures from this realm, or humans who can manipulate it, battle for power against each other and against those that would destroy both or either world. Black Sun, White Moon
4.) Adventure!: This game would use the setting put forth in the "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" comics, which I've just finished reading two of (and they are excellent, btw). It would, by and large, be the Adventure! game, unmodified.
5.) For one shots: a "collaborative storytelling" card game similar to the gemini group creation system.
6.) A one shot I'd like to run: in the town of ______, the first child of every marriage disappears on their 13th birthday. It is said that long ago, the town offended a faerie prince, and this is it's punishment. The characters are all second children, all about 13, except one PC, who is a first child. The setting is the day of his/her 13th birthday party, and the characters have resolved that in the case of their friend, things will be different...
Game Ideas:
High Fantasy: I know that Jason hates this genre, but I wonder if it could be done right. The answer “probably not”...but that doesn't mean I'm not interested in giving it a shot. I do not know details of how I would try to pull this off, but the bottom line would be: it's all fair game: dwarves, elves, mages, priests, clerics, rangers, Dragons, gryphons, undead, etc. Obviously, dramatic tension in this world would have to come from somewhere else than surprise. I have this sneaking suspicion that this could make for a fun setting though.EDIT: my current working idea for this genre is a world war kind of situation. stay tuned for wtf I mean by that.
New thoughts: This game would be run as another take on the "roaming ship/firefly" type of game. In the game world as I have started constructing it, the open sea is essentially monopolized by one group, who let no one else leave coastal waters. Similar to Antares darkeye and the wormhole, the group has a navigator and a ship capable of at least partially circumventing this monopoly. This gives them a considerable edge in trading/carrying information/etc. Also, the game, in the spirit of the game Jason used to play in, would have players making members of the crew: but since the crew would be 30+ in total, each player would be allowed to make, at the beginning of the game, likely one high powered (3rd tier, in WHFRP), two mid tier (completed 1st tier, or possibly partway through 2nd tier), and one low tier (beginning character) character, with the option of spontaneously making new members of the crew as situation demanded, until the full complement was reached. Obviously, the higher the level of the character, the more "baggage" the character would have: more enemies, more rivalries, more debts unpaid, more obvious in a crowd, etc. Also, the ship being a joint enterprise, all monetary rewards would be evenly split among the entire crew (thus abrogating the danger of letting low level characters suddenly jump up to ridiculous gear). Finally, another mechanic I think I would try is that all earned xp would go into a "pool": the players could then jointly decide which members of the crew they would like to spend xp on. Limits on how much xp a given character could receive per session would be based on their tier (low level characters could get at most 1-200 xp a session, the maximum increasing based on the power of the character). Thus, the group could just be egalitarian, or in certain circumstances (such as when faced by a certain type of job they want to take requiring X skill base), they could communally dump 500+ xp a session into one crew member to get them "up to speed". Also, i think certain types of gear would have "specialist weapon group" requirements, and possibly minimum stat requirements.
BWWWWAAAHHHHHHHH!!!! NEW GAMES!:
3.)I've alluded to this before, but I've been working on a system which basically mirrors the “world of darkness” of white wolf. The major difference with my system is that there are no hard distinctions between mages, werewolves, and vampires, etc: all supernatural creatures just manifest their abilities and their “hunger” as it were, in different forms (read “night watch”, the book, not the movie). This game would use the Gemini system, with an exchange of storytelling for a "magic" characteristic that would be a catch-all for any special abilities you might want. Characters would fall into 3 "classes": Corpus (body), Mens (mind), and Cor (heart): Corpus characters have innate, instinctual abilities that are part of their body (ie, vampires, werewolves, likely daemons). They would be limited in how much magic they could take (without increased cost), but their magic points would reset every scene. In addition, they would generate "hunger" of some sort by using their powers and have certain weaknesses (silver, crosses, whatever). Mens characters consciously manipulate energy (ie mages/spellcasters) and have no limit to their magic characteristic, and also pay slightly less per magic point, but must roll for their effects and their magic points only reset at the beginning of each session: also, they have the risk of burnout. Cor characters manipulate energy through emotions or when in their element (such as the swordmaster who is totally average until he picks up a blade). These characters always pay a premium (ie 2x cost) for their magic points, but they reset whenever the character wants (even within a scene). Cor characters would also have to roll for their effects, but do not suffer burnout.
4.) Bring back the Iliadic Game, albeit with different characters. The game would still be set in the Greek Dark Ages, circa 1000 BC. The world is in chaos after the fall of the last great heroes at Troy, and chaos and darkness is beginning to envelop the civilizations of the world. There are still some who have the favor of the Gods, albeit much less favor than the heroes of old: such are the characters, defined by a "path" which both restricts how they must act to appease their patron deity and which gives them strength when attempting acts in the name of their god. I think that if I ran a new version of this game, it would be set in the island nation (a nation composed of several large and small islands) of Atlantis
5.) Another idea I've had recently, which is still in the earliest stages of conception, is a setting in which two parallel fairy-tale worlds, one being the "tragic" fairy tale world and the other being the "happy" fairy tale world, merge, leaving a disoriented new world which has elements of both. Currently what I'm working with on this idea is that there would be different levels of heroes and villains from both worlds, which would sort of function as "classes": how you build your character would be based on this. THis game would likely use a highly ambiguous system like DitV, with a cooperative "casting" system in which members of the group could "power up" each others' spells/abilities as well as adding a bit of their own flavor to these effects.
6.) I'm starting to really want to run a game set in the WH40K universe. this is something that has come up time and time again, and it always ends up getting shot down or disappearing (both Matt and I, I know for a fact, have thought about creating games in this setting before). This game would use one of two systems, either SMitV (cause I really liked how it ran when dieter and I played it) but more likely straight up, nearly unmodified Cyberpunk/Gemini. This game would be high combat (reminiscent of the cyberpunk game I ran) with mission style game play in which the group gets objectives that they have to achieve. Large combats (the group would be at the head of some sort of small battlegroup of 10-50 soldiers) would be resolved using tabletop warhammer, with slight modifications. Players would get to make their own characters, but after my Gemini experience, the bar would be set much higher in terms of what I would and would not allow, so put some effort into making a group-functional character (we all know each others' play styles, so that's something worth taking into account...) In this scenario I would strongly advocate for space marines as characters: I think this group would make for the most stylistic and interesting game play, especially if set in the first edition universe.
This game would be set on a planet largely overrun by a chaos cult supported by the Heart Ripper Chapter of Khornate space marines. The characters could play as part of one of three groups of marines on the planet: a large group preparing to assault an important religious stronghold in the hands of the cultists, a very small group moving covertly across the planet running interference and engaging in guerilla combat, or a mid-size group surrounded and engaged in a "last stand" defence of the planet's main armory. In the first case, the characters would probably have 1-2 officers above them, in the other two, the characters would represent the ranking officers. Also, only one player would be permitted to make an "auxiliary" (ie, librarian, techmarine, dreadnaught, non-marine support staff, etc.): which types of auxiliaries would be available depends on which group you pick (for instance, in the first and second case librarian would be available, but not in the third, while dreadnaught would be available for #3 but not 1 or 2.)
players could choose one of the following chapters:
1.) Hydra Warriors: motto: e pluribus unum (one out of many): a chapter famed for its tactical flexibility and broad based approach
2.) Iron Reapers: motto: mors omnia vincit (death conquers all): seige and trench warfare specialists.
3.) Legio Mortis (legion of death): motto: Caedo (Kill): strategy/tactics experts.
4.) Angels of Mercy: motto: mors clementia imperatoris (death is the mercy of the emperor): pious but generally less bloodthirsty chapter.
5.) Lamentors: motto: imperatoris lamenteant inimici (let the enemies of the emperor mourn). Grim and determined, the lamentors are known for unshakeable resolve and a willingness to utilize any means necessary to destroy the foes of mankind.
Ben's next game idea
BEN: an idea I have been tossing around, and that I may or may not try to pursue in the next couple of months, is a schedule-less game. What I mean is: a game in which the group doesn't meet at a specific, recurring time, but just agrees, via wiki, when the next session will be...the next day, five days from then, a month from then. The game only takes place when everyone can attend. I envision this as a small game (3-4 players), using a system with a very strong narrativist streak. I have no idea yet what genre I would want to set this in, but I think it would be something with a lot of politicking and intra- and inter-character RPing and development, with a plot driven almost exclusively by the players, significant cause-effect consequences, etc (what Gemini was supposed to be, basically...I understand that this doesn't sound appealing to many, but it is a game type I still really want to explore). As such, it would probably be something like "Vampire: the masquerade" (possibly using Sabbat characters), "Hunters hunted" (White wolf mortals) or something similar if I used a published setting, or "City of Tears", "Black Sun, White Moon" or something similar if home-brewed.
Anyways, if you or someone you know would want to be part of something like this (this would NOT in any way impact friday games, obviously, which are still my primary gaming priority), just send me an email. If there's sufficient interest, and I decide that I have time/motivation to make this happen, I'll let interested parties know how it may go down, and make a new page on the wiki here for it.
BEN: I think if I ran this game, it would likely be set in the world of "the league of extraordinary gentlemen" (the comic, not the movie).
GABE: Even though I would most likely be unable to join this, what about that one system/world you got? The one about the family who like use to rule the world, and now the brother controls it? That seems like a fairly heavy RP system.
BEN: Lesser shades of evil? That's a good idea. It can definitely go on the list. I guess the main thing will be what genre I want to run. My favorite RPG genre is fantasy, but I've already got that one covered. So I want to think about what other genres I haven't hit satisfactorily in the past. I'd consider doing a game set in Gemini again, like 20 years later after all the shit you guys did leads to the formation of a new fascist Regime in the distant system and the outbreak of a system-wide cold war.
Edmiao friday gaming is my max for ditching cheryl, i think. so i'm out.
Nate here: I don't know how long this has been up, but I would definitely be down for a Vampire game. Obviously I can really only do weekends so it would have to be on a sat. or sunday, but let me know if it would work out.
My Current Characters:
My past characters:
Ben's Gaming Maniphilosophesto
Super secret discussions: for Jason, Dieter, and Brandon's eyes only!
