WaltJonse

Exemplars

Perhaps it is time for an explanation regarding the codependency GMing style Jason and I are using here. I do not know the Hero System and have had trouble in the past learning new systems. I would lose interest quickly while trying to learn and wind up trying to read the same page over and over while my mind went off to think about more interesting things. Now I am taking Adderal and this is less of a problem. Still, I am lazy and the hero system seems to be a bit complicated. I am working on learning it while using it. I need Jason primarily to help create npc primes and to explain to me what the capabilities of each are. Most of the basic rules are coming back to me slowly as I have had characters in the hero system before. The Executioner and Jinx are two that were created and used for this setting.

Great !! So why am I running things instead of Jason. I will do my best to explain this. The Exemplars universe is, as many of you know, is Jason's baby. I have talked with Jason about the setting over the years and helped outline some of the time line etc. The current story is also Jason idea. There was a definite beginning and a definite ending planned. There was also a time line planned out for some of the major activities going on in the background. Jason was ready to scrap things on the first night because things were already going off the rails. This is where I come in. My style is a bit more adaptable than Jason's. There is no definite end scenario anymore. Also I do not like time lines. I believe that time lines are to rigid and do not create tension for anyone but the gm, unless the time limit is known to the players from the beginning as part of the story. So I have replaced the time line with event triggers. Still the event triggers may not occur. This is what I love about being a gm and what Jason finds very frustrating. I enjoy having to adapt the story to the direction the players are taking it from week to week. Did I explain anything ?? I am not certain. I hope nothing in here spoils anything. I have tried to choose my words carefully. Still clarity may be an issue. Again I don't know. Proof reading is for chumps !!

Given my style, it is important for me to know or at least have a good idea of which direction the players will be taking the story. When I first started role-playing the relationship of the gm and the players was presented as adversarial. Thank-goodness or a deity of your choosing the neighbors lawn gnome or whatever that I do not think this way anymore. I see my role as a gm as being a facilitator. In order for me to put forth the effort my players deserve I need to know what they want. That is where are we going next. When I was running Vampire I would talk to each player individually after the game about what they had learned and what there character was thinking then. I can do this if you wish. I think it may be more valuable to have individual pages for each character/player to record what they are thinking and where they would like to go. I can see this benefiting the story in many ways. I will be able to see where you are and what you are thinking and will be able to craft the story for you with greater ease. Each of the players will have a record of the characters growth or lack of it to look back on. I believe it will help the players in case they get caught up, I hope so, investigating one lead to the point of forgetting others they were going to check. We will all have a record to refer back to when the time to play Exemplars comes around again. Finally I believe it will help the players to see all the pc reports/journals. Yes, I am proposing that these pages be public. I would like secret pages set up for each character as well. This is so each of you can write about character specific things you think would be better revealed to the others as the story progresses. I think that doing this will be well worth the effort. Be as lazy or creative with this if you wish. I do not want anyone to feel obligated to do this. I think the benefits of doing this are clear, but most of you have lives outside of the game. Not having a life outside of the game is a personal indulgence of mine for which I will spend eternity being force fed my own intestines by demonic representations of Chuck E. Cheese.

Vampire the Masquerade

It is probably not what you think.

Fantasy Hero

This is my baby and I hope to introduce it soon. I have been working on this setting off and on for 10 years now and am almost ready to introduce players. It started out as 2nd edition Dungeons and Dragons, but no one wanted to play 2nd edition Dungeons and Dragons. Then I decided to try just thinking about the game and not writing anything down for 5 or 6 years. I discovered I was really good about thinking about things and not writing them down and so i decided to continue that indefinitely. Eventually I realized that adapting the setting to war hammer would be cheaper than buying 3rd edition dungeons and dragons books and so i considered that. I wrote some things down and then decided to try fantasy hero instead. I am enjoying the writing stuff down part more than i thought I would.

Sound City

A near future urban dystopia in which the players are law enforcement. I am leaning towards using the hero system for this, but who knows. At this time it is all still in my head.