Talk:Exemplars
--Jason 11:04, 8 October 2007 (MST)Exemplars primer: Everyone is always allowed to read any page that doesnt say secret in the name or specifically address individual characters or players. More world events and history is yet to come, I hope to have a good world for you all soon. Pages with a player's name in them are specific to that player and therefore secret.
Be prepared for storytelling devices. In other words, we may, in the middle of a session, switch to a flashback and hand out new characters for everyone. Or we might start a session this way. This might not always be mentioned ahead of time.
For Nate: Feel free to come whenever you want. I can always find a good NPC for you to play. Some will have secrets, however, and in these cases you will need to be discreet about that. Only tell players things if it makes good sense.
ED: in exemplars, i think it would have been fine if we had just ridden with it for a while, and i'm still sad that we dropped it. (that said, no way we are going to revive Exemplars). IMHO the only plot flaw was making the Deiter archetype the hook that would draw a group together, not gonna happen. probably should discuss this on the exemplars page.
JASON: I wouldnt say its the only plot flaw, but certainly a major one. How was I to know that a character chosen to protect the earth and carry on a 5,000 year legacy would be more interested in carousing and finding who his sister is than actually saving the earth when finally called? Um, yeah, I should have known.
As for if it would have worked had we soldiered on...maybe. I think Matt got frustrated a bit too quickly (as did I, but he was more insistent on keeping true to the plot), but the big one was we had it all set to have Dieter pass on the torch to Gabe, and keep everything on course, but Dieter insisted it wasnt necessary. What this illustrates is that the players were not on the same page. I am sure he had some sound reasoning for what he did, yet it could not be reconciled in the continuum. I believe had we gone one more session (I think there was a cancellation for some reason) it could have been salvaged, though it may have ended in the same place as Gemini.
The biggest problem I saw with this game plotwise is probably something that you guys as players miss (forest/trees argument): the players didnt create superhero genre characters; instead they looked at Hero and thought 'I get a lot of points, how can I kick ass?'. To make a good superhero game requires people to cater to the genre. Superheroes think big and act big. Even supra-geniuses like Dr Doom and Mr Fantastic get caught in obvious traps because they arent plotting and planning every detail, they dont have time for that, the world is at stake! Take risks, nobody ever dies (for long) in comic books. Learn by doing. These stories are about themes. And also, VERY important, superheroes fail MUCH MORE than normal characters do. Conan doesnt fail at shit; he probably has superhero point levels, but he is no superhero. If he were to fail, his head would end up on someones pike. When Iron Man screws something up, its only temporary. He just has to figure out a new way to solve this puzzle.
You could try being ultra-realistic and gritty, but this will never work well with high powered characters. Its fine for Batman, and even though he is tough as nails he is a gnat to Superman. When the power level goes up, so must the abstraction. If this is ignored, it gets childish and ridiculous. The most pervasive theme in comics everywhere, and what should absolutely be present, is that superheroes overcome failure, and for this to happen, there must be failure.
--Jason 20:32, 5 May 2008 (MST)One more thing. This game jumped the shark from the very first word. What many of you may not realize is that the semi-scripted argument that was to begin that game never occurred. My lack of clarity got the two main characters arguing about the Huskies football team rather than the end of the universe. The cues were->Dieter: The world is coming to an end; Ben-> You have heard this all before. Both: You begin the game arguing. When the argument was never about this particular facet, the scene was never set for anyone. I thought maybe the conversation would turn to the end of the world, like he was reluctant to mention it, but alas, it never came.
The end of this game is 85% my fault. Once this happened, I was on the defensive and upset from the very beginning. All I could think of was how was that not clear? It was impossible for me to move on from this. Matt kept trying to talk with me and get me to help him make villains and such, and my heart was just not in it. He came up here 5 or 6 times asking me to do those things, and I pretty much put it off until the last minute. Then the final sign from the heavens was when Gabe did not show up for the 2nd session. Had he been there, I can almost guarantee this game would have gone on, in fact it might even have righted itself and found its way.
This was important to me. It was personal and something I had spent a lot of energy on. It was torture watching it burn in front of me. It caused me a lot of anguish and heartache.
Someday I will try this again when the stars are properly aligned. I am stubborn and dumb as hell.
GABE: Shiiiit, if I had known that it all rested on me attending I would have come that day! But those were trying times for me and gaming takes a back seat to any personal issues. Too bad too as I really enjoyed it. I actually liked the way I made my character because I thought out my powers first, then made him. I thought the game was fun for what little I did play it, but I think we had too much free reign in character creation.
