Mixup game

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Mixup game

Postby GAndy » Fri May 10, 2013 12:18 pm

We are fast approaching the middle of the year which I beilive means it time for another mixup game.
If I remember correctly it was felt at the AGM that twice a year was the prefered frequency.

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept the idea is that we have one evening where we mix people between tables so they get to RP with different people and GMs.

Previously we have had GMs running standard one shot adventures in a system of thier chooing, we have run D&D Tarrasque for sale and we have run a crystal maze based game using the Dread rules.

Now we have a club wide forum I figure lets find out what people want to do.

So I am looking for suggestions of the style of mixup game people want to do and voulnteers to help GM it.
- Do we want to run a bunch of one shot convention style games in a system of the GMs choosing?
- Do people want to do something like Tarrasque again where tables compete against each other.
- Do you want the mayhem of a table swapping game again.
- Or do you have an idea for something else you with we could try?

I have planned the last few and have tried to do something different everytime so am happy to discuss ideas with people, but the aim is to come up with something most of the club will get involved with and enjoy.

I think one suggestion was that we have two mixup games a year, one we do as GMs running a con game and the other is a bit sillier, but again it depends what people want.

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Re: Mixup game

Postby EdwardColbourne » Mon May 13, 2013 1:00 am

I would argue for a table-swapping game again - it was a great deal of fun, and the multiple genres really added flavour to the experience. An opportunity to prepare a character in advance is always useful.
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Re: Mixup game

Postby Gandruff » Mon May 13, 2013 11:44 am

I liked the idea of a past one where each table creates a dungeon complete with traps, monsters, ect ect then inflict those on another table :D
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Re: Mixup game

Postby steven.dowse » Mon May 13, 2013 12:18 pm

I say we all stat up ourselves then put them in a hat to dish out randomly and we roleplay roleplaying as each other :D
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Re: Mixup game

Postby Bithir » Mon May 13, 2013 6:16 pm

EdwardColbourne wrote:I would argue for a table-swapping game again - it was a great deal of fun, and the multiple genres really added flavour to the experience. An opportunity to prepare a character in advance is always useful.


I like this idea, it gets more people introduced to other games as well as other players.
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Re: Mixup game

Postby Jamin » Wed May 15, 2013 8:43 pm

I like the idea of swapping tables and systems. The crystal maze was fun, but something a bit more fluid and involving people being swapped around would be a laugh.
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Re: Mixup game

Postby GAndy » Wed May 29, 2013 2:17 pm

Based on previous experince, having people stat themsleves and then playing other people leads to disagreements and people being all serious.

Ok so far people seem to be in favour of table swapping again, that is distinctly towards the sillier end of things.

Do we want both mixup games to be silly becasue I beilive some people said they didnt like the silly games at the AGM.

Another question is systems and GMs.
If you want a game where people swap tables each table is going to have to be running the same system, or someone is going to have to do a bunch of ground work to make it transpose across. I know we have used d&d 3.5 alot but its a system that we have quite a few GMs able and willing to run.

Do we have people willing to step up and GM stuff and what systems do they know (can they blag knowing)?
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Re: Mixup game

Postby brumguvnor » Thu May 30, 2013 4:18 pm

I definitely think that 3.5 is the lowest common denominator that enough people will know. And I definitely think we should go with pre-genned characters: allowing people to create their own in advance is asking for trouble.

I'd have a bash at GMing if needed.

Also - if we are not going to go for the "design a dungeon on fixed points and challenge the other table to play it" idea, then how about a single, standard dungeon will all play? - so we can give full vent to our competitive instincts!
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Re: Mixup game

Postby EdwardColbourne » Thu May 30, 2013 4:31 pm

If we do a 3.5 D&D mixed genre etc game, could we compromise on character generation, either with predetermined stats or a points system?

Edward.

Who is not suggesting this so he can have a bard who can sing silly songs, honest guv!

PS. I'd prefer an all-tables versus something game to a table-v-table thing. More fun, because noone "loses".
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Re: Mixup game

Postby Fishface Preston » Mon Jun 03, 2013 9:37 pm

I recall there being murmurings about a spiritual sequel for "Tarrasque For Sale" - the dungeons would be replaced by the lairs of supervillains/evil geniuses, and the system would be Mutants & Masterminds 3rd Edition.
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Re: Mixup game

Postby GAndy » Mon Jun 03, 2013 9:53 pm

If we have 3-4 GMs happy to run it and someone is willing to convert it all to M&M then we can do that, but I dont know the system well enough to do that.
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Re: Mixup game

Postby brumguvnor » Fri Jun 07, 2013 11:44 am

oooh - I like the superhero variations on Tarask For Sale!

Do we have enough skilled M&M GMs though?
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Re: Mixup game

Postby TrollChris » Sun Jun 09, 2013 11:20 am

Yeah, the M&M variation was my idea, not too surprisingly (which I had totally forgotten making, so thank you for reminding me!)

I would certainly be happy to knock that up. Alex plays in my M&M Monday game every week and so I might be able to persuade him to GM such a game if I do most of the leg work. John is also a very good GM and into M&M, so its certainly a possibility.

If people want to do that, I will get onto the guys and see what I can organise.

From what I recall of the ideas I was bandying about ages ago, the game concept would be each group of players to be a team of super-villains, who get together to design their ULTIMATE VILLAIN'S HEADQUARTERS, within which, they need to contain five 'Weapons of Cataclysmic Power!' (The specifics of these can be up to the PC designers- they can all be the same thing or different things as they choose. Five different kinds of death ray, containers of various kinds of deadly super-virus, etc.) Then the following week, each team of villains goes to raid another villain team's lair in order to GATHER THE MOST WEAPONS! MUAHAHAHAHA!

Now where this would be different to Tarrasque is as follows... M&M characters works on power points, and with a power point you can buy five Equipment points (and then as many pp as you want to do as long as you have some left), and Equipment can be used to buy personal stuff for your character, as well as vehicles and features for Headquarters. Now, what I would do, is in game 1, the design phase, have players decide the kind of character they want to play and RP it (but without stats, cos they won't need them yet.) Rather than come up with large lists and an arbitrary points system like Tarrasque, instead, each character on the table can choose to contribute as much of their starting 150 power points as they would like to features of the Headquarters. M&M characters can also spend points on Minions and Sidekicks, and they would also do this, to fill the base with what they wanted to put into it. This way, the rules system is already built for making an awesome HQ for another team to raid the following week. The players decide how much of their 150 pp they want to put into the 'dungeon', and then, the GM can make the pregen characters for the following week with the points they have left, to raid another lair. So, it will be a balancing act of points spending, but in a different way. You could put a ton of features into the HQ just as one character, but need to make sure you are tough enough to take on another lair.

So Week 1, designing game, Week 2, raiding game, as before, team to obtain the most Weapons of Cataclysmic Power wins. I'd say players can likely be as sneaky as they like in hiding the Weapons because its a supers game, so people will be able to teleport, phase through walls etc. It will be less about constraining players with distance travelled and hidden objects and more about completely different levels of fiendish cleverness.

Players don't need to have played M&M, just be able to come up with a super-villain concept, and the GM can stat it. Means lairs could be awesome and varied, say if you have a Voodoo Master villain putting in points for snake traps and zombies, and then you have a Robot Obsessed Villain spending all his points one amazing super-robot minion and corridor lasers.

If people like this, I can get onto potential GMs. When aboots are thinking of doing eet? I am going to be away from next week and not back gaming wise till the 3rd of July at the earliest (perhaps the following week, jet-lag dependant), but perfectly willing to be a bit of planning to pass my plane journerys, though not too much actual pre-planning will be required.

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Re: Mixup game

Postby marvin » Tue Jun 11, 2013 8:54 pm

Well,

if we want a mix up game which is a mix of Tarask For Sale, and moving tables, this can be done, but is difficult to do both together, as any table that made a dungeon could not play in it, so moving to the table to the game you made would not work.

So it comes down to either table switching mega dungeon, or a variant on Tarask For Sale.

There is a problem of using M+M 3rd edition, which I see is that is there enough GM's who can run M+M, Do we have 4 or 5 of them?

I would suggest for a mix up game we could use savage worlds, D+D3.5, or WHFRP set in multiple backgrounds, tech levels, time zones and it would make it simple to play, easy to GM, and to pre-gen characters is easy.

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Re: Mixup game

Postby GAndy » Wed Jun 12, 2013 8:05 pm

Some cool ideas in there but forsee a few things that might be an issue.

If there is no set points lists then it falls to the gm to make up all the values which is likely to lead to wild variations in how much each group is paying for the same thing.

If you are using more than two tables using character creation points to build the dungeon, it is almost certainly going to end up unbalanced. With two tables spending more on the base makes the following game harder for you and for opponents so thetwo counter balance, assuming the ppoints and what they buy balance.
However when using more than two tables its gets more complicated. Eg if there are three games A B C, A and B both put only a few points for into their dungeon and have nails characters but C puts loads into the dungeon and had weak characters and they all swap tables. A takes a strong team into a weak dungeon, B takes a strong team into a strong dungeon and C takes a weak team into a strong dungeon. Basically A has an un fair advantage and C is shafted, only B gets the game it should.

Also there is the danger of allowing the full range of mm powers to people, wouldnt a teleporting pre-cog break the game?

In terms of timing the suggestion at the agm was that some people didnt like the silly games and that they wanted a basic mixup game but they dont seem to have made it to the forums which makes getting a comprhensive set of oppinions tricky. If thsts the model we go with I would suggest straight mixup game some point in the next month or so and a silly game near christmas.

Thoughts?
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Re: Mixup game

Postby Master Illustrator » Tue Jun 18, 2013 2:28 pm

How about...

...each table that wishes to particle has its current gm create a SINGLE ROOM that is influenced and flavoured by the game that they are currently running, but with the base system being something we can all use, like bare-bones n basic dnd. Tables of players move through the room, and at each table are challenged by the "gm of the room"', and thus we collectively create an entire dungeon where 90% of time you will have no clue what you're about to run into.

As an added benefit, everyone can get a taste of what everyone else's game looks and feels like in terms of lore, setting and tone. Should be easier to set up and run possibly, too?
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Re: Mixup game

Postby Zaphod Beebledoc » Wed Jun 19, 2013 3:53 pm

I like that idea Dan!
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Re: Mixup game

Postby GAndy » Wed Jun 19, 2013 4:47 pm

Nice idea, however few things that we would need to iron out first.

Single room per Gm would leave us with a 5-6 room dungeon so we might want to look at expanding that a bit.

Which version of basic dnd?

Dnd doesnt really allow you to express the flavour of a system just the trappings, as we found with the olympic mixup game. Trying to get across the tone of a game not suited to dnd rules doesnt really work unless the Gm is willing to put in a bunch of work in or just change the rules.

If we are running 5-6 games thats about 25 min per GM, I think we might struggle to get across the lore and tone of a setting in 25 min, especailly if we are limiting it to a "dungeon" style setting. Also the Gms have to consider relative power levels when creating thier dungeon room(s), if they are running a base beginings style game the challenges are going to be different than in a Exalted inspired setting.

How do we determine when players move tables? If its a time limit then they can drop out of fights or puzzles half way through which is sucky if its when they reach the end, one slow table means other people are waiting.
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Re: Mixup game

Postby Master Illustrator » Thu Jun 20, 2013 9:28 am

As much as some may grumble, my immediate thought would be to use 4th edition, since the select-a-power chargen system is quite adaptable to most situations, and the combat system, for all its faults, is fast and breezy. Would pathfinder or gurps be a better system in terms of raw mechanics? Most probably, But not everyone knows them and I'd want to avoid having everyone spend an hour learning a new system from scratch to play a one-off. 4th is ridiculously intuitive.

The general premise I've been toying with is that our club have all been whisked away to what could be loosely described as the "Meta Dungeon"', where all systems and the worlds they evoke exist side by side and perhaps, sometimes, even overlap. Each table of players must travel to each of the rooms that represent a system and complete one or perhaps two objectives:

1) locate the key that will allow them to escape to the next room, which will of course be fiendishly hidden.
2) defeat the RAID BOSS. or something equally horrifying and also awesome. Corpse looting will ofc be mandatory.

Now, when I say room, I'm being pretty loose here; the cyberpunk game might choose its room to be the top floor of a neon skyscraper that looks out over a city the size of a small country, the Iron realms lads might set their dungeon around a sprawling factory floor of the local khador jack-plant, whilst us Exalted muppets will of course go completely over the top and set our room within the bowels of an active volcano that Is a actually the lair of the Magma God.

See. Just needs a bit of imagination and a shit-tonne of floor tiles :)

Mechanically the idea is that you have a thirty, perhaps forty minute time limit to explore and solve a complex but self contained dungeon room that doesn't necessarily have to be a room in of itself. Players who survive get points and the chance to roll on that rooms loot table, where they might pick up gear that is appropriate for that world. Players who die simply re spawn in the next game, with no points and no loot. Points are also awarded for raid boss defeat, but it'd be nice if GM's didn't feel compelled to force the fight; the world boss might just be looking on, watching our players, and will only fight if challenged and so on. GM's should feel free to tailor the room to the feel and the flavour of the world they're representing.

At the end of the night, we tally the points of each player and they contribute towards their Table Score. Successful players make for winning tables.

Obviously this needs a lot more work and some serious communication with the our GM's, but if people like the idea behind it ill try and nail something more solid down to work with.

Thanks for reading my mega wall of text.
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