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Post by Tasha on Apr 8, 2014 5:08:37 GMT
Been having great deal of fun playing a game called Monster of the Week. It's a very rules light game that does a great job of simulating the Urban Fantasy TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural etc. One of the cool innovations of the game is that you build your characters from a Pamphlet that contains info on a particular Archetype. It contains powers that the character would ahve and some choices for other power(s). It also includes a number of background items that you assign to other players around the table ie "You fought together when the tide of monsters seemed unstoppable. Ask them how it went." with a place for the characters name and any notes about the background sentence. It's similar to FATE's background system, but gives players some ideas to go with. It occurs to me that merging this with Champions and perhaps with other Genres would be a great way to draw characters together and to encourage roleplay though shared background materials. What do you all think of this? PS Monster of the Week is a hack of another game Named Apocalypse World Monster of the WeekApocalypse World |
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Post by Chris Goodwin on Apr 8, 2014 15:55:57 GMT
I think that this is a fan-damn-tastic idea and have for a long time been trying to figure out how to work the Apocalypse GM's prep into Hero. About a year and a half ago I created the Big List of Apocalypse World Hacks. |
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gojira
Double Digit Master
in a rubber monster suit.
Posts: 85 
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Post by gojira on Apr 9, 2014 5:14:10 GMT
Dungeon World is another game that I think has a similar take on character sheets and character design. You can basically create a new character by checking off all the features of your character right there on your character sheet and be ready to go in very few minutes (like, one minute if you hurry).
It also has "bonds" that you assign about how you met other characters. A neat idea.
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Post by Tasha on Apr 9, 2014 8:09:22 GMT
so back in Adventure's Club 15, We have an article called "The Mentally Balanced Superteam" by David Rogers. He lists some personality/ Archetypes there. That should be a great start. I am going to include 80's/90's era X-men as illustrative for the type
The Grim Leader- Cyclops
The Sociopath- Wolverine
The Swashbucker- Nightcrawler
The Loaded Gun- Phoenix (Jean Grey)
The Fanatic- Professor X?
The Strong-Jawed hero Colossus
The Love Interest- Marvel Girl(Jean Grey)
The Innocent- Kitty Pryde
These make a great start, though I would probably lose the Love Interest. Unless someone can create something from that that doesn't feel like a Buddy character or something that is quite sexist.
There's another article somewhere that is similar. I remember one character type being "The Rebel". If any of you can remember where this come from we can talk about those psychological Archetypes as well. Danger International? perhaps... I'll look and post the results here later
To add to the list:
The Mastermind: Professor X, Tony Stark.
The Rebel. Wolverine
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gojira
Double Digit Master
in a rubber monster suit.
Posts: 85
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Post by gojira on Apr 9, 2014 22:47:04 GMT
Other idea: Five Man Band from TV Tropes:
The Leader - usually clean cut, idealistic type
The Lancer - 2nd in command, not clean cut, often anti-hero
The Smart One - frail and brainy
The Big Guy - the strongest and the toughest
The Chick - balance, social smoothing, heart.
But there are TONS of you can divide thing up. For example, Shadownrun 1st edition had basically two paths to power, cybernetics and magic, and the characters were often an answer to the question "How far will you go?" Some of the basic character maxed out one facet: totally cybered-up, or all points spent on magic. Some went part way, but had fall back skills or powers. Some were more evenly balanced and flexible among a few ideas, and some were openly "nerfed" but were roleplay devices for folks who wanted to play against the milieu.
That idea is a bit like the MMO formula where there's Tank and Ranged DPS, then the Melee DPS tends to be more balanced, then there's the safety in back rank buffers and healers. It's like there's often two axes and what you pick from one limits the other. Do you want a Dex monkey or Armor or a bit of both? Do you want max DPS and no personal safety, or do you want less DPS and more personal safety?
I think it might be better to make builds that explore the range of system possibilities, and let players choose their own personality. I think that ends up being more pedagogical, and also encourages roleplaying.
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gojira
Double Digit Master
in a rubber monster suit.
Posts: 85
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Post by gojira on Apr 9, 2014 22:53:15 GMT
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Post by Tasha on Apr 10, 2014 1:18:54 GMT
Other idea: Five Man Band from TV Tropes: The Leader - usually clean cut, idealistic type The Lancer - 2nd in command, not clean cut, often anti-hero The Smart One - frail and brainy The Big Guy - the strongest and the toughest The Chick - balance, social smoothing, heart. But there are TONS of you can divide thing up. For example, Shadownrun 1st edition had basically two paths to power, cybernetics and magic, and the characters were often an answer to the question "How far will you go?" Some of the basic character maxed out one facet: totally cybered-up, or all points spent on magic. Some went part way, but had fall back skills or powers. Some were more evenly balanced and flexible among a few ideas, and some were openly " nerfed" but were roleplay devices for folks who wanted to play against the milieu. That idea is a bit like the MMO formula where there's Tank and Ranged DPS, then the Melee DPS tends to be more balanced, then there's the safety in back rank buffers and healers. It's like there's often two axes and what you pick from one limits the other. Do you want a Dex monkey or Armor or a bit of both? Do you want max DPS and no personal safety, or do you want less DPS and more personal safety? I think it might be better to make builds that explore the range of system possibilities, and let players choose their own personality. I think that ends up being more pedagogical, and also encourages roleplaying. Those are also good psychological Archetypes. I would change "The Chick" in to "The Heart" because of the sexism in the name and also because the Heart can sometimes be a guy. I am going for Roleplaying Personalities here. I think that some character types are typically aligned with some Personality types, but not always. Heck, I was even thinking of having 3 piles to choose from. Personality, Career, and Superhero Power Type. Career would be things like Scientist, Pilot, Social Butterfly, Thief, Hacker, Inventor etc. It would include a list of skills and some Complication ideas. Power Type would be Brick, Martial Artist, Energy Projector, Gadgeteer, Powered Armor, Speedster. It would include a list of powers (more than you have points for) and more Complication ideas. AKA Who They are What they do What powers they have. |
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