School House Rumbles 3: The Reborn Age of Fighters RPG Discussion Thread 3.

[Tami]

My point is more; why did we need to leave the city immediately? Heck, why did we need to go to Mars? I would have been perfectly happy playing an entire game of this length exclusively in Eden and it would have felt much more engrossing to be able to explore the location in depth.

I don't short attention spans are a good excuse for or even relevant to the struture of Cleric's campaign.

If they hadn't gone to Mars, Rivia wouldn't have developed her Psychic skills and learned the Gestalt, and the others wouldn't have learned that they needed a psychic defense for the upcoming battle. It also made them more aware of the world as a whole, and that there were things going on in the past that would impact the future. I think it was a needed plot point.

[Nik Hasta]

Nik actually has a point. The original idea was to have you all stay at the academy much longer, exploring Eden as Paragon cadets for a fair amount. That was the actual first "Arc" I had planned out.

But for some reason, when it came down to trying to write it out, I stalled. I couldn't seem to get any of it written down in a cohesive way, so I shortcutted the time spent in Eden for plot sake. I was worried that if I dallied around, trying to work through the first arc I had planned, the entire thing would stall out.

I advise you to stick to your guns in future. Eden was very much the centrepiece of the appeal of this game for me and a very interesting place. I don't think you would have stalled if you'd taken the risk of letting us explore the city more.

[Ghost]

So, the game is ended. Final over all thoughts, folks?

Well, I kinda agree with Nik about not using Eden as a setting enough - a gigantic millennium-old city state is in and of itself interesting enough to last a whole campaign. Like Nik, I too had hoped to get more opportunities to involve my NPC, who of course could only be interacted with within the city. Outside of the city, our options became very limited all of a sudden, making the game feel a lot more restricted.

There was a fair bit of railroading, of course, but I don't actually mind that as much as I used to since lately I have started to see the benefits of laying own some solid rails to keep the game going forward - I've noticed in my own game that giving your players a lot of freedom is actually surprisingly difficult unless your narrative is extremely broad and vague, and your players are very motivated. I suspect these play-by-post games will always require some rails by their nature, at least so long as they are driven by an actual storyline. It may still be something you want to think about, though.

Actually, it's probably a good idea to focus the plot on a centralized location, right from the planning stage so to speak, rather than have it take place on a huge scale. Or at least make traveling between important locations quick and simple, and have one location where the characters are "based". Lord knows I regreted setting up Esper Shift the way I did. >_>

For the part of the game I was participating, the pacing was pretty good. I had a much easier time following this game than I had with Codex, and I think also SHR1. The fact that I still lost track of it probably had more to do with my own concentration issues.

[FarBeyondC]

So, the game is ended. Final over all thoughts, folks?

Allow your players more (time/freedom) to come with- and execute- a solution to a problem facing them. Even if it failed miserably, at least we would have had the chance to try.

Because seriously, nothing annoyed me in the game (besides certain comments here) much besides the fact that the opportunity for people to solve matters was constantly taken from them. Like the situation with Takeshi's mother, for example (there are plenty, but this is the one most prominent in my failing memory).

The stat system remains easy to exploit and a source of contention amongst players whenever people come up with something particulary potent, broken or unfair. I think you need to police people's abilities more effectively to prevent arguments from happening in future.

Honestly, a lot of that could be solved simply by getting people to properly understand what certain levels actually mean, because I'm convinced that there was a lot of faulty estimation going on practically throughout the entire game. Between that and the competition to see who could be the closest to being almost relevant to the events of the game, a lot of people (not including myself, because I stopped caring and deliberately starting just throwing stuff at the wall) were coming up with things that were obviously messed up.

I mean, it's not like it actually mattered, given none of it ever worked on anything relevant- until it did.

If he had given us more time in the city, or in any other location, the RPG might have lasted several years. With the drop out rate what it was, the game would have died from lack of participation long before the story ended.

Counterpoint: I feel that less people would have dropped out if given the time to explore their characters / make their characters relevant to something. Seriously, nothing about most of the game's events needed the particular members of the group that faced them.

But for some reason, when it came down to trying to write it out, I stalled. I couldn't seem to get any of it written down in a cohesive way

Welcome to my world, Cleric. Please, have some refreshments.

[Hazard]

I had fun in the game.

I do agree that the city was not used to its fullest extend. Kind of get the feeling that characters like Salem Suzuki were meant to have much bigger roles in the early parts.

Did have a great time writing Robert though.

[Nik Hasta]

Honestly, a lot of that could be solved simply by getting people to properly understand what certain levels actually mean, because I'm convinced that there was a lot of faulty estimation going on practically throughout the entire game. Between that and the competition to see who could be the closest to being almost relevant to the events of the game, a lot of people (not including myself, because I stopped caring and deliberately starting just throwing stuff at the wall) were coming up with things that were obviously messed up.

Agreed.

I mean, it's not like it actually mattered, given none of it ever worked on anything relevant- until it did.

This last point is an issue I have noted as occasionally being a part of Cleric's playstyle. Due to the incredibly broad spectrum of powers, things tend to get lol-noped by enemies until Cleric decides they work rather than actually having an effect. I suspect this would be because enemies aren't usually fully statted up which leads to confusion.

But then I was playing a complete defensive character this was less of an issue for me this time around.

[Sub-Zero MKA]

While I enjoyed the game tremendously, my main complaints are in line with Nik's as far as exploring Eden more goes.

Also, I would've had Max interact with other characters more often, instead of just Cas, but that's more of a self critique.

[Yun Lao]

I enjoyed it, to make a long story short. I did notice that it was pretty short compared to the others, minus all the delays we had. This did lead to quite a lot of character development, which I found to be pretty nice.

Aside from the Eden complaint mentioned before, I do echo Nik's statement about policing abilities. I wasn't a big fan of all the buffs and stat-shifting we had going on (of course, being the hypocrite I am, had one, but on the two times I used it, they were never acknowledged). I don't mind end-game abilities allowing for a rare 100+ attack, but when we have people casually slinging 135 points per attack before we even got to Volkov or have someone with little to no ether power able to casually no sell a psychic ability from someone with nearly the highest ether score of the group with a bit of stat-shifting, it starts to get ridiculous.

[Sub-Zero MKA]

On policing abilities, I don't think Cleric could give that many powers as critical a scrutiny as they need. We ourselves were supposed to police each other, but no one rarely, if ever said anything if a new power was submitted. I think that's how a lot of these powers managed to slip by.

[Hazard]

We kind of were doing that at the beginning, but we forgot along the ways.

Or stopped caring about how powerful some characters were (like me).

[Siriel]

Honestly, the solution is pretty easy.

"The numbers are set in stone. You cannot increase or shift them around with powers."

Bam. Issue solved as far as the players' end of it is concerned.

[WickedElphaba]

Honestly, the solution is pretty easy.

"The numbers are set in stone. You cannot increase or shift them around with powers."

Bam. Issue solved as far as the players' end of it is concerned.

Or, boosts don't stack - you get the benefit of the single highest boost.

[FarBeyondC]

Honestly, the solution is pretty easy.

"The numbers are set in stone. You cannot increase or shift them around with powers."

Bam. Issue solved as far as the players' end of it is concerned.

Or, boosts don't stack - you get the benefit of the single highest boost.

Those are terrible solutions that cause their own problems. The first one even contradicts statements made way back in the game's very opening post.

A better solution would be to actually enforce the drawbacks the more ridiculous stat boosting should and were supposed to have had.

Or even simpler, enforce the limitations of not having enhanced stamina.