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Bosaxon
2009-01-04, 01:36 PM
I'm going to be running a Spirit of the Century game next semester for a couple of my dorm friends and was wondering what stories people could share about their experiences with the game.

Tamburlaine
2009-01-04, 02:24 PM
I played SotC a few times with my family, and our general consensus was that, while it isn't perfect, it lends itself very well to a certain style of adventuring: quite freeform and, uh, audacious might be the right word. I have fond memories of my stage magician beating up a gang of five mooks with a teapot, and of my brother's detective blowing up someone's autogyro and surfing their corpse to the ground.

Bosh
2009-01-04, 06:02 PM
The game is awesome on toast, literally the best game I have ever played, especially if you run it the right way. Few tips:

1. Use some of these rules to speed up conflicts: http://evilhat.wikidot.com/faster-conflicts

2. Nothing else really needs to be house ruled, but you might want to start players with less than 10 aspects (and maybe less than 5 stunts or even slightly slower skills) and then a number of starting fate points equal to their number of aspects and then ramp up the number of aspects etc. they have each session. Having each player have 10 aspects right off the bat can be a bit overwhelming for a new SotC GM.

3. Be generous for handing out Fate points for compels. Basically when ever anyone does something that is awesome and/or dumb (in a good way) that relates to their Aspects hand one out.

4. Make people's aspects narrow and flavorful. "Trained fighter" is a bad aspect, "my father told me to duel often" is a good aspect. "Acrobatic" is a bad aspect "this situation calls for a swan dive!" is a good aspect.

Also with SotC you can't try to be serious, it never works.

Bosaxon
2009-01-04, 08:14 PM
Also with SotC you can't try to be serious, it never works.

That, my friend, is why I am running it. We're slated for a slightly cyberpunk nior in d20 modern and someone is running an experimental ruleset on the side with a gritty fantasy feel, so I said to myself, "We need scientists and pilots beating up intelligent apes in the 1920's!!!"

The game lends itself to absurdly, and for that, I appreciate it.

elliott20
2009-01-04, 10:58 PM
as long as you can keep that mentality, Bosaxon, your game will run great.

SotC is not about making the "right" tactical decisions or making the best builds, it's about being just purely awesome by the power of plot.

One story that we had from our sci-fantasy hack of the game Spirits of the Galaxy:

one of my players came across the blue prints for a doomsday device on the villains cyber-matrix (basically a glorified PDA), and since he had a cybernetic brain, he downloaded the schematics along with a dozen of the villains nefarious research into his cyber brain, earning him the aspect "head full of wormholes".

I later compelled this aspect mercilessly as the character was kidnapped, shot at, and generally had his head coveted by many other of the game's villains.

One villain finally succeeded in doing so by strapping him down to a mind probe and he was about to use the ensuing doomsday device to destroy another player's home world. The villain in question was a copy of the Operative from firefly, and wanted to hold the world hostage to get the player to give up his Weapon of Destiny, allowing me to work two consistent compels into the storyline with just one plot point.

The player in question, however, had another wrinkle to him. He distrusts the government (precisely because of people like the operative) and yet his family and friends on his home world are the exact opposite, trusting in everything the government says or does.

so he suddenly finds himself having to save his own family from destruction, but only to have his family believe that all of this was really HIS fault. (After all, had he just handed the weapon of destiny over, all of this could have been avoided.)

Bosh
2009-01-04, 11:42 PM
My favorite example of why I love SotC so very very much.

GM: OK, so you're going to try to break into the embassy to try to steal back the documents.
Me: How should we do that?
Other player: Hmmm, we could try to get in by the roof.

*a minute or two of tactical discussions ensue*

GM: OK guys, I'll give you two fate points each by compelling the right aspects, "Attention Span of a Gnat" etc. if you guy charge right in without any plan whatsoever.

Players: Sure!
Other player: I'm going in through the sewers.
Me: I'm walking in the front door.

And there were many explosions, and dancing in tune to the sound of the explosions and ninjas, and chandelier swinging and snack cart surfing and other assorting awesomeness. The party saved the ambassador's life and as the entire embassy was reduced to rubble the mission was a success!

elliott20
2009-01-05, 03:16 AM
that's another thing. collateral damage is not just expected, it's ENCOURAGED in SotC.

When in doubt, blow stuff up! save the world using nothing but explosions and your fists!

Bosaxon
2009-01-05, 08:45 PM
so I've decided to run a modified The Nether Agenda sample scenario for them to get the feel of science pulp and then maybe send them to kenya for a wildnerness/ruins adventure with this as an out of character teaser:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlPAwHE8_rs

JaxGaret
2009-01-05, 08:47 PM
save the world using nothing but explosions and your fists!

What about fistsplosions? Can I use those?

Bosaxon
2009-01-05, 08:49 PM
What about fistsplosions? Can I use those?


You can design a gadget based around making fist trigger explosions.

JaxGaret
2009-01-05, 08:51 PM
You can design a gadget based around making fist trigger explosions.

My hands are lethal weapons. Ensconced by other, lethaler weapons.

I like it.

Bosaxon
2009-01-05, 08:59 PM
My hands are lethal weapons. Ensconced by other, lethaler weapons.

I like it.

if you can justify a course of action based on technology around just after World War I (or use SCIENCE!), it is encouraged for you to do so. That's why the game is so awesome.

elliott20
2009-01-05, 09:08 PM
why stop at fistplosions? hell, you should keep pushing the envelop until you're friggin' fist of the northstar!

Kizara
2009-01-06, 01:24 AM
Main Weapon: Shrink-Ray.

Backup Weapons: Hallucinagenic Grenades.

Tertiary Weapons: Trained Attack Ferrets.


You know you want to do it.

elliott20
2009-01-06, 01:57 AM
mechanically, I'd like to see how you work those out.

Bosaxon
2009-01-06, 07:42 AM
The shrink-ray would be a gun with the speculative science improvement for the ray and unbelievable improvement for shrinking. We'd have to discuss the defense against shrinking and what effects would occur due to shrinking.


Hallucinagenic Grenades: Smoke Grendages with futurization for LSD and maybe a coulpe other upgrades.

Attack Ferrets: Ferrets skilled in Fists, higher quality, and maybe independent..but I think you'd be better off using a Marmot from The Big Lebowski

You can do a lot in the system, but other than the ferrets, a lot will be ad hoc on exactly how they work.

elliott20
2009-01-06, 09:44 AM
so basically, to play a character that has all three of those weapons, you would need a character who either spends a crap load of resources on improvements or spends a butt load of stunts on them. Yeah, playable I suppose.

SotC is one of the only games I can play Doraemon in.