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Daimbert
2010-05-26, 12:45 PM
In the FATAL thread, a couple of people mentioned MAID as a game that had a lot of randomness, including random character generation. I'd mentioned random character generation as something that was nice about FATAL, if they'd done it sanely. At any rate, I looked at MAID and it looked interesting on that front ... but it also looked soloable, in the sense that with random events and random characterization you might be able to essentially "play against the game" and only have you involved (so no need for other people).

Now, I don't know much about the rules, but wanted to know if these sorts of solo games seemed plausible:

1) Generate a "master" for yourself, generate NPC maids randomly, and let random events rule (with some actions IC from the maids at some point, based on personality).

2) Generate a non-random maid, random other maids and master, and let random events rule in the same manner as 1).

3) Follow a pre-set scenario, with random maids.

4) Follow a pre-set scenario, with a set of determined maids.

I'm not worried about me knowing details I shouldn't, because I'll generally in those cases try -- and have fun trying -- to make it all fit in character.

I'm also, as an aside, looking to find a place to get it where they'll take something other than Paypal for an electronic download. I don't think getting a print copy is an option at the moment, but I'll look around for it when I get a chance.

And yes, I know this seems anti-social. But this game seems to be quick and fun and perfect for those times when the PbPs are going slowly, or I'm sitting at home and want to do something more creative than watching DVDs.

Yuki Akuma
2010-05-26, 12:48 PM
Uh...

Why?

MAID is an RPG. It's a social activity. Why would you want to play it by yourself?

The game is directly about competition, besides! Playing it by yourself would end up being totally arbitrary.

Daimbert
2010-05-26, 12:57 PM
Uh...

Why?

MAID is an RPG. It's a social activity. Why would you want to play it by yourself?

I disagree that to be properly playing an RPG you have to be doing it socially, in the same way that I think that it's perfectly valid to play an MMORPG and solo most of the time. For me, the nice thing about soloing anything -- board game, RPG, strategy video game -- is the ability to make or participate in a story that has freedom (since you set the rules and the rules are more loose) and yet isn't just you making it up in your head. I can make up stories in my head, but I'd like SOMETHING to at least potentially surprise me and give me a chance to react AS a character, instead of just making it run the way I want it to.


The game is directly about competition, besides! Playing it by yourself would end up being totally arbitrary.

I've played strategy computer games solo, all against myself (growing up, no one would play them with me since no one else was interested in them, and I didn't want to actually LOSE the games, but instead wanted more of a cool story). There is a potential issue with my "cheering" for a side, but I try to act as the races would act (say, acting as the Vorlons would act in MOO2) and minimize that.

With the random events, I'd get to do that while potentially being surprised by what actually happens, if it works that way. Which is much, much better.

And it would give me another system to play in PbP. Which is always good [grin].

sonofzeal
2010-05-26, 01:04 PM
I've played strategy computer games solo, all against myself (growing up, no one would play them with me since no one else was interested in them, and I didn't want to actually LOSE the games, but instead wanted more of a cool story). There is a potential issue with my "cheering" for a side, but I try to act as the races would act (say, acting as the Vorlons would act in MOO2) and minimize that.
Er, Vorlons are from Babylon 5 (which is amazing), not from MoO2 (which is also amazing).

Now, a B5/MoO2 crossover fanfic...... hmmmmmmmmm..........

Daimbert
2010-05-26, 01:08 PM
Er, Vorlons are from Babylon 5 (which is amazing), not from MoO2 (which is also amazing).

I am aware. My favourite personal scenario was, in fact, setting up the races from Babylon 5 in MOO2 and playing them off against each other in a manner somewhat consistent with the show.

Unfortunately, the Shadows and the Vorlons were never as impressive as they were in the show [grin].

kamikasei
2010-05-26, 01:23 PM
There's nothing I can think of that would prevent you from doing so, but I can't see a point to it. There isn't really a game in Maid. You just get together with some friends and try to out-absurd one another. It's possible to write a story by yourself, but doing so isn't the same as playing the game where everyone has to supply a single sentence in turn. Maid is inherently supposed to be like the latter.

sonofzeal
2010-05-26, 01:25 PM
I am aware. My favourite personal scenario was, in fact, setting up the races from Babylon 5 in MOO2 and playing them off against each other in a manner somewhat consistent with the show.

Unfortunately, the Shadows and the Vorlons were never as impressive as they were in the show [grin].
Man, awesome!

At the risk of derailing the thread, what did you use for each race? Narn could be ported over pretty safely to Mrrshan, and Centauri might actually work for Alkari (since they're described in the show as having greater tolerance for g-force in their fighters). This explains why the Narn homeworld is attractive to the Centauri, and gives the Narn good production and the Centauri a tech edge. I'd do Shadows as a high-tech Repulsive Trans-Dimensional Suberterranian Lithovores, if all that can fit, and Vorlons possibly as high-tech Omniscient Unificationist... Telepaths? Hard to say, they don't really fit well. What did you use?

Mando Knight
2010-05-26, 01:30 PM
There's nothing I can think of that would prevent you from doing so, but I can't see a point to it. There isn't really a game in Maid. You just get together with some friends and try to out-absurd one another. It's possible to write a story by yourself, but doing so isn't the same as playing the game where everyone has to supply a single sentence in turn. Maid is inherently supposed to be like the latter.

This. Maid without others is like...

...blast, I shouldn't finish the first analogy that came to mind.

...It's like a party. You can have loud music and crazy things happen if you're by yourself, it's just not quite as fun as with other people. It's also like Katamari Damacy: a weird Japanese thing that gets better the more you throw in. :smalltongue:

Daimbert
2010-05-26, 01:31 PM
Man, awesome!

At the risk of derailing the thread, what did you use for each race? Narn could be ported over pretty safely to Mrrshan, and Centauri might actually work for Alkari (since they're described in the show as having greater tolerance for g-force in their fighters). This explains why the Narn homeworld is attractive to the Centauri, and gives the Narn good production and the Centauri a tech edge. I'd do Shadows as a high-tech Repulsive Trans-Dimensional Suberterranian Lithovores, if all that can fit, and Vorlons possibly as high-tech Omniscient Unificationist... Telepaths? Hard to say, they don't really fit well. What did you use?

We can derail my own thread if I want to [grin].

I customized each race, actually, and just used the pictures. I didn't include that G-force thing ... and some of your ideas for the Shadows sound really interesting (I got the Trans-Dimensional, though). I did make the Vorlons Omniscient, and can't remember what I used for their government. Probably Feudal, just to get points back for other things, like improved ship combat. I also limited the Vorlons and Shadows in population growth, since they didn't seem to be expanding their numbers much, so it was safe.

sonofzeal
2010-05-26, 01:47 PM
We can derail my own thread if I want to [grin].

I customized each race, actually, and just used the pictures. I didn't include that G-force thing ... and some of your ideas for the Shadows sound really interesting (I got the Trans-Dimensional, though). I did make the Vorlons Omniscient, and can't remember what I used for their government. Probably Feudal, just to get points back for other things, like improved ship combat. I also limited the Vorlons and Shadows in population growth, since they didn't seem to be expanding their numbers much, so it was safe.
Well, all the First Ones should have high tech, imo. Shadows might have decent spying, but Morden and other intermediaries aside they can't act openly so official diplomacy is out. Also, they seem to be attracted to "dead" worlds, which to me means Lithovore, and my impression is they're naturally subterranian. That'd let them get a lot of mileage out of the really obscure "rim" worlds that nobody else cares for, and let them quietly expand until they're ready to do a wave of conquest. On second thought though, "Stealthy Ships" might be better than "Trans-Dimensional".

Vorlons, I see more as the type to pull the traditional Sci-blitz, signing non-aggression with everyone and hunkering down to churn out tech until they've got a huge lead and everyone else is in awe of them. It's a classic strategy, and works well enough. Stellar Converters are a must.

Daimbert
2010-05-26, 01:55 PM
Well, all the First Ones should have high tech, imo. Shadows might have decent spying, but Morden and other intermediaries aside they can't act openly so official diplomacy is out. Also, they seem to be attracted to "dead" worlds, which to me means Lithovore, and my impression is they're naturally subterranian. That'd let them get a lot of mileage out of the really obscure "rim" worlds that nobody else cares for, and let them quietly expand until they're ready to do a wave of conquest. On second thought though, "Stealthy Ships" might be better than "Trans-Dimensional".

Vorlons, I see more as the type to pull the traditional Sci-blitz, signing non-aggression with everyone and hunkering down to churn out tech until they've got a huge lead and everyone else is in awe of them. It's a classic strategy, and works well enough. Stellar Converters are a must.

Yeah, that does sound interesting.

The biggest problem, though, is that it's really hard to get enough points to make them really dangerous, which is what they were in the series. And since I could never get the Council to kick off in a Hotseat game, I didn't even really have the ending I wanted.

I boot it up every so often and start over, so I might note these down and try them again sometime.

Daimbert
2010-05-26, 02:00 PM
There's nothing I can think of that would prevent you from doing so, but I can't see a point to it. There isn't really a game in Maid. You just get together with some friends and try to out-absurd one another. It's possible to write a story by yourself, but doing so isn't the same as playing the game where everyone has to supply a single sentence in turn. Maid is inherently supposed to be like the latter.


This. Maid without others is like...

...blast, I shouldn't finish the first analogy that came to mind.

...It's like a party. You can have loud music and crazy things happen if you're by yourself, it's just not quite as fun as with other people. It's also like Katamari Damacy: a weird Japanese thing that gets better the more you throw in.

Yeah, I know that in some sense it won't be the same, but that doesn't really bother me, as long as it can be fun. In some ways it'll be better because it fits into my time table and I can play as much or as little as I want. But note that I also tried this with M&M, and stopped because the scenario I had wasn't linear enough to make it work, but since I then had the books I was able to play in M&M games PbP, and actually got into one (it died, but it was cool and I'm looking forward to maybe playing another one). So the same thing might happen with MAID. But it does look like MAID would work better and be more fun, and be better than, say, playing the OotS or Battlestar Galactica board games and shoe-horning roleplaying into it.

BTW, this is all a legacy of growing up with one sibling who didn't care for the games I liked, and having friends not be interested in it at all. You quickly learn to have fun on your own [grin].

Daimbert
2010-05-26, 06:51 PM
Just to finish this off, I downloaded MAID and tried a quick game of it solo, and it's workable. I tried the first way, and the random encounters -- I kept rolling on the tables to get things to happen -- did give a little bit of story and things to do. I need to work on it a bit and allow for more of an overarching plot and for characters to do things, but other than that it's workable and kinda fun.

Deme
2010-05-26, 09:03 PM
I'm glad it's workable, then. I love Maid, but I think my friends get tired every now and again ^^

Daimbert
2010-05-27, 07:28 AM
I'm glad it's workable, then. I love Maid, but I think my friends get tired every now and again ^^

Well, a little more detail on what happened, then:

I generated my Master and then randomly rolled a Mansion, getting a post-apocalyptic fortress that I named Helm's Deep. I then rolled up 5 random maids, and name them all using names beginning with K, just for a lark. I started by rolling a random event, and got the portal to a Fantasy world. I rolled on that table and got 1 conscriptor showing up. Two of the maids -- one who had joined because of an unrequited love and one who fit the more passive stereotype -- went to get the Master while two of the others used high Athletics abilities to kick the conscriptor's butt.

That was pretty much it for an organized plot, actually, which is something that I have to work on.

So, I rolled up normal and random events for a bit (the outside world changed to contemporary at one point) and then decided to end it by rolling six events targeted randomly at the encounter list that you can add to the Master sheet. Any maid who succeeded would add favour, and the Master could help. After the six rolls, the door would be closed and the game ended. This worked reasonably well, although some of the normal events didn't really work for that sort of thing and I re-rolled at least once. And this is where my bias came in as well since as the Master I could refuse to help characters that I didn't care as much for (which may not have been reflected in the favour they had).

So, I got through the events, totalled up the favour, and one was way ahead of everyone else. And the game ended.

So, it is really interesting to try to link the events into something that looks like a plot, and I'll have to do that. I'll also have to work on -- in my imagination -- "thinking in character", as right now I'm playing it more like a strategic/tactical sim than an RPG. But it certainly seems to lend itself to that sort of interpretation.