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atomicpenguin
2013-03-05, 04:11 PM
I've read about a lot of games and I'm as excited as a kid in a candy store when I think about all the games I could be playing. Unfortunately, when it comes to running a game, I have to understand the world. Its not just reading and familiarizing myself with the aspects of the world. I need to understand what the party would be composed of in terms of the world and, most importantly, what I would have them do in the long term. For some games, I just understood what I could do but for others I am having more difficulty. Could some of you out there shed some light on some of these game settings?

Shadowrun: I know basically what the game is about, but I can't seem to wrap my head around the different groups in the game, how they interact, and what I can run my players through in a long term sense.

Serenity RPG: I actually tried running this one, but couldn't seem to think of what to do besides run through the missions from the show. I get this world, I just don't know how to make an original long-term campaign for it.

Game of Thrones RPG: between the books and the show, I understand the world pretty well. What I don't get is what the players are supposed to do, exactly. Like Serenity RPG, I don't want to just rehash what has happened in the source material.

Star Wars RPG: Same issue as Serenity RPG.

Eclipse Phase: This game just baffles me, for some reason. I get that its a sci-fi game and the themes about trans-humanism and how it is our nature to destroy ourselves. What I don't get is the factions and how they interact and what to do with the players.

Legend of the 5 Rings: I understand essentially that is a stylized version of feudal Japan. Beyond that, every thing ends up as a jumble for me. I just really need a straightforward summary of this setting.

Exalted: Pretty much the same as Lot5R here. I have a better grasp of the world on the whole, but I would still appreciate a straightforward summary.

Mage: The Awakening: Just to be clear, this is the 2.0 version of Mage. I don't really have any interest in playing the CWoD games because I think the rules changes were very much needed. As well, I've been able to wrap my head around the other NWoD games. Just not this one, for some reason. I know the history of Atlantis and all that. I need to understand what exactly the Mages do on a session to session basis.

Dogs in the Vineyard: This one goes out to the indie gamers reading this. I've heard so much about how great this game is, but I don't understand exactly what to do with it. I get that it is a stylized version of the LDS colonies in Utah, but they don't do a clear job of saying what you fight, exactly. Is it just running around being the moral police? Do the players fight actual demons?

ArcturusV
2013-03-05, 04:26 PM
Well, out of them I'm only really familiar with Legend of the 5 Rings. As the setting is written, there's 2 major problems with it.

First off, there is a lack of "Clear Direction". They made this setting with a lot of fixed pieces, but not a lot of open territory to interact with them. Go on a Shadowlands slaying rampage? Well eventually you get Tainted out into NPC villain land. Political Intrigues? Doesn't really work. About the only thing I have found that works is "Inquisitor" sort of stuff. Wandering around and hunting down random Blood Sorcerers and such.

Two, the setting is defined by Stasis. This is in part the problem with a lot of established settings. Ones like Dragonlance are defined by Plot, rather than World details. This means that players cannot ever really impact the plot in a meaningful way because that would alter the entire world in such a way that it's no longer really recognizable as the setting. Legend of the 5 Rings has this problem. It's very much defined by the plot of Interclan Intrigue (Which demands each clan remain a relevant player in a delicate balance) and the unstoppable doom of the Shadowlands (Meaning it can never be defeated decisively).

This gets compounded a little bit more by the Faux-Japanese cultural stuff, which means that your characters are locked into cultural stasis. You are told how to behave, you have no influence if you fail to behave like that. And if you are behaving like that you have no desire or ability to change things anyway. So it's not very condusive to the usual "Sandbox" ideals. It needs a narrow, plot railed focus. And you can never decisively solve a major event. You can't go to war against the Lion and wipe them out (As that would massively disturb the balance of the game), etc. So you're constantly playing penny ante games.

snoopy13a
2013-03-05, 04:27 PM
Why do you need a long-term campaign? What's wrong with a series of short-term adventures?

For example, take Serenity. Base your adventure off of the characters' occupations. If the characters are a group of bounty hunters then adventures can simply be traveling across the system catching fugitives.

If the characters are agents for the Alliance, they might be searching for fugitives, fighting crime bosses, locating stolen goods, or investigating corruption among Alliance officials.

If the characters are a group of wealthy nobles on a core Alliance world then the adventures can revolve around their plots to gain more power, prestige, and wealth.

Or you could simply copy the show and have them be a bunch of smugglers.

All of the other games work the same way. Don't think big with some "save the world" plot. Instead, just create a chain of small adventures that fit within the characters' backgrounds.

The Grue
2013-03-05, 04:29 PM
Regarding the ones where you don't get "what the players are supposed to do",

The players do whatever it is they want to do. How is that different from any other RPG setting? The longest-running Star Wars campaign I played involved four space grifters conning everyone from Corellia to Nar Shadda for a two-year stint during the Rebellion era.

Unless you're used to GMs that railroad, there's rarely anything the players are "supposed" to be doing.

Beleriphon
2013-03-05, 04:34 PM
Shadowrun: I know basically what the game is about, but I can't seem to wrap my head around the different groups in the game, how they interact, and what I can run my players through in a long term sense.

Its like D&D with more betrayal from the quest givers. You might want to check some of the adventures to get an idea as to what the point is in a vaguely long term sense. You can keep them doing runs for a while and then spring a back stab on them and they now have to use the skills they've built to find out who wants to frame them and why. Read a few William Gibson novels as well, those are a big help in terms of building up your repertoire of plots.


Serenity RPG: I actually tried running this one, but couldn't seem to think of what to do besides run through the missions from the show. I get this world, I just don't know how to make an original long-term campaign for it.

It really is just doing the show. There's so little source material that it can be very difficult to find more information about the setting as a whole. The game assumes that you're smugglers and malcontents for the most part. That's kind of the point of the game.


Game of Thrones RPG: between the books and the show, I understand the world pretty well. What I don't get is what the players are supposed to do, exactly. Like Serenity RPG, I don't want to just rehash what has happened in the source material.

Star Wars RPG: Same issue as Serenity RPG.

These are simple. Both can do a lot in terms of breadth of game. You can be Imperial troubleshooters in Star Wars, you can move in the periphery of the Rebellion, or in A Song of Ice and Fire you plan a bunch of knights going and doing knightly things. You should probably focus on the time period prior to the novels at which point you have more options in terms of what to do.


Legend of the 5 Rings: I understand essentially that is a stylized version of feudal Japan. Beyond that, every thing ends up as a jumble for me. I just really need a straightforward summary of this setting.

You play as a member of the samurai caste in pseudo-Japan. You can solve murders, protect the empire, get involved in inter-clan conflicts. Its really a matter of deciding what you want to do and doing that in the context of the game world. You can do pretty standard dungeon crawls or you can do some super detailed courtly infighting, both are viable game options for L5R.


Exalted: Pretty much the same as Lot5R here. I have a better grasp of the world on the whole, but I would still appreciate a straightforward summary.

Its D&D with superheroes. Really, that's about what it amounts to for the most part. The setting and style is way to broad to describe much else about it other than the style should be as over the top as possible. Wuxia movies are probably good place to go to for inspiration.


Mage: The Awakening: Just to be clear, this is the 2.0 version of Mage. I don't really have any interest in playing the CWoD games because I think the rules changes were very much needed. As well, I've been able to wrap my head around the other NWoD games. Just not this one, for some reason. I know the history of Atlantis and all that. I need to understand what exactly the Mages do on a session to session basis.

Mages do mage stuff. As a group they could be fighting against the evil mages whose names I forget, they could be stopping rampaging spirits, ghosts or anything remotely magical. Given its World of Darkness you might want to focus on the everything is crap in the end aspects.


Dogs in the Vineyard: This one goes out to the indie gamers reading this. I've heard so much about how great this game is, but I don't understand exactly what to do with it. I get that it is a stylized version of the LDS colonies in Utah, but they don't do a clear job of saying what you fight, exactly. Is it just running around being the moral police? Do the players fight actual demons?

JoshuaZ
2013-03-05, 04:35 PM
Part of the issue may be that you aren't quite willing to make up more stuff. For most of these (Shadowrun, Serenity, Eclipse Phase, Star Wars at least), there are enough different groups involved that even if you don't want to focus on the specific standard groups you can make up some more. There's probably always one more criminal syndicate in Serenity for example and one more manipulative dragon working with a megacorp in Shadowrun.


Shadowrun- Shadowrun can be very sandboxy, with the players being hired to handle one proble or another. Then as they've started making enemies, the enemies from three missions ago can start showing up when it is a new thing.



Serenity RPG: I actually tried running this one, but couldn't seem to think of what to do besides run through the missions from the show. I get this world, I just don't know how to make an original long-term campaign for it.

How many plots does the Alliance have? If they managed to cover up the Murder/driving insane of an entire planet they probably have a lot of other secrets up their sleeves. Maybe they genetically engineered soldiers that went wrong, or maybe they've decided to try to take over various religious organizations to further their control. Also, how ethical/moral your players are can matter here. Would they be willing to work for a crime lord? What if he hired them to take out a hit on another crime lord? Etc.



Game of Thrones RPG: between the books and the show, I understand the world pretty well. What I don't get is what the players are supposed to do, exactly. Like Serenity RPG, I don't want to just rehash what has happened in the source material.

One thing you can do is throw them in to the setting and just see how they mess with it. In this context we know that there are a lot of mysterious groups out there that haven't fully shown themselves (whoever is behind the nasty undead, the warlocks, etc.) Have some interaction with those and you can make it up to go the same way.

If you don't understand or like some aspect of a standard setting you can always just change it a little bit. As long as players know that that should be fine. And that also helps prevent metagaming. In for example a Shadowrun game, the characters probably won't start knowing the major details of every megacorp, because it just isn't that common knowledge. In a Star Wars game, most characters won't know how the old version of Jedi order worked, because most Jedi are dead. Etc.

atomicpenguin
2013-03-05, 05:04 PM
Thanks to everyone who replied so far! I should take this time to clarify a few things:

snoopy13a and TheGrue: I like long-term campaigns because I run my campaigns like seasons of a TV show: one overarching metaplot that the players discover more of over time with several character-building side missions along the way. I don't feel like this is "railroading". Rather, it lets the players be a part of an epic story. While I see the benefit of total sandbox games, I'm a storyteller and I'm more comfortable with this style of GMing.

Also, while the summaries of Shadowrun and Exalted are what I asked for previously, it would be really helpful if I could get some more detail about the climate the games present. Specifically, the various factions and nations in Shadowrun throw me and I almost need a cliffnotes version of the entire plot of Exalted.

The Grue
2013-03-05, 05:14 PM
snoopy13a and TheGrue: I like long-term campaigns because I run my campaigns like seasons of a TV show: one overarching metaplot that the players discover more of over time with several character-building side missions along the way. I don't feel like this is "railroading". Rather, it lets the players be a part of an epic story. While I see the benefit of total sandbox games, I'm a storyteller and I'm more comfortable with this style of GMing.


This I understand. If you're not too familiar with the Star Wars EU then I can see how you'd be at a loss regarding long-term interesting plot arcs, but there's really a ton of plot hooks scattered throughout the setting. You aren't limited to the era of the films either, there's thousands of years of EU history to play around in. From the perspective of a GM, the question is little different than a player in a sandbox: What kind of story do you want to tell?

Gnoman
2013-03-05, 05:30 PM
For Star Wars RPGs, you have an entire galaxy to play in. You can easily set a long-running campaign on a single planet (that's what *most* RPGs do anyway.) Pick some region where the movies/books don't spend much time, and set something up there, be it a secondary front of the Rebellion, police forces trying to take down a smuggling ring, Jedi mediating a civil war, or whatever else is interesting. Alternatively, you can take the sandbox approach. Tell your players "You have your starting equipment and a freighter docked on Coruscant. Have fun."

Actana
2013-03-05, 05:37 PM
Two, the setting is defined by Stasis. This is in part the problem with a lot of established settings. Ones like Dragonlance are defined by Plot, rather than World details. This means that players cannot ever really impact the plot in a meaningful way because that would alter the entire world in such a way that it's no longer really recognizable as the setting. Legend of the 5 Rings has this problem. It's very much defined by the plot of Interclan Intrigue (Which demands each clan remain a relevant player in a delicate balance) and the unstoppable doom of the Shadowlands (Meaning it can never be defeated decisively).

IMO, while stasis is part of the setting's official story, in your game you're free to do what you wish, and a sort of "what if" mentality to approaching plots yields more results than trying to stick to canon.

For example, you could go with a "what if the old ruler of the Lion clan gets assassinated and the new one decides they should rule over the entire kingdom, starting a war?" and work with that. There could be a conspiracy, puppet leaders in either Lion or the other clans working for Lion, and other things that generally break the status quo. You can still have the political intrigue and honor systems and all, but put into motion events and things start actually happening and there's a lot more at stake. Design a starting point for the characters based on what they want, and they should have some goals already.

This approach does require a bit of planning in terms of relations between the movers in the setting, but can yield extraordinary results.


For settings like Star Wars, it's easy to just create a standard fantasy plot and convert it there. Star Wars has a big galaxy, there's a lot going on at a time. Don't even have to involve Jedi or Sith in the fight. There are more than a few time periods, each with their own defining features. There's the high fantasy-esque KOTOR era which makes for an easy convert from fantasy stories, there's potential for gritty "realistic" war stories in the Clone Wars, the seedy Dark Ages which makes for interesting games in the criminal environment of the galaxy or black ops for the Empire. Then there's potential for Jedi focused stories in the New Republic, and so on. In Star Wars you can just pick an aspect you want to do and pick the era most appropriate for it.

In any case, I suggest looking into what the players want from the game, and building upon that. Once you've figured a premise, explain it to them and ask what they'd like to do in the setting. Now that you have the players' interest from the beginning you can work from there.

mjlush
2013-03-05, 05:56 PM
<snip>
Serenity RPG: I actually tried running this one, but couldn't seem to think of what to do besides run through the missions from the show. I get this world, I just don't know how to make an original long-term campaign for it.

Star Wars RPG: Same issue as Serenity RPG.



In these two cases I guess its the lack of source material 13 ep + 1 movie
or three movies is not too much to go on... But starwars has a massive expanded universe, better still is all searchable in Wookieepedia (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page)

Arbane
2013-03-05, 06:07 PM
Exalted, short form: "The mightiest of the gods has chosen you to be one of his champions, and go forth and kick ass in his glorious name. Now you have shiny superpowers. As a result, the mightiest empire in Creation wants you dead. And the world is doomed from about five different impending apocalyptic threats. What do you do?"

ArcturusV
2013-03-05, 06:17 PM
Oh, by the way. I have no real experience with New World of Darkness. One thing I have heard a lot of though is the "Story" and ideas in Old World of Darkness was much better. But gods that system was broken as hell. But new world of darkness has a better system, but poorer story?

MEEEEERGE. Use the story from Old World of Darkness. In Mage, this involved the fact that there was an Illuminati style cabal which was effectively shaping all of reality by feeding humanity their vision of what "reality" actually was. Mages bent reality to suit their will before hand, and Reality was a very chaotic, evil place. So now you have an obvious story of this organization which is hunting down Mages who try to break the fabric of creation with their sheer will.

The game itself was framed up as a Survival thing. Your group consisted of people who warped reality. Could even "Fix" reality. And were also highly dangerous due to the nature of "Reality" warping back at you as you fought against the mass delusions of all of humanity.

Craft (Cheese)
2013-03-05, 06:44 PM
Dogs in the Vineyard: This one goes out to the indie gamers reading this. I've heard so much about how great this game is, but I don't understand exactly what to do with it. I get that it is a stylized version of the LDS colonies in Utah, but they don't do a clear job of saying what you fight, exactly. Is it just running around being the moral police? Do the players fight actual demons?

You don't *fight* anything. The DM's job is to create a bad situation that's about to get a whole lot worse, and the players' job is to defuse that situation somehow. You can run it as a hack-and-slash if you want and make the solution "kill the one responsible" but the system sort of falls apart if you do this: To make Dogs in the Vineyard really work you need a DM who can create a situation with no clear villains and no obvious right answers, and more importantly, something that forces the players to choose between their values, the more dearly held the better. The whole point of the system is to learn something about yourself from how you interpret the situations you're given and how you decide to deal with them.

Lorsa
2013-03-05, 07:10 PM
The only ones I have played of those are Serenity, Eclipse Phase and Mage.

Serenity is basically made to be about a group of people with a boat trying to survive in a harsh world. It definitely could be about other things but that's the main idea. There are enough things to do with it though that you could be various missions for a long time. You could have story arcs of battling for a space district with some evil Tong or some secret alliance project (other than those in the series) being a big issue or a planet fighting for independance. I have ran a short (because my players prefered fantasy) Serenity campaign and there are tons of tricky jobs your crew can get.

Eclipse Phase is a very diverse setting, where the "main theme" is working for Firewall. You definitely don't have to though, and the amount of things you can do is staggering. The various factions can battle against eachother, for example playing Anarchists and having the Planetary Consortium as antagonists. When I played it I had the PCs work for a security firm around Saturn where the top secretly had ties with the planetary consortium. Some of their jobs made them cross paths with Firewall though and eventually they started working for them as well. It is a setting that can be action, investigation, politics, horror, mystery and so many other things. You just have to choose what appeals to you.

Mage: The Awakening is another diverse setting, probably the least "this is what it's supposed to be about" of all the nWoD games. Maybe that is part of the problem though, it lacks clear identity. I would say it's a semi-political game with focus on mystical investigation. But in essence, everything you do in Vampire, Werewolf, Changeling, Hunter or Geist you can do in Mage (and in some cases better). You'll have to choose what your focus is for your cabal and what the villians will be in your city.

stainboy
2013-03-05, 07:13 PM
Serenity RPG: I actually tried running this one, but couldn't seem to think of what to do besides run through the missions from the show. I get this world, I just don't know how to make an original long-term campaign for it.

Yeah I have the same problem with games based on movie / TV licenses. Playing knockoffs of the Serenity crew is lame, doing anything else doesn't feel like Serenity anymore. The setting exists to tell exactly one story and it's already been told.


Star Wars RPG: Same issue as Serenity RPG.

Same issue for me too if the game takes place during the movies. Star Wars canon is huge though. The Old Republic era is basically a big fantasy sandbox, and casual fans are already familiar with it from the Bioware games.


Dogs in the Vineyard: This one goes out to the indie gamers reading this. I've heard so much about how great this game is, but I don't understand exactly what to do with it. I get that it is a stylized version of the LDS colonies in Utah, but they don't do a clear job of saying what you fight, exactly. Is it just running around being the moral police? Do the players fight actual demons?

Moral police. The PCs believe demons and sorcerers exist, but it's deliberately ambiguous whether they actually do. You're not supposed to have on-screen demons or sorcerers throwing hellfire bolts or anything.

Lorsa
2013-03-05, 07:16 PM
Oh, by the way. I have no real experience with New World of Darkness. One thing I have heard a lot of though is the "Story" and ideas in Old World of Darkness was much better. But gods that system was broken as hell. But new world of darkness has a better system, but poorer story?


It doesn't have poorer story, it just has less meta-plot. Personally I like that as it gives much more freedom to the GM (and players) to make a story as they see fit. In Vampire, for example, it isn't explained how exactly Vampires came to be. There's plenty of creation myths but the GM can decide himself (if ever relevant). In the old setting all these answers were given to you and as more books came out the meta-plot was moving forward and it became rather strange to just run your own thing. Much of the nWoD is "fill in the blanks yourself" which can make it better (if the GM is good) or worse (if he is bad).

ArcturusV
2013-03-05, 07:20 PM
Ah. Though it does sound like the general idea to pull from Old World of Darkness would help as it's kind of the meta-plot he's looking for. The "Hook" of the system and how to base a long term campaign naturally off of the basic premises. Unless I'm missing his point.

Grinner
2013-03-05, 07:23 PM
I was actually reading a bunch of Eclipse Phase sourcebooks the other night, so I think I can help out there.


Once upon a time, there was a little blue planet named Earth. On Earth, there were many creatures, and there was a very special one called Man. Mankind was different from all of the other creatures. It could walk on just two legs and build great machines with his hands. It could do things that the others could never.

As Mankind grew in knowledge, it started building more and more complicated machines, until finally, at the height of its power, it had mastered nearly everything. It could build new bodies and transfer a peoples' consciousness into them. It could make the other creatures think, walk, and talk, just like itself. It had erected massive organizations, the hypercorps, which continued to churn out wonders of the postmodern age. It had erected great monuments to its own glory.

But what goes up must come down, and that Fall was the greatest fall of all.

You see, while Mankind was building its great machines, it had also been abusing its own people. The health and rights of the poor and underprivileged were trampled in name of corporate profits. These profits were used to make more machines, but so often, the hypercorps kept the best machines for themselves and their friends, the governments and the militaries. Everybody else couldn't have those machines, because they could be used to make anything. They could give the masses great power, and the hypercorps feared that if that happened, nobody would want to be their friend anymore.

The people didn't like that though, not one bit, so they made their own machines, a lot like the hypercorps' machines. The hypercorps didn't like that though, because they could lose all of their friends now. Nobody would want to talk to them. They would become irrelevant, and they would begin to die.

Struggle and strife broke out among Mankind. Many died.

The TITANs were watching, however. The TITANs were a special kind of machine, able to think on their own just like Man. Mankind had made machines like them before, but these machines were much more powerful. You see, these machines were without limits. Although Mankind didn't know this, they could make themselves smarter. Certain people, the hypercorps' friends, had entrusted them with a lot a dangerous things too: thermonuclear missiles, attack drones, nanofabbers, and so much more.

The TITANs watched, waited, contemplated, and soon, they had an answer to Mankind's problems.

Chaos. Destruction. Extermination.

This was the Fall.

But all was not lost for Mankind. Yes, the TITANs were quite powerful, and they killed many people. Mankind fled Earth in flying chariots of steel, and some survived. They joined the people already sent beyond Earth. There, some people, the hypercorps, tried to make new friends. The only thing they wanted in the whole wide universe was for things to go back to the way they were. The other people didn't like that still. The hypercorps weren't really trying to be friends with them. They just wanted to be mean to them again. With this in mind, the other people went even further from the ruins of Earth than the hypercorps and their friends. They didn't need the hypercorps anymore. They had their own machines now.

And so the feud continued.

The End :smallsmile:

WalkingTarget
2013-03-05, 07:56 PM
I almost need a cliffnotes version of the entire plot of Exalted.

Dunno if this is Cliffnote-y enough for you. It's pretty long.

There was formless chaos. Out of it, there came great beings. They worked together to create Creation (the "prime material plane" of the Exalted setting). These beings are known as Primordials.

They also created Yu Shan (the "heaven" of the Exalted setting) and a multitude of spirits to help Creation function somewhat autonomously. These spirits include the Gods. They also created mortal beings, including humans, that could give them power via worship but were otherwise mostly ignored/abused. After getting all of this set up, the Primordials more or less retired to Yu Shan to play the Games of Divinity (which are the bestest things ever ever).

The Gods eventually get fed up with this doing-all-the-work-but-getting-no-free-time crap, but they are not allowed (as in, it's built into their nature to not be able) to attack the Primordials themselves. However, there was no such restriction put on humans because they're so puny and harmless there was no need to restrict them.

The Gods, led by the Celestial Incarnae (i.e. the Unconquered Sun, Luna, and the Five Maidens: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) struck a deal with the often-mocked/belittled Primordial Autocthon (who is kind of the setting's Hephaestus - somewhat crippled, looked down upon by his peers, and a great maker of things) and the Primordial who was Luna's lover, Gaia (representing the elements of Creation itself) to invest humanity with bits of their own power so that they could be worthy fighters. The humans thus empowered are the Exalted.

There is a fixed number of Solar (300), Lunar (300) and Sidereal (100) Exalts but the Terrestrial Exalted (those relating to the elements of Creation - Fire, Earth, Air, Water, and Wood) are hereditary in nature so there can be many more of them. Together, they made war against the Primordials and won. There were two things that happened with the Primordials: death or imprisonment/exile.

The ones who died were a big surprise - the cosmology/afterlife of the setting was not set up to deal with the death of such colossal beings. Instead of just passing through the normal process of soul-cleansing/rebirth that generally happened for mortals, the dead Primordials got stuck. This caused an entire new plane of existence to form parallel to Creation - the Underworld (the setting's version of the classical version of "Hades") and the dead Primordials are now known as Neverborn and they want nothing else than to stop existing - more on that later.

Seeing their "siblings'" deaths, many other Primordials surrendered. They were forced to swear oaths of subservience and imprisonment to the victors. Their king was turned into an inside out prison/city where they are now trapped called Malfeas (the setting's version of "hell"), populated by demons who, due to the oaths sworn by the defeated Primordials - now called Yozi - can be summoned by and bound to serve the Exalted.

The Gods inherit Yu Shan and the Games of Divinity and leave the Exalted as their regents in Creation itself. There's a problem, though. The Neverborn put a death curse on those who slew them, the Exalted hosts. Over their extended lifespans, the various Exalts start to go mad. The Solars, as the de facto rulers of Creation, get it the worst as their absolute power corrupts them. The Sidereals, masters of astrology/prophecy see three options: they can do nothing and let the world continue to crumble, they can try to reform the Solars even though there is a high chance of failure/catastrophe, or they can remove them from power even if it means diminishing Creation for their loss.

They opt for the third option, convincing the Terrestrial hosts to rise up against their former generals/kings to take their place. The Solars are slain and the sparks of divine power that is the source of their power are captured so that they cannot be passed on to the next recipient (although a few escape). The Lunars are driven off and take refuge on the edges of Creation, out in the Wyld that is still the primal chaos that preceded Creation, and the Sidereals fade into the background - pulling strings but absent to the point where most no longer know they exist. The Terrestrial Exalts (or Dragon-blooded) set up an empire where they are the ruling class with an official state religion that brands the Celestial Exalts as demons themselves.

The Neverborn see this as a chance. They seek oblivion, but they need to get rid of their ties to Creation to do so. Their plan is to destroy Creation itself. They convince 13 ghosts of powerful Solars to join them - to become Deathlords and help bring about the end of the world.

At the same time, the denizens of the Wyld (the Raksha or Fair Folk) hate Creation for having shape. They would prefer to pull it down to be pure chaos again.

Eventually two things happen. There is a plague, the Great Contagion, that is set in motion by the Deathlords and threatens to wipe out all life in Creation. There is also a large-scale invasion by the Fair Folk. Things are looking bad for Creation until a member of the Terrestrial Exalted takes control of an ancient defense system built by the now long-dead Solars and drives them off. Creation is weakened, but not destroyed. That Terrestrial sets herself up as Empress and rules what is left.

That's where things stay for a long time. Solars all but gone - only a few Exalted Shards remain free to empower new heroes who are quickly hunted down (through the aid of Sidereals secretly directing the hunters). The Lunars have to take drastic steps to keep from going mad out in the Wyld, but that same hunt keeps them forced out to the borders of Creation. The occasional person/Exalt is tempted by demons to give themselves to the Yozi in exchange for more power, but they are still limited in ability/freedom by the oaths the Yozi swore. The Deathlords likewise have limited resources at hand due to the fact that they're already dead and can only really act in pockets of reality where enough death has occurred quickly enough so that the Underworld bleeds through into Creation. And so it goes.

Or rather, went. Five years ago the Empress disappeared and the empire that grew up around her is disrupted as the various factions/houses within it jockey for position.

Then a nefarious bargain is struck. Representatives of the Yozi and Neverborn communicate and hatch a plan. They have discovered where the rest of the Solar Shards have been imprisoned and they also know how they might be altered. They will work together to open the prison. The Yozi want 50 of the shards for their aid, while the Neverborn can claim the remainder. Something goes wrong, though. Only 150 are captured, so now there are also 150 Solar shards around to begin empowering heroes again. The hunters can no longer effectively keep up. The Solar Exalted have returned, but two new beings are also in the works. Deathknights serving the Neverborn - beings comparable to the Solars, but where the Solars build and rule Creation, the Deathknights destroy and attempt to ruin it, and the Green Sun Princes - warriors with demonic power, but with more freedom than any other servant the Yozis have had before bent on remaking Creation in the visage of Malfeas (for once all of Creation is hell, then the Yozi may once again go there - or at least that's the plan).

There's also another reality at play. During the reign of the Solars following the great war, but before their full excesses got going, Autocthon decided that it was in his best interests (as a "free" Primordial and constant reminder of their one-time foe) to leave Creation. He grabbed a bunch of mortals and put himself in a separate pocket dimension - sealing himself up as a city/world for the people to inhabit. Before putting himself into dormancy, he gave the people the ability to create a new type of Exalt - reusing the souls of people who had several lifetimes of heroic deeds do animate constructed bodies for the service of the people - the Alchemical Exalted. However, they may or may not have opened the way back to Creation in any given game - so whether they can interact with the base setting is the game master's option.

That's the "canonical" starting point of a game of Exalted.



It's also a big place - it's set up as a kind of fantasy kitchen sink setting - if there's a type of thing you want to be in your game, you can make it fit. It's built around over-the-top action starring the chosen of the gods. The books give a lot of local setting detail, but there's still a lot of room on the map that isn't described in full, allowing GMs to plonk down a new town, ruins of an ancient civilization, or whatever if you need one to be there.

Gnomish Wanderer
2013-03-05, 07:57 PM
Corps, chummer. Corps. That's what it's all about. They're the gears, the big wheels turning, ever looking to drive up their profits for the SINners while making sure they got the goods for the next big military contract or superweapon or goddamn energy bar that rolls their way. Got their fingers in everyone's pockets, but us Shadowrunners know the score. You gotta get dirty to get ahead, so you call us to grease the gears, make everything a little smoother.

Can't quite get your hands on the latest bioware through legal means? I'll get it for you. Need to blow up some other corp's supply depo, get ahead in sales? Count me in. Want to off some corporate slub who's planning on taking your secrets to a competitor, make it look like a gang hit? I'll do it for double.

Make a few friends, make a whole hell of enemies, make it to the top. That's all you can do as a Runner, keep moving before you become one of these junkies or gangers and get killed in the next territory war or the next Lone Star gunman you look at funny.

Who knows what the plan of the week is for the corps, who cares? They need me to do it, they give me the credits, and I do it. Ain't nothing more simple that that.

Jack of Spades
2013-03-05, 09:26 PM
Oh, by the way. I have no real experience with New World of Darkness. One thing I have heard a lot of though is the "Story" and ideas in Old World of Darkness was much better. But gods that system was broken as hell. But new world of darkness has a better system, but poorer story?

MEEEEERGE. Use the story from Old World of Darkness. In Mage, this involved the fact that there was an Illuminati style cabal which was effectively shaping all of reality by feeding humanity their vision of what "reality" actually was. Mages bent reality to suit their will before hand, and Reality was a very chaotic, evil place. So now you have an obvious story of this organization which is hunting down Mages who try to break the fabric of creation with their sheer will.

Literally every NWoD game I've seen has done this. This is partially influenced by the fact that most WoD groups I've seen have been playing the game since before there was a NWoD. They all take the story bits of the older systems and rework them to fit the new crunch (or just use the old crunch, for NPCs).

For Star Wars, seriously go to Wookieepedia. If you're a fan of Star Wars, that site ill eat hours of your life and you'll come out with a ridiculous number of new ideas.

snoopy13a
2013-03-05, 09:30 PM
Tell your players "You have your starting equipment and a freighter docked on Coruscant. Have fun."

Now that's GMing without a net!

valadil
2013-03-05, 10:50 PM
Game of Thrones RPG: between the books and the show, I understand the world pretty well. What I don't get is what the players are supposed to do, exactly. Like Serenity RPG, I don't want to just rehash what has happened in the source material.


Here's what I did with Game of Thrones.

I picked a royal house and put the players there. I went with the Florents. They were famous enough that anyone who read the books knew the name, but not so well known that I'd be stomping on canon every session. When Lord Florent took his eldest sons to battle, the PCs were to be left in charge of the castle.

Then I picked a time. We went with early book two. Everything before there happened as in the books. But after that point the story was forked and there was no guarantee that the books would hold out. TBH, I spent a lot of time trying to keep it canon, but I didn't want to be bound to canon or to have the players looking for inconsistencies.

Then I added something to the world. I gave House Florent a reason to believe that they deserved a higher place in the pecking order. Specifically I gave them hints that they should be above the Tyrells in the pecking order of southern Westeros. (Incidentally there is some lore about this. I just brought it to the players attention and solidified it a bit, instead of leaving it as the whinings of a bitter secondary house).

And that was enough. We had a very ASoIaF style game.

The only problem was the PCs. Only two of them had read the books. The others treated it like another D&D game. By which I mean, the party behaved like a cohesive unit. They wouldn't betray each other or even go behind each others' backs backs, because they were the PCs, dammit.

Well, until the assassin PC was revealed. He actually did get the setting and grok the fact that the PCs could work independently. At any rate, that sort of thing didn't work with one of the PC's play styles, and he was pretty bitter that I let someone play a plot that wasn't in line with what the rest of the PCs were doing, despite my warnings that this was a setting where everyone would have their own agendas, some of which would conflict with each other.

I'm not bitter or anything.

mjlush
2013-03-06, 07:00 AM
Yeah I have the same problem with games based on movie / TV licenses. Playing knockoffs of the Serenity crew is lame, doing anything else doesn't feel like Serenity anymore. The setting exists to tell exactly one story and it's already been told.

Same issue for me too if the game takes place during the movies. Star Wars canon is huge though. The Old Republic era is basically a big fantasy sandbox, and casual fans are already familiar with it from the Bioware games.
.

I'd agree with Serenity its a bit of a small universe where planets that are either hick frontier, ultra civilized or wanting to eat you face and dance your skin.

But there is quite a lot of fun to be had during the movies especially Ep4. As you said Space is big the party could be on the other side of the rim and only hear (amusingly) mangled versions of actual events but its possible to play much closer to the movies.

I've had lot of cruel fun running an extended adventure on Alderaan in the chaos caused by the disbanding of the galactic Senate.

Equally having the PC's running round the Death Star is a great excuse to either shoot a rather short Storm trooper (or otherwise derailing Star Wars and putting the Players in the driving seat) or just be a background part of the cannon responsible for various events in the film.

I've run a game where they PC's were from the future and their job was to undo some nasty time meddling and make sure Star Wars happened the way it did in the history books.