THE PACK Message Boards

Post here if interested. Do not hesitate to ask questions. Character thread here. Game thread here.

SETTING INFORMATION
The game will be set in the Real World that you see when you look outside your window, save with a few additions.

The actual game itself will start in a public place where all characters involved could conceivably be, such as an airport, public event, school/university, mall, or whatever. The exact location will depend on what you players decide, and will have nearly zero effect on the game itself. I’ve got access to Wikipedia and Google Earth, so it can start just about anywhere without much trouble.

As such, supernatural creatures are, and have been, operating under a veil of secrecy. On a global scale at least, though it’s certainly possible there are werewolf communes hidden away in the forests of Quebec, or vampires haunting the London Underground.

HOW I WILL RUN THIS
I’m not going to get deep into the whole RPG thing and make it turn-based, or dictate who and what your characters are. However, I will put forth some guidelines.

In Character, and Out Of Character: Please make a visible and obvious differentiation between what you as a player are saying, and what your character is saying. A very simple way to do this is to put OOC: before your Out of Character comments, or to put them in bold, or italics, or just some way that we can look and see who is saying or doing what.

As an example of what I mean:
“ I look around the hotel lobby, then walk over and ask the person at the front desk if she can give my message to Mr. Walters.

Hmm, I wonder if I could fit a person in the trunk of my car?”
Talking aloud to yourself is bad enough, but you see how it could create problems?

Adding OOC: before that last bit could save a lot of time and strife. I don’t want to have to pause the game and spend a day clarifying your post with you.


Posting Order: I’m not going to be hardcore on this, but it’s polite to give others a chance to react, especially if your action impacts or involves their character. So, try to avoid hogging the spotlight. The longer the light is on you, the more chance something in the shadows will see you.

Likewise, please let us know if you know you’re not going to be able to post. There are three ways we can do this:
1) We can slow down the game and wait until you get back,
2) You can ask another player to act on your behalf,
3) You can ask me to act on your behalf, in which case I’ll do my best to follow your wishes and act in accordance with your character. The exact nuances of this can vary, if you want your character can find a hole and lay low for a while, or I can play them. It’s up to you, but having a team member put on a bus for the next few days might be a little inconvenient if a roving gang of real estate agents were to attack.

Combat: Is it actually necessary for you to attack someone else? As the setting is the Real World, your character is going to be in a bit of trouble if he starts assaulting other people and they notify the authorities.
If it does come down to fisticuffs, I suppose I’ll have to whip up some combat rules. But keep in mind that being an ubersexy vampire isn’t going to save you from getting shanked if you go to a bar and try to make away with some homeboy’s girl.
I don’t want to do it, but if the kid gloves come off I’m not going to lose any sleep if I put your character in the hospital, or facedown in an alley. So, if you’re emotionally invested in your character, and you’re deliberately going to make enemies, do us both a favor and reconsider joining.

Character Interaction: Player and Player is going to be left up to the Players involved. I will be “running” all non-player characters, though it’s certainly possible that I might recruit people to be co-GMs and run organizations or groups.

Please don’t make decisions for other players unless they have given you permission.

As I’m a staunch believer in having fun and creating interesting and diverse characters, please take everything with a light heart. If someone gets in your face for something your character did, it’s not a personal attack on you as a person or player.

Post here if interested. Do not hesitate to ask questions. Character thread here. Game thread here.

So, since you're the GM and are controlling NPCs, will this RP have a point/plot and actually be a story-telling game? Or will it be just be an RP without the ultimate objective and just try to survive?

Either way, I hope you can include me in.

Moss27 wrote:So, since you're the GM and are controlling NPCs, will this RP have a point/plot and actually be a story-telling game? Or will it be just be an RP without the ultimate objective and just try to survive?

Either way, I hope you can include me in.

Well, the point is to have a good time, and to create an interesting story.

As for a plot, no. Plots don't really tend to work when you introduce players to them, at least not without railroading and sucking all the joy out of it. Sure, I'm going to try to work in some smaller plots, since the players aren't the only ones with goals and plans, but there's not going to be a pre-planned overarching plot that points towards The End.
Are you familiar with tabletop RPGs (D&D, World of Darkness, Mutants and Masterminds, Burning Wheel, Spycraft, etc)? That's what I'm going for, except using the bare-bones skeletal system I just wrote up.

I'll start it off, and nudge it along, but the story is really up to you players.

I've wanted to run an RP for a while, but free-form RPGs tend to be very disorganized and all over the place, and I'm not really legally allowed to hand out free copies of gaming books so you folks can spend a few weeks learning a new system. So, this is my middle ground that should hopefully capture the essence of both.

And since one is a big enough number for me, I'll post the character thread so half of you will be frightened away.

Edit: Here it is. Character thread and character creation info.

Looks pretty interesting to me, and I posted mah character in the thread (using the suggested 60 skill ranks, 3 in two attributes, 4 will points template), though I did have a bit of question, as that leaves 4 CCP unaccounted for, and if 2 CCP can be converted into 5 ranks each (for a total of ten in one skill or two fives) wouldn't we be able to have something more like 70 skill ranks (Assuming we want to burn all our CCP from chargen)?

Ahh, that was a typo. Initially there was only 50 skill ranks in the normal package, then I increased that to 60, but forgot to increase the listed cost.

My bad. So yeah, it's supposed to be 60, and I just noticed the cost was assuming it cost 1 point for 5 ranks, which it's supposed to. I have no idea why I wrote 2.

Okay, it's 60 points for a cost of 12, with the total amount of points bumped back down to 32 to account for it. So no real changes.
Probably shouldn't have written and posted this at like 5am.

OK, I would love to join this. I love a good RP.

The more the merrier.

Everything necessary to create a human is posted over in the character thread, and I'm just finalizing the supernatural stuff right now.

Edit: If any of you have a preference for where the game starts, let me know. If no one really cares, it'll probably start in New York City, LA, or some other random place in North America.

UPDATE: Posted supernatural stuff over on the character thread, everything necessary to play a vampire, shapeshifter, or magic user.

That sounds very interesting - so count me in!

I'll have to dig myself in the character creation now, 'cause it sounds a little bit complicated in the first moment ... but I'll manage it!

Edit: Goodness ... this will take me some time

And one question: Are born shapeshifters able to shift from the beginning of their life or evolves the ability to shift at a certain time? Can it be that something triggers the change into a shapeshifter, if the inherited possibility to become a shapeshifter is dormant in ones genes?

I actually haven't decided on that. But, as a bit of a guideline, the more Shapeshifter they have in them, the earlier they'll start being able to transform. So maybe a third generation guy might not transform until a life or death experience. It's up to you guys really, as it has little impact on the game at large.

Grayheart wrote:That sounds very interesting - so count me in!

I'll have to dig myself in the character creation now, 'cause it sounds a little bit complicated in the first moment ... but I'll manage it!

It's actually quite easy if you just follow the example provided and have a clear concept.

Anyways, now that the supernatural stuff's up, I modified my sheet and used the latent-shapeshifter idea, heh. I split off the supernatural template attribute block for when it's actually applicable.

If you need any help, don't hesitate to ask. I may not have written all of it up in a way that other people can understand. It happens sometimes.

Edit: Hey, Aki, you missed a +1 bonus for your animal form. Shapeshifters gain a +2, a +1, and a +1 in animal form, and only a +1 and +1 in hybrid/gestalt form.

Earlier on the irc chat, someone (I think bluewolf) mentioned that humans are at a disadvantage, and yes that is true, at least as starting characters. In part this is intentional, since it effectively allows them to fly below of the radar of many of the hungry things lurking in the shadows. After all, wolves don't waste their time chasing down rabbits when there's a elk to chase instead.

However, humans have pretty much all the same advancement opportunities as any of the supernaturals, just not as easily or at character creation. Through various means they can gain a talent or spell, just like how a vampire can learn to levitate.

Also, I may not have actually come out and said it, but talents can be gained multiple times to stack with themselves for truly superhuman results. So instead of starting with two different ones, a supernatural character can start with the same one twice. For the ones with an additional effect (Stamina, Manipulation, and Presence), this also means they have twice the effect, or three times, or however much.

I will be offering character advancement opportunities, so don't be worried about starting a "puny hooman", as this isn't a numbers game or a measuring contest. Being a big, bad supernatural isn't all happy and shiny, as there are bigger, badder supernaturals who are hungry for more than purple people, and government agencies who are dying to dissect you.
You could even play an intelligent zombie if you wanted to...

Ah, thanks for the quick answers and the clarification concerning the talents! That was one question I was going to ask about - as well as asking if there is a mechanism planned for our characters to advance their abilities.

As for the starting point of the game I would prefer a city like New York - for me this would mean an easier way to orientate, since I'm no american and I've never been in the USA yet. San Francisco would also be okay, although New York would be number one for me, since I already know a lot about the city.

Grayheart wrote:Ah, thanks for the quick answers and the clarification concerning the talents! That was one question I was going to ask about - as well as asking if there is a mechanism planned for our characters to advance their abilities.

As for the starting point of the game I would prefer a city like New York - for me this would mean an easier way to orientate, since I'm no american and I've never been in the USA yet. San Francisco would also be okay, although New York would be number one for me, since I already know a lot about the city.

New York sounds good to me. I'm semi-familiar with it, having visited it before.

Certainly a place where supernaturals could slip in and hide, with so many people (and all of them in a rush, heh!).

All right, NYC it is.

Pretty good looking characters so far, though I'm hoping for a few more before the game starts.

Nice! Then Sasha will be studying at New York University. They have one really interesting course there, a cooperation between Anthropology and Media Studies - this will be her goal, I think.

About the change of Sasha- or Sasha and Rafael - into shapeshifters: Will you provide a trigger-event for this? Or should we come up with something? I'm pretty inexperienced in forum-rpgs, although I played a lot pen & paper - still not quite sure how you'll run this one.

Well, the game is going to start with public standoff between a few NPCs: a moderately powerful werejackal, and the motley bunch of government agents chasing him down.

This is going to be the start of several different mini-plots, and it's future and outcome will change depending on how your characters act.

I think it might qualify as a trigger event when he does something like kick a car across the street, or get shot a couple times and not die.

Ah, okay - think I got the basic idea yet - thanks for that!

I added the moon phase to which Sasha will have an affinity for after becoming a shapeshifter. I also made a little change to her bonuses in wolf form - it's now a +1 for wits, not for strength, since this better suits my concept of her.

Wingman wrote: This is going to be the start of several different mini-plots, and it's future and outcome will change depending on how your characters act.

One thing I've always loved about RPGs: The capacity to alter the story for better or worse.

Always results in stuff going all kinds of crazy places.

Grayheart wrote:Ah, okay - think I got the basic idea yet - thanks for that!

I added the moon phase to which Sasha will have an affinity for after becoming a shapeshifter. I also made a little change to her bonuses in wolf form - it's now a +1 for wits, not for strength, since this better suits my concept of her.

Ooh, I forgot about the moon thing. Fixed that.

Mic check, one two, mic check, one two,

Alrighty, so that's two characters so far, and Bluewolf and Thunderclaw said they both might join up as well. Is anyone else interested please make yourself heard, as I'd prefer to get everything straightened out prior to starting the game. I'm not adverse to the idea of walk-on latecomers, and might actually prefer a few, but I'd like it if I can get a clear idea of who and what we're working with here.

As always, feel free to ask questions, as the voices in my head are forgetful and might have neglected to discuss certain things amongst themselves.

Edit: Every so often I'll likely post a new Spell, as I think of them. So, if you're interested in having your character gain some magic in the future, let me know so I can include it.

Please, could i get that link, i'd love to join, i love recreating my character.

Blue-eyes in the dark wrote:Please, could i get that link, i'd love to join, i love recreating my character.

The link to the character thread? Here..
There's also a link at the top and bottom of the first post in these two threads, leading back to one another. And I just added them into my signature.

Silent Hunter, is there any particular reason for your character lacking a backstory?

Thunderclaw, don't you think 17 is a little old for a doctor? Even a fake one?
I can't think of anyone who would take a seventeen-year-old at face value if he flashed an ID at them and claimed to be a doctor.

Wingman wrote:Thunderclaw, don't you think 17 is a little old for a doctor?

You certainly meant young, don't you?

The following statement isn't meant to offend, but I think Silent Hunter's Stats should also be overlooked a second time - especially his skills. I haven't made the mathematics to get clear if it is even possible to have this many skill points in the beginning, but I think it 's in the given borders of character creation.

What I have to object is the amount spend on every single selected skill. A 50 alone in Academics (Law) is way too high for a 30 year old human. Even if this human has a 4 in Intelligence, this seems to me impossible to achieve at this early age. I can easily see someone in this age and with this intelligence score having a lawyer doctorate already, but not more.

As I said - this isn't meant as an offence, Silent Hunter! In the borders of character creation these stats are mechanically possible, but within reason of storytelling it shouldn't be possible without some changes.

Alrighty, you've all made your bacon, and I've got a decent fire stoked, so I suppose it's time to get into the frying pan and into the fire.

So, does anyone have a problem with me officially starting the game on the 23rd?
I don't mean to rush you Blue-eyes in the dark, but I'm sure everyone else would like to get this show on the road. If you want, send me a PM and we can decide on bringing your character into the game after it starts.

PS: I hope you guys don't mind, but I've edited your character sheets slightly so they're all formatted in the same manner. Mostly that was just making certain things bold.

Nope, no problem at all - I'm looking forward to that!