Forums of the Megaverse®

Not a question of how hard the missions are, but how serious do you like detail stickling?

I was chatting with a friend and GM for one of the games I'm on tonight about things that weren't mentioned in the show or the game books, like on Invid physiology and such, and he was wanting to be a little stickling with what could/could not happen on some points.

If the canisters are Protoculture as implied in the show, in a 'lighter' setting like I enjoy to some extent better, there might be Invid characters cracking open canisters and drinking them, like the old T-62 issue when the soviets issued grain alcohol powered variants for Afghanistan. (More fuel went into the tankers cups than into the tank itself.) More 'serious' GMs like I'm playing under seem to not like that idea so much.

It isn't as though the scenes and whatnot can't be just as heavy in the more loose setting, just that some of the odd side things are different in some places.

Another place I've noticed GMs really stickling on is being hardcore serious about military discipline and protocol, basing it quite directly on the current US military as it stands. Not sure if it's just me noticing this, but I watch the show and see things far and away outside of anything 'military' RL. So I wonder how hard any other GMs stickle for military regs, outside of Invid Invasion settings with the resistance. Playing looser with those allows more freedom in characters that otherwise might get smacked, and might allow for people to be less 'on guard' about that between missions, focusing instead on the missions and making sure they're completed right.

So I thought I'd ask general board opinion.

Loose, crazy, free for plenty of "What the--?!", 'That's just WRONG", "Can I do this...please?", and "I don't believe you're actually trying that..." moments...You know, dumb-arse anime phsyics moments...

When it comes to the Tech I'm kinda a stickler but, as for the rest I kinda go fast and loose anime style (invid cracking open a P-cell as a Brewski is too funny to pass up)!!!!

I try to bring the balance between what is shown on the TV, what is in the RPG, what my interpretation is, and everything else. With what works best for my game, as primary. As a GM I will toss in home made creations and story arc's that should not hinder the canonicity of the TV Show.

Tiree wrote:I try to bring the balance between what is shown on the TV, what is in the RPG, what my interpretation is, and everything else. With what works best for my game, as primary. As a GM I will toss in home made creations and story arc's that should not hinder the canonicity of the TV Show.

Sounds good...I tried not to drown my players in geek-speak, since most of them never saw the original series...so I let them have a free hand and just trailed along behind them, telling them what they just picked up or stepped into....

This really depends on the group. If you have all guys that were in the military, they are probably not going to enjoy playing in the military in a non military form. For people that haven't served (me included), they have no idea on how things are run.

And then you have a group like mine.....two of them were in the service and the other 4 were not. Oh, the tangled webs we can weave.

I run mixes of serious to non-serious games over the decades.

and suddenly I feel really old.

Snuffy wrote:This really depends on the group. If you have all guys that were in the military, they are probably not going to enjoy playing in the military in a non military form. For people that haven't served (me included), they have no idea on how things are run.

And then you have a group like mine.....two of them were in the service and the other 4 were not. Oh, the tangled webs we can weave.

I run mixes of serious to non-serious games over the decades.

and suddenly I feel really old.

There needs to be some kind of understanding between the military and non-military types. I flaked out and misinterpreted a shorthand order (partly because it was shorthand, partly because I had a dumb blonde moment), and wound up having a character getting reamed for it. Now maybe I'm a dumb blonde, yes, and should have asked for clarification (dumb blonde pt 2), but it caused a mistake.

I take a lot of the blame for being a dumb blonde, though, admittedly, in retrospect.

AuroraKet wrote:[

See, this is another problem I've noticed tonight in one of mine, when part was run. A shorthand order barked by someone who WAS in the service got my character reamed because I've never been in the service, I'm a little bit flaky, and interpreted the shorthand wrong.

How badly did you mess up?
Serious Darwin Points if you managed to kill several PCs due to the misinterpretation...

I think this instance especially when your dealing with players who know, should know, or don't know specific terminology (doesn't matter military or not, could be sci-fi background info), there should be moment's taken away from the game to clarify what people are doing.

I do this all the time in my PbP games, through PM's and via an OOC forum. Sometimes I'll even write the OOC into my Game Posts to let folks know what some questions have been raised.

Questions in my games are almost answered within 24 hours of their posting. Only weekends do they have a delay.

taalismn wrote:

AuroraKet wrote:[

See, this is another problem I've noticed tonight in one of mine, when part was run. A shorthand order barked by someone who WAS in the service got my character reamed because I've never been in the service, I'm a little bit flaky, and interpreted the shorthand wrong.

How badly did you mess up?
Serious Darwin Points if you managed to kill several PCs due to the misinterpretation...

Probably deserve darwin points for the brain fail, but I totally failed in having it dawn that the other two characters weren't all the way over to the next move up position, I thought it was for them to give me the cover fire, when it was me supposed to be continuing cover for one of them. Some things just don't come across in OpenRPG as well either, maybe. But that's just me trying to deflect stupidity. Anyway, it caused the other character to get shot at en route. She was a former resistance type anyway, and used to doing it without cover. As the topping on the cake, failed pilot roll for the Cyclone and ended up getting dipped in the river for it.

But the char involved got the full terror of a small (well, 5'4") Japanese girl who was mad as heck about it. Said girl is scary, even to a 6+ foot Zentraedi. Especially when she's that mad and ready to kill people where they stand. She can be quite a terror

Still, quite a cast of oddballs in that game. four Zentraedi, 5 humans, one Tirolian and even an Invid.

I run a very kitchen sink/cinematic campaign style... except when it comes to combat actions and damage. For those that remember my long rants about damage, you know what I am like. But for style/feel, it is very anime with more than a few huh???/silly moments.

As for military related sticklerism, I've been in/around enough to know all you have to is convince "higher" it's a good idea and it will be done (probably in a sloppy and/or cheap manner... but that only adds to the comedic/tragic effect)

-STS