Live Streaming the Game Session

The first live stream of my long running Clockwork & Cthulhu online game got off the ground with a real live gatecrasher dropping into the Google Hangout right at the end of the session. It was like some viral bot which persistently entered the Hangout with a prerecorded message. I'm guessing there are automated malicious malware which searches YouTube live for streams? I do not have a clue. Anyone who has experience with live streaming their Hangout go ahead and jump to the end to see what I am talking about. I would like to clean this kind of intrusion up.

Fortunately it did not diminish play and fun being had with this current live session. Using the YouTube(beta) studio I was able to set up a channel (Vanishing Tower Press) and figure out how to generate a Google Hangout which was also streamed live as well as be recorded to my YouTube channel. I'm sure many of you have already familiarized yourself with this online tech, but this was my first look at running it myself. Long story short, it was dead simple to open the Hangout through YouTube. I posted the link to my MeWe game group and let the players fall into just like always. 

The game did take a roll-call hit this outing with the session three players down. This didn't have anything to do with the great G+ migration disrupting communication channels. Just stuff coming up so players couldn't show. Yes this is a pain in the ass as a game master, but we who show negotiate a handwave solution for the present situation and press on. We have come to know the game as deeply serial. Everyone wants to force a resolution so the session grinds on.

And it went like most sessions have for nigh on three years. There was the early settling in, the shop-talk as we all transition into gamer world. Then came play. With fewer active table players I usually see the "journey" through the game world pick up speed so we saw the environment drastically change over the course of the session for the PC's. More questions, fewer answers and less PC's to absorb the certain damage to come, and then the unusual bot hack which brought the whole session to a quick ending until next time.

Being able to replay the session back was waaay cool. Super obvious how it can sharpen my recollection of what just happened. Running a session I can miss some of the witty play coming from my players. So yeah I get to appreciate the social aspects of the game in playback I do miss to a degree as a game referee. Probably the most immediate and useful GM'img teaching tool going too. I was never good enough in sports to make tape and watch game film like the varsity players so I don't have much experience with learning from watching yourself play but the value is unmistakable. I'm not sure what the overall impact to play will be, but review did give me a chance to confirm suspicions and validate some actual play methods I try and stay conscious of. Getting to see the actual walk of the lot of talking we all do around here, it's good to see it work. 

Adding a video library to the campaign along with the written is pretty exciting. Never has there been the ability to manufacture the actual play experience for spectators on such an accessible scale. Now all those papers, notes and scribbled maps are adorned with the sound of voices and images of people playing. 

G+ I'm leaving you...

The demise of G+. Couldn't come at a better time. I was starting to wonder why I was continuing to go there. I felt like there was too many posts and circles and groups to effectively curate. If I didn't use G+ as my online game platform I probably would have just stuck with my blog's blog roll to stay up on cool content.

With the migration to MeWe of many G+'ers I kinda get to rebuild my online gaming architecture. Not by much, but with any type of move I get a chance to look through my stuff and ask “What do I really need?” First off I need a group for my current online game. Here MeWe falls short because there is no integrated video conference app built into the site. G+ broke up the seamless way I could go from announcing a game, getting players and then forming a group complete with event listings and then simple click for all participants to jump in on game day. But I could still type in group contacts and send out invites to the online Hangouts session. With MeWe I can have the group organization but I will be needing to lead everyone over to the Hangout. The good which has come about with the forced reorganization is I've made a hard look at YouTube. To look at the recording and live streaming capabilities. The public consumption of viewing others playing table top roleplaying, well I have a long running game and me and my players don't mind people lurking.

Seeing what is possible. This is what I got the most from G+. What I can do with free access to online tools and the audience online to interact with. My game was nonexistent and once I was hooked up on G+ I was reading blogs with elevated gaming information, writing my own game blog and playing actual games. Then was the exposure to incredible adult material I would never get from game companies. Original, visceral and presented in useful and beautiful formats. Plenty for free and the really good stuff was worth the price. Made me want to make my own stuff. The G+ gamers showed the way here too. POD, One Book Shelf, layout software, making PDF's. I get to make game books I want to have on my shelf. And if anyone else is interested they can spend coffee money and have them too!

I was way wrong in thinking G+ would be around for a long time. But hell with it. The good look and lesson I got sure showed it is all about the people in the game community. We have met, more come everyday, and the blogs backstop all the valuable material so exposure and innovation will continue.

I will be detaching from G+. No reason not to just post on my blog and group scrum live with the gang on MeWe for now. As long as I have a viable means of creating a video table for players to sit around I don't think my online experience will be diminished at all. Maybe this will cut down on distractions so I can finish the latest three or four gaming books I agonize over.

All in all this shows the durability of the blogs. This is a good thing. Now I got a game I gotta get ready for. See you all real soon.

The Blood of Heroes Rules for Character Interaction

My close read and implementation of The Blood of Heroes: Second Edition continues on its first early steps and I'm jumping to Chapter 6: Character Interaction.

Interrogation, Intimidation and Persuasion are character interactions you can resolve with a “Dice Action”. The AV/EV* and OV/RV* for a PC are already known. The Infl/Aura and Infl/Spirit of the NPC is determined by the Gamemaster. When the GM does this, either on the fly or prepped ahead of time, they are essentially setting a difficulty target number which needs to be hit. When the Players and the GM wish to roll for results to decide the outcome of these three types of character interactions they are resolved the same way everything else is in the game; with the Action Table and the Results Table. 

What about the other way around? What happens if a villain or any other NPC tries to use Character Interaction against one of the Players? Myself I try not to force the PC to do anything. Other gamers are more comfortable making the PC briefly restricted by puppet strings, and do it well. I philosophically try and tie my hands so it is the PC's themselves deciding whether the villain is bluffing or should they cut and run from a dangerous and uncertain situation. These rules for BoH kinda go half way. The PC can be bound to failed opposed and resistance rolls, but they can also spend Hero Points to ignore the effects.

Otherwise character interaction should be handled like any well done rpg does, with the Players doing stuff and the GM adjudicating results until the need for dice feels warranted.

This is a short chapter. Quick to digest. There are suitable descriptions of the three character interactions including additional chrome; Interaction Maneuvers. These can be taken or left as the GM sees fit without breaking the mechanic. Next I'll take a read through Chapter 7 Gadgets and after I will tell you my thoughts.

*AV=Acting Value, OV=Opposed Value, EV=Effect Value and RV=Resistance Value from the BoH rulebook. 

The Blood of Heroes & MEGS

Which is kinda one and the same. Pulsar games purchased the rights to create a Supers RPG using Mayfair’s DC Heroes MEGS (Mayfair Exponential Game System) mechanics, minus the DC licensed properties. Which is perfect for those like myself who like to create their own game world with original characters as opposed to premade setting with established characters. The final form this system took is The Blood of Heroes: Special Edition and is well known for the dreadful quality of the art, dated layout and awful NPC write ups for the limited setting Pulsar inserted into the book.

I’ve been taking looks at BoH for several years when my interest returns to Supers roleplaying. Reading reviews of DC Heroes, and MEGS in general, the system gets solid props and very little criticism. The only reason I hadn’t taken a deep dive into the game is because I didn’t push myself past the two-chart method of resolving action in the game, the core mechanic if you would. Swallowing another character creation system for a Supers game prevented me from giving it a solid go as well. Maybe I can make Champions finally work for me? I had most of the best books of the system. But in my heart of hearts I knew I would never return to this game for my dream Supers campaign, so running out of alternatives a serious read of BoH was now at hand. First I reread the intro with Anarchy Man getting into a fist fight with Clint and learned how to use the resolution charts. Not bad, pretty straight forward. Okay, so basic resolution doesn’t bother me and I’m not going to worry right now how this game handles superspeed. Making a verdict on how the game scales everything on the same exponential numbering will take some exposure to before I know whether it works for me. I am intrigued, this is the part of the system which gets most of the praise. A normal person has attributes of “2”. An attribute of 3 is twice as good, and a 4 is twice as good as a 3!. Time, distance, weight, even wealth, is all tied to this scale. For example a time of “0” is 4 seconds. Time 1 is 8 seconds, Time 2 is 16 seconds and time 3 is 32 seconds. Weight starts at a base 0=50lbs. Weight of 1 is 100lbs., 2 200lbs., 3 is 400lbs. See exponential progression. This allows the game to scale seamlessly ever upwards without breaking the game. Champions handles wildly different power scales well, but Chaosium’s Superworld not so much. Here the MEGS system goes as high on the power scale as you want with no distortion. The final test will be how I think of superspeed and initiative work out. Some have criticized the MEGS mechanics of BoH not handling low-powered characters very well, but I’m not seeing this. So everyman has a Strength and Dex of 2, but any experienced game master knows the color of your NPC’s is not so much in the stats but in their personality and skills. My first character I built with the system uses their recommended base of 450 points and as a low-powered superhero I was able to create the super I want and build in all the personality, color, powers and motivation I envision. Once I crunched through character generation I felt I was looking at a fast moving game which also eliminates all the tactical crunch I find hanging onto Champions. I can see running this game online without battle maps and minis.

This will also aid in world building. I don’t think statting out villians and gadgets will be as time consuming as found in Champions. No, I think this system will allow me to put forth effort in the hard part of Supers gaming, having a campaign world worthy of interesting game play. This is the number one reason why I love playing old school. The OSR has taught me not to depend on the system to make my game work. It takes a game worthy of playing in to be good. The system is more of an afterthought. Use the system which helps you run, not tells you how to run. Classic Traveller is a great example of this OSR principle of game design. The source material is my best world building reference, not the rulebook. In the game of supers this means comic books! Find the stories I like and build that. Certainly the BoH MEGS mechanics will handle anything I can dream up!