Zon Bon Contemplates Games

[Zon Bon]

The name of the post is about the explanation really.

I'm considering running another game now that my existence has settled back down again, and it seems(?) like it'll be okay for awhile. Though I shouldn't get so hasty, as I've been proven time and time fucking again that my peace does not last long. The universe hates a neet, and loves to put them down! But I, the immortal ZON BON will not bend a knee so easily.

That aside ..

I'm trying to think of just what I want to run. One of the most obvious things that come to the forefront of my mind is Corporation, it's simple and relatively easy to get together, and has enough room for me to tackle it how I see fit. Though the issue arises in the fact that I don't exactly wanna make it that .. plain, if that makes sense. I wanna throw some kind of twist to it to be more than just, "Corporation Goonsquad", though I don't have many ideas for it, precisely.

The only thing that really comes to my mind for the idea is some kind of "Gang Simulator", a slight revamp of the original game concept I had going, but more ramped up exactly. Instead of having any solid affiliation with any Corporation or things like it, the players are instead a gaggle of up and comers in the middle of a heavy turf-war for some balling out of control motherfuckers. Shenanigans ensue. It'd take a bit of messing around with the starting front, obviously, but it seems quite do-able.

Another idea that struck me was a pseudo-Gantz story, but it'd be a LOT, and I mean a LOT of flavor-texting on things, so much so that it may even be kind of confusing. Instead of Cybernetics and the such being the main method of upgrade, they're instead things people modify their suit with and yadda yadda. It amuses me, severely, but it'd be a steep time investment to get together.


Past Corporation though, I actually have an interest in WoD, specifically, Hunter the Vigil. I still need to study the system more thoroughly, but its sparked a solid flame in my heart of intrigue of how to tackle it. One of my biggest ideas mind you is a deathloop scenario instead of the "monster hunter/investigation" shtick. The game takes place in some not-summercamp stand-in where shit starts getting wack, and death IS to be expected.

People get offed, and when a party-wipe occurs, it's back to the start to do it all again. The end goal is of course to escape, solve the mystery, or whatever other bullshit they can think of. I've thought up a few gimmicks for dead players to do while waiting for the loop to end, but I haven't thoroughly developed them on the case of .. y'know, not actually being all in with the idea just yet.

Besides that gimmicky idea, the concept of being a monster hunting group is .. still solid and interesting enough. I can cover genuinely just about any basis I want with it, and push it how I see fit. That and it gives me an excuse to make weird spoopy monsters eggs dee.


Mmrhg ..


You folks got any system suggestions to look into, and or possible concept ideas I can STEAL for use between Corp and The Vigil? .. I also wanna know if you'd be interested in either, since I dooo need to grab people to get ready ...

[Knight]

What's wrong with just being a corporate goonsquad, huh?! Go burn down that mom and pops business to make room for your 6th McDonalds on the block!

I think the book has a suggestion of giving each Ai-Jinn agent their own gang. The Ai-Jinn idea with Svona and Shui (and you!) would've been focused on first investigating a Ai-Jinn affiliated triad who has suddenly gone quiet. It was figuring out that FUCKER was giving them a good deal and silencing them. Whether the players found out if they were Red House or not ain't my concern. Then it would've been getting the triad back on its feet, doing all sorts of illegal shit and training. But Red House is the real criminal organization. The illuminati type. And you have a lotta money, so it's easy to do whatever you want. CP Red would be good if you want an actual gang-on-gang war since it does have it as one of the group archetypes.

If the game suggests you doing some sort of fantasy game while trapped within your psyche matrix, I don't see why you couldn't do some GANTZ thing, whatever that is. Take from Project Nexus, the agents are trapped in a simulation or whatever this is, translate whatever weapons they get to fit the world, and then maybe at the end have some big Matrix-like breakout. Or just make up some corporation and offer the suits on top of everything else. To be honest, Corpo doesn't really care what you do with it. They even recommend fighting aliens for a Cross-Corpo game.

My only problem with WoD is how fucking wordy it gets. Like, 200 pages of lore before getting into the mechanics. And you have to look at the World of Darkness corebook for core mechanics. It's a lil silly how much lore there is compared to mechanics.

Why not Modern Day Anima, huh?! It's not even that hard to homebrew for.

[Svona]

Ventangle

[Svona]

Sessions are pretty short and simple to handle, and it's pretty fun

[Zon Bon]

What's wrong with just being a corporate goonsquad, huh?! Go burn down that mom and pops business to make room for your 6th McDonalds on the block!

If the game suggests you doing some sort of fantasy game while trapped within your psyche matrix, I don't see why you couldn't do some GANTZ thing, whatever that is. Take from Project Nexus, the agents are trapped in a simulation or whatever this is, translate whatever weapons they get to fit the world, and then maybe at the end have some big Matrix-like breakout. Or just make up some corporation and offer the suits on top of everything else. To be honest, Corpo doesn't really care what you do with it. They even recommend fighting aliens for a Cross-Corpo game.

My only problem with WoD is how fucking wordy it gets. Like, 200 pages of lore before getting into the mechanics. And you have to look at the World of Darkness corebook for core mechanics. It's a lil silly how much lore there is compared to mechanics.

Why not Modern Day Anima, huh?! It's not even that hard to homebrew for.

Corporate goonsquads are nice, but after a certain point I feel it'd plateau into a "What's Next?" scenario. While I have a few mission planned down already, and I ABSOLUTELY know that the PbP method, or even session based if I was ballsy enough for that would take awhile to get through them, my brain would start worrying things aren't fresh enough even if no one has any complaints. But that's a minor sort of complaint really, it's something I could get past when the ball starts to roll.

Fair enough I suppose on the point of the game just flat out promoting going a bit crazy with it. I still have a lot of factors I'd want and need to fuck around with to get it to the image in my head, but it's not exactly impossible.

The absolute vomitfuck of lore annoys me deeply too, and I didn't even KNOW I needed to look at the corebook for the actual mechanics, I thought I was just being blind and missing the important shit in the book. That's annoying .. thanks for the headsup anyhow.


Anima is something I'm absolutely not prepared to run. Even playing it is a bit of a mess for me as I forget mechanics back to back to back, I gotta constantly remind myself. It's such a moving and living beast of a system that even one thing being out of line feels like it'll fuck everything up, which is scary! If I wanted something a bit fuckery like that, I'd honestly do something like Heroes Unlimited (2E), as it's more so manageable in its madness, but who'd even be interested in a supes game? How would I make it appeal!

====================

Ventangle

I do need to read the translation you guys are getting together actually, though I'm a bit hesitant as its current format gives me a bit of a headache to navigate and organize!


I suppose I've ran a bit of a circle in on myself, but I've sorted my thoughts together ever so slightly better. The big sore thumb about it all though is that I'm also worried about what players I'll drag aboard. I got a very specific few in my head for what I wanna do, but I'm also putting it under the lewd category since that's just what I do, and I know off the bat that'll drag in the cumbrains, whom of which I don't wanna deal with. I do have a mind for some players I could grab though(?) .. I'd just need to nut up and ask them if they'd be interested flat out instead of shimmying around what needs to be done.

Bah bah ...

Corporation, WoD (Vigil), Ventangle(?), HU(?) ..

The current ones running through my mind as possibilities ..

[Knight]

"What's Next?" is what every D&D drone slathers for, so it's not like it would be anything out of the ordinary. Besides the fact, missions can technically last as long as you want them to. Some missions offered in the core are like "go get this R&D facility up and running". Or "take these cyberlins". Yet, if you want something of a story then the answer always lies in conspiracies. Things that may have not been important when first brought up months ago can be throw into a new light. Your players may see it coming or simply stumble into it, but it gives that idea of a story that you can just conjure up as long as you remember previous events decently well.

Besides, some players live to KILL, others want to TALK and make friends, and then there's people who just go out there and do whatever.

On WoD, it's very much a lore-heavy game. That's where a lot of praise comes from. Things like Mage rely a lot on you reading the lore to understand the jumblefuck that it is while Hunter can be summed up to: you're apart of a small group or big group of hunters and are gonna go investigate and hunt monsters. Less complicated than the older Hunter the Reckoning which gives people special powers.

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Hunter:_The_Vigil

I like to consulate 1d4chan for brief descriptions of things.