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Super Robot Quest

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Primarily narrative with minor dice rolling sounds the best, I think.
It kinda forces to have coherent idea of the world?
 
honestly, you should go with what you're most comfortable with my guy, and if that means going with minor dice rolling then that's where i think we should go.
 
Welcome back Basarin. For the quest I'd go with Primarily narrative with minor dice rolling where narratively appropriate. Strip out the minor stuff and just keep it to the main votes except for when it's time to fight Sheol/Not Decepticons/Westphalians. This way the questors can keep some control over the story as it goes along. but than again it's your Quest, Just go with whatever makes you the most comfortable.
 
Loving the setting so I wish this will go on either way. Probably leaning towards narrative with some dice because the dice add some spice to it all.
 
If you need some idea's on how to do it, you might want to talk to Lordsfire on SB, his Battletech and Worm quests are pretty good at this kind of thing. but than again the man put's upwards of a thousand words per update every day except for when he does commissions and takes days off.
 
Either of the first two is fine. Action bloat is a well-known problem, especially when player progress is rewarded with more actions and even more complexity.

But ultimately, an ending is better than no ending, and whatever helps you reach it is best. Personally, I'd prefer building the threats up to a crescendo in the next 20 or so updates, and then winding it down to an epilogue. Mechanical nuances of how we get there are less meaningful, so long as our achievements are acknowledged and it is still difficult enough to match the stakes we observed so far.

Honestly, the difficulty is the other end of the complexity that saw the players constantly rewarded. I can't remember the time when we were seriously threatened, or rather, when the mechanical threat representation lived up to its narrative counterpart. The enemies just aren't scary enough with all the progress we are making ostensibly to keep up. In practice, it's them who need to be scaled up to us.

So long as we have the Big Resolution with lots of dakka flying around as befits any Super Robot series finale, I'll be happy.
 
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i`m for whatever you want too do. i`m not stuck on any one system.
also sad too hear about all the drama, hope your doing better. in both parts of your life.
 
Good news is best news! That's one more man who's life is looking up, no matter how seemingly marginally.

Basarin said:
Primarily narrative with minor dice rolling.
  • I'm moderately in favor of this, but I'm still unsure of how to handle this. This could range from key decisions on part of NPCs or enemies, to technology discovery and development, but these would be both a mixture of player-based rolling and behind the screens. This would give some room to keep some of the organic storytelling from the old system, but not to the same degree.
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Something like this? Make a plan -> Roll between "Progress as expected"/"Worse"/"Better"/"How did that happen?"? With characters and circumstances influencing how much of a d6 (or a d8, etc) corresponds to each result? But that would only work for "base phase"...

Anyway, I'd like to mention that the "Build-a-Robot" feeling of designing core units was THE THING. Maybe not the best part, maybe not the most interesting part, but it definitely scratched an itch where nothing else could.
 
Basarin said:
  • Primarily narrative with minor dice rolling.
    • I'm moderately in favor of this, but I'm still unsure of how to handle this. This could range from key decisions on part of NPCs or enemies, to technology discovery and development, but these would be both a mixture of player-based rolling and behind the screens. This would give some room to keep some of the organic storytelling from the old system, but not to the same degree.
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This seems like the best combination of "feasible" and "interesting" to me.

Also: Welcome back, and hope you don't get dragged back down to where you were at your old job!
 
Thanks all. :) Glad to see some folks still want to see this continue. That's good - I still want to write it!

I do need to workshop this some more, and any ideas you all may have, I still welcome!

Nevill said:
Honestly, the difficulty is the other end of the complexity that saw the players constantly rewarded. I can't remember the time when we were seriously threatened, or rather, when the mechanical threat representation lived up to its narrative counterpart. The enemies just aren't scary enough with all the progress we are making ostensibly to keep up. In practice, it's them who need to be scaled up to us.

So long as we have the Big Resolution with lots of dakka flying around as befits any Super Robot series finale, I'll be happy.
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This does a very good job of describing how I feel about the system as it stands now. It's going to take some adjusting to, but I would rather script out the battle sequences up to a point, present a dice roll of some points to determine which direction the narrative goes, and then script and continue again while giving the players enough freedom of choice to determine where the story goes.

And I do have those big battles planned out. I have for awhile, but I'm realizing that mechanical statting is not my strong suit, and I should stop bashing my head on it trying to make it work. I am much more comfortable writing out the narrative and how ridiculous things can get, and I plan to lean more on that.

Not in Person said:
Something like this? Make a plan -> Roll between "Progress as expected"/"Worse"/"Better"/"How did that happen?"? With characters and circumstances influencing how much of a d6 (or a d8, etc) corresponds to each result? But that would only work for "base phase"...
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I'm strongly debating this one. Something like this as you pointed out would probably be best for investing in projects. Specific combat scenarios could probably work best with opposed dice rolls or different dice depending on severity and circumstance? I'm not sure yet, it's something I need to think about.

Not in Person said:
Anyway, I'd like to mention that the "Build-a-Robot" feeling of designing core units was THE THING. Maybe not the best part, maybe not the most interesting part, but it definitely scratched an itch where nothing else could.
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Agreed with you there. It wouldn't be the same quest without the process of designing and building your Super Robots, as that was one of the original points of the quest. What I do want to lean more into as well is giving the players a little more input in the development of other Super Robot projects as well (such as Ground Pound and the mad science fair you all inflicted on them referred to them.
 
Basarin said:
Specific combat scenarios could probably work best with opposed dice rolls or different dice depending on severity and circumstance? I'm not sure yet, it's something I need to think about.
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Have I mentioned yet how impressed I was by "Wushu" RPG system?

In summary, heroes could be up against a "non-treat" or against a "treat".

A "non-threat" is something that, narratively, we expect the heroes to defeat. It could be a bunch of mooks, or an unstable reactor that needs to be stabilized on time, or an important deadline, or anything else narratively appropriate that can't be awesome-d away in one move. The "non-threat" has a bunch of basically-hitpoints, and it deals one "hit" to every hero that's engaging with it (technically, makes the hero spend one action on "defend", but the hero can choose to attack more). When heroes roll for "fail/success" (or rather, in this system they always succeed, so they roll for how much success), then every success of every hero that's actively engaged with the "non-threat" removes some of those basically-hitpoints. When they all run out, the "non-threat" is gone in a narratively appropriate manner. Sometimes it's a "The last ninja hits the floor, and all of them who aren't dead choose to pretend they are", or sometimes it's a "The grizzly gets tired of your stupidity and leaves".

And when the heroes are against a "Threat", then it acts just like another hero, and rolls to attack/defend just like a hero would, but has much less basically-hitpoits, comparable to the heroes.
 
I like the idea of the mostly scripted as appropriate with light rolls for narrative chaos but (and this is speaking as someone that only caught this long after it's long break as best I remember and as such doesn't have the super attachment) this quest has...a lot of weight behind it. That story, that history, is a lot to try and work with. If done right it's great but it can also be tricky.

I don't think the idea of a reboot/spiritual successor/whathaveyou should be tossed out without good consideration.
 
I think it should. A lot of us are invested in seeing just how far these guys can go, after having been a part of seeing them finally reach the same stage as their various super robot contemporaries.
 
Not in Person said:
Have I mentioned yet how impressed I was by "Wushu" RPG system?
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I'll take a look at this, thanks!

I probably won't use it, but one system I've also grown attached to is the Sentinels Comics system, which revolves around the characters, the enemies, and the environment itself as active participants in a fight sequence. I'm just not sure it works quite so well for this particular genre (though naturally it fits right in for any superhero setting you please).

Lifeandlice said:
I like the idea of the mostly scripted as appropriate with light rolls for narrative chaos but (and this is speaking as someone that only caught this long after it's long break as best I remember and as such doesn't have the super attachment) this quest has...a lot of weight behind it. That story, that history, is a lot to try and work with. If done right it's great but it can also be tricky.

I don't think the idea of a reboot/spiritual successor/whathaveyou should be tossed out without good consideration.
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TehChron said:
I think it should. A lot of us are invested in seeing just how far these guys can go, after having been a part of seeing them finally reach the same stage as their various super robot contemporaries.
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I would agree with both of you, honestly. @Lifeandlice - hope you enjoyed the read through even if you missed the heydey when I had more time to dedicate to this. That weight and history you mention is why I want to continue this, and as @TehChron mentions: I'm as attached to these characters and stories as anyone, and I want to see how they succeed (or at least make spectacular explosions and dynamic entries in trying).

As for building Super Robots: if I go for primarily narrative functions, this will give that robot and its pilot (or Super AI) a lot more narrative flavor. But in a quest where it's mostly narrative in flow, that's going to matter a lot more. Sure, they can save the day, but they'll also need to grapple with the fact that their particular setup early on might not be the best matchup for their opponent (see: Beowulf vs. Bandit, Scrapheap and their drone mobs). Maybe lending advantage to situations (i.e. additional dice rolls) where their setup lets them exploit a weakness of some kind or press an advantage. (That said: this IS the Super Robot genre, and I fully expect the readers to choose whatever they think is the coolest. I'd have it no other way either!)

I have some research and thinking to do, it looks like. But I'm going to make this work!
 
Basarin said:
I would agree with both of you, honestly. @Lifeandlice - hope you enjoyed the read through even if you missed the heydey when I had more time to dedicate to this. That weight and history you mention is why I want to continue this, and as @TehChron mentions: I'm as attached to these characters and stories as anyone, and I want to see how they succeed (or at least make spectacular explosions and dynamic entries in trying)
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Oh don't get me wrong I had a blast with the quest and genuinely loved my time with it. It's simply that as I came in late enough that I was unable to participate I don't have the same attachment that it's creator or contributors do and don't want the good that a clean slate could do to go unnoticed.

I enjoy the ideas and concept without being overly attached to the particular history of this specific work while trusting that you could pull off similar fun with a new setting should a clean slate be what's really best. So I just want to make sure that all of the options are given their due consideration even if I'll be happy no matter what happens.
 
ObsidianNoir said:
@Basarin

Been looking through the thread for a reread and just saw that this omake of mine was never threadmarked lol
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I muat have missed it. I'll check again later! (I have a lot to review as is anyhow!)

Lifeandlice said:
I enjoy the ideas and concept without being overly attached to the particular history of this specific work while trusting that you could pull off similar fun with a new setting should a clean slate be what's really best. So I just want to make sure that all of the options are given their due consideration even if I'll be happy no matter what happens.
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That's fair enough. :) But I do plan to consider future quests along similar-ish lines. Just unsure of it as of now, and my preference is to bring these storylines (current and future) to a satisfying ending. :)
 
Im fine with Narrative with some Dice rolling or a new system. But I love this story and characters so I dont want to reboot if we cn help it especially now that weve build our core SR crew.
 
I have a selfish preference for doing new mechanics, but I'm not the one who would have to invent them. Absent that, narrative with some dice rolling where randomness is called for would be best.
 
Already thought there was too much granularity in the combat, with each mook unit getting rolled for in both offense and defense. It also sometimes resulted in rounds where nothing noteworthy really got accomplished by either side. So I'm down for only rolling the big stuff in favor of what's more narratively interesting.

I'm wary of the idea of an attempt at a spiritual successor quest, every quest reboot I've personally seen has always petered out.
 
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