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Origins Game Fair (Columbus OH)
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jawa1138
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 06, 2015 2:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sounds amazing. I have always liked the Timothy Zahn Thrawn trilogy and to be honest with some of the other authors who released Star Wars books during that time that were so horrible that I can't remember any bad parts of the Thrawn books. Kevin J Anderson might be part of the reason that I almost gave up Star Wars collecting completely.

As for FFG Star Wars, I was turned off as soon as I saw the custom dice and I have not seen or read anything to date that has changed my mind.

When you say you played Serenity did they use the old Serenity rules or the new Firefly game. I have everything made for Serenity and the beta rules for Firefly but I don't have a game group mature enough to really give the role play experience that I think the game needs to be successful.
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jawa1138
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 06, 2015 3:02 pm    Post subject: Re: Origins Report Reply with quote

Whill wrote:
jawa1138 wrote:
Do any of you go to Con on the Cob, which I think is in Akron or that area during October?

I've never been or heard of it, but cynanbloodbane lives closer.


www.cononthecob.com

I didn't see much of a game schedule up yet, but I like the concept of the con. It feels more like a gaming, cosplay, musical collection of nerdy weirdness. It's just an hour from me and I would be able to commute every day.
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Whill
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 06, 2015 5:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

jawa1138 wrote:
Kevin J Anderson might be part of the reason that I almost gave up Star Wars collecting completely.

Yeah, I was talking about that with Cynanbloodbane last night. KJA's The Jedi Academy trilogy was horrible. I don't know why I kept reading it to the end.

jawa1138 wrote:
I have always liked the Timothy Zahn Thrawn trilogy and to be honest with some of the other authors who released Star Wars books during that time that were so horrible that I can't remember any bad parts of the Thrawn books.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed all three Heir to the Empire Trilogy books... all the way to very end of The Last Command. I really didn't have a problem with Mara Jade being an overtly clichéd red-haired green-eyed amalgamation of Luke, Han, Leia and Vader, and a perfect Mary Sue outside of her brainwashed obsession with killing Luke Skywalker. I also didn't have a problem with her killing Luke's clone to satisfy her "You will kill Luke Skywalker" programming. However, I despise the fact that the Joruus C'baoth climax of the book completely marginalized our classic film trinity of heroes for Mara Jade to also defeat C'baoth and be the ultimate hero of the novel trilogy (along with another Zahn original character, the Nogri Rukh who killed Thrawn). Luke himself, or Luke with Han and Leia's help, should have destroyed the dark Jedi clone, not Mara Jade, a mere supporting character. With Mara Jade overcoming her single character flaw thus obtaining complete Mary Sue perfection, and then immediately afterward destroying the big bad evil Force user of the story while Luke, Han and Leia watched helplessly from the sidelines, Mara Jade effectively usurped the film characters in status, but not until right at the very end of the story. I despise narcissistic authors elevating their own characters above the franchise characters (especially with perfect Mary Sues). Now it would have been different if Mara Jade was a dynamic character and had been written to be the primary protagonist of the Heir to the Empire Trilogy throughout all three novels, with the classic trinity only being supporting characters all along, but they weren't. From a literary perspective, Zahn pulled a dramatic bait-and-switch at the very end of the story, and it seems to me that Star Wars fans must have a very different appreciation for the classic film trilogy than I do if they are ok with that. After absolutely loving the entire Heir to the Empire Trilogy, the climax of the story was such a huge disappointment.

jawa1138 wrote:
As for FFG Star Wars, I was turned off as soon as I saw the custom dice and I have not seen or read anything to date that has changed my mind.

The FFG SW dice alone make WotC SW look like effin' Candy Land.

jawa1138 wrote:
When you say you played Serenity did they use the old Serenity rules or the new Firefly game? I have everything made for Serenity and the beta rules for Firefly but I don't have a game group mature enough to really give the role play experience that I think the game needs to be successful.

Thanks for asking - I had intended to bring that up but forgot. It was the original Serenity RPG (Cortex), not the newer Firefly edition (Cortex Plus). I have everything for the original Serenity RPG line except the GM screen, but hadn't gotten the newer revised Firefly edition yet. My college buddy who runs Serenity a lot bought the new Firefly core book and said they totally ruined the game system with unnecessary changes and over-complications, so he is sticking with the original version of the game (with maybe only very few minor revisions). Unless I can find a very cheap copy of the new edition of the core book, I don't think I will bother buying it. There is a new supplement for it called Smugglers Guide to the Rim, so I may get that someday if the price is right. I mainly have the game as inspiration for Star Wars smuggler campaigns. Since you have the beta of the new core rules, what do you think of the new Firefly game system?

Cynanbloodbane loves the Firefly/Serenity franchise too but hasn't played the game yet. Last night I told him he needs to play Serenity next year, so Jawa you should too. I have no interest in playing WotC SW and FFG SW ever again, but I will play Serenity again, especially if you guys do.
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 08, 2015 12:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the praise Whill.. I liked having some pitters to GM for.
Here is hoping i see you at Gencon, and maybe even more of our fellow pitters!
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jawa1138
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 08, 2015 9:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Honestly, I got the Firefly beta book on the day it was released and really just skimmed it. Like I said I don't feel I have the right players for Serenity/Firefly, and our current game group is doing very well with classic D&D, and we are expanding into Star Wars and Gamma World(tsr) so most of my other games are collecting dust. But I will skim it over again and let you know what I feel about it.

I am all for playing a Serenity game at the con next year. I also might be bringing friends from my other gaming group who are exactly the right types of players for Serenity.
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Whill
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 08, 2015 7:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cool.

garhkal wrote:
Here is hoping i see you at Gencon, and maybe even more of our fellow pitters!

Gencon is very likely not happening for me this year. I would like to go, someday. I hear it's even bigger than Origins, and Origins is huge!

garhkal wrote:
Thanks for the praise Whill.

I really do wish we had more time for the adventure. And we may not always agree on everything, but I do admire your mind for game mechanics.

I remember you mentioning that Sparks has had difficult adventures that required a minimum number of sheets (very experienced PCs). Would it be possible for next year for Sparks to do the opposite at Origins? To have some adventures that have a low maximum # of sheets, like 2 sheets or less? That would not only address the common complaint of mixing high and low level PCs together in the same adventure, but it may also encourage some new players getting started with Sparks (a marketing point). Some of us would appreciate it if you could bring it up to the council, and maybe even offer to design or adapt the adventures too. Thank you for your consideration.
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jawa1138
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 09, 2015 12:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

OH, crud. I didn't realize I said Gencon instead of Origins. Everytime I think of game cons, Gencon pops to mind and I was in a hurry. So, I meant Origins.
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 09, 2015 12:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Whill wrote:


I remember you mentioning that Sparks has had difficult adventures that required a minimum number of sheets (very experienced PCs). Would it be possible for next year for Sparks to do the opposite at Origins? To have some adventures that have a low maximum # of sheets, like 2 sheets or less? That would not only address the common complaint of mixing high and low level PCs together in the same adventure, but it may also encourage some new players getting started with Sparks (a marketing point). Some of us would appreciate it if you could bring it up to the council, and maybe even offer to design or adapt the adventures too. Thank you for your consideration.


I will raise your concerns.
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jawa1138
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 09, 2015 8:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

garhkal wrote:
Whill wrote:


I remember you mentioning that Sparks has had difficult adventures that required a minimum number of sheets (very experienced PCs). Would it be possible for next year for Sparks to do the opposite at Origins? To have some adventures that have a low maximum # of sheets, like 2 sheets or less? That would not only address the common complaint of mixing high and low level PCs together in the same adventure, but it may also encourage some new players getting started with Sparks (a marketing point). Some of us would appreciate it if you could bring it up to the council, and maybe even offer to design or adapt the adventures too. Thank you for your consideration.


I will raise your concerns.


I was very intrigued with Sparks after reading about it here. I would love to give it a try at the next Origins (got it right this time). I agree with Whill though and would like to play in an adventure that is geared toward newer characters.
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 09, 2015 5:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

POint has been raised and its already stirred up three comments on it..

Quote:
Stephen Tucker
Today at 11:40 AM
We don't have anything like that beyond playing in the older numbers is a better chance of avoiding higher sheet characters (i.e. me). Communication to players in general that the newer modules will attract higher sheet characters should be considered all the time or standard.

I don't know if we can have a module specifically restricted to lower sheets (set a max sheet), but we could easily set a scheduled run of ANY module for lower sheet characters. This would be more similar to what was done for a kid's table at Vernecon. They actually played in one of the standard Sparks modules with add on concept and story to make it a school field trip. We could come up with some notation to use at 'bigger' conventions (Origins, Gencon, etc.) or at smaller conventions WHEN requested (my concern is for smaller conventions we don't get a lot of new players, so this would be hard or limited unless we new so many were coming). One thought is that if you have 3 or more Sparks tables in the same slot that you could take one of them and run as the 'Low Tier' table. This could be done through communication when there is an older module that is not requested by a higher sheet character to play. Also keep in mind that high sheet characters can always reduce their tier if they choose to.

Currently we do this by word of mouth recommendation during marshaling (this may not be the best table for a new character, but that one would work).

I like this as an option for conventions with 'sufficient' tables to advertise one as 'Low Tier'.

Thoughts?


Quote:
andrewh2004
Today at 12:33 PM
actually really like the idea

It might give authors more creative input even on the table design for things like seminars, like I was thinking about the other day about the guidelines for NPCs and how like someone with 10D in a skill might be considered 1 in 100,000,000 I think according to the core book. So for players that have over 10D then they wouldn't be sent on "run of the mill" missions but rather tasks appropriate to their nature.

I don't think I would want to do it all the time but I could see the benefit.


Quote:
Stephen Tucker
Today at 3:04 PM
Another quick thought concerning tiering:

The generic tiering works pretty well, but events are usually not balanced well unless you do separate blocks of stats. With this concept all of the existing modules are fine, but potentially going forward it would not be hard to use a block of stats (cut/paste) for 'Low Tier' tables that you know won't go up as high. This would allow the author to widen out skill balance and then allow the generic tiering to apply to the standard or the 'Low Tier'. And as a benefit even if not running a 'Low Tier' only table if you have only low sheet players by happenstance, the judge can utilize that stat block. In general though not much needs to be done from an author perspective. This would be just setting some guidelines to apply, how to communicate the event for conventions that sell tickets, and when to schedule it appropriately (not when there is only 1 table running, etc.).

Thanks.

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PostPosted: Tue Jun 09, 2015 8:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks, Garhkal. Keep up posted!

garhkal wrote:
Here is hoping i see you at Gencon, and maybe even more of our fellow pitters!

jawa1138 wrote:
OH, crud. I didn't realize I said Gencon instead of Origins. Everytime I think of game cons, Gencon pops to mind and I was in a hurry. So, I meant Origins.

I don't think you said Gencon. garhkal is travelling to Gencon, and was hoping I was going too.

I appreciate that most of you guys have to travel to come to Origins (or Gencon). As far as I know, garhkal and I are the only currently active Rancor Pit guys in central Ohio. Origins is doable for me because I am local and don't need to get a hotel room. Heck, if I could put some of you up, I would, but I just don't have the room.
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jawa1138
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 3:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm only an hour and half away. I wouldn't mind the back and forth with the exception of missing out on the night life of the con.

Next year I might get a hotel room for one or two nights depending on what sort of mischief is scheduled for those evenings and then just commute the other days, if I can make it to all of them.
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 6:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

jawa1138 wrote:
I'm only an hour and half away. I wouldn't mind the back and forth with the exception of missing out on the night life of the con.

Next year I might get a hotel room for one or two nights depending on what sort of mischief is scheduled for those evenings and then just commute the other days, if I can make it to all of them.

Whatever you can arrange, the more the better. cynanbloodbane, garhkal and myself are pretty much certainties for Origins for next year, so we will definitely have to work out some concrete plans for in and after con activities so you can plan your hotel and travel schedule. I think garhkal may do three events some days or every day which means early am to late pm marathon days. cynanbloodbane and I don't do the early am stuff anymore because we're just not morning gamers. 8)
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Whill
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 12:49 am    Post subject: Origins 2016 Reply with quote

The next Origins is June 15-19, 2016. The website says, "Look for pre-registration for Origins 2016 to open in the fall of 2015." They are doing pre-registration early for next year.
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 1:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Whill. WE had the discussion about the 'low tier' tables this afternoon for our Pre=Gencon council meeting. It surprisingly went well. What we are looking to do, is for our 2 larger cons (origins and gencon since they have 3+ tables each slot), is to designate one of those tables in some of those slots as a 'lower tier' game only.
HOWEVER, if not enough players with low tier characters show up, then those who are there, might have to play with 1-2 higher tier (10+) characters to round the table out.
They went with Origins and gencon only, cause at least those cons get more 'walk ins' than the others we attend.

When the meeting minutes for this comes out, i will post the fullness of it here.

OK!
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