Open out-of-character thread for the small group/co-op PbP.
@CountThalim
@MigRib
@Solodice
Feel free to comment on setting/theme/PCs you may want to run.
Anyone know of an easy way of uploading/linking character sheets? Copy/paste works, I guess, but a lot of data entry.
The usual file sharing (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) is what I’ve done to get character sheets from players. I just download them and place them in a separate folder if I need to reference them later.
I’d be interested in something more localized in settings and the same with characters. Say playing as Hexahedron agents, Imperial Agents, Moderator patrol team on Bakunin, or similar. However, I don’t mind playing as a Bureau Noir team or diverse party in general with characters from all over the human sphere.
After we get that down how are we doing character building? There’s two ways. Standard lifepath with 5 Life Points or an option for full point buy lifepath using 12 Life Points?
I have Google Drive/Docs, will configure.
I agree on a localized setting and characters - seems character gen is robust enough to support broadly divergent backgrounds within a fairly narrow Faction band, that allows for a targeted theme/setting. I’m a fan of the full point buy - perhaps we go that way in order to compensate for the narrowed focus?
I’m also a big fan of human, lightly transhuman max, sci-if settings. The gonzo and the alien are not exactly my jam. I’d like to throw that preference out there but, if outvoted, I can roll with it, no worries.
Though the default Infinity game is supposed to be an O12 team I think it probably works better better if the characters are within the same faction. Playing with the Wilderness of Mirrors may be interesting, but probably this is not the ideal medium for that. As for the character generation, I usually go for the 12 point option in all 2d20 games, but both options have their advantages.
Well there’s always Dawn… just got to deal with the warewolves.
As a setting as a whole transhumanism and deep interweaving of sci-fi tech in daily life are deep themes. However, the gonzo elements can be turned up or down depending on faction.
Even better with the faction sourcebooks which give a lot of choice even with playing within a single faction or even organization.
I guess an easy-ish way to sort out which way we’d like to go we could attach a value to the faction we’d most like to explore/play with. Say rank them from 10 to 1 (10 being the one you most likely want to see and so on) and add up the points at the end. One with most points is the way to go.
My list if we go that route (or any voting route really).
Yu Jing - 10
Aleph - 9
Nomads - 8
Submondo - 7
Haqqislam - 6
PanOceania - 5
O-12 - 4
Mercs/Bounty Hunters - 3
Combined Army - 2
Ariadna - 1
Left out Tohaa because we don’t have much to work with even with fluff from the wargame.
I’d agree having a single faction to anchor the party is the best way forward for now. it also makes it easier for the GM(s) as it provides an instant reason the party is staying together.
We can always rejig if we decide to expand this out later.
I kind of like the semi-random lifepaths personally. It helps set my characters off different routes I hadn’t thought of. For PbP though I agree that the simple points buy system works better.
My preferences are below, but again I can work with almost anything.
PanOceania - 10
Nomads - 9
Haqqislam - 8
Yu Jing - 7
Aleph - 6
O-12 - 5
Mercs/Bounty Hunters - 4
Submondo - 3
Combined Army - 2
Ariadna - 1
My preferences, though most of the list is quite Ok with me (I suppose Combined Army would be a bit strange to play, as I know very little about them):
PanOceania -10
Mercs - 9
O-12- 8
Ariadna - 7
Yu Jing - 6
Aleph - 5
Nomads - 4
Haqqislam - 3
Submondo - 2
Combined Army - 1
@CountThalim, if you like the 5LP chargen, I say go for it. Do they usually result in different PC power levels?
My list:
Submondo - 10
Yu Jing - 9
Mercs/Bounty Hunters - 8
Haqqislam - 7
Nomads - 6
O-12 - 5
PanOceania - 4
Ariadna - 3
Aleph - 2
Combined Army - 1
TOTALS
Yu Jing - 32
PanOceania - 29
Nomads - 27
Mercs/Bounty Hunters - 24
Haqqislam - 24
Aleph - 22
O-12 - 22
Submondo - 22
Ariadna - 12
Combined Army - 6
Yu Jing it is!
Not massively. In general you will lose more than you gain compared to points buy as people are more likely to purchase the better results and avoid things like being captured and tortured (-1 resolve) [though some of my group…]
There is a small chance of getting lucky and being able to roll multiple times on the table, but that can also be a double edged sword.
In general I like it as I normally only start with a hazy idea of my character and things like the life paths help me firm up their mind set before the game starts.
Neat. Got our faction. Now to decide on time frame as this has a big impact on YJ as a whole and Japanese characters. Do we want to play pre-Uprising where the Japanese are still apart of YJ or post-Uprising after they’ve split away? Both work but pre-Uprising makes it a bit easier for Japanese characters to work with other YJ characters.
I would go with pre-uprising. Probably go with the default initially and set the game in 67 NC.
The immediate threat of the Combined Army is held, Yu Jing & PanOceania are in the middle of new cold war that could flare at any point and tensions are rising within Yu Jing itself.
Plenty of hooks to go with and anyone watching only needs the core book to understand where we are now.
I’m fine with either since this is where my lore knowledge will fail me - I agree that having more options rather than less is good, so pre-uprising works for me.
I have a Korean PC built and ready to post. Will do that tomorrow.
Also, thoughts on overall theme: heists, political intrigue, military, police, espionage, smugglers? I realize some of that may be bleeding into other factions’ niche but throwing it out there. I’m down for any and all of it.
The police theme would be fun. Can even cross over into political intrigue and espionage if we want to get even more localized and do work within the Imperial Service (kind of a mix between old China magistrates, Stasi, and the FBI working with the authority of the Emperor). The Imperial Service route is still open for lots of character options even those that are criminals because they use them for info, blackmail, and as assets.
The political intrigue and espionage sounds like an interesting idea. I would have to read some more on Yu Jing politics, as I’ve put the game on hold some time ago, before they edited the faction sourcebook, but still I think it’s probably one of the best approaches to a Yu Jing based game of Infinity.
What I am seeing here is a ‘Special Investigations’ group drawn from across the Yu Jing Judicial Corps. Probably with a senior Imperial Agent (Crane Rank?) as the one who is in overall command and giving orders and missions. (i.e the Johnson equivalent)
Missions may involve tracking fugitives, investigating strange murders & events and even taking down Triad or foreign cells operating in Yu Jing territory. Of course you don’t hand normal investigations to an Imperial Agent to take control of…
Based on the above and from other suggestions in the Meta thread, I’ve a set-up and basic idea of a campaign in mind.
Should I post it and we brainstorm some structure around it? Post it with spoiler tags so those that want to co-op can? Or, anyone simply prefer that we get to it and I can shoot up a flare on structure as needed?
No pride of ownership here on my part and I’m no fan of railroad plots - happy to do what is most fun for everyone.
Yeah, a task force of the Imperial Service seems to be the way to go. Can be special investigations but could also be a grab bag from the Imperial Service for a task no one else wants or doesn’t think it’s going to work (kind of like The Wire season 1 team). Depends if we want to be the special ones or the scrappy investigators that no one believes in.
A small team like this would be under the purview of a Pheasant who reports to a Crane and/or a public procurator from a procuratorate office. Basically a public prosecutors office.
I say we can get to it and offer up as we go along. I’ll probably stick to lore details and general running of the PbP and stay clear of the structure.
I will offer some advice though. I find PbPs work best starting in medias res. Keeps things from being to stagnated at the beginning and the inertia from it is nice for players to roll with.
I’ll be following your lead for now. As I said before I never played PbP and don’t quite know how it works in pratical terms (kind of weird, since I’ve played RPG, on and off, for the last 30 years, but, well, never happened…). As for the Infinity setting I must refresh my knowledge, because I just GMed a few one shots about a year and a half ago and had decided to put it on hold until more sourcebooks were avaible. By the way, you guys seem to be quite knowlegeable about this setting: have GMed a lot of the RPG since it came out or you played the boardgame before?
Boardgame? Why good sir it is a tabletop miniature game! Lol.
Yes, I’ve been playing the miniature game since 2011. Haven’t played it frequently in the last 2 years but that’s on me. So I’ve known and read up on any setting info since 2011. The RPG has made it even better giving looks at things only hinted about in the miniature game fluff and dives into other areas that aren’t the battlefield or intelligence groups.
If you’re looking for how a PbP for Infinity might work I have two PbP games over at the Corvus Belli community forum. Not going to link them as this thread isn’t about them but they’re easily found under the Modiphius/RPG section there.
Oops, sorry! I’m exclusively a role player, I know the differences but I easily forget them.
I’ll check out the Corvus Belli forum. I haven’t been there for months, in the early days of the RPG there wasn’t much going on in that section.
Also, it seems the CB miniature game has a lot of fluff. I wonder if everything is covered by the Modiphius RPG or has anything significant been left over?
Need some lore advice. Mild spoiler alert.
Cube damage and/or tampering - how likely is it to get an immediate and overwhelming attention at high administrative levels?
Also, is there direct messaging functionality on the forum? If so, I can’t find it.