DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Front of House Play-by-Post Game Studio Genre Surveys Q2 2012 Genre Survey

Ooooooh, back in time we go, six months to Q4 2011!!

http://www.dreamlyrics.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=554243#Post554243

As always Supers was showing strong, and this sparked a debate on why Supers games are so popular, yet never last long.

Post-Apocalypse also made a strong showing, mirroring the trend in post-apocalypse fiction seen in other media.

The survey seemed to spawn a couple of Supers "with a twist" games, one of which was a twist of Post-Apocalypse. So what might this quarter's survey spawn?

What trends have you noticed? What trends do you predict?

ahhhh...too many choices....and looking at that list I think "other" is the only type of game I'm not currently in and a few a cross genre...so I'm picking other, and really it's only because the one I want is even officially published yet and the would be the Valdemar setting (but they are working on it!)

To answer the question above, about Supers games being of interest but never lasting long, IMO, Supers games are self-limiting. You create pc X with powers Y. You play him and user powers Y for a little while and then, what? It becomes repetitive, and ultimately boring. In other game systems your powers are constantly growing and changing, making it fresh.

There was a game or two that tried to start with the players first discovering their powers, so that they'd grow into them and pick up new things to try to make it fresh, but it took too long in on-line play to get anywhere. Who wants to play for 2-3 years of real-time before you get to do anything?

As always, I could be wrong. It is just one man's opinion.

Hey, take a look at the Wild Card world. It was by no means self-limiting. Martin and the others just introduced multiple plot-lines, skipping from Bloat's Island to the Jumpers to Hartmann's election, and ran with that. A tour of the 3rd World/Middle East. A tour of Latin America. These various scenarios allowed for bad supers, good supers, good-bad supers, and Jokers. Mercenaries and Fanatics. I think supers games end up self-limiting because the GMs don't plan for anything after an introductory encounter.
Supers GMs are great starters and poor finishers.

I personally think the Joker concept is brilliant, and allows for a great deal more character evolution and teamwork. Nobody is allowed a Joker mutation that lets them be both powerful and flexible and easy to get along with. And it's not that hard to pull off. With only a couple of exceptions, even some of the most powerful Aces are really just Jokers with a little extra. Like the Turtle, like Bubbles, Modular Man,

If you want your game to succeed, require more limiting character creations. The "a little of everything" , "just strong enough to be a super-athlete" types should be s***-canned.

I think a JOKERS game would be almost guaranteed success, as long as the GM can keep the PCs on point, and moving forward on a mission, and allows them room and time to evolve socially.

Nicki

I picked "Other".

I'd love a game based on Shaenon Garrity's Narbonic labs series.

I don't understand either why supers fade away. Let's face it there isn't much difference between supers and D&D characters, or Supers and LVV characters. But that game goes on for a long time. It just seems that as soon as you have 'super' powers, everybody focuses on just the powers, nothing else. Which gets boring quickly. The games that have lasted focus on the people, who happen to have powers. I think living in a normal world with powers that you can't always use is more interesting to write about than what you can do with the powers.

Very true Nivek. My own Supers games have tended to last a year or more. Maybe 30,000 to 40,000 posts total. Some, like MUR, had a planned scenario and ended naturally at the end of it. In many cases it is also that the players expect the GM to do all of the heavy lifting and just want to be spoon fed and so when it becomes too much work the GM closes it. It is better when it is a collaborative effort between the player and GM.

What always succeeded for me in FTF Supers was getting the players into some sort of competition. On opposite sides, or on the same side but seeking some sort of prize. Then arrange it so any success involves teamwork among the various groups, through judicious use of appropriately powered bad guys.

I insisted on elaborate character backgrounds and emphasized RP over action. Worked pretty well, and since I preferred Champions, you still got to break out the double-handful of damage dice from time to time, which satisfied that urge to smash something.

More and more Nicki, it sounds like you should be running a supers game for us

I have half a dozen ideas in various states of disrepair, none of which look like long term keepers. Yet. As soon as I think I have something I can keep going, I'll put it up there.

Be thinking about characters between low Aces and Jokers or a mix thereof. I might insist on the players running one of each, and then mix them up so they have a character in each of the opposing camps. Hmmm ... that sounds like a *very* good idea...

I am now making a vampire-repellant cross with my forefingers, and pointing it at Nivek <g>...

Hey! What did I do?

What haven't you done?

Vampire-hunter game. Nivek, you're it.

LOL Now I know you guys are sniffing glue again.

Valdemar = Fantasy
Narbonic Labs = Pulp? It's pulpish

Anyway, I didn't mean to start the Supers debate again here. I think that one will go round and round.

My personal feeling is that Supers stories just aren't that interesting when you write them up. Frankly, most super hero story arcs are mediocre at best. (Everyone has their favourites, of course.)

Nope, I think making a message game play like a comic book is a hiding to nothing. Better to take a conventional RPG adventure, adapt it for super heroes, see where it gets you.

Anyway, trends. Nicki said the V-word. Now here's another undead trend that hasn't made it to DreamLyrics, along with zombie apocalypse, pop vampires is also a sub-genre that hasn't tickled anyone's fancy.

Are other media meeting the demand?

Tell a good story and I'll play anything.

Well, we have had a history of vampire games here in the past and Phoenix Prime is running one now called JAD.

I started to run a zombie apocolypse one about three or so years ago but of the people that signed up, only one posted with any regularity and the game died. I think a zombie one run as a scenario with a definitive end to it would be doable here. I just want some one else to run it so that I can play in it!

Pop vampires?? Have you SEEN what passes as a vampire these days? The travesty! The horror! Brooding sparkly teenagers (because oh yes the world needs more of those). Heck, I'd put up with Tom Cruise as Lestat again before that (and that was yet another horrid miscasting)

But how do you really feel Pam?

Aye, ividia, that's exactly what I call a pop vampire. Do they even have teeth these days? (They sure as hell don't do any bodice-ripping. I remember a time back in the day when a vampire flick was a dead cert for boobage.)

I wouldn't go near a zombie game myself, I'm so over-exposed to zombie fiction it's turned my s*** white! Pardon my French, but seriously, enough already!

In a break from the norm, I haven't voted for Historical, but rather Fantasy. Or rather Dark Fantasy. A recent read through the bloody Gotrek & Felix, The First Omnibus and given me the urge to face madness-inducing horrors of the void with naught but an axe, loincloth and bad attitude.

Niv...

Edward meets Buffy. The End.

BOOBAGE for the win!

I wouldn't mind something different. With the usual caveats. Good story, reasonable pace, not too many people.

I prefer...

And we really don't mind if she is collateral damage....

One quick swing, two glorious deletions from the gene pool. Now that I can get behind.

The love child of Edward and Bella.

don't insult Eddie Munster!

That's because we're all over 12 here, or at least we all claim to be.

I think that the problem with supers games is that they tend not to be character driven. Comics books are mostly about fighting not about having conversations.

Back in the day when I ran champions FTF I always had conflicts between the players who wanted to role-play and interact with both NPCs and villains and the ones who just wanted to throw twenty or thirty six-sideds.

I still remember the giant RL argument we had when one player objected to another player carrying a 'normal' though an intact brick wall and defending himself by saying his PC knew it wouldn't kill her, that she'd just be stunned. <that was role-playing vs gaming mentality at its most dramatic>

Even when I was under 12 those would not have appealed. I was always a fan of Christopher Lee.

Jonathan Frid.

Bela, followed by Lee and Caradine.

Well you guys aren't exactly young girls

Both my daughters (17 and 29 at the time) absolutely loved them. Read all the books over and over and over again.

Lee then Gary Oldman....and Butler, just cause....

Niv, your daughters need therapy.

Mmmm... yes, Gary Oldman.

James Marsters. Now, THERE is a vampire. For ME. Rawr.

I liked the Twilight series. Maybe I am 12?

That's why we have all kinds of things out there. Clearly a lot of people loved the series. Some people hate Harry Potter, some love it. <shrug>

Who remembers Dark Shadows? I heard they're making a movie.

They are courtesy of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp is Barnabas. We even have some stills already.

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/John...t-Official-Dark-Shadows-Photo-26902.html

And just saw the the original Barnabas has passed. http://www.masslive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2012/04/jonathan_frid_played_barnabas.html

JONATHAN FRID!!!

DARK SHADOWS!

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

Oooh, and now Johnny Depp. A few weeks ago, I was talking to my fellow Dark Shadows geek and grade school best friend about meeting in Cleveland to see it together. That would have been TOO cool! But we've settled on going to see the movie in our respective towns at approximately the same time on the same day. And Jonathan Frid has a bit part in the new movie.

Oh, and that's sad about Frid. But dying on Friday the 13th? He planned that. Ok, maybe not. But *I* would have.

I remember Dark Shadows as a kid, but the movie looks most definitely like a comedy. I don't remember it being a comedy back then.

No, it was definitely not a comedy. I believe the movie is more of a parody... a loving tribute, yes... but still a parody.

It is definitely more like the Munsters from the trailers. I am not sure I will see it in the theater because it isn't what Dark Shadows was. I am sure it will be funny, but not what I wanted. Oh well that is why I have Netflix.

Hey Kel, Cheeky and I had a nice talk with James Marsters at Mid-Ohio Con last fall. Really nice guy. Actually had time to talk with his fans instead of just signing and onto the next person. Oh, and Cheeky pretty much feels the same way you do about him.

He had a nice story about when he was guest starring on Torchwood. His girlfriend at the time was directing the episode and in that episode, he had a scene where he shared a passionate kiss with John Barrowman. He was a bit worried about it at the time and the moment of the kiss comes up and they knock it out of the park, very sexy kiss between the two men, and he goes up to his girlfriend after she yells cut and he asks, well, how was it?

She looks at him and says "Hot... do it again."

I have GOT to watch this Torchwood thing... especially that episode. No, especially all of it, since Kahallan's character pic on the Clarke is Captain Jack. Dang, all the PC (and even some of the NPC) guys on the Clarke (well, the humans anyway) are HAWT... even Moira's big brother.

Torchwood is a great series to watch Kel. You can watch it on Netflix streaming if you have it.

Of course I do. The problem is scheduling the time to watch it.

The first two seasons are great... The last two seasons have been essentially mini series that told one story, and were a little uneven. One thing I've got to say for it, they are NOT afraid to kill off main characters. Great stuff!

Ah, this reminds me of where I originally posted that Blade/Twilight joke.

http://www.leanerminds.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=20&p=145#p145

Huh, the Varla/Luke Cage hybrid I came up with was a great idea for an LXG: Post-Nuclear character! I'll have to revisit that setting some day.

***

Meanwhile, Fantasy genre always gets votes, there's always a demand, and usually we gloss over it because there are more unconventional message game genres to discuss. But so far in this survey, Fantasy is polling as the clear favourite.

What Fantasy do you have an appetite for? Do you have a particular game/campaign setting in mind?

As Pam mentioned in the very first comment, Valdemar has always been a setting that has a great deal of appeal, followed closely by Bradley's pre-Recontact Darkover. On the other hand, as much as I love McCaffrey's world of Pern, I've never been particularly interested in playing a game based on that universe. There hasn't been any other fantasy setting that's stuck in my mind well enough to care about.

Well, except for Tolkein... and I always have an irrational urge to bash hobbits over the head. Huh.

I must admit, as much as I like reading high concept fantasy settings like Darkover, Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy, etc., I find when playing, there's something more accessible about traditional D&D-inspired settings. I suppose they feel less restrictive because they're designed for the players to muck about in and make a mess of.

Yeah, I always wanted to play in the world of Greyhawk. I loved those colored maps when they came out with those odd names. Wanted to come from the Kingdom of Keoland or Geoff.

I've always had a hankering to play or run a game where today's modern technology (telephones, automobiles, medicine/pharmacy, electricity, weaponry, etc.) was the magical treasure that adventurers find in a medieval setting. The gods are people that traveled back in time. Kinda like Conan meets G.I. Joe.

Aye. That popped up a few times in the Mystara setting, but they never expanded on it. Dangerous territory for a D&D setting, I suppose.

I ran a Greyhawk Campaign world once upon a time. Last time I played in it was Neal's TVS game though.

Speaking of which, sure would be great to see that sequel

years ago i had considered running a Pern game.

and some 'way-back machine' kind of D&D basic always has a level of appeal to me.... Keep on the Borderlands. that brings back memories when role-playing was new to me.

I think I still have that module

i know i do- i have a big collection of old D&D and AD&D modules. i also bought the complete B1-B9 'in search of adventure' combo book.

I have enough AD&D and D&D modules, that if I decided to run face-to-face, every day, I might be done after a few years.

Because I need to tell you what it is ...

A Bordertown game ... a Neverwhere type game ...

Man, you guys are persistent!

Taking Wolf's examples, modern fantasy is a subgenre that's developed in interesting ways. On the one hand you have the folkloric angle, like Bordertown, The War of the Flowers, Fables, etc., and then there's the slightly more popular cult/sci-fi angle of Kraken, Neverwhere, Unknown Armies, that sort of thing.

Can anyone remember that d20 Modern setting, with the gnoll pimps? I think that was the most literal interpretation of modern fantasy I've ever seen. Similar to Shadowrun.

Hmm I remember a GRUPS book Goblins I think it was called where it was Victorian Steampunk type setting and everyone played a goblin. They were scheming, underhanded, blankity blanks. But it was a fun read.

Ah, here we go! It was called Urban Arcana apparently.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_Arcana