tberton

Blue Jays going to the ALCS again! Cannot believe that the Red Sox got swept though.

I think it's funny that Nick brought up Resident Evil 4 as an example of an old game without crafting or upgrades or stats, since that game had stats for the guns, upgrades and (albeit very rudimentary) crafting. So I guess nick needs to play RE4 again?

"What do you do?" is actually a common technique in all Powered by the Apocalypse games, or at least the ones I've read. It's a really useful tool to remind yourself that the thing that matters is the players action - as the GM all you're doing is describing things to give players context, inspiration and pressure for their actions.

Re: Friends at the Table, you should know that around episode 10 of Counter/Weight (the cyberpunk arc) they switch to a different game (keeping the same characters and setting). They're more comfortable with that one, so things move a bit faster. That said, the decisions are never automatic, but personally, I like hearing the gears turn in the players minds, because making decisions on the fly is the fun of roleplaying games.

It did go! And it went well! Highlights: The quirks of random name generation resulted in us having two characters named Spectre Zero (MechaTofuPirate's Infiltrator) and Zen Zero (a corporate spy), which led us to determine that there's a BBS called Zero Hour where all the cool wannabe spies get in touch and everyone needs to have Zero in their handle to be allowed in. Random name generation also gave us a character named Aaron Fear, which I'm pretty happy about. There was a meeting in a dark alley between a frightened corporate employee and a hoard of cats, led by Twig's TV-headed Once-Cat. And thefncrow's Driver wants to be a pirate. So yeah, pretty great.

Perilous Wilds is a really good Dungeon World add-on, but unfortunately it's not in this sale. Monsterhearts is at the top of my "want to play" list and probably the most universally-praised PbtA game, as far as I'm aware. The only thing keeping me from picking up the PDF for $6 is that there's a second edition on the way. Fellowship seems really cool, a much more Lord of the Rings-style game than Dungeon World where the GM is put in the Sauron-type role an is explicitly antagonistic toward the PCs. I really want try it out.

DriveThruRPG is having a sale on Powered by the Apocalypse games.

Yup! I sent a private message with the link to the Roll20 game.

Cool, earlier in the day works for me too. Would 2PM EDT work?

Yeah, I wish I could have bought the physical book, but had to make do with the PDF.

Oh, afternoon works fine for me too. I just did an evening time because that's what most of you put as your availability in the Google doc.

The use the same baseline, so you'll be familiar with how Moves work, the "roll 2d6 +stat" system and fictional positioning, but there are a few significant differences, most notably in how enemies work and the experience/leveling system. I'm going to set up the game in Roll20 now, but I wanted to confirm what time works for everybody. We'll be playing on Saturday the 24th. Most of you said evenings would be best, so does 6PM EDT work?

Oh man, can't believe I didn't think about that, since I love Invisible, Inc. Also, if you guys want to just entirely base your characters on the Invisible, Inc characters, I wouldn't argue. EDIT: OOOH SHIT, Masks, the teenage superhero game that is at the top of my "most want to play" list is now available for purchase! And on sale!

I agree that the Matrix rules are a hair overcomplicated, but remember that Apocalypse World itself has a whole set of case-specific Battle Moves, so having a subset of less often used moves isn't unprecedented. I also think it helps that you basically answer the question of "Are we using the Matrix moves?" in character creation (or by taking an advancement) which means the GM and the players are always very clear as to whether or not those moves are part of their game. I'm loving these character ideas. I think the choice of Fixer has sold me on the Once-Cat. A cat who knows all the right people.

For sure. On reading the PDF, it's really not that complicated. I just wanted to avoid the "hey, here's some extra rules, you figure it out, I'll play a cat" problem. Not saying Twig was doing that, I just wanted to be clear about my apprehensions. I don't think there's any specific references to holograms in the book, but there is a full virtual-reality Matrix that all information technology is linked up to, so holograms make total sense to me. On that note, anybody who wants to play a Hacker (or kit another Playbook to jack in to the Matrix) be aware that the Matrix rules add another layer of complexity to the game. They're cool and fun and I'll help you through it, but it will be a little bit more upfront work to get your head around it.

Okey doke, we'll leave the option open then!

Twig, do you actually have your heart set on being a Once-Cat? If you are, that's cool, I'm looking over the PDF now and it seems interesting. It's just my preference not to add in more rules when we're all new to the game (I've played it but not GMed), so unless it's something you really want to do and you're willing to bear a bit of that rules burden, I'd rather stick with the core game.

Good questions! I think The Sprawl lends itself best to a broadly gritty, serious take on cyberpunk. Of course, humour and levity sneak in, but The Sprawl's not really about madcap hijinks. It's always going to be about a world ruled by corporate hijinks and the characters are always going to be cybernetically-modified professionals doing jobs for those Corps. That is, barring significant hacking, which I don't think is appropriate for a one-shot in which most of us haven't played the game before. My main touchstone for cyberpunk is Android: Netrunner, which is heavily Gibson and Stephenson inspired, so that will probably be what I lean on. Incidentally, my preference is that the game take place in a real-world city, but I'm not married to that idea. As for character concepts, we'll take about an hour at the beginning of the session to create the Corps and characters (maybe a little bit longer since we've got 5 PCs). That will definitely go faster if everybody comes in with a basic idea or two about what characters they want to play. I'd like for everybody to have an idea of the Playbook they want (and maybe a back up if your choice clashes with somebody else). A basic character concept will help too, but leave it vague enough that it can be embellished by the other players. So, for instance, maybe your concept is "A Reporter who is a recently-succesful YouTube personally and thinks he's more important than he actually is", but leave vague the details of why he's famous, who he's worked for and what YouTube is exactly like in this world. So yeah, one or two ideas for what Playbook you want and a one or two sentence character concept should be plenty.

Yeah, I prefer video, because it's valuable to be able to use non-verbal cues (especially being able to tell if somebody wants to talk), but if folks are uncomfortable with video or don't have webcams, that's fine.

Ha! I suppose I meant voice or voice+video. I was also thinking we'd use Roll20 with Google Hangouts. So it would be a good idea to make a Roll20 account.

I would like voice or video.

That should be alright, as long as it doesn't cause too much scheduling difficulty. I don't think we've got any more room after that though - 5 players is a lot. Does the weekend of September 24 work for folks?

Cool! Is there a weekend sometime soon that works for people?

So would Gorm, Vulpes, Twig and maybe MechaTofuPirate be interested in a one-shot of The Sprawl with the possibility of it turning into something bigger?

So I finally finished this book and listened to the episode! Gerat job Chris and Sarah, I really enjoyed that discussion. I have so many thoughts, I had to take notes, but now I've lost them so I hope I get to everything I wanted to say. First off, I loved this book. I think it might be my favourite of the four Munro books I've read, or maybe tied for first with Lives of Girls and Women. Speaking of which, I think that book's in need of a bit of defense. Sarah said on the podacst that it's the least well-regarded of Munro's books , which for all I know is true, but it's still really good. I believe it was the book that first made her famous. Sarah says that maybe it doesn't work as well because it's a novel, but I think calling Lives of Girls and Women a novel is misrepresentative. Yes, every story follows one character through her youth in one small town, but they don't feel like chapters in a novel, they feel like short stories. That is, there's not really an arc or throughline between them, other than what the reader can infer. The stories have their own rhythm and don't necessarily follow from each other, similar to the Juliet stories in Runaway. Anyway, it's really good and well worth reading, especially for lovers of Munro. I was surprised to hear Chris say that he didn't think of these stories as particularly being about women, or at least that it wasn't the first thing that came to mind for him. Perhaps it's because I first read Munro in university and we talked a lot about the gender dynamics of her stories, but I see gender everywhere in these stories. It's not only that they all focus on women, but that they all focus on aspects of those women's lives that are heavily linked to gender: marriage, romance, childbirth, parenthood. None of these stories would be at all the same if the protagonists weren't women, which the possible exception of "Trespasses", although even there, the scenes between Lauren and Delphine would probably be very different if Lauren weren't a girl. However, they do feel more like stories "about people" than "about women" and I think that's one of their strengths and maybe what Chris was getting at when he said they felt universal. As a man reading these stories, I don't think "oh man, these characters have experiences completely different to mine." Instead, I'm struck by how relatable they are - the feeling of being a child with a cool adult friend, or having an entrancing first encounter with somebody that you don't want to end, or the tension in the room when you know your parents are going to fight. These are all things I've felt and seeing them be described through the eyes of women - who also are going through all sorts of things that I can't precisely relate to - makes those characters deeper and more real. This relates, I think, about what both of you were saying about all these stories and characters being very similar and yet each one still feeling fresh and revealing. Because while Munro goes back to a lot of the same ideas - smart quiet girls, overconfident men, romance that's at best quietly satisfactory - each story also has something description that rings true outside of what might be seen as the "main" action. "Passion," for instance, really captures the feeling of magical summers in rich rural Ontario, after dinner family games and nights by the water. "Trespasses" describes the feeling of watching your parents about to fight and not knowing what to do about it better than anything I've ever read. These variations stop the stories from feeling rote or predictable. Also, while I think it's true that Munro's protagonist's are all very similar, one thing I like is the variety of ages she puts them in. In this collection, I think we see women in every decade of their lives, up to I guess their seventies or eighties. That's another thing that I think that creates variation between them. On the thing about the trees: I have a lot of family that grew up in mid-century, small town Ontario and they can definitely point out all sorts of trees. It's totally a thing. I think it's funny that my favourite stories - "Silence" and "Tricks" - seemed to correspond with your least favourites. "Tricks" I liked because I'm a sucker for those "Before Sunrise" type stories of people meeting and having fleeting romances and having that wrapped in the concept of yearly visits to the Stratford Festival really resonated with me. Also, that ending was really surprising, because Munro doesn't usually end stories like that. It was as though O'Henry dropped in to ghostwrite it. But having that sort of twist in a story that was also full of Munro's trademark descriptions and relationships and quiet melancholy felt really refreshing. "Silence" I loved because I've read few stories that have provoked such a visceral emotional reaction in me. The idea of a child just completing abandoning their parent like that is completely unfathomable to me. Of course I understand people leaving abusive or unhealthy situations with their families and I would never say they shouldn't do that. But nothing like that seemed to be happening between Juliet and Penelope. Penelope just seemed like she had gotten tired of her mother and left, without a word. She instantly became one of my most hated characters in all of fiction, even though she never showed up. I can't imagine the pain that would cause my parents if I did that, and for Juliet to have such a seemingly mild reaction to it confused the hell out of me. That confusion created an utter fascination in me, analyzing why I had that reaction and why, according to Munro apparently, other people have such different relationships with their families. I loved the story for that. I think those two stories also showcased Munro's greatest skill as a writer: her ability to imbue her stories with sadness without having her characters be particularly sad themselves. At the end of "Tricks" Robin is shocked and confused, but she doesn't then think about how her life has terrible because of this dumb mistake, she just thinks to herself jokingly that she should have worn the other dress. Her life has, by all accounts, been fairly decent. Likewise, Juliet just accepts that her daughter has left and goes on living. Neither of these characters is particularly happy, but their lives have small pleasures and they've learned to incorporate the sadness they experienced into the fabric of their lives without being overwhelmed by it. Munro's stories always remind me that everybody has everybody lives through tragedy but few people's lives are, on the whole, tragic. Sorry, that was a lot of rambling. Like I said, I lost my notes.