From: Jason Hockley [jh39@ukc.ac.uk] Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2000 6:30 AM To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Game Balance and BP2 On Fri, 04 Feb 2000 15:58:49 -0800 "D. Baughn" wrote: > How about 'Character Competency Quotient'. Sounds like something players > should take more seriously. Are you serious?!? Jason *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: BIOHZD@aol.com Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2000 12:54 AM To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com Subject: [BLUE PLANET] - Errors... Hey all, I should never be left alone with a keyboard. I made some errors in a pair of recent posts. First, I said "we might consider putting conversions for 2nd edition on our website". This should obviously have read "1st edition". The second error is humorous if nothing else, as I referred to Kevin as a "like-mined gamer." It must often seem as if my brain *has* been bombed ; ). Later, Jeff "the like-mindless" Barber Biohazard Games *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: EndersWAR1@aol.com Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2000 8:55 AM To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Errors... Did Biohazard...or whoever the powers may be now come to a conclusion about whether there will be product support for games at GenCon? "Come on, Ceasar, if your going to be stupid, don't be half-assed stupid...Be stupid all the way!"-187 x) <---Dead Cyclops Enterprises "In the land of the two-eyed blind, the Dead Cyclops is king." EndersWAR1@aol.com *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Kintaro Oe [dguder@speaksoftly.com] Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2000 11:52 AM To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Game Balance and BP2 >> How about 'Character Competency Quotient'. Sounds like something players >> should take more seriously. > > Are you serious?!? I hope not. What about simply "scale"? You know, like "a story of epic scale". - kabael - Kintaro Oe - Derek Guder - "It has never happened if the memory is not there." -Serial Experiments Lain kabael's netbook - http://kabael.8m.com the McGuffin Group - http://members.xoom.com/McGuffins review developer - Ex Libris Nocturnis - http://www.nocturnis.net *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Andy Wills [andywills@home.com] Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2000 4:21 PM To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Game Balance and BP2 BIOHZD@aol.com wrote: > > Hey Kevin, > > Alright! A like mined gamer - digs full page art, dislikes filler illos and > grooves on the realism of unbalance characters - *cool* ; ). Thanks for the > good words Kev. Hmm...I like well done full page action shots and decent quality scenery shots. I just like to look at the former, and I use the latter to visualize parts of the game world. For example, I'd definitely like a picture of an assault jumpcraft and an aerial view of Haven in BP2, because I have problems visualizing those. > In BP2 there is something we are currently calling character power level > (sounds dorky I know, so if any one has a better suggestion, please cough it > up!). There are three power levels - Everyday, Exceptional, and Elite - each > one with advantages over lower levels in attributes, training (skills), and > biomods. At the begining of a campaign the moderator decides what power level > is appropriate. He/she could allow only everyday, or anything but elite, or > it could be written for only elite characters, or even open to any power > level. I like Blue Planet's unbalanced character creation, but I find that characters that are two power levels apart, to use BP2's term, don't work well together. I'm also fairly disaffected by most point systems cumbersomeness and ineffectiveness. Personally, I'd have Blue Planet 2 recommend that characters start out at Everyday or Exceptional, and can become Elite during play. > S' cool? Yes. > Jeff "Everyday" Barber > Biohazard Games -Andy "I would have been here right after you called, but I had to shake the weasels." --Who Framed Roger Rabbit *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: BIOHZD@aol.com Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2000 6:25 PM To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com Subject: [BLUE PLANET] - Re: Game Balance and BP2 Hey Andy, You write: Personally, I'd have Blue Planet 2 recommend that characters start out at Everyday or Exceptional, and can become Elite during play. >>>>This will likely be how most moderators run their games. Both BP2 playtest campaigns I am involved in are Exceptional level. However, we want to empower moderators so they can run any style of game they wish. Restricting Elite characters would mean they could not, for example, run that killer Supertrooper adventure they just thought up... Later, Jeff Barber Biohazard Games *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Kevin L. Nault [jskln1@uas.alaska.edu] Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2000 6:51 PM To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Game Balance and BP2 Andy Wills wrote: > > I like Blue Planet's unbalanced character creation, but I find that > characters that are two power levels apart, to use BP2's term, don't > work well together. I'm also fairly disaffected by most point systems That depends - I can usually place them in a situation where, say, the incorporate spy (obscenely well trained, every advantage - "Elite" for sure) is totally dependant on the native sellout wharf rat ("everyday" in every sense of the word). > cumbersomeness and ineffectiveness. Personally, I'd have Blue Planet 2 > recommend that characters start out at Everyday or Exceptional, and can > become Elite during play. You'd almost have to list with every profession a "base scale" (I like Kintaro's suggestion, btw), and a short treatment of what changing them does. Short Round from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom would be a really "Exceptional" (maybe even "Elite") native sellout, while for Marshalls and Incorporate Spies (first two to spring to mind) "everyday" and "dead" are going to be nearly synonymous. *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Kevin L. Nault [jskln1@uas.alaska.edu] Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2000 11:02 PM To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Game Balance and BP2 BIOHZD@aol.com wrote: > > Alright! A like mined gamer - digs full page art, dislikes filler illos and > grooves on the realism of unbalance characters - *cool* ; ). Thanks for the > good words Kev. You're quite welcome, and the praise is well deserved; the whole game rocks. I do have to qualify one thing - unbalanced characters only work in single-setting games, but in those, nothing is cooler. As I said: the edges are particularly brilliant, allowing the lowliest of the low to outshine everyone, in their element. > As per your question about character balance: Many players like the > intentionally unbalanced character generation of BP1, and many do not. IMO, > the frontier setting of BP often demands characters that are include both the > everyday and sometimes the larger than life. BP2 has the best of both worlds. I do have to say, I can understand the need for balanced characters in some games. I've played in games where the GM or players might have had a harder time with the realism of unbalanced characters. I enjoy it - I've even purposefully made characters like Short Round or the little thief in the Conan movies, because being a flunky can be fun! > In BP2 there is something we are currently calling character power level > (sounds dorky I know, so if any one has a better suggestion, please cough it > up!). There are three power levels - Everyday, Exceptional, and Elite - each > one with advantages over lower levels in attributes, training (skills), and > biomods. At the begining of a campaign the moderator decides what power level > is appropriate. He/she could allow only everyday, or anything but elite, or > it could be written for only elite characters, or even open to any power > level. Is this something that's applied after generation, or something that kicks in at every stage? (Assuming character generation is still done in steps like before.) That reminds me: (more praise!) I really, REALLY like the way characters are generated from birth to present. It nearly ensures a real character story, without some of the silliness often associated with systems like that (characters dying in generation in MegaTraveller, for instance). More thumbs up (I'm getting quite a collection. I'm running out people I don't like! :-> Ooh! Sorry, my Shadowrun roots are showing.) > We believe this will maintain the effects and feel of the realistic variety > of characters in BP, while giving those that prefer genuine balance in thier > games the option to have it. Sounds good. Hopefully I'll be seeing it soon. +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= "I never get involved in my own life. It's too much trouble" - Michael Garibaldi (Babylon 5) *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message.