From: Ken Carpenter [magetheascension@hotmail.com] Sent: Friday, August 20, 1999 12:05 PM To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - GEO Marshals Dolphin crack whore, now that's funny. But I agree with Jason, playing the underdog has it's advantages too. Back with the science expedition in April and May that went on, I was the scientist. Our guide new more about zoology than I did and everybody was faster and better and fighting than I. But it was still fun. the point is to role-play, not kick butt and take names. -KEN CARPENTER Peacekeeper in training >From: "Jason Hockley" >Reply-To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com >To: >Subject: [BLUE PLANET] - GEO Marshals >Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 11:12:04 +0200 > > Reading all these emails I've begun to wonder something. Is there >nobody >out there like me who *enjoys* playing the underdog? The near useless >character? They will usually have just as well a defined personality as any >other character and can be a lot of fun. The only thing I can think of >seeing like this on the list was whoever it was that had the dolphin crack >whore in their game. > >Jason > _______________________________________________________________ Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.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: Ken Carpenter [magetheascension@hotmail.com] Sent: Friday, August 20, 1999 12:02 PM To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com Subject: Re: SV: [BLUE PLANET] - Back from GenCon! Of course the Marshall is powerful. About the only thing that can come close to one is a Mark IV Supertrooper. The Mark VI, if I remember right, is better than the Marshall, however. Like previosly said, this game is designed for mature players, not a bunch of little kids. My group that I play D&D with gets WAY out of hand with BP and Jeff will probably admit it to anyone. That's why a group should talk before making characters so that their characters are close to each other on the level of skills. It also helps with making the story. Well, back into lurking. -KEN CARPENTER Peacekeeper in training >From: "Jens Alm" >Reply-To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com >To: >Subject: SV: [BLUE PLANET] - Back from GenCon! >Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 10:41:37 +0200 > >Hey, calm down a bit :) > >I'm 22 years old, to many of you, that's young, I know, but I've been >playing RPGS for more or less 15 of those years and I usually try to think >of myself as having left the hack'n'slash state. That said, the adventures >I >GM tend to revolve around problem-solving. Of course I want everybody to >play in character and according to the needs and beliefs of the character, >but the adventures generally concern how to free one of the NPCs brothers >from the crimelord on that island or how to convince the GEO to look the >other way when the shipload of weapons they're going to pay the crimelord >with arrives. They don't (generally) concern one of the character's attempt >to come to terms with his own inhumanity or something similar. Even if that >may be an ongoing theme for that player, I wouldn't let an adventure >revolve >around it. It might work for another group of playes, but my would get >restless. > >This means that in my group, it's necessary that everyone gets a niche, >some >area in which they can influence the story. Now if you have a GEO Marshal, >he would pretty much cover all the niches. Of course you could play his >deputy and have almost the same set of skills, only with inferior skill >numbers. The only area where these deputies might have something to do, >however, would be in combat, as the Marshal can't be everywhere at the same >time. In almost every other activity (unless the group splits), the Marshal >will be the one seeing all the action. He's the best driver, the smoothest >fast-talker, the best intimidator, the one with the most contacts, etc. The >other players generally have nothing to do while he runs the show. > >Now the answer to this, of course, is to make sure that the others have >some >area where they excel, perhaps one is a native guide or one grew up in the >shabbier parts of ton and has some connections. Everybody should have >something to add to the game. To do this, however, I must go in and >override >the rules everytime someone makes a character, as they don't support this >to >any degree. Indeed, the rules more or less tries to make sure that the >Marshal is better than every other character in every discipline. > >This is why I want some balance in the character creation system. I want >different characters to take on different roles in the group (more or less >as you see in any action team in any TV-series). It's totally OK with me if >one character is a better fighter than another, that's only natural, as >long >as he isn't also a better swimmer, zoologist, driver, sneaker, >smoothtalker, >etc. > >This said, I realixe that the GEO Marshal probably _is_ better than most >other characters at everything that matters in my type of games. So, >naturally, noone in my groups plays a Marshal. However, he's just the worst >example of a broken character generation system. > >Perhaps, after having said this, I can die in peace (or at least go back to >my pathology studies) :) >-- >Jens Alm >Student of Medicine, Lund University, Sweden >jens.alm@af.lu.se > >-----Ursprungligt meddelande----- >Från: owner-blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com >[mailto:owner-blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com]För Chris Sakal >Skickat: den 13 augusti 1999 04:31 >Till: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com >Ämne: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Back from GenCon! > > > > >I have my own gripes about the overpowered GEO Marshal. See > > > >http://students.uts.ohio-state.edu/klegman.1/pope.htm > > > >to see just what I think of the subject. I have not had any comments on >the > >article so I assume nobody has read it yet. :( > Hey, people, if you think the Marshall is overpowered, then >you're >missing something very basic about BP. It's NOT about game balance. It's >NOT about making sure that everyone has characters of the same power level >and nobody will have to feel left out because they're not as skilled. It's >a game for mature role-players, not hack-and-slash types, so yes, the >Marshall is intended to be overwhelming because it would make sense for him >to be, in order to do his job, he has to be, and for a skilled role-player, >it can be just as much fun, and just as difficult as playing a less skilled >character. > As a GM, if you feel that a character can't handle playing >something as powerful as a Marshall and will go into every situation guns >blazing because he can (which would be a very poor way to role-play such a >character, you have to assume that since Marshals are such a small group >with so much responsibility, GEO would choose folks who are smart enough to >use violence only as a last resort, no matter how good they are at it) then >don't let that person play one. That's really all there is to it. It's >all about the role-playing, not who gets to drop the most dice. > > The article was quite amusing, particularly the bit about >Transhuman Gene Therapy. > _______________________________________________________________ Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.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.