How Dragonbane Pointed out the Clashing Desires of My Gaming Group

How about Toon? Everything's low stakes and the combat can easily be run JRPG style with just two sides and no maneuvering.

It's not level based though; but it could probably be modified to be easily enough

Sounds like they want to be playing a superheroes game.
Or an RPG videogame.
 

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Sounds like they want to be playing a superheroes game.
That's an odd take on superhero gaming going by the players' stated desires. You're going to spend a great deal of time investigating crimes and villainous schemes in most of those, with all the "talking to NPCs" and "following a story" that comes with that. It's also commonplace for individual PCs to have to use teamwork to stand any chance against single, much more powerful master villains, or even to face villains that can't be beaten by simply hitting them without discovering their weaknesses first. The better systems also mechanically support the comic trope of the hero suffering initial defeat and then rebounding to win a rematch, but even temporary setbacks like a TPKO aren't likely to feed into the power fantasy some of the group explicitly want.

I also question how many of these players could convincingly play a heroic role in the narrative sense, or even be willing to try. Some of them don't see NPCs or the world itself as relevant, just obstacles to their combat posturing, and that mindset doesn't rescue hostages, protect innocent bystanders, or restrain themselves to limit collateral damage. Even a villainous settings like Necessary Evil isn't likely to work, since running amok will simultaneously alienate the mundanes around you and call down the attention of the alien occupiers and their quislings - who are explicitly too powerful for the PCs to beat directly (at least at first), which again spoils the power fantasy.
 

That's an odd take on superhero gaming going by the players' stated desires. You're going to spend a great deal of time investigating crimes and villainous schemes in most of those, with all the "talking to NPCs" and "following a story" that comes with that. It's also commonplace for individual PCs to have to use teamwork to stand any chance against single, much more powerful master villains, or even to face villains that can't be beaten by simply hitting them without discovering their weaknesses first. The better systems also mechanically support the comic trope of the hero suffering initial defeat and then rebounding to win a rematch, but even temporary setbacks like a TPKO aren't likely to feed into the power fantasy some of the group explicitly want.

I also question how many of these players could convincingly play a heroic role in the narrative sense, or even be willing to try. Some of them don't see NPCs or the world itself as relevant, just obstacles to their combat posturing, and that mindset doesn't rescue hostages, protect innocent bystanders, or restrain themselves to limit collateral damage. Even a villainous settings like Necessary Evil isn't likely to work, since running amok will simultaneously alienate the mundanes around you and call down the attention of the alien occupiers and their quislings - who are explicitly too powerful for the PCs to beat directly (at least at first), which again spoils the power fantasy.
Doesn't matter as it sounds like the Dragonbane game is doing better, as I mentioned in the subsequent post.
 
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Starfox

Hero
My players are mostly 30-something, but most of them do office jobs, and we play on a weekday evening. And they all hate inventory management and bookkeeping activities.
People usually hate doing in-game what they do in RL. My usual point here is that female players don't want to play out gender issues in game, but by the same token i don't think office workers want to do office work as a part of the game. And bookkeeping equipment is close to office work.
 
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BookTenTiger

He / Him
People usually hate dong in-game what they do in RL. My usual point here is that female players don't want to play out gender issues in game, but by the same token i don't think office workers want to do office work as a part of the game. And bookkeeping equipment is close to office work.
I've read this a half-dozen times and I'm pretty sure it's a typo but it also works as is?
 

Starfox

Hero
I've read this a half-dozen times and I'm pretty sure it's a typo but it also works as is?
What part of it do you think is a typo? I have a touch of dyslexia and might miss something obvious. Its not written to be a joke.

Edit:
Seems I did make a hilarious typo here - now corrected.
Doing became dong - which was not good considering the subject. :D
 
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Starfox

Hero
Gong back to the OP, I am currently infatuated with Blades in the Dark. It eliminates planning and picking equipment in advance. I love it so far and am currently trying to hammer it into resembling DnD enough to run it in Greyhawk. Here is my rules, mainly new playbooks, new crew playbooks, and Power rules to simulate DnD spells.
Linking my wiki, which is pretty much written to be read by me or with my guidance, so be warned.
 

Split the Hoard


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