3e/DCA podcast -- what do you want to hear about?

[Foreshadow]

Right, Steve apparently has a long history of writing for different supers games and yes it is a line of questioning I think most of you would be interested in: what thought process went into 3e and especially DCA considering you have had all this experience working on both prior DC and Marvel games. Was there issues he wanted to address, insights he gained from before, if so what were they.

I think that would be a great topic for his blog so if this is not a topic for the Podcast I think it would be interesting to read. Also he made a blog regarding Marvelous numbers for Icons, and stated that Icons was greatly influenced by classic marvel superheros. If so perhaps Steve could write up a similar article for MnM3e. Sort of a Marvelous numbers for MnM3e relating the games ability benchmark to classic marvel and perhaps the classic DC game and why he made the chart the way he did.

Of course, it would be a great podcast but perhaps not the very next one but I noticed many Steve Kenson podcasts are basically about his history of how he got into the industry and I wanted to go to those who made those podcasts and tell them if they really want to know simply listen to the prior 3 podcasts basically going into that same information (ie do your homework). Whereas, since not many get to work in the industry and especially across so many supers games. It is worth asking Steve to give a little insight into how he approaches designing a supers game, how he did so for DCA especially. For example, in a prior DC game they went the route of doing many supplements. I see they had a JSA and JLA sourcebook so they did something unlike they did in DCA (where a different more streamlined approach was taken). Was it taken because lack of funds, or insight into the process informed them that approach was more fruitful? Or just a change of pace? I'm sure all those type of things come up and I'm sure many of us would want to hear about it. In other words, we'll see 4 more Steve Kenson podcasts not simply from Shadowchaser, but from others but I don't think any of them will go into such questions, and yet that might be some of the most interesting questions Steve could publically address.

Perhaps Steve can do his version of Spider-Man if he does a Marveleous Numbers. Seeing as the new Spider-Man movie will come up soon enough. Or he is doing all those Avengers posts on his blog, how about do some Avengers. It is only his personal take, not official, and his approach so we are all free to do what we want. But it would be interesting to see how he might do it or approach doing it. List the thought process involved much like he lists examples of how watching the Avengers triggers his game designer brain. It could be that he won't do it unless it pay's. I get that if that is the case. I think he did get paid to do the Hulk for Gametrade magazine. So if Steve is reading this, how about when the Spider-Man movie comes out, and it will, and you know they will do yet another heroclix for spider-man set to coorespond with the movie, and other promotional stuff in places like Gametrade, have an article waiting and just like they say 'Make mine Marvel'. I say "Make mine mutants and masterminds" and perhaps do it up for Icons too.

I don't think I would be the only one interested in this. Hence it would be worth suggesting at the very least and it can't hurt to ask if that is a possibility.

On a personal level I am interested in the upcoming podcasts which we know will not focus on anything I said but more on the GM's guide and possibly other upcoming 3e products. That is cool but it makes the podcast into more of a promotional tool, and yet podcasts, like blogs can also be informative tools too other than simply the product of the month. We already know that, for example, when the DCA Universe book comes out we will see a podcast for it specifically, same for the next heroes and villains vol 2. I'm sure we all love it. I know I enjoy them but I asked myself what is the missing piece we don't get to really hear and which would make a great podcast: Steve Kensons insights into game design, specifically related to mutants and masterminds but also in general too. Perhaps discussing his experiences that helped evolve him working prior games.

[Shadowchaser]

So, boiling that down, it sounds like you want me to ask him how his work on other game systems has influenced his approach to the GM's Guide? Sounds like a good line of questioning, I think I can work that one into the show.

[Shadowchaser]

Just posted a new podcast with Jason Tondro and Christopher McGlothlin. This week, I plan to record a new DC Adventures Demo session! It's Halloween, so you can bet I'll be doing my best to spook you. In a fun way.

I'm still rounding up the cast of characters, but I can guarantee some new "reveals" from Volume II of Heroes and Villains.

[Goldar]

This week, I plan to record a new DC Adventures Demo session! It's Halloween, so you can bet I'll be doing my best to spook you. In a fun way.

I'm still rounding up the cast of characters, but I can guarantee some new "reveals" from Volume II of Heroes and Villains.

Yay!

I can't wait!

A little Hallowe'en Tease(r)!

[Jameson]

Just posted a new podcast with Jason Tondro and Christopher McGlothlin.

Nice podcast, a lot of good insight & advice on how to approach a campaign from a very "top down" point of view. I think you mentioned doing a similar discussion on the topic of creating an adventure within a campaign, which sounds like fun as well.

Along similar lines though I would like to hear you three (or whomever else you can get) maybe go through a discussion where you actually start the process of building a campaign rather that the more abstract (though insightful and entertaining) discussion we got in this one. Lay out an idea, a kernel hook, and then just riff on it for the hour, spawning ideas for the setting, NPCs, and potential adventures & events within the setting.

[krypt0nian]

Ah sweet! Downloading now for some after dinner fun.

[Shadowchaser]

Just posted a new podcast with Jason Tondro and Christopher McGlothlin.

Nice podcast, a lot of good insight & advice on how to approach a campaign from a very "top down" point of view. I think you mentioned doing a similar discussion on the topic of creating an adventure within a campaign, which sounds like fun as well.

Along similar lines though I would like to hear you three (or whomever else you can get) maybe go through a discussion where you actually start the process of building a campaign rather that the more abstract (though insightful and entertaining) discussion we got in this one. Lay out an idea, a kernel hook, and then just riff on it for the hour, spawning ideas for the setting, NPCs, and potential adventures & events within the setting.

That actually sounds very doable. I'll see if Christopher and Jason are up for a 'round two' of this topic, and if not, I'll wrangle up some other guests and tackle the issue with them.

[krypt0nian]

Listening now. Did we ever hear who the Austrailian third of the Emerald City book is?

Wow, you guys have hit all my earlier suggestion except one:

But most of all do a Noob's Guide to MnM3E, with pitfalls to avoid, hard to grok concepts explained, nuts and bolts, and game table aids that everyone uses. That would do the most to foster gameplay, especially with new players/GMs like myself. Wonderful system, but not the easiest to jump into IMO.

Also on that note, maybe a cast pointing out easily exploitable builds and how to avoid/council players during character creation?

I'd still love to hear this one on a future show.

[Shadowchaser]

Listening now. Did we ever hear who the Austrailian third of the Emerald City book is?

Wow, you guys have hit all my earlier suggestion except one:

But most of all do a Noob's Guide to MnM3E, with pitfalls to avoid, hard to grok concepts explained, nuts and bolts, and game table aids that everyone uses. That would do the most to foster gameplay, especially with new players/GMs like myself. Wonderful system, but not the easiest to jump into IMO.

Also on that note, maybe a cast pointing out easily exploitable builds and how to avoid/council players during character creation?

I'd still love to hear this one on a future show.

Noob's guide, eh? I will see who I can get on the show for that one. That might be a good topic for Taliesin and Jack to chat about...

[Shadowchaser]

I recently had someone ask about my variant of the Pursuit rules that I used during the Green Lantern demo play podcast. I thought I'd answer that here, so everyone can see my answers and discuss them(name withheld, but the asker may feel free to announce his responses here):

When one flyer is chasing another, the characters make opposed acrobatics (or agility) checks. The character with the lowest flight speed takes a penalty to his check equal to the difference between his speed and his opponent's speed. If the one who is chasing gets 3 successes, he catches up to his opponent.

Questions:

1) What if the one who is being chased gets 3 successes instead? Does that mean he gets away (or is out of range)?

2) Are you tracking distance using these rules? In other words, if the hero is chasing a guy and he only get one or two successes, how do you determine how close/far they have travelled? And at what point do you know whether he character can reach with a ranged attack?

3) Also, what if during the first turn the one being chased gets two successes on the roll? Does that mean that on the next turn the chasing character needs to accumultate 5 successess, due to the increased distance?

4) If you're running a chase by foot scene, you're substituting Athletics (Strength)?

5) What if you've got a flier vs. super speed runner? Would you give the flyer a +5 circumstance bonus to their acrobatics roll (since they have more room to manuever?)

I know you tend to play fast and loose with these rules, and some of my questions are a bit crunchy, but I'd love to hear whatever feedback/tips you can offer!

For the purposes of the chase scene I was running, the 'lead' character was a PC, so I wasn't trying to have the villain escape the heroes, I was keeping track of whether he caught up to the fleeing hero or not. So I was really running two chases in one. The hero trying to escape or outdistance the villain, and another group of heroes pursuing the villain.

Generally, the way I handle skill challenges, it's not about the villain making 'successes', it's about 'number of failures' on the player side of things. So, if the heroes got 5 failures, I might've had the chase break off there and determined that the targets of pursuit had out-distanced them. Or that that villain had caught up to the hero he was pursuing (depending on who accumulated the failures). Mostly, though, I was using the number of successes to determine the range (Long, Medium, Short) between the attackers and the target, so I could quickly determine a range modifier. I decided since the Green Lanterns all had such similar movement stats, that I didn't want to try and keep track of actual ranges and distances, so I simply equated the number of successes to the appropriate range: 1=Long, 2=Medium, 3=Short/Close. Any differences in movement between characters gets translated into a bonus to their skill check to pursue/evade pursuit.

When characters are traveling at hyper-sonic speeds, I really don't see a need to calculate distances in real-world terms. It's far quicker to simply find an analog for distance (in this case, successes) and use that instead.

In skill challenges (DC Adventures or Mutants and Masterminds Hero's Handbooks) you have a chance to really let the players determine how they're going to approach a problem. You don't tell them they have to use this or that skill, you can let them pick the skill and justify it to you. If someone is chasing a villain through their home city, for instance, and they have a Knowledge skill of that city that exceeds their Athletics or Agility or Driving or whatever, sure! Let 'em use that to try and take a short-cut and get ahead of the target/pursuer. This idea comes from the pursuit challenge guidelines introduced in one of the Threat Reports (One of the Cybertribe, Speed Demon, I believe).

I wouldn't necessarily give the flier an advantage. In fact, depending on the circumstances, they might be at a disadvantage. I would instead let the skill rolls fall where they may, and if the flier catches up to the speedster, you can explain it as the Flier having a straight run while the running character has to run around a lot of obstacles. If you want to throw a hindrance in front of the player, and he's a flier, you can say the runner ducks into a subway entrance and the flier has to try and follow him in the very cramped quarters. That might be worth a circumstance bonus to the runner or a penalty to the flier, your choice. It might penalize both of them, but one of them might take a greater penalty. Again, GM's call on that one.

If one character has "Favored Environment- Crowds" or something similar, you could certainly give him a +2 circumstance bonus when they're in their preferred environment. I would.

I hope that was useful for folks. I know I run pretty quickly when I'm on the podcasts, but I'm trying to keep things moving at a brisk pace so I don't bore anyone. If you ever have questions about what I did, what I tried to do, or want to call me out on a mistake, feel free to comment here or on the podcast site itself.

[Shadowchaser]

In Podcast news, I'm delaying the recording of the Halloween podcast til next week. Two of my players are sick this week, so rather than have them both croaking like frogs as they try and suffer through a recording, I thought it was best to wait until they've recuperated.

Gives me another chance to add a fourth player, though!

[krypt0nian]

In Podcast news, I'm delaying the recording of the Halloween podcast til next week. Two of my players are sick this week, so rather than have them both croaking like frogs as they try and suffer through a recording, I thought it was best to wait until they've recuperated.

Gives me another chance to add a fourth player, though!

Good news all around!

Oh and cheers for the Pursuit rules, James.

[gamemaster72]

oops.. accidentally copied over my former post with my new questions!

New questions to follow...

[Shadowchaser]

It's been a while since I did the podcast, so I don't really remember if I switched it up mid-run or not. I might have! I tend to adapt to the situation very fluidly. I certainly didn't start the adventure planning to run a pursuit, the players determined that through their actions.

Increasing the number of Successes to 4 to correlate to the different range modifiers might give you some more options. Then again, it means more successes are required to 'win' the chase, so you'll need to keep that in mind. It's not a huge difference, certainly worth playing around with to see how it works. I tend to default to 3 successes versus 5 failures as a good rule of thumb for something the players should be likely to win(based on DC as well, of course).

I think the point at which you simply decide something is 'impossible' varies based on circumstance and GM preference. Each rank of a movement power is a doubling of speed, so it really depends on what you think is "realistic" or not. Personally, I think a difference greater than 5 in speed is pretty high, so there'd need to be a really good rationale for someone to catch up to a character that much faster. Your mileage may vary, though!

[gamemaster72]

Hey, thanks for your replies. A couple more questions:

When characters are traveling at hyper-sonic speeds, I really don't see a need to calculate distances in real-world terms. It's far quicker to simply find an analog for distance (in this case, successes) and use that instead.

How would you use this system with double moves, Athletics rolls, and extra effort? Would they all just add +1 to the roll? If so, why would anyone choose to use extra effort to increase their speed by 1 to get a +1 bonus, when they could just use extra effort to get a +2 to the roll?

I tend to run more street-level games. Do you think this would work for lesser speeds? If so, how would you adapt it (since moving up one distance category per success would probably be too much). I was thinking of something like: 1 success: 1/4 closer/further to/from opponent than your current distance, 2 successes: 1/2 closer/further, 3 successes: 3/4 closer/further, 4 successes: You catch up to your opponent.

What do you think? Any further thoughts/suggestions?