Oh God… you must be over 200 hours!
Well, to be defensive, that’s role-playing in the setting. By explicitly invoking the images and concepts of Mad Max, particularly Mad Max 2, you’re asking people to inhabit the mentality of fighting over a can of
Now, I’m hoping I don’t have to kill another Driver, but I’ve done it before and will again if I have to. Certainly, not everyone is playing that angle, some are taking a goofy or less serious tact, and that’s great. That’s what I love about this, with all of these diverse characters, some serious, some silly, etc, it feels like an absurdist comic book.
if the setting of BASD enabled a bunch of space cowboys who all wanted bragging rights for something (whether who had the most grit or had the most interesting backstory or who had the best bar), then the Wasteland enables a mentality of survivalists.
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Hey there… the sputtering fluorescent tube of inspiration is sparking to life over my head.
What would you folks say to making actual teams? Not necessarily in competition with each other, but if you guys were to forge semipermanent alliances that could travel and fight under a unified banner or team name, we could work out the cumulative weaknesses and strengths of each team. It would certainly require some (probably heavy) recalibration from @penguinchris and @JonasEggeater, but it might serve as a long-term solution to all the lengthy negotiations and individual calculations (to say nothing of the waiting for some damned Mechanic to reply) that you players are going through. You put together a team with at least one of each Class in it (and any individual orphan players could be absorbed into the smallest team available), and away you go.
Of course, then you start arguing within the team about which Mission to accept, and whether or not to pool gas and Inventory items, but… well, let’s give it due consideration. Is it an awful idea, an impractical one, or is there merit?
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I love the idea, but that needs a spoiler alert. I’ve a couple of ideas now, and if it’s one of them you will have deprived me of sqeeing in delight at your creativity.
From our PM back in Oct…
But on balance, I think I’d rather keep it informal, or at the very least, allow free movement between teams.
Edit: removed potential spoilers…sorry!
Oh, certainly. I was just thinking that if you have 2 Mechanics, 1 Mule, 2 Scouts, and an Escort who agree to collaborate under the name “Draggin’ Badasses,” then they can rally 'round that Draggin banner and coordinate more easily, with less worry about “Should I do this? Who’s protecting me? Who am I protecting? Do I have the FP and SP to pull this off? Where’s a goddamned Mechanic? Is anyone else doing this Mission?” and all that.
And teams can be loose, like the Avengers. Sometimes Ant-Man shows up with them (though honestly, who can tell?), and sometimes he works alone.
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Because every team member counts!
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I think it’s already beginning to happen, informally. The RiverSideBoobs are mostly intact and taking on 1b.
I do think squad-based gameplay is a very worthwhile concept to toss around. Some random ideas (none I’m committed to, just riffing):
- players self-organize into teams. Cougar offers bounties for specific missions, and teams sign up for them
- Cougar turns into General Patton - playing a heavier hand in forming squads. E.g., “Intel says on mission 1 we need 2 mules max and 3 wrenches max and unlimited scouts. First to sign up is on the team”
- allow trading of players between teams between rounds. Bubba’s Cutters have lost their medic, so they arrange for a trade with Major’s Minions.
some of these to curtail player freedom in some regards, so that also needs consideration.
I need to leave work already.
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I do like the way you guys work together… and now I’m in love with the name!
NASA-style mission patches and a t-shirt logo, stat!
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I thought one of the ideas being kicked around was fuel as currency? In a post-apocalyptic scenario that makes more sense to me than licence plates as a fiat currency (otherwise, I propose we raid the DMV next).
I don’t even know how much fuel I have left.
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You guys keep kicking specific plot-based ideas around here too much, y’all gonna start thinking I ripped you off when they show up in-game!
And have you noticed any fresh sources of fuel popping up yet? Hmm?
I think there’s more to our decision to not use fuel as currency than I remember, but at least part of it is that vehicles require more or less fuel than others so it’d be hard to charge consistent rates for upgrades and the like, since 10 gallons of gas is worth a lot more to some players than others.
Fuel will be an issue in later missions. It’s going to be scarce, and most likely we’ll need to go on raids, frequently, just for the purpose of finding fuel. And we kicked around a few ideas for license plate raids too… part of why we chose license plates is exactly for that reason. There are so many of them in Southern California, it’s like prospecting - you look for areas that haven’t been mined yet (a collapsed parking structure, for example) and try to find all the license plates.
I forgot about my idea that you quoted of having gangs (and Mad Maxes). I still like the idea and I think it’s great that gangs are already forming naturally. Like you guys have been discussing, I want the missions to truly play to different strengths. It’s just that story-wise that doesn’t work yet since it’s a huge effort to get everything we need to get started.
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Point taken. I’ll quit it. Bad De’Ath!
I like the team thing, or the squad thing, but there needs to be incentive and clarity why anyone should respond to a PM to join a team, and a penalty for quitting one like a quitting quitter.
The mechanics lend awareness and fixupability, the escorts swagger with heavy loins and golden locks, the mules can drag like the best, and the scouts shoot and scoot like sex-crazed spider monkeys. But so far, everyone wants to be a mech’s mate and then vaguely persuade or hope for escort services and a mule if needed. Round 2 has been a little dry for the very useful Scouts*.
So the teamwork is loose, it’s more of a social affiliation than a sublimation into the world mechanics. Which is nice and fun, but lacks a little spice. It might be funny to see a little scrambling desperation to get into a team, and some loyalty once in!
And if people don’t respond or sign up to a mission, can we give them some nasty SHITGO ass-virus, and keep mentioning it in very optical temrs? We can’t spare the resource to cure it unless they join the next mission firmly.
How’s about the scouts get to read the signs instead of the mechs? They are recon after all. The mechs still have the gorgeousness of repairing for LPs. Escorts and mules could charge for their services, or we work out some audience-evident way that a team facing XYZ situation needs ABC components.
Basically, the LP interchange could work (when I say basically, I’m at my level of thought, rather than pretending to simplify things) by … ah balls … everyone having an interest. The background mechanics can be skewed to prevent a wealthy overlord emerging, but say a team could coalesce by each pledging 4 LPs to the team kitty, which is only released on completion as a whole, excepting unanimous permission to exit the team. If you quit the team, you lose the LPs. If you fail the mission, you lose the LPs. Anyone who pledges joins the team (no excluding).
Does that make any sense? My kids went to bed late and I’ve eaten noodles and had a Helles Lager. Sorry. Kung Hei Fat Choy
*Edit: I am having a whale of a time personally!
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If only Mechs can do repairs, informal teams will naturally nucleate around Mechs. No need for extra game mechanics.
I suspect having formal teams will quickly unbalance the game, as those of us who worked together on BSD will form co-ordinated teams and become like this guy
who will then pick off the other players one by one. (I have already explained to the Mechanics how to kill a player under the current rules even if Player vs Player combat isn’t allowed ).
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you mean this guy
I’ve actually gone the last two days without reading every Boing FPP or checking my primary gaming bulletin board because of being involved in this. that never happens.
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note the resemblance.
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Same here. Although I did, by legal obligation, pay my taxes.
So the complexity isn’t necessarily a bad thing - it’s all involvement!
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If you paid them by license plates like I did you might have a problem.
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