"Woke" Franchises

KilroywasNOTHere said:
I guess I grew up spoiled. My dad always taught me the rules and lorebook were "more guidelines than actual rules" and the important thing was to get in as absurd and fun situations as possible. Nearly every campaign he started he'd end up throwing the campaign book to the side because the whole adventure would go off rails within the first five minutes. the idea of theme park roleplaying and sticking to the script would get you called a bad GM within my dad's circle.
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If one wants to try and keep to a script you kind of have to share it. the DMs who like to railroad tend to be garbage at selling what they think would be fun. If a GM came to me and told me he wanted to run a campaign based off an adventure book played straight I wouldn't be against it. you do however want to make sure the players are on board with that before you start it and there are absolutely players that would not have fun playing like that.
 
Blasterbot said:
If one wants to try and keep to a script you kind of have to share it. the DMs who like to railroad tend to be garbage at selling what they think would be fun. If a GM came to me and told me he wanted to run a campaign based off an adventure book played straight I wouldn't be against it. you do however want to make sure the players are on board with that before you start it and there are absolutely players that would not have fun playing like that.
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Blasterbot said:
If one wants to try and keep to a script you kind of have to share it. the DMs who like to railroad tend to be garbage at selling what they think would be fun. If a GM came to me and told me he wanted to run a campaign based off an adventure book played straight I wouldn't be against it. you do however want to make sure the players are on board with that before you start it and there are absolutely players that would not have fun playing like that.
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I have a Serbo-Hungarian DM and the only thing he "railroads" is not having flying species as player characters but the rest he basically homebrews 50/70 of our adventures.
 
I've mostly just had bad GMs. I admit I was also not a very good role-player. at this point I like the Idea of roleplaying but can't say I have had a good time with it.
 
Blasterbot said:
I've mostly just had bad GMs. I admit I was also not a very good role-player. at this point I like the Idea of roleplaying but can't say I have had a good time with it.
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The trick is remembering that the best stories/adventures happen when the heroes have to struggle to overcome hardships/adversaries.

If it's just an overpowering wankfest....you might have a decent time, but you'll likely forget the evening w/in a month.

If the GM was good about scaling/adapting to the heroes so they have times of suffering and loss but are still able to achieve victory...you'll remember that adventure for years.
 
The Whispering Monk said:
The trick is remembering that the best stories/adventures happen when the heroes have to struggle to overcome hardships/adversaries.

If it's just an overpowering wankfest....you might have a decent time, but you'll likely forget the evening w/in a month.

If the GM was good about scaling/adapting to the heroes so they have times of suffering and loss but are still able to achieve victory...you'll remember that adventure for years.
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Gms came in 2 flavors. those who viewed it as a game where they had to try and TPK the party and those who just wanted to talk about their... magical realm.

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It also depends on the system and the world you are playing in. Case in point D+D players can become rediculously powerful and in some cases challenge the deities of the setting. You have to be careful what treasure you give out and how powered entities are handled or else you wind up with the following line.

"I did it! I rolled a natural 20! My Vorpal Sword just cut off Odin's head."

or

"Mwahaha! I just killed an ancient red dragon in three turns and my ring of regeneration will heal all of my wounds."

Both feats were possible in 1st edition AD+D. Not fun at all unless you enjoy a power trip.

On the other end of the spectrum you could have things swing in the opposite direction. Ravenloth anyone? Dark Sun perhaps? It is a careful balancing act and the GM needs to be on his toes.
 
Besides deciding on a table (the group you play with) choosing the right game and system is hugely impactful.

There are so many games that really you should try to find one that inherently matches what your table wants to play. (Your table can consist of just you, there are plenty of really good oracles out there)

Like D&D is really tuned for fantasy and tactical wargaming with a slathering of RP on it. The most robust rules in the system are for combat. Everything else is kinda meh in comparison. Pathfinder is a better adventuring ruleset anyways.

Call of Cthulu, on the other hand, is very tuned for investigation and eldritch horror.

If you want to play over-the-top fencers from Spain/France/Italy in the Renaissance then Dueling Fops of Vandimire is a game I'd rec, or Thirsty Sword Lesbians which is exactly what it says on the tin(and it's very woke). If I was going to run a WORLD FENCING FEDERATION with heels and faces and all that great WWE type vibes, these are the systems I'd start with.

Wanna be a pirate? 7th Sea.
Samurai? Legend of the Five Rings.
Regency Era Lord or Lady? Regency Cthulu but strip out the eldritch horror. CoC has got some great rules for conspiracies (even mundane ones) and ferreting out affairs and the like.
Dune Era Lord or Lady? Dune has a 2d20 game that's actually pretty decent.
Run a tavern? Tiny Taverns or The Broken Cask.

Sure, you can do all of these things with a D20 D&D derived system. But again, it's very much an inherently combat focused system. You either have to hack something together, or find another system.

Various systems can also force a lot of shit down. You can't have a magical piss forest in Legend of the Five Rings without drastically changing the setting. People, even PCs, tend to never get into the power range needed for that kind of shenanigans.

Unfortunately it's pretty impossible to get completely away from GMs or players being able to slide in fetishes.

For the TPK types, that can be hard to get away from too. But that's typically either a GM lashing out or from not understanding how to balance beyond RAW. But again, the system and setting can really tune that. Scion 2e's suggested combat encounters are pretty easily dealt with, to the point where you have to toughen it up.

Finding the right table, and the right game combination is hard. But it can be done.
 
There IS a game where TPK is not only expected it is encouraged. Hell every player gets 6 clones of their character due to what can go wrong in the game.

I speak of the worlds most perfect roleplaying game..... Paranoia. Remember the Computer is your friend. Trust the computer.

Stay Alert.
Trust no one but Friend Computer.
Keep your laser handy.
 
Typhonis said:
There IS a game where TPK is not only expected it is encouraged. Hell every player gets 6 clones of their character due to what can go wrong in the game.

I speak of the worlds most perfect roleplaying game..... Paranoia. Remember the Computer is your friend. Trust the computer.

Stay Alert.
Trust no one but Friend Computer.
Keep your laser handy.
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Oh, but personal laser's are illegal. Friend Computer needs to confiscate that from you, you wouldn't want to disobey, would you?
 
Alpha Complex and Paranoia is also woke. Oh yeah definitely woke. It doesn't matter your race, creed, color or orientation...in Alpha Complex everyone is a commie mutant traitor to one level or another.

Everyone is a mutant and has a mutant power. This makes you a traitor. Those who report themselves will be shown leniency. Everyone is also a member of a secret society....this is also treasonous. After all Alpha Complex is perfect there is no way to improve it.
You can see how friend Game Master can use this for his own amusement?
 
SoliFortissimi said:
I wouldn't even mind most woke media if it weren't deliberately trying to be as unpleasing as possible. I'm not one of those types whose every waking moment is dominated by politics, I just want to enjoy some films every now and then.
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That's my issue, the hyper-woke shit with rainbows and gay people all over the place doesn't bother me too much because I was never going to watch/play those anyways. Hell let the SJW types keep em.

But it seeps into otherwise non-Woke shit, with juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust enough subtlety to fool normies while being comically visible to anyone with half a brain.

Good example? Starfield. Yeah sure it as some gay characters, as if good RPG's like New Vegas didn't have them. So that's fine so far.

But holy shit why is like over 60% of the capital city comprised of obese Australian Aboriginals? What the hell kind of genealogy fuckup happened in that universe, was there a major accident at the sperm bank or something? And why is their healthcare so terrible!?

And they're all so fucking ugly, like disturbingly so, it comes across as weirdly racist that Bethesda believes every single brown person is some sort of dysgenic monstrosity when most of them in real life look like, well, usual people!

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So congrats Starfield, you just had to eat up that ESG money to fill a fictional universe with a hyper specific people for no good reason. If you need to fill the game with minorities at least fill it with thicc latina women or something.
 
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