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Player or Watcher? Which do you choose?

Re: Player or Watcher? Which do you choose?

Postby MidnightBlue » Mon Apr 23, 2012 8:08 am

I would prefer to be a player, but if I'm going to get a game going for MHR, at least to start, I'm going to have to step up to Watcher.

Usually, I prefer to play original characters of my own creation. But I could see myself playing Spider-Man (hands down my favorite Marvel character) or Cyclops. I'd even love to give my Superman datafile a shot after tweaking it a bit. (I spent about 10 minutes making the last one to prove a point.)


salsa wrote:I've been a GM for a myriad of games since I was 12 (and I'm 29), first game was Toon. And the thing is, for the first time, I don't feel so comfortable at Watchering (lol, new verb) this particular game. The reason is simple, just because my Marvel knowledge is so scarce I'd feel bad if I said something that defies cannon or common sense in the marvel universe. So, for now I prefer to play it.


Don't you dare let this stop you from running a game if you want to run a game. You just have to be clear to your players up front that this is a Marvel game as seen through YOUR eyes.

Change anything you want. Heck, from the moment anyone steps into the roles of established characters, it really becomes a What-if anyway...unless everyone is being required to work from a script...and that wouldn't be playing...just acting.

I've run a TON of the old TSR Marvel Superheroes games and not a single one of them was "Marvel Universe." I may have pulled in Marvel elements, but the world was mine and my players to mold.

Just an idea.

If you want more "canon," I'd imagine that the Event books will give you the history you need to run a relatively official Marvel campaign.




chaosnet wrote:The only issue that I have is with the XP system. In my mind, unless you are intentionally creating a novice character and using xps to increase your power sets then most characters should be pretty much as is. Spiderman's power set has been the same since his inception (pretty much) but he has probably earned LOTS of xps, enough in fact to have increased all of his power traits to D12.

I had a conversation with one of my players and told him that just because you CAN increase your Radiation Control D10 to Radiation Mastery D12, it doesnt mean that you SHOULD. IF it fits your character concept then I as the Watcher am fine with it, but if it doesnt he shouldnt raise it.

For this player it worked, but for other players im not so sure that it would. How do I apply the breaks to having a player become an "All D12 Power Trait God"?



I'm with you on this. I don't have an "issue" with XP as a problem in the system, but a boon to the games that I want to try to run with this system.

Basically, I want a player to play the character that he wants to play at his peak. I don't want another game where we are doing the level 1 - level 30 crawl in the hopes of getting to that character we envisioned "one of these days." (I've got a D&D 4.0 character that I've been playing straight for about three years. We started at 2nd level...I'm just about to hit 8th level now. At this rate, I'll hit level 30 as our game hits its 13th or 14th year.)

I still LOVE the idea behind Milestones and XP, but I will probably have players use them for non-advancement purchases.

Now...I could see us doing a New Mutants or Generation-X or Young Avengers type of game where we would want to use XP for advancement.

I could also see using XP advancement if everyone rolled Random characters.

But for established and modeled characters, I intend to just use roleplay and player/watcher discussion to modify any datafiles or create and switchout datafiles.
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Re: Player or Watcher? Which do you choose?

Postby That70sBloke » Mon Apr 23, 2012 4:03 pm

Ha!
Like i ever get a choice. If i don't run a game i'dont get to game. Having said that, i'm an awful player, so I'll stick at being watcher.
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Re: Player or Watcher? Which do you choose?

Postby That70sBloke » Mon Apr 23, 2012 4:08 pm

salsa wrote:I've been a GM for a myriad of games since I was 12 (and I'm 29), first game was Toon. And the thing is, for the first time, I don't feel so comfortable at Watchering (lol, new verb) this particular game. The reason is simple, just because my Marvel knowledge is so scarce I'd feel bad if I said something that defies cannon or common sense in the marvel universe. So, for now I prefer to play it.


Just use the Movie Universe instead (Is there a code for that like 616?). OF course if you start throwing in Spider-man and X-men IT might get confusing. Especially with current X-men Film continuity. But like someone else said - just use your vision.

It's not like anything stays the same in Marvel. At point of breakout Spider-Man is with Mary Jane. Currently, nope. They re-set all his history. Not the rest of Marvel, just him.
So Don't worry about it!
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Mass Effect, Eclipse Phase, Naruto and Nightfall for Marvel Heroic/Cortex+
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Re: Player or Watcher? Which do you choose?

Postby salsa » Mon Apr 23, 2012 8:38 pm

I normally don't worry about it. But I do feel better when I cover all bases. I can use pretty much all the basic stuff I know from movies, x-men and spider-man 90s cartoons, not much from the new cartoons, but yea. The only real problem I get is from players who read the comics a lot and expect an experience closer to what they are used to. It can be intimidating sometimes.
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Re: Player or Watcher? Which do you choose?

Postby Supplanter » Mon Apr 23, 2012 9:07 pm

salsa wrote:I normally don't worry about it. But I do feel better when I cover all bases. I can use pretty much all the basic stuff I know from movies, x-men and spider-man 90s cartoons, not much from the new cartoons, but yea. The only real problem I get is from players who read the comics a lot and expect an experience closer to what they are used to. It can be intimidating sometimes.


I was worried when my friend Dave approached me about adding a friend of his to the X-Men thing I'm Watchering because Dave said, "He's a huge X-Men fan and would love to play Nightcrawler." Because, I'm not a super-huge X-Men fan* and haven't even been reading comics regularly for a few years, and I was afraid of exactly the thing you're talking about. Happily, when I broached this concern, the new guy was totally cool about it.

These days I run into many fewer sticklers for canon than I used to, probably because there's too much canon for anyone to remember all of any more, and it's so multiplex: everyone's been reinterpreted and relaunched to a fare-thee-well, across four or five different media, and lots of us want nothing more than to be in charge of the next revamp. :)

Or maybe I'm just lucky in my extended gaming circle?


Jim

* This raises a perfectly reasonable question, needless to say!
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Re: Player or Watcher? Which do you choose?

Postby Duck Call Lass » Tue Apr 24, 2012 12:08 am

Supplanter wrote:I was worried when my friend Dave approached me about adding a friend of his to the X-Men thing I'm Watchering because Dave said, "He's a huge X-Men fan and would love to play Nightcrawler." Because, I'm not a super-huge X-Men fan* and haven't even been reading comics regularly for a few years, and I was afraid of exactly the thing you're talking about. Happily, when I broached this concern, the new guy was totally cool about it.


Since Nightcrawler's currently dead he probably has a good reason to not stick so close to present continuity. :D
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Re: Player or Watcher? Which do you choose?

Postby salsa » Tue Apr 24, 2012 12:30 am

Duck Call Lass wrote:Since Nightcrawler's currently dead he probably has a good reason to not stick so close to present continuity. :D


(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

*off Salsa goes to write his next marvel campaign*
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Re: Player or Watcher? Which do you choose?

Postby Supplanter » Tue Apr 24, 2012 6:12 am

Duck Call Lass wrote:Since Nightcrawler's currently dead he probably has a good reason to not stick so close to present continuity. :D


Hah! Awesome.

Sauce for the gander, though: I'm using the Vanisher as a major Watcher character, and he's currently dead. Of course, the fact that he's supposed to be dead is part of the Event . . .


Jim
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Re: Player or Watcher? Which do you choose?

Postby Cam » Tue Apr 24, 2012 6:58 am

Nightcrawler's back! Except it's Age of Apocalypse Nightcrawler.

Cheers,
Cam
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Re: Player or Watcher? Which do you choose?

Postby MidnightBlue » Tue Apr 24, 2012 6:59 am

No comic book character ever dies.

They just wait patiently in the wings for an author to take note of them.

Just ask the three characters that everyone thought were unreserectable:

1. Bucky Barnes...now the awesome Winter Soldier.

2. Jason Todd Robin...now Red Hood or Red Robin...I can't keep him straight.

3. Barry Allen Flash...back and I believe was recently the focus point of the Flashpoint epic storyline.

When you least expect it...the comic book dead WILL rise.

:lol:
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