Interest Check (Highlander)

[Seereous]

Yes, you read the subject correctly.  Highlander!  Immortals, swords, sex and all the other fun things that make living forever, well, worth living.  This is my first go at organizing a game, so be gentle. :)

I've thought about this for a little while now and I think that I've come up with a system that will allow for the role play that we all seek, and the battles that immortals more likely to face.

For the RP side of things, it will be just that, RP.  I'm willing to stage the main story line in any city, though I would like to leave Paris, New York City and Seattle out of it (Paris and Seattle were done in the TV series and NYC in the movies).  There will be a few rules concerning immortals, mortals and the all that fun stuff.

For the sake of not being cliche, I'm just going to come out and say no Highlanders!  The game won't need an over abundance of Scottish warrior running around.  No katanas.  Why do you ask?  Good question.  Same reason as the no Highlanders bit.  If your character is actually from Japan, I will consider it, since it would actually make sense for you to have a katana.  I'm going to put an age limit of 300-350 years old tops for the player characters.  I don't want a bunch of all powerful ancients running around.  I would actually like to encourage some to make new immortals.  It would make for good role play learning about the game and the rules.  Ancient immortals will be allowed as mentors and sources of wisdom.  These immortals will not be allow to participate in the duels (see below).  They will serve mostly as sources of info and as mentors to the young ones.  If you would like to play an ancient and an active duelist, please do.

Now for the actual game itself.  With Highlander comes the Gathering and sword fights and losing heads.  Here is my recommendation for the duels.  There will be a separate thread for the duels.  Make your challenge to whomever you choose.  You will role a d6 and the one with the highest role wins.  It's that simple.  Now, when that has been done, I would ideally like to ask a neutral third party to write the short story about the battle, so that both sides get a good showing.  How close the battle is will be determined by the role results.  For example if Bob rolls a 1 and his opponent rolls a 6, the battle is about as one sided as you can get.  The closer the numbers, the closer the battles.  The winner of the battle will be allowed to challenge again, and the loser will not be able to challenge or be challenged for the rest of the month.  At the end of the month, the immortal with the most kills will be crowned the months champion and will get a permanent +1 modifier to his rolls.  That will continue every month till the end of the year.  The highest modifier that you can get will be a +4 (four quarters in a year). At the end of the year (if the game lasts that long) the monthly winner's will fight each other and the last one standing will be the One.  Now, for those that lose the battles you will be able to continue to post in the RP, but you will not be able to fight in the duels.  This will keep you the player from having to create an immortal after each loss.

Mortals will be welcome to join the game.  Be Watchers, Hunters (evil Watchers that kill immortals), spouses, lovers, or just friends.  In short lets just have fun!

Let me know if you're interested.  I will most likely need a co-GM giving the amount of potential battles to be tracked.

[Elvi]

Only a couple of points on this one Seereous.

The first a game called Highlander, but no Scots are allowed?
The second, a character who is not allowed to use the weapon of his/her own choice?

Of course the 'my game my rules' clause operates as usual and the above two points are only really minor.

However, I am a little confused about the duel thing. Isn't the whole point of fighting another Immortal to kill them?
After all, the whole point of the 'Highlander' thing is that "There can be only one".
The immortals very rarely crossed paths for other reasons than to kill each other and I have certainly not seen any instance of them fighting 'for fun'.....

[RedEve]

Off course, if they did kill each other, Seereous could run out of roleplayers pretty soon. :)

[Elvi]

True....
However, if you're going to base a game on an idea which involves death.....

And hell, look at the roleplay there would be in avoiding such confrontations....

[Seereous]

Valid points all, Elvi. 

I said no characters from Scotland because I know that a lot of people, not all, have a tendency to model there characters after favorite characters from books, television and movies. 

The no katana thing just comes from a lot of rp experience other places.  It seems that if someone gets a chance to get a katana they grab it.  There are other weapons in the world.

I don't like using the "my game, my rules" defense.  If someone really, really wanted to play a Highlander and they could give me a good background story, etc. I would consider it.  The show was called Highlander, but only because the main character was a highlander.  It could just as easily been called Centurion after a Roman immortal, or the Viking after a Viking immortal.

RedEve did have have a good point.  As I mentioned in first presentation of the idea.  It would get discouraging if every time you had to fight another immortal you ended up making another.  I was just trying to provide an alternative to permanent death of characters, because i know that people put a lot of time and thought into their characters.

I'm always open to other suggestions and ideas.  This was just a feeling out process to see if their was any interest.

[RedEve]

You could limit the amount of challenges every character has a right to make. If you have to wait a certain amount of time in between challenges, that way, you won't get a situation where your participants will be decimated in a matter of days. And it'll allow you to work with a system where one of the characters does die during the duel.

[Max]

I have little experience with things Highlander.  Saw the first movie a couple of times, and just a few episodes of the series.  But, if memory serves, the Immortals would get together to do things other than train or fight.  In Highlander, Conner and another get together for a party, which leads to Conner's infamous "duel" in Boston, which sees him getting stabbed over and over and over.  Maybe, the games takes place before the Gathering?  (And if there is magic, does it make it Magic: the Gathering?   ;D )

[RubySlippers]

I'm a HUGE Highlander fan and Elvi they do not always kill each other. Many time Duncan oculd have taken a head and didn't for some reason or another same with other immortals. In the END there can be only one but until the Gathering comes friends can test their mettle against each other. And a worthy foe who is honorable might be spared. And don't forget training fights were usually all out save the head chopping off.

But she has a point any evil immortal getting an enemy on their knees will take off their head and gain their Quickening. You think the Kurgan gave any quarter- no.

And I must add the Rules are pretty broad for example guns are a noon but a young swordman looking for an edge might use one. And the evil immortal Xaviar St. Cloud used mercenaries, bombs, poison gas and well anything to win. Even a good immortal might have a heavy throwing knife. Generally only two hard rules apply-

1. No fights on holy ground one fight happened in Pompii by legend on holy ground and the volcano erupted according to Watcher legends so that is bad.

2. All duels are one on one and that is pretty much only with immortals and not always followed.

I suggest make this a GM runs the evil enemies and leave the players to run the non-evil immortals after all an evil immortal is a hunter as a rule. Then come up with decent rules for duels a simpe D^ roll seems impractical.

[Seereous]

I'm a HUGE Highlander fan and Elvi they do not always kill each other. Many time Duncan oculd have taken a head and didn't for some reason or another same with other immortals. In the END there can be only one but until the Gathering comes friends can test their mettle against each other. And a worthy foe who is honorable might be spared. And don't forget training fights were usually all out save the head chopping off.

But she has a point any evil immortal getting an enemy on their knees will take off their head and gain their Quickening. You think the Kurgan gave any quarter- no.

And I must add the Rules are pretty broad for example guns are a noon but a young swordman looking for an edge might use one. And the evil immortal Xaviar St. Cloud used mercenaries, bombs, poison gas and well anything to win. Even a good immortal might have a heavy throwing knife. Generally only two hard rules apply-

1. No fights on holy ground one fight happened in Pompii by legend on holy ground and the volcano erupted according to Watcher legends so that is bad.

2. All duels are one on one and that is pretty much only with immortals and not always followed.

I suggest make this a GM runs the evil enemies and leave the players to run the non-evil immortals after all an evil immortal is a hunter as a rule. Then come up with decent rules for duels a simpe D^ roll seems impractical.

You're making this sound like work!  :P

I'm not a fan of systems as a whole.  I like free form more, so coming up with a system for the game is a bit....mind boggling to me.  However, I do like your idea of playing the "evil" GMs and letting the players play the good guys.

You've given me food for thought.  I shall go and think now.

[Elvi]

If you don't want to have a system Seereous, don't it's as simple as that honey.
There are many of us out here who can live with that and are clever enough to work around it.

After all, if the game is about interaction, then why place such an emphasis upon one part of it, especially if you aren't keen on that element in the first place?

Please don't be dissheartened by others demanding you change your game simply because THEY think it should be different.
If you want to use me as a sounding board, please feel free to send me a PM   

[RubySlippers]

I don't care if the rules are real easy but in the Highlander Universe evil immortals the active ones that claim heads are out for power that means Quickenings. A good and neutral immortal usually avoids such activity until they have to defend themselves or at least use farir tactics. Evil immortals are devious and always trying to gain the upper hand. And they all take heads when the immortal is down unless a student or lover- even then it might not work in the end. So if a player played an evil immortal the duels would not be fair and to the death. It generally has to be that way in the end.

Now in the series Duncan often sparred and dueled in friendly contests with Connor for example in the first TV series episode. Generally its about training for the Gathering and survival. And not ALL immortals fought I know of a few one a medical doctor that refused to fight, one was retarded and didn't have the aptitude to survive without a protector etc.

But you can't in my view have a Highlander game and have evil immortals play nice they are never nice unless they are up to something.  ;)