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Started by Remec, April 24, 2010, 09:56:37 PM

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TheGlyphstone

An Arena-style tournament setting sounds like a good idea to go with. Individual threads between players for actual duels, and a couple of general community threads for various arena locations they might gather in.

Remec


Okay, so, we have a lot of thoughts and ideas. Here's what I gather to be a quick summation:

1. The writers would be Planeswalkers...new and original, either well-established or nascent and just coming into their abilities...ie, you may play someone who thinks they are merely a wizard, sorceror, duelist, whatever you wish to call yourself and your ability to summon and use mana for assorted things.

2. We would have an overall storyarc that deals with a large scale Tournament (with a capital 'T'), but there may be side duels going on as the characters wind their way towards and through the event.

3. Mana and the access to it would be seperate from your deck of spells, and build bit-by-bit as the duel progresses unless helped by the right spells, creatures, and/or artifacts.

4. We all agree that a limit of what spells can be used and how many needs to be in place, just need to work out the details.
4a. One suggestion is a standard deck worth of spells---if we don't count the mana, that would mean 36 spells (on average) to work with. We could go with more or less.
4b. Another suggestion was to have each person design their character to work within a given Block (eg, Mirage, Visions, Weatherlight), and that winning a duel would give access to one of the loser's sets.

5. I don't think this has been addressed, but I think we should be in a noncanon world or plane, so that we don't have to worry about conformng to an established history that not everyone will be up on.

6. While the level of sex and violence can vary, it has been suggested that it be placed in the Exotic:NC or Exotic:Extreme areas just to cover all bases.
6a. Another aspect of winning, possibly as part of claiming the set access mentioned above, would be the loser being subject to the winner's desire(s).

Anything else that has been discussed or brought up for discussion?

8-)

bluemoon

I don't like the blck idea...mainly for the fact that I always build decks with cards that I have collected over many different blocks...I still suggest using the spells more as a layout, rather than a deck (having access to them, with mana being the only thing in question) maybe with a regen cycle for stronger cards (how fast you can re-use the spell) more for fairness...I'm not accusing anyone of being un-fair, it just eliminates the whol "Yeah, I drew this card" thing.
~ᴃᴌᵫᵯϕϕɳ~
ⒷⓛⓤⓔⓂⓞⓞⓝ
The Oath of Drake

TheGlyphstone

Likewise somewhat against the block idea - if you're an experienced planeswalker, you'll probably have collected spells and creatures from multiple universes. Having specific themes would be a better guideline, whether it's block, tribal, or strategy-based. For example, I'm planning on a hot-blooded ;D pyromancer, who employs a lot of blasting magic and fire-themed creatures...both Ravnica block and Llorwyn block have lots of fire-elemental-esque creatures, and I'd like to be able to draw from both of them - but I wouldn't be able to pick creatures who don't support the fire-elemental theme in some way. Comparatively, a young mage from Kamigawa or Alara might be a block 'deck' instead, since they're new to planeshopping.

bluemoon

well, none of the planeswalkers are supposed to be "experienced" but my point was more that I don't really do blocks, even being a not-overly experienced-magic player. Really, inexperienced ones may have collected random spells along the way too. I always ran a black/green or green/blue deck, and nobody could figure out my strategy, as everything seemed random...
~ᴃᴌᵫᵯϕϕɳ~
ⒷⓛⓤⓔⓂⓞⓞⓝ
The Oath of Drake

Latooni Subota

#55
bluemoon: The word Deck does not imply that you're drawing cards at random, imo. The way I saw it was that we have our deck of lots of stuff to pull from. However, upon thinking about it, that would either SUPERPOWER or SUPERGIMP discard decks. So how about a middle ground?

You have your 'deck' of spells (30, 36, whatever is fine.), but instead of being able to choose from all of them, why don't we have a 'ready' system? At the begining of the duel you 'ready' seven spells to be used, and at the begining of each turn, you 'ready' another spell. This makes hand-control stuff still viable, and makes Draw cards pretty useful too.

Say a given Planeswalker can only mentally/physically keep 7 spells 'readied', just because of the strain of having all that magic ready to go. That means that when you go over, at the end of the turn you lose spells of your choice that went over that limit, since it would be 'unsafe' without an artifact or something to allow you to focus on more spells at once. See, it's really easy to add fluff in to keep it fairly close to the real MTG. :3

As for the Block thing, I still insist it's a good idea. Mainly because I totally didn't want to see people starting out as LOL GARTH ONE-EYE and such. Limiting everyone to a Block gives a (relatively) even playing field to start with. You want to use cards from certain other blocks? Seek out the people that use the sets you want, and beat them. It's also an incentive to battle more, and win more, since each victory makes you that much stronger/gives you a bigger pool of spells to choose from.

That and it wouldn't be difficult to actually look up the cards. Block-decks (especially with newer blocks) work QUITE well. And even older ones have enough stuff to make some spiffy decks (Lich decks anyone? Plz no D: ).

Edit: Oh, right. I totally agree on non-canon setting. :D

Edit2: Okay, fine, in the interests of being more pliable . . despite me INSISTING we do Blocks to start, I SUPPOSE we could also do something like choose three SETS to start with, regardless of Block. From there, continue with the winning a Set a duel. -Washes off her brain for suggesting something she hates-
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RubySlippers

I have a suggestion instead of blocks just limit new planewalkers aka players to cards that are common and some uncommon. Rare and mythic cards should be earned and uncommon cards limited. Then one could build all kinds of deck from many sets since the card power level would be fairly modest.


TheGlyphstone

#57
Quote
As for the Block thing, I still insist it's a good idea. Mainly because I totally didn't want to see people starting out as LOL GARTH ONE-EYE and such. Limiting everyone to a Block gives a (relatively) even playing field to start with. You want to use cards from certain other blocks? Seek out the people that use the sets you want, and beat them. It's also an incentive to battle more, and win more, since each victory makes you that much stronger/gives you a bigger pool of spells to choose from.

Except, Garth should have sucked royally by any terms approaching the rules of the game - drawing from all five colors at once without any sort of mana-balancing shenanigans. And one-block limitations don't actually do much towards keeping power down - Block Constructed is only regarded as balanced because it limits everyone to the same pool of potential cards. With all blocks in play, but only one per person, it just means certain blocks won't ever see play because their overall power is so much weaker than their competition (Kamigawa, for example, or Ice Age, and a lot of the older blocks that don't start with On and end with Slaught.

What I think we really need to agree on before any more decisions get made is what we're playing. Is this going to be a set of play-by-post M:TG duel matches dressed up in RP trappings, or is it an RP based around or set in the Magic mythos/meta-setting? The first would be where keeping everyone 'balanced' is more important, naturally. The latter would be where playing out the duel is more important that who wins, though keeping some rules of sorts will help lower the chances of it turning into cops-and-robbers.

Ruby's suggestion isn't bad though, I like the idea of limiting rarities - maybe allow each person one rare card, but no mythics or legendaries. The idea of a three-set 'custom block is a good possibility also.

Latooni Subota

Hmm, I half agree and half don't? Mainly because I've made WAY too many decks out of COMMONS, let alone Commons and Uncommons, that can trash delicious rare decks like no tomorrow. A limit on Rares, I don't like. A limit on Mythic Rares and Legendaries . . I can agree with that, or at least limiting the number of them in the deck?

Either way, I'd still prefer my ideas. My ego is powerful. ;)

Glyph: I'll wait for others to weigh in on that. And also, Garth was epic. Don't deny is manly ability to seduce even Benalish women! :D
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TheGlyphstone

Well, I haven't actually read Arena - I just googled his name and found him listed as a character in the MtGSalvation wiki, where it was mentioned he used magic of all five colors.

We definitely need to ban Mythics or Legendaries. I'm starting to feel ambivalent about the other rarities - you comment reminds me of all the powerhouse budget decks I've seen and played. Wizard's design strategy doesn't always put 'Good' in rare as much as they do 'Cool', at least until they invented Mythics specifically to hold the 'Cool not Good' cards.

bluemoon

I don't like limiting the "number" of a card, because that's still going back to the draw idea. I'd prefer the regen thing then, it could be "turn-based" and you could only cast those spells after so many turns, and each time you cast it, the counter resets. Maybe instead of just 7 spells at random, you start with 7 common spells, and as turns go on "unlock" the higher level spells?
~ᴃᴌᵫᵯϕϕɳ~
ⒷⓛⓤⓔⓂⓞⓞⓝ
The Oath of Drake

Latooni Subota

Bluemoon: Where are you getting the idea that you'd randomly draw cards from? I thought I was clear that there was no random about it. My 'draw/hand' idea is just so that several rather important blue/black/etc deck concepts aren't completely useless. You PICK what you put into your hand. Adds a different level of strategy to the whole thing.
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If I'm needed to post somewhere, PLEASE PM me about it. Sometimes I lose track of threads and need to be reminded about things.

bluemoon

when did I say "random" anywhere in that last post?
~ᴃᴌᵫᵯϕϕɳ~
ⒷⓛⓤⓔⓂⓞⓞⓝ
The Oath of Drake

Latooni Subota

Not to be combative or nitpicky, but you did. Last line of your post: "Maybe instead of just 7 spells at random". This implied to me that you thought the earlier ideas for the 'draw/ready' thing was random. If I was wrong, sorry, but that's how I saw it.
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If I'm needed to post somewhere, PLEASE PM me about it. Sometimes I lose track of threads and need to be reminded about things.

bluemoon

I honestly don't know how that random got in there...guess it was a subconscious slip, but still...
~ᴃᴌᵫᵯϕϕɳ~
ⒷⓛⓤⓔⓂⓞⓞⓝ
The Oath of Drake

MMTwo

I am in on this idea!

Though I agree with Glyph it would be good to know if this is more Magic RP, or playing Magic with interspersed RP. Both are interesting, but what more people want would definitely help with deciding which way the rules should go.

In other news, Hey everybody!

HockeyGod

Not to derail the group - but that would be kinda neat - role play an actual game. I'd read that!!

TheGlyphstone

It'd take a lot more structure, though I can see it working. You'd need:

A set decklist for each player, with each card numbered 1-60.
A neutral DM/Referee.
A random die roller used to 'generate' what cards are drawn, off the DM-maintained decklist.

It'd go very slowly, but it's possible. Hence, why I'm rooting strongly for a loose, semi-freeform and RP-heavy game structure instead.

MMTwo

Well I think the middle ground has been whats been talked about for most of this thread.

A list of 36 or so spells.
Each turn you choose one to add to a 'ready' list, but can only have 7 ready total.

The main thing undecided is mana cost and how they would work. Whether each posting round would mean both players have 1 more mana available, or whether the mana cost would relate to a natural cooldown for repeating that same spell (or spells in general).

But yeah, middle ground.



Zebu

Wow.  Definitely feeling Johnny-come-lately to what looks like an amazing roleplay.  I'll just toss my two cents out there and see what happens, then.

It looks like the biggest disagreement is structural-- everyone's trying to come up with a system that would be a) fair and b) fun.  Me, I'd like to point out that even a system that's balanced for experienced players could easily create problems for the people who haven't memorized every set from Alpha to Mirridon.  Which just goes as one more example of how most people disagree about what balanced would look like.  So let's step back for a minute and look at the big picture.

Assume that we create a perfectly balanced system.  We'll put it in a box: [box].  Now, let's fit [box] into an RP!

Using [box], any player can theoretically defeat any other player, placing them at their mercy.  Evil chuckle.  But is that really what players want?  Under [box], everyone has an equal chance of winning/losing.  This means that any character can challenge any other character and beat them.  The problem is that not everyone wants to be beaten.  In other words, joining this RP under [box] means consenting to letting anyone/thing, regardless of gender or species, rape your character.  I'm sure some people have no problem with that, but a quick look at some On/Off lists shows that some of you are not like that.  So.

You could implement [box] and let people agree about permissible events in the OOC. But if that's going to happen, why 'mandate' [box] at all?  Instead, I suggest making it completely freeform.  People can decide how they want to structure their duels, and use [box] or something they think is more interesting.  If people like one set of restrictions on sets or mana or similar, they can use that.  If they like a setup that makes one decktype suddenly worthless, they can agree to it and just not play that decktype.  If a group of people want to hold a tournament, they can do it-- they all agree to one set of rules and run with it from there.  There are enough people in this thread to make that possible.  The only thing that making [box] optional does is remove a way for people to force other players to do things they don't want to, and that's good, right?

Of course, this needs some fluff.  It looks hard to create a coherent RP where a player can only summon goblins in one battle, but has an Exalted Angel in the next.  Here are some suggestions:

Players live in a world where magic is highly fluid.  It collects heavily in some areas and is much more sparse in others.  The same mage can operate on two entirely different levels in two different cities, or even two different streets on opposite sides of town.

All players are living in a dimension with no native magical powers.  In order to use cards, they must breach the planes to bring them into this world.  This is easier in some areas and harder in others, and anything pulled into this world cannot last for too long.

Pure coincidence.  "Oh no!  I just happened to step outside without my Heart of Light crystal today!"  Probably not the best option, but it's there.


So.  There're my thoughts, and admittedly different from the last three pages.  But regardless of whether you like them or not, consider this my official declaration of interest in this RP. :)
Live forever or die trying.

For Great Justice
--Machiavelli.

Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.

Latooni Subota

Or why not this? Make two separate groups. One does the more structured form, and the other does the more freeform one. People can choose to play in either, or both, depending on their wants. Or something. :3
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If I'm needed to post somewhere, PLEASE PM me about it. Sometimes I lose track of threads and need to be reminded about things.

Saerrael

Bowing out of this. Too much games up.

Sanai

I may be interested. If it is card based, will all of the cards be up for us all to read somehow?
I also love the idea of the loser of a duel being at the mercy (sexual and otherwise) of the victor.
What have I become?
My Sweetest Friend..
Everyone I know..
Goes Away in the End.
You Could have it All...
My Empire of Dirt
I will Let you down...
I will make you Hurt.

Latooni Subota

A list of sets/blocks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTG_sets

Where to find what all the cards do: http://www.cardkingdom.com


Also, I would totally be up for playtesting the more structured rules. For funsies. :3
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If I'm needed to post somewhere, PLEASE PM me about it. Sometimes I lose track of threads and need to be reminded about things.

GryphonCompanion

I second Latooni's desire! =D
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I have seen slower people than I am and more deliberate … and even quieter, and more listless, and lazier people than I am. But, they were dead.
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