Let's Talk About Rampancy

[Crocmon]

Hey! It's me, Croc, asking some questions of RPDom.


Now, I was running a game for a while known as Rampancy. It was attempting to mix the NBRP and character RP elements into one glorious PvP experience, except it - compared to what I had in mind - fizzled due to a combination of interest loss and my own IRL problems getting in the way.


I am rather disappointed it went the way it did, but summer's coming up soon.


I'm thinking about rebooting the RP with a fully codified system, a tweak of canon, and a different idea behind it. The only problem, is choosing the system. I'm new to using a system for RPing beyond "the ST is doing his rolls to determine the way some iffy scenarios play out under the hood don't worry it's k," but I will say that WoD (New or Old seems of little difference to me; someone right my mistake in thinking this plz) is catching my eye. Problem I've had someone IRL tell me, though, is that it tends to get... Interesting if and when combat begins.


And by interesting I mean extremely high mortality rates.


Rampancy (and what will be its reboot), is a very action-y game. Bullets, psionics, and tech powers (should) fly in the game, as combat is a large portion of getting contracts done.


Does anyone have suggestions for how to get around this? I'm thinking about a d10 setup where you roll 1d10, add your skill rank, and call it a day rather than the "dice pool" mechanic when guns start firing.


We work on mechanical issues, then I'll start talking about work on the canon. This is part interest check, part call for help. My goal is to make it a local RP, and run it on tabletop for a few friends before bringing it to the site (like a test-run if you will).


I am a nubcaek ST wanting to make Rampancy work in WoD, what do?

 

[Grey]

New World of Darkness has a better system; if you use either, use that. Not hating on oWoD, but it was mechanically very clunky and full of weird bugs that people grew to love.


By default, it is very lethal, BUT by taking rules tweaks from the Infinite Macabre, Bleeding Edge, and other supplements such as Armoury Reloaded, you can easily modify it for psionics, cybertech, and lower lethality.


Basically, nWoD is ideal for what you want, it just needs a wee bit of preparation.

 

[Crocmon]

Can you link me to these lovely tools?


I want to get ready to run this as a table-top. If things go right, I may merge the two games on RPDom and TRPG I'll be running. I plan on shifting the focus of RAMPANCY to a morphed canon, splicing in space-opera elements and making the characters able to pick one of two factions.


In the new canon, the focus will be on small squad-oriented combat scenarios. Corporations MAY play a part, but their roles will be far different than previously, where they were focusing on statecraft and the like. They will be getting a system I'll need to work on much differently than in previous NBRPs, probably centered on character RP with minor NB elements as seen in Uziel's Revolution! RP.


The Corporations are a big "if" right now, before anyone gets excited.

 

[Grey]

BAM!!


Enjoy your CYBERTECH

 

[Alexandra]

BAM!!
Enjoy your CYBERTECH

Mmmm...some of my favourite alternative source material to come out of nWoD

 

[Crocmon]

Whoa I forgot this thread was still a thing


Okay, I've been tinkering and found something that is clear, concise, and is just close enough to the canon that it'll work. I milled around some source material, finding it was nice and as I was about to start looking into the scifi/cyberpunk esque materials provided here, someone went "Dude there is probably a mod based on Mass Effect" after hearing me elaborate on the tech in this canon.


And sure enough, here it was.


Now, the game is in the process of shipping with this group of people I've assembled. Canonically for them, they are fresh recruits in the supersoldier program known as the Cloak & Dagger Unit. An parallel to the C&D would be the N7 Program, where people of extraordinary combat-oriented circumstances are given their choice of training to become the best soldiers they can be - to the extent of possibly revolutionizing combat through asymmetrical warfare.


A problem arose however, when one of the players was asking me questions like "would this flaw severely hinder my character?" and seemed irritated when him being a drunk, stuttering guy with an embarrassing secret would only get him one point a piece with the way he described them. He asked me to do some rolls with him as we worked out a scenario for his backstory. He had just finished asking me tips and implications that would essentially minmax him to Hell, and then spent all of his freebies into maxing Resources and Armory.


The scenario he ended up in turned out to be extremely tragic, with his family dying around him after his planet was attacked by a canon-specific faction known as The Plague (imagine Zerg, Flood, and Locust Horde had a baby and dropped it into a vat of ugly after beating it with an ugly-stick). It was in a large part because he handled the situation poorly as it unfolded (if he hadn't tried to intimidate the Plague footsoldiers by walking at them with his gun up he might have saved his kids instead of getting decked in his face and knocked unconscious), but also because I wanted him to actually try developing his character beyond "the rich playboy prick" like he was going for. Did I handle it well? I'm not sure if this would require its own thread, or if I could just lump it into this one. ><;