Star Trek: PCG: Brave New Souls [RPG][Discussion]

[Flipz]

Discuss the new RPG, "Brave New Souls" here!

[Magical Girl Mimi]

sent aboard the U.S.S. Fawkes

Now I wonder what that could be from? =P

Just one thing to mention; 'Ki Armour' isn't made out of Ki itself; but Ki Steel, a special metal made to channel Ki in special ways. So, while only Chosen Ones can use it, it's not a 'power'. =P

As for profiles; I'll make one soon. However, give me 'til tomorrow, since I'm currently playing Goldeneye, and that's taking up some time. =P

[Flipz]

sent aboard the U.S.S. Fawkes

Now I wonder what that could be from? =P

*snip*

As for profiles; I'll make one soon. However, give me 'til tomorrow, since I'm currently playing Goldeneye, and that's taking up some time. =P

Pay no attention to that name!  Typo! 

And yeah, I still need to write the NPC list, and make the in-game profiles for at least Captain Flipz, Pavlov, Sulu, and T'Sing.  So I can forgive you for having to wait.

[Legodac]

Well...?
An RPG should attract the intended, with words that are designed for the purpose.

[Flipz]

Um...how about the opening of the Story section on the main RPG page?

Space...the final frontier.  These are the adventures of the Phoenix Command Group.  Our continuing mission: To defend the weak and the innocent.  To seek out justice against the galaxy’s most wicked.  To boldly go…where no one else dares!

[mtmerrick]

it.... it seems nice, but too complicated >_<  powers, rules, only certain species... too strict an RPG for my tastes, sorry.

[Flipz]

Let me try to simplify, especially the profiles description. 

1., 2. Most of the backstory stuff is just that; a summary of the past two years of the PCG.  You can ignore or skim most of it; I'll keep you up to date with what's going on that affects your characters. 
3. The "Gameplay" block is basically a tutorial for those new to role-playing in general, along with a note that says (in effect) that anything is fair game if you can make up some justification for it (i.e. not completely restricted to ST canon). 
4., 5. Standard rules and punishments, mostly borrowed from Blade.
6. I'm reworking the descriptions for clarity, but I'm also making some formatting changes that will hopefully make the form clearer.  ALSO!  Note that not all fields are required at the start; particularly the "flagship" stuff, which won't come along for a while.  Again, I'll reformat and rewrite to make all clearer.

EDIT: To simplify further: All you need to play are a Name, a gender, a species, and a power.  Everything else is either optional or will come later.  If you don't understand the species and power options, the default is "Human" and "Currently unknown."  If you don't like what's available, please, by all means give me ideas; odds are, I'll approve.

7. This is mostly backstory for now, but it lists the playable and unplayable factions and what they do in the universe.  It'll be useful once I get approval to include other groups as playable factions.
8. A simple species list for use in profiles.

Again, if something's confusing or just plain too long, let me know and I'll try to revise.  I don't want this to be restrictive; I want you guys to have as much freedom as possible.

EDIT: In case anyone is interested, this is the general style of uniform we use, but we also have a stylized Sam Browne belt like the ones used in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Yesterday's Enterprise":
LINK?

[Magical Girl Mimi]

Hey, quick question, have you forgotten about this RPG, Flipz? =P

[Flipz]

*Hides +12 Pen of Retcon* just some story changes to accommodate...stuff.....

[Magical Girl Mimi]

I see then. =P

Any plans on any updates for this any time any soon? =P

[Magical Girl Mimi]

Know I just complained about this in the other topic; but this is mostly to point out that link you posted, about the uniforms? Broken on two counts.

[Flipz]

Try it now, using URL tags should have helped.

[Magical Girl Mimi]

That worked. Still weird though, because it didn't seem to recognize the article at all.(Also, apparently that is the Wiki you were trying to link to. Interesting. Didn't think it was, since it was "Memory Beta", and not "Memory Alpha". =P

[Flipz]

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepic revive!  It's SUPER EFFECTIVE!!!!

BNS is back in action!  I just sent out a PM to everyone who has been involved thus far, I'm also going to post about it on LZP. Let's get back in action!

[Magical Girl Mimi]

Sweet, good to see the RPG back in action. =D Let's go!

[Alien_Ant2]

Any particular point/way I should make my character's entrance?

[Flipz]

Well, now that I can post again, PCG RPG will be back up shortly.  I just have to find and revive things.  Think of it as how GLaDOS had to rebuild the Aperture Science labs in Portal 2.  Sure, it's kind of in ruins right now, but give it some time, and it'll be more epic than ever. 

[Magical Girl Mimi]

Good to hear. =D

At least it'll be revived, which is a good thing. =)

[Flipz]

During the time off, you'll be glad to know, I started working on some of the plotlines for Act 2.  I've also been working on a stat system for challenges and combat, which brings me to my next point:

MLNO was the birthplace of Brave New Souls.  You were my first players, and you've been my most dedicated players, so you're the ones I trust for advice.  Sometime in the second half of this year, I plan to open up a branch of Brave New Souls at Eurobricks; not only is there a large community of roleplayers there who I would love to introduce the PCG to, but many of them are Trek fans and have expressed interest in playing the RPG.  So, I need your help--I want to design a stat system that will work well here, where our small-scale freestyle roleplaying works best when the stats stay out of the way and Game Masters bend the rules, as well as at EB, where the large number of players (and open missions) suggests a sturdy, unequivocably fair stat-based system.

The Heroica RPG introduced me to a combat system that is so simple yet elegant that I am kicking myself for not thinking of it the moment the LEGO Games series came out (and thus, for not applying it to MLN:R3 when I had the chance).  It goes like this:

Each player states (in bold) their target, action, and which "row" they attack from (more on that in a minute).  The party leader states the order of attack for the party members and any NPCs in the party.  Roll a 6-sided die.  You can use a digital one if needed.  These are the following possible results:
Shield Phoenix: The Hero Player performs their Special Skill
Critical Hit: The Player lands a Critical Hit on their opponent (2x damage, though certain classes have other effects)
Hit: The Player lands a Hit on their opponent
Miss: The Player and the opponent both miss each other (certain classes have other effects)
Damage: The Player is struck by the opponent's weapon
Special Damage: The Player is struck by the opponent's special ability

The stat system is similarly simple and effective (though I am making some tweaks as we speak), but what I want to know is this: would you be willing to try this out?  I know we haven't really had combat yet, but it's easy to see how this could be adapted for non-combat challenges (plus if Valk and Elaine manage to get their team together, there WILL be some light combat that will be perfect to introduce the system).

I know this is a big change, so I'd definitely appreciate ideas and feedback, ESPECIALLY if you haven't yet joined the game due to the massive WALLOFTEXT in the first post. 

[Magical Girl Mimi]

It might work. And we could still apply it to R3, as it's simply in stasis, waiting for a reply that's likely not gonna happen. =P

I'm not entirely certain if stats would work for RPGs that aren't basically text based MMOs(Like R3 and NG); but, I would be willing to give it a shot.

Also, are the plotlines for after the timeskip we're gonna have, or after the prologue's done? =P