Campaign Prospectus Critique

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I found it necessary to do that as well. Negative bids strike me as especially objectionable; they amount to saying "Not only do I not want to play this, but I want to prevent other people from playing it."

Bill Stoddard

I don't think that was the intent, at least from the people that did it with me. Rather they wanted "more points" for the stuff they really wanted to bid on, or something. In practice a zero basically kills a campaign anyway.

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I don't think that was the intent, at least from the people that did it with me. Rather they wanted "more points" for the stuff they really wanted to bid on, or something. In practice a zero basically kills a campaign anyway.

I found the points freed up by concentrating high points into two-three bids unbalanced the evaluation process, so I just lowered their bids by the amount needed to bring their highest bid to the same level as the highest someone who followed instructions had bid.

[whswhs]

This will be purely thoughts about sources:

A Night at the Opera: Tim Powers, Declare

Beyond the Mountains of Madness: H. P. Lovecraft, "At the Mountains of Madness" (unless you're deliberately keeping them in the dark!)
Theodore Sturgeon, "Killdozer"

King and Country: Tim Powers, On Stranger Tides
Peter T. Leeson, The Invisible Hook (an economic and constitutional analysis of piracy)

Red Justice: Outland

Seven Dragons: Wu Cheng'en, Journey to the West
Barry Hughart, Bridge of Birds

Shadow Puppets: Robert Heinlein, The Puppet Masters
John Le Carré, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and its sequels

Dan Daly: Destination Moon
E. E. Smith, First Lensman

The Quick and the Dead: Wild, Wild West

Uncommon Valor: Planetary

Bill Stoddard
The Heroic Legend of Arslan

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

I've had problems with the first time I mention "Bid" the players dump all their points into two or three campaigns. Think this is clear enough?

I have more the opposite problem: At least one of my players spent weeks sweating over whether she dared give zero points to anything, for fear that she might sit out the next cycle. Even when I pointed out that I would run at least two campaigns, so giving one a zero score was totally safe and giving two zero scores had only a very small chance of causing problems, she still hesitated. And another of my players gave 1 point to one, 3 points to another, and 2 points to everything else.

Bill Stoddard

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I have more the opposite problem: At least one of my players spent weeks sweating over whether she dared give zero points to anything, for fear that she might sit out the next cycle. Even when I pointed out that I would run at least two campaigns, so giving one a zero score was totally safe and giving two zero scores had only a very small chance of causing problems, she still hesitated. And another of my players gave 1 point to one, 3 points to another, and 2 points to everything else.

Bill Stoddard

I wish I had your problem.

Thanks for the sources! They're quite helpful. I am leaving off Beyond the Mountains of Madness, as it's an in-game document (as well as Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym) that the players discover later on to their dawning understanding and horror.

[Icelander]

I've got no problems with the format of the prospectii, as such. Of course, much depends on the GM and the potential players having approximately the same idea of what 'competent' and such mean, so it never hurts to give them a little document with your ideas of skill levels and attributes for various roles that they'll be able to relate to. For example, your ideas of the range of attributes in the real world for people like cops (ranging from fresh-faced patrolmen to sharp-as-a-tack special agent high-flyers), soldiers (basic grunts as well as elite special operators), sholars and elite professionals.

Of course, if you've been gaming together for a long time and already share assumptions about such things, scratch that. And if you're lazy, like me, skip writing it up and just spend some minutes talking about it to them, preferably over beers.

There were at least two campaigns* there that I was dying to play. So it looks good.

*But then, I'm running one very like one of them now and the other type was proposed but rejected by my players.

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by Icelander

I've got no problems with the format of the prospectii, as such. Of course, much depends on the GM and the potential players having approximately the same idea of what 'competent' and such mean, so it never hurts to give them a little document with your ideas of skill levels and attributes for various roles that they'll be able to relate to. For example, your ideas of the range of attributes in the real world for people like cops (ranging from fresh-faced patrolmen to sharp-as-a-tack special agent high-flyers), soldiers (basic grunts as well as elite special operators), sholars and elite professionals.

This is a good point, but I wonder how much adding specifics would lengthen the entries.

Originally Posted by Icelander

Of course, if you've been gaming together for a long time and already share assumptions about such things, scratch that.

I haven't but I expect character creation to be dealt with via e-mails and was thinking specifics could be hammered out during that process.

Originally Posted by Icelander

And if you're lazy, like me, skip writing it up and just spend some minutes talking about it to them, preferably over beers.

This would be the preferred method, since it involves beer.

Originally Posted by Icelander

There were at least two campaigns* there that I was dying to play. So it looks good.

A Night at the Opera and Uncommon Valor?

[sir_pudding]

Night at the Opera: Charles Stross; Colder War, Atrocity Archives, Jennifer Morgue, Down at the Farm (basically any of his Laundry novels and short stories).

Beyond the Mountain of Madness: John W. Campbell; Who Goes There? (the story that The Thing was based on).

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Beyond the Mountain of Madness: John W. Campbell; Halt who Goes There (the story that The Thing was based on).

It's just "Who Goes There?" But yes, good call.

Bill Stoddard

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by whswhs

It's just "Who Goes There?" But yes, good call.

Bill Stoddard

Ah, yes. Faulty memory, that. Fixed.