Action Chatroom Development Thread

In this thread, people are invited to propose their ideas for Action Chatroom games and discuss how to handle various rules and mechanics of the games. Also, all current games' statuses will be updated and managed here.

Current Games:

SSD2 - Link.(Lighthearter)
Joint Strike Squad - Link.(Nukeknockout)
The Dance of Fate, The Flash of a Sword, The Lights of Magic - Link.(Arya126)

Planned Games:

We Stand Alone - Link.(Lighthearter)
Dark Oaths - Link.(Lighthearter)
Final Frontier - Link.(Lighthearter)

Past Games:

Stellar War - Link.(Lighthearter)
Metropolis - Link.(Sonereal)
Saviors of a Broken World - Link.(Lighthearter)
Island of Dreams - Link.(Lighthearter)
Special Services Division - Link.(Lighthearter)
Desron: Pacific War II - Link.(Lighthearter)
Heroes Rise And Fall - Link.(Arya126)
The Spiral Tower - Link.(Sonereal)
American Uprising - Link.(Lighthearter)
Great War: Red Alert II - Link.(Sonereal)
Pacific War - Empires Clash - Link.(Lighthearter)

-L

Proposal: Island of Dreams

The players are caught in a dream - or are they? What matters is that things are happening that you can't comprehend. Strange people flock around you, telling you that they can come and go at will, and the Dreaming must continue. Someone is manipulating this world and it isn't you.

Time to change that.

Master skills and battle your way through the Dream, or break the rules with powers that capitalize on the very fact you live in a dream. Create weapons, manipulate matter, spawn NPCs at your side, disassemble tanks - and people.

Do whatever it takes to get out of the Dream. Or embrace it as the utopia it seems to be for the strong-minded, and enjoy your semi-divinity.

Just remember that you're in someone's dream. Someone is God in this Dream.

Beware the Valkyries . . . .

-L

Proposal: TF2 AC (In Development)

Features:
Respawning, after 3 rounds (roughly) players respawn to get in action.
No story: Well, its based on the game of the same name.
Loadouts: All weapons from TF2 will be in, some you must unlock.
Classes: Scouts, Heavies, Medics, etc. All classes will be featured.
Players can vote on the game type. Though the GM picks the map.

I want to host one, but before I make an official proposal, I'd like to see which one of these you guys would rather play.

The first would be called Mal'akhim, which means "Angels" in Hebrew. The game would be a sort of science fiction-fantasy hybrid. You would play a troop of angelic creatures with no memory of what's just happened. You do, however, have a very great sense of doom, and your troop is under attack by strange creatures.. As the game progresses, you would learn more about your lost past. This would be a rather new type of AC, where most of the game actually isn't combat. You would progress through the game with other actions, but most of it wouldn't be combat. Combat would be almost entirely melee [EDIT: Poor wording, by this I mean that you won't control an entire force of troops, just one person. Not all combat will be melee.], ala SSD. Stats would be similar to those of Spiral Tower, with each character having special abilities.

The second idea I have is tentatively called Lost History of the Templars. I don't particularly like the name, and it's subject to change. You would play a band of Knights Templar at around 1200. There would be a global map that determines how your actions shape global politics. Stats would be rather complex, and time would pass quickly, with every 2-3 missions counting as a year. Missions would represent important battles or other events of history. This is probably my personal favorite, because, if you play it right, you really get to screw with history.

The third idea I have is probably going to be called something along the lines of Action Hero League!!! You would play as a superhero and... I know what you're thinking, but I believe that, if it's designed right, this could be a really fun idea. Characters would be stereotypical heroes, each with their own set of powers. Catchphrases, insane villains (some of them player-created), and comic book-style narrative top it off. This is definitely the most lighthearted (no pun intended ) of the three, and, although both Malakhim and Templars would be fun to host, I think this one would be the most fun of the three.

Proposal: Zero Hour

The year is 2018. The Third Gulf War has erupted when Iraq and Iran clashed, and the United States is moving in to end the conflict on a UN-mandated peacekeeping mission. But both Middle Eastern nations are funded by the elusive GLA, a union of governments and terrorists across the Third World to bring about the destruction of the United States' presence overseas. America isn't going to give up without a fight, though.


Link to video.

And during the US assault, GLA rebels detonate a dirty nuke in Beijing. The Chinese Red Army is faced with a massive popular uprising - sponsored by the GLA - across all of China and the nearby nations. The Premier issues the fateful orders: Destroy the GLA - fight to the last man.


Link to video.

But the GLA has its own agenda, and across the Middle East, Southeast Asia and the Balkans, they are gathering their loyal followers under their greatest generals for their REAL strike - the one that will throw the Chinese government into anarchy and the Americans back to their homeland.


Link to video.

The hour is now.


Link to video.

Zero Hour.

-L

LH, when linking videos, only copy the stuff after "www.youtube.com/watch?v=". For example, for the first video, it appears you'd use the code "m9-2vE8j77E." Like so:


Link to video.

Might hold off on TF2 Ac for a Star Wars one, thoughts?

Personally, I'd favor Action Hero League over Lubber's other two options. Anyone else have opinions there?

Or about my proposals?

-L

I'll probably do Action Hero League first. You can take the other two off.

Lighthearter said:

Personally, I'd favor Action Hero League over Lubber's other two options. Anyone else have opinions there?

Or about my proposals?

-L

Click to expand...

Zero Hour sounds interesting. Would we be soldiers, or commanding the troops like in the game? And is this the first three-way AC ever?

Anyways, my proposal

Fortunate Son


Link to video.
(This game is from 2004. You wish your games from 2004 had these graphics. )

...In an unnamed sector between the border of South Vietnam and Cambodia, the forces of the ARSV and the United States Army are in a heated conflict with the NVA and the Viet Cong. The jungle is filled to the brim with gunfire, explosions, and napalm....
- High school textbook

"Fresh blood from throughout the states, listen up! This ain't the world wars with heroism and vigilantism. The farmer you meet in the day might be a VC who kills your friend at night. Trust no one, and keep a full clip ready, for the battle never ends."
- Some dude you met on your flight

Fortunate Son plans to mix what made SSD good, add AU fighting, while getting rid of the flaws in the GPW ruleset and taking my good ideas from it. Players will assume as newbie soldiers in the US Army, fighting for your life and country. There will be no NVA/Viet Cong PCs. I think part of what made SSD good is that we were one big dysfunctional team, and we all had to work together. So, commies, I'm afraid you're going to have to be American.

Now, this doesn't mean GPW is dead; the whole brevity of this post should indicate this idea is only in the planning stage. But, you guys don't really seem interested anymore, and I'm cool with that. I'll admit, it relied too much on luck and super complex die rolls, for the people in the first Soviet mission will tell. LH himself gave me pointers on how to simplify them, and I will apply them on this game.

Coming Whenever-Marching-Band-Season-Is-Over
----------


To survive, you must work together....my sons and daughters.

When you were born from your mortal mothers, you were born with potential. The potential to do grand, terrible things. One day, as you was out hunting, you discovered a horse a lot stronger and bigger than the mere ponies that pull chariots in your time. That is my gift to you, along with the steel sword. I'm sure you'll appreciate my sword for, again, it is far superior to mere stone knives and spears!

What do you want to do? Did you merely want to toil away farming...oh do you want power? Carve a crescent of blood, and you shall gain all the power you need....


The Horsemen is going to be an Action Chatroom based on the premise that the players are basically THE Horsemen of the Apocalypse, sent to wipe out settlement after settlement. The players are immune to aging but that's it meaning going into a village heavily outnumbered is doomed to failure as "minor" things like bleeding out and infection can still kill. Players will have to employ diplomacy, cunning, stealth, and brutality in achieving the most kills possible.

Causing wars, famine, disease, and death in general increases the power of the Horsemen. I'm going to use Starlife's Masters of the Ethereal for a base for spell creation. For every kill, the Horseman gains Lifepoints which can be spent to create spells or power existing ones.

You pick a type and power and describe the spell you want. I give you a cost.

Types
Damage
Heal
Enchant
Curse
Dispel
Summon*

Power
Weak (You can fling these around no problem)
Refined (Requires a bit more concentration and thought)
Wondrous (You'll have to put a lot of concentration into this, leaving you vulnerable.
Arcane (Requires the sacrifice of several mortals on the spot+a crapton of concentration)
Divine: Huge ritual+concentration+sacrifice+uber-powerful

The amount of spells you can have is limited by your level.

Level 1 (Mage): Research limited to 5 spells.
Level 2 (Archmage): Research limited to 10 spells. You can throw around wondrous spells like refined spells.
Level 3 (Demigod): Research limited to 15 spells. You can throw around arcane spells without a ritual.

Proposal: We Stand Alone

June 1941. The German war machine has conquered all of Europe, and England is the only nation left fighting. The Nazis have assembled their armies and their fleet, and supported by the Luftwaffe, they launch them across the Channel. Now they have reached London - and the Battle for Britain begins.

PLAY as Royal Marines, Nazi stormtroopers, French Resistance, Dutch exiles, American volunteers, Italian tankers, British partisans and dozens of other nationalities and classes.

WIELD authentic WWII weapons - Springfield rifles, MP40s, MG42s, Thompson submachineguns, Sten guns, Colt pistols, Panzerfausts, and many more.

FIGHT in war-torn Britain, from the Battle of London to guerrila actions around Southampton all the way to Manchester and Birmingham - even Glasgow and Edinburgh, if the war takes such a turn.

COMMAND units of fellow soldiers, from a few partisans to elite SAS, all with different capabilities and costs.

PILOT famous WW2 vehicles, like Sherman tanks, BF109s, Spitfires, Cromwells, M7 Priests, Hummels, Panzer IIIs, Tigers, ME262s and many more.

WIN THE WAR for your chosen side - the fate of not only Britain, but Europe and the world hinges on your shoulders!

-L

Star Wars AC

0 ABY. 2 years ago the end of the Empire was announced, and the Galactic Civil War had begun. Minor skirmishes have been fought up and and down the galaxy, but no side has truly engaged the other. The might of the fleet, and the newly built Death Star now pose a much larger threat than ever before. Now, they have located a base on Yavin, where important members of the Alliance are at. The Rebels know they have to stand up to them here, or the Rebellion will surely lose.

Will you fight for the Imperials, leading the Empire to victory? Or will you fight for the Rebellion, giving your blood for the freedom you desire?

I just created an AC based on zombies. It's called Zombie Invasion.

Island of Dreams is up!

-L

Servants of Chaos

The ruleset for this one is finished. Basically, it's sorta like the Spiral Tower in that players will progress through time. The difference is that this time, players select one of the three Chaos avatars (Chaos Lord, Plague Champion, Chaos Sorcerer) and command a variety of hellish squads of units, from Heretics armed with swords and bolter pistols to Chaos Predators and Daemon Princes.

One of the new things in this game is experience. Players can level up (increasing energy regeneration and amount of CPs) but so can the squads of units. Blindly throwing your forces into a meatgrinder is no longer something you want to do often, as squads cost money to create and more money to upgrade. If a Squad is completely wiped out in a battle, the player has to buy a new squad!

Squads also earn experience and level up. I'm saying squads a lot but really, the largest squad is 8 or 9 people (nine with an upgrade). The smallest "squad" is actually just one unit with most being 3 or 4 people.

So, to use LH's example above....

PLAY as an avatar of brutal violence, of pestilence of decay, or wield the powers of the Warp to watch your enemies crumble.

WIELD weapons in a game where the most basic weapon is a Bolter Pistol, a weapon most can wield in one hand that fires miniature rockets (and can hold 6 rockets per magazine....). Wield powerful daemonic weapons and wear armor blessed by the Gods of Chaos to give you an edge over the pathetic, hopeless humans.

FIGHT, maim, and slaughter your way across time. Start by leveling villages, then tribes, then cities, then nations, and then eventually, the world over and over again as you fight enemies first armed with nothing more than their hands and rocks and later, armed with powerful AI and bombers. Don't be surprised to see more...exotic enemies pop up from time to time.

COMMAND squads of Heretics who could blow themselves with chaos energy at any moment to Sound and Plague Marines to the great Daemonic Princes themselves. Watch as these units gain experience and lose the greenness inherent to all those new to slaughter.

PLEASE the Gods of Chaos. Khorne delights in close combat, brutal killings. Slaneesh delights in artistic killing. Tzeentch delights in well-planned and tactical killings (since all events are simply orchestrated and part of his greater plans). Nurgle delights in his Children spreading his gifts to the world in the form of disease.

In Development- Minions (Working Title)

Anyway, this will be my first attempt at an Action Chatroom. The concept is that the players play as the colorful henchmen or elite agents of a good or evil organization, who are all subsequently tasked with infiltrating a country at war to acquire military secrets, top secret research, salt water taffy, you get the idea.

Inspired in part by the Island of Dreams game, the characters will each have special skills or super powers that will help them in their tasks, and will have an inventory to carry things around.

Here is a WIP stat sheet.

Name: (Le Duh)
Orginization: (Who do you work for?)
Bio: (Give us a quick history of yourself.)
Skills: (What powers or prowess do you posses?)
Inventory: (Your phat loot. Includes money.)

Also, here are the skills for the game:

Muscle (Your ability to move, carry, and use heavy objects.)
Endurance (Able to take more damage.)
Speed (How quick you are on your feet.)
Strike (How skilled your attacks are with melee weapons or bare hands.)
Projectile: (Your skill with any small or medium ranged weapons.)
Scrapper: (Your talent with heavier weaponry.)
Dexterity (How nimble and acrobatic you are.)
Stealth: (Your ability to remain unseen.)
Charisma (Your ability to negotiate and persuade.)
Psych (Mental and psychic abilities, such as mind reading and telekinesis.)
Tech (Your ability to interact with robots, computers, and other electronic technology.)
Engineer (Your ability to repair broken items and MacGyver new items.)
Knowledge (Your ability to think and deduce. Functions like Genre Savvy too! )
Vehicle (Your ability to drive vehicles, aircraft, or boats of any size.)

I'm almost done with this, but it's not going to start for another two weeks owing to college work.

I'm gonna sum up what I think of the ideas here, just because I feel like it.

TF2: Well, i've never played TF2, but the complete lack of plot, story, drama, et al kinda puts me off this one.
Mal'akhim: Quite interesting, particularly the reduction of combat in importance. Not sure about the plot, but sounds intrigueing gameplay-wise.
Lost History of the Templars: Again, an interesting premise. The ability to shape the whole world is attractive, but I'm not so sure about the long time spans between missions in story.
Action Hero League: Captain Crumpet Comes!!! Sounds good, but I was never much of a superhero guy.
Zero Hour: With no infomation about anything other than story I can't say much, but the story seems kinda bland and genericized to me.
Fortunate Son: Blarg, Americans. Not to disparage the game, but I am not liking the setting. A guerilla war from the outsiders PoV, without the ability to zerg rush? Not Interested. Playing the Commies would be awesome, but the American viewpoint wouldn't be much fun for me. Playing the cannon fodder in a guerilla war would hurt.
The Horsemen: MWAHAHAHAHA The setting is definately attractive. I'm uncertain about the Magic system, but it seems similar to what we had in RP3, and that worked well enough.
We Stand Alone: As the person who suggested the name, I am Biased. As the patriot, I am biased. Gameplaywise I can only guess, but I Imagine it being somewhat AU style, and I enjoyed that a lot. My Big gripe? Its not standing alone with so many different Nationalities!!! Restrict us to Brits and Germans GPW style, or even just Brits to make it truely alone. But the Americans? The ITALIANS? THE DUTCH? Just no.
Star Wars: Cower before the Star Destroyer! Again, can't say anything about gameplay, but it's a setting i'd enjoy playing an AC in.
Servants of Chaos: Setting reminds me a lot of the Horseman Idea, but who can resist devastating the world for the Evulz? The Idea of leveling up troops would be a nice addition to the standerd squad-style games.
Minions: Seems like a nice game. A similar style to IoD would be nice, it's proven to be enjoyable. My concern is the 'Psych' skill. This is practically all your magic? Either widen the skillset or remove it completely, otherwise this will likely become a game-breaker. Personally I favour removing, but that would be up to the GM.

DT
Analysing

Update to Minions:

I have taken some suggestions and tweaked some stats. I've decided to remove the concept of magic from the game, as it is somewhat out of place here.

Muscle (Your ability to move, carry, and use heavy objects.)
Endurance (Able to take more damage.)
Speed (How quick you are on your feet.)
Strike (How skilled your attacks are with melee weapons or bare hands.)
Projectile: (Your skill with any small or medium ranged weapons.)
Scrapper: (Your talent with heavier weaponry and explosives.)
Dexterity (How nimble and acrobatic you are.)
Stealth: (Your ability to remain unseen.)
Perception: (Your ability to search and detect hidden things.)
Charisma (Your ability to negotiate and persuade.)
Tech (Your ability to interact with robots, computers, and other electronic technology.)
Engineer (Your ability to repair broken items and MacGyver new items.)
Knowledge (Your ability to think and deduce. Functions like Genre Savvy too! )
Vehicle (Your ability to drive vehicles, aircraft, or boats of any size.)

Bear in mind that the players will be able to fight against each other in this game, but might find themselves better off if they make allies rather than enemies.

Also, you will note that I do not have a list of items for the game. I've decided not to fully restrict weapon choices as to make the game play a little more fun and creative. Still, keep your weapons manageable and somewhat realistic. More powerful weapons will be difficult to manage, and some weapons can't be wielded without the right stats (You can't carry a ridiculously over-sized sword, for example, unless you have a healthy amount of strength points).

Every player starts with three items of their choosing and eight or six skill points (I haven't settled on one yet.) I will award skill points after each mission. Items can be acquired in three ways; you can find them, build them, or buy them from stores. Different currencies can be found in the game for use in different locations, and you can sell odd items back for cash. (This was inspired in part by the monetary system in Fallout NV, if you want a frame of reference.)

I've also taken a leaf from LH's book and allowed players to be non-human. You will be able to PM me and we can decide what advantages and disadvantages you get.

Name: (Le Duh)
Species: (Human or... something else?)
Orginization: (Who do you work for?)
Bio: (Give us a quick history of yourself.)
Skills: (What powers or prowess do you posses?)
Inventory: (Your phat loot. Includes money.)

My projects are also half-over as of now, and I can run this AC sooner if the people so demand it.

On Friday when I have it almost all figured out I will post an idea for a Call of Duty 4-based game, with multiple storylines, global fights, and squad vs squad team deathmatch.