WoF: Fluff, Crunch or Both?

[Crafty_Alex]

Gimmie crunch. With the Living campaign being measured for it's coffin, the fluff is at best possibly inspirational and at worst totally irrelevant.
And yay for the Spin Doctor. Not.
I recall in 1.0 a plethora of do anything designs with the Doc central to them. Sounds to me like a case of Test-Subjectivity; that circumstance when something's too good to ever overlook. =P

I know the reason I played the hell out of the Spin Doc in first ed was because it was the only base class that was first and foremost a master of the social stuff without being a master of disguise too. A niche that both Fixer and Advocate work for quite well in their own ways. Also IIRC, Spin Doc is an expert class, so it'll probably be more focused.
Fixer is my new favorite base class for pre-Illuminatus levels.

That's the ticket! I loves me that Fixer (aside from Pitfall stuff, my major contribution to the book). The new Spin Doc is MUCH less terrifying than the previous version, if only that being crammed into an Expert Class forces him to focus on what he should focus on - cover-ups, media manipulation and high-profile lying. Trust me, we've learned from the Test Subject...

[Valentina]

Call it a vote of confidence, I'm quite pleased to hear it's so.
I don't even thing Test Subject is so bad, it's just sort of out of place. I'm looking forward to Corn Fed and anything else that grants interesting NPC qualities as player options. Test Subject just gave too many good options in one package.

And apologies for being pissy. I'm past the acceptance stage of LSpy going away, and into being completely crushed.
And while there may be home games (well, not for me. Bloody terrible luck getting a lasting group), it's never the same. Living Campaigns are the perfect place to tell THE story of the setting and now it's dust.
God damn it. I love(d) Living Spycraft. I had some damn good times and the campaign world was just stepping into full on Great Game mode. I was so looking forward to being a certified Majestic in a world where that meant something.
As a friend who's kiester I regularly keep alive with massive infusions of restorative mojo just emailed me said: "reroll Hierophant." He's right to say so, the PrC I've taken is abominable, but I am what I am for what it means to the setting and to my PC. I was ready to do the same with the added bonus of the Majestic actually rocking -as opposed to sucking wind like the normal RP-compatible choices go.

  I say, .

[Psion]

Originally a mix, now leaning a little towards the crunch. I'll make a final call when I get the book.

I realized something when I started to run an extended Spycraft campaign for the first time: I don't have the same level of awesome at crafting Modern-Day inspired campaigns as I do fantasy and SF campaigns. So I hoped to plug in to World on Fire.

But here's the thing: the WoF premise makes me a little uncomfortable. It sounds like it treads a bit close to real world issues when I see RPGs as escapist. I'm afraid that might "harsh on my buzz" when running the game. And worse, get me in political arguments with my players.

We'll see how it looks when I get the final book. I hope to be able to translate it into something a bit more light-hearted. But if I can't, I may just have to grab the crunch and move on.

[Desertpuma]

Like Valentina, I will miss the LSpy campaign as I had maintained the same character for over 4 years now. He had almost died 3 times (all at Pat's hand BTW). I'm currently less than 10K from 17th and if Argonnite's mission hits prior to the end of the year, then I'll bag 17th.

Sorry for the thread hijack... back to normal...

Good to see that the Spin Doctor will be there as an Expert Class. It made more sense to me for him to be so. I do love the Fixer as he reminds of his counterpart in RTalsorian's Cyberpunk. Social negotiator/black market dealer par excellence.

[Crafty_Alex]

I do love the Fixer as he reminds of his counterpart in RTalsorian's Cyberpunk. Social negotiator/black market dealer par excellence.

Guess who ran a 3 year CP2020 campaign during college? My old fixer character may be reappearing in 10kB as a contact...

[Desertpuma]

I do love the Fixer as he reminds of his counterpart in RTalsorian's Cyberpunk. Social negotiator/black market dealer par excellence.

Guess who ran a 3 year CP2020 campaign during college? My old fixer character may be reappearing in 10kB as a contact...

I loved that game and still have most of the books too. I have a feeling we should be scared to see your old fixer character. ... Just got a great hook in mind: what if all the PCs owe him a favor? ... There's a starting point for an adventure in itself.

[Alphastream]

With the end of LSpy, I'm not sure what I want out of WoF. I had started an Oregon LSPy group but then started leaning towards favoring Shadowrun Missions after the LSpy cancellation... my first game's tonight, but then someone is saying that living campaign may be retired. 

Some of my LSpy friends are looking at L5R's living campaign, but I really wanted a modern setting like LSpy core or WoF. Seems like there might be a vacuum in that 'living' space.

I may just need to retire for a bit. *Sigh* I really hate it when the only communal options are MMORPGs.

[Desertpuma]

Mayve you and Alex can hook up for some games. Alex, you still live in the Portland area?

[Alphastream]

We spoke. He's a member on my Yahoo Oregon LSpy group that I just started.

Teos

[Desertpuma]

Ah... well, you can always run some home games

[Alphastream]

Strangely, there is a dearth of good gamers in the area. (I came from DC, where there are just amazing gamers, so it has been a shock).

If I could ever get some truly good gamers together, a home game would be great. Until then, only a living system can really offer this, as it means I can get together with my DC friends and others at conventions and be part of a story. I suspect this type of thing is why WotC is going for the online model.

Teos

[Desertpuma]

Probably ...

Next time you are in town, if it happens to fall on a weekend I'm running my home game, you are welcome to show up to be a day player if you want.

[Alphastream]

Thanks! No Phoenix plans, unfortunately. But I will certainly drop a line next time I am in town.

Teos

[Crafty_Alex]

If I could ever get some truly good gamers together, a home game would be great. Until then, only a living system can really offer this, as it means I can get together with my DC friends and others at conventions and be part of a story.

This is somewhat of a disconnect for me. Playing a Living game still requires a GM and players to play with. If you're going to DC or a con, why can't someone make an adventure and you enjoy a story together when you hang out? I guess I'm missing something about the inherent superiority of Living games in this situation, as they don't really produce players (at least, on the LSpy campaign's scale). The only thing I can think of is that you could all be PCs together, since you could theoretically have a GM at a con.

[Crafty_Alex]

I loved that game and still have most of the books too. I have a feeling we should be scared to see your old fixer character. ... Just got a great hook in mind: what if all the PCs owe him a favor? ... There's a starting point for an adventure in itself.

As an NPC, Springheel Jack really requires cybernetics to be at his best (his legs were blown off then replaced with Speeding Bullets - against his will - after a nigh-unto-fatal encounter with a boobytrapped shipment of guns). But as a contact, he was a classic gun-running, style over substance, not terribly good at fighting Fixer. Though he liked his .44 revolver and automatic shotguns a lot.

Incidentally, much of the basics of the 10kB campaign was inspired by those first CP games, and some of the gang names are directly drawn from the ones I made up 10 years ago. Good times