What do you look for in a new game?

[nobody]

Hello,
I wanted to know what is it that most people look for when they're looking for a game to join/create.

Is it the concept idea? world saving, rebel army, lone wolf hero thing... etc.

Is it the people involved? you know the GM, you know some other player, its just a group of buddies playing... etc.

I know that this question is a very broad one, and it'll recieve varying answers based on the person who answers, but I feel that this could help people who are looking to make new games.

I'll start off, I would like any game that had people that respected the fact that this game has many ways to "beat" it, or "be the best" but didnt exploit that fact. Now im not saying Im not guilty of doing just that, but thats mainly due to ignorance and/or forgetfullness of what is and isn't "broken"

I also like the idea of the "multi-world-involvment" game.. I've seen a few already in progress and those seem neat.

I do have other pev's i like to look for but those are some of the big things I like to look for. And I know Im pretty new as well, so my overall experience in these things is very limited. Thats why I would very much appreciate if people more experienced than I would like to voice what they like to look for when creating/finding a game.

[Black Sam]

There's a few things that are important to me when looking at recruitment posts. They're all pretty important to deciding whether or not a particular game is one I want to pursue, so I can't really rate these "First, second, etc" in order of importance like I intended to...

Some ideas just click. They're awesome, and when you read it you want to be a part of it. Maybe it's just something you've been itching to try out, or maybe it's something you've never thought of, but something about the idea is compelling.

I look at both the person proposing to run a game as well as the other players proposing to play. Like everyone else, I have pet peeves, and there's certain types of players I have no interest in gaming with. That's not to say I only play with people I know (though that often turns out to be the case) -- I give new people a shot all the time, but if I detect my certain deal-breakers I tend to avoid them.

I look at whether I think a game concept will have legs -- I hate it when a game is just starting to become great...and then it falls apart. It's not really predictable, but if a game looks like it will go there in advance I'll pass it up.

Sometimes a game proposal will sound awesome, I'll like the people involved...but I just don't have a great concept. This has happened to me, so I've learned this from experience! I just couldn't get into the character I came up with, and posting became a chore...so now I just pass and leave a spot for someone who will do a better job.

That's off the top of my head. I'm sure others will have better suggestions...

[nobody]

Thanks for your post and this is exactly what I am looking for.

I'm not asking for any sort of "rating" per-say (I know i misspelled that) All Im asking for is what do "you" look for when joining/creating a game.

So just to repeat myself, Thanks Black Sam thats exactly the type of response I was looking for.

[Savant]

What I look for in a game is balance of familiarity and surprise. Like in comics, these ideas were more or less recycled from another source. Then again, I love me some serious plot twists here and there to keep me glued to my screen.

I also like games whose outcomes weigh heavily on my choices...for example, I can get a radically different ending for ignoring something seemingly unimportant.

Sent from my MB855 using ProBoards

[takewithfood]

Mostly I look for a game that scratches me where I itch. Often I have a hankering for a certain type of game, or a certain concept, or I want to play a certain kind of character - when a suitable game comes up, I'm usually pretty tempted to play.

However, I typically won't actually apply unless:

a) I feel I understand the setting well enough to participate. If the game is based on a movie or show or even a comic that I haven't seen/read, then I tend to avoid it unless the GM specifically says that knowledge of the source material is really not necessary. And even then I tend to be wary. This includes games where we're asked to play canon characters of some variety; unless I'm really familiar with not just my character, but with the ones other people will be choosing, I tend to give it a pass.

b) I have enough time to commit to a character; usually I can manage running one or at most two games, and playing 1-3 characters at a time.

c) the GM and other players seem genuinely committed; there's little point in making a character for a game if you can tell the GM is only proposing it on a whim. If they say something like "I just saw [insert movie here] and I want to run a game like that!" I know the passion is probably going to fade in about a week, and the game will be stranded. Or, if the GM has like 2 or 3 other game threads open, plus they're already running 5 other games, I tend not to bother. That's a lot of divided attention.

d) there aren't too many players already interested. If there are a dozen players with strong concepts already submitted, I tend to just curse my luck and move on. However, I'm not afraid to be the first/only person to show interest in a game, as I know that sometimes all it takes is one person to throw in their hat before a bunch of fence-sitters jump in, too. ^__^

~TWF

[Manah]

Or, if the GM has like 2 or 3 other game threads open, plus they're already running 5 other games, I tend not to bother. That's a lot of divided attention.

LOL. You'll never join any of my games, then.

[takewithfood]

TT________________TT

By definition, though, the majority of games are run by the people who run the most games. lol So this policy doesn't leave me with a whole lot of options anyway.

~TWF

[Dominus]

I look at the GM and the players that are going to be involved. If it is a GM I respect or at least isn't going to immedietly abandon the game I will give it a try.

[comicfan]

Genre is usually the first thing that catches me. I can never refuse looking at Superhero, Sci-fi (Particularly Star Wars and Star Trek), and Power Ranger games. Especially if the title on the thread says what it is. The Second thing I look at is the plot, does the story seem like something I'd want to participate in. I wont play a Star Trek game if the Federation is conquered, on the verge of collapse, or in a civil war (in my mind it's not Star Trek, if the GM goes in that direction). If it's a story I like, I'll gladly try to join, regardless of who is GMing, if not I'll stop reading and leave it alone.

Number of players will usually be a red flag. Too many and I'll feel like I have to play catch up constantly, and the more playing will feel like a chore rather than something fun. Limits on character creation is the next thing I'll look for, and this has to do more with concepts rather than actual characters. What kind of character can I play? If I can't play a character I want to play I'm less likely to join. I'm not saying restrictions because of game balance (I'll try to keep my character from being a game breaker), but if the game allows for a type of character I want to play, and the GM says no, or makes it difficult to make that character, then I'll leave the game.

Last but not least is access to the books. If I don't have the books, my odds of joining decreases, if I have no means of getting the books...forget it. I don't like playing a game with rules and mechanics I have no access to, and no means of getting adjusted to them. I especially don't like feeling as if I'm annoying a GM simply because he wants to run a SAGA edition game, and I can't spend $50.00-$80.00 to get a copy of the core rulebook.

I know that I ranted, but I tried to keep it to a minimum, and only as examples to hopefully clear up things.

[roxolid]

I'll try just about any game, so it's more a case of listing the ones I have no love for:

1) Teenage Mutant school thing. done to death. And it's corpse has been defiled repeated.

2) Science Fiction based on military or quasi military organisations. Star Trek most particularly, but doing missions for the Rebel Alliance wasn't much fun after the first couple of years (I burnt out on Star Wars.). I like to watch Star Trek, playing, not so much.

3) Horror games - tried Call of the Cthulu in the 80s at some point. Players didn't like it much, I didn't care enough about it push it much after that. Never had any interest in Vampire type games, regardless of how (ugh) sparkly they are.

4) Western Games - sort of. Add a twist like Undead, Alien invasions, post apocalyptic lawless frontier town and it suddenly comes to life. Straight up westerns (rob bank, stop someone else robbing bank, bring someone to justice etc) are ok for one offs.

5) Cosmic level games - fun for one offs, but you rule out so much more fun stuff (personal relationships, job complications, street level crime, a whole host of lesser powered villains and crooks etc) with your 'affect continent' level abilities that I find it doesn't hold the interest for long. Think I co-ran a cosmic game in my last incarnation on these boards that died a death (other GMs faded away leaving me holding the ball) and it pretty much soured my opinion of cosmic level games for more than one offs.

My favourite genre of supers is street level or just over. I like guns as threats, characters having to turn up for work and toe the line because there are bigger fish who'll hold them to account if they don't.

[comicfan]

So if I planned a game where you played average joes, slowing encountering things that just would only make sense in movies and video games, as long as I don't make stay a cosmic level event you would probably play roxolid? More reason to work out all the little details to it I guess.

[takewithfood]

Sept 12, 2012 9:22:29 GMT -5 roxolid said:

My favourite genre of supers is street level or just over. I like guns as threats, characters having to turn up for work and toe the line because there are bigger fish who'll hold them to account if they don't.

This is my favourite thing, too. ^__^

~TWF

[roxolid]

Sept 12, 2012 11:06:27 GMT -5 comicfan said:

So if I planned a game where you played average joes, slowing encountering things that just would only make sense in movies and video games, as long as I don't make stay a cosmic level event you would probably play roxolid? More reason to work out all the little details to it I guess.

I think I can just about make sense of that. Um, yes?

As far as supers go, I can more easily relate to your 'rank and file' superheroes that have ordinary lives outside of the costume and bills to pay, as opposed to the fly the spaceways, hit stuff or move big stuff types who are, for me, pretty 1 dimensional.

As to the other stuff, crossing genre is the most interesting (to me) way of keeping my interest going as a GM. I read a book series not so long ago (will dig it out) about a zombie apocalypse and the few remaining superheroes (that hadn't been turned into zombies) were trying to save humanity. I thought that'd make a decent premise for a cross genre game.

[roxolid]

Look up Ex-heroes on Amazon. Premise "Ex-Heroes, the debut novel from Peter Clines, offers a new spin on the typical zombie story. Set in modern times, a zombie outbreak has ravaged the earth and only a handful of superheroes have kept the situation in Los Angeles from deteriorating into total chaos. Reeling from losses in their own community, a band of heroes has established a fortified safe zone in Hollywood to help whatever survivors they find. Unfortunately so has a much larger group of gang members, who have some deadly tricks up their sleeves. "

A cosmic powered character would blast the zombies from space, give a salute and fly on. Everyone else has to find food, medicine, rescued trapped people, uncover the reason for the outbreak and a possible cure, establish law and order, battle gangs, zombies, other superhumans and remnants of the military, protect the people, sort out inter group conflicts, deal with people slowly 'turning' - including superheroes with powers that turn into super zombies. These are possible PCs who your character has fought alongside, and some are bulletproof. How do you deal with them?

Like I say, cross genre is my favourite game. Superheroes and spaceships works too (as per Legion of Super Heroes) which would cross over with Star Trek.

[comicfan]

Well right now what I got worked out is a jumbled mess more than anything else with no direction. The idea was basically all the players would be normal humans, nothing really special. They start noticing that certain things that certain things that only make sense in fiction is going on around them. It has a lot of possibility and potential for cross genres, particularly Science Fiction, but like I said at the moment its just a jumbled mess of ideas in my head.

And that's as far as I'll go with it, since it is off topic.