Harmony Ginger

@VanillaFuryYT no actually I haven't

@Gingerblast Not a chance you've not seen Star Wars. Master bait.

There's a guy at my local game shop who runs a blended sci-fi/fantasy multiverse game where he lets anyone make anything. He has like a star wars jabba the hut thing, 2 tieflings, and a fish man in his group. No humans to speak of. It would be easy to turn my nose up and declare that his game sucks, but I've seen him run and he really lets the players direct the story, and the players are into it and keep returning after years. I respect that.

@ChivalryFella oh I thought that was a title

@Gingerblast He's a uh...Hutt

@Dystopian_Dawn oh I thought that was like his title

@Gingerblast Hut is the species. I am a nerd. ;-)

@GhostComicsPast It doesn't tell the whole story, but it's an indicator

@Gingerblast PLAYERS RETURNING IS NOT NECESSARILY THE HIGHEST FACTOR FOR JUDGEMENT

@AlysssaHazel Oh it's Hillary, love her!!

Me, learning the meme-quotes about fellatio were referencing real dialogue.

It is free on steam under the name Freestars the Ur-Quan Masters, but the steam version got into some legal trouble, the details of which I don't remember/understand, and had to remove some music, but there is a freeware version readily available just called The Ur-Quan Masters or Star Control 2.

@Gingerblast Is this game on Steam?

New player joined the game in January as a level 1 paladin trainee from the north named Smarik, grouping with mid-level PCs. Player had never played an RPG and the paladin was the lowest level character in the game. This week, the group made it to a big boss they spent a year uncovering- an Elder Brain controlling a secret organization corrupting the kingdom of Kohr-Ah. Half the party died. They wouldn't have defeated it if not for Smarik, who completed his growth from trainee to hero. Because of him, the rogue and wizard were able to make it out alive and victorious. Sometimes I doubt myself when I insist that new players join at level 1, but I feel vindicated in this one moment.

@EthosHeretica no but I've played it

@Gingerblast You ever run Starfinder, Harmony?

Love how mentioning the kingdom of Kohr-Ah brings all the Star Control 2 fans out of the woodwork. Only problem is that there aren't enough of them! One of the greatest PC games of all time and far too many have never heard of it!

@Joemantler Perhaps not the best story, but it is what happened

@Gingerblast That's actually a little less cool. The Heroic Sacrifice always makes for a better story, IMO.

@YellowLantern12 Love that one!

@Gingerblast This is still one of my favorite songs from a video game and I'll still listen to it... youtu.be/LtH9Zs51Hyk?si…

@okelley_jared Sadly my campaign is completely full but I appreciate the interest

@Gingerblast OMG! I know I'd have so much fun at your table. Do you run any online games on Thursdays?

@Geenimetsuri Yes! The Ur-Quan history almost makes you sympathize with them at certain points. The game really explores dark forest theory in a way that makes you think that maybe we shouldn't be trying to contact aliens.

@Gingerblast The history of the setting was quite something too, especially the reason why the antagonist Ur-Quan were who they were. While the 3rd one wasn't that good, any Precursor lore was imo worth it 👀 The Super Melee in the game was more a distraction, but with friends immense fun.

I played the brain ruthlessly. I had it ping the downed characters to make sure they wouldn't come back up, dominated the healer and used everything at its disposal to kill them. That's because the brain was smart and knew what they were capable of. My players know that they won't get victories handed to them and if they want to go after something powerful, there is risk involved. If it had been able to kill them turn 1, it would have. Do I want them to die turn 1? No, I would rather them win. They were powerful enough that a turn 1 death wasn't in the cards, but if they had made it there lower level, well, they would have learned something. My player all play gods in the world and some have multiple characters. Their characters can absolutely die, but if they do, the gods may spend a large amount of in-game resources (mana) to resurrect the character if they want to.

How would you have felt if they had died turn one? What I struggle with in my games is I try to make enemies act like they should. Dumb ones have no tactics. Smart ones might target the obviously less skilled guy first to get rid of them so they can focus on the more skilled ones

@Geenimetsuri I never cared for the combat system, but the story and the aliens had me hooked. It really felt like you were making contact with new species and they were all appropriately weird and just felt alien (except the syreen but that's another conversation entirely)

@Gingerblast Star Control 2 is one of the best games ever. The Super Melee is brilliant, but oh the adventure! The Ur-Quan Masters is free, so you can enjoy it on a modern system too. There's also a proper sequel about to be released. Hopefully sooner than later! freestarsgame.com

@JoeDotAverage @tomgault original release was 1992

@tomgault @Gingerblast SC2 was released in 2010. 17 years ago.

@duncarooster He always blinks like that when he recalls the great cleansing

@Gingerblast You should tell him to stop blinking so weird. Creeping me out.

@ericbabe3 Wow!!

@Gingerblast with the other game files! I was so excited. The whole first day I had the game, I spent it looking at their code under Borland debugger -- hacking the password check (for my personal convenience only) along the way.

@tomgault I played it for the first time at age 27 and fell in love. Player who is a fan discovered it at age 22. The median age of my players is early 30s, so I would say most were not old enough to appreciate it on release.

@Gingerblast How many of your players are old enough to remember SC2 besides the one? It was released over 30 years ago.