instant messenger game

I've been playing an instant messenger MSH based game for a few years. I play it when I'm not running my own game. The thing about it is that as a judge myself I get a bit peeved with the fantastic power levels of the game. I have an armored hero with a cl 1000 energy cannon and and a shift Z disintegration beam, not to mention that he has growth at shift x and his str is already shift y with body armor of shift z. That means when fully grown (using his +1cs to str and his armor for every 2cs of growth)he could go toe to toe with galactus or something. Its fun i think but only because of the instant gratification of seeing someone else respond as soon as I type

I hate the overpowered nature of the game but I never quit for long. I also hate the fact that the benchmarks are all out of whack. Is this a problem most people have with the instant messenger style MSH games?

the game is run about 4 times a week in private AIM rooms

I've never played by IM. SOunds interesting though. I've done message board gaming and found the enjoyability of that really depends on the group and GM posting regularly. I liked being able to take my time and make descriptive posts but the game was really slow. Highpower games can be fun no matter how you play, but it will always boil down to the group taking time to develope the characters, and the GM to describe the setting. The main problem with high powered campaigns is that they allow a certain level of laziness to enter the campaign. When you can smite entire planets character develpoement can suffer. It's up to the GM to come up with adequate challenges, and not all of them have to be physical in nature.

What's wrong with the benchmarks exactly? Does your game have different ones from what's been published?

Itried to GM an message board game once but I couldn't keep up with it. Didn't have the time and lost computer access as well. That's my main peeve with online gaming. Time and technology. Both are not always reliable or readily available.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/2006 06:34PM by Bricks.

well the main problem with the benchmarks was they didn't matter. he just does whatever he wants. If he rolls higher than you, you lose, regardless of the feat level you may have rolled. powers also do what ever you say they do. he also will attack you by saying things like "he looks at your character" how the hell am I supposed to know what is happening to me?

You say you have a character that could make Galactus pay attention. WHat level of opposition are you up against? Also does GM describe what your character feels after "he's looking at you"? Do you describe how your character deals with it? In other words, do you role-play the experience? Your problem may not be the IM aspect of the game. It may be instead of 'role playing' you are 'roll playing'. It can easily happen in high level games where stats are often used as a crutch to creativity. Its the main reason I've seen that people frown on high level games.

you may be right, that's probably the reason why my in-person games feature more reserved power levels

Fights are always anticlimactic because there is always only one way to win, usually some artifact that automatically kills that particular enemy (bleh!)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/03/2006 01:10PM by Random stranger #3.

Personally I actually like high level games. I feel like there is more room to be creative. What will it be this week: Bank heist? Terrorism? Skrull invasion? Galactus? More scenerios are possible since a lot less is impossible.

Just can't start to get lazy though.

I'm currently running a Nightmares of Futures Past game on OpenRPG and, while I've had to tinker with advancement a bit (to make it not take so damn long) the GM keeping people from advancing too far goes a long way towards keeping it from getting out of hand.

I used to run a PBEM game, Niniaz was in it.

Here is the url:

[www.fadge.faithweb.com]

(hope you are inspired by it. Bewarned it is a long read.)

The problem mentioned earlier about time and response times was more pronounced also. I found that I needed to rehash the information based on the emails I recieved.

If I had the time to do it again I probably would but as I got older more responsibilities came along.

I think that Instant Messaging would work but you would need to have a few rules in place. like sticking to initiate turn and the like.

It like PBEM would allow more allong the lines of ROLE playing as well as you can avoide the ROLL play side of things to a certain extent.

I would have to look into it some time when I finally move into my new house that is being built. Yes for all those of you how know me it finally is coming to an end.

But that aside I am going to consider the feasibility of this when I am not so time/money poor.