Order of the Stick Board Game... ONLINE!

[Menarker]

Hey everyone!

This thread is for fans of the Order of the Stick Webcomic!

A few months ago, I got the board game of this webcomic. However, I do not have a ready group of players in my location. Also, as obscure as this game is, I doubt anyone would be familiar with it overall! Thus for all of you fans who
A: love the comics but never heard of the game before...
B: do not have the Order of the Stick Board Game...
C: Could never find people to play the game with, or could not find a long enough stretch of time to play the game...
I'm hosting a game online for 6 lucky players! Each player playing one of the 6 core members of the Stick!

Roy: The fighter of the group whose strong point is general combat.
Durkon: Defensive combatant and healer.
Haley: Ranged Attacker and tricks involving loot.
Elan: Gets rewards for teamwork and some gimmicky techniques.
Vaarsuvius: Magic caster with a mix of range and power.
Belkar: Another solid attacker with emphasis on PvP.

As much as I would like to play, I'll be operating as your GM. I had recently just run a game similar to this on the OotS forum and it was received well, although the game ended due to several unfortunate circumstances like the Sandy Storm (where I never heard from two of the players again, hope they are ok), and two of the other players having to leave on more important matters. But I'm confident that I can serve as a GM for this run. (More so than before)

Anyhow, let me lay down the details:

I have the deluxe edition board game which includes Shortening and Sticky Sthicks cards, courtesy of a successful Kickstarter campaign. Thus I have all the non-promos cards. I have a fairly large table that isn't used in the house these days for which I can lay down the cards according to the directed actions of the players.

As for game speed, I do intend to be fairly active in terms of reading/updating, so I hope to be updating at minimal once a day, although I may end up doing more on days off work or in the mornings, depending on how swiftly the players respond to their turn. Due to the nature of the game having cards that allows the players to act on their opponent's turn, it is advised that players who join understand that they'll need to be fairly active, although I will generally give about half a day at the very least, unless someone PMs me in advance about when they would like to use a certain tactic or so...
That said, I understand that sometimes life catches you by surprise so I'll try to be understanding. If bad goes to worse, I might offer/suggest that you have someone play in your stead until your obligations are dealt with. ^^

For the length of the game, I'll run the game with a minimal run of 3 floors (plus Xykon's floor), although if everyone seems to be enjoying things, I'll offer the possibility of more floors if everyone is more or less in agreement.


The rules for the game can be found in this website, within the top of the list of available rulebooks available. Obviously, please read all three. While I'll be happy enough to help fine-tune or guide people along with misconceptions or confusions, and I'll clarify on the rules that you ask me, I hope you'll put in the same amount of effort to understand the game. (There is an occasional typo here and there, but nothing really bad I think.)
If it helps you feel any better, the rules are riddled with Order of the Stick comedy, so if you liked reading Rich's comics, you'll probably enjoy a chuckle out of reading the rules too.


I have made a list of the name of the cards and organized them in card types. I have also assigned each card (even the duplicates of said cards) their own number for each card category. This is important since I'll be using a number generator to determine randomly what cards are drawn. (This gives a special advantage of letting me keep my cards in order to find them faster).
IE: Loot cards and Trap cards are both considered part of the 'Loot' type cards, so cards 1-20 are the trap cards (so if I privately roll in that range when you're drawing a loot card, then you triggered a trap) while 21 and above are the actual loot cards.
At times I might have to roll an additional time or so if a roll comes up for a card that has already drawn/discarded. (Or I'll create several rolls and take the first bunch that are relevant and ignore the rest of the rolls).


During the playing of the game, I'll type out the entire written or symbol represented aspects of each cards that are relevant to all the players publicly, and send PMs of cards that are relevant only to the player on hand. (Exception being if you trigger a trap card when drawing a loot, then that will be made public too)

Basically, I predict a busy and possibly slow first step as I find out what cards you all start with (mainly sthicks and loots), writing down the description for them all and sending them to the players via PM. (PLEASE have your PM inbox freed up for this game!) Then the following turns will be swifter as I just need to individually lay out the cards and their descriptions as they come up, while leaving a little lull in the action in case of "Screw This" cards (their existence which I'll be aware of due to my GM status so I won't accidently skip over someone who might be able to act at a given time).

An unfortunate possibility of a game of this medium is that players are capable of revealing their cards to each other or possibly team up in a cliche forming elaborate plans that would otherwise be difficult to carry out around the table. I imagine there is little I can do to combat this, but do try to keep your cards private both for the sake of others as well as yourself. I take no responsibility for if players start taking advantage of knowledge that you provided yourself. =3

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Immediate Objectives:

1) Recruit to 6 players. Keep in mind that the players each have their own ability as they are actually playing the actual OotS characters.
Players will likely be accepted on a first come first serve basis, but this isn't set in stone.

Normally, the game dishes your character randomly, but in this game, feel free to list your preference (You may list multiples in order if you'd like). However please understand that obviously there can only be one of each, so you might have to choose a different character or abstain from playing. That said, do feel free to list your preferred character even if they are already taken, on the off-chance that someone has to drop out from registering.

2) Decide Variant Rules (or lack thereof)
Technically, we aren't "choosing which rules to use", but rather I'm offering these options and you all vote on whether you want to implement it this game or no.
- "In Medias Res": In addition to each player’s Starting Shticks, deal each player 3 shticks at random from his or her Shtick Deck. Increase the number of Loot cards dealt to each player from 3 to 6. (Quoted from Shortening Rulebook). Basically you start with more abilities and loot.

- "Lucky Bastards" (Yes, this variant name is straight from the rulebook): Basically 1 is an automatic failure and 12 is an automatic success when rolling the d12 dice, just like you would with a d20 in DnD.

- Backstories: This is basically additional optional objectives for which you can score extra points throughout the game. Details in rulebook (Shortening to be precise)

3) Determine "seating location" and thus play order.
Because this game is an online 'Let's Play", obviously we won't be seated around a table. However, there are several cards that have an effect on whoever is seated adjacent to you. (Such as the 'Jealousy' loot which gives the player seated next to you a penalty) Additionally, turns pass on to the player seated to the left. (Clockwise)
Once we determine who the players are, we'll roll dices several times. Basically each player will try to roll the highest dice to find out who goes first, then second then third until one person is left remaining to get the last seat.

4) Create a chat pad.
Once the game is up and running, I'll create a pad for where we can chat, discuss things, leave rulings or whatnot. (It'd only take a few seconds, no real effort on my part) I'll include the URL for this chat in my signature when that time comes. An advantage to this is that we'll have an easy place to reach and interact with each other. There is no registration required for this, so I do highly recommend bookmarking it when the time comes.
I can also create additional pads for when I need to discuss something with a specific player or group of players privately.

5: I'm considering the possibility of 6 anonymous accounts made for the purpose of playing this game if the players wish to play without their ingame identity known. Players, please tell me if you wish for this to be the case or if you rather play under your own name.

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Ok, this next part is important to grasp. I'll be giving an example of how I'll be representing the cards, whether on this forum or by PMs to you.

The 'Screw This" cards and some Sthick cards are simple enough. They just have a name and their effect text.

Here is an example of a Monster Card

Name: Annis *Ogre*
ATK: 11 DEF: 9 Range: 6
Exp: 1 Loot: 2
Abilities:
- Spellcaster: If Monster wins, player discards 1 random Battle Card from their hand.
-Support: Ogre > *Greed* If Monster wins, player discards 1 random Loot per supporting card.


Ok, basically the above card has its name and 'racial' type on top. Then the three numerical combat values on the next line. The Exp and Loot values don't matter much during combat, but they determine their value when defeated. (For those of you wondering where Exp is in the rulebook or from having previously played the game, they are the X marks on the cards. I figured they operate much like Exp since you trade them in for abilities in a manner similar to leveling up.)
Abilities will be written out as the card describes it. Special attention to Support though, since this is a common and semi-complex ability.
Support: Ogre in that card above means that for every Ogre on the same floor as this monster, Annis, she gets an additional "Greed" bonus. Hence for every other Ogre on that floor, the player loses that much loot if he/she loses the fight against Annis


A Combat Sthick card is written similarly...

Name: Bag of Tricks *Magic Shtick*
ATK: +0 DEF: +1 Range: 2
Victory Effect: Foe loses 1 Wound
Boost: +2 Defense and +2 Range

First line is Name and type of Shtick. Second lists the bonus parameters to attack/defense as well as the range in which you're allowed to use this shtick.
Victory Result tells you what follows as a result of winning against a monster using this particular shtick. Many of them state 'lose 1 wound" which in almost all cases result in killing the monster since only the OotS characters and Xykon have more than 1 Wound to sustain. But some battles end in a draw or cause a special effect instead.
Boost is generally a bonus for whenever you have multiple of the same shtick. So if the character playing Roy (since this card is only available to him) has two of this card, whenever he plays Bag of Tricks (which one doesn't matter) the parameter on it is boosted by the stated +2 defense and range. That said, the bonus varies from card to card and some other cards are capable of triggering a boost on a shtick you control.


Lastly... The loot and trap cards. They are simple enough, but still need looking at.

Name: A Kiss for Good Luck *Loot*
:elan: :haley: :haley:
Effect: Haley: Discard this card to draw one shtick from your deck.

Most loot cards have faces on them. (This forum doesn't have OotS emoticons, so :elan: would be an Elan face) These faces are referred to as the "Drool Factor" showing which characters value them and how much. As you can see, Elan likes the card, but Haley likes it even more, so trading it to Haley will give more of a bonus than trading it to Elan would. (Or if you're Haley or Elan, Haley would have better results trading this card in for a Shtick than Elan would.) Some loot cards also have effects, but the vast majority of them don't.
It should be noted that some cards are drooled over by everyone, and normally this would be represented by a Shield with a Stick coat of arms. Any such instances written on the card will be referred to here as :Stick:

However... there are also trap cards masquerading as loot cards...

Name: Apocalypse Cheese *TRAP*
Evade Roll: 11 Range: 0 Target: Single
Effect: Lose 1 Wound

This simple trap means that if you trigger this card, you need to roll an 11 or higher or you suffer the effect of the trap. If a card has Target: Multiple, then multiple people can be hit by the trap if they are in the same room. If the trap has both Multiple and a higher range, then anyone within that range need to roll to evade.


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Hopefully that is everything I can or need to address. Please let me know if there are any issues or concerns... or if you happen to be a prospective player. <(^.^<) "(^.^)" (>^.^)>

[Menarker]

TLDR

To sign up, you need to provide the following data.

Character/s you would like to play as. (Or possibly ones you rather not play if you're generally open to most characters.)
Decide on Variant rules: (Read the rules on details regarding these)
Media Res: Yes or No
Lucky Bastards: Yes or No
Backstories: Yes or No
Anonymous Forum Accounts: Yes or No


And rules are found here.

Current Player lists:

Solid Snake: Expressed interest in Vaarsuvius


Remaining characters: Roy, Durkon, Haley, Elan, Belkar

[Solid Snake]

Indicating which characters we would / would not want to be here would defeat the purpose of anonymous accounts, right?
So, should we PM you?

Anyway, I think it'll be so obvious who I'd play based on how I write and whatnot that it'd have little utility. I don't think it'd shock anyone to know, based on my writing style, that I'd probably prefer playing as V, though I'm open to other possibilities, with a couple exceptions.

Anyway, if we get a full team of six, I'd be interested. You'd just have to find a way to write my character out for about a two week period in mid-to-late February, if it lasts that long. Beyond that, I'd say "Yes" to media res because past roleplaying attempts have been hampered by slow starts. No preference on Lucky Bastards.

I'd have to read a bit more to make an informed decision on backstories, but my initial response is that it seems counter-intuitive to encourage individual goals and benchmarks in a social roleplaying game. If we're all aiming for our own independent objectives, the overarching plot may grind to a halt. Which, coincidentally, happens all the time in OotS, but I'm not sure if it's really conducive here.

[Menarker]

Backstories is an actual game mechanic, not something a player makes up.

Long story short, before the game starts, you get several backstory cards dished randomly to you and you choose three of them to keep. If you fulfill the condition on any of the backstory cards, you get bonus points toward winning the game in the end.

And yes, now that you mention it, I might as well toss out the anonymous accounts thing. Just choose your choice of characters. =3

[Solid Snake]

Originally Posted by Menarker

Long story short, before the game starts, you get 5 backstory cards dished randomly to you and you choose three of them to keep. If you fulfill the condition on any of the backstory cards, you get bonus points toward winning the game in the end.

Oh, okay. If they add substantial utility and wouldn't require the characters to go off in separate directions to achieve the objectives, I don't see any issue with including them.

[Menarker]

Well, going in seperate directions won't hurt the players that much. As long as players are on the same floor, they are able to help each other even if they are 7 rooms away from each other. The rules will make things a bit more clear. ^^

Players must juggle between team-work and chronic backstabbing, which leads to some very interesting inter-party relationships. =3

Keeping player lists on second post.