High School Harem Comedy (Game System, PEACH)

[Ionbound]

Turns out all bonuses are announced in secret. It's extremely unwise to announce bonuses...particularly if you're novaing your abilities...if somebody can just as planned and steal your win away.

Thus, we've found that practically speaking, everything must be done by stealth, that just as planned is forced to be a crapshoot for the sake of those who don't have it.

See...I disagree with this outlook. Nobody should have an advantage they took made utterly useless by a gameplay style. By a specific counter-advantage? Absolutely, and that's what JaP was made for: To ensure that the nova classes don't dictate every roll. By playing like that, the people who took the advantage feel useless, and you get to decide the course of the game.

[Mekboy]

Similarly as a JAP-user, when abilities are announced in secret it does kinda feel like you're picking a player at random and hoping that A) they use some decent bonuses and/or B) roll well. And it's the right type of roll. And enough girls are taking part. Maybe if it was reduced to 1/day or replaced your own roll? But yeah, it is a bit of a pain at the moment.

[Esprit15]

How do advantages that let you make one check in place of another work with other advantages that require girls make a certain roll?

For example: Girl A uses Misfortune Talisman to penalize all characters who attempt the same Luck challenge as her. Girl B uses Genre Savvy to roll Skill in place of Luck, but she's still making the same challenge. Would she be penalized, since it is the same challenge, regardless of what ability is used to complete it, or would she ignore the other girl since she's rolling Skill in place of Luck.

How do Shadow out of Time and Serenity interact?

Example: The GM gives girls the option of Allure, Skill or Conflict. Girl A uses Shadow out of Time to force Girl B to roll for Skill. Does Girl B get to trigger Serenity anyways, since she did not choose Conflict, or does Serenity fail to trigger, since Girl B was not actually permitted to chose at all, instead being given only one option.

[Angelalex242]

All I can say is:Tough.

It is NOT in my best interest to show you my hand.

So I won't.

[Esprit15]

All I can say is:Tough.

It is NOT in my best interest to show you my hand.

So I won't.

While this does concern your character, this doesn't concern you. I just want to know what I should expect from the mechanics of the game.

[Angelalex242]

Wasn't talking to you. I was talking to the people whining about Just as Planned.

[Esprit15]

Wasn't talking to you. I was talking to the people whining about Just as Planned.

Well now I just feel embarrassed. Sorry!

As for just as planned, it's just that: planned. You're predicting your rivals' actions based on past experiences with them.

[A Rainy Knight]

I am posting to say this is awesome, And that I may run it for my school otaku club.

Thanks! Hope you enjoy.

How do advantages that let you make one check in place of another work with other advantages that require girls make a certain roll?

For example: Girl A uses Misfortune Talisman to penalize all characters who attempt the same Luck challenge as her. Girl B uses Genre Savvy to roll Skill in place of Luck, but she's still making the same challenge. Would she be penalized, since it is the same challenge, regardless of what ability is used to complete it, or would she ignore the other girl since she's rolling Skill in place of Luck.

How do Shadow out of Time and Serenity interact?

Example: The GM gives girls the option of Allure, Skill or Conflict. Girl A uses Shadow out of Time to force Girl B to roll for Skill. Does Girl B get to trigger Serenity anyways, since she did not choose Conflict, or does Serenity fail to trigger, since Girl B was not actually permitted to chose at all, instead being given only one option.

For the record, I'm really just intuiting this stuff on a case-by-case basis - I don't have any general rules for resolving this kind of stuff.

Question 1: I think the advantages that let you make once roll in place of another actually change what that check counted as. When Girl B used Genre Savvy, her check became a Skill check, and therefore isn't subject to Misfortune Talisman.

Question 2: ...Very good question! My inclination is to say that she didn't actually choose her roll, so Serenity doesn't trigger. But that's more a gut feeling than a hard ruling.

Anyways! I think the whole matter of whether advantages should be announced or not is worth clarifying in the rules, one way or the other. I don't really care whether it's in your advantage to keep things secret, I just care what makes the game the more fun to play overall. Here's the arguments I can think of for each way:

Public announcement of advantages:
-Easier to manage in a face-to-face setting.
-Doesn't privilege limited-use advantages over ones that activate predictably.
-No effort required for keeping anything secret.
-Fits how Just As Planned currently exists.

Private use of advantages:
-Doesn't privilege any particular point in the order in which people post their choices, and therefore easier to manage in a PbP setting.
-Discourages a bunch of complicated scheming where people keep changing the advantages they choose based on how the others change their advantages, and so forth.
-In the absence of scheming, discourages people from waiting as long as possible to post in order to gather the most information beforehand.

Doing things publicly was my original intention, since you don't need to maintain any secrecy and just seems overall breezier and more casual, which is the feeling I was going for. But I can see where doing things secretly helps make a level playing field.

I think it should come down to how the players feel about the game, honestly. If you really want to make a competition out of it, then doing things in secrecy seems like a better choice. But I personally don't see the game as something to get competitively worked up about - I feel like a good GM ought to be able to make things such that someone who loses every roll still gets to do amusing stuff.

Turns out all bonuses are announced in secret. It's extremely unwise to announce bonuses...particularly if you're novaing your abilities...if somebody can just as planned and steal your win away.

Thus, we've found that practically speaking, everything must be done by stealth, that just as planned is forced to be a crapshoot for the sake of those who don't have it.

This is the entire point of Just as Planned. Though now that I look at it again, it's strong enough that it probably deserves being reduced to a 1/episode ability.

[7th son of sons]

What would you say is a healthy number of scenario's to occur per episode, assuming one was trying to roll out an entire "Season" of about 13 episodes?

[Angelalex242]

Here's a concept...how does graceful interact with 'take a 1' advantages?

Graceful and Eldritch Abomination's forms of power.

The latter takes a 1 on an Allure roll to get an automatic 6 on some other roll. But Graceful turns any roll into a 4.

Can the Graceful EA take a 1 on Allure, Graceful it to 4, and still get her 6?'

On a similar note, can graceful stack with childhood friend's 'big gamble' to make it not a gamble at all? (If I roll 4-6, I get a 6...oh, look, I can garuntee a 4...)

[Ionbound]

Hmm...Thinking about it, I think Maiden's Outfit has a balance issue, since most of the time, the player is going to have their be in it. So they basically end up with a permanent +2 to Allure. What do you think, Rainy?

[Esprit15]

Speaking as the person who this is totally not about , I agree.

Then again, our game doesn't have the girls in school uniforms the entire time, which may have something to do with it being too applicable.

[Illven]

Speaking as the person who this is totally not about , I agree.

Then again, our game doesn't have the girls in school uniforms the entire time, which may have something to do with it being too applicable.

More, my school had no uniforms. So I kinda forgot, because I never considered it.

[A Rainy Knight]

What would you say is a healthy number of scenario's to occur per episode, assuming one was trying to roll out an entire "Season" of about 13 episodes?

Tough question! 13 episodes is a lot to play through in a PbP game, so I wouldn't go for too many if that was the case. Off the top of my head, I'd say somewhere in the ballpark of five to ten scenarios would make a solid episode - it just depends on how little of things you want to demand a roll for. You can make every little interaction a scenario, or you can just make the main points of each episode a scenario and leave the little stuff to roleplay. I honestly haven't played my own game too much, I'm just guessing here.

Here's a concept...how does graceful interact with 'take a 1' advantages?

Graceful and Eldritch Abomination's forms of power.

The latter takes a 1 on an Allure roll to get an automatic 6 on some other roll. But Graceful turns any roll into a 4.

Can the Graceful EA take a 1 on Allure, Graceful it to 4, and still get her 6?'

On a similar note, can graceful stack with childhood friend's 'big gamble' to make it not a gamble at all? (If I roll 4-6, I get a 6...oh, look, I can garuntee a 4...)

This is what happens when I write a ton of advantages without considering their interplay!

I think that advantages that fix the roll to a certain value can't be used simultaneously. Eldritch Abomination's advantage demands the roll be set to a 1, and Graceful isn't compatible with it. And Big Gamble... eh, it just feels wrong to make it compatible with Graceful. Like you said, it's not a gamble at all! Fluff-wise, they're totally at odds - Big Gamble is about doing something crazy that's either really great or really stupid, and Graceful is about not doing anything too unseemly so as not to upset your perfect image.

Hmm...Thinking about it, I think Maiden's Outfit has a balance issue, since most of the time, the player is going to have their be in it. So they basically end up with a permanent +2 to Allure. What do you think, Rainy?

That advantage is supposed to be balanced by the fact that you generally can't just wear a shrine maiden's outfit to school, yeah. As a rule of thumb, the only bonus that applies to every roll of a given type at all times is your strong roll bonus, and anything else is just taking advantage of my sloppy rule-writing.

[Esprit15]

Depends on whether it is a school with uniforms. I could easily see a girl going around in a miko outfit (or something similar) at an American school if she had reason.

And hey, it doesn't give bonus if you're naked! (Or in a swimsuit)

[Illven]

I honestly haven't played my own game too much, I'm just guessing here.

What I'm hearing is that you should start up a new game.

[thatguyinthecor]

If nobody here has a game of this going on now, they should. I'd join.

[steelsmiter]

If nobody here has a game of this going on now, they should. I'd join.

had one on another site, it kinda sucked the life out of me, I was depressed for a few weeks over it. I might consider running another one on the caveat that everyone choose characters that are completely mundane and normal in every way. Supernaturals are just too much fuss.

[Milo v3]

had one on another site, it kinda sucked the life out of me, I was depressed for a few weeks over it. I might consider running another one on the caveat that everyone choose characters that are completely mundane and normal in every way. Supernaturals are just too much fuss.

A game called High School Harem Comedy ended up like that

[steelsmiter]

A game called High School Harem Comedy ended up like that

That one wasn't mine. I would run it at collegiate level or job level unless I was running it on Elliquiy. Mostly I don't like running group games outside RPoL though.

[Lentrax]

What I'm hearing is that you should start up a new game.

And for the gods, don't ask me to be principal. I am bad at it. Ask Illven, I pew him an apology or two for my brief fiasco.

[Illven]

And for the gods, don't ask me to be principal. I am bad at it. Ask Illven, I pew him an apology or two for my brief fiasco.

How is Rebecca supposed to win the love of her life, when you don't post.

Not even hypothetical epilogues..

[Esprit15]

I just assume Sakuya killed everyone.

[Illven]

I just assume Sakuya killed everyone.

Even her sis?

[Esprit15]

I thought it went without saying that she lived.

[Illven]

I thought it went without saying that she lived.

I thought when you said everyone, you meant everyone.

Lentrax, write hypothetical epilogues, or continue. Preferably the second one

[Metahuman1]

Am I the only one confused here?

[Esprit15]

Yes, yes you are.

[Illven]

Am I the only one confused here?

Short version Lentrax ran/is running a game. Long version. Me and Esprit played twins.

[Zerkai]

Bleh, I need to get into one of these games sometime... maybe I should make a thread asking if someone wants to run it.