Adapting Twilight: 2000 CG to Play-By-Post
Hello! I'm just posting this as a potential GM wanting some input or opinions from others in regards to character creation in the Twilight: 2000 / Merc: 2000 character creation system.
For those of you who aren't intensely familiar with it, the first stage of a Twilight: 2000 game are are conducted pre-war (or in Merc: 2000, before the more traditional play we'd be used to). You basically decide the actions of your 17 year old character from the day they graduate high school to the age of 21. That's one term. In that term you decide what they do as a primary interest (go to college, join the military, etc) and a hobby/secondary activity (which is a fairly open field that gives minor benefits). Each activity you do requires certain stat minimums to undertake and then also adds to other stats and skills (basic training for soldiers, adding to medical skill for someone in medical school, etc).
The main selling point is that you are always trying to compete against the die. You roll at the end of the term on a 1D10, and if your roll is the same or lower than the current term then the war kicks off (rolling one on term 1, 1 or 2 on term 2, etc.). This could mean that you are in your thirties and well out of college by the time war kicks out. Or it could mean you were really unlucky and barely out of high school when it happened. Everybody gets one more term that is "under fire" where they are drafted if not already enlisted and then can end up getting promoted, acquiring rads, etc. before the start of the more familiar play-style of tabletop which fits so well in a play-by-post format.
I guess what I want to know is how would you guys suggest that be included?
Its a rather vital part of character creation, after all, and can affect your base stats (initially boosting with careers and if it goes on long enough, risking detraction). So I can't really see a way to just bypass/exclude it.
Would you maybe suggest setting a hard number for those players submitting a character? Telling everybody that its four terms and then going from there? Or would you set up an initial thread for those interested/invited where your "DM posts" are simple rolls of the dice while they respond with what they want as their primary, secondary, and appropriate rolls?
I'm curious for input while I put this potential RP together.
For those of you who aren't intensely familiar with it, the first stage of a Twilight: 2000 game are are conducted pre-war (or in Merc: 2000, before the more traditional play we'd be used to). You basically decide the actions of your 17 year old character from the day they graduate high school to the age of 21. That's one term. In that term you decide what they do as a primary interest (go to college, join the military, etc) and a hobby/secondary activity (which is a fairly open field that gives minor benefits). Each activity you do requires certain stat minimums to undertake and then also adds to other stats and skills (basic training for soldiers, adding to medical skill for someone in medical school, etc).
The main selling point is that you are always trying to compete against the die. You roll at the end of the term on a 1D10, and if your roll is the same or lower than the current term then the war kicks off (rolling one on term 1, 1 or 2 on term 2, etc.). This could mean that you are in your thirties and well out of college by the time war kicks out. Or it could mean you were really unlucky and barely out of high school when it happened. Everybody gets one more term that is "under fire" where they are drafted if not already enlisted and then can end up getting promoted, acquiring rads, etc. before the start of the more familiar play-style of tabletop which fits so well in a play-by-post format.
I guess what I want to know is how would you guys suggest that be included?
Its a rather vital part of character creation, after all, and can affect your base stats (initially boosting with careers and if it goes on long enough, risking detraction). So I can't really see a way to just bypass/exclude it.
Would you maybe suggest setting a hard number for those players submitting a character? Telling everybody that its four terms and then going from there? Or would you set up an initial thread for those interested/invited where your "DM posts" are simple rolls of the dice while they respond with what they want as their primary, secondary, and appropriate rolls?
I'm curious for input while I put this potential RP together.