Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

tigerguy786 · Seasoned Joined: 26 Nov 2011 Posts: 441

Hello all,

I ran a game this week, and an event got me thinking. The situation was simple: in a home brewed Fallout setting the PCs wanted to surprise some Raiders with some gas can explosions. One of the players commented that they don't explode when shot.

The reason in this case was that they do in the Fallout Universe (the same way chain link fences are bullet proof), so we let it go. Even if it hadn't been a Fallout game I would've let it go because it's an accepted break from reality in movies and video games, and I'd argue that SW is trying to emulate a movie more than it is real life.

Now, all of that to ask: do you let action movie inspired events happen or do you try to keep things a little more realistic?
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Sean-Khan · Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 2:24 am Post subject:

I'd say action movie way is the right way, unless you're really trying to make a realistic game for a reason. Of course, you could go around the situation and say 'Hey, you found an incendiary round from that body earlier, it would do the trick'.
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VonDan · Legendary Joined: 08 Jul 2008 Posts: 3304

I let my players wear swords, is that realistic enough
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Snate56 · Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 8:07 am Post subject:

Dunno. I tend to prefer physics because physics is a set of rules that's always there, always the same. Now, Mythbusters aside, I would think that a gas can merely doesn't explode most of the time, not all the time. There might have been extenuating circumstances. And I know how the game might treat a chain link fence, but I also think that there might be a fair chance that the bullet could miss its target.

SteveN
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Jordan Peacock · Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 8:45 am Post subject:

It really depends on the genre and the feel I'm trying to get. If I were running a Fallout game then, you bet, things need to go BOOM when there's an excuse to. I've seen really dumb movies where a crashing GOLF CART would blow up in a fireball ... but in Fallout it's practically par for the course that any random device might be powered by "100% Pure Explodium(tm)!"

Ghostbusters? It explodes if it would be funny, and nobody actually gets seriously hurt.

Zombie apocalypse? Depends on whether it's campy "Braiiiiiiiins!" zombies (in which case, yes, big boom at every opportunity), or whether we're aiming for the quasi-realism of "Walking Dead."

Still, as subjective as it might be, there's still such a thing as going too far, and it really depends on the group where that line is drawn. For instance, my players might be able to handle blowing up a car by shooting it in the gas tank, but NOT the idea that if you shoot a gun in the mere vicinity of some diesel fuel freshly spilled on concrete that it's going to go up like nitroglycerin. And some other folks are perfectly fine with that.

For me, it just really depends on the sort of tone I'm aiming to set for the campaign, and my "read" of what the players' expectations are for the genre.
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Enno · Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 9:09 am Post subject:

Based on the setting rules, a game has to be plausible, not realistic. It's a game, not a simulation! And so is the action...

Just remember the movie "Last Action Hero"...
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Virgobrown72 · Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 9:18 am Post subject:

i tend to swing more cinematic. I like action movie style games, and use the "DieHard" movie series as a rule of thumb. Very Happy

If you could do it in those movies, it's fair game with me... Wink

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Dracones · Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 9:48 am Post subject:

I swing more realistic, within reason since it's a supernatural world and everything. My goal isn't so much to create a cinematic "looks cool" world as much as put together a realistic feeling sandbox for players to mold, shape, and sometimes have sand kicked in their face.

If a player corrects me with a non-realistic hiccup I make, I toss them a benny.

greyseerco · Seasoned Joined: 27 Jan 2009 Posts: 246

I think it really depends on the setting, Moscow Connection with gritty damage - I would go realistic. WWII - albeit with all the monsters, I would go realistic. Anything else at this point I would go cinematic.

Rohan · Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 10:13 am Post subject:

We go realistic as far as the world reacting and what not, but damage descriptions and complicated action scenes are usually very cinematic (especially any scene recaps that we do).
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doctorduckbutter · Seasoned Joined: 20 Apr 2010 Posts: 117 Location: Tampa

People make great points here, because it really depends on the setting. In my DL game I run it a bit more on the campy actiony side of things. I have plans in the near future to run a modern crime based game and the realism will jump up quite a bit.

The Dread Polack · Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 12:03 pm Post subject:

Usually, the tone is set pretty well before a game begins, and this sort of thing doesn't come up that much. But, on occasion, it does.

In my Shadowrun campaign, I remember pointing out that, for whatever reason, firing two pistols at the same time was very difficult within the rules, so that was fairly realistic, but that I was going to houserule that most buildings had air vents that were big enough for a normal human to potentially squeeze through, since the rules didn't forbid it, and it seemed thematically appropriate to me.

I think exploding gas cans (or gunpowder barrels, or greek fire barrels, etc.) are appropriate for any campaign I would ever want to play in Smile

SavageGamerGirl · Heroic Joined: 24 Oct 2010 Posts: 1273

I come down on the cinematic side of the fence. The Rule of Cool is almost always in effect in my games. I play RPGs to get away from reality a bit, so I don't mind Hollywood physics quite so much.
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Snate56 · Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 4:31 pm Post subject:

Just sayin'. If I had the choice of diving behind gas cans or gunpowder barrels, I'd choose the gas; Gunpowder has an oxidizer in it.

SteveN
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Averjoe · Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 6:14 pm Post subject:

Virgobrown72 · Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 8:31 pm Post subject:

GamerGirl sums it up for me. I don't play Savage Worlds for realism, I play for escapism...
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77IM · Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 10:08 pm Post subject:

One of the main benefits of realism is that it lets your players know what to expect, which gives them a basis for making decisions. So set the "realism level" to match the sort of decisions you want your players to make. High realism = very cautious players (watch a video of an urban combat training exercise, those guys are super cautious). Low realism = players can do crazy stuff... BUT it's harder for everybody to "be on the same page" and this can cause confusion. Sticking to a particular genre really helps with that, and also encourages to make decisions that fit the genre, too.

Personally, I only play a realistic game in a modern or post-apocalyptic setting, and then only sometimes. In such settings, players have a good idea what to expect, so it works. In fantasy/futuristic gaming players don't usually have a great frame of reference since we don't live there, so it's hard to even be realistic. Realistic historical gaming is right out. Unless the players are history buffs, nobody knows what past eras were really like. So you might as well ham it up with some cinematic action.

-- 77IM
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skylion · Posted: Thu May 17, 2012 7:37 am Post subject:

I recall the Christmas evening that myself and several friends went to see King Kong. Most of us were gamers, and two of us ran actively at the time.

During many of the chases, I was quoting SW rules, and my buddy would be spouting GURPS rules back at me. Of course, the "Oh, that was a good roll, dude" came out when a character did something flashy. And we debated whether or not Kong was a PC or NPC.

Realism? No. Thank. You.

Quasi-realism that explodes in buckets of blood or a fireball? Heck. Yeah.

Heck, I've run Deadlands enough to where I don't even call for Guts rolls when faced with walking dead, or prairie ticks, or pervasive critters like that. They are part of the landscape by now, and everyone pretty much treats them that way.
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Virgobrown72 · Posted: Thu May 17, 2012 9:32 am Post subject:

I find myself thinking of Savage Worlds rules when i watch movies too!!! Surprised

i thought it was just me!!! Wink

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OSIAdept · Heroic Joined: 19 Oct 2007 Posts: 1554

For a fallout game i ran i went for cinematic . ONe of my players blew up a boss by shooting a pocket of methane gas
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