New to OVA

[KaitoCain]

Anyone around that can give a newish GM (I've ran campaigns in other systems, all D20 systems) some advice for starting a good mid-range powered campaign?

[Joe_Mello]

Anything in particular you want advice on?

[KaitoCain]

Well, for starters...

I'm gonna be running a campaign soon that revolves around a high school that teaches fighting and martial arts at it's core (much like tenjou tenge and other similar anime). I would like advice on a starting point base for character creation for my players.

Also, I'm not very good at acting out the opposite sex (females) in my games, and would really like advice on that as well.

[Joe_Mello]

I'm gonna be running a campaign soon that revolves around a high school that teaches fighting and martial arts at it's core (much like tenjou tenge and other similar anime). I would like advice on a starting point base for character creation for my players.

Well, I always do background/fluff first when doing chargen for games, and then stat-building from there. If you're looking at students, I'd personally want 1's and 2's for abilities. Teachers, 3's and maybe 4's. Ideally, I'd go for close to Ground Zero as possible, but realistically, I'd adhere to "Out of character = off of sheet"

Also, I'm not very good at acting out the opposite sex (females) in my games, and would really like advice on that as well.

Well, aside from the fact that role-playing gets better with practice, I don't particularly see why playing a girl should be that much different than playing a guy.

[KaitoCain]

Thank you for that insight Joe.

I really hope to become a great member of these forums (bookmarked for convenience) and am very excited about the revised edition that should be coming soon.

Anyways, the idea of setting the fluff and background stuff first is something I've been mulling over for the last week or two and it really seems like the best way to go, for any system really. How I ever got by otherwise is beyond me, though I'm sure that is may be a byproduct of being raised on good old D&D with it's lovely THAC0 and class based systems (Oh how I loathe thee..).

On the subject of playing a girl, I've realized that I've never actually took any of the female roles (NPC's) very seriously, unless they happened to be trying to kill the party for some reason. In playing this upcoming game, I'm sure I will get more experience in this while playing all the roles that running a high school entails (while keeping it semi-anime-realistic).

(I also must note, that I'm very glad to see that the virus script that was hidden in the forum scripting has been eradicated. I'm not sure if Clay got my Email on it, but I'm very glad things are normal here now )

[KaitoCain]

So, I'm guessing this forum is pretty much dead isn't it?

[Joe_Mello]

It's only as dead as you want to make it.

[KaitoCain]

*Dances oddly*

Nope, not dead here...

In other news: My players made their characters and had a fun first session. It was a bit fun having them get to "fall" into a debate between two magic wielding teens.

[Dreamstryder]

On playing any gender NPC: If you're trying to do voices things can get silly/embarassing fast, but you can also narrate their parts 3rd-person, as an author would narrate a book (ie "...," so-and-so says, adjusting her grip on the bokken).

As for character mindsets, playing one gender is like playing the other; they're both people. Most differences between people are caused because of their individuality, not genders. I don't know how much is culturally infused or in-born, but in a (warning!) generalization, lots of boys seem to like exhilarating things like explosions and dinosaurs and girls like setting things up to operate properly like miniature/imaginary households and decorations. You can extrapolate some high-schooler fantasies/daydreams and hobbies from there.

[Joe_Mello]

The primary activity of high school is getting into the opposite gender's pants. At least in the west, anyway.

[KaitoCain]

The primary activity of high school is getting into the opposite gender's pants. At least in the west, anyway.

It does seriously seem that way. Maybe that has skewed my ideas a bit.

[KaitoCain]

Quick Question.

Can someone explain Threat Value to me? The way it is spelt out in the book is slightly confusing to me.

[Clay]

Welcome to the boards, Kaito. It's nice to see somebody livening up the place a bit.

To get to the question at hand, Threat Value is just a quick and dirty way for estimating how powerful a character is for the purpose of building fights. If a group of heroes and a group of villains have a roughly equal TV, then the fight should have a roughly 50/50 split of odds between who will win.

To get the Threat Value, simply add the highest Damage Total (Damage Multiplier in the Revised Edition), the highest Attack Roll (ie. the number of dice you roll when attacking), the highest Defense Roll (same, for defense), and the Level of Abilities/Weaknesses that modify Health/Endurance. You can also add a few points if the character has a particularly combat-useful Ability.

So if your most damaging attack has a DT of 5, you roll 4 dice to attack, you roll 3 dice to defend, and you have Tough at +2, your TV would be 14.

Does that clarify things a bit?

[KaitoCain]

It does greatly actually. Thank you much!