Preparing to host my first game of OVA

[Inquisitor Melchior]

I finally found a willing player to try out OVA (and hope to find one or two more before running the test game). However, as schedules prevent us from playing for another week or two, I thought I would use the Intervening time to avail myself of any help you fellow board posters might be willing to give. As such I have a few questions I would like to ask.

1) My player wants to play multiple characters, so as to have a deeper level of character interaction in the game should no other players prove forthcoming, but doesn't want to spend the time to learn the rules at present, and so wants me to teach him the game during the first session and to create his characters for him. Have any of you been in this situation before? Do games entirely set-up by the GM in this way often go well, or are they generally disappointing? Should I require that he give at least give a little input into the characters he plays so that he doesn't feel apathetic towards them?

2) It seems to me that OVA is structured more toward having characters adopt signature weapons, rather than using whatever random weapons are at hand as with most other RPGs, and I am not sure if allowing random or 'treasure' weapons will work well in OVA. Has anyone tried this? Does it create any problems?

3) Though an action oriented campaign seems the obvious choice for a first game of OVA I'm greatly tempted to do a slightly slower campaign with a greater emphasis on drama. Although it doesn't seem as though OVA should have any problem with a dramatic campaign of this sort, does anyone have any advice on running these types of campaigns with the OVA mechanics?

4) Finally I would simply appreciate any advice or experiences others could relate about running campaigns in OVA (also Cloud, should you have the time, I would be interested in hearing more about your Raylyte campaign and any noteworthy experiences you or your players have had in it, as it seemed, to me, to be fairly interesting)?

If anyone would be interested in me posting the characters I'll be making, or some details of the setting after I develop it, I'd be happy to post them, though on another thread, as I'd like to leave this thread clear for those OVA gamers who wish to answer my questions or relate their experiences.

...and in advance, I thank any who answer this post. I always feel nervous when taking on the privilege and responsibility of running a new game, and I greatly appreciate any help, advice, or support given.

[Clay]

I finally found a willing player to try out OVA (and hope to find one or two more before running the test game). However, as schedules prevent us from playing for another week or two, I thought I would use the Intervening time to avail myself of any help you fellow board posters might be willing to give. As such I have a few questions I would like to ask.

Shoot!

1) My player wants to play multiple characters, so as to have a deeper level of character interaction in the game should no other players prove forthcoming, but doesn't want to spend the time to learn the rules at present, and so wants me to teach him the game during the first session and to create his characters for him. Have any of you been in this situation before? Do games entirely set-up by the GM in this way often go well, or are they generally disappointing? Should I require that he give at least give a little input into the characters he plays so that he doesn't feel apathetic towards them?

I played almost exclusively one-on-one with my brother, and one of us always played 3 or 4 members of a party. (Either he made them NPCs, or I controlled all of them.) We always had a great time.

I always created all the characters I played, and vise versa. Tackling many separate characters you're not familiar with may be daunting. At the very least, I'd give him biographies to read over prior to the game, even if you're gonna explain the rules real-time.

It also helps if you know the guy well. Create characters you think he'll want to play. Look at his favorite characters in film and fiction for ideas.

2) It seems to me that OVA is structured more toward having characters adopt signature weapons, rather than using whatever random weapons are at hand as with most other RPGs, and I am not sure if allowing random or 'treasure' weapons will work well in OVA. Has anyone tried this? Does it create any problems?

In the upcoming OVA Fantasy, the Weapon and Armor Abilities are thrown out in favor of equipment lists. In a setting where you reasonably expect everyone to have a weapon appropriate to their character, and for them to upgrade these weapons regularly, simply make a list of belongings. Each belonging should have an ability rating (ie. A sword could be Weapon +3, Platemail, Armor +2) but do not add them to the character's Character Total.

Fledgeling adventurers with magical rings or hand-me-down swords might be appropriate candidates for Abilities that that do add to the Character Total. Use the Vehicle ability as a guide. If it's appropriate for the character to have it, don't pay for it. If it's not, purchase it as an Ability.

If you really wanna apply rules to it, simply do the traditional fantasy way: give the Players a certain amount of currency and have them buy their goods from an equipment list. Unfortunately, you don't have that option yet...but you could probably jury-rig an existing list from another game.

3) Though an action oriented campaign seems the obvious choice for a first game of OVA I'm greatly tempted to do a slightly slower campaign with a greater emphasis on drama. Although it doesn't seem as though OVA should have any problem with a dramatic campaign of this sort, does anyone have any advice on running these types of campaigns with the OVA mechanics?

I don't know if I have specific advice, per se. I think OVA lends itself to character-driven drama based on the simple fact that combat Abilities are given no more precedence than others, cost-wise at least.

If you want to discourage violent antics and combat in general, it's easy enough to curb how capable characters are. Cut Health and Endurance in half, and make the default dice 1 instead of two. It instantly creates a more gritty feel.

4) Finally I would simply appreciate any advice or experiences others could relate about running campaigns in OVA (also Cloud, should you have the time, I would be interested in hearing more about your Raylyte campaign and any noteworthy experiences you or your players have had in it, as it seemed, to me, to be fairly interesting)?

I'm afraid I really can't give much advice that isn't already iterated in the Game Master's Section. I certainly can't do it with OVA in particular...all playtest sessions were one shots.

Because character growth is slow, I'd be careful with consistently tossing bigger, badder, villains at your PCs. You're gonna reach a feasible max very quickly, and the result may become redundant and boring. Try to keep the source of the problems, and its solution, considerably different every adventure.

If anyone would be interested in me posting the characters I'll be making, or some details of the setting after I develop it, I'd be happy to post them, though on another thread, as I'd like to leave this thread clear for those OVA gamers who wish to answer my questions or relate their experiences.

Sure, go for it! It's always fun to see how different gamers apply the rules to their own games.

...and in advance, I thank any who answer this post. I always feel nervous when taking on the privilege and responsibility of running a new game, and I greatly appreciate any help, advice, or support given.

No joke! I have to admit, my brother was the Game Master far more often than I. So I understand your apprehension, totally.

[Cloud]

Well, I guess I could try to help you out. When it came to multiple characters, I used to play a game with my brother and his group. the most we ever had is 3 at a time. It kind of got confusing and we ended up sticking to one each. My first experiences with OVA were pretty awesome. I made out some cheat sheets (mostly combat and stuff), those helped. Also remember that if magic is going to be used, explain the benifits of taking flaws and perks (one of my players had a time with it before i told her that building a spell with defects better defines the spell and makes it more alive).

quick episode summary!

Last time I ran, the players went into the myst after some monsters that kidnapped some children. They were seperated from one of my NPC's (Juka) and were ambushed by a group of monsters. They fought them (as one of them proved tough to defeat). Finally, Hogo (monk fire elementist PC) used the flames from the burning battlefield and brought them into the monster defeating him. Little did they know that it was a training exercise set up by their leader (NPC and he is just the leader in the eyes of the raylyte empress) and the leader's mentor (a monster who "fought" with my NPC while the others fought). Juka, who went missing, came back and she had found some of the children (the others were eaten).

On the way back they were arrested (dident attend a critical meeting) but were released by aire. On the way to Aire's chamber, Juka passed out. As it turned out, she was wounded by a demonic maggot and got a flesh eating disease. To make matters worse, Raylyte intel just spotted huge war machines coming their way.

[Inquisitor Melchior]

I always created all the characters I played, and vise versa. Tackling many separate characters you're not familiar with may be daunting. At the very least, I'd give him biographies to read over prior to the game, even if you're gonna explain the rules real-time.

It also helps if you know the guy well. Create characters you think he'll want to play. Look at his favorite characters in film and fiction for ideas.

Actually I know the guy quite well, I used to run a lot of campaigns with him back in highschool, so I'll likely be able to create characters he'll find interesting. The problem is I tend to overdo my character's backgrounds (yes I know, who'd have guessed? ), but I'm not sure if this will make the characters more approachable, or just confusing. I suppose I'll just have to submit them to him to see if he likes them.

In the upcoming OVA Fantasy, the Weapon and Armor Abilities are thrown out in favor of equipment lists. In a setting where you reasonably expect everyone to have a weapon appropriate to their character, and for them to upgrade these weapons regularly, simply make a list of belongings. Each belonging should have an ability rating (ie. A sword could be Weapon +3, Platemail, Armor +2) but do not add them to the character's Character Total.

I like the concept of creating the characters with signature weapons just as your original rules suggest, it's just that you never know what will come-up in an extended campaign, so your suggestions on improvising rules for incidental weapons could potentially prove quite useful.

If you want to discourage violent antics and combat in general, it's easy enough to curb how capable characters are. Cut Health and Endurance in half, and make the default dice 1 instead of two. It instantly creates a more gritty feel.

I'm seriously considering running a supernatural highschool suspense/drama/comedy campaign that takes place in the suburbs of Kyoto, but gradually segues into Japan's mythic past. I'm not really looking for ways to make it more gritty or less violent so much as I'm trying to figure out ways to subtly promote and reward good character play and in-game character development. Actually I'm even considering running the game without experience, instead allowing the characters to gain (or possibly even lose) abilities as fits the progress of the characters and the story.

I'm afraid I really can't give much advice that isn't already iterated in the Game Master's Section. I certainly can't do it with OVA in particular...all playtest sessions were one shots.

That brings up something I'd wanted to ask: Are the sample characters provided in OVA created by some of the playtesters? I only ask as some of the sample player names seem to match with the names of those listed in the credits.

Because character growth is slow, I'd be careful with consistently tossing bigger, badder, villains at your PCs. You're gonna reach a feasible max very quickly, and the result may become redundant and boring. Try to keep the source of the problems, and its solution, considerably different every adventure.

Although I'm not the type to just barrage my players with overpowered nemeses you give good advice all the same. Thanks.

I made out some cheat sheets (mostly combat and stuff), those helped. Also remember that if magic is going to be used, explain the benifits of taking flaws and perks (one of my players had a time with it before i told her that building a spell with defects better defines the spell and makes it more alive).

Also good advice. Thanks.

quick episode summary!

Sounds interesting. It seems that Hogo is quite adept at combat, and its good to see that your players are learning to survive in the myst, though I'm a bit uncertain as to why they were arrested for missing a meeting. Given the information you gave about her in the other thread I'm also curious as to how your players reacted to Aire when she was first introduced.


Thanks Clay and Cloud for your replies and advisements. I hope to have some characters and setting details completed in a few days and I'll try to post them when they're ready.

[Father Wendigo]

I may be a day late and a dollar short, but here's my input...

1) My player wants to play multiple characters, so as to have a deeper level of character interaction in the game should no other players prove forthcoming, but doesn't want to spend the time to learn the rules at present, and so wants me to teach him the game during the first session and to create his characters for him. Have any of you been in this situation before? Do games entirely set-up by the GM in this way often go well, or are they generally disappointing? Should I require that he give at least give a little input into the characters he plays so that he doesn't feel apathetic towards them?

1) I’d suggest that the player make one character for himself, and then the two of you should create two to four characters to be used as the ‘hired muscle.’ Be sure to keep the details as broad as possible; you’ll probably find plenty of material to fill in the description during play.

2) It seems to me that OVA is structured more toward having characters adopt signature weapons, rather than using whatever random weapons are at hand as with most other RPGs, and I am not sure if allowing random or 'treasure' weapons will work well in OVA. Has anyone tried this? Does it create any problems?

2) Hey, weapons have multiple uses besides fighting. They can be melted down, sold off, given to peasants for personal defense, ect. Or you could try something like this: for example, let’s say the party defeats the big boss: in this instance, a babbling lunatic with a flaming sword as his personal weapon. Should someone have the bright idea to destroy the weapon (in case one of his thugs has management aspirations), they find (preferably at a high-stress fight) that they can now super-heat their own hand to hand weapon. Overuse said ability, however, and they’ll find themselves on a downward spiral to insanity, just like the lunatic from before!

3) Though an action oriented campaign seems the obvious choice for a first game of OVA I'm greatly tempted to do a slightly slower campaign with a greater emphasis on drama. Although it doesn't seem as though OVA should have any problem with a dramatic campaign of this sort, does anyone have any advice on running these types of campaigns with the OVA mechanics?

3) I'm pretty sure I can help you stream line this problem. The closest thing I can liken it to is the old Choose Your Own Adventure books, so the easiest way to explain this is by example:

The party walks into town only to find themselves in the middle of a full-scale battle between folks wearing jaunty eye-patches and folks wearing dashing monocles. The group has two and a half options:

Join the eye-patch wearing toughs or the monocle sporting fellows in there fight to prove the superior eye-ware.

Take both gangs head on.

Immediately turn tail and run a scalded dog. (hey, it happens…)


Joining one of the gangs means an easier fight, followed by a round of sleeping darts shot from dark, unseen corners for the whole party. After they wake up in their prison cell, they’ll be questioned by their cell mate, who has a proposition for them: you see, he managed to smuggle something explosive in with him, and if they’ll make sure that he isn’t filleted by the guards during the ensuing jailbreak, he’ll detonate it at their whim. After the dramatic (and flammable) exit, he can offer the party more work from an unseen benefactor.

If the group decides to take both gangs head on, they are greeted by the remaining townspeople after the fight. They now learn that only a handful of people survived the constant fighting, and that the deceased mayor’s son/daughter/guard/whatever wishes to escort the remaining villagers through the Forest of Certain Death to a safer town. Should the party help out, they get a nice cash reward and said mayor’s charge, who feels they have something to prove.

Or they can turn tail… only to be attacked by people wearing smoked-spectacles.

Oh, and style points for you if the party sees a dog carrying a severed hand as they enter the town.

4) Finally I would simply appreciate any advice or experiences others could relate about running campaigns in OVA?

Why, don't you know that going in blind your first time is half the fun?!

[Inquisitor Melchior]

1) I’d suggest that the player make one character for himself, and then the two of you should create two to four characters to be used as the ‘hired muscle.’ Be sure to keep the details as broad as possible; you’ll probably find plenty of material to fill in the description during play.

Unfortunately he insists that I create the characters, his reasoning being that he has little free time of late, trusts me to be able to handle all of the preparation work, and would rather be able to just sit down and begin playing at the beginning of the first session than spend it learning rules and creating characters. The other player who may join seems also to have adopted his frame of mind on this and also wants me to create her character, her only stipulation being that it be female. I'm not sure whether to interpret this as trust in my abilities, or just a lukewarm interest in my campaign ? All the same, I'll try to make it as interesting and fun as possible. I'm actually considering, given the limited number of players and my task of creating all of the characters, making the campaign more focused on a couple of main characters (as is most common in anime) with the player's 'extra' characters playing slightly less significant roles (that also may help reduce any difficulty that results from playing multiple characters).

As for the second part of your advice, I'm afraid it's a bit difficult for me to follow as I have a bad habit of over-detailing most characters I create. Though I suppose it is good advice, especially since the characters are being played by others, not to embellish them to the point that they become difficult to play and adapt.

3) I'm pretty sure I can help you stream line this problem. The closest thing I can liken it to is the old Choose Your Own Adventure books, so the easiest way to explain this is by example:

That's actually a rather good sample layout; however, I don't usually pre-script my adventures, preferring, after I've set-up the initial premise and circumstances, to let the game play out organically. The real trouble I'm having is figuring out a way to adapt the OVA rules so that they promote playing to develop the character and story rather than to simply advance the character. Don't get me wrong, OVA is already a fairly good system in that regard, but I'm trying to think of a way to encourage character play a bit more.

Why, don't you know that going in blind your first time is half the fun?!

Ah yes, the old 'sink or swim', always a practical, if often underappreciated bit of advice .

[Clay]

I'm seriously considering running a supernatural highschool suspense/drama/comedy campaign that takes place in the suburbs of Kyoto, but gradually segues into Japan's mythic past. I'm not really looking for ways to make it more gritty or less violent so much as I'm trying to figure out ways to subtly promote and reward good character play and in-game character development. Actually I'm even considering running the game without experience, instead allowing the characters to gain (or possibly even lose) abilities as fits the progress of the characters and the story.

If you wanna nix experience, you may want to consider handing out free Drama Dice, sort of like the "Lucky" ability. This way you can reward the Players without resorting to traditional experience.

That brings up something I'd wanted to ask: Are the sample characters provided in OVA created by some of the playtesters? I only ask as some of the sample player names seem to match with the names of those listed in the credits.

The simple answer is no. All the sample characters were created specifically for the book by moi. However, some were influenced slightly by playtest sessions. (Raine and Shou's combat statistics are mirrors of two playtest characters used as a simple test of Quickness v. Agility for instance)

As for the names of players matching, I plugged Brett in as GM because he's my brother, introduced me to RPGs, and has been my GM for 99% of sessions I've played.

Jade, on the other hand, is an RPG neophyte, so putting her in as a newbie player seemed to make sense, and was a nice way to include her, too.

[Cloud]

Sounds interesting. It seems that Hogo is quite adept at combat, and its good to see that your players are learning to survive in the myst, though I'm a bit uncertain as to why they were arrested for missing a meeting. Given the information you gave about her in the other thread I'm also curious as to how your players reacted to Aire when she was first introduced.

its kinda weird to be locked up for missing a meeting but it was a manditory all citizen meeting. Also it has something to do with the chancelor... Oh and Hogo really wants to, um, befriend Aire...

[Inquisitor Melchior]

Oh and Hogo really wants to, um, befriend Aire...

*Laughs* Given the way you created her I suspected one of the players would have intentions toward her (Though if any of them had designs on her Hogo is probably one of the better choices, elementally speaking, as his element matches well with hers). Still, given some of Aire's quirks and responsibilities, I think Hogo may just have an easier time finding a nice academy girl .

You seem to have a fairly good campaign going. I'm hoping mine will turn out well also, but it'll be a few more days before I find out (and even if my players do like it, its survivability largely depends on whether or not my player's schedules will allow them to play more than a handful of times). Though, whether things work out or not, It’ll be nice to play an anime RPG again.