Heh, well we all love the Cons. They’re capable of doing great good, or great evil. When I think of the alignment system, (three by three) they can come in just about all ranges, from chaotic evil to lawful good. These days, players (as well as TV watchers) gravitate toward flawed personalities, complex personas that keep us guessing at times. We want to see people doing the right thing, but it isn’t as cool if we already know they’ll do the right thing in advance. That’s why the Autobots/Maximals always seemed to play second fiddle. They HAVE to be good to offset the Cons. :3 Even a goody-goody that’s ‘rough around the edges’ is still a goody-goody. The only Bot that I played that was anywhere as fun as my Con was an outcast/terrorist. Blurring the edges is always a fun way to play a complex character. Hell I’d like to see their roles reversed once, just for fun. In the end I guess we like the bad boys more. They have that ‘do what needs to be done’ attitude. I used to really respect and sometimes admire the Elites in Halo, even before 2 and 3. They were just…. cool.

That leaves the dilemma. Most Cons are brooding loners, or have some sort of aversion to authority. <_< I know mine does. But in the end, I DO want him to work under the command of said tyrannical ruler. For one, I enjoy the image of him grumbling and having to work as a lowly tech, after having fallen so far. And what are the Cons without the occasional mutiny attempt? That should be par for the course, hell, written into the plot if possible! You just need enough fear, enough threats and enough pure charisma to keep the other bots loyal, yessss… :V

I’m not sure if requiring an Autobot would be a good way to keep Cons in check. The stat constraints seem okay, if a bit unintuitive. In the end you’ll end up with crappy badly written Autobots that the players didn’t want to make anyway. And instead of popping in tons of character-creation constraints, why not shape what characters apply by what’s needed by the side they want to join? Decepticons get missions that with heavy combat, curb stomping ass kicking mayhem. Autobots will get more intellectual missions, humanitarian and brain-food puzzles. To get a well rounded experience, the player would have to make one of each. If you get tired of thinking too much, switch off to your Con and kick some ass for a while! It’s much easier to keep people happy and achieve what you want by shaping them into wanting to do things your way, instead of forcing it on them. :3

The Autobot requirement will be there to make sure there are actually two sides of this without it going stale. People are always more willing to play Decepticons. It WILL go stale if everyone focusses on Decepticons in a game. I have seen it over and over again (here and in other roleplaying environments); it is fun for a time. Staleness shortly follows. The problem with "shape what characters apply by what's needed by the side" is the following: subplots will form like wildfire. If they don't, it will only be because the story seems forced by the moderator of the game. I am aiming at something that can be cohesive in the beginning and evolve as time goes by-instead of mutate like the G-Virus in a time accelerated lab full of Carebears and begin as stable as an elephant standing on a pogostick. I do want some Autobot/Decepticon interact at some points-combat and non-combat, so I do not want the two to be entirely seperated nor do I want the two to become blurred together.

Though, I do plan on orienting the missions of each faction differently as you have suggested. There will be easier and more difficult for both. There will be room for character evolution and advancement as well. You may get an artifact that boosts your power for instance, but it might be able to be stolen by or given to another character. We are used to a lot of combat driven stories. I have some ideas that might be compelling yet lack combat in a number of situations.

Pterascream, it sounds like you've thought things out pretty well. I just want to make sure there's enough interest in the idea before setting up a new board for it, so you're not doing all the setup work for a new RPG for nothing. Right now it looks like just Aviak has a strong interest -- though I know who posts on these threads can be very misleading for gauging overall interest. For all I know, there's a couple interested lurkers, 3 or 4 players who just can't post right now, and you've got some new recruits lined up on top if it. So just let me know if you think you've got enough interest to get started, or if you aren't sure but want to roll the dice.

For myself personally taking part, I'll just say that I'm a hard sell on the movie universe and combat boards right now, but never say never.

I could perhaps be interested in a G1-ish sort of board-- it depends a lot on the fine grain of the setting, missions, NPCs and whatnot, with my interest being in Transformers in deep disguise, somewhere in the real world (I thought Revenge of the Fallen did pretty well during the Shanghai sequence, for instance)

I do not want to rush my idea. I do not want it to fizzle out before it achieves life. It is hard to satisfy everyone and make something that won't become stale in a relative short amount of time.

I am going to spend some time soon on a fan-fiction. I am going to continue to discuss the possibility of turning this fan-fiction into a playable game until I am satisfied with the fan-fiction. The fan-fiction will have characters and events that will only indirectly affect the story for the game. I may leave the fan-fiction open for someone to jump into after they discuss their ideas with me. I am used to the graphic novel and scientific journal methods of writing. I need to spend some time brushing up on narrative. If there isn't enough interest, I will turn the fan-fiction into something on-going instead of a game.

I think we should all, as a whole, start making some fan-fictions in the Spark Fragments. If anyone even randomly manages to generate a significant interest, I think we should run with it. I have come and I have gone and come back; I am hoping to get involved in multiple games myself.

In the meantime, I think I am going to make some shorter posts in Spark Fragments reguarding the Warbound Inn. I am going to take over Zevais' Slusho until and if he decides to participate again.

Spark Fragments is a good avenue to take right now - be a way to throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks.

Hopefully the wind will blow more folks in.

But as long as someone posts, it's all good.

This bucket is over 10 years old, which for the Internet, is pretty damn old.