Let's All Play Planning and Rules Thread

Sky Render's group FFV Boss Rush is turning out to be an overwhelming success, and, along with past interest in the idea with SaGa Frontier and Suikoden III, it's looking like there's growing interest in teaming up for other games as well. So! Let's get planning some more of these things.

NOTE: Now defunct! Head over to the archive thread if you're looking to discuss group LPs.

While my attempts at an LP of my own have ended in horrific failure, I greatly enjoy contributing to others, as Demo, Octo, and Garrison can all attest to.

Not sure how many LPs need a special guest bs generator but I figured I should just throw that out there.

There also seems to be some talk about an FF1 group LP. I wouldn't mind participating in that, provided I could play the most weaksauce version of the game and leave the super technical runs to the professionals.

7th Saga would be a painful one to share in, but the story is well-suited to it: Seven people headed out separately to collect the seven baubles and rule the world. Or something like that. Though it's a horrible game so I'm so not volunteering.

I don't see myself being able to participate actively in anything in the near future but I will certainly toss ideas out into the void.

I know there are a couple of folks who ended up buying Blood Bowl during the sale a while back, I think it might be kinda cool to do a mini-tournament (or tournament), and have each person write up their matches, if anyone's interested.

I think I'd be up for a mini-tournament. I'm still just learning the secrets of Blood Bowl, though, so don't expect the strongest showing from me.

I suddenly had this crazy idea for a group lets play of Clue for Sega Genesis, written from 6 different perspectives of the suspects.

This is the best idea I have ever had guys we need to do this.

As previously mentioned, Dominion would be perfect, especially if someone can find a means of playing it which don't involve a German game network. :P

I found one: http://dominion.isotropic.org/

man, any bungle diablo endeavor is worth sponsoring.

Bungle lead Diablo 2 playing sounds awesome. Maybe this time I'll get through the expansion?

Bonus: If I can learn the correct way to use a necromancer, also interesting in the correct way to play a druid

I feel like I'd rather see Diablo 2 done as a group multiplayer LP than the FFV style.

I like the Pokemon idea too.

I actually kinda like The 7th Saga. Aside from the horrid, horrid grinding there's a pretty decent old school JRPG in there with an interesting combat engine.

Of course, I'm sure I'm alone in this...

Oh, hells yes. Gahistu and I started a two-player co-op game a while back (Skeletons and Paladin Auras: Proving how broken exponential growth is since 2000) and never finished it, this would be an awesome incentive.

We could try a group Castlevania playthrough too. Everyone picks a different game and charts their course through the many Castles of Dracula.

No, you're not! I wanted to like the game, back in the day, but was thwarted by the broken difficulty.

That said, I'd only considering participating if there was a patch that restored the game's original difficulty. As I remember it, the story goes: when the game was localized, they reduced (halved) the stat gains on level-up. So great, you need to grind a ton more. That sucks, but you can still beat the game. However, when you have to fight any of the other playable characters, their stats are based on your level -- and the unadjusted, original stats you would have had at that level. So you had to grind like crazy to get past the normal enemies and bosses, but the other playable character bosses effectively gained two levels for every one you gained so grinding only made them worse.

Going back to what I said in the FFV Boss thread, I really like the idea of a group SCC run of FFT. I've tried the challenge before myself with a few friends, and the best part of it is how differently each job plays from each other - Archers dominate on sloped battlefields but have trouble on flat ones and vice versa for Knights, Oracles curbstomp Lucavi and bosses without breaking a sweat, Thieves win battles through the power of ~love~, and so on. It'd be great!

(Again, calling dibs on Oracle.)

Also: A group Nuzlocke for Pokémon would be delightfully cruel. Only thing is: which generation and/or version would we use? Emerald and FireRed/LeafGreen are the easiest to emulate, Black/White are the best games in the series but are a pain in the butt to find a ROM for, and Platinum and HeartGold/SoulSilver are somewhere right in the middle.

Contra Hard Corps for the Sega Genesis that game has a bunch of branching paths and such. I've never seen all of them. Kishi could lead a brave band of Tyrants through all of them maybe?

Slightly fixed for me. If you're gonna do a video LP of an online game and you need someone to be your sidekick, I'm game, as long as it's on the 360.

Also this. My PC is an ancient frankenstien monster of a computer, but it can run Diablo 2 just fine.

I also think a group multiplayer video LP of Monster Hunter would be awesome as well.

I'd be up for either of these! On the Pokémon front, I'd vote for FireRed/LeafGreen because that's my favorite pair of games and because my computer can't handle DS emulation anyway.

By the way, Black/White are the best games in the series? That's good news!

I think there's value in both group and solo playthroughs. With solo playthroughs, there's a great deal of strategy involved in building one's character and dealing with the game's challenges. Groups, on the other hand, are just ridiculous fun.

There are some dangers to doing a group LP, though. One is difficulty coordinating people's play time, and the other is losing any sense of strategy or individuality for each character. For example, someone playing a Feral Druid on a team with a Sorceress and a Hammer Paladin would end up having every post be "So today I listened to a bunch of stuff die off-screen and sifted through piles of corpses for loot. I saw a live Fallen One once! Unfortunately it melted before I could hit it. SADFACE"

So if people want to do groups, I recommend nothing larger than a team of two or three. That way we can get a better feel for what each character brings to the group and what each person's individual experience is.

Alternately, a big group of six to eight could plow through the game and assign one person to write up their adventures. That could be fun too.

I do not recommend having a Summoning Necro in a group of more than two people. The only strategy involved when playing on a team with a Summoner is "let the skeletons do all the work." It's hilarious for the Necro, but not as fun for everyone else. A Poison or Bone Necro wouldn't cause the same problem, though.

I think that if we did this I would do an in-depth solo Necro playthrough and maybe some sort of challenge playthrough with a weird character build. Or perhaps make a weird character to play in a group with some other folks. Everyone else could choose to do solo or group playthroughs at their discretion, and of course I'd be glad to offer character building and gameplay advice.

The only thing I would want to request is that people didn't trade for items online or stack their characters with items they already had. I think it's far more interesting when you fight your way through the game with only the stuff that drops for you. The randomness of the drops is part of the fun! Though I would have nothing against the different LP players trading items amongst themselves.

The one exception to this would be if someone had a gimmick build that required a specific set of gear in order to work.

Oh yes. Yes, I can do this. Yes.

Druids are weird. The most successful Druid I've ever had actually specialized in wind spells rather than the more Druid-ish shapeshifting. He was pretty extremely powerful though.

For Diablo 2, I think it'd be pretty cool to see small groups (2-3) sort of compete against each other, like the FF I Ika vs. Ruga thread, just friendly faux-competition, while showing off interesting builds.

Yeah, that could be really fun for both the players and the readers. I'd be up for some hot threesome action.

This is pretty much correct. All of it. It wouldn't even have to be screen shots and video, it could just be a journal with the occasional picture. Everybody gets to lol RP! XD

My personal Archer SCC wore out on some horribly unfriendly terrain fight in I think it was Chapter 3? It wasn't too fun and Speed Save couldn't help against incoming damage before people died. =\

My suggestion for a game is Final Fantasy Legend III. Crazy I know but it has a lot of customization options for your party.

This sounds like a fun read. Reminds me of the legendary Head of Vecno dueling D&D groups story.

Oh, I know how much trouble it could be to get a bunch of dudes together regularly to do a multiplayer LP. It's just something I'd like to see if a group of madmen made it work.

I was going to suggest Monster Hunter too, but it'd be even harder to coordinate that on account of needing to not only set aside time to take out each monster, but also a bunch of off-camera stuff to get equipment for everyone up to speed.

And I agree that FireRed/LeafGreen would probably be the way to go for Pokemon. The later games are better, yeah, but Red and Blue are the ones that most people are familiar with.

They are indeed! I won't go into detail here (just so the thread doesn't go into a Pokémon-themed derail - I could literally talk all day about the games once I get going) but Gamefreak really did a great job tweaking the formula and fixing a lot of the glaring flaws of the games. At the very least, the regional dex is the most diverse and well-rounded one out of the entire series, which makes it perfect for Nuzlocking.

That said, I'm 100% okay with FireRed and LeafGreen. In fact, I believe they're even the only games that haven't been Let's Played here yet!

I'm guessing it's not Riovanes, since that battle's seared into everyone's minds and you probably would've guessed it right away. :P Sooo I'm thinking Yardow Fort City?

That's the big challenge with SCCs, now that I think about it - when you hit a wall, you hit it hard. I remember one friend playing a Wizard SCC having one hell of a time at the Bethla Garrison Sluice, as the Knights and Wizards there would mow her down before she had a chance to mount an effective assault. Or... then again, was it the Ninja squad on the North Wall? Hmm...

As an alternative to Nuzlocking, we could do monotype runs of the game.

We might have to just Gameshark in some guys for the less common types, though. Otherwise a ghost run would just end up being Gengar, Gengar, Gengar, and Gengar.

Or, worse yet, a dragon run: Dragonite / Dragonite / Dragonite / Dragonite / Dragonite / Dragonite. Could you imagine the grinding you'd have to do? Bluuuuuh.

(Seadra can't even evolve until after you beat the Elite Four, what the heck)

Diablo II:
I'd be up for this; I have, more or less, an optimal supportdin build for multiplayer action. In a month or so I could even packmule if people want to trade between parties. (I'm assuming I'll have a laptop by then, in addition to my desktop.) Will we be doing Lord of Destruction?

Pokémon:
I'd be up for this, too; if Nuzlocking, though, I would prefer to stick only with the fainting == gone forever rule. Type-teaming with hacking is also a go.

Diablo 2 and Pokemon both sound full of potential.

If it is Diablo 2, I'd say let people go alone or in groups, whichever they want. The point of everyone playing (aside from chaos and creation of GUTS-level memes) is to see the game from different angles, and Diablo 2 is certainly different once you add other players in.

Oh, and my two handed holy frost zealot will be awesome.

Monotype runs could be interesting. I was already planning a good all-Steel team for Gen 4, and updated it for Gen 5.


And if folks want to do a Diablo II multiplay LP, maybe some folks could consider some Magicka too. That is a HILARIOUS multiplayer game~