(Discussion) General Part I

Creamsteak · 18th August 2003, 09:31 AM

Monday, August 18th, 2:46 AM (central),

I was trying to sleep, but my muse hit. At Gencon I was privy to what the RPGA calls Living Greyhawk. Living Greyhawk is only 'somewhat' alive. Character interaction isn't very deep, and a lot of the things that make a campaign setting alive are non-existent. For instance, characters are not normally permitted to create their own magic items. Characters cannot develop their own spells without the approval of a bunch of groups of people called Triads, and to my knowledge it's never been done.

I want a living game. I want to be able to create a character that is an interactive part of not just my gaming tables campaign. I want to be able to create an item for someone who took the time to find me, just to make his item. I want a Living Campaign setting.

Does this idea catch your attention? Then read on... I've got a little more to say...

The world will be named Enworld. Enworld will be made up of a number of homebrew people, locations, and events constructed by those people who are willing. A group of people will act as judges, overseeing all of the characters, events, and locations as they are spawned, destroyed, and changed by the passing of time. Judges will also get to arbitrate global events and the passing of time on the setting. There will be a number of games ran inside the setting by willing DMs with willing players. Every game will operate independently, some being for just 1 player while others occupy groups of more. The characters, in turn, will be able to interact with each other on a regular basis.

The way I'm seeing this playing out...

The first game in the Out of Character forum will be a character glossery. Any number of 1st level characters made using the guidelines provided will be stored here. This, I guess, isn't too different from YB in that respect. Characters will be viewable to all of the players, dms, and judges that are are around. It will also, most likely, become a rule of thumb that players need to attach (in smallest text) a link to their individual characters in their sigs. This is so a DM can quickly access your post in a thread without any problems.

The first game In Character thread for this game will probably be a Tavern. A Tavern is a safe place where characters can interact, and form groups. There may end up being a number of these in different parts of the campaign setting. The first tavern will be the only one, until a player reaches another location and creates a tavern of his own, which will probably have a level minimum like 6. There will obviously be a limit on the total number of these, but it shouldn't be a problem if it takes some time to reach that point. One player may found the, "Red Dragon's Inn" in the city of "Made up Name" on the coast of the "Place where some adventure is to be had".

The second out of character thread would be for the first DMs to work on an interactive adventure. Something simple, with two groups that are operating seperately, but get to meet up at different points in the game. They would discuss here just like you would in any other OOC thread for a game, except that players would probably be discouraged from reading certain parts. Actual module writing might need to be handled elsewhere, or even through email, if it gets to that.

The second in character thread would be the FIRST ADVENTURE! The place where it all starts. Like any other PbP.

After an adventure, characters that survive would be able to spend their money and buy their items for their next adventure. Interact with characters, provide some help for lower level characters, and maybe even start building in the world (construct a settlement, tavern, blacksmith, etc.) Of course, players with multiple characters would have to be restricted from 'feeding' their own lower level characters, but I expect the people around this forum to be honest.

So, what do you think? Think it would work? Want to do it?

Catulle · 18th August 2003, 09:36 AM

Looks very, very interesting indeed. A bundle of work to be sure, but I think there's mileage in it.

Regards,

Barry

Creamsteak · 18th August 2003, 09:48 AM

Since I'm all inspired right now, I wanted to throw out a couple character standards concepts:

Characters will be created with 30 point buy.
3.5 Game SRD
PhB Races and Character Classes
Max starting gold

Heres an alternative experience system, the first five levels are easier than usual to gain, but from there on up it becomes more difficult.

1 - 0 ( 0 )
2 - 1000 ( 1000 )
3 - 1500 ( 500 )
4 - 2500 ( 1000 )
5 - 4000 ( 1500 )
6 - 6000 ( 2000 )
7 - 9000 ( 3000 )
8 - 13000 ( 4000 )
9 - 18000 ( 5000 )
10 - 24000 ( 6000 )
11 - 32000 ( 8000 )
12 - 42000 ( 10000 )
13 - 54000 ( 12000 )
14 - 68000 ( 14000 )
15 - 85000 ( 17000 )
16 - 105000 ( 20000 )
17 - 128000 ( 23000 )
18 - 154000 ( 26000 )
19 - 184000 ( 30000 )
20 - 224000 ( 40000 )

Thels · 18th August 2003, 11:34 AM

Sounds cool! I would defenitely want to play in it.

I think it would work, not sure. I've seen the central tavern idea back in the time when I still had time to chat on the TSR forums and there it worked out okay even without any judges, though with judges and DMs, this could be taken to a much higher level.

Shalimar · 18th August 2003, 11:42 AM

This has the potential to create excessive amounts of threads, each of which would be bumped to the top rather frequently, driving everything else down, It would be like having 4 or 5 or eventually 10 or more hiveminds going at once. Other then that, it sounds like it could be great, good luck with it, so long as it doesn't get obnoxious, if you can get it its own forum, all the better.

Wippit Guud · 18th August 2003, 01:24 PM

Sign me up as player and DM, if you're allowed to be both.

Keia · 18th August 2003, 03:00 PM

sounds interesting . . .

Keia

Velmont · 18th August 2003, 03:19 PM

Interesting idea... Not use to living concept, but I think I catch the idea.

infax · 18th August 2003, 03:35 PM

Sounds interesting. I may be willing to try to contribute with time and effort as a DM.

A question though, what motivated the alternate experience table?

Ravellion · 18th August 2003, 04:20 PM

Interesting. Might be willing to participate.

The XP table I don't agree with though. it would be about 4 times harder to reach 2nd than third, but then it becomes easier, and then it becomes harder again. Ech. Too 2e for me: "Hey I am second level. I need to make the exact sdame amount of XP as last level, but now I've got an extra hitdie to do it with.

Creamsteak · 18th August 2003, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by infax
A question though, what motivated the alternate experience table?

I was just thinking about how slow PbP is when compared to relative gameplay. But I did want it to become more difficult as things progressed...

It was just a toss out to get opinions. I'll probably modify the experience charts for the game specifically to accomidate how slow play by post can be. 75% seems to be where my heads going. Then again, I might drop that idea if it seems like this kind of game would be faster...

GnomeWorks · 18th August 2003, 05:26 PM

I'm definitely game for this, in whatever capacity would be available or needed.

Creamsteak · 18th August 2003, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Shalimar
This has the potential to create excessive amounts of threads, each of which would be bumped to the top rather frequently, driving everything else down, It would be like having 4 or 5 or eventually 10 or more hiveminds going at once. Other then that, it sounds like it could be great, good luck with it, so long as it doesn't get obnoxious, if you can get it its own forum, all the better.

I was concerned with this as well. Actually, making a comparison to YB before it really slowed down would be accurate. We should keep it inside one forum so that the traffic around it is adequate, but if it begins to interfere with the forum itself I could probably persuade morrus to allow another forum.

But, I need to gauge the number of people first.

Also, I'm thinking that DMs deserve some kind of benefit from DMing. Just an idea, but what if DMs get to create an NPC for themselves that advances based on the efforts the DM puts into the game. This character would be part of the world, just not part of the adventures and trials of the player characters all around.

Creamsteak · 18th August 2003, 05:33 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Wippit Guud
Sign me up as player and DM, if you're allowed to be both.

Yep, I expect to have people be able to handle both. Seems kinda important to me.

GnomeWorks · 18th August 2003, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by creamsteak
Also, I'm thinking that DMs deserve some kind of benefit from DMing. Just an idea, but what if DMs get to create an NPC for themselves that advances based on the efforts the DM puts into the game. This character would be part of the world, just not part of the adventures and trials of the player characters all around.

I like that idea. It would let a DM who runs a game that finishes and start a new game have an NPC personality ready to go.

And it lets DM have the same kind of fun as the players, though in a slightly different fashion.

Not only that, but if the DM decides to play for awhile, they already have a character available.

Thels · 18th August 2003, 06:18 PM

If I understand things correctly, there's more than 1 adventure on a time going on. So anyone DMing an adventure could still have his character be off on another adventure.

't would be a little harder for judges, but still doable.

garyh · 18th August 2003, 06:36 PM

Creamsteak, this is a thing of pure genius! I really, really like this idea. I'll be a judge (it would seem kinda obvious for the PbP mods to judge and all anyways), and play as well if that's possible.

As for a seperate forum... I think if this takes off and does well, we could probably split it off into a Living Enworld forum. I understand Shalimar's concern.

EDIT: Oh, I'd be very interested in helping with world creation... maps, kingdoms, etc. I know the idea is to have PC's able to affect the world, but we probably need a framework to start with, too.

Thels · 18th August 2003, 07:09 PM

How about Deities? Would you use an existing pantheon or make up a new one? If you make a new one, you would only need several (1 per alignment minimum I think) and other deities could be 'discovered' later.

garyh · 18th August 2003, 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Thels
How about Deities? Would you use an existing pantheon or make up a new one? If you make a new one, you would only need several (1 per alignment minimum I think) and other deities could be 'discovered' later.

That's one of the things our Architect would need to consider. Your idea is a solid one, Thels, and would give a good starting point while allowing for player-created variety.

**Dinkeldog** · 18th August 2003, 07:22 PM

I think it's a great idea.

I agree that it would at least eventually require its own forum, especially since I think you'd want more than just a single tavern as a meeting thread. I think it makes sense to have at least a common "temple" area, more than likely a thieves guild and a mages' guild, in addition to a marketplace, and the ability for players to create locations that don't exist.

I think it'd be a lot of work for the DMs. Having said that, I'd be willing to work as a DM in addition to possibly having a PC somewhere in areas I'm not dealing with.

Other recommendation: Have some kind of entry location for new characters to get them looked over by at least one of the DMs before they go into a play area.