A modest proposal

Dannyalcatraz · Oct 26, 2005

Inspired by this thread, I did some tangential thinking.

IMHO, what D20 needs is something like a Continuity Office(r). DC Comics did something like that when they found that many characters had differing abilities, etc. depending upon what title was being discussed.

In a sprawling game like D&D, a person in such a position would not issue rulings or in any way interpret the rules, but would instead ensure:

1) Rulings stay consistent with past rulings OR have clear explanations as to why a ruling was changed.

2) Inconsistencies or rules changes get fully explained BEFORE the ruling is released to the general gaming populace.

And, with this in mind, an annual update could be released in either PDF or Magazine form that would contain the rules corrections.

Thoughts & opinions?

pbd · Oct 26, 2005

Or we could eat poor children.

melkorspawn · Oct 26, 2005

Just as a slightly off-topic curiousity: (Based on the train of thought between the Marvel Universe and the D&D Universe)

Have any of you DMs out there Portaled your party to a different campaign setting?

Dannyalcatraz · Oct 26, 2005

Yes, Melkorspawn- the last campaign I ran I did just that. Why do you ask?

Panask · Oct 26, 2005

Dannyalcatraz said:
IMHO, what D20 needs is something like a Continuity Office(r~~). DC Comics did something like that when they found that many characters had differing abilities, etc. depending upon what title was being discussed.~~

Did they? He must have found a better job, then, because DC characters' abilities still differ depending on what comic they appear in, and DC's continuity is a mess.

Panask
Servitar to Baldur

Panask · Oct 26, 2005

melkorspawn said:
Have any of you DMs out there Portaled your party to a different campaign setting?

My players' characters in Gärd (our standard D&D world) have, on two or three occasions, travelled to another world that looks like modern-day Earth with superheroes (a world I designed for a superhero campaign that I've yet to run). Generally they're trying to find some item or person who they think slipped into that world. The first time they went, they passed through a portal that was coincident with the St. Louis Arch, so they think of the world as "St. Louis," as in, "Maybe we should go to St. Louis to get the Spectrum Rider's help!" They have no reliable way of getting there, however.

runtime · Oct 26, 2005

Formalized definition of D&D rules?

I've been brainstorming about writing a formalized definition of the D&D's notoriously complicated and ad-hoc rules. I'm not imagining a AI program to play D&D, but more of a "rules lawyer/oracle" expert system that humans can query. Message boards like EN World are filled with endless debates interpreting vague language and contradictions. If there was an open-source or wiki D&D "domain-specific language" (DSL) reference, then gamers could query it with questions about the rules and self-appointed experts can debate the rules in a much formal language.

I briefly explored Prolog and RDF/OWL, but they are very heavyweight (and neither are quite my forte).

Has anyone heard of similiar existing game rule language projects? Any thoughts about an appropriate language or design for such a system?

Dannyalcatraz · Oct 26, 2005

Did they? He must have found a better job, then, because DC characters' abilities still differ depending on what comic they appear in, and DC's continuity is a mess.

They had one for a while, but the temptation to make money overwhelmed the desire for continuity. They started running so many titles (alongside Marvel) in an effort to flood the market and starve the indies (a tactic that was fairly effective for a while) that continuity control was next to impossible.

Infiniti2000 · Oct 26, 2005

runtime said:
Has anyone heard of similiar existing game rule language projects?

I have heard of such an idea a long time ago, but as you might expect the project was dropped. It is way too tedius, if not just too complicated, to attempt for very little ROI, if any. Just not worth it.