How will D&D the MMORPG handle the rules?

[Joshua Randall]

The idea I had, which I think might work for an MMO D&D game, was to have basically agents, like in The Matrix, people who run the world -- one part moderator, one part game master. They have the ability to see everything in a given area with a sort of God's eye view, and they can possess any NPC, be it a monster, shopkeeper, or villain, and have the ability to control them in combat and for roleplaying.

You've just described a common practice in MUDs, back in the day. I used to await with great anticipation the moderator-controlled quests on my favorite MUD. Of course, a lot of the fun to be had depended upon the people involved in moderating the quest. And I think the same thing would happen in MMORPGs these days. Just like in real life: a good DM can make things fun for everyone; a bad DM can make things suck.

It would be neat if, instead of a MMORPG, the D&D license would be used to create a super-slick computer aid for table-top roleplaying. Something like the ability of Neverwinter Nights to have one DM and several players in a game, but with more D&D goodness and more features. I imagine something like a LAN party for your D&D group -- you're all in one physical location, but you each have a computer to handle the bookkeeping and combats. That would be sweet.

 

[kdanger]

Well I received my Eberron book right after I heard they were using it as the standard campaign setting for DDO. I think this campaign setting was written with this in mind. I noticed last night that the dragonmarked house that has banks (sorry can't remember the dwarven house's name) has a magical system that allows you to put things in a deposit box at one location and remove them from another location anywhere there is another bank. Now if that doesn't sound like EQ, I don't know what does.

I have to say that Turbine is probably a very good company to do this. Hell, I am playing Asheron's Call again after 2 years. They seem more focused on their customers than say Sony. Now with Middle Earth and DnD Online coming out who knows what will happen.

I myself am pretty excited about the possibility of playing in Eberron. The campaign is very different and it will be fun to explore. I hope that they somehow get people to try and roleplay more than most games, but powergamers will probably end up ruling. I had figured that Forgotten Realms was out of the question, but I was thinking that Greyhawk would have been a good choice for an online world. I guess they wanted something new and different, not just the same ol' high fantasy.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

I played quite a lot of Ultima Online, and they introduced characters that were not mods, but could had quite a lot of power, and could send people on quests. I think it didn't go too good...

It would be immensily (sp?) cool if you could have actual DM's running adventures, but we're a long way from that. Actually, it's possible with NWN, but creating an adventure takes a long time...

AR

 

[Express]

Brand new info!

New Lame, er Gamespy article on MMOs. DDO info is very scarce, but very positive.It looks like some actual coverage and details might emerge next month.

http://www.gamespy.com/articles/532/532753p1.html