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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Saba Taru" data-source="post: 3304485" data-attributes="member: 2902">I've been watching these types of threads for quite some time, and for some reason, this one crystalized something that had been nagging me for a while.To me, the convergence of the Digital Age with Pen-and-Paper (P&P) RPGs is the (relatively) old idea of a Text Based MUD.  Sure, the MMORPGs like EQ and WoW are the next generation text muds and owe a lot to them, but the original, unadulterated text MUDs (maybe with ASCII map support) are an awful lot like P&P RPGs.  Text MUDs are, to me, the best of P&P RPGs mixed with the good bits of Neverwinter Nights (NWN) (user created content) and the imagination.  For the record, I do know that MUDs came before NWN, but NWN did take the online gaming community thing in a new direction.Now I'm not saying that a MUD wouldn't require a learning curve (what software doesn't?), a huge amount of initial development effort and ongoing support, and to modify the codebases or add in code snippets does require some programming knowledge (as expected), but the parallels are astounding.  People are talking of websites with links to integrate information into their P&P games.  With the proper legal permission, I could take any piece of digital information (or paper for that matter) and convert it to the MUD environment.  In a MUD, I control the descriptions, the quests, the random encounters, the traps, the surprises, and the loot/experience.  I can make NPCs talk, dance, or hand out items as required.  I can be the "voice of god" in that the players can hear me anywhere in the game but may never see me.  I can control what the players see, hear, or encounter.  I can even control where they are allowed to go at any given time.  Easter eggs and the like suddenly become viable and are a lot of fun to discover.I know, I know.  If MUDs are all that work, why not play an existing one or go to a graphical one like WoW or stick with good old P&P?  Graphics sort of ruined the mudding experience for me.  I like reading and I like using my imagination.  MUDs still let me do that whereas games like EQ and WoW don't.  MUDs also let me control who I let in to the game and who gets denied access.  in the MMORPGs I have no choice but to interact with the masses, most of which I tend to not get along with, but that's another rant for another time.An example of just such an endeavor is the Rasputin codebase based on the CircleMUD code.  The guts of the MUD are based on the D20 system, and work just like a P&P game in terms of game mechanics.  The tedious part is already done.  All you need to do is add the world.Yes, I have a MUD that I work on in my spare time.  I use Fantasy Grounds in the meantime to get my RPG fix (we don't all live close enough any more to play face to face), but ultimately, I do believe that I will be a total MUD convert.So let me take all this to the next level and propose a hypothetical situation.   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />Say that I am a game designer and have created a MUD based on my own campaign world (as if that doesn't sound familiar  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />).  I have a website with tons of information and the like for people to see and reference while they "play" in my world.  I have servers set up so that a GM may run an "instance" of the game with just his players or they may play on a "general" server where anyone is allowed to connect and play.  Maybe, instead of servers I have the sofware available for download, much like the MUD codebases do.  Or maybe I do a combination of both.  Who knows?  Anyway...  I allow GMs and players to submit ideas for inclusion on the general server (with proper credit given, of course!).  I also allow GMs/players to add in additional content (with the proper game and programming knowledge) to their downloaded copies in order to customize the game.  Maybe I also allow, for a fee, the GMs/players to submit ideas to me and let me create a custom world/codebase just for their use/download.  Any content that makes it to the general servers will get ongoing and additional support and content.  Did I miss anything?  Keep in mind, that I'm not worried about solvency or feasability at this point.It's kind of scary how much that is starting to sound like a NWN/WOW/EQ hybrid, isn't it?  Maybe I should step away from the keyboard for a while... Yeah... That's it...Any ideas, thoughts, gripes, disagreements, etc?Saba</blockquote>

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