Outline of a possible MUSH
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This is an idea I came up with January 2006. The usual things happened that prevented it from actually getting built and opened: Primarily lack of Coder.
MUSH outline (Just mulling it over here; this is a framework)
System: To Be Determined
Theme: Homebrew, conflict-driven, Good vs Evil as a thematic point. PCs vs alien evil will be a thread through the theme.
The whole thing is Conflict-driven, external and internal. Humankind vs itself as humans try to cope with the strange things like shifters, vampires, mages / Conflict between the Highly Territorial vampires, conflicts over territory for the shifters / Humans and their allies vs the Outsiders, who surely haven't given up on their plans to get in
History – (Future-earth) (More needs written) In the year 2012 the Outsiders attacked the Earth dimension. Think Lovecraftian Critters, trying to break through. They failed but -barely- so...all the 'legendary and supernatural' creatures were forced out of hiding and into fighting to keep the world from turning into something that would have been quite uncomfortable. Humankind knows the shifters/vampires/ect are there, and have reached a kind of uneasy accommodation. There's always a danger that some jackass is going to take an Outsider bargain and try to open a rift for them to come thru.
‘Races’ for lack of a better term: (This is what we’ll have playable)
Human – pure humans are the only ones who can access magic, the only ones who develop psi powers. They’re also the only species that can actually hear and be tempted by the Outsiders. (Mages, Psionics will always be human and only human.)
Vampire - Vampires as they exist on this MUSH are not dead creatures animated by some force. They are living creatures linked with a symbiotic organism that seeks its own survival by enhancement of its host. Only pure-strain humans can become vampires; the symbiote cannot contend with the forces that make up a mage or the fluxes in form innate to a shifter. Animals can temporarily ‘host’ a symbiote but that can only endure as a short term situation; to reach full power and maximum development the organism needs to link itself to a human body and mind.
Shifter (Species) – A number of separate bloodlines have diverged and evolved from mainline humanity, creatures different enough to be infertile with humans. Human in appearance, they still possess strong animal instincts that will cause them to react as per their animal type in stressful situations. I’m thinking wolves, jaguars, bears…what else occurs in legends? No infection by bite, this is a bloodlines thing; no one can ‘become’ a shifter.
Shifter (Cursed or Magical) – Generally these are people who are forced into wolf form on the full moon, by a curse on their family line. Or sorcerers donning a wolfskin cape to become wolves. Unlike the subrace of shifters, there is no culture here. This group is afflicted humans and mages acting on a generally non-good impulse. (Do we want cursed wolves to have an infectious bite, with the bitten becoming weaker wolves under the control of the biter?)
Fae – They came from ‘elsewhere’; a world parallel to ours and almost touching ours. When I think ‘fae’ I think Celtic fae; the beautiful and terrible Danoine Sidhe. They’re innately magical creatures, and innately tricksy and fickle. Anyone have any thoughts?
Supernatural Creatures – Unicorns, Phoenixes, Dragons – Sure, I like the idea. Restricted to people who’ve already demonstrated RP ability and reasonable sanity tho.
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Sign me up.
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This sounds pretty cool; I am getting visions of a less apocalyptic version of MCWoD, with supernatural public reveal instead of a constant government coverup.
What were you thinking/looking at system-wise for it?
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Sounds interesting. If you build it, they will come.
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@Bobotron - I'm really unsure on system. Assuming we tear out all the setting crap: I know NWOD, Exalted, GURPS - best. I've struggled with FATE but I seem unable to grasp it. I'd run with GURPS but that would be a crawl through hell to get coded, as no one ever has. And I can't code at all, which is a annoying handicap to opening any MUSH.
Any suggestions?
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Too, too tempted to do this just so there's an alternative to NWOD. I have an Exalted idea as well, set in the West. but again - code. And I'd need to wait for Exalted 3 to come out.
The homebrew's been in my head for years. It's pretty fleshed out. If I can get code, I'll likely put a Wizard on each racial subtype and a Wizard on Build...
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If you do savage worlds, I'd happily borrow your code! I've been wanting to do a Wolfenstein./weird wars 2 / call of cthulu type mush for a while now!
Also a Mist mush, and a Savage worlds Star Was sandbox. It's hard to stay focused sometimes.
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Savage Worlds would require a system where it's not difficult to drop in new traits. Each game is quite different that way.
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OK: here's where I am:
Deciding on System: Options
Nwod GMC, excised from its setting material completely and re-purposed. Advantaged - A lot of people know this system, including me. Code abounds for this system, thanks to the efforts of the modern coders conspiracy. Cons: The need for +sheet flexibility could be a problem - I'm not a coder myself so I'm just guessing on what the snags would be.
Savage Worlds - Pros: This system is super-flexible. It looks awesome. It puts a lot of weight on character and storytelling over book-keeping. Cons: A limited number of people know this system, it would have to be taught to the masses. No codebase. Although it may well be possible to use the Universal Game System By Gizmo. (Hi, Gizmo!) - I may need a custom di4e roller coded to handle d4. d6. d8 d10 d12 d20. Anyone up to writing that?
GURPS - Pros - I know this system so well that I could manage it in my sleep. It is quite flexible. Cons - It takes a but of teaching to catch on. Absolutely NO code-base. Not sure if I'd need to get permission from Steve Jackson Games to carry on.
The step after determining system will be to find people interested in the listed possible races, and get them together online. This will probably be easy enough.
Location for the game: An imaginary city in Canada. Builder's acquired.
This will be a slow project, as all the racial information needs to be hashed out. but hey. a work in progress is better then nothing!
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I don't mind helping build, Cor! I can reasonably help with themey things as long as I have an idea on what you want done with it.
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You have magic. You already have my axe and my attention.
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Sounds like you could be pretty close to this already, so an adaptation of Fate: Dresden Files might work?
http://www.evilhat.com/home/dresden-files-rpg/
Fae, shifters (various types), magic, vampires, gods/supernatural creatures, all kinds of stuff.
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Define 'sheet flexibility?' Are you expecting outside of say, powers to have lots of different attributes/skills that different character types are going to have?
Because building sheets would be based off of the code being used for the dice roller, and whatever storage method. If everyone has the same attrs and skills like NWoD and GMC, the other parts (just grabbing power attributes) should be cake.
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@Bobotron said:
Define 'sheet flexibility?' Are you expecting outside of say, powers to have lots of different attributes/skills that different character types are going to have?
Because building sheets would be based off of the code being used for the dice roller, and whatever storage method. If everyone has the same attrs and skills like NWoD and GMC, the other parts (just grabbing power attributes) should be cake.
We'd need the obvious (Attributes, Derived attributes, list of possible Races for selection) but what skills are going to be used depend greatly on the setting choices. I would not all be adverse to having code that lets you insert what skills are available on the +sheet - you entering it into a database of skills manually? If Savage Worlds is the chosen system merits and flaws get replaced by Edges and Hindrances.
I know if we need code added I'm going to have to write decent specs...am I doing ok so far?
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Have you considered the faraday system, @Corruption? I am undecided on what I think of it, even after using it a few times, but it is pretty flexible.
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@Corruption
Yeah, it should be fairly easy to change the skill list, depending on how things are stored for the GMC-compatible code. As far as races, that's a function of data entry and how you set up chargen, but again, fairly easy depending on on what you're doing. -
That vampire description makes me think of 'the Strain' some.
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I may be biased because of my own exposure but the more well known a system is, the easier you make it on people to come and start playing without learning new stuff, the more players you can get.
Am I saying having 'more players' is a good thing 100% of the time? No. But I am saying having too few players is a bad thing 100% of the time.
Use WoD, D&D, Pathfinder... something big and well known. Then promote among those who'd know it.
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Stop saying D&D. D20 Modern would be way better, has gobs of examples, and is still a terrible way to deal with supernatural powers. Yay I am a vampire class.
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Personally, I'd recommend FATE. The Dresden Files RPG seems to me like it'd serve as a fantastic basis here and is a popular system.
