High Fantasy

[Lisse24]

@Wizz said in High Fantasy:

I'd kinda like to see a MU* that is run more like a public OTT. Players can have bits that multiple characters are attached to and these characters are part of limited campaigns (as in, will end, characters get sent to that giant tavern in the sky) with scheduled scenes. "Downtime" rp is an option, but not incentivized or rewarded in any way - no weekly XP, no cookies or votes or whatever.

I mean...I'm not gonna do it but. XD

The thing is, though, I play on MUs because I like exploring characters and relationships. That is a type of RP that is done better on MUs than any other format, and your proposal basically says that's not real RP. If I want campaigns and constant action, I'll get together with my friends and do TT.

[Ganymede]

@Lisse24 said in High Fantasy:

The thing is, though, I play on MUs because I like exploring characters and relationships. That is a type of RP that is done better on MUs than any other format, and your proposal basically says that's not real RP. If I want campaigns and constant action, I'll get together with my friends and do TT.

Maybe you should try BSG:U. Just because there's no system or benefit from getting the most cookies in a week doesn't mean the out-of-battle play isn't fun and worthwhile. I get a lot of mileage out of my Trash Panda.

[Wizz]

@Lisse24

I'm not saying that it's not "real" RP, I'm just suggesting people not incentivize it. The reward for those kinds of scenes should be having fun playing through those relationships and expanding the character, not XP. I think it'd kinda cut down on the circle-jerk that some places turn into.

[Ganymede]

@Wizz said in High Fantasy:

I'm not saying that it's not "real" RP, I'm just suggesting people not incentivize it.

Fifth Kingdom has been running this gig where, if you submit a log of playing with <enter player here>, you get an extra 1 XP per month (you get 1 XP per week, I think). The goal is to link people up with other people they haven't yet RPed with. This is similar to what RfK instituted.

You incentivize what you want to see. If you want to see people being inclusive, mark every new PC (less than a month old) as "NEW," and then give XP for all non-NEW PCs that submit a log of RP with that new person. That'll bring new players into the game really, really fast.

If you want to reward making boons on a World of Darkness game, offer a Beat to whomever gives the boon to another person.

And so on.

[faraday]

@Wizz Cookies don't give you XP on BSGU; XP is a flat award of 1 per week to everyone and advancement is super slow. Cookies give you luck points to keep fighting if you get knocked out in combat, but since it's all PVE that's not really a big advantage.

[Apos]

@Wizz said in High Fantasy:

@Apos said in High Fantasy:

I don't think it is either, but that wasn't what I was getting at earlier. Okay so take like werewolf characters you see on the wikia for any WoD game, and read them over. I'm positive that if you looked at them, you get a pretty good idea how that character spends their time, day to day, between the major plots that shapes their lives. You can probably picture all the little minor social interactions.

Now try to do the same thing with a lot of dungeons and dragons characters. [...]
And those are the questions people need answered when doing the random RP that shapes social interactions on MUs, so anyone setting up a game in those settings has to be the one to answer them, even though the thematic settings already seem to be established.

What you all seem to be saying is that what we think of as a functional, successful MU* needs to look and play basically like a simulator rather than a role-playing game. I think that mindset is also behind a lot of the complaints we have about the state of most current games -- dinosaur characters, treehouse clubs, endless bar-p, sandboxes, etc.

I'd kinda like to see a MU* that is run more like a public OTT. Players can have bits that multiple characters are attached to and these characters are part of limited campaigns (as in, will end, characters get sent to that giant tavern in the sky) with scheduled scenes. "Downtime" rp is an option, but not incentivized or rewarded in any way - no weekly XP, no cookies or votes or whatever.

I mean...I'm not gonna do it but. XD

I wouldn't go that far, it depends on your goals. If you wanna use a MU to run a weekly campaign, or act as a waiting room for players and GMs between those campaigns, games do that. I'm not really into that style but I view it as a personal preference thing.

[Wavert]

I often wish someone would put another Lord of the Rings MUSH out there, specifically one set in the First Age. All the old haunts are literally that, the RP community for the setting just seems to have withered.

[Lithium]

All this lack of High Fantasy is making me consider pausing the 20th edition Vampire game I am coding currently, and using my 2nd site for a High Fantasy game... Only question is, what system to use. I am leaning Fate, cuz honestly, Fate is pretty good at cinematic and even social conflict.

Only question is... (EDIT: cuz 2nd question hahaha) how to determine when people can get skill points and Fate points...

If I did this though it'd be more akin to Conan (Books/Comics over the movies) than to LotR.

[WildBaboons]

I think fate is a great system for that sort of thing though I know others disagree.

The Dresden Files RPG MUs out there have used time based "days" for gaining skills and fate points, I think 60 days for skills and 120 for fate. votes/nom type things were used for bonus days as well as bonus from running and attending plots.

I would play the hell out of a Conan MU.

[Tempest]

My main concern with FATE as a system is that it usually feels like it boils down to "what did staff let you get away with?" for your stunts and stuff. Which is less of a thing in 'pure mechanics' type games. And while a potential problem in a 'traits-based' game, traits don't come with actual mechanics backing them up like the custom-made stunts/etc do.

I am by no means an expert on FATE though, and that was just my impression from briefly playing on one game that used it.

[Lithium]

@Tempest said in High Fantasy:

My main concern with FATE as a system is that it usually feels like it boils down to "what did staff let you get away with?" for your stunts and stuff. Which is less of a thing in 'pure mechanics' type games. And while a potential problem in a 'traits-based' game, traits don't come with actual mechanics backing them up like the custom-made stunts/etc do.

I am by no means an expert on FATE though, and that was just my impression from briefly playing on one game that used it.

Every system has broken bits and pieces. Look at the current big source on these forums, CoD. So many broken merits.

So.

Many.

If I do Fate I am making a list of what stunts will be available. It will likely be a large list, but I cannot guarantee I can think of everything. I am doing a custom magic system as well. In the end, like most games, Fate is only as broken as the game runner allows it to be.

[WildBaboons]

Yeah, I've not seen fate have any more of an issue with this any other system

[Tempest]

@Lithium said in High Fantasy:

@Tempest said in High Fantasy:

My main concern with FATE as a system is that it usually feels like it boils down to "what did staff let you get away with?" for your stunts and stuff. Which is less of a thing in 'pure mechanics' type games. And while a potential problem in a 'traits-based' game, traits don't come with actual mechanics backing them up like the custom-made stunts/etc do.

I am by no means an expert on FATE though, and that was just my impression from briefly playing on one game that used it.

Every system has broken bits and pieces. Look at the current big source on these forums, CoD. So many broken merits.

So.

Many.

If I do Fate I am making a list of what stunts will be available. It will likely be a large list, but I cannot guarantee I can think of everything. I am doing a custom magic system as well. In the end, like most games, Fate is only as broken as the game runner allows it to be.

I agree. But the difference is those are all 'openly available'. Whereas FATE. You can app, then a week later, somebody apps with a stunt that does X, Y, Z and it gets approved and you're like "wow, I didn't think that kind of stuff was okay, i should've gotten better stunts".

But yes, a list of stunts would fix that, and IMO is a great idea. You can let people put their own 'name' on stuff too, to change the flavor, but it has to correspond to the mechanical bonus of one of the listed stunts. Etc.

[Lithium]

@Tempest

Again: The only stunts that will be allowed at CharGen will be from the list of approved stunts. I intend to be pretty exhaustive as to what I will allow, so that balance is where I want it to be.

This isn't like a table-top Fate game where people can just invent stunts willy nilly As the person coding it up and in control I have control over what is allowed and what is not.

Unlike some places, I have /zero/ problem telling people 'No.'

[Misadventure]

Is this going to be the usual FATE approach of we sorta assume the characters are awesome, and will succeed often and win out in the end?

[Lithium]

@Misadventure Nope!

There is going to be room for all sorts of play styles and stories. In the notes I've been throwing together for basic themes everything has some darkness to it. It is a brutal and bloody world, power gets you only so far because there are other powers.

Now as far as regular NPC's go, yeah, I expect a PC could be made to be strong in their chosen areas of strength and experience, but there's a /ton/ of different ways to build a completely valid and effective PC in FATE which is one of the reasons I like it.

My main thing is I want the game to have space for White Hats, Black Hats, and Wishy Washy shades of grey types.

There is going to be war, intrigue, dungeon crawling, bar fights, magic, monsters, & more as the players try to make sense of the new world.

I am borrowing one element from Earthdawn that I liked, isolated communities of survivors of a world shaking event, only a few large cities.

The main city is a place where four 'countries' that have risen up since the devastation meet, and it is neutral ground with 'peace' enforced by the Twisted Spire (Mages Consortium) essentially.

[Saulot]

This post is deleted!

[Jennkryst]

Depending on how high you like your fantasy, Exalted is out there for shenanigans.

[WTFE]

I like Exalted the setting. (Sue me. I like it. Fuck you.)

I hate Exalted the game. It removes the fluid joy of high-powered hijinks in favour of menial mindless mechanism.

[Jennkryst]

@WTFE Have you perused 3e, for fixes?

It says something about the mechanics when I took the setting, stapled on a tabletop wargame rpg ruleset, and shit was easier.