Favorite Minigames

[Apos]

So every once in a while, I have someone mention a coded feature on another game that they really miss. This could be almost anything, but it generally was something that other games might have done without, embracing handwaving or abstraction or requests instead of something coded and automated, if they had it in any way at all.

What are some features that you feel like made finding RP easier, or improved the quality of life playing there, that you wish other games had?

What are some coded systems that made the world feel more real, or more immersive, or helped get invested in it?

What are some mini games that were just fun, and the game didn't really need to have at all, but you enjoyed and spent time playing with?

[Lotherio]

@apos said in Favorite Minigames:

What are some features that you feel like made finding RP easier, or improved the quality of life playing there, that you wish other games had?

I'm curious about the miniggames, but this is above and beyond and I'm really curious about this one in particular. Could be its own topic, just wanted to put that out there. Its not minigame specific, like setting RP flags to highlight names in who/+who lists. I like to include a global @wall like command at my MUs for opening a scene, allows people to announce a starting scene to get more interest if they like but not really a minigame.

Actual minigame that I still tend to play ... bowling on modern MUs. Fun to play and pose around, winning or losing. Scavenging on Survival places is fun at the beginning but tends to lose its steam without updates to what is found to be relevant to locations being searched or new locations in genera.

[Arkandel]

@apos said in Favorite Minigames:

What are some features that you feel like made finding RP easier, or improved the quality of life playing there, that you wish other games had?

It's not really a mini-game per se, but I really quite the 'ladder' of gear upgrades on Arx when I played there.

I didn't care so much about the coded benefits per se but I liked there was something to hunt in the long term; to do so I needed to gather resources, which required me to pick up or initiate new projects and then recruit or meet with an ever-increasing number of characters to keep up.

Then when I got the shiny, I could think about the next upgrade.

(You guys should have implemented a 'soulbound' flag like WoW does to prevent previous generation items from being passed down, but I digress)

[Testament]

@arkandel You mean like, for example, preventing a situation like, Player A gets a Diamonplate weapon and gives their now less-shiny Rubicund weapon to Player B?

Not gonna lie, my characters pretty much depend on the generosity of other players when they upgrade to get rid of their old stuff on the cheap.

[Arkandel]

@testament Yeah, and for reasons I won't mention here since it's probably out of scope for this thread unless @Apos thinks otherwise.

[Sockmonkey]

Oh god, I thought this thread was called 'Favorite Migraines' and I actually hissed at the screen and was like WHAT KIND OF MONST- .. oh.

Proceed.

[Apos]

@arkandel said in Favorite Minigames:

@testament Yeah, and for reasons I won't mention here since it's probably out of scope for this thread unless @Apos thinks otherwise.

I don't think it's a big deal to talk about the pitfalls of features or minigames either, and it can be productive. I mean I know I'm going to get a lot of shit when I implement like equipment damage eventually.

[Kanye Qwest]

fun minigames: actual minigames. Games of chance that people can play IC/gambling, that has a slight chance of reward. Gambling games, darts/knife throwing/games that can record a list of "high scores".

Outfit code, so you can build up pretty outfits and switch between them without having to group them all into different bags and wear them.

fortune telling/tarot style code.

Anything random that generates rp, like the @randomscene code. I think @randomseethe would be cool, too, could let people roll dice to pick who to snark on in journals. I don't know if this would be better or worse than everyone ganging up on the FOM. Would be fun in the right hands, though.

Anything that produces something, like gardening or animal breeding

[ThatGuyThere]

@lotherio said in Favorite Minigames:

Actual minigame that I still tend to play ... bowling on modern MUs. Fun to play and pose around, winning or losing.

Along the same lines the coded pool game, I have seen a couple different versions places, I know the one on Fallcoast has the player input their relevant stats at the start. It is a lot of fun can generate RP since it is a good way to show off a characters mentality based on how they handle winning and losing games.
In general I prefer mini games that add some fun but are not required to play, if something becomes mandatory it loses a lot of the fun and becomes a chore.

[Coin]

I always wanted to design and implement some minigames for CofD games based on things that the characters have to do routinely but that can get awkward or old to play out.

For example, a lot of Werewolves with high Primal-Urge need to have a Sacred Hunt more often than others. A minigame that had you make a series of rolls and determined an outcome could serve as a Sacred Hunt. It would take a few minutes at most and players would have on the record that their character did their Sacred Hunt--and recovered Essence, or maybe even got a Spirit to teach them a Gift or something. No fuss, no muss.

Same for vampire feeding, etc.

You could get more sophisticated or less.

Not something obligatory, but definitely an option.

[Arkandel]

@apos said in Favorite Minigames:

@arkandel said in Favorite Minigames:

@testament Yeah, and for reasons I won't mention here since it's probably out of scope for this thread unless @Apos thinks otherwise.

I don't think it's a big deal to talk about the pitfalls of features or minigames either, and it can be productive. I mean I know I'm going to get a lot of shit when I implement like equipment damage eventually.

Well, it's a good idea to not allow legacy items from being passed down to newbies, which games like WoW figured out early learning from the experience of EverQuest, etc.

The main mechanical reason is their presence introduces inflation; when the game starts a steel sword might be the shit, but six months down the line it's not worth the bytes its ID is stored in. This has various systemic cascading effects, from the fact your game's balance has to be part of an arms race and keep evolving to keep up with the raised bar, to casual crafters being prevented from learning new skills since there's no demand for their lower tier work needed to learn better recipes, etc. It could even mean a stagnant economy since there are fewer actual sinks than it's designed for.

There are also social effects. Not all newbies are made equal (and I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, only that it's in fact a thing) since two PCs who create on the same day could have dramatically different power levels depending on who they know - often who they know OOC. Popular factions could perpetuate their popularity since they have more stuff to pass down than smaller ones trying to recruit, and of course the gap between the have's and the have-not's tends to broaden without a 'middle class' buffer in between bridging the two.

It also effectively removes the early carrots from your game - you're a nobody, but if everyone around you is geared in magical full plate it can leave you wondering if it's worth striving for those newbie goals the game's designed to dangle in front of you, especially if begging for gear works so much better.

As for plots, such disparities have an effect on plot as well. One of your newbies wielding a stick with a nail in it struggles to fight the goblins, but the other newbie with a flaming double-axe makes them explode on contact; it's tough for STs as it is to run things for mixed groups, let alone for the same part of the theoretical leveling curve. Also it affects how players can be rewarded; if your prize is a steel sword (or the resources to make one) not all will want it, since connected players will seek out the bigger rewards right out of the gate, which can be discouraging - you just barely survived the goblins, and the other guy just tossed you his pouch without even looking at it since it's not full enough.

Note that these aren't Arx-specific notes but just overall ones.

[Pondscum]

I liked the fate cards system on Firan. You'd have an action and character and you'd have to hunt the character down and perform that action. It got people involved and created a lot of fun RP. I remember things like:

Draw on...<character>
Kidnap... <character>
Hypnotize <character>

Anyway, I thought it a lot of fun. There was also a means of running the code so it'd only choose characters that were online at the time for immediate sceneage.

[Roz]

@pondscum Wait wait. You got cards telling you to KIDNAP PEOPLE?!

[Arkandel]

@roz said in Favorite Minigames:

@pondscum Wait wait. You got cards telling you to KIDNAP PEOPLE?!

It's not my fault! The card made me do it!

[Pondscum]

@roz Yes. Obviously you could get into real IC trouble, so it was up to the player to use their imagination to make it plausible. There were also actions like kiss, goose, murder, embarrass etc.

[SG]

@apos said in Favorite Minigames:

What are some coded systems that made the world feel more real, or more immersive, or helped get invested in it?

Digging trenches and clearing wire. It sounds lame, but it clicked with me.

[MagicGirl57]

@kanye-qwest I definitely would love to see outfit code. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! And gardening and animal breeding would be awesome if they eventually lead into like, brewing and baking codes.

[Packrat]

@arkandel said in Favorite Minigames:

It's not really a mini-game per se, but I really quite the 'ladder' of gear upgrades on Arx when I played there.

I have to admit that the gear levels/upgrades system on Arx is one of the things that I really, seriously, do not like about it and definitely a mental barrier to my playing on the game. The advantages of 'high tier' equipment over default stuff are amazingly acute and to a degree I find difficult to match plausibility wise with what (at least when I played there) was a very low magic world.

A regular decently made sword vs a super fancy sword had no comparison, the super fancy sword person (at least a year ago) was potentially able to do ten times as much damage against an armoured opponent. It made it impossible to have say a Bronn like attitude of 'a sword is a sword' because the person who has a precious special sword can fairly easily slaughter you. Even if the focus is not PvP, that tells.

Especially tied with some characters having access to infinitely more money than others.

Though with such a system implimented it did strike me as odd that armour could be worn by anyone instead of it being custom fitted being a Big Deal, that would both make sense and be a good way to stop people handing off their now second best armour to a friend after upgrading, thus preserving the money sink aspect.

[Doozer]

With the lord and ladies games I liked betting with in game money gambling tables such as roulette, cards and a version of darts or pin the tail.

I don't know why. I hate gambling IRL.

[Pandora]

Animals. Milking cows, gathering eggs, breeding horses, all that.
Farming, but not that Firan logistical nightmare, plz.
Herbology. Skill checks and whatnot for making healing poultices or poisons for weapons, etc.
Card games. More Blackjack than Poker, only because I like card games of risk more than card games of skill.
That Firan version of RISK was how I wasted many, MANY hours/days/possible real-life weeks.
Singing/Dancing. Hit or miss, some people hate coded songs/dances, I liked them.

edited to add: Cooking, of course. It'd be nice (but not necessary) if cooking was less finicky than other types of crafting, if just because food objects wind up being the most frequently needed, unlike jewelry or shoes, for example. So a system where 1 egg provides 1Food to a pantry, and 1 cow provides 50Food, and 1 chicken provides 5Food, and so on, but recipes just call for X amount of Food, instead of A, B, C ingredients mixed under moonlight with just the right amount of fire, blah blah blah - just as an example.