Would you play a MU* replacement?

skew

With the soft-close of yet another WoD MU (RIP Eldritch), I've started to think about the difficulties of setting up a new WoD game here. I've also scoured the net trying to find a decent place to run a private online table top game, where most of the features built into a MU (char sheet, multiple channels, a grid, dice roller, etc) were built into a single application, and not had much luck. I know there are chat-based games, but from what I've seen the dice rolling (and other bits) happen through another medium, and isn't integrated in the same place. So, I have a question for you all... Would you play on a MU* replacement?

What I have in mind would be a webapp that is by and large a big chat window (not unlike a MU). Throw in a dice roller, character sheets, windowed (?!) channels for chats and pages, and a few other features. I happen to have a bored webdev that was trained in Ruby. I've also been professionally working in MSSQL and Oracle for years. I think between the two of us, we could scrape together something that might be palatable, but before I put any real work into this, I wanted to get some feedback. Is it the telnet MU text based lack of a GUI that feels right? Or would you all be interested in trying a new medium?

xoxo skew

Pyrephox

Sure, I would. There's nothing special about MU* except the functionality and its applicability to having a large number of characters on the game at the same time, that current alternatives don't really support, for the most part. I think, though, you'd need to be able to have multiple "rooms". One of the appealing things about MU*s, for me, is this...sense of space? Persistent virtual space, so that you can look around, see people doing things off in other rooms, and possibly join them, or start something new, and the idea that you COULD do things that would impact multiple rooms at once in the same general IC time.

surreality

I suspect if you could somehow integrate it with mediawiki (as an extension or something compatible running from the same domain), it could gain some traction.

I have no idea how feasible that is -- but it may provide some ideas.

Wizz

@skew said:

What I have in mind would be a webapp that is by and large a big chat window (not unlike a MU). Throw in a dice roller, character sheets, windowed (?!) channels for chats and pages, and a few other features.

I haven't done much else with it beyond the initial few tutorials, but this basically exists in the form of Roll20. All of the features are built into the web app, as far as I understand such things, and you can build a table with multiple "layers" that are kiiiiiind of the equivalent of rooms.

skew

@Pyrephox said:

... you'd need to be able to have multiple "rooms"...

Definitely.

@Wizz said:

I haven't done much else with it beyond the initial few tutorials, but this basically exists in the form of Roll20. All of the features are built into the web app, as far as I understand such things, and you can build a table with multiple "layers" that are kiiiiiind of the equivalent of rooms.

I've used Roll20 and didn't like it. There's just a lot that feels "off" and a lot that's "missing". Not to mention, the feels geared towards voice/video play, with the text components there to help. And, of course, the roller... but I find that to be a little clunky. I know my critique of it is vague, but, eh! Best I can do. Thank you, though!

skew

@surreality My goal will be to get something going. Once I have a working thingy (technical term), I'll see about how it can be modified and integrated elsewhere. The idea would be to start with WoD, and one game loaded, but expand it out to multiple rule sets, and allow people to create their own custom games. Details on that to be determined!

tragedyjones

@skew said:

@surreality My goal will be to get something going. Once I have a working thingy (technical term), I'll see about how it can be modified and integrated elsewhere. The idea would be to start with WoD, and one game loaded, but expand it out to multiple rule sets, and allow people to create their own custom games. Details on that to be determined!

Down with WoD, up with CofD

Glitch

I'd check out Evennia. The dev drops by here to talk about it and it's pretty far along. It might not be what you're looking for, but it's definitely a possibility.

Deleted

Has anyone tried contacting Paradox and getting an official sponsored MUSH set up? I'm sure they'd be amenable.

Ide

Second the rec for Evennia. It's already integrated with Django so you're halfway to a web app, but the big plus is it's a functional mush-like with both telnet and websockets ready to go.

I know technical folks like to go with their tech of choice but you'd be so far ahead of the game going with Evennia IMO you'd need an excellent reason not to use it.

But to answer the question -- hell yes!

An interesting experiment to check out btw is Ropeclient, https://github.com/voneiden/ropeclient

Thenomain

@skew said:

Would you play a MU* replacement?

No, but I would play something that isn't designed to replace MU*.

It's a pedantic little thing, but I play games. I like the text based writing exercise that Mushes give us, which is why I would love to try Storium. I love playing coded tabletop RPG systems, which is why I'm trying to learn Evennia,

With someone excited about the game, I don't care what it is, just give me a chance to be excited about it too. (You've already given me a reason; you're excited about it.)

I do get turned off when that excitement is about being better than something else. Just be the best whatever you want that you can.

Okay, soap box done. In more positive terms, just do it, man. And maybe check out Evennia as an existing project from both sides of the Mud and Mush divide.

skew

@Thenomain Your pedantry is always appreciated, and you're right. I'm excited!

@EveryoneElse Thanks for the feed back! Evennia seems like a fun idea but it's not what I'm looking to do (or, more importantly, what I'm capable of doing). It looks like what I have in my head just isn't really out there, which means it might make a worthwhile project. I'm working with my dev and some DB people, talking out some ideas, creating some plans. I'll give another post here if the project gets off the ground!