Space Lords and Ladies

[BigDaddyAmin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL0M4HtLl40

All MU*s devolve to this. It is BigDaddyAmin's Law. It is known.

[Packrat]

It is probably a terrible idea but I am tempted to actually make this thing, can anyone recommend a good MU* hosting site which is usable for idiots who have not set up a game in a decade?

I will probably end up using Wikidot for the website given that is far easier than any of the alternatives.

[Bobotron]

@Packrat
If you want free you could check out mudhost.net? Otherwise I think mushpark is one that a fair number of people use.

Wikidot's cool; I also found a pretty nice one called mwzip that uses mediawiki for formatting, so it makes using example code and such from elsewise easier.

[Kay]

@Bobotron Went to "mudhost.net" and the domain's for sale. I think you meant http://www.themudhost.net/

[Bobotron]

@Kay
Whoops, yeah.

[Lithium]

I use Third Generation, they have a lot of nifty tools for a fair amount of money imho. It was easy enough to get my game going but, I've done it a few times now. They even have wiki hosting as part of some packages and automated wiki installers in their control panel so there is that too.

[Jennkryst]

I just realized Mechwarrior/Battletech could be a space lords and ladies style game, and I regret not thinking of/mentioning it sooner.

[Lithium]

It very much could be. Mechwarriors are the knights, you have actual royalty and noble families, you have grunt soldiers who are armored and infantry, aerospace pilots, but you could do a lot with the setting especially if you based it on like Solaris VII which would then add in elements of criminal underworlds, and you could do events where a planet was being attacked by say, Davion and defended by Kurita, or whomever.

The only problem is mech combat. When it gets to the mech combat how do you handle it? Coding it in is something beyond my capabilities I've found, even in turn based fashion.

Mostly it's the hex grid, those things are bigger than is easily displayed on a single screen and how do you customize the environment?

Then there is the system, the Mechwarrior system itself is... a royal pain in the ass all things considered. Unnecessarily complex on the human scale.

[Songtress]

Space Lords and Ladies?

What about Space Religion? (If we're going with Space fuedlism, then Space Deity Space Divine Right is a THiNG (including the Psychic powers), but what does that mean for bastard offspring of Nobles, if they inherit mind powers? Do theyget Stolen in the middle of the night and taken to their 'Divine' Parent..?

[lordbelh]

Take a leaf out of the glorious W40K. God Emphra!

[secretfire]

Genetic Engineering works, psychic space powers work, mind machine interfaces works, designer bodies (like Eclipse Phase)...but for the love of god, no giant mechs, please. This genre has been done numerous times, and done well, without mechs. Lets not throw anime into friggin EVERYTHING.

Besides, SRT mush has done giant mechs literally to death. They make absolutely no sense from any tactical or physical point of view, not even with advanced SCIFI physics and they are not even overly interesting. The minute you have anything like a giant mech, you can forget ever having people fight hand to hand, or any space-ship or fleet battles, or...anything approaching realism, ever. It would just juvenilize everything.

[Seraphim73]

@secretfire said:

The minute you have anything like a giant mech, you can forget ever having people fight hand to hand, or any space-ship or fleet battles, or...anything approaching realism, ever. It would just juvenilize everything.

I agree that you don't need giant mechs, but if you think that just adding giant mechs removes the possibility of hand-to-hand combat, starship battles, or even tank/VTOL battles... you clearly haven't seen MechWarrior/BattleTech.

I'm not saying it's /realistic/, because anything that tall will soak up fire from everything on the battlefield, but simply adding (semi-rational) giant mechs does not necessarily remove the possibility of other sorts of combat.

[Misadventure]

Will there be a Build-an-Heir genetic lab?

[Kay]

@Misadventure Taking it seriously, that'd be kind of fun. Some kind of mini chargen/spin the wheel deal.

[Packrat]

I am currently thinking space nobles who are genetically engineered super people (albeit prone to issues and some 'instability'). Combined with some of them having mind machine interfaces with relatively super tech quasi living spaceships.

Also way better tech than everyone else in general in limited quantities, though the low tech would be more like say Aliens or even the non cojoiner factions in Revelation Space, not Space Peasants.

The Space Elves I am thinking might be really advanced androids/robots (who are sexy space elves) who are split into a bunch of factions ruling over the enslaved bulk of humanity. Are they rogue human AI? Alien robots? Who knows, they are not saying, though they do treat with Space Nobles as peers out of necessity.

[Ganymede]

@lordbelh said:

I think Game of Marriages is more of a fallback option, and the easiest way to build RP without needing any sort of staff hand-holding. You get scenes re: arranging it, etc, etc. You get a bit of politics, you get a bit of romance, you get a bit of everything if there's nothing else going on. And to those players who only want to play Game of Marriages, they can do that even if you provide something else for the greater game. Its not an either/or scenario.

If you want to discourage the Game of Marriages, then you have to give your players something to do for the greater game. And, as usual, Requiem for Kingsmouth provided a model for that: developing your territory and expanding your influence.

I mentally divide political games into two kinds of games: the petit game, and the grand game. Going on quests, interacting with others, hashing out personal rivalries, bar RP -- that's all part of the petit game; gaining influence, improving your holdings, making alliances -- that's all part of the grand game. There's some overlap -- e.g., political marriages -- but, for the most part, you can divide the game elements so.

Most existent game systems fail to incorporate both. Even Requiem had to mash together Damnation City with Blood & Smoke to get what they had, which worked to an extent but had some major flaws to it. Still, that system -- as clumsy as it was -- provided endless amounts of consternation for my PC, who was not built for the Grand Game, but got tossed into it by @lordbelh. Lots of fun; lots of miserable fun.

Some players like the grand game; some like the petit game. But whatever you do, if you're going to create a Space Lords and Ladies game, you really need a good system that puts together both.

[Apollonius]

Lurk lurk. I'm going to say it:

1. @Packrat The longer you keep brainstorming an idea, the more likelihood that RL or something else will result in the idea being stillborn. I don't mean to be discouraging. This has historically been the case with any of your game idea threads. Whether it is real life or getting distracted by a shiny object or just being bored of the topic, what you need to do is to stop dithering about details, stand up a prototype, and make it work if you have a clear vision. You are satisfying pent up demand. Waterfall development is going the way of the Dodo. Be Agile. Make a prototype, see how it plays, deploy.

2. Also @Packrat If you are going to make a game about Space Lords and Ladies, just make a game about Space Lords and Ladies, i.e. Fading Suns. Whatever my opinion of you in the past, present, or future, what you are trying to satisfy in terms of market need and what you really want is a Fading Suns variant. Just stand one up and you'll be doing everyone interested a huge benefit. You can have a planet full of purple monkey-like things that throw poop at people and you will still have people apping for Duke so-and-so or Countess so-and-so.

3. @Monogram If you want to try launching a game again, it can be done and scaled back appropriately to satisfy another niche need for such a space game. The theme that had been worked on is detailed and still very viable. Ping me on Skype because I log on here once every blue moon.

4. @ Everyone I'm not going to be playing in any MU*s unless I've been specifically asked to do so everyone's games are safe from my dark game-crushing evil soul that has been blamed for more game deaths than games exist at any given time.

Cool. Thumbs up. I expect to see something operational the next time I log on this forum again.

[Misadventure]

If you want to make a Lords and Ladies game, figure out what those players want, then make getting those things part of the focus. Make game system choices that enhance that experience, whether that is something where you control who can get married to whom (like a ruler who must be give permission for any marriage between Titled people.), if you have children, or if can you afford that extravagant party.

Make them collect favors from rival houses to purchase special things. Make a conflict that demands resources that takes away from their party resources, or casts a pall over events.

Make a game out of what they want to play.

[Packrat]

Well nothing is going to happen in the immediate future given I am building a new PC, but as I live in the communist hell hole of Europe (Well, the UK), I get tons of leave days and carried forward a bunch from last year, along with being a the kind of sad individual who prefers paying off my mortgage early to going on holiday.

At the moment I am hashing out the actual mechanics for an economic/social currency system but I have a week off in April, at which point I will get an actual server up and try to remember how to code. Given I was never more than mediocre at coding this will likely involve begging for code/stealing it from open code depositories.

Overall I am going to go for something original theme rather than another try at Fading Suns, that way I can try to design things to ensure people have stuff to do and get to share equal spot light time. Fading Suns is a great setting for tabletop but is rife with issues when it comes to a MU* plus, frankly, I want to stress the Space and high technology soft sci-fi/Space Opera aspects rather than the medieval aspects.

[Derp]

Sorry if someone has mentioned this before, but I feel it bears noting:

If you want to make a Lords and Ladies in Space game that still has some action and appeal or whatever, consider making a game set in the Pitch Black universe. Necromongers game could be pretty awesome.