Posts made by Nessa

@ZombieGenesis I mean lots of things by it. Altering it, saying they've earned more xp than they have, updating it unlawfully, etc. There's lots of ways of 'cheating' but most of it doesn't happen. A few bad actors have made the general community gun shy on public character information. I'm happy to see that some Ares games have reversed that to some degree, but still, there's plenty of distrust amongst strangers to be had. Even on games where pvp or permadeath isn't even possible.

@ZombieGenesis I think this stems from a belief that people will invariably cheat. What I want to do for a Cyberpunk game is have as minimal of in-game systems as possible for things like chargen/sheets. And then just stick to the basics plus a little automation to bolster activity/lack of needing staff to do things, etc.

In short, I'm all for web sheets. Even on games where PVP was more prevalent I'd regularly leave my +sheet public. It was never those games where I ran into problems with character deaths.

@Kumakun Just because it came up in this post. I'm still heavily interested in Cyberpunk: RED. It's an interesting system, CP is a great theme, and so I feel like it'd translate well to a game. Though I'm big on Async play these days and am not sure if Evennia supports things like that?

I also live Vampire, so you are hitting on both of my gaming loves!

Just saw this, as I've been on hiatus from gaming. Any updates on the progress? I'd be super interested as well.

@Nessa Oh, and then you also make it easy to create a new character, disallow alts, and you have a system where someone with a brand new idea they love, will kill off or retire their character, resetting, but without much issue since they'll gain pretty quick in this kind of system.

Diminishing returns. With a boost to recently created players. If there's no levels in the system, do something like, for every 1 xp you'd earn, instead, earn 1/current xp * some amount. So, have a high xp payout, so people move through early touch-ups of their character relatively quickly, but as they amass xp they slow down, exponentially fast.

And so then you hit something of a soft cap without preventing people from still gaining on their dinosaur character, but that dinosaur in 3 years of lots of RP is probably going to 'stay put' and not keep amassing so much as to be problematic.

Gear is something different, but if gear in the game system you are using only has minor bonuses (instead of something like Shadowrun 3rd, where it's massive bonuses) then you don't really have an issue. Though if you do have high gear capacities you can make hard blocks (certain gear there's only X number of in the entire game). And you prevent hording, etc etc. It is certainly harder, but if you start the game with this in mind, I think you can avoid the 'I am god' and 'I am peon' in anything but leveled games.

Happy to help work out a good system for any specific game, but otherwise, those are the general ideas.

This is the one I know of:
https://brandmuday.mythicus.net/

Not sure if that's the one tons of people are jumping to, but I think so.

@masterreeve I would possibly be able to work on staff. Desc/builder possibly, grunt work possibly. I just know nothing about SR: Anarchy so let me start there, but wanted to drop some potential interest.

Thanks for the suggestions and comments. I have an Ares droplet up and running. I'll be working on figuring out how to take Luck Points and make them Improvement Points here over this next week/weekend.

I'm looking to build an SR/Cyberpunk game. I got started before but then got stuck on a coding idea I wanted to implement.

I'd like to have a public +scene situation, like what we see with Ares or other code examples. And when it uploads to the webpage it determines based upon activity, how much xp/karma someone gets for the scene.

Would someone have an idea for what it would take to add something like the above to Ares code? I'm no coder, but I used to work on TinyMUX stuff a long long time ago. Thank you for any help/advice.

@silverfox I gave up on book 2? Book 3? I don't even know anymore. But I also couldn't get past page 80 of the Game of Thrones books. These stories have SO much detail, political intrigue, world and theme building, that I think of them more like History channel shows. Great premises for a MU, or for a tv show/movie but on their own can get dull really fast. So, I'm with you.

I love these layouts! I spent some time on a game playing a character who had a zine like website. I like to think my presentation captured a lot of what you have here, but yours are super much better. If an entire game was in this same sort of 'mood' it'd be wonderful!

@reason if anarchy is being looked at, why not stick with RED? One pretty complete book with a lot for a character to build on. Even if zero additional books come out RED seems like a good compromise between simplification and crunch. No magic, no extra grid stuff / issues.

I very much understand this frustration. I'm an extreme extrovert, I login to play the game. To use one of the examples, if I logged in to see 8 people active and RPing, even when not with me, I'd feel energized by that place and keep logging in, trying to RP there because 100% of the folks (or close to) are playing! Let's build this thing! If I saw 22 out of 30 people inactive while logged in, and 8 people doing something where I can't join ... then only 27% of the people are playing versus 100%. I'd have more frustration trying to create ideas, entertain and encourage those others who are idling due to all the Nos, not available, regularly happening while trying to get them involved in the game. This is a 'me' problem. But as an extrovert it very much feels like a game is dying and I don't want to waste my time there. That's not always the case, but MU*ing already has a problem of population it is exhausting as an extrovert to feel like 1 of a small group trying to create excitement whether or not I know the same amount of people are playing. Rational vs emotional sides of a being.

It isn't me feeling like I'm special, or that everyone has to RP with me, again I regularly login to play on places with small communities because they 'feel more alive' to me. Overall fewer people may actually be playing but it is certainly easier to identify them. Which translates to a feeling there's a better chance to get involved. And that my efforts to include others get more Yes than No is also great! It's like cold calling the same 8 super enthused customers for whatever you are selling, versus calling 30 everyday and only getting 8 yesses but 22 Nos. For those who have had these sales jobs, the first is nice, the latter is soul crushing - for those of us with that kind of personality - and it's the same end result.

After talking with many more people OOCly who play on MUs I came to the realization, decades ago, that most people on MUs are far more introverted than myself. They don't see activity as inherently energizing they like to feel the connectedness of the online community, and that translates to a safer more comfortable place to relax/chitchat/etc. I will go to a bus stop, a cafe, a night club, etc to do those things. We are using the same space for gaming, but some are also using it as a social connectedness which boggles minds like mine, because if I can't be with you in person it isn't social to me. So I tend to keep my OOC existence out of my game spaces, even when I run D&D/Shadowrun/etc for my IRL friends. It's a work, RL free zone.

I won't say people have to stop idling or not logging in, I get people's desire to have their own way of being. Just know it can turn people away who only have the same desire as those logged in, to make a great game for everyone. This is why I highly enjoy games that have +rp flags, with a separate who for those. It works for both of the people on this topic, gives me a smaller list of active people, and it gives those who idle their space to do so with ability to inform others when they want to play.

I've been in this hobby for ... 36-ish years in one way or another. Starting with play by posts and asynchronous BBS type games, to the evolution of real time, to the throwback to asynchronous play and then the dwindling population of the current era. When I had a crappy job, I played a lot, and was a leader of the pack. When I got a good job, my time dwindled. Now I have a good and busy job, I haven't experienced FOMO in a while even though I realize that I do miss out on things. A few things help me not have a FOMO experience.

1. I logout when I don't have time. I do not sit idle.
2. I never have an alt on any game. 1 character for my 1 player existence.
3. I build content that can work with anyone even if I have a particular person in mind.
4. I'm willing to jump in on scenes of any kind or type and see where the story goes (games with systems or not).
5. I gag or leave channels as soon as I have RP.

I do all of these for various reasons but I'll try and highlight why the habits work well for me and some others I know who do the same with regards to the above 5 things. Longer descriptions and reasons below:

1. If I don't have time to play I have limited time to fear I'm missing out on anything. By making an active choice of not being present that means I'm doing something else with my time. I actively do other things with my time (I take walks, I exercise in general, make food, etc lots of things prevent me from gaming but when I'm choosing to walk away, I'm really choosing to do something else). The more this is done, the better.

2. I don't want to contribute to the feeling of '40 people are doing something except me' when really it is often a handful of people doing something, many people idling (since they are alts) or groups of people who are all the same group of players are just circling in activity because their whatevers work together (time zones, coincidence, etc). I want to represent me, when I'm on, I'm a limited resource. I RP well, and I put myself online when I'm available, thus I get requests since someone hasn't seen me for a while, etc. This also helps me not feel like, I have 5 different choices and no one wants to play with all of them! That just means I'm not being played with 1x but feels like 5x. It also allows me to fully dive in and get to know other players - if you are a distracted RPer because you are on 5 alts, and you can't keep up? I'll soon learn that and be less incentivized to keep RPing with you with my limited time. Now, I'm not the one missing out, you are.

3. When running things, I know not everyone will show up. Life happens. So, if my content works ideally for 1 or a few people, but can work with anyone, I can run that scene I've prepared at the time I'm available. And, should I randomly be on and there's 4 other random folks who can play bam, and I've got the energy, I run it then. I don't wait. I can run other stuff later for whomever, this goes now. I don't often schedule things formally because of my times available to be online.

4. I find I have the most surprising RP when I'm just open to saying yes to available people. I'm online, I want to RP. If people are around, I'm jumping on them. If I keep doing this, my schedule will naturally mix with those I RP most often, my friends/relationships/enemies all develop organically from those I'm RPing with most often, etc etc etc. It just works better, and I can very quickly determine folks I might be wasting my time on.

5. I want to devote the time to RP, when I'm RPing. Not to random OOC stuff. I also don't want to feel buyer's remorse. I jumped into a coffee drinking get-to-know-you and then suddenly I hear about a plot and feel like Ugh, wish I could've been in that. No. I am glad that I got RP and I value all my character's growth even when social/smaller groups/etc.

Overall, jump into RP when you are available, leave the game when you aren't, avoid any kind of distraction that will downplay the play you have and get.

I know I've been on places with cliques, genuine circle RP games, and those have varied from games with systems (so DND/Shadowrun/Cyberpunk/etc) to games without. I know that other places may seem super active or have lots of things going on that I'm just missing out on but are really just 8 people with 5 alts each, and they all share the same times/etc. Those are just places where I need to leave. For the rest of the places I've been very successful with the above habits and a few others (not a lot) have also. Worth a try, your mileage may vary. Hope this helps someone out there with a FOMO.

@cupcake I would argue this is easily something that is reasonable as long as expectations are set, like people have mentioned. I used to play a lot of Play By Post or Play By Email games and there was often an expectation of response by a certain day of the week, 3 days, etc. And if you couldn't commit to that then you were expected to not join those scenes or be okay if they move on without you.

@reason Thanks for the update. If you have time, what are you looking for in the inventory system? If you are looking for ideas, and share what you are looking for or that you are looking for options - positive folks would have suggestions.

@Reason

Addendum: I didn't realize there were hot spots mentioned in the book for places present. I'd say with those descriptions in the book you are done with your grid. It'll be big if you use all of them but at least it won't be a lot of time.

@Reason

Out of curiosity, how large of a grid is "sprawling" and how small of a grid is "too small"?

Depends on what you are doing. I'm super conservative on this idea. I need to think like someone who's not me. I'd say, no more than 1 room per nieghborhood. But, let's say this:
Neighborhoods - Little Asia, Little Europe, The Upscale Brownstones, City & Corporate District, The Nightlife District, The University District.
Suburbs around Night City - The Pacifica Playground, The North Oak Military Suburb, The Rancho Coronado Beaverville, The Heywood Industrial Zone, South Night City, Westbrook.
Misc: The Badlands

That's 13 rooms that should be if you were trying to build a thematic space.
For the Neighborhood and Suburb descriptions it's super easy to just use the descriptions from the book. Or at least use those as inspiration. Descs more or less done.

You could branch out each of the neighborhoods into a few extra rooms since they mostly have 'multiple locations' within. Or, what's smart grid making is make 'places' out of those locations. You might be more of a traditionalist than I, but when you make places like that it keeps it easy to find people and easy to RP, but easy enough to have non-widespread locations. So, rooms/places, whatever you want to do. If you make rooms, from there you are now needing some 'hangouts'. Instead of say describing places in the places desc, you now might create exits. And then a place with 1 room is more or less a waste, so you need 2 in each place.

This is why it gets sprawling. 13 main rooms, 18 sub rooms off the 6 main areas. So, 7 main rooms that need 2 sub rooms, 18 additional sub rooms that need 2 lower rooms than that. Now you have, 36+14+7+6, 63 rooms.

Say you launch with a really good player base for today. We'll say 8 regulars. That's 2 groups of 4, more likely 2 groups of 3 and 1 group of 2. So, you have 3 groups taking up 3 rooms out of 63 places you built. That's sprawling to me, but it might be acceptable to others and you. Especially since about 13 of those rooms are already 'made-ish' for you from the descriptions.

Two options to shrink that:
So, you can trick the base. If you cinch it up to where people are only playing in the bigger rooms with a few hotspots with locations. So you do a City & Corporate District room. In that room you put a line item describing what areas exist within it. Corp Center, City Center, Bank Block, Med Center. And you pick 2 of those places to create hot spots. Now you have just 13 main rooms, with descriptions that cover the bigger areas. 2 spaces each, that's 39. You are getting there. 3 out of 39 still seems like a lot of wasted space but at least it is only 39 rooms instead of 63. And I'm not even considering OOC areas or chargen areas (depending on how you build out Chargen).

I'm always thinking of 'How do you get players together, make it easy to find one another, not get lost, and still have rooms that speak to theme?'. For me, it'd be enough to have the Neighborhoods (6 rooms), plus the other areas (7 other main areas), and maybe to give more theme, the 18 sub-areas off the neighborhoods. And let people just invent the location they are at in specific. Which diner/which place/etc. Just emote it. That gets your work lowered to 31 rooms. The bigger trick here is that you only really are coming up with base descriptions that are mostly in the book already. Laying the groundwork for people to have theme. So most of your work is done. And the creativity piece comes in from the players.

To me, that's enough to launch with. And then after a while, put out a request for place-descriptions or hotspot ideas. "Where have you been RPing the most? What diner? What location? What's it look like? How do you describe it in your plots?" Etc. And take that work and make them places the players decided instead of you created and no one used.

Talk about sprawling. I'll stop here. Your choice. Of course, the top way is still far smaller than most places start with. But we don't need a map to play, we need a system of dice rolling, character sheets and a place to emit. All that's in theme with the system. You can grow it out as you get people and you need to support more than 1 group RPing in a particular sub-room at once. Ya know? I said I was going to stop, so now I will for realsies.

So, I've been on a lot of games and it has been a long time since I managed to launch a game successfully. That said, I've done it more than a few times, and the lessons I've learned are the following:

NPCs don't need to be around. But some manner of reason for players to get together does.
PCs need to be on-grid for the grid to matter, and the grid needs to not be bigger than your people. If you have 6 people logging in regularly, you probably only need a couple of rooms. If you have hundreds of people logging in it might be worth it to build out a mini-city of options. Most places build too much, and then people stay spread out. They are not 'forced' to engage.
It must be EASY for people to meet, and EASY for people to get rewarded, but rewards should go for making RP.
Make any upkeep tied to skills, if you want to ignore upkeep costs. So, lifestyles in CP or SR.
Mini-Games and hacking and whatnot, can be fun while you aren't needing other players around but they also encourage people sitting isolated and not playing with other players when Players ARE around. So, I say, adding those things is just dangerous to activity.

The last game I tried to build but got stuck on, because I'm not a coder of any kind, I'm a project person who knows some outdated MU* code. Was this:
Use a system where logging scenes is your metric for encouraging roleplay.
Make logged scenes that want 'credit' to be posted on a web portal that everyone has access to.
Then have something like > Per line/character/etc that a person roleplays WITH others (whether they are emoting a scene for missions/questions/jobs or just going to a bar and creating a social experience) gets xp/karma/rewards. Ideally this is weighted. New players earn more than old players with a sliding scale. This rewards ACTIVITY, not popularity, but people who spawn 1 or 2 sentences, in a clique environment have no means of acquiring more than the person who isn't in a clique but does a lot on-grid to generate fun.
Make it a policy that PRIVATE scenes, whether that means SEX (should never be public) or PVP, if allowed, (you might want to keep your private dealings here private till you do the deed) don't earn rewards on their own. People can TS all they want, but you aren't getting rewarded for it outside of the scene (it should be its own reward).

From here, I wanted to make it so scenes that need monetary rewards got published to the web, and people who read them and graded them for rewards got their own reward as well. Basically, paying people to do queues, and their 'approved' stamp carries their name. So, if there's anything nefarious it's all transparent and can be backtracked.

Staff's only role then is code and policies. If they want to run something, they jump on their character bit and use the automated systems. It allows players to sandbox play all they want. A grid that's tight, but malleable, a world that is rewarding, in a system of your choice.

Where I stopped was, I could get logs to go to a website, and I could get character sheets up on the website with privacy rules. I just couldn't get the rewards in game to link to the loggers I was trying.

The less staff needs you have, and the more players can feel rewarded for just logging in and playing (even if tiny amounts of xp/karma/etc) you are done. The system takes care of itself. Now it's up to your playerbase. You've just removed all the other barriers and 'work' out of the system. Plots are auto-rewarded for xp/karma based upon activity (equal to coffee shop rp) but you can earn monetary awards. You'd have to create policies around what's a good money reward or not, but that was easy in the system I was using because it was already laid out. And I had more plans to create tiers of reviewers, people with experience and whatnot, but I didn't really need that to launch.

I think that system would really answer a lot of the problems MU*s have had over the past few decades, especially with the lower activity levels and playerbases. It is one of the reasons people have moved to system-lite games, but those also don't have as much system encouragement to create addiction in logging in.

My really long 2 cents.