Posts made by Rook

@Arkandel I am helping @icanbeyourmuse with code.

I am in agreement with the adage: "You get what you [incentivize] for" as discussed by several of those here in the thread. I don't think that XP is the only thing that encourages good RPers to play, but I do wonder at how things have shifted over the last decade when it comes to MU*ing. It remains really a function of what people you can attract to your game, and how you can hold their interest, of course.

If you can somehow 'reward' players with things other than XP, then you should. The issue is that there is little other than tangible reward/increase to offer, in most cases. The other real-life incentives that, say, a job offers are not possible or useful in a MU*. Cash and vacation are two of the biggest people motivators. Recognition is another strong motivator for some, so perhaps a game-wide recognition mechanism for Best Pose of the Week (as voted), Best Group Support Move (as voted), Best Story Moment (as voted), etc? Maybe the results of these motivators are just 'badges' of achievement, not 'worth' anything, or maybe they can be 'cashed in' somehow.

@Arkandel
I don't think @icanbeyourmuse is going without XP usage. Her site explains the system that she plans to implement here.

As for me, yes, I plan to have XP. I have been reading through Sunny's XP rules that she has spent painstaking hours building (and posted above) out of all of the RPGs that she has access to. There are a lot of gems and wisdom in her list. I've always seen ways of spending XP outside of +sheet improvements, such as exchanging for money, real property, equipment, whatever, too.

@icanbeyourmuse said:

@Rook said it is like EVE when I was explaining to him on what I wanted. He can probably explain it better than me.

I think it's a great approach, myself. The idea is that the player simply builds a 'queue' of Skills/Points/Areas that they want to spend XP. The game system figures out a time span that it takes the PC to learn each stat, mathematically. It timestamps the character with a secs() of when that training would complete if the PC has all the XP needed. When the PC reaches that timestamp, the skill training is completed.

Up front, you need to make a design decision. Either the player must have the complete amount of XP to put that skill/stat/whatever in the queue to begin with and the XP is deducted immediately, or the game system does some sort of 'ticks' over time as the skill/stat is learned, XP deducted when available. Actually, both could be built into the system. The game simply 'halts training' when the PC is at 0XP, until they earn some.

@sunny and @Misadventure, I am trying to pull a conversation snippet out of the Novel Game thread that I am interesting in hearing about for purely selfish reasons.

I am unaware of Unisystem being crunchy, nor it being a good building system

Unisystem was one of the systems I have looked at for building out the game I am working on, as is The Window RPG and a few others. They are all basically the same, so I think this conversation can apply to most of them, at a high level.

I am interested in hearing a Pros vs Cons debate from the two of you, as you seem to have experience with the system. Sunny seems to be pro, Misadventure seems to be con.

So, on Umbral Shards, I have been heavily leaning towards trying something new/shitty/awesome/novel/weird. The entire playstyle that I am going for on the game will be players vs NPCs/Meanies/Monsters, so that the PCs are mostly cooperative. This will require STs running scenes or at least adjudicating them, so I still have a lot of work to do both in the system and in support code to make things easier to resolve via rolls so that the players and ST can focus on the story.

My crazy idea is this: Global XP earning.

What that means is, the players as a whole earn XP into a global pool for the week. Stories that are ran, votes for amazing RP, votes for amazing STing, whatever other earning qualifiers we throw in (the initial playerbase is going to get a large say in guidance on how we end up forging forward with the pathfinding, here).... all pool their XP into a game-wide pool. I do think that perhaps amazing RP votes, personal PC sacrifice for the Greater Good, and other such 'above and beyond' singular events might earn PERSONAL XP that this player gets to keep. But I am undecided on that yet.

The players that were active* that week will get a share of that global XP to put toward their character's advancement (which I plan to do differently, too) (I know, I'm fucking everything up). There will be various limitations on caps, so forth, but this is the general idea.

So the Incentive here is: Activity. That everyone can glom onto, share in, reap the rewards of. THe more activity, the more XP in the pool, the more everyone gets. 'So get out and RP' is the message that the system is intended to push.

Okay, that's my idea for my small niche game. I'm curious to hear the things I'm not seeing or missing.

*Active means active, IC participation in any capacity: playing, supporting, STing or even developing game material. If you contributed, you get a share.

I haven't been able to keep up with the 2.0 stuff. Can someone quickly answer if there is a 'core' system book like 'World of Darkness' that is simply the core system rules and such?

You can edit the @pcreate lines to have names.

ABSOLUTELY CHANGE 'secretpassword!!' to something ONLY you know.

Done. Users should simply copy-paste or quote that to their brand-new game. If you copy that into a text editor with line-numbering, you'll see that the first 103 lines of the script match the dbrefs of the objects you'll be creating. So if you want to alter things, by all means do.

I have used this script for over a decade, and it serves me well.

This is a game creation script, intended to be run on a brand-new, no-changes-made DB right after your first 'Startmush' command (or Startmux equivalent). This is built to be quoted/pasted by the #1 God character.

## --------------- Start linenumber-dbref matching.  (#1 is God character.) ------------------
@pcreate Paradise=secretpassword!!
@pcreate wiz3=secretpassword!!
@pcreate Wiz4=secretpassword!!
@pcreate Wiz5=secretpassword!!
@pcreate Wiz6=secretpassword!!
@pcreate Wiz7=secretpassword!!
@pcreate Wiz8=secretpassword!!
@pcreate Wiz9=secretpassword!!
@pcreate Wiz10=secretpassword!!
@create CodeObject11
@create CodeObject12
@create CodeObject13
@create CodeObject14
@create CodeObject15
@create CodeObject16
@create CodeObject17
@create CodeObject18
@create CodeObject19
@create CodeObject20
@create CodeObject21
@create CodeObject22
@create CodeObject23
@create CodeObject24
@create CodeObject25
@create CodeObject26
@create CodeObject27
@create CodeObject28
@create CodeObject29
@create CodeObject30
@create CodeObject31
@create CodeObject32
@create CodeObject33
@create CodeObject34
@create CodeObject35
@create CodeObject36
@create CodeObject37
@create CodeObject38
@create CodeObject39
@create CodeObject40
@create CodeObject41
@create CodeObject42
@create CodeObject43
@create CodeObject44
@create CodeObject45
@create CodeObject46
@create CodeObject47
@create CodeObject48
@create CodeObject49
@create CodeObject50
@create DataObject51
@create DataObject52
@create DataObject53
@create DataObject54
@create DataObject55
@create DataObject56
@create DataObject57
@create DataObject58
@create DataObject59
@create DataObject60
@create DataObject61
@create DataObject62
@create DataObject63
@create DataObject64
@create DataObject65
@create DataObject66
@create DataObject67
@create DataObject68
@create DataObject69
@create DataObject70
@create DataObject71
@create DataObject72
@create DataObject73
@create DataObject74
@create DataObject75
@create DataObject76
@create DataObject77
@create DataObject78
@create DataObject79
@create DataObject80
@create DataObject81
@create DataObject82
@create DataObject83
@create DataObject84
@create DataObject85
@create DataObject86
@create DataObject87
@create DataObject88
@create DataObject89
@create DataObject90
@create DataObject91        
@create DataObject92        
@create DataObject93        
@create DataObject94        
@create DataObject95
@create DataObject96
@create DataObject97 
@create DataObject98 
@create DataObject99
@dig Master Room
@dig Master Storage
@dig Parent: OOC Rooms
@dig Parent: IC Rooms
##  ---------- End linenumber-dbref matching ------------------
@dolist 100 101 102 103 = @set #[##]=FLOATING SAFE

##  ----------------- Post-build setup ------------------------
@dolist [lnum(2,10)]=@tel #[##]=#101
@dolist [lnum(11,99)]=@desc #[##]=%%R%[space(5)%]This object is required by the game, and should not be touched by anyone other than the game's Code Staff.%%R%%RAttributes:%%R%[columns(sort(setdiff(lattr(me),Desc Created Modified)),20,4)%]%%R
@dolist [lnum(11,99)]=@set #[##]=SAFE STICKY; @tel #[##]=#101; @link #[##]=#101;

@desc #0=%R%R%R%R%R[center(%chA single point of light.%cn,79)]%R%R%R%R%R

@dolist 100 101 102 103=&_OOC #[##]=YES;&_GRID #[##]=OOC

@name #11=Commands - Global IC
@name #12=Commands - Global OOC
@name #13=Commands - Global Admin
@name #97=Register - Global Objects
@name #98=Functions - CharGen Specific
@name #99=Functions - Game Globals

@dig/tel OOC: Welcome Room
@set here=FLOATING
&_GRID here=OOC
&_OOC here=YES
@parent here=#102

@dig OOC: Rules Agreement Room=Next <N>;n;next
next
@set here=FLOATING SAFE 
&_GRID here=OOC
&_OOC here=YES
@parent here=#102
@open +Agree;agree=#0

agree
@set here=FLOATING
&_GRID here=OOC
&_OOC here=YES
@parent here=#102

@dig OOC: Idle Room=Idle Room <IR>;ir;idle;idle room,Out <O>;o;out;exit;leave;bye
idle
@set here=FLOATING SAFE QUIET BLIND FUBAR DARK
&_GRID here=OOC
&_OOC here=YES	
@parent here=#102
o

##  Desc the MR and MS.
@Desc #100=%R%TThis is the Master Room for all code that is critical to the game. Any objects in this room are searched for matches every time someone types anything on the game. If you are in this room, your underwear is showing, and you should have the common decency to leave. Please do not touch anything in here unless you know what you are doing, and your work is well-communicated to the Admins.%R%R%T%ch%crATTENTION:%cn Coding conventions on this game dictate that all DATA is stored on separate objects and stored in the Master Storage room (#101), NOT on Commands objects! Keep your functions confined to one of the Functions objects in the Master Storage room, as well, please.%R

@conformat #100=Objects:[iter(lcon(#100,OBJECT),%R%b%b[switch(name(%i0),Commands*,%ch%cr[name(%i0)]%cn,System*,%ch%cy[name(%i0)]%cn,%ch%cg[name(%i0)]%cn)] %(%i0[flags(%i0)]%))]%R

@desc #101=%R%TThis is the storage room for all objects that are critical to the game, but do not contain commands that need to be game-wide available. Please do not touch anything in here unless you know what you are doing, and your work is well-communicated to the Admins. If you use a DataObject or CodeObject, the very first step you need to take is to rename your object according to the game code conventions. This removes it from the 'available pool' so that someone else doesn't mess with your stuff.%R

@conformat #101=%b%b%ch%crNext CodeObject:%cn [first(sort(squish(iter(lcon(#101,OBJECT),ifelse(strmatch(name(%i0),CodeObject*),%i0,)))))]%R%b%b%ch%crNext DataObject:%cn [first(sort(squish(iter(lcon(#101,OBJECT),ifelse(strmatch(name(%i0),DataObject*),%i0,)))))]%R%RObjects:[iter(lcon(#101,OBJECT),ifelse(or(strmatch(name(%i0),CodeObject*),strmatch(name(%i0),DataObject*)),,%R%b%b[name(%i0)] %(%i0[flags(%i0)]%)))]%R

Next, you will need to edit your server-side .conf file. This is where you ssh to your server and edit the file using vi, emacs, joe, whatever your editor of choice is. Most server bases have these lines already in there, so you might have to search for the configuration entry and edit it. If they are not present, check your wizhelp entries to ensure that I have the right configuration item, then just add it to your file.

NOTE: If you are not familiar with your .conf file, then read through it. Read through your wizhelp files on the game. Learn them. These are critical, and you should know them as the owner of your game.

##
##  Game Configuration setup
##
master_room 100
player_starting_home 104
player_starting_room 104
player_flags NOCOMMAND HALT ANSI COLOR256

Save that file, and then restart your game.

I have a GameCreate.txt script that I use to populate a brand new db with the first 100 or so objects. It creates the first 10 dbrefs as Wizard player objects, it creates objects for code and data usage (for use in the master room, master storage) up to #99, then #100 is the Master Room (properly desced and populated) and #101 is the Master Storage (properly desced and populated). Objects, your Wizards and everything created up to now is teleported to Storage for safekeeping.

#0 is then desced, a Welcome Room and a Rules Agreement Room are built, and an Idle Room. This gives you the basics of your OOC 'grid' to start with. It even gives, at the bottom, three basic .conf lines to drop into your configuration file so that your new rooms are used by the game.

If anyone wants this, just PM me and I can send it.

As a GM, these were my methods:

• Let the scene flow as it may. Guide it, nurture and feed it, because the players are looking to you as GM/ST to do exactly this.
• Do not force the flow unless it is absolutely critical. Already have an idea of what critical points NEED to happen or be conveyed BEFORE you start your scene.
• Follow up with an @mail to the group, post Rumors if your game uses them, or make an OOC Info post about 'what is now sphere/faction knowledge'. People will not have all the fine points, they will have missed something here and there, or have read it differently than you intended. Be clear.
• When it is appropriate, I ANSI-colored important scene poses to grab everyone's attention. Big events get missed in the scroll that EVERYONE should be aware of, reacting to, etc. Do not let your players miss it, it can kill your entire flow.

I found that when I did this approach, it cut down on pre- and post-scene OOC work quite a bit. Plus, players relaxed because they knew that they didn't have to focus /so hard/ during the scene itself to get the meat.

@Sunny Are wikis the New Thing for MU*s? I thought that was just a passing fad. But, no seriously, are games expected to have wikis now?

@Arkandel said:

If it wasn't for all the fucking cold, [Toronto] would be so great.

Quoted for truth. Working downtown in the midst of -20'F weather and being FORCED to use the underground tunnels to go 4 blocks was the suck. TEH SUCK.

That lake wind needs punched in the face.

@Ganymede

@DarkDeleria

This is why our Chicago is based off of maps and my personal excursions and living experience of the city.

@Huzuruth said:

@tragedyjones said:

If City of Heroes was returned to the world I would never talk to you ducks again.

It's on Steam.

IE: GTFO, STFU. o/

EDIT: To be clear, that was meant to be a joke. I laughed when Huzuruth posted exact directions on how Tragedy could exit, stage left.

Glitch for President. Or something.

@Misadventure
I do agree. I look at it like this: This is my character, and you don't get to dictate what I do with him, as him, or about him. The same goes for your character and me losing all rights.

@Misadventure said:

But does that emotional investment mean that you are in a relationship with your PCs romantic interest, or their player? Cuz that's the thing that I see as destructive.

Aren't we /all/ in a "relationship" just by being RP partners? That's a relationship, and likely not the depth/level that you imply, but it is still a relationship. My point here is that I consider my best RP Partners at the friend level. I am concerned for their well-being, their day, I let them vent about shit in their lives, it doesn't bother me.

I don't see it as destructive, for me, because I don't absorb it like some people do. I see some people get destroyed simply because they sponge off of people's rants, their situations, their problems, and they cannot escape that. It's just how they are, their sign or whatever.

Not everyone has this issue. Not everyone has this emotional tie to people that they TS. They can leave the keyboard and not think another thing about it for days, weeks. I have RP partners like that, you won't see them for a few days as RL takes front stage (as it should) and they handle it. I'm like this, too.