"cooler online stuff"

[chrisvenus]

From a comment by dom (bateleur) in the comments on my last entry. He suggested online RPGs abd I thought I'd discuss it here since it seems to be an interesting topic that might make you lot wake up to comment on. All comments welcome. :)


An online RPG might be interesting and I have heard other people say they are running them and I was vaguely wondering what people thought of them and how they would work?

My first thoughts are that you could do it on IRC or some other chat medium like that and it would be like in person but slowed down due to having to type everything including mannerisms, etc. It would have the advantage that you would never have knowledge leak (ie person 1 has a private conversation with a voice in his head and it need never be heard by the rest of the group which can often be harder (though not impossible) in face to face.

It could be done by e-mail but the incredibly slow turnover makes me think it would be more like a turnsheeting kind of thing. People give rough ideas of what they do and the GM compiles them together. More like group writing than role play (if that distinction makes sense).

Anybody else care to suggest what else might be involved since I might be tempted to try it at some point if somebody persuades me it might be good. :)

Comments

[taimatsu]

Well, you couldhave your 'group writing' idea, plus regular IC IRC sessions; possibly witht he characters using IRC themselves to save the typing mannerisms bit.

One online semi-RPG I know of is the Otaku Wars! which is loosely based around the anime Sailor Moon. It's nominally based on the newsgroup alt.fan.sailor-moon but actually a Yahoogroup ML holds it all together. It is really a group writing effort; people create an 'Author Avatar' character, write a Writers' Guide (stats, but not done by numbers, more essential traits and characteristics) and leap in. If two people follow-up differently to the same post, someone posts a Continuity Fix which weaves them together. Works quite well, except that the current crop of authors are crap, and the older better writers are getting sick of it.

Lx g

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I would've thought you'd want to keep the realtime aspect to a minimum - maybe even completely absent.

Reason is - with any format you have to play to the strengths of the medium. The advantages of online play are:

1) Can be massively multiplayer without the problems of all fitting in a room or everyone crowding round the same plot event.

2) You can have multiple GMs without anything like as much risk of them screwing up their world consistency.

3) The GMs don't have to think on their feet as much.

(More to say on this, but have to go and cook food now !)

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Well, I found Elsewhere quite fun until it became clear that the GMs really weren't GMing the way I thought they were going to.

They saw it very much as a "limited intervention" where they were looking after the site and occasionally posting comments to move threads along.

I expected them to do more actual ref-ing. For example, actually deciding the outcome of plots and then telling which players were writing the ending. Another example; I expected them to ban posts/plots which interferred with the original world description or player power level.

I personally enjoy games where there is a framework and a ref to enforce that framework.

If you think back to Amador; it didn't happen because, amongst many things, turnsheeting was too big an operation. Consequently I think if you run an on-line game you want to have the GMing role to be of a size you can handle (or you and chosen co-GMs can handle). This means you want players to be able to interact with the minimum of assistance from yourself.

I think you need to decide how much work you would want to put in and what sort of work that would be (guiding, ref-ing, turnsheet processing, web site management, etc.) Then sound out a few people and find some you are happy with to agree to the set-up you have arranged. From there they can talk characters with you. The advantage of pre-agreeing with people is that they tend to give more time and effort to making the project work - as they feel more that it is theirs as well. Once the smaller pre-arranged set-up is in place, then it will tend to attract others so long as it is active.

I suggest re-considering Amador and Elsewhere and thinking about what you liked and did not like about them.

I would be happy to help you (if you want) set something up. The disadvantage of my involvement, of course, is that I would expect it to have the "reffing" element !
Ways in which I would be happy to help : running a web site (depends somewhat on size and time, we'd have to discuss), designing and running a character from scratch, I would also be happy with GMing and/or creating a world - but those are the fun parts anyway !

Martin and I have often discussed setting up our own on-line game, so I suspect he would also get involved. He's a particularly good person to talk system (however limited) with as he came up with workable stuff for Elsewhere (which they, sadly, did not use). Also, I can't imagine Dom passing up the opportunity to help with system (or systemless) !

Hope that's helpful,

Dawn.

System

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Well you say that, but if you or Martin were involved I'd much rather just be an ordinary player, 'cos I know from experience that either of you can get systems working. And I've never had Chris GM me before, which would be a lot of fun (I imagine).

I always end up running these things - and anyway, it'd need some players as well as refs, right ? Given the huge (?!) number of comments here, I suspect recruitment would require some work.

Also, Rhi might kill me anyway if I played. She'd kill me even more if I GM'ed !

Re: System

[chrisvenus]

When you say you know from experience that we can get a system working have I ever done that? I don't recall anywhere I have or are you just talking from the point of view that I am a good mathsy person and pick up other systems relatively quickly?

I do think I can do systems but at this stage I should remind people that this is just a vague thought in the head and knowing me not likely to get that much further. :) That having been said I do like the theoretical discussion so I might end up discussing it to the point that actually getting it going would be quite trivial. :)

[chrisvenus]

You said you had more to say so where is it? :)

These points are good though. I seem to have a fair bit in my head in reply though so I will do it later, maybe as a new post if it turns out to be too long... My evening seems generally free though so I might sit down and put thoughts together. not that I am going to run this. I don't have the time after all? :)

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sorry, I've been somewhat busy.

I might go for email - LJ threads get kinda confusing after the first couple of days.

If there's serious interest in a game I'll set up a mailing list on heffalumps for interested parties to discuss genre, system, GMs/players and other related malarky.

No Other Blue

[ieyasu.livejournal.com]

Personally, the best online RPG I've ever been in was the PBE-mail 'No Other Blue.' I thought Dan really matched the medium with the game structure, and managed it well.

That just used email, though, so I'm not sure it counts.