Post by viking on Oct 17, 2015 17:57:10 GMT -5
Hi everyone.
Been trolling RPI muds since Armaggedon took a nose dive. I have been looking for a new home, nothing really to my taste. So I’m just sourcing some opinions here as I’ve got a project in the pipeline. I don’t want to go into details my end since its early stages but would love your opinions on a few things:
1 – How important is it to have a “large” city? Would you prefer a city like Allanak, or a village like red storm as the main hub of play?
2 – How big is too big? Is a mud ever too big? I noticed some comments about Harshlands and its largeness. Is that a put off? Is something the size of Armageddon ideal, or is the idea of sprawling wilderness appealing? A hub “civilization” but with a lot of wilderness for exploration?
3 – How do you handle “beyond the known?” Armageddon is the “known world” but we all know there is more beyond the known. So what would be an acceptable method of confining you to a grid for a game purpose? How developed should the “unknown” be information wise. Since it would take
a lot of energy and effort on staff part to describe areas that wont ever be visited.
4 – How realistic should a game be? How do you blend the mundane with the magical?
5 – combat. Short and brutal? Or drawn out and slow? Armageddon is brutal and short. But what if you could toggle defence options, what part of a weapon to use.
You could pass on an attack, dodge, block, counterstrike, aim high or low, grapple - all depending on your taste or strategy to overcome a foe.
6 – Skills. Do you guys actually enjoy grinding? Is there any enjoyment to be had from starting as a new character and hiding for 2 weeks in the wilderness or the byn simply to get to a point with your skills where you are comfortable?
If the point of a roleplay game is to roleplay a role, what if you were given the skills and ability of that role out of the box? A soldier is going to be a good fighter. A crafter a decent crafter. Lets say you begin 80% of max, straight out of creation.
7 – Is character knowledge key to roleplay? Would you prefer numbers or descriptive terms for your stats and skill levels? “good” over “15” “advanced” over “80” for example? Armageddon blends the two. You don’t know your exact stat number, nor skill level - but you do know your HP and MV.
8 – Hows this for an example game world:
A race of space fairing people crash land onto a primitive planet, that
is inhabited by a primitive race. A crude society pops up around the
first race, and a civilization springs up from the stone-age into the iron age,
with a large city at the head of a river system and smaller villages along its banks.
The play area is the controllable area the civilization is able to tame. The unplayable area is wilderness filled with primitive people who want the
Civilization gone, the interlopers killed, and their way of life returned.
Advanced technology wouldn’t exist. It would be sword and steel, bit of magic, bit of sailing, crafting…PCs could take control over various factions within the city, combat would be focused on resource gathering, keeping the terrors of the wilderness at bay. Economy would revolve around the main city. With the villages supplying the city and the city offering a sort of decentralized authority over the river. Each village would be a clan/petty kingdom unto its own.
The above example allows for
1 – a society to form without the need to describe an entire world.
2 – introduces elements the game design requires with a reason for their existence.
3 – centralizes the playerbase.
4 – gives a reason for the “unknown” and a reason not to go too far into the unknown.
Been trolling RPI muds since Armaggedon took a nose dive. I have been looking for a new home, nothing really to my taste. So I’m just sourcing some opinions here as I’ve got a project in the pipeline. I don’t want to go into details my end since its early stages but would love your opinions on a few things:
1 – How important is it to have a “large” city? Would you prefer a city like Allanak, or a village like red storm as the main hub of play?
2 – How big is too big? Is a mud ever too big? I noticed some comments about Harshlands and its largeness. Is that a put off? Is something the size of Armageddon ideal, or is the idea of sprawling wilderness appealing? A hub “civilization” but with a lot of wilderness for exploration?
3 – How do you handle “beyond the known?” Armageddon is the “known world” but we all know there is more beyond the known. So what would be an acceptable method of confining you to a grid for a game purpose? How developed should the “unknown” be information wise. Since it would take
a lot of energy and effort on staff part to describe areas that wont ever be visited.
4 – How realistic should a game be? How do you blend the mundane with the magical?
5 – combat. Short and brutal? Or drawn out and slow? Armageddon is brutal and short. But what if you could toggle defence options, what part of a weapon to use.
You could pass on an attack, dodge, block, counterstrike, aim high or low, grapple - all depending on your taste or strategy to overcome a foe.
6 – Skills. Do you guys actually enjoy grinding? Is there any enjoyment to be had from starting as a new character and hiding for 2 weeks in the wilderness or the byn simply to get to a point with your skills where you are comfortable?
If the point of a roleplay game is to roleplay a role, what if you were given the skills and ability of that role out of the box? A soldier is going to be a good fighter. A crafter a decent crafter. Lets say you begin 80% of max, straight out of creation.
7 – Is character knowledge key to roleplay? Would you prefer numbers or descriptive terms for your stats and skill levels? “good” over “15” “advanced” over “80” for example? Armageddon blends the two. You don’t know your exact stat number, nor skill level - but you do know your HP and MV.
8 – Hows this for an example game world:
A race of space fairing people crash land onto a primitive planet, that
is inhabited by a primitive race. A crude society pops up around the
first race, and a civilization springs up from the stone-age into the iron age,
with a large city at the head of a river system and smaller villages along its banks.
The play area is the controllable area the civilization is able to tame. The unplayable area is wilderness filled with primitive people who want the
Civilization gone, the interlopers killed, and their way of life returned.
Advanced technology wouldn’t exist. It would be sword and steel, bit of magic, bit of sailing, crafting…PCs could take control over various factions within the city, combat would be focused on resource gathering, keeping the terrors of the wilderness at bay. Economy would revolve around the main city. With the villages supplying the city and the city offering a sort of decentralized authority over the river. Each village would be a clan/petty kingdom unto its own.
The above example allows for
1 – a society to form without the need to describe an entire world.
2 – introduces elements the game design requires with a reason for their existence.
3 – centralizes the playerbase.
4 – gives a reason for the “unknown” and a reason not to go too far into the unknown.