Anyone interested in RPGing?

Hmm. I have an old concept in my back-burner files near readiness for play-testing which could probably be dusted off and completed with a couple days' work… let me look it over and see if it still seems viable. And if I still want to put the energy into running it. (I'll warn you now, it won't look like anything you've seen before–though it might serve well under the circumstances.)

 

This sounds like fun!

 

I would definitely be in

 

I'd be happy to join in - it's been ages since I could get down to some proper RPing.

 

I'd be up for it Never done it before but always keen to try new things.

 

Cool idea. i'd love to try it. as long as I do not have to play a human. XD
I already Have some cool ideas, let me know when the rules are up! XD

 

Count me in!! I'm an RP nut. Haha!

 

Well, you would have to be human… because as far as you know, that's all there is (unconfirmed legends aside, at any rate). Let me expand.…

The origin of the concept was my desire to have a RPG that dealt with higher levels of society rather than individual "adventuring"–the sort of thing most games make only cursory gestures toward, if they acknowledge it at all as a potential sphere of activity rather than relegating it to the background. This isn't a "new" idea; if anything, it's the oldest one in RPGs: the original (pre-)D&D settings assumed that characters were going to build castles, hire armies, protect their populaces and improve their lands. (Anyone remember the appropriately-titled First Fantasy Campaign… the original Blackmoor setting? Yes, I have been gaming that long.…) This has the further advantage of removing nearly all of the "mechanics" that are so inconvenient to online RPGing–as well as the even greater difficulty of trying to track fast-moving activities such as individual combat. Think of something along the lines of Civilization, Europa Universalis or similar 4X games, albeit more limited in scope (you won't be able to take over the entire world… well, it's not likely, at any rate).

In other words: it's a game, first and foremost, of politics, at least as far as the "role-playing" portion is concerned.

The reason I thought it might prove well-suited to the present context is that it is also an in-depth exercise in world-building. You could easily use the setting as background for stories–whether using the exact details of your particular realm, or simply borrowing general principles and ideas. Those of you who've been here long enough know full well I'll present you with situations and considerations you might never have otherwise contemplated.…

As I said: "it won't look like anything you've seen before."

I'm still going back over my notes–and am still trying to convince myself I really want to attempt this. Which I think I do: if nothing else, hammering out the details might give me a marketable product in the long run. (You would all be credited as playtesters, of course. ) There are some technical issues remaining to be overcome–well, one issue, really: this will absolutely require a map, and, while I'm more than willing to draw maps until the end of time (I do that anyway), I don't want to have to redraw it every time a border changes. Which means I'm looking for a decent piece of mapping software (or at least drawing software)–a search made somewhat more complicated due to the fact that it has to work on a Mac. Though I'm sure I could at least launch without one, and just do hand-drawn maps in the meantime.

If that still sounds like something people would be interested in, let me know. If there are enough takers, I can probably launch within a few days.

 

I'm intrigued to see what you have up your sleeve, Ravana. Keep in mind, the Game subforum is now open; I believe that would be the most appropriate place. I'll sticky the thread if its decided a go.

 

Actually it is somewhat like something I have tried in the past. A member on my site was setting up a RPG where you played as a city rather than an individual person. You have the ability to write lore and news about your cite. Over time the idea was that the stories would cross and meld into RP.

Unfortunately it never really got moving. He wanted to spend too much time on the lore and without action RPs tend to fade away.

As to the topic I would be interested in giving it a go. I have a nice stock of RP characters from various stories I can pull from depending on what theme is picked.

 

Sounds interesting. I have a DnD group currently on hiatus, but I was the only one in my group who bothered to come up with a backstory, so that one's really just dungeon crawling. Some meaty RPing would certainly be nice. As long as I don't have to do anything before the 17th, count me in.

One question I do have is if each person has control of an isolated province, or is there more subtlety to the player roles?

 

It will likely be necessary. Hell, it may be necessary to create one for each game. Or at least mine. I'm just hoping I can manage without having to create my own website.… <sigh>

As it is, I'm intending for most communication (between GM and players, and among the players) to be handled through private messages. Otherwise, things will become impossibly cluttered in no time flat.

What I think would work best is to create a subforum for each game running (or a sub-subforum of an RPG subforum), and give administrative privileges to the the GM for that forum (only) so that he can sticky threads on rules, setting/background information (yeah, that's where I run into trouble…), and an ongoing action summary, and has the ability to move/remove posts that are misplaced or irrelevant. Possibly make the forum limited-membership, to those the GM registers after being contacted by private message, or perhaps limit posting privileges to those the GM registers (which would still allow others to look in and see if they want to join).

Beyond that, what happens will probably depend mostly on the GM's preference. I could see having a separate thread for each character, at least in terms of detailing that character's development (not necessarily in-game actions); I could see having separate threads for each major in-game event, where all involved characters would interact for the duration of that event; I could even see limiting the forum to only posts from the GM–which would have the virtue of reducing clutter and possible confusion, though probably at the expense of a lot of the attraction and feel of role-playing. I'm sure there are numerous other possibilities. One thing any prospective GM will absolutely want to do is set a limit to the number of communications or posts from each player within a given time period, so that a single player doesn't end up taking one "turn" (however defined) for each turn taken by any other player: you want things to go A-B-C-D, not A-B-A-C-A-D-A (which I've seen happen even in groups sitting around the same table). Not that you need to force everyone else to wait until all players have submitted an action–I'd recommend against it, in fact, to avoid things stalling out when one player is slow getting an action in; just don't let anyone get carried away.

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ade625: Oh, there will definitely be more subtlety than that. The default character will indeed be in charge of his own province (other options will exist)–but "isolated" isn't a problem you're likely to experience. If anything, you'll long for it.… If you want to get a general sense of what you'd be looking at, hunt up some history on the Holy Roman Empire from around 1550 to 1650. The overall setting (culture, tech level, etc.) won't necessarily reflect that period; the politics will.

That is, assuming I don't come to my senses and chuck it all as a bad idea… though it's looking increasingly like I won't.

 

I could be interested - depending on the story and method. I used to forum rp a lot but now I'm mostly on twitter. I have over 5,000 followers on my John Watson (BBC Sherlock) account =3 *shameless brag* *loves that account*