# Anyone up for an online role-playing game? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 26, 2005, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-an-online-role-playing-game/286798 "2005-01-26T18:38:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-an-online-role-playing-game/286798/1 "2005-01-26T18:38:25Z")
I tried this a few months ago, and not one person responded. Encouraged by this success, I thought it logical to try again. šŸ˜› Weā€™ll need optimally 33 players, but can probably get by with slightly fewer. There are no dice, no real rules, so no experience is required. Newbies are welcome. Here is the scenario: The king is dead and named no heir to the throne. Around 15 people have some sort of claim, and various earls and barons have their own interests to persue. Will there be a smooth transition of power, or will it be civil war? It all depends on your diplomatic skills. Sign up now ā€“ the fate of the kindom hangs in the balance! ---
**Author:** ![ArrMatey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrmatey/32/3522_2.png) [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-an-online-role-playing-game/286798/2 "2005-01-26T19:05:33Z")
Sign me up! ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-an-online-role-playing-game/286798/3 "2005-01-26T19:18:47Z")
> [@ArrMatey!](#): > > Sign me up! Alrighty! Thatā€™s one! If no one else signs up, you get to be king by default. I hope you exercise your power wisely. ---
**Author:** ![poeticyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6bbea6/32.png) [@poeticyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/poeticyde)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-an-online-role-playing-game/286798/4 "2005-01-26T19:24:16Z")
Sounds like a diceless Amber campaignā€¦no rules, whatsoever? What limits characters from saying that they have ultimate powers of mind control, etc? ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-an-online-role-playing-game/286798/5 "2005-01-26T19:32:17Z")
Need more info. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-an-online-role-playing-game/286798/6 "2005-01-26T19:49:44Z")
> [@poeticyde](#): > > Sounds like a diceless Amber campaignā€¦no rules, whatsoever? What limits characters from saying that they have ultimate powers of mind control, etc? Me telling you that you have no ultimate powers of mind control? šŸ™‚ Everyone will be human, no one will have magic. Everyone will be a noble, some with royal blood and some without. All of the action will take place within the royal castle, where weapons have been surrendered. There will be ā€œbehind the tapestriesā€ negotiations, then a roundtable discussion and vote. Then more negotiations, then another discussion and vote. The only ā€œruleā€ is that people will have varying power point numbers, based on various things like running a castle, blood line legitimacy, control of an army, etc. Power points are essentially meaningless, except they do count in the vote. A majority of power points will win. There are also rules for whether you are related to the king (allows you to vote in the first meeting), and if you are a tenent-in-chief (allows you to vote in the second meeting). Here is an example: Erelar Hirnen 3 power points Nephew of Miginath (2) Baron of Nenda (1) Can vote in both meetings Erelar Hirnen is a relative of the king and has a claim to the throne. An ill-tempered man of early middle years he is not popular either within or without his own court. Natural allies: His brother Tarkin. Is that a little clearer? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-an-online-role-playing-game/286798/7 "2005-01-26T19:54:10Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#): > > Need more info. I explained a lot in my last post, but what else would you like to know? ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-an-online-role-playing-game/286798/8 "2005-01-26T20:00:33Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I explained a lot in my last post, but what else would you like to know? The last post covers it pretty well, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![rockle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/73ab20/32.png) [@rockle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rockle)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-an-online-role-playing-game/286798/9 "2005-01-26T20:25:57Z")
Eh, why not? Sounds like more fun than working. Count me in. Iā€™m a total newbie, if you need to know that sort of thing. ---
**Author:** ![Aguecheek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@Aguecheek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aguecheek)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-an-online-role-playing-game/286798/10 "2005-01-26T20:30:19Z")
Depends on the time commitment involved, but I assume itā€™s not going to take hours and hours out of my lifeā€¦? Iā€™m in! [sub]Just donā€™t tell my wife![/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-an-online-role-playing-game/286798/11 "2005-01-26T20:34:41Z")
Whatā€™s the vehicle for this? A forum of some kind, or weekly-type chats? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-an-online-role-playing-game/286798/12 "2005-01-26T20:50:05Z")
> [@Aguecheek](#): > > Depends on the time commitment involved, but I assume itā€™s not going to take hours and hours out of my lifeā€¦? Iā€™m in! The time you put in is entirely up to you. When I played this at a con last summer it lasted from dinner time to a little after midnight, but there were some pretty hardcore players. Iā€™m not sure what sort of forum we should use, but Iā€™m up for suggestions. What I figured is we can do character assignments, question and answers and both roundtables in this forum. Backroom deals can be made via e-mails, as you might not want to announce your support for a candidate to the whole world. I figure that backroom discussion periods might last a week or two. Hopefully that will give everyone enough time to accomplish what they want without eating into too much personal time. Roundtable discussion will take as long as it takes, and itā€™s up to players to demand that voting begins or insist on further deliberations. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-an-online-role-playing-game/286798/13 "2005-01-26T21:03:41Z")
> [@rockle](#): > > Eh, why not? Sounds like more fun than working. Count me in. Iā€™m a total newbie, if you need to know that sort of thing. Totally cool that youā€™re a newbie. If you want to bone up on what game play will be like, you might want to watch the movie Elizabeth. Very inspirational for this type of scenario. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-an-online-role-playing-game/286798/14 "2005-01-26T21:49:09Z")
Sure. Iā€™m a totaly neophyte but this sounds interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Madd\_Maxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Madd\_Maxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madd_Maxx)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-an-online-role-playing-game/286798/15 "2005-01-26T22:30:52Z")
Iā€™m in. Just to let you know I havenā€™t done any gaming in the last 5 years or so, but I have not doubt that Iā€™ll get into the swing of things quick enough. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-an-online-role-playing-game/286798/16 "2005-01-26T22:55:28Z")
Cool, hopefully weā€™ll have enough players to start in a few days. I just got permission from [Columbia Games](http://www.columbiagames.com) to use their materials online. > [@](#): > > OK, this note serves as permission to use Harnworld materials online in the succession council. > > Grant Iā€™ll be glad to forward the e-mail to any mods that are worried about copyright infringement. While we try to recruit more people, here are some links you can look at. Note that only the last two are ā€œofficialā€ materials. I have not checked the first two for accuracy, but I noticed that the Elendsa page has ā€œvotesā€ listed ā€“ these do not apply to our game, so please disregard them. [Noble familes](http://jasonrobar.com/noble_families.htm) [House of Elendsa](http://jasonrobar.com/royal_house_elendsa.htm) [Map of Harn](http://www.harshlands.net/world/geography/map_of_harn.asp) [Map of Kingdom of Kaldor](http://www.columbiagames.com/cgi-bin/query/cfg/zoom.cfg?product_id=5610) ---
**Author:** ![BraheSilver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@BraheSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BraheSilver)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-an-online-role-playing-game/286798/17 "2005-01-27T04:17:37Z")
Sure, I can spend an hour or two spread out over a week scheming. Timeā€™s not really on my side (at least, in concrete chunks) lately, but Iā€™d like to try. Iā€™m also a neophyte, so if my character screams ā€œI canā€™t take this Machivellian hell anymore!ā€ and dives through a window, is that okay? šŸ˜› ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-an-online-role-playing-game/286798/18 "2005-01-27T15:35:51Z")
OK, so far we have: ArrMatey! rockle Aguecheek Aesiron Madd Maxx BraheSilver 6 out of 33. We need to recruit more people! We have enough now for 3 bastard sons and 3 Elendsas. Hardly a quorum! ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-an-online-role-playing-game/286798/19 "2005-01-27T15:41:02Z")
Is this going to be focused on the board itself? I can ask some other online friends if they might be interested but they arenā€™t Dopers. ---
**Author:** ![rockle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/73ab20/32.png) [@rockle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rockle)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-an-online-role-playing-game/286798/20 "2005-01-27T16:11:03Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > We have enough now for 3 bastard sons and 3 Elendsas. Hardly a quorum! Um ā€¦ I might have to be a bastard daughter. Or, whatever. Just in case that detail is important. (Iā€™m willing to play a guy, just wanted to make sure you knew I was a ā€œsheā€ if it matters.) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-an-online-role-playing-game/286798.md?page=2)