Online D&D-type Game, Live DM... interested?

Cafe Society
1

This is just me putting out a feeler to see what kind of interest level there is. If you’re interested, post and lemme know please?

A couple years ago, some online friends and I got bored, made a chatroom, and started playing D&D. I ended up being the GM, and creating a whole big campaign world and plot to go with it. 

 Due to the nature of the game I wanted to run, and the kind of players I had, I decided the best thing was to pretty much re-write the rules from scratch. We used a d100 system I came up with, based the game on the rules from AD&D, and it worked remarkably well.

 This was quite possibly one of the most fun things I've done in a long long time. I'd say 'with my clothes on' but, hey, it's the internet. Who wears clothes?

 Unfortunately, over time, circumstances have caused most of those I played with to no longer be able to come. Now there's just me and two or three others left, and even we can't get together as much as we'd like.

 So, since I couldn't play anymore, I've spent much of my free time over the last few months re-writing the campaign, and finding new tools to use to improve gameplay from a simple chatroom to something a bit more sophisticated.

 Now I have most of the rules posted online, which will help a lot. There are also pages for character sheets, and a section where you can find out what's been happening if you miss a game or two.

 I also have a program which lets me create a chatroom online with dierolling and other nifty aspects, for communicating in text, and which also provides a realtime map screen for placing character icons and drawing notations like "where did the fireball go?"

 And nobody to use it with!  :::sniffle::: :( 


 Now I know from my visits to this board that it's filled with EXACTLY the type of people that I want to play with. Many of you have played before, some of you haven't but want to, some of you have no idea what a RPG is like except for Legend of Zelda (Yuck!). But MOST of y'all are intelligent, clever, literate folks with great senses of humor and the ability to express yourselves well in text.

 That's why I'm asking: anybody here want to play?

 I see two possible responses to this thread. Either it will drop like a stone, nobody being interested at all, and I'll go elsewhere. Or, which I think is more likely all things considered, the opposite will happen. I'll end up getting 500 replies, all from people who want to play and have great ideas.

 This is why I'm not giving out the information about where to find this information yet. I'm just one man, and it's not quite complete yet... there's no way I could accomodate 500 players at once!

 

 Background:

 In the near future, a massive calamity both destroys the world and releases the power of magic into it. Exactly what happened, and why, and what to do about it, is part of the plot.

 After several hundred years of, well, let's just say armageddon, the dregs of humanity have somehow managed to survive, in tiny stone-age villages in the remains of the post-apocalyptical world, alongside such creatures as dragons and trolls, which have appeared with the birth of magic. This part is more or less stolen from the "Shadowrun" games.

 When the game begins, several hundred more years have gone by. Humanity, Elves, and various other races and creatures have acieved a stability allowing them to thrive. What was once a world remarkably similar to our own is now a world rather like that of 'typical' fantasy literature, ie Tolkein or AD&D.

  However, there are a few minor differences. Ancient technolgy lies buried by the eons, and dark forces stir to gather it for their nefarious ends as your party explores this world. The great powers begin to clash, and YOU have been chosen by the "Gods" to step forth as heroes and, well, basically save the world.

  The gameplay focuses on creativity and humor. There are strange and wacky monsters around, and chosing strange and wacky actions in response is preferred.

Please: NO POWER GAMERS!***
If your idea of a fun game is killing a million orcs and taking their +20 broadsword of bloodyness, find another game.

If your idea of a fun game is throwing pies at a million orcs, then selling their +20 broadsword for money to buy more pies, you’re what we’re looking for.

 Games have traditionally been scheduled once a week, Saturday nights (yes I have no life) at 5pm CST to whenever everybody falls asleep. Depending on who ends up playing, however, this could be another night or perhaps more than once a week.



 What do you think? Interested? What kind of character would you like to play? Should I go find something better to do with my time?

Oh... and, there will be evil undead zombie pirates. q;}
2

Evil undead zombie pirates, eh? I’m interested.

I haven’t had too much luck playing these kinds of games online, especially when I don’t know too much about the rules (and especially since you say that most of what you’re using is custom). Would it be okay if my gameplay style is along the lines of ‘I say what I want to do and the GM rolls for me, or at least keeps reminding me what to roll’?

3

Yup.

In fact, that’s how it’s been pretty much the whole time.

The reason is that, generally speaking, I don’t much care for rules or rulebooks. Rules are guidelines, not hard and fast limits.

Freeform creativity is what this kind of game is supposed to be about, and I try to encourage that as much as possible. Instead of big charts and diagrams and pages of rules, I simplify everything down as far as I can, and eventually it comes down to a d100 roll… simple percentage chance of success/failure. Then we work with that, trying to make it a fun story.

In addition, I try to make what few guidelines there are as vague as possible, to allow for more varied and creative use of what the rules allow one to do. In fact, I will practically force players to bend the rules… 'cuz I know they’re gonna do it anyway. Want a new spell? Ok, ya got it… but here’s how it works. New skill? Ok, sure, ya got it. But you gotta work within the limits of the system. Sorry, that’s how it is.

It’ll make more sense once I’m ready to release the rules and background info and such. Really. q;}

4

Mmmm…pies.

This sounds pretty fun, and largely dependent on the quality of players involved. I’d love to give it a shot if there’s room, and the schedules work out.

5

I am certainly interested in playing this game. Judging from the responses you’ve gotten, I think more information would be practical at this point.

:maturity bar drops to 0:

ME ME ME! I WANNA PLAY! LET ME PLAY NOW! WANNA PLAY! PUT IT UP ONLINE!

Sorry about that, my inner child is a real brat.

6

What’s all this about pie, then? Any game where we get pie is great! :cool:

I’m interested, regardless of the pie.

7

Sounds pretty neat. I don’t know ifr my old, outdated home computer can handle it, but I’d be willing to give it a shot.

8

I’m interested. It sounds like the “different” approach I’ve been seeking.

As long as this isn’t a “pie in the sky” kind of game… I prefer my pie a la mode.

:smiley:

9

There’s only one thing we can do to ensure piety. Gather 'round, folks.

Now, this may be a bit of a shock, but one of us must take one for the team and become… A baker! The rest of us must promise to keep this character fully stocked with cinnamon, flour, eggs, and a variety of delicious fillings; in return the baker will provide pies the likes of which the world has never seen.

Maybe this could be the person to invent pie in this gameworld. Woah.

10

I’m interested but I can’t do Saturday night. Any weekend is perfect right now (late night like 9 CST or 10) or anytime Sunday night.

If you open up a few more times I’d love to join.

I’m an old-school GURPS player. I always hated AD&D’s “class” based system and like open-ended skill based games.

11

Damn, that should be weekDAY.

12

Well, I havent gamed in a while, but it does sound like alot of fun! I have played a bit of D&D, alot of GURPS and tons of MMPORG games. :slight_smile:

I am generally available in the weeknight evenings if a set time can be scheduled.

Character wise, I have always had a fondness for the cleric or barbarian type of characters. I do enjoy roleplaying either, doing it while typing sounds tough but fun.

Hopefully I got this in in time to be considered.

13

I’d be interested, but I’m not sure if my tired old computer would be able to handle your chat program (I’m trying to scrape together the money to get a new one, but it might be a couple of months).

I’ve done some freeform RPing online, and I’ve also done a couple of Rifts stories online.

I tend to lean towards thieves and rogues as characters.

14

I havn’t played D & D in years, but I’d be interested.

I can’t do it Saturday either though. It’s my one day week I get to spend with my wife.

Weeknight evenings are good, but I work midnight shift so I would have to sign off by 11:30 Eastern Time. Sunday is good all day.

As for characters, I prefer the theif or spell caster types. Although a good old fashioned kick ass fighting type is fun too.

Oh just say I’m open to anything.

15

Shame, I’ve been missing FTF RPGing for three years now, but the transatlantic time differential would kill me, what with being married with small children. Hope it works out!

16

More information? Ok, let’s see…
Regarding the ability of your computer to access the game:

The program uses a standard internet window, which you can access from Explorer or whatever other browser you like. It is said to work equally well with either Mac or PC, and the player has no download to install. Either the game is up, in which case your browser will do everything ya need it to, or it ain’t and the browser goes nowhere.

There has been an issue found which doesn’t let those using AOL to access it, through AOL’s browser. However, using a non-AOL browser does seem to work just fine, if you are still AnOldLoser. q;}

Due to the size of some of the maps and the frequent refreshing required during fast-paced ‘scenes’, broadband connection is required. Those using 56k modems have reported unacceptably high refresh rates. Sorry folks, nothing personal.

Regarding the ‘rules’ of the game:

I have more or less stolen concepts from every RPG I’ve played over the years, put 'em in a blender, and strained out the pulp.

Good ol’ AD&D (1st ed.) has proven, in my mind at least, the most comprehensive and easy-to-learn system so far. By 2004, pretty much everybody knows the general character types, ie warrior, wizard, thief, cleric… the difference between elves and humans… what a dragon is… and that sorta stuff. If you’ve watched Lord of the Rings, you’ll do just fine wrappin’ yer mind around the D&D world.

I base my game system on these rules, sort of, modified to accomadate a d100 system instead of the old d20, d10, d100, d8, d12, etc. With a few exceptions, such as various weapon’s damage, most rolls will be d100. The higher your roll, the more skills or bonuses you have that apply to your action, the better your chances of success. Pretty simple really.

Characters are generated using the same 6 statistics as D&D, ie: Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity, etc. because, well, they’re just about all ya need to define a character. Other ‘statistics’ like, say, willpower or luck from other systems, pretty much can be converted into one of these instead. And I happen to like it, so there. So, for example, Sword-swinging is a skill a person can learn, which is based on that character’s Strength rating. A character with Sword skill of 12, Str of 60, and a sword with a bonus of 2, would have a basic chance of success with that sword of 74 (12+60+2).

The basic races, such as Elf, Gnome, Dwarf, Human, etc. are also available for players, with some rare cases of players having ‘unique’ character types. One of our current players is a fairy princess (very unique, no you can’t be one too), and we’ve had a rabbit wizardess and a bear druid at one point in previous games. Although I prefer you choose a ‘standard’ character type, because it’s that much easier, I do make exceptions for people with very good ideas that I can make fit into my game world, so don’t worry too much about that.

Professions, well, I’m tryin’ something different this time around. I’ve re-written my rules to allow characters to be viable without ever joining a specific profession such as Warrior or Thief or Ranger or whatever. The character may choose to train in virtually any skill, but certain skills (magic spells for example) are restricted to those who do choose a specific profession. Up to three professions may be chosen in this way, allowing for, say, warrior/thief/wizard type characters, with certain restrictions to keep things balanced.

Speaking of magic, I’ve also pretty much stolen the spell lists from good ol 1st Ed, and modified them to fit my campaign and rules. Old favorites like Magic Missile and Fireball are still around, of course, but the system I’m using here allows them to be modified much more easily, depending on the type of character casting them. For example, a… hmm, let’s make something up… human barbarian from the ruins of old detroit might have learned some magic that allows him to, I dunno, animate steel items for brief periods of time, or a, hmm… gnome wizard from a swamp in old louisiana might fire big gobs of crawdad-filled swamp mud instead of fireballs. That sorta thing. Make stuff up, if it sounds fun we’ll run with it.

Magic, its use and source and purpose, is rather intimately tied up with the ‘plot’ of the game, such as it is, and I hesitate to say too much at this point on the subject.

Regarding previous gaming experience:

Most of the players in the earlier games had, quite literally, NO experience with this sort of thing. This is one of the reasons I have so heavily modified the rules as to consider this a new RPG system in its own right, despite it’s heavy influence by other systems. It’s designed to be easy to learn, easy to use, and most importantly, easy to modify on the fly. ANYTHING you wanna do can fit into the game system, pretty much. The only limits will be because of my campaign’s plot… no dragon astronauts with laser pistols, for example. At least, not at first. q;}

I suppose if I had to define the type of player that would be ideal, it would be: someone who has heard of RPG, perhaps played a couple, and understands the concept of interactive storytelling. Someone literate, certainly, with the ability to understand the situation the characters are in and creatively express their ideas about how to resolve it. And, most importantly, someone with a sense of humor to keep everybody entertained.

What I do NOT want is someone who is just in this to meet chicks, or to cause problems with other players, or worst of all, the Rules Lawyer who keeps interrupting the flow with stuff like “Hey, that can’t happen! This and that and the other bit of reality would interfere with the completly outrageous story you’re telling! See, on page 38 of The Obscure Weapons Handbook, it says that estocs get a +8 pierce bonus vs brigandine armor when used left-handed on weekends in the snow!” While I have no problem admitting when I’ve made a mistake somewhere (and it happens, rather a lot) if someone points it out, this kind of thing really really really slows down the flow of the game and can totally break the mood if done at the wrong time. If you can spot mistakes and let 'em go, great. If not, sorry, go play Everquest or something.

Regarding availability:

To repeat myself, I’m only one man. There will be a point at which there are simply too many players coming into the game, and I’m overwhelmed, and play suffers. I find that 6-8 players at once is about the limit, and I’ve already gotten that many responses, so that’s good. Having more than one game a week, to split the group into more managable sizes, should allow a total number of players somewhere in the teens I think. When it’s time to make selections and stuff we’ll worry about who and that sorta thing. Those of you who’ve posted above will certainly be at the front of the line. q;}
Hmm… That about cover it? What else can I say? Looks like two games a week, Saturday and Sunday, might be the best way to do things, how’s that sound folks? Maybe Sunday and Wednesday instead?
Thanks for the responses, I knew this was the place to look for players!

17

Ohhh I want in! I did a little online gaming via mIRC a couple years ago, but the DM didn’t last very long so it broke up. I’ve run free form type games in person before. Sunday, Friday, Wednesday are all good for me. Character? Hmm…I’ve played samurais, warriors, wizards, even a kender vampire thief(you thought Tasselhoff was bad? HAH!). Maybe a barbarian fighter. Hmmm have to think about it some more.

18

Hmm, may be too late to make the 1st cut, but I’d like to be consdered as an alternate at least (or spectator)

Hmm, dragon astronaut with laser pistols…

Could probably do Saturday nights.

Brian

19

Ok, my computer can’t do it. I’m out.

20

Speaking of pie…I bring you the world’s shortest D&D adventure.

A more epic adventure has never been seen.