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

Cafe Society
21

Count me in if you have room. I’ve played several MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) - Everquest, Neverwinter Nights - but the experience of adventuring with characters who are obviously run by socially-challeged teenagers gets old pretty fast.

I was a big AD&D’er in college, and we sometimes experimented with other RPGs in between campaigns. We once played a game in which everyone was a cartoon character, with crazy abilities and motivations. You could pull an infinite variety of items out of your “back pocket” - basically, stuff would just appear in your hands - and you didn’t die, you just got “knocked down” for a while! I played one of spies from the old Spy vs Spy cartoon strip, so I set a lot of traps and pulled little lit bombs out of my back pocket all the time. My buddy played a tiny version of Godzilla, who was also Godzilla’s son; his name was, of course, J. C. Zilla!

22

By the way, if you’re interested, that cartoon RPG was called Toon. Here’s a website that describes it.

23

I’m poor, so I can’t join ($50 a month, modem purchase and no availability for macs contribute to the conspiracy against me every having broadband) but it certainly sounds like fun.

I’ll have to stick to my home game.

pout.

24

Hmm. I think we may have hit on our first running gag. My choices of characters in p&p games tend to be more interesting than useful, however (two mercenaries, a steroid-enhanced assassin, a vampire slayer, and a librarian are on the run… :D). I’ve got a good idea for one here, and luckily it doesn’t exactly fit into a set class. I’ll have to ponder it a bit more, see if I can flesh it out a little.

25

Well, that leaves me out, because I don’t have broadband, and don’t expect to get it in the foreseeable future (I’m scraping change off the street to afford dialup and still be able to put some cash to the side for a new comp).

:frowning:

26

Slortar, did you post that? TOO funny! Hahaha!!

Brahe, you are definitely invited. Love the humor, ya seem to know what yer doin’, and best of all, you were the first to reply.

As to the others, you’re all immoratlized in print now, so you’re right behind him in line. When I get around to hiring a bouncer, I’ll tell him to let y’all in too. q;}

To everybody else who wants to play, please feel free to keep on posting here. I will check back from time to time, see if anybody new can join when someone else drops out, or if we don’t have quite enough players yet, or what have you.

For those of you not fortunate enough to have broadband service, I wonder if you’d be interested in some behind-the-scenes work? You’d have to swear an oath of silence, so as not to spoil anything for the players, of course… But I could definitely use help with the game in other ways, such as developing new critters to fight, new sub-plots, new spells and skills, all the fun stuff like that. I especially seek folks with artistic talent, to make stuff like pictures of the creatures and icons for the map, etc. We could use email and the website for most of that, so connection speed isn’t nearly important.

And finally, for those of you who are waiting to get started, my apologies. There is to be one more test game tomorrow (saturday) night, to make sure that my program’s working properly, with only those who have already learned how to use it. When/if that’s successful, I’ll let you know.

I also have a small bit of work to do on the ‘rules’ section of the website, mostly filling in spell descriptions and that sorta thing. It’s always gonna be a work in progress, I fear, so it will be rather sloppy. But the basics are there, for all to see.

Barring unforeseen circumstances, I expect to post here again in a couple weeks… shall we say near the end of Feb.? to announce the official start of the game. Hopefully I can contact all of you by email, let you know when it’s starting and where to find the sites. After that, maybe a week or two to get with each of you one-on-one or in small groups at random times, to generate your characters and discuss any questions ya might have, and we’ll be ready to go.

Schedule:

Sundays, weekly, starting early afternoon perhaps 2pm CST, running to midnight or so.

Wednesdays, weekly, starting perhaps 5-6pm CST, running to perhaps midnight, depending on what I’m doing thursday morning.

Saturdays, weekly or bi-weekly, starting 5-6pm CST, to midnight. This night might be reserved for ‘sidetrip’ quests, however, and I might drop it entirely if it turns out to clash with too many schedules.

Other times: Depending on circumstances, I will gladly open up the game to smaller groups for non-plot-dependant side-quests or other activities that are not part of the main game. Mostly, this will be stuff like creating or re-training characters, practicing new stuff, or just goofing around and talking.

By my count, which isn’t all that accurate, I see 10 people who want in, and two more who want in but can’t make it, due to time problems or what have you. Let’s start working out schedules, see who can play when, and go from there, ok?

And I love the pie joke. If someone wants to be a baker-type character, it’s not specifically in the rules but can easily be added, that’s the point. Let’s hear what ya want to do with it. q;}

Amberlei, ya out there? Spoiler-box a story about the Cake Golem, if you like. Heh.

27

Currently I’m free most of the time. Depending on how well the job search goes (Cross fingers. [Cross, damn you! Don’t just pretend!]) that is subject to change. Preferably I’d like the weekends, but if the rest of decide on something else I’ll try my best to see if I can work with it. Nights are good.

28

Not sure if I’m officially “in the mix” or not, but out of the three times, Wednesdays would work best for me, followed by Sundays. I’m on MST, so a 5 PM CST start on Wednesday might be cutting it close with work and all, but my schedule’s fairly flexible.

29

Starting and ending times refer to when I expect to be able to start the chat/map program, henceforth referred to as “The Monkey” for reasons which will become apparent.

Slipping a newly-arrived character into an active battle or what have you shouldn’t be too hard, but don’t let that lull you into arriving late regularly, please. Just sayin’ it’s not that big a problem if ya do.

And ending times depend on how many people are still awake and how awake I still am. q;}

30

:frowning: :frowning: I wish I had broadband. Here I was, ready to get the Mountain Dew and Doritos ready… ~sigh~

31

Those days/times work fine for me, with the exception that midnight CST is a bit too late on worknights(I’m EST). Otherwise I’m looking forward to it.

32

You think too small. I Once had a gnome in D&D who got tired of waiting for people to make pies(Well, actually he only ate Tortes rather than pies, he was a snobby french Gnome) So He invented a Automatic torte making machine run off of live herring and bees and cow farts . The bees were kept in a harness just above the water, and the herring were tied to springs as they attempted to eat the bees that were just out of reach. It created a pendulum action that clicked the assembly line belt around. Then they entered a chamber where the methane from a permanently farting cow(hehe that ones quite story in itself) was burned to cook the Torte.

I wonder If I still have the planns I drew up for that.

33

Well, it still sounds fun even after all the explanation. :slight_smile: I would be available for Wednesday evenings if another warm body is needed. (I can be a cold reptile dragon warrior type if needed as well, hehe)

I hopefully have updated my profile to allow email to be sent to me. If you need any other info let me know.

Hopefully I will see you inside “The Monkey” soon.

34

Well, I have no artistic talent, but I’d be willing to help any other way that I can.

And, hey, if anyone out there is inspired to start a campaign that doesn’t need a broadband connection, just speak up. :wink:

35

Oh sure, don’t put me on the spot or anything. :cool:

As a survivor (sometimes) of a plethora of Phnord’s games, I can vouch for how much fun he makes them. We’re definitely not a “by the book” type group of gamers, which is just one of the things that makes the games so much fun. Without giving away too much, let’s just say that you’ll meet monsters you never dreamed existed, and which will behave in completely unexpected ways.

Two of my favorite baddies in previous games were Florence the baking beholder, and the Cake Golem. Florence’s one burning ambition in life was to perfect a recipe for purple worm muffins, which he could then sell to Umber Hulks. Unfortunately, he was compelled by an evil overlord to act as his minion, thereby never realizing his life’s dream. We tried and tried to return Florence to his former ambitions, but alas, the evil overlord’s power was too strong.

I have to wonder if the Cake Golem wasn’t baked by Florence and then animated by the evil overlord. If so, the cake was definitely Florence’s crowning masterpiece. Twenty feet tall or so, and topped with the most cherubic bride and groom dolls imaginable, this cake was anything but sweet. I thought we would all be dead before we had a chance to even give the cake a tiny nibble. Not only did we have the cake to contend with, but also a vase full of gargantuan flowers and the cherubs from on top of the cake. Ever been slapped silly by a giant flower? In the end, goodness prevailed and we all got to enjoy a bit of rather smushed up cake.

I wish “the Monkey” didn’t take so long to reload. Even with my cable connection there are times when it seems to take forever, but it is extremely helpful to be able to visualize things. Hope to see lots of you in “the Monkey” soon!

36

I’m vaguely considering it; I’d use GURPS rather than D&D, would play over IRC and would be running on GMT style times. My usual RPG group are all too busy for another game, and I’ve got an interesting setting idea kicking around (basically just semi-standard fantasy twisted around in odd directions).

37

For some reason, I always thought that a Street Preacher was the perfect class for a gnome. I was never quite sure whether it was more of a bard or a cleric, but I ruined many a dramatic situation with Turn Rock (not repel, but physically rotate over a period of five seconds, applying the same rules as Turn Undead) as a level 1 spell. Unfortunately, I’m organizing another game with some old friends of mine now which has about a three hour overlap with the times mentioned, so I most likely will be busy with another game. But that won’t stop me from talking about some good times I’ve had with The Preacher.
One particular GM I knew had an obsession with locking nigh-invincible gargoyles in a small room with groups of level 2 and 3 characters just to kill off “problem players” in a legitimate fashion, which he promptly discarded after I made the annoying thing rip a few holes in a wall as it tried to dive-bomb me and ran for my life. He ended up having an infernal being possess the rest of the people he tried to kill off and making them drown me in a river later that night (after I outclassed a few less inspired techniques and he gave up on killing me directly), declared them outcast murderers, and ended up lynching everyone who didn’t know how he wanted things to play out and act according to it within one session, but I certainly had fun watching the meltdown as I equpped and pointed out that the ring of ringwearing +1 states that you WILL, not can, wear 1 more ring, and the Dark Lord’s ring, on a chain, around his neck, was the only other ring in a three mile radius.

38

Hello again, update time.

Saturday’s test went well, functionally everything seems to be working great. Unfortunately it was a very very short test, so I’m’a gonna try to do it again.

The rulebook pages are coming along well, few more changes needed and I really should hyperlink them sometime. Character pages for 'em are farily well defined now, so that’s good. You can see one at: http://mysite.verizon.net/res6z35z/bobfungoman/index.html

Note that this is just an example. None of the numbers actually work, and it’s not a real character. Just an idea of what the character sheets will look like.

The rather jumbled and unfinished ‘rules’ pages etc are located here: http://mysite.verizon.net/res6z35z/campaign/

And through there, you can find the link to the website that has the program called… The Monkey!

Now, there are some (a bunch of) holes in the rules, which I’m doin’ my best to fill, so don’t take anything as gospel quite yet, but those pages should give y’all enough info to begin deciding on a character type.

Also, there’s a whole other section or two which I don’t have linked yet, including some basic history about the world y’all will find yourselves in when the game starts. Remember that any character you create will have to be ‘tweaked’ to fit this world, so please don’t get too attached to any one idea. I will do my best to work with you to make your ideas work, but there are limits ya know.

Current characters include:

A Human Bard named Phnord who’s lost his memory, but feels this terrible guilt that everything that’s wrong with the universe is somehow his fault. That’s my player character persona, and he’s just there to help. Or hinder. Or crack jokes. Depends on how I feel.

A Hobbit Druid named Amberlei who Phnord seems to have brought back with him from the future. (the more distant future, even.) She’s small and sweet, and deadly if ya tick her off. She has a knack with all sorts of living things, having once been involved in a sort of floating space garden thing. It’s a long story.

A Fairy Princess Thief named Shirley who spends a lot of time on Phnord’s shoulder. She was adopted by humans in the town of Mirondar (campaign setting) who unfortunately died one night, and has spent her life since then living on her wits, until she met Phnord and Amber.

Mirondar is a fairly advanced, by medieval standards, city at the edge of the known world, far from ‘explored’ lands, where it’s isolation protects it as much as the landscape. Magic is prevalent, to the point where enchanted weapons are readily available (created at the local magic guild from local materials) and commonly used magic items such as the ‘babel fish’ and fireball-balls are bought at shops.

Humans are the prevalent species, King Lawrence being partial to them for reasons which will become apparent, besides his own heritage. Elves, Gnomes, Hobbits, etc are also welcome in Mirondar, if subject to a bit of racial prejudice from some.

Mirondar was created around a heavily fortified castle, to ward off the frequent orc, goblin, ankheg, spider, dragon, etc attacks. In particular, the humanity-enslaving Demons of this world are (currently) held at bay by Mirondar’s militia and magic… but the bad guys aren’t going away any time soon.

Due to frequent raids on Mirondar’s fields, food is becoming scarce. The demand for magical foodstuffs is growing as fast as the wheat and grains are not. A magical baker type, as I’ve mentioned, would do well here.

YOUR character, therefore, fits in this type of town somewhere. Think about it, we’ll talk.
Future Player list:

Myself, Amber, and possibly Shirley.
Brahe Silver (sunday and wednesday)
petelin (wednesday and possibly sunday)
dwalin
Hugh Jass (haha)
Gorgon Heap (pc problems, may help behind the scenes?)
Steelerphan
badmana (sunday and late wednesday)
mchapman (wednesdays)
Kat (pc problems, BTS help?)
Odinoneeye (sunday, early wednesday)
Malacandra (time problems, BTS?)
MissTake (pc problems, BTS?)
Nanook of the North Shore (sundays? and early wednesdays)
N9IWP
slortar (didja want in?)
LeRoi Lezard
FilmGeek (pc problems, BTS?)
wolfman (didja want in?)
Iacob_Matthew (squeeze in somewhere, BTS?)

That’s’a Lott’a Peopl’a!!
Please post with the following info:

Your name (of course) and character name
What days you wish to play (sunday, wednesday, or both)
What type of character you wish to play, and how they fit into the mix.
See ya soon.

39

I don’t have broadband now, but I plan on getting hooked up soon. Do you still have need for a developer, or an adventure author until then?

40

Okay, I’ve had this idea bouncing around in my head for a while, and it doesn’t sound as original or witty after hearing about the previous adventures. If I don’t come out and try it I’ll always be kicking myself because it sounds like fun.

I can play Sunday, but I don’t know about what time you’re planning for Wednesdays. After 5 pm CST I could try, but I don’t think I could make it earlier.

Character concept:
Crane’s father was the daring (and dashing, but he wouldn’t admit it) leader of a group of nomadic raiders that harassed various villages along the plains. He saw that his life consisted of bringing pain to others, but felt that he felt that the tribe would wither and die without any way to change their lifestyle. It was decided that the leader’s son would be sent to live in civilization to learn about actual leadership, society, and diplomatic skills beyond ‘rape + pillage.’ On his return, he would lead the tribe to a proper place in the global community.

And so the six-year-old Crane was dropped in front of an academy’s gates in the big city with nothing but the clothes on his back, a fairly hefty bag of gold, and a sign around his neck reading “teech me boy 2 b warror chef.” Eighteen years later, Crane has just graduated from a fairly prestegious culinary academy (that being the school he had been dropped off in front of; his dad liked the wrought-iron gate) and now must make his way in the world - at least until he finds his tribe again. He’s heard a lot of complaining in bars by adventurers about the lack of variety in their rations; maybe a group of them would welcome a change.

I guess I’d put him in as a Chef/Fighter mix, focusing on knives. I have an idea for one or two specialized spells, but I’d like your permission before going hog-wild with your world just yet.