[Gears of Pain]The needs of the environment.

[sirogit]

One of my latest developmental projects is Gears of Pain: http://gop.awardspace.com/gop.html , an attempt at a vigorous persistant online game with rules largely influenced by PTA, TSOY and Burnig Wheel with a dark steampunk setting.

To be clear by what I mean by "Persistant online game", I mean a game that's always running, similar to "MUSHs", with a player-base of 5-20 at a time and perhaps 25-70 players total. Its an environment that I would say is more similar to most LARPS rather than most tabletop games.

I'm attempting to address problems that stop me from being into the existing versions of such games, which would primarily be:

- 'creative solipstism', or people not really interacting in the assumed interactive environment.

- Flawed character creation, characters that don't seem like they're going anywhere, or don't make sense together.

- Ineffiecent GM interaction.

- Lack of trust, communication and GM/player investment.

Now, I know there are difficulties on finding the rght target audience for such a project, as most people who currently play persistant online games LIKE what they're doing, and alot of people who want dynamic stories stay away from persistant gaming for the previously stated reasons, but none the less I have the hope of finding like-minded people who want smething similar to my own goals in this paticular format.

Now, one of the obvious ways I'm diverting from the common persistant game formula is that I'm not basing the game on either one single location or 'tavern' or a small number of hub-like locations, but instead having a single IC channel with sequential scenes more like a typical tabletop game. The challenge that becomes apparent here is to keep the interest of a group of players who are not currently involved in the present scene, and to that end I'm both investing them with rewards to give out, a number of ways that they can influence the scene via NPC-authority, as well as managing which characters have the most screen-time via a PTA-based mechanic.

To get the question aspect of this post: What are the thoughts on the project? Do you think the techniques I'm suggesting have a reasonable chance of accomplishing my design goals? And are there any online resources particularly suited to what I'm trying to accomplish?

[xenopulse]

This is interesting and exciting to someone like me, who has been playing chat-based games for over 10 years.  I'm not sure whether I can tell you how your techniques will work out in play; some of them are definitely useful (like the screen presence lifted from PTA), but their actual mechanics might have to be tweaked or changed according to feedback.

I know that you want to have a continuous environment, but running one scene until it's over is going to be troublesome.  For one, players tend to take ages to finish a single scene.  If you've got outsiders coming in with new NPCs, trying to participate, that might stretch them even more.  Also, you'd need some sort of moderator who determines when a scene starts and ends, or the whole thing might fall apart.  While ending a scene is only a matter of pacing, starting a scene could be an issue to fight over among the players (who gets to be in it, where is it set, what is it about, etc.).  You do list the four aspects you want players to request, but as I said, this requires a moderator, and scenes take HOURS to play out.  That means everyone else who wanted a scene might lose interest.  You might consider having several channels with separate priorities or structures, as in: one official channel with moderation for earning Grit, unofficial channels for character interaction just for fun, etc.

[Eric J.]

This sounds like a good idea.  I have limited experience with the format, however (try none).

Keep us posted.

May the wind be always at your back,
-Eric

[sirogit]

xenopulse:

- The pacing issue is definately on my mind, and there's a few different ways I want to tackle it before sacrificing the sequential scene order conept. One idea is to structure the game so that -scenes must be a big deal-, as if something is going to drag out, it should be the big climatic revealation, rather than an establishing scene. To that end I'm thinking about instituiting a scene econemy system.

Another idea is to develop techniques for the speedy resoloution of the scene - Possibly a formula to cover the essential aspects for a scene and its quick resoloution. Now, I'd only want to implement such a rule once I've found a -good- formula, but an example might be: 'Player uses their 'opener' to set up the scene." "Other players provide 'Additionial Color'" "The Gm posts the 'Introduction to threat' or 'Calls for an end to the scene.'" "The players 'React to Threat', possibly including system-mechanic actions" "The GM rolls for the conflict" "The narrarating player describes how the conflict went down and cuts the scene"

- The ability for outside players to influence the scene isn't so much in the vien as introducing NPCs to play, but intervening with quick and decisive actions - one such ability is called "Vicious Rumours", and it does something to the effect of calling that a rumour is circulating about the character that limits their social power until they address it.

- Also diffrent from convential design of MUSHes and other chat-based games, I want this game to be completely GMed, and GMed with a healthy ratio of about 1:6 players. The obstacle than becomes finding enough GMs to run the game a majority of the time that players wish to play, but I hope to mnake the rules such that other players becoming GMs is not a daunting process as the rules already take care of many issues, and becoming a GM is mostly an issue of enthusiasm for the goals of the game and being good with working with the players.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

[Callan S.]

"The scenes resolved in five minutes time - anyone who doesn't agree, the violence of the scene (even if you were boiling an egg) kills your current PC"

Couldn't resist really - the thought of players swanning around not getting to a point makes me imagine a gillotine mechnic immediately! >