Tailored for online play...

[Ry]

Ryan Stoughton! I challenge you to design a game that is tailored for online play!

Alright.  So here's where I have to brush up on my theory and put it to work.  Now, when it comes to online play I'm only interested in the following:
Voice + Shared Tabletop + Chat Window (public/private)

I think these are my main design constraints:
1.   There's a variable player base; and players may have connection and scheduling issues.  It's easier (emotinoally) to cancel on an online game planned in advance, so it's better if it can be played really soon, and without needing a long window (because a lot of real life can happen in 8 unplanned hours).
2.   There is no body language, so it's easy to forget a quiet player.  Conversely, there's no seating problems, although there is a constraint to how many people can talk at once.  Via pixels there's an opportunity for great visuals, and a need for them too; you need something to keep people from sidling off and checking their e-mail (happens a lot).
3.  The setup of the environment itself is nontrivial
4.   The built-in die rollers have fairly primitive dice mechanics

1 tells me we need
a) To be able to play without prep
b) Fast play
c) To be able to pitch the game quickly (i.e. quickly tell potential players what they're getting into).

2 tells me
a) There is some game-supporting prep (for the visuals) that we'll still want to make compatible with the game - this makes the game better.
b) We need all the players to be involved in some way all the time. (Polaris, I'm looking at you, and eagerly awaiting my shipment).
c) We need something that forces us to go to a quiet player (Polaris... damnit

3 tells me
a) I'll want to create a walkthrough of common technology for the game in the game itself, like setting up Ventrilo + Maptool or Skype + Maptool.
b) The player that organizes this is doing something that the other players should appreciate.  I'm not sure if I should mechanize this appreciation.
4 tells me
a) Mechanics (grouping, sorting, bidding, and so on) that depend on physical dice should be avoided.  Things that can be handled in a simple call-and-response on-the-table way like
Ryan: "I hit him with my sword, beat this!  (Die roller [1d12]=8)" 
Brennan: "I grab your sword arm with my tentacles (Die roller [1d10]=9)"
Ryan: "Damn!"
Brennan: "I chortle with glee!"
Ryan: "Chortle?"
Brennan: "Well, gibber."
Ryan: "Oh no you don't.  I kick you right in your gibbering face (Die roller [1d10]=5!)"
Brennan: "Sure, I won last time though so... (Die roller [1d10+1d6]=4)" 
Ryan: Hahahaaha!  No squiddodemon can escape my mighty boot-stomping.

So right now I'm thinking of a Polaris-Wicked Age kludge, but with more pictures and maps.

Have I missed any design constraints?  Do you have any insights on optimizing this kind of experience?

[Krippler]

A bit off topic but in my head I thought you meant Mapquest instead of maptool. Wouldn't it be awesome if Google Earth or similar was used to play a game online? Obviously a game that was alot of the terrain and movement and a shared understanding of how they looked.

[Double King]

Ryan, If i remember this correctly, MT has been on the fence for a while about including a Deck mechanic.  A Deck could help you with a supple alt to dice and offer you the opportunity for refreshed visuals/eye candy.

...

(ps. <--- ETL from the Play Now logo)

[dindenver]

Hi!
  http://vassalengine.org/community/index.php
  Is a great maptool, also includes text chat and die roller (and saved games), but does not include game logs...
  It is also hosted on their site, so firewall issues and other bugaboos are less critical. And it runs on Java, so theoretically, it could run on any OS. And is totally customizable, if you have the stomach for it...
  Alex C's Ensemble has a good engine for this, if you want to try something a little more generic than Polaris and then mod it to do what you want...
  Good luck man!

[Ry]

Vassal still handles cards and such as lines in the chat browser, correct?  That still limits it when you're looking to group, rank, and then compare dice, or roll dice and then use them to raise / call like in Dogs.  Am I wrong here?

[Ry]

Scratch that last post.  The point is that while I think voice is key for roleplaying (or at least it's the crucial factor when I roleplay, although not for all game-supporting activities) and I think a shared visual is important, I don't want to hitch my wagon to fairly new features (i.e. untested) features that have different interpretations in different shared tabletops. 

[dindenver]

Hi!
  Ryan. It has the ability to handle cards, but I haven't tested that functionality. The screens I have seen had actual play pieces based on cards, but I don't know how hard that is to build/modify. And I have never found a good way to do cards on-line. One of the reasons why I have never played PTA...
  Vassal is not new by any stretch of the imagination. And the view everyone sees is sent by the same server so it should be the same. I used it for about a year to test LoL and had a lot less issues than I had with any other tool. The next most stable platform was IRC, but it did not include a map...
  So, your fears about untested features and your fears about different views is a little unfounded.
  Anyways as far as a platform, its decent, but you still need to build mechanics to support pickup play on-line...
  Good luck man!

[Ry]

The game will include a template for making a forum thread "Theme Document and Recruitment Thread" and it will have advice on going about that.