Planing an Wargame RPG kind of Game... Will this be allowed on the forge?

[Benajmin385]

Hey my name is Benjamin aka Benjamin385. I have been trying to make an RPG-war game for quite an while now. I am asking if this will be allowed on the forge because i don't know where else to turn to...

I want to develop my RPG Wargame but I don't know where to go...

If this is allowed. I will post more Info on the Game later. I am hoping that this is ok...

It is an RPG equally as an Wargame... I really want to get this out there. 

Please reply and tell me if this is ok to post...

Thanks,
Benjamin

[Vulpinoid]

Why do you think it wouldn't be OK?

Telling a story through a wargame (or through a collection of characters rather than a single individual) is a perfectly valid form of roleplaying that goes back to the origins of the hobby. If you're actually looking at things from the other perspective, a really tactical way of playing 1-on-1 action, then this is just as valid (just look at D&D 4e).

Tell us some of your ideas and we'll see if we can help out.

V

[Benajmin385]

Why do you think it wouldn't be OK?

Telling a story through a wargame (or through a collection of characters rather than a single individual) is a perfectly valid form of roleplaying that goes back to the origins of the hobby. If you're actually looking at things from the other perspective, a really tactical way of playing 1-on-1 action, then this is just as valid (just look at D&D 4e).

Tell us some of your ideas and we'll see if we can help out.

V

Thank you for clarifying this. This really brings me allot of relief.  I will begin to Start my Idea off with an Idea i had for an long while and the reason to my madness...

First off the reason to my Madness

I have yet to see an any table top 4x game (Similar to masters of Orion or Gallactic Civilizations 2)
Thus this idea has come upon me...

Why not make an 4x Table top Grand Strategy War game with some RPG elements?

I was planning to approach the leveling system a bit differently than most Role-playing games.
The Combat would be in Mass as Planetary and Space combat would be Standard Combat as in most sci-fi games they are...

The Characters System is where it really shines. Instead of choosing an Pre-determined race (orc,Human,elf,etc.), you create your own, Choose an tech tree suitable for that race (tech trees can be modified with GM's Permission)

At this point you are probably going umm... why create our own race? That sounds Complicated...

Actually it is quite easy if you have templates for Racial types along with sub racial types. For example if I wanted a species like the Borg from star trek I could choose the Robotic or Android Racial type. Then select the Assimilation Subtype. Then just fill in the Numeric fields on the Species Sheet.

As for the Heroes in the game you can choose 4 Leaders (aka heroes) that will represent your government and military abroad the stars. These heroes can take on various side missions which will increase skills and attributes of your Species abilities, your heroes abilities for missions against other space faring nations, or even Diplomacy. I am still hammering out the general Idea so Please give feed back...

     

[Simon C]

This sounds like an interesting idea!

You should be aware though that there are some board games that cover this territory already.  I think the earliest example (which pre-dates computer 4X games by some amount of time) is "Stellar Conquest".  Ironically, I just read a blog post about this game, here: http://playthisthing.com/stellar-conquest

Some of the other stuff you're talking about with the races sounds a bit like "Cosmic Encounter", which is a great game.

Tell me more about the RPG elements of this game.  Like, how does "roleplaying" affect the outcome of the game, if at all?

[Benajmin385]

This sounds like an interesting idea!

You should be aware though that there are some board games that cover this territory already.  I think the earliest example (which pre-dates computer 4X games by some amount of time) is "Stellar Conquest".  Ironically, I just read a blog post about this game, here: http://playthisthing.com/stellar-conquest

Some of the other stuff you're talking about with the races sounds a bit like "Cosmic Encounter", which is a great game.

Tell me more about the RPG elements of this game.  Like, how does "roleplaying" affect the outcome of the game, if at all?

Never heard of Cosmic Encounter could you provide me an link?
As for Stellar Conquest the game looks like something I would play too bad it is out of print...

As for your question:

Role Playing plays an Very important part of the Game actually. At the very beginning you will come to know your galactic neighbors through diplomacy. Every time you engage in an Direct Diplomatic Act with an Galactic power you must role play one of your 4 Leaders or diplomats.

If you want to steal tech from another race or something, It is just an roll of the dice to determine if you were successful or not.

This leads to an more imersive war game experience as the Player is swaping out from roleplaying mode to Wargame mode and back thus never getting bored with just an Prolonged war game campaign. I will have to test out this mechanic to see if works the way I hope it does.

But anyway another mechanic I am Using is The Galactic Council. This is another Role-Playing mechanic that I am going to try and implement into the game. This only allows the Main leaders of major galactic powers to meet in peace and discuss things concerning there empires. For example food shortages on certain planets, Pirates raiding trade lanes, and new Species that has just joined the Galactic powers, etc.

[mjbauer]

I'm doing something very similar. I like strategic games and tactical games but I want a little more story, background and flexibility than they usually provide so a role played version is what I'm trying to achieve.

I'm running into the problem of finding a balance between the two. Too much detail vs not enough. Too much freedom vs too many restrictions. Have you had similar issues?

[greyorm]

Interesting idea! If you haven't, you might want to check out the play-by-mail game "Hyborian War" by RSI, which does some of the same things you're talking about and gives you characters you send on missions that can affect your standings in the game. Another game to check out would the Birthright setting for 2nd Edition AD&D, in which you play the ruler of a kingdom, and also go on more typical D&D-ish quests and such that may influence your regency.

[Benajmin385]

I'm doing something very similar. I like strategic games and tactical games but I want a little more story, background and flexibility than they usually provide so a role played version is what I'm trying to achieve.

I'm running into the problem of finding a balance between the two. Too much detail vs not enough. Too much freedom vs too many restrictions. Have you had similar issues?

Yes I have.
What I have found to combat this, that is the player made Species. It has just enough Restrictions to hold back any Overtly excess freedom of the players.  But gives the players just enough freedom to do as they please within there created race.

As for too much detail vs. not enough You can never have too much detail when you are designing an 4x game especially if you are designing cultures, Home worlds, Ships, Rules, etc.

If you could link me to your thread about your game. I would be more than happy to help from what I know.

Interesting idea! If you haven't, you might want to check out the play-by-mail game "Hyborian War" by RSI, which does some of the same things you're talking about and gives you characters you send on missions that can affect your standings in the game. Another game to check out would the Birthright setting for 2nd Edition AD&D, in which you play the ruler of a kingdom, and also go on more typical D&D-ish quests and such that may influence your regency.

I have heard of Birthright for AD&D but not of Hyborian War. I should defiantly check that out.

[Vulpinoid]

The reason I initially wanted to see this topic move forward is because it sounds vaguely similar to some of the concepts I'm currently working on.

Granted, this exists at an even grander scale than Quincunx, but it still has the vibe of a board-game/wargame interacting with a series of roleplaying scenarios.

Here's some links to a few threads here at the Forge where my project has been discussed...

The Power 19
The Public Archive
Twin games Interlinked
Wargame balancing - not really a link to my project, but it shows a precedent that topics such as these have a place on the Forge.

There have been a couple of interesting ideas on Story-Games too about narrative wargames.

There's plenty of stuff for you too look at if you need ideas, personally I can see this an an interesting new direction for the hobby which hasn't really been explored too well so far.

V

[Benajmin385]

The reason I initially wanted to see this topic move forward is because it sounds vaguely similar to some of the concepts I'm currently working on.

Granted, this exists at an even grander scale than Quincunx, but it still has the vibe of a board-game/wargame interacting with a series of roleplaying scenarios.

Here's some links to a few threads here at the Forge where my project has been discussed...

The Power 19
The Public Archive
Twin games Interlinked
Wargame balancing - not really a link to my project, but it shows a precedent that topics such as these have a place on the Forge.

There have been a couple of interesting ideas on Story-Games too about narrative wargames.

There's plenty of stuff for you too look at if you need ideas, personally I can see this an an interesting new direction for the hobby which hasn't really been explored too well so far.

V

Just got around to reading articles / Threads you provided except the last one. Taking an an Peak right now.
Your game looks awesome to be honest and I really look forward to playing it when it comes out.

BTW Just finishing up the custom stat system and then moving on to the ethics system.

[David C]

A lot of 4X games really work best against computers only.  I mean, as a player, is it satisfying for both of us to agree to peace and both "win"?  Or, if your the type to backstab your opponent, why would your friends ally you (despite the odds of being backstabbed)?

I'm just curious if you've thought about this and have an idea.  Also, have you ever played Twilight Imperium? It comes closest to the 4x mindset of any game I've seen, (but it is still isn't true 4X in my mind.)

[Benajmin385]

A lot of 4X games really work best against computers only.  I mean, as a player, is it satisfying for both of us to agree to peace and both "win"?  Or, if your the type to backstab your opponent, why would your friends ally you (despite the odds of being backstabbed)?

I'm just curious if you've thought about this and have an idea.  Also, have you ever played Twilight Imperium? It comes closest to the 4x mindset of any game I've seen, (but it is still isn't true 4X in my mind.)

Yes, I have been thinking about this for an few days now.

First, Let me address the backstabbing and why people would ally with you.
Each race starts out from series of base template then the player chooses one of 50 sub templates.

If you chose the "Strong Economy" sub-template you would get as the templates says an strong economy.
But the drawback of this template is you can not produce as many military units as you may want initially due to the "Bankers council" which keeps your economy strong. You must Have an Economic Boom to produce allot of Military units or an monopoly on an any common or uncommon resource.   

Well you can probably see an problem here. For Economy based Player. Not enough military means not enough defense. So another player comes along who is all military. He threatens to destroy some colony worlds of the economic player.they come to an agreement that the economic player will pay the military player to not attack. Later during the game the economic player gets an monopoly on all the common space bound power sources. Thus triggering an Economic Boom for that player. Other players start buying the Resource from the economic player. Then the economic player starts to Inflate prices to the Military player who is still forcing the economic player to pay for protection of his colonies. But 7 turns later the Military player is going to go bankrupt. There fore he must do one of 3 things increase colonial taxes ,seize an resource deposit that the economic player has which will lead to war with the economic player and his allies, or Talk with the economic player to get an lower rate.

As you can see there will be backstabbing but it will be done in many different ways economically (as described above),

As for the why would an player want to ally with an known backstaber?

Well there are over 50 sub templates which change the style of play for each species and of course you create your own species. Some templates allow faster research, some disable the ethics system as it does not apply to that race, Some allow A.I. (Actual Intelligence) for Robotic Species, some allow a strong military or economy, Some make the Species Pacifist, there are allot

It is most likely you will be back stabbed , one way or another. Because there are so many ways to backstab other players in this game. Just because of the freedom (Freedom is something i wanted from the beginning for this game) You may even backstab other players unwillingly if you have an monopoly on something.


Unfortuantly I have not played Twilight Imperium... My dad sold it before i could play it.