How will I create a world for my RPG?
As I mentioned in a previous post, the following points need to be true in the game world:
- A reasonable number of players can play in the same game world.
- The game world is persistent, thus progression must be saved.
- Players are able to join the game at different times and are able to take actions without waiting for other players to be playing.
- Players can also stop their gaming session at any time, without breaking the game.
- Players can decide to either play alone or together with others.
Additionally, I want the game to be economy and combat driven rather than story driven as this is what most players spend their time doing while progressing in MMORPGs. This means that the game will need a combat system as the core grind mechanic. Players will need to choose actions to perform which will be handled by the game master (me) before their next action may be performed.
Keeping this in mind, I researched the methods I can use to host an RPG game session and I came up with the following:
Play by Post
As Alexander Hinkley discusses: a play by post RPG takes place on a forum. Players create threads, which act like the "game world". The poster writes the details of the world or scenario, and people who post on the thread will give descriptions of the character they are role playing as. Players post their actions, following the rules of the world they are playing in. Sometimes the forum will be a single world, and contains information of the items and skills and stats that exist in it.
The problem I found with this is that it will be difficult to keep actions happening at a steady pace if the game is not being played in real time. When taking the role of a game master, I would have to regularly perform updates and record information for every single player action. Unless this happens in real time, the game's pace will be too slow.
Shared Fiction Role Playing
This method focuses heavily if not completely on combined creative storytelling from all the players. With its focus being on storytelling rather than stat progression, it does not allow me to replicate an MMORPG's style of play.
Live Action Role Playing
This involves having people acting out their actions in real life. It would require too much effort to gather and motivate people to do this on a regular basis, so I immediately dismissed this option.
Table Top RPG
Another method I found is used for the typical Dungeons & Dragons sessions. According to Alexander Macris's article, it is recommended for these sessions to be hosted once or twice a week. Avoiding weekend nights helps with the availability of participants. These sessions take around 4-5 hours and ideally take place in quiet rooms with a big table and comfortable seating. Snacks and refreshments would help in keeping up the participants' moods.
Whenever a session starts it is important to give an update of what had happened recently and the current state the players are in and what they can do, before asking them what they will do. On the other hand, sessions should not end until any ongoing fights are happening, this is due to the fact it is difficult to keep record of ongoing combat and tactics.
Gathering people for some time around a table is a viable solution for me as the university's game design labs are a reasonably good place to hold regular sessions. However certain details would need to be different since I do not need any actual role playing in my game.
Preferred Method
The only two methods that made sense for my project were the Play by Post and Table Top, but given my situation at university, I think it would be wise to go for the latter as it will be easier to recruit play testers to drop into ongoing games and play.
Changes to the 'Table Top RPG' method
This method requires several people to play together, ideally from start to finish for around 4-5 hours. It is important to have players experiencing the campaign's story together without missing out on pieces of it.
In my game, story and role play will not play a large role, and for the sake of being similar to an MMORPG environment, I would rather that players dropped in and out of the game at different times. Given this scenario, there is no point to set a fixed duration- instead I would start the session as soon as I manage to recruit some play testers, and stop once no more players are willing to play.
The university's game design labs would provide a comfortable place to play, and the lack of need to role play means that the noisy environment should not be too harmful to the game play.
Economy and Stat tracking will be very important, so it would be wise for me to use excel on my laptop to keep track of any changes that take place.
The next step
Having decided on the preferred way to host the game, I will next need to focus on Designing a non digital RPG system that will allow players to play through its 'content' over a few weeks. This would allow me to gather information and feedback and use it to iterate the game.
References:
Alexander Hinkley. ( 2010). Types of RPGs. In: Katie Leonard Creating an Online Roleplaying Game. Lulu.com. 3-9.
Alexander Macris. (2010). How to Host an RPG Session. Available: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/tabletop/checkfortraps/8278-How-to-Host-an-RPG-Session. Last accessed 12th Oct 2014.
Play by Post
As Alexander Hinkley discusses: a play by post RPG takes place on a forum. Players create threads, which act like the "game world". The poster writes the details of the world or scenario, and people who post on the thread will give descriptions of the character they are role playing as. Players post their actions, following the rules of the world they are playing in. Sometimes the forum will be a single world, and contains information of the items and skills and stats that exist in it.
The problem I found with this is that it will be difficult to keep actions happening at a steady pace if the game is not being played in real time. When taking the role of a game master, I would have to regularly perform updates and record information for every single player action. Unless this happens in real time, the game's pace will be too slow.
Shared Fiction Role Playing
This method focuses heavily if not completely on combined creative storytelling from all the players. With its focus being on storytelling rather than stat progression, it does not allow me to replicate an MMORPG's style of play.
Live Action Role Playing
This involves having people acting out their actions in real life. It would require too much effort to gather and motivate people to do this on a regular basis, so I immediately dismissed this option.
Table Top RPG
Another method I found is used for the typical Dungeons & Dragons sessions. According to Alexander Macris's article, it is recommended for these sessions to be hosted once or twice a week. Avoiding weekend nights helps with the availability of participants. These sessions take around 4-5 hours and ideally take place in quiet rooms with a big table and comfortable seating. Snacks and refreshments would help in keeping up the participants' moods.
Whenever a session starts it is important to give an update of what had happened recently and the current state the players are in and what they can do, before asking them what they will do. On the other hand, sessions should not end until any ongoing fights are happening, this is due to the fact it is difficult to keep record of ongoing combat and tactics.
Gathering people for some time around a table is a viable solution for me as the university's game design labs are a reasonably good place to hold regular sessions. However certain details would need to be different since I do not need any actual role playing in my game.
Preferred Method
The only two methods that made sense for my project were the Play by Post and Table Top, but given my situation at university, I think it would be wise to go for the latter as it will be easier to recruit play testers to drop into ongoing games and play.
Changes to the 'Table Top RPG' method
This method requires several people to play together, ideally from start to finish for around 4-5 hours. It is important to have players experiencing the campaign's story together without missing out on pieces of it.
In my game, story and role play will not play a large role, and for the sake of being similar to an MMORPG environment, I would rather that players dropped in and out of the game at different times. Given this scenario, there is no point to set a fixed duration- instead I would start the session as soon as I manage to recruit some play testers, and stop once no more players are willing to play.
The university's game design labs would provide a comfortable place to play, and the lack of need to role play means that the noisy environment should not be too harmful to the game play.
Economy and Stat tracking will be very important, so it would be wise for me to use excel on my laptop to keep track of any changes that take place.
The next step
Having decided on the preferred way to host the game, I will next need to focus on Designing a non digital RPG system that will allow players to play through its 'content' over a few weeks. This would allow me to gather information and feedback and use it to iterate the game.
References:
Alexander Hinkley. ( 2010). Types of RPGs. In: Katie Leonard Creating an Online Roleplaying Game. Lulu.com. 3-9.
Alexander Macris. (2010). How to Host an RPG Session. Available: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/tabletop/checkfortraps/8278-How-to-Host-an-RPG-Session. Last accessed 12th Oct 2014.
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