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« on: October 01, 2003, 02:40:56 am »
Paxx,
Thanks for all the advice. I am prepared to alter whatever LQ rules make sense to put it into an online environment. I\'m no stranger to rule changes. The current incarnation of LQ is the 7th edition and I\'ve already got a lot of ideas for changes for the 8th. But, I must admit that the idea of making 8th edition LQ an online venture is the biggest of them all ;-)
And, I am under no delusions that doing such a thing will be easy. In fact, that\'s why I haven\'t absolutely committed to doing it yet. I\'ve first got to find enough people willing to help out on the project, which is not going to be easy.
As far as enforcing role-play, you can\'t. Or, rather, you shouldn\'t even attempt it. What you can do is make the rules of the game encourage role-play. That is, make it funner to role-play than not. How do you do that? Well, there are a number of ideas for standard pen and paper games. We\'ve actually been discussing this topic on the LQ discussion forums lately. In fact, the biggest change for 8th edition so far is that we\'re going to be getting away from a D&D style alignment system to something more appropriate for Heros undertaking Legendary Quests in a mythological setting. If you want to take a look at our discussions on this topic, go to the the following link:
http://www.ravensrook.com/lq/messages/8/36.html?1064839606
A lot of what we are planning is too subjective for an online game, but some of the ideas are not. To start with, you have to decide what it is your game is all about. That is, what exactly are the roles that are available to players? For example, suppose you want to simulate chivalry. How do you do that? Well, you\'ve first got to set up some rules about what it is to be chivalrous. These must be physically observable actions on the part of the players. Next, you must be able to detect when these actions occur in situations where it would be detrimental to the player to have performed the action. For example, say you decide that swinging at an unarmed opponent is unchivalrous. Then, if a chivalrous character refrains from swinging at an opponent who drops his weapon, you know he is role-playing his persona. After all, there isn\'t any other good reason why he\'d ignore his advantage. At that point, you reward him significantly somehow. That will more than make up for whatever the character lost by not swinging, brings the player more in tune with the character\'s \"morals\", and ends up making the game more fun for everyone.
As far as having played other online games, I haven\'t really done much. I\'ve played a few evenings using some friends\' accounts, but that\'s all. I\'ve avoided them mainly because it could potentially take a lot of time away from writing. But, if I\'m going to create my own MMORPG, that\'s a different story and I\'ll have to get up to speed with the state-of-the-art. (I have thoroughly enjoyed running around the PlaneShift dungeons in the past week.)
Sorry for the long reply.
Thanks for all the advice. I am prepared to alter whatever LQ rules make sense to put it into an online environment. I\'m no stranger to rule changes. The current incarnation of LQ is the 7th edition and I\'ve already got a lot of ideas for changes for the 8th. But, I must admit that the idea of making 8th edition LQ an online venture is the biggest of them all ;-)
And, I am under no delusions that doing such a thing will be easy. In fact, that\'s why I haven\'t absolutely committed to doing it yet. I\'ve first got to find enough people willing to help out on the project, which is not going to be easy.
As far as enforcing role-play, you can\'t. Or, rather, you shouldn\'t even attempt it. What you can do is make the rules of the game encourage role-play. That is, make it funner to role-play than not. How do you do that? Well, there are a number of ideas for standard pen and paper games. We\'ve actually been discussing this topic on the LQ discussion forums lately. In fact, the biggest change for 8th edition so far is that we\'re going to be getting away from a D&D style alignment system to something more appropriate for Heros undertaking Legendary Quests in a mythological setting. If you want to take a look at our discussions on this topic, go to the the following link:
http://www.ravensrook.com/lq/messages/8/36.html?1064839606
A lot of what we are planning is too subjective for an online game, but some of the ideas are not. To start with, you have to decide what it is your game is all about. That is, what exactly are the roles that are available to players? For example, suppose you want to simulate chivalry. How do you do that? Well, you\'ve first got to set up some rules about what it is to be chivalrous. These must be physically observable actions on the part of the players. Next, you must be able to detect when these actions occur in situations where it would be detrimental to the player to have performed the action. For example, say you decide that swinging at an unarmed opponent is unchivalrous. Then, if a chivalrous character refrains from swinging at an opponent who drops his weapon, you know he is role-playing his persona. After all, there isn\'t any other good reason why he\'d ignore his advantage. At that point, you reward him significantly somehow. That will more than make up for whatever the character lost by not swinging, brings the player more in tune with the character\'s \"morals\", and ends up making the game more fun for everyone.
As far as having played other online games, I haven\'t really done much. I\'ve played a few evenings using some friends\' accounts, but that\'s all. I\'ve avoided them mainly because it could potentially take a lot of time away from writing. But, if I\'m going to create my own MMORPG, that\'s a different story and I\'ll have to get up to speed with the state-of-the-art. (I have thoroughly enjoyed running around the PlaneShift dungeons in the past week.)
Sorry for the long reply.