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I don't know, and trust me, Bigkahuna, it gets complicated when there are two teams, and the teams run by GMs? That would be hell. We would need to have a trail first, or possibly make it a chatroom-based RP.

I would personally be avoiding chat room RPs for new players, or at least not until we have enough to ensure that there are enough in the same timezone to play.

I think we may be over-complicating this a bit. We want a game that is very simple for new players to join, very simple for GM(s) to run and allows players to join and leave at any time without causing any disruption. I was thinking about my idea a bit more and I think it can be made quite simple and fun to play.

Everyone plays in a generic dungeon that is not clearly defined (i.e. no map, you just run around). The players fight monsters they encounter and pick up items that boosts their combat power, the objective is to fight the final boss (there could be some arbitary conditions to 'unlock' the boss). Once the boss is beaten the dungeon resets. Players can use their items to interfere with other players combats to either help them/hinder them. Each turn a player can search their current location, move onto a new location, use as many items as they wish, interfere with any other player. Combat occurs at the end of the turn, giving players their turn to interfere if they wish, and the combat is then concluded at the start of the next turn. A 1d6 will determine each individual action and players can literally put anything as their action.

A few example rolls for one player:

Search all the prison cells then head back up the stairs. Equip my fiery sword and bucket helm.

Search [3]: You move through the dripping stone archway, the prison is lighted by several flaming torches lined around the walls held by wooden brackets. There are six cells with their doors open, you tentatively search the cells but find little of value except a dirty old boot; the idea of putting it on your foot repulses you so you wield it as a weapon. You draw the fiery sword you recently found and it instantly demonstrates its fiery nature, yelling challenges to any potential enemy; the bucket helm fits awkwardly on your head, the handle banging against your chin. You edge back up the stairs when a large blob like monstrosity lurches down the steps towards you.

Player 1:
Level: 4
Dwarf

Spoiler:

Head: Bucket Helm +1

Spoiler:

Body: None
Arms: None
L Hand: Dirty boot +1

Spoiler:

R Hand: Fiery Sword +3

Spoiler:

Legs: None
Feet: None

Items:
Curse: Lower the ceiling!

Spoiler:

Potion: Deceleration drink

Spoiler:

Combat:
Mr Blobby
Level: 6
Gains +2 if player has piercing or impact weapons. Loses -2 if player has fire weapon or hacking weapons

Wave the Fiery sword around a lot, letting its war cries deafen Mr Blobby, then hack at its arms which ramming the dirty boot up its nose. Once defeated continue up the stairs and charge dowb corridors aimlessly. Use my Deceleration Drink on player 2.

You start to swirl the Fiery sword around your head[5], its high pitched voice deafening Mr Blobby (+1), you then hack wildly at both its arms [+1) which are severed and ooze onto the floor. You bring the Dirty Boot [4] up hard and crush it as far into its nostrils as you can (+1) causing Mr Blobby to slam his hand down on your head, luckily your Bucket helm deflected the blow (+1) and the monster passes out. Rifling through the rolls of gloop you discover a potion and pocket it. You head on up the stairs and pull out your curse bottle, a plastic pneumatic tube appears and you send the curse on its way to your victim.


----

And so on. The interaction between the level system (your level having to total more than the monsters) and the rolls needs to be clarified, but it could work that a poor roll means that bonuses is not in effect as the helmet breaks or whatever.

The player can do all sorts of things and can create weapons, in this case, if the player finds a brick they could put the brick in the boot and create "Brick in a Boot" which would be +3 but could also be thrown to hit either a player or a monster they are fighting.

What do you think?

That seems like a decent idea. The only problem is that we're still not fixing the main problem with new players (new players want the same type of games the rest of us do), just segregating them more.

My 2 gold coins.

That's the point, this game will run like a R2D but it has to be a little different to accomodate the fact that players will be joining all the time and potentially leaving all the time - As the idea of this game is for there to always be a spot for everyone to join; rather than there being no games to join.

A New players does not ever have to play this R2D, they can play it for 3 days, or they could play it for 3 months.

I still answer with a "meh". It works and I have no qualms about it being made, but I still think it could be bypassed by just making a normal game.

I just had a thought. People joined the forum, then saw that there were no free games, and therefore haven't payed us another visit. What is we had some way of informing them that there are player slots available, and that there could be a waiting list for new users to put their names down whenever they're out of options?

So, we seem to be getting a new game ready, as well as Rulyon's. Thats two games which should keep us going for a while, but should I have one of my games ready, in case it's needed? (probably devils flintlock.)

@Daravel: Your idea sounds great! A small mistake though: The player cut of Mr Blobbys arms, but Mr Blobby smashed his hand on Player's head? No biggie, just sounded fun ^^

Frogger, that would probably be best, to have a list of new players.

The problem with a 'normal' R2D is that the story is involved and somewhat reliant on the characters, they also have player limits and the rolls would be far too cumbersome for many players.

This would be a 'normal' game for all purposes except that it needs to facilitate lots of players, and the coming and going of players. This style of game would work for that as there is no story.

Don't forget, they can join an existing normal game, no problem, but they can fill up fast; this functions as more of a holding game for when there are no places currently.

This would also solve the problem of people coming and having no where to go and never coming back; this game would always be open to new players and *should* roll reguarly to keep them coming back.

Ill take care of that for now then.

I still think a Terraria type system would be great.

We could still have multiple games, but they would NOT be the same instance. All the games would be separated.

Basically a template to make an easy but involved game with lots of slots.

Daravel - that sounds like it could work very well, but again we would need a template with items, monsters, and such if we want multiple games. Otherwise, random GMs would break the balance in their games which would ruin the purpose.

Your original idea is pretty cool, but is probably best as a giant R2D for everyone to get involved in.

I think it's best for there to be only one game for now, each iteration can have a new GM. We can create a list of items etc etc that were used in previous games and a) balance them on the fly b) introduce a 'random' event that negates a broken item c) balance the item for future games.

I really don't have the time to plan the game in detail, but I can make a start? Or someone else can. It needs to be fairly simple without being boring. Then we can get it posted in the games forum and then work on getting new players.

Anyone have any ideas for that?

If you want a portable (i.e. can be used in as many games as needed), mostly balanced system with plenty of monsters, items, abilities, etc. without the massive amount of work that entails, why not use a preestablished system, e.g. D&D 3.5 ^[1], Pathfinder ^[2][3], or d20 Modern ^[4][5] (those being the first three I could think of with online rules)?

Uh... are we going to act on this, or not?

I was intending to create a 'mock up' game and put it up so we can 'play' it and perfect it, but alas, I'm so busy right now.

Is this forum getting enough traffic now, or is this something that is still needed to be discussed...?
(4 months since last post on this thread! Woot!)