Fantasy RP Development

[Jenno]

Alrighty folks, since the poll has some swing with freeform Fantasy, we need to start coming up with ideas for one if we're going to make one up. Because I've tried many many many times to make a freeform Fantasy RP, and it never seems to work if you start it alone.

AND SO... I leave it to you all for ideas.

Where will it be set?
What races?
What kind of governing system?
Basic Plot idea?
Magic or no magic?
Expanses of the universe?
Geography/Cartography?

Ideas, ideas, ideas!!!

[Xaojii]

yup, well I went with as much "freeform" as I could think of

Setting: sometimes inspecific details are better that names and all that, so I went with an unnamed planet with named continents, and I was really expecting the players to make up thier own theologies, religions, and supposed astronomies.

Races: again I let players take a liberty on that, as long as the demographics don't get freaky, and I gave a rack databank section so people could post culture and other such facts about them.

Government: I added multiple continents 3 with thier own separate govt. systems, each one with a decided theme, that you might pick up if you've got the ESP for it

Basic Plot: I dunno, I guess I'm sorta weak in that half, I was kinda thinking that people would live out the true "freeform" spirit and pursue they're own path and eventually wind up of the road to story progression.

Magic: I guess that's something I skipped out on... I intended it to be used in the game, but only to those who seek it; years of dedication, finding a willing master, the whole 86 year old guy who live on the top of the mountain with no friends deal.

Universe: other than that one planet; no, but there's always the random rogue wizard that creates an unstable paralell dimension. That sorta thing.

Geography/Cartography: mmmm... yup for this I spent hours on a map generator utility for Civilization 4, called Atlas to find the perfect landmasses I envisioned... 4 changes and a photobucket account later this is what I got.

Sword & Axe RP

Join if you like, criticsim would be great.

[Jenno]

Not to by any means bash your site (which I'm not) This thread is designed for the community to come together and plan out an entire new idea. Which we might be able to shift to S&A.

Basically, the thing we need to look at is what we want to have happen around here. Because if we create an ENTIRE WORLD, it's a lot different than if I add a new world here. It doesn't become a new posting board, it is the whole forum. And if you look at HominoDraconis You'll see that it has a very large and in-depth world as well as a big storyline. The problem I think was that HD didn't quite bring things home to players.

Now, we could do a whole lot more, and a whole lot more effectively, if we were to make the enitre RP take place within some kingdom or small nation, we could really shift what is going on around there to whatever we would like, and the whole local thing, makes it so that we'd all run into one another sooner or later. After that, if we wanted characters to go someplace else, we would just make a new board for that place and leave it there.

Y'know, let the characters grow upon the world, or something like that.


I've a few more ideas, actually, A LOT more ideas, but I want to see what you guys come up with. And also, I'm seeing if I can find us a better forum client.

[Corstar]

I know some people are going to HATE me for suggesting this, but it has to be suggested.

What about Oblivion?

I mean obviously you don't have to do something exactly after it, but alot of key plotlines/ideas are there. Morrowind and Oblivion both have tons and tons and TONS... [litterly if you add up all the books in a single crate >.>] of literature on the creatures, gods, magic...swords....females.

Could make up something similar on one of the outlying islands or somesuch. It'd make several things easier, all you have to do is come up with a plot that way. Already got enough gods to curse by and all that.

Just my two cents.

[Jenno]

See now, that's why I was talking DND, because there are over 300 books filled with all kinds of knowledge.

And the best part about that knowledge, is that it is not tied to any kind of history. And it is all designed for the sake of (gasp!) character creation.

I refer you to the only actually succesful Fantasy RP I was ever a part of. It was a chat-based (the only reason why I left) and it was based off of DND. The entire setting was a single tavern and the immediate area. That was it. It had over 700 members. And at any given second, at least 10 were on. Whether it be noon, midnight, or 3 a.m., people were on and doing stuff.

Not saying anything THAT small, but if we were to go with something along those lines (I'm slightly rusty on Oblivion, still on Morrowind, so that's why I brought up this.) I think we could get WAY more people than with anything we could come up with on our own. People love having a wealth of knowledge to fall back on.

I know that TES is popular, but it might be somewhat hard to deviate from... I don't wanna say canon, necessarily... I dunno what, but it's just the thing with VG based RPs... I rarely see too many succeed, though there are exceptions.





All in all, I like the idea of using a lot of verified information to fall back on, and I'm favoring the DND right now JUST because they don't have any strict timeline or setting, so we could literally do WHATEVER we wanted with it. Plus, there's quite possibly more books about DND than all the major fantasies put together.


...oh yeah, and I've already started work on the new forum client, so the blank site should be up soon.

[Xaojii]

Le gasp, my idea sucked *tear*
oh well, I didn't expect it to get very far or very successful with you guys, or anyone for that matter... if no one goes on it, then I'll close it down. I'm a terrible administrator anyway.

Fortunately the subject of a TES based RP is ideal for me vs D&D seeing how I never got into it, and I'll be a valuable member I think, seeing as how I'm a lore junkie when it comes to TES universe. Usually people seek me out when they need to understand the ideas behind Divine Metaphysics, not the other way around.

[Corstar]

I...never got into DND. Quite the opposite actually. I've never liked it.

Which is why I suggested Oblivion or Morrowind. I beat Oblivion again recently...and Morrowind I remember well enough >.>

[Jenno]

well now, assuming we do decide to use the TES lore, would we go on to utilize other aspects of TES? And if so, how far does it go before this stops being freeform? Not bashing the idea or anything, just saying that it's heading for canon, and canon usually drives away players unless it's something big like Star Wars or LOTR or one of those big expansive universes.

WE can make a TES RP, or a freeform. I think maybe the two ideals will clash. A lot. And that might hurt the new member flow. Also a Lot.


And I only suggested DND becase of its total freeformnessness

[Corstar]

How does using already made theorms make it canon? I wasn't suggesting we all start running around in ebony armor fighting daedric hoards.

Gets boring after awhile. Same classes though, same gods, perhaps the same animals running amuck, you already have a ton of classes, make up a continent and come up with names. Plot, leadership characters, armor and weapons all still need to be thought out, but the basic magic system is there too.

[Xaojii]

Am I the guy with the hard to pronounce name? I don't think so, say it with me "zae-o-gee" pretty simple if you really think about it.

[Jenno]

I didn't say it did. Just saying, the more of this data we use, the closer we inch towards a canon RP. it wasn't a statement, it was a question. How much are we going to use? What will the hard-and-fast rules be? Are people going to have to learn the specific magic system to be able to do anything, or will we let magic be freeform also? Where will the rules limit, and where will they nuture? How will we accomadate those not familiar with TES? Not too much of a problem on here, but there are going to be a lot of classes, races, and ideas that people are going to want to use that are not in TES. Will we change to conform, or send them packing?

ok... so not quite that harsh, but you see my point.

Will this be set within the TES universe? Will our area have connections with the outside world? If so, how will that work?

I'm thinking maybe we could always just compromise and find some way to combine the two data sources (one filling the other's gaps or something like that), and maybe toss in a few others.

Really, I'm just trying to think how we're going to get an influx of new members. Because that's really the only thing that will allow this new site to live. We need a lot of new members and we need them fast. Amost nobody goes onto a new site with an undefined freeform universe unless there's a few people there. Heck, nobody goes onto any new site unless there's a few people there.

[Regnier]

An AU TES might be the thing. Perhaps make the same universe, lands, critters, classes, races, items, gods even, but remove the TES history, and replace it with our own. Perhaps even make it like before those blasted Imperials conquered everything, and change how everything played out. Make it actually take place in a different area never befoe seen (like some huge-ass island way out there that someone forgot to mention), and just be able to talk about places like Morrowind or Cyrodiil in passing ("My family hails from the Black Marsh", for example).

Only...make it different. Make it so you're not restricted solely to TES lore, lands, and skills, etc., so long as nothing too bizarre or clashing is made. For instance, other races (Ogres and trolls of a less animal variety, gnomes, more variaties of humans, elves, and orcs, etcetera etcetera), other lands, and significant events, so long as nothing goes too far (Uruk-hai from Mordor that once fought a bunch of Hobbits for a piece of shiney, for instance ), etc. This way, someone not so familiar with the TES universe and its contents and lore can still go just fine, without having to research the TES universe heavily.

Just thinking aloud, here, feel perfectly free to ignore me completely.

[Corstar]

....

What the dude above me said.

yeah I meant you Xaojii .

I agree with Reg.

[Jenno]

Alright... so, since we're not restricting players, would it be agreeable to use some of this data to fill in the gaps?

www.crystalkeep.com/d20/rules/All3.5Indexes.zip

That gives you a pretty big chunk there for extra races and some new class ideas.


I'm going to go check up some more on TES data and troubeshoot. Check up with you guys later.

[Jenno]

Question to those interested in the TES idea:

What will we call this? Because if we call it a TES RP, you can cut the number of new members down by at least three quarters. Darned shame, but that's the way things go. The appeal of RP is to play the roles you can't play yourself. And in an RPG like TES, the demand for RP is going to be somewhat low.

Now, we can still utilize TES elements, not saying anything against that.

But, and this is just me typing out loud, what if we went the whole "Anything Goes" route? You know, just let everybody be whatever they want, and stick in some kind of level system so that characters stay balanced. With some restrictions, of course. Basically, no matter what we base it off of, people are going to show up who either don't know or don't like whatever we use as background. If we let them all bring something new to the table, maybe we'd have a better shot at bringing this site to frutition.

Looked over the TES stuff (specifically, Oblivion, where I'm the most rusty) and I have to say that, even though it's pretty popular, we need to think a broader range. There's a reason why there aren't any large-scale Freeform Fantasy Rps out there. They're all too limited and they die. We do not want that.

So rather than bicker and argue about what to use as background information, since we're going to go OU anyway (it IS freeform, after all), what say you all we just start planning things besides what pantheon of gods to use or how magic will work, since most people will ignore that anyway.

[Vehem]

oh, man. I loved Morrowind. I played it so much I was starting to think that it was sucking out my soul, so i sold it. The game that is. But recently Ive been getting the itch to play it. I would love to help build and mod a tes rp site. I pretty much agree with what CG is saying here. And I'm sure that we can think of some badass name to call it.

[Vehem]

Really, if the rules and basic guidlines are all that you guys are thinking of here, we can start to build the site now. Oh, where is it going to take place?

[Yoh]

Ok, Simple

DnD Characters, Races And Glasses, but we role-play them instead of dice rolling and over complex rules system which takes too long to learn. NO LEVELS

Two warring nation, ((on same continent or two continents with sea battles)) each of which has diplomatic convoys who travel between((go in-depth diplomatic role-play)) trying to secure and peaceful end to the war, on each side there are numbers of races ((Any race can pick any side)).

Magic is allowed

Basic outline... we get someone to write a VERY detailed story about the war and get a few plots going

Freeform- You don't have to join the war, you could be a thief, merchant, bandit, wise man, sea-man and anything you could think of.

War is there as a guideline to the freeform because without a main event going on its going to be hard to get everyone role playing together.

I'd be happy to writ about the war if this idea is accepted.

[Xaojii]

I like it, that system really work well, and it looks like you put alot of effort into it, you got my vote on that, just put in the fine details about the story(s), and there's one issue though; the magic system. There's gunna be mages floating around, and we can't have them casting spells day and night nonstop, with all of those ubermagical resistances, bonuses and whatnot that come with being arcanely endowed. We gotta find a way to lower them down to being balanced with the rest of the classes

[Jenno]

...yeah... soo... that's kind of what I meant by using DND. I hate the dice rolls. Didn't I already mention that? Yeah, I meant just use all those races and classes. Maybe even the pantheon, becuase you can find all of that on the interweb easy. And I've already got us a new site that I've been primping up.

I would LOVE to help write the back story.

I've already started, actually... bunches of ideas...