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[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

I had the same problem with any of my attempts at my great river campaigns and one of my other games

Though that's probably due to my terrible GM skills

[BlitzDungeoneer]

So.

I have had one more idea for a D&D 3.5 game.

It's not your average dungeon crawler, a legend of ancient heroes fighting a terrible beast from the beginning of time, or a story of warriors who wandered the land to master their own fates.

It's about war. War is hell. It has been one hundred and seven years since the fall of Gemodor, and no kingdom has dared to reclaim its lost expanses, fearful of the corrupting magic that wrought its end. The country of Sarium has invaded lands of the kingdom Atissa, and the PCs are a conscripted mercenary group, tasked with mowing down armies of soldiers--some mere conscripted farmers who could barely wield a pitchfork in their own profession, others generals who have seen countless battles--to regain the occupied land. The PCs, once noticed by generals in the army, are tasked with increasingly dangerous jobs--perhaps jobs that would push them beyond their limits, beyond what they know. Beyond the point of return. But it is the life they must lead.

Sound interesting?

This does sound very interesting, actually. I doubt I'd be able to get a sheet out in time, but yeah. I would totally go for that.

[IronyOwl]

This is bit of an unusual question, but could someone tell me what the main problem is with Galaxy Rise, one of my games?
Just about every game I try to host like it peters out in the same way. It starts off with a decent amount of people, then with each post, the amount of people posting decreases, until it's just one person or nobody posting.

I suspect it's too open-ended, too hard, and players aren't invested or able to become invested enough.

Players have a bad habit of freezing up when confronted with infinite options or a general goal but no clear hints on how to get there. You'll notice they jumped on the chance to raid the warehouse, for instance, because it was there. They faffed around with some other options- "repair engines," "make new starfighter," and so on, but nothing particularly creative. Now they've got the materials and probably don't know what to do next.

This aforementioned problem is magnified when things are difficult. They've blown their cover, patrols are after them, their easy mark is gone, the haul wasn't enough to get them back on their feet and doing other things... if they're not discouraged, then they're at least probably not swimming in easy ideas. Players are also not known for being especially hard workers, especially for the low-investment format of a suggestion game.

Finally, they might not be invested enough in the game. It hasn't been going on very long, so hitting a snag is more likely to elicit a shrug than the motivation to find a way around it. The game also (at least at the moment) doesn't have a ton of things to feel invested about, like leveling up officers the way they want them to or designing custom ships, which further retards players' abilities to form attachments to it.


In my experience, "here's a situation, do stuff" doesn't work out terribly well for players, and less so in a suggestion game unless it's incredibly silly. The real trick to keeping such a game going, I suspect, is to write and run it such that you end up with an entertaining story regardless of what the players vote for, because otherwise tragedy of the commons and general incompetence will drive it into the ground in short order.

[Chiefwaffles]

That reaffirms my main fear (choice) and helps a lot with how to solve it. Thanks!

So basically I should always have a "string" that players can/will/should follow to progress, directly related with the story. Kind of like the main quest in a RPG?

[IronyOwl]

Pretty much. It's great when players are creative, but you probably don't want to rely on it because then everything goes to hell if/when they disappoint you. Make sure there's always at least one obvious button to push, and then they can get creative finding/making others when they can.

[Parsely]

It seems to me lately that a lot of people either don't know they should +1 or are afraid to. If you actually follow a game you really really should +1.

[Execute/Dumbo.exe]

Otherwise it quickly becomes one person just putting in actions every turn, eventually stopping when they decide that they might as well give someone else a go.

[Haspen]

Personally I have 2 projects in the works and 1 concept...

"SAEC": A game of space exploration in soft sci-fi themes. Do not expect beam lazers and hordes of alien races to fight/work with, though; you will be delegated to star system scans, laboratory work, maintenance of Prometheus V, but mainly, exploration of available universe.

"Gunhazard Mercs": A game about group of mecha-riding mercs who are to fight crime and uncover illuminati-like plots on they way to earn monies and get a comfortable retirement.

That one concept is about cooperative Doom-like shoot'em all where the gorup goes through an demon-infested space station to destroy portal leading into another dimension; but mostly it would be able killing demons in showers of gore and hot lead.

Anyone interested in these?

[BlitzDungeoneer]

The Gunhazard Mercs seems pretty interesting, actually. I might go for that.

[10ebbor10]

That reaffirms my main fear (choice) and helps a lot with how to solve it. Thanks!

So basically I should always have a "string" that players can/will/should follow to progress, directly related with the story. Kind of like the main quest in a RPG?

I prefer having more than 1 option really

Or at least provide more information. At this moment, we know nothing about the planet, now nothing about the system we're in. Without knowing about the world, people can't do anything.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

I'm trying to figure out what to do with later stages of War for Sanctuary... If it should transition directly into the next game or end the events that will happen in the current game?
I've got a few scenarios for what's going to happen in game and all of them work decently with the transition to the next game so I'm not sure how to end this one

[Chiefwaffles]

That reaffirms my main fear (choice) and helps a lot with how to solve it. Thanks!

So basically I should always have a "string" that players can/will/should follow to progress, directly related with the story. Kind of like the main quest in a RPG?

I prefer having more than 1 option really

Or at least provide more information. At this moment, we know nothing about the planet, now nothing about the system we're in. Without knowing about the world, people can't do anything. The

I've always been a fan of emerging plot/background settings, but they don't really work well in forum games. I'm lambing on revealing more about new things in the future, though. As for choice, I'm planning for more of an open world once the prologue is finished.

[Fniff]

Here's the trick: minimizing work for yourself while making it seem like the players story.
Let's take an example. Players are meant to go to the cold northern fortress where the dark lord is waiting. They throw a wrench in your plans when instead decide to go to the hot southern temple where the artifact of holy might is waiting since that seems easier. A good way to minimize work is to give the fortress a new lick of paint; hey, now the frost warriors are lava demons who deal heat damage instead of frost damage with their blows, and the dark lord is trying to break open the vault containing the artifact.
Same situation as they would be in if they had gone to the fortress but they feel like it's their own idea.

However, sometimes you have to let go of your plans and just go wild if your players really get into the spirit of things. Planning out a roleplay should be second if everyone gets into the zone. You'll know what I'm talking about if you've ever experienced it; that mode where there doesn't need to be a story or plans (Though, as always, they help), because everyone is in tune with both their characters and their fellow players.
It's hard to reach, but it's glorious when you do.

[Harbingerjm]

Personally I have 2 projects in the works and 1 concept...

"SAEC": A game of space exploration in soft sci-fi themes. Do not expect beam lazers and hordes of alien races to fight/work with, though; you will be delegated to star system scans, laboratory work, maintenance of Prometheus V, but mainly, exploration of available universe.

"Gunhazard Mercs": A game about group of mecha-riding mercs who are to fight crime and uncover illuminati-like plots on they way to earn monies and get a comfortable retirement.

That one concept is about cooperative Doom-like shoot'em all where the gorup goes through an demon-infested space station to destroy portal leading into another dimension; but mostly it would be able killing demons in showers of gore and hot lead.

Anyone interested in these?

The first sounds most interesting, though the second sounds ok.

[Parsely]

The first sounds most interesting, though the second sounds ok.

^^This. First one sounds awesome.