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[Harry Baldman]

I, too, would be quite interested to see the retrospective concluded.

[Vakothu]

I would also be interested.

[Xanmyral]

Indeed, likewise if it isn't too much bother.

[Empiricist]

Likewise.

[Tsuchigumo550]

Same.

[KineseN]

I would want to see it.

[Nahere]

As would I.

[syvarris]

Me too!

And yeah, if he messes up with it, something bad is going to happen.  Depends on what exactly he messes up though- making a rift will probably mean it's too close and something reaches out and grabs him, while controlling something would result in a hostile mind infecting him or something.

And there's another thing I'm going to do: the more he uses it, the more he'll grow a bit more insane.  Minor effects at first, like echoes of laughter, door slamming, little stuff.  Later, I'll start having him have full hallucinations like other players attacking him, or even have another personality infect him and start disrupting his actions and forcing him to summon more monsters.  You know, general Lovecraftian stuff.

And I think I'll make a small alteration to Nul-Sheal's level two boon: You become immune to physical damage from your chosen element.

[piecewise]

Retrospective part Deux or: How I learned that balancing an entire game without play testing is a hell of a drug.

So I'll tell ya, this "world beyond" thing started off as a lot of different stuff. At first I considered keeping the arena but making it more a blood sport then just a killing floor. Have players who weren't actively playing be able to bet on the ones currently fighting, and have the winners see part of the money from those bets. Get an economy going. Have themed battles in different arenas. Still sounds kinda fun, actually.

Then I considered just having whoever beat null become Null, so to speak. They would descend down into this ancient structure below and spend their time fighting various demons and such until someone else reached 20 pool and then fight them to see who would win.

And then I remembered my time in Hellmoo and people talking about a MUD or roguelike using this system and thought that would be pretty neat.  And so it was that I made about 1/3rd or so of the world. Then I figured I'd strung you guys along for long enough and let you loose with the intent of continuing to make the world in the background while you slowly explored it.

I did not put another ounce of work into the thing; all my desire to work on it was funneled into the game itself. So it goes. The first thing that came up, and I'm surprised I didn't think of it before that moment; was the anti-magic area at the spawn zone. It realized the need for it real fast though, when you blood thirsty buggers started hurling spells at each other the second you spawned. Made sense, world wise though, so I ran with it.

The gods were something I figured would be cool since they were in tons of rogue-likes and it would be an interesting way to add some more diversity to the otherwise similar band of confused and murderous wizards. I created them more as a mechanical device for adding powers then anything really lore related and then fit them into the lore a bit before and bit more as we went. I improvise a lot in certain situations to be honest. Sometimes it's a good thing, sometimes not. Occasionally it ends with me in a corner, cursing a former self.

I can say the same for some parts of the maps as well. And the creatures. Some of them had to be rebalanced on the fly and others had to be dropped or changed. I believe a few areas were rather boring so I either skipped them or they only showed up once, and heroes actually showed up a lot more then the original tables had them set to. I really wanted someone to get in a fight with one eventually, but only one guy did and...well it went poorly for him. So it goes, again.

There was a lot of stuff planned that never really got used. The minor alchemy stuff that showed up in Gren's place down in the caverns below the shipyard. Thats where the fact that Arcane is absorbed by mercury would come out. Or the short cuts between the places. There were several of those. Or the fact that I was toying around with the idea of allowing you to commandeer a fully fitted magical skyship from the yards out in the Yellow sea. Or any number of things at the ruined capital. Oh well, best not to dwell on what could  have been. If I really want to do it I'll make up another game with...hey..you know a Guns of Icarus type game would be pretty sweet...have a whole ship diagrammed out and let all the players man it in various circumstances. Yeah...

Well, another one for the pile of games to make.  Ambition is my greatest foe, if you can't tell. Always ideas, always more to do and more to make. Thats what got the better of me, I think. My ambition, my desire to grow this game into something massive and awesome. Make those visions in my head come true, if only briefly. But I've learned a good lesson here. Learned lessons about not letting roll and spreadsheet heavy games get too many players, mainly.

Poison is gonna have 5 or so. Because the damn text file for that is already 50 pages long full of the effects so by the end of making it I'm gonna have a real alchemy text on  my hands. Hopefully it works out well, I've got so many ideas of what to do with it. Maybe that sky ship game on the side, while I make it...yeah...

[Toaster]

Clearly we need to clone you a few times.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Wait, Poison is going to have sharply limited player space?

[Toaster]

Wait, Poison is going to have sharply limited player space?

Perhaps there are only five players at a time visiting crazytown, while the rest of the playerbase is trying to sell what they find for cash?

[Tsuchigumo550]

I wouldn't mind the full arena thing. Have eight people- set up rules each go, and nonplaying players could bet their items, currency, or whatever- and each time, random lotto is chosen for the players and the arena. Anywhere from 4 to 10 at a time.

Arenas would be based on the magic book itself, or possibly a new system based around it- say you'd have two element words, one stage-form word, and another possibly special form word- "Flesh Bone Desert Spear" for instance, could create a horrific world made of pulsing flesh riddled with bone spears jutting out of the terrain, the flesh forming small "dunes".

"Plant Alcohol Forest Contains" would be an entire grove of beertrees.

[piecewise]

Wait, Poison is going to have sharply limited player space?

At first, at the very least. To see how time and energy consuming it is to run. If it becomes clear that I can run it easily enough without much effort I'll loosen the limit. Admittedly, Poison is  very different game. You won't be popping 5 pills a turn like words in perplexicon; least not if you don't want to die. In Poison the drugs are much more powerful. For instance you could tear all the blood out of a man with a thought, or summon a blade made of dust that penetrates any sort of armor and can take the form of any bladed weapon, and that injects shards of glass into anything it cuts.

Those drugs are short term superpowers that you can mix and match.

[Thearpox]

Wait, Poison is going to have sharply limited player space?

At first, at the very least. To see how time and energy consuming it is to run. If it becomes clear that I can run it easily enough without much effort I'll loosen the limit. Admittedly, Poison is  very different game. You won't be popping 5 pills a turn like words in perplexicon; least not if you don't want to die. In Poison the drugs are much more powerful. For instance you could tear all the blood out of a man with a thought, or summon a blade made of dust that penetrates any sort of armor and can take the form of any bladed weapon, and that injects shards of glass into anything it cuts.

Those drugs are short term superpowers that you can mix and match.

((First come first serve? Or are you only going to be taking the people in the current test? Or are we all going to sumbit a sheet, and then you're going to pick/roll dice to see who gets in?

I am asking because with a small limit of five people, and your current player list total (ER + Perplexicon) of more than 40, first come first serve seems kinda... unfair. You get different time zones, and it will fill up awfully quickly. At least I think it will.))