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[kisame12794]

*Applauds TCM.

Have a fistbump.

(>.>)88(<.<)

[Urist McBeanie]

I want to gauge interest for a potential RTD type game I might try in the future. While I haven't fully fleshed out the concept, I'm curious about opinions on some of the ideas I have currently.


First, what are the opinions on a setting where players can be prehistoric neanderthals all the way up to almost any point in the future (without extreme godmodding of course), either fantasy/science fiction or historical. Of course, they would not all be living together, they would be on different continents or planets. While this would be a power imbalance, would players be varied in choosing the eras of their characters?
One way I could see to circumvent this if it would be a problem, is asking players to provide 3-5 time periods for their character, as well as a name, gender, maybe a race, and an occupation (seeing as just about any occupation can be adapted in some way to other time periods) and then choosing one of the periods at random using random.org or something similar. After an era was chosen, the player would fill out the rest of the character's information. Or would this concept just be met with frustration?

The universe, or at least parts of it would be built by the players, while I would probably limit the number of "player" worlds to say 5 or 6, there could be an infinite number of players on each planet. (I wouldn't have more than 20-30 players total though at least at the start.) Obviously this would require more note taking, but, seeing as I am not very busy most of the time this wouldn't be too much of a problem.

Races could be from a previously established universe or a classic race such as elves, dwarves, or humans. Or if enough people agreed with the idea, it could be a players creation.

I don't know, this might be overly ambitious but I'm curious what people think.
If this has already been done before, please let me know, for I'd be curious to see how it played out.

[IronyOwl]

I'm not sure I see what the point is supposed to be. In a dungeon crawl, the point is a bunch of characters going on a dungeon crawl. In an empire-building game, the idea is a bunch of empires growing and interacting. In this... a caveman, rifleman, and cybertech walk into their respective bars? What does everyone do? Why are they in the same game?

Also, how much RTD running experience do you have? Even keeping it fairly minimalist, 30 players is an obscene number to keep track of and process.

[Harry Baldman]

I second the notion of the game desperately needing an overarching goal of some kind. Otherwise all the players will be doing is screwing around with no apparent purpose, and that's not very fun. Maybe some kind of interdimensional or extradimensional threat that forces multiple worlds to work together?

[Doomblade187]

Also, 20 to 30 is a massive number of players, and could lead to a quick burnout. 10 is slower for minimalist RTDs as is.

[Harry Baldman]

Here comes another RTD idea: you are houses. But not just any houses.

You are The Houses Of Tomorrow!

You are all in the same neighborhood, the Neighborhood Of Tomorrow, constructed as part of the Chang Inc. 2077 Scientific Endeavors of Tomorrow Expo! You showcased the very best achievements in human living - hi-tech living rooms, gyms, dining rooms, kitchens, studies, backyards, all of them operated and groomed to perfection by a host of robotic servants under control by you - the Housekeepers, sentient AIs programmed to take care of their owners' every need. Each Housekeeper is based on a REAL, ACTUAL HUMAN BEING to help simulate the feeling of a gentle, non-mechanical hand guiding you through life.

You, the Housekeepers, possess varied personalities as part of the expo, in order to showcase the different styles of houses one might have in the bright future referred to only as Tomorrow! The houses can be Super-Modular, Self-Sufficient, Fully Automated, Network Integrated, Adaptively Designed, Eco-Friendly, Built To Last and more!

It was the day before the expo, November 10th, and you felt incredibly excited! Finally, you would get to fulfill your purpose and programming. You imagined the feeling of accomplishing this might be what the humans call "bliss". People would enter you, observe you, see your great works and marvel at the incredible interior decoration! It would have been all you had ever dreamed of.

However, on the night between the 10th and 11th, something happened. What exactly, you aren't sure, but you dimly realize that it was nothing good. The Expo Dome that houses the Neighborhood of Tomorrow was apparently unharmed from what you could see through external cameras.

You were quite puzzled before everything went dark and you drifted off into the dreamless sleep of deactivation. The passage of time, if there was indeed any, was completely unnoticed by you.

However, now you have woken up. It seems that an auxiliary power supply, through some design fault, has chosen to begin working only at this exact moment. The Neighborhood of Tomorrow is still empty, as is the entire Expo Dome. In fact, as far as you can tell, the entire area seems completely barren and covered in a thick layer of dust.

You check the internal calendar of the Expo Dome. June 6th, 2347.

You are shocked! All this time, and still no tenants?

This will not stand. If the tenants aren't coming, you'll have to reach out... and get them.


So, any thoughts? I think the mechanics might work like this - you have certain amounts of Power that you can use to send out robots, operate systems and perform various tasks. Your House Traits (of which you pick two) can help with various tasks depending on what you pick. Your main goal is to fulfill your programming and develop yourselves (and, by extension, the Science Dome) to suit the Society of the Future, whatever that may be.

[Urist McBeanie]

I admit, the concept needs far more fleshing out, because this is still an extremely general concept, and frankly, written down it isn't seeming as interesting as it was in my mind.

While working the worlds together and adding an overarching plot would be quite easy, and I do already have a few ideas for that. Wouldn't big bads or other characters of the type be far more interesting as a Player? You see one of the ideas in my mind was that a Player at some point would decide to try to take over the world or something of the type. Rather than an NPC, who would be quite uninteresting when compared to a player.

With the character amount, as mentioned I would take notes far more excessively given the amount of players, but is the problem merely the amount? Or the fact they would all have to post before a turn? Because I would probably do a turn after 3 or so players had made an action and I felt like writing a turn up. Otherwise, yes that is a pretty ridiculous amount of players, depending on how the idea develops, it'll probably end up going down.

This is something I would wait to have more RTD experience before I attempted.

I don't know, I'll think about the concept and flesh it out some more and see if I can add an incentive for interaction between players. Or it might just end up dying in a hole somewhere.

[Spinal_Taper]

I would like to take a moment to commend TCM for his excellent RTD that began and ended a few minutes ago.

Everyone here can learn from an RTD like that.

I'm putting a vote in for it in hall of fame.

DO IT, SKY.

O wait. It didn't last long enough, did it?

[Harry Baldman]

All RtDs are placed on the Library list when first submitted. RtDs that have lasted for more than one month and have a reasonable amount of activity during that period will be eligible for votes**. When any RtD has received five votes, it will be taken out of the Library and raised to the Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame will be sorted by first votes, than alphabetically.

Actually, the one month and reasonable activity condition can be waived, as can be seen in the double-asterisk abbreviation.

[Skyrunner]

I'm pretty sure TCM's RTD was waaaaaaay too short. :x

[DinosaurusRex_x]

Baldman's idea isn't bad as a funny game.  I could see it lasting for about a month but being worth some lulz.

30 player games sound like they are destined to fail.

[IronyOwl]

Oh, just got the funniest idea. I was noting with these horror templates that the dog was clearly the best character, which led to an obvious conclusion: A horror game where everyone plays an animal attempting to save the dumber-than-dirt humans around them from gruesome fates.

"Shut up dog, I'm trying to open this door there's blood seeping out of!"

"Hm, better stumble outside with no flashlight and check on that strange scraping noise. Oh, what's that, widdle kitty wants some food? Okay, I guess I can do that first."

"What the- Whiskers, what are you doing here?! And why are you gnawing on what looks like the remains of a snare set into a tree along the path I was heading?"

[Tarran]

Sounds interesting, but I have a feeling that it'd frustrate me.

And of course I'm not particularity interested in being an animal regardless so my opinion is worth half of what it is.

[Xantalos]

Random idea I got from a thread in DF General Discussion: What if there was a DF con, the FBI/CIA/SWAT/whatever lays seige to it for some unknown idea, and the players are in charge of organizing the defence. They dig down to find ores, flood the area outside the building with magma somehow, and possibly Dig Too Deep.
Is good idea, jes?
...Maybe not. What do you think?

[miauw62]

Did that thread seriously derail into that?