Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 garyamort Jan 29, 2015 9:42:30	I played a lot of AD&D "back in the day" and my kids have recently got into D&D 5E.    Having read a lot of Knights of the Dinner Table, the idea of an organized structure where players can take charectors from game to game is really appealing.   Having read through how Adventurers work......quite frankly it's not so fun.  It's a lot of paperwork for casual games.   And the whole take on charector death is comes across as limiting the game to magic rich campaign settings[apprently Raise Dead is such a common and easy spell to cast that every Faction is able to dole it out for free to all members under 5th level!]   So....why not use the mechanics already built into MMORPG's to alleviate that paperwork?   What I'm hacking together at the moment is a low powered campaign world and system, using the open source Planshift MMORPG as a base.  Combat in the MMORPG is completely nerfed - the only thing you can do in the MMORPG is walk around the campaign 'world'[limited to the main city and 1 days walk around it], purchase items, craft items, perform a 'dayjob', and create level up your charector.    In short, all the tedious paperwork that the DM has to do right now.   To play an adventure, you join one or more adventuring groups, which allows DM's access to your charector.   Before the game, the DM can simply print out the charectors that are playing and hand them to the players when they arrive.   After the adventure is over, the DM can submit the results electronically and the charectors are updated.  When you have enough XP to go up a level, you do your leveling up online.   That way you can join any "official" game through the MMORPG and all the tedious stuff can be done by the computer.   Some quirkiness for the system: 1) During an adventure, you can't use the regular 'store' to buy stuff.   So instead a special pricelist is setup.  For example, a normal component pouch is 25GP.   You can purchase a Component Packet for 3GP that is functional the same but only lasts for one game session.   Maybe the components weren't properly preserved or something so they spoil quickly.  A days 'rations' cost 5SP and are preserved to last forvever.  In game, a weeks rations are 5SP and spoil by the end of the session.   This means little to no tracking of consumables.   All the DM has to enter is how much gold you spent during the adventure.   2) No charector death for casual games.  Dying during the game instead becomes being incapacitated and unable to continue...you crawl back to town or whatever.   The computer will randomly run through the equipment you took with you and much of it will be carried off by thieves.       3) You choose your adventuring 'kit' based on what you are willing to lose if your charector dies.   In the middle of an adventure you discover that you need a silver mirror and you bought one but didn't bring it since it cost 100GP?  Too bad, it's in storage.   4)  I want to expand a DM's ability to flavor their own campaign, including unique magic items.   Want a +3 Dagger that glows when orcs are near?  No problem - when you enter it onto the system you choose the basic magic item type[Dagger, +3] and then in the notes section add the notation "glows when orcs are near".    For official play, only the Dagger, +3 has to be honored.  It is each DM's option whether to allow the custom properties.   Want to have a secret artifact that expands over time?  You also get a "private notes" section which can be restricted to just DM's in your local gaming group[to avoid accidentally informing players of it].   Example: Staff of Fistandulopious, can be used as a magic focus.  Note: wielder can cast feather fall 3 times a day.  Secret Note: Mages of 5th level or higher can cast Fly 3 times a day.   Now your local gaming group using a local campaign setting can use the secret features, while outside that group it would either be treated as just a magic focus or grant the feather fall ability at the DM's option.   5) Some form of cap on magic item power rewarded during casual gaming.   6) Great rewards come at great risk.   Special convention/tournament adventures can break the magic caps, but if you play in them and die, death is for keeps.   Note: players can set a  flag for the convention 'online' group when they join it.  If the flag is set, then DM results that add powerful magic items are allowed, and death will be true death.  If the flag is not set, then any magic item 'spoils' outside the scope will be noted as "once had" but the charector doesn't keep them.  An added minus of setting the flag would be halving experience gained for the adventure.   All of this is fairly trivial with todays open source MMORPG software.  On the programming side, it's a week or so tops to work through.   On the graphics/world generation side the time is much larger....which is why I am forgoing the graphics and a large world and sticking to a single city and basic artwork.
#2 garyamort Jan 29, 2015 9:52:27	Note: most of game mechanics for all of this is already in Planeshift, as well as most open source MMORPG engines.   Online chars can have classes/professions/etc.   They have abilities, and can have skills and features - so all this stuff is easily translated.   Where they would break down is with things like combat, and trying to figure out valid combinations of ability, skill, profeciency, and feats.   So basically the idea is to let the computer do what it does best - keep track of numbers - and let the humans do what they do best - deal with discrepencies and play.   Plus at some level make sure that DM's have a way to override the system from time to time...  IE some leveling bug crops up and a char doesn't get their new ability?  A DM can go in and add it to the char.
#3 Oraibi Jan 29, 2015 13:38:10	Well, good luck with your project. I hope it does for you what you wish it would do. I think you posted in the wrong forum, though -- this one is about playing and running Adventurers League, not taking our ball and going home to start our own OP program. But like I said, best of luck to you!
#4 Undrhil Jan 29, 2015 17:23:23	I laugh at this because people complained about how 4e felt like a "pen-and-paper" MMO and I have heard similar dissention about 5e and now, here is someone wanting to complete the transition.   Lol!
#5 garyamort Jan 30, 2015 11:16:35	Undrhil wrote:
(Reply to #3) garyamort	Oraibi wrote:
#7 Oraibi Jan 31, 2015 0:14:19	What has your experience with organized play been? Because a lot of this doesn't really seem practical given the goals of the AL program, which are set between WotC and (to a lesser extent) the AL coordinators.   My thoughts are that if you really want to do this, then you should realize you are in for a ton of work and will have to recruit a lot of volunteers -- without any sort of official support or sanction from WotC. Maybe you're interested in doing the work, but it really sounds to me that you're underselling how much effort this would to coordinate and administer.   But if that's what you want to do, then good luck in doing it. I likely won't be touching it myself, but I would be curious to see how far you are able to get with your ideas. I'd advise, though, that you spend some time playing and running in the AL campaign (or maybe Greyhawk Reborn) if you don't have extensive experience with organized play programs.   Good luck!
(Reply to #5) Undrhil	garyamort wrote:
#9 Mirtek Jan 31, 2015 16:26:58	garyamort wrote:
#10 Oraibi Jan 31, 2015 23:22:44	Well, that's mostly true. In theory you can use AL characters in whatever games you want, as long as you don't bring back any stuff (XP, money, items, etc) into AL from outside. If a friend is running a one-shot and she's okay with me playing my AL character, I can do that, I just can't keep (for AL purposes) anything I gain.