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I was sort of halfway between this board and the Game board and I was not entirely sure which board was the appropriate one. I looked at the FAQ and it seemed like this one was more for collaborative projects and that made more sense.
So my proposal is to start an online RPG for Barbelith but with some things to make it cool in the Barbelith Gnostic Paradigm way (see, I read the FAQ). I hope that someone else will share my interest and give this idea a try (though I would wager that quite a few have tried and failed before).
My ideas is to focus on the collaborative process of a game as being the interplay of players and GM/DM/whatever other term one may use. I would like to see this as being as much a game as a collaborative story (which is why I placed the thread on this board). I would really like to try and push the two ideas together and see what happens when we play with them.
I would like to accomplish this by having rotating game masters (probably the most commonly used term) with either running the game for a single adventure and then the next "episode" being run by another person or by having people run the game for a set period of time (a month for instance) before handing it off to the next person. When you join, you can volunteer as either a player/GM or just a player, if you volunteer as a player/GM then you get put in the queue and you can run the game when it is your turn, if you are just a player then you can just play and not have to worry about running the game (though you can switch the two if you wish).
There are still a few things that would need to be clarified in terms of rules (such as how often one needs to post, how combat would work, how experience would be distributed, removal of gamemasters who, frankly, aren't up to the job, etc.) but I think we can figure that out as we go along.
The first thing to figure out would be which game system we are going to use. I found a few different systems that we could get online for free (available to all players for free). Let me know if you know of any other similar systems that I may have missed.
1. OSRIC
http://www.knights-n-knaves.com/osric/downloads/OSRIC.pdf
(This is an open source version of First Edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons)
PRO: Fairly easy rules to learn (easy to pick up enough to be able to play), outside game materials are not that difficult to find, a number of choices for classes, more likely that a few people on the board have played it in the past. First Edition is also probably 80 percent compatible with Second Edition (a few tweaks might be needed but I don't know anyone who ever had issues with using the two together in any significant way) as well, which opens up the number of options (and there is a site that has a huge amount of Second Edition stuff online).
CON: Pretty rigid class choices, rulebook is over a hundred pages long, rules can be complicated at times (and, really, who didn't cut a few rules out to save time), not really friendly for parties of vastly differing levels.
2. FUDGE
http://www.fudgerpg.com/files/pdf/fudge_1995.pdf
Honestly, I just glanced through this one. It seems like a very useful system as it offers a lot of options but it also seems like it might be a bit too open and it might be kind of difficult to use.
3. D20 System
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/article/srd35
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/article/msrd
There is a fantasy and a modern version of this system. The good thing is that this offers a lot of options for customizing characters. The downside (well kind of a downside, or an adaptation to new circumstances) is that the rules are really video-gamey.
4. TriStat DX
http://www.guardiansorder.com/pdfs/goo_TriStatdX.pdf
Honestly, I just found this while I was looking at systems. I haven't had a chance to read the rules for it.
5. Mazes and Minotaurs
http://storygame.free.fr/MAZES.htm
The good thing is that all of the rulebooks are online (it doesn't look like the original and revised versions are all that different but we may want to choose one). There is also a fairly low level cap (6) and it doesn't look like it would be impossible for various levels to play together. It doesn't look all that difficult to learn. On the minus side, I have my doubts as to how well it would work outside the setting in Ancient Greece.
6. FFRPG
http://www.returnergames.com/
Honestly, I attempted to play this and I found it maddeningly difficult. If you have a Master's degree in Math then you might be able to do all of the calculations in enough time to not slow combat to a crawl but that is a big maybe. |
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