oh i always wanted to play Nobilis but never had the chance!

Anyway...its a good idea but I think i will have to pass. I am not sure I would find that kind of roleplaying interresting enough :\

I'm not sure how my time permits but in theory I'm interested. I've played two scenarios of an IRC campaign and it worked nicely. The lack of face to face contact is, in my opinion, both a pro and a con.

Oh, and I was thinking of a game where you don't only use IRC but play play people talking over IRC. It would take some thinking to make it interesting, but I think it might work. (Obviously it wouldn't have to be "IRC" IC, it could be some other kind of a communication network, in a scifi world for example.)

Last edited by Kryigerof (2006-11-13 21:22:05)

I have RP'ed over IRC previously. I've also played Nobilis as PBEM. Nobilis is very unique and metaphysical, it will take dedication and time to run properly.

I like the idea, but I will personally have enough to do with SoR and URU I think (and later NWN2).

If I was to play a IRC campaign, it would have to be something I could get into imediately and not think too much about when not playing right now.

I wouldn't say it's dead. You may just have to put it off for a better time. I'm certainly interested in taking it up, somewhere down the line and I'm sure others are, as well.

Well, since we won't immediately be playing any chat-based RPs, I suppose we could discuss a few things in the event that we ever do so. For instance, what game systems/settings do people like that would be suitable for chat-based games?

I've listed the ones that I have which I feel would be most suitable. What do people feel about them? For that matter, am I listing obscure games that nobody has heard of? I'd have suspected this to be the case, but Nobilis, the most obscure of them all IMO, has already had two mentions from people.

The Dying Earth RPG is published by Pelgrane Press, and more closely follows the later books by Jack Vance. These, whilst still having most of the elements from the original stories, are lighter in tone with a sense of ironic humour running through them. Dying Earth game sessionstend to be improvisational and witty, with the GM simply describing a situation, then the players running with it. By default, the PCs play penniless rogues who must cheat and swindle their way through the world. They may have some skill at arms, but tend to avoid using it- fighting is dangerous. They may dabble in magic, but it's likely to backfire on them at a critical moment. Their only reliably effective weapons are their wits and their tongues.

The rules use the roll of a single six-sided dice. A result of one to three is a failure, four to six is success. If the roll fails, players can spend from their skill pools to re-roll. Thus, someone with a Quick Fingers skill of 4 can re-roll the dice when attempting to pick a pocket four times. 1 is a critical failure and costs 5 to re-roll, 6 is a critical success and restores 2 points. The spent points for re-rolls refresh whenever the characters rest in comfortable surroundings. Modifiers to difficulty usually consisty of altering how expensive re-rolls are. It's an unusual system, but once you graps it, a very good one. Online, it would simply need a bot that can roll 1D6 whenever someone types a command.

Another unique part of the rules is the experience system. Players are handed three taglines at the start of play. They must work these into a conversation at some point in the session, and are awarded XP for doing so. Using a tagline gets one point, using it in an appropriate situation gets two, and using it in a way that provokes hilarity from the rest of the group gets three. Examples of taglines are:-

"I have a superstitious nature. My appeal for Divine Aid was a reflexive utterance, not a spell."

"Please excuse my companion, who was dropped at birth."

"Come, let us drink wine and consider the matter dispassionately."

A player in my own gaming group got three points for using this last tagline as he was being dragged off to a dungeon by burly thugs.

I'd be interested in this, certainly, as player or GM. I'm a great fan of hard-SF settings, and whilst I don't think an exact re-creation of the Seed setting in IRC roleplay would be the same, something along those lines could be great fun.

If anyone else posts saying they'd be interested, then I'll start a discussion on what exactly to run. We will need a few players- four or more players and a GM works best in my experience with games where politics between players is going to be a factor- and I'd originally abandoned the idea due to lack of interest. If others speak up, I'll certainly start making plans.

Darkhawk, Kendrus and Mir also mentioned interest on IRC if I recall correctly, so I guess we're talking.

As for what to run, I'd personally prefer a "Seed spinoff", that is, the Seed setting but not the same characters and places as in the MMO. Perhaps also change some of the most obvious MMORPG conventions like ring channels, auto-learning etc.

And I agree 4 is a minimum if people are going to be of different rings. IRC roleplaying has the benefit that it's allows easy party splits (as long as the GM types fast enough), so we wouldn't necessarily have to be of the same "party". Two PCs per ring might be a bit too few, though, although well specified NPCs would fix some of it.

Last edited by Kryigerof (2007-01-07 18:34:56)

Sounds as if there would be a guaranteed high level of attendence if we just tried to re-create Seed in IRC roleplay. Unfortunately, that's one thing I don't think I'd attempt to do as a GM, since I don't feel I have the instinctive "grasp" of the Seed setting that would be required to get the tone right. I was at the periphery of the big events, there are elements (especially technological) that I simply suspended my disbelief for, and I have a tendency to add to a world with spur-of-the-moment improvisation if I think the story needs it.

Seed has a clear vision shared amongst the former players, and whilst I have no doubt that I'd be able to create a fun game for everyone, I don't think it would end up feeling like Seed. If anyone else wants to try and GM it, I'd be willing to help though.

To make it perfectly clear, I would not try to GM a faithful conversion from Seed into an IRC RPG, and definitely not try to continue any of the old storylines (or as quick references at best if it's a Lower Cluster game or something) or use any of the old characters. It would be more like playing one of those licenced RPGs like Buffy or Star Wars - the story's new, the GM (and players) make the feel in the end, but the overall setting, themes and style are mimicked to some level.

And to make it perfectly clear again, it would not be an MMORPG by IRC, it would be a roleplaying campaign. That means specified gaming sessions when everyone is on (if able of course).

And if I were to GM I wouldn't try to be another Zorg or Bifrost or something, it would be my game, and even though I'd try to keep the essential parts of the Seed feel (what's the point otherwise) there would be differences. Also I'd vote for changing some parts of the gameplay that really only make sense in a computer game (such as special "hatches" behind which reside all machinery that ever gets damaged or trivially curable major injuries). EDIT: Also, the level of detail would have to be ge tuned down - no point trying to model all the different tools or tradeoff abilities or anything like that. It's the story I'm interested in, not the gameplay elements.

My vote still goes on a Seed spinoff, but I'd be just as happy with an "original" setting too. Tantavalist: would, for example, a game set on another of the Seed ships be too close to the original for you?

EDIT: And one more thing: My intent is not to recreate Seed to satisfy our nostalgia. It's simply to take use of the great things in Seed setting and themes to create something similar yet new.

Last edited by Kryigerof (2007-01-08 16:45:14)

This is true, though it'd be hardly the first time when the story of a spinoff resembles that of the original in way too many ways to be logical (Stargate Atlantis anyone?).

EDIT: So yes, there should indeed be some severe difficulties hampering the project, though they wouldn't have to be all similar to those in Seed. (A cliche one that I'd not use would be the interference of natives, for instance.)

I like the concept of long time-span, so I'd try this one out. But the colonist aspect of the Seed-like game interests me more, especially the themes such as terraforming vs adapting etc. But anyway, I'd rather play than GM (already have one RL campaign), so I won't get too demanding.

Last edited by Kryigerof (2007-01-08 18:43:11)