.mythos

[tapedeck]

Edit, 8/29/2022
Changed up a bunch of stuff, as this idea has evolved quite a bit! I'm still wanting to use some dice mechanics, so that much hasn't changed.
This is still working with the "sandbox with plot" premise, and will be heavily character focused.

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Got this idea about a low-to-mid fantasy MMORPG story, that was originally in a "pseudo-MMO/RPG" setting. I.E, the world was a non-digital setting that had literal "video game logic" to it. After sitting on it for a while, and re-reading the .dungeon rules, I came to the conclusion that a "dual setting" might actually be more fun!

Side note: when I say "in-game" from here on out, I'm talking about the roleplay's setting; the virtual world the avatar-characters inhabit. Similarly, when I say "real-world" I mean the setting's meat-space that the avatar-characters' players inhabit; not the roleplayers' real world lol

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For this revamp, there will be two stories happening: one in the game world with the avatar characters, and one in the "real" world with the avatar's players. I like the layers this would add, but I can't decide if I want to tackle both... doing both might get confusing to some folks, or be hard to keep up with-
So, here's our options:

• Option A: We follow both the avatar characters and the player characters, tackling the in-game world and the real-world. (We would probably have two separate threads for "in-game" roleplays and "real-world" roleplays.)
• Option B: Only tackle the "in-game" story and world, and only alluding to possible happenings in the real world. When the players log out of the game, the narrative "pauses" and comes back when the players log on. We only follow the avatar-characters.

Other than that, here's the semi-new notes I have for this!

• This would probably be a 16+ roleplay at minimum, mostly for possible (non-sexual) mature themes. Overall tone of the roleplay would gear a smidge serious, with opportunities to explore storylines about "darker" topics.
• The game-setting would take loose visual and tonal inspiration from Lord of the Rings & various Studio Ghibli films, and Breath of the Wild, but also with sparse urban fantasy elements. Very pastoral, "peaceful post-apoc," with a mid-to-low magic system.
• Characters would be fantasy species/races. Could be from whatever franchise or setting the player desired, so long as it fits the "fantasy" theme. (i.e, any playable race from DnD, World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy, etc.)
  • Which would include things like centaurs, anthros / beastfolk, and warforged!
• Dungeon crawls could be a thing? Combat itself would be narrative-driven, with the dice & stats serving as a guideline.
• Avatar-characters would be able to access their in-game stats, navigate menus, have visible health/stamina meters, they would see damage numbers, etc.

old notes & intro

Got this idea about a low-to-mid fantasy, "pseudo-MMO/RPG," story rattling around my brain, so I thought it'd be a cool concept for a (limited* / 4 or 5 players max) group roleplay! It'd have kind of a "sandbox with plot" premise, that's heavily character focused and uses some light tabletop mechanics — characters have stat attributes, combat is done in turns, and the outcome of major actions are decided via contested dice rolls.
(I'll most likely use a modified version of .dungeon, if I want to go with an established ruleset. No matter what, I'll be making a document or thread with the rules/mechanics needed to play, so players won't have to worry about buying the rulebook if they don't want to or can't afford to.)

This is still super work-in-progress-y, so here's the cliff notes I have thus far. Feel free to share your thoughts down below, or to just let me know if you'd be interested!

• This would probably be a 16+ roleplay at minimum, mostly for possible (non-sexual) mature themes. Overall tone of the roleplay would gear a smidge serious, with opportunities to explore storylines about "darker" topics.
• World would take loose visual and tone inspiration from Lord of the Rings & various Studio Ghibli films, and Breath of the Wild, but also with sparse urban fantasy elements. Very pastoral, "peaceful post-apoc," with a mid-to-low magic system.
• Setting literally uses "video game logic," but isn't an in-universe game.
  
  • Characters would have actual "character sheet screens," visible health/stamina meters, they would see damage numbers, have A) a bottemless inventory a'la Skyrim and most RPGs or B) a limited inventory a'la Resident Evil style, etc.
• Characters would be fantasy species/races. Could be from whatever franchise or setting the player desired, so long as it fits the "fantasy" theme. (i.e, any playable race from DnD, World of Warcraft, etc.)
  
  • Which would include things like centaurs, anthros / beastfolk, and warforged!
• Dungeon crawls could be a thing? Combat itself would be narrative-driven, with the dice & stats serving as a guideline.

*If this kicks off as a limited group, I'll be hosting/GMing it myself. If this garners a lot of interest, I'd want to hand off the GM role to someone else, as running large groups is not my strong suit asdfgh-

 

[EddiEddi]

Hmm, Colour me interested.

 

[DesReploid]

I'd say I'm definitely interested in this idea. I'm not at all familiar with .dungeon, but certainly willing to lear.

 

[Ur Degaton]

Interested

 

[DesReploid]

Well, I just happened to check back on this about an hour after edit happened.

I would be happy with Option A: I don't think it would be way too confusing, I don't even think it would necessarily require two separate threads, rather just clear destinctions between whether something is in the RP-Real Life or in the RP-In-Game. Though, I'm happy to follow what everyone else wants. If a second thread happens, I won't bounce because of that.

 

[tapedeck]

Was actually just about to ping everyone who'd commented thus far about the edits, but I had to step away for a bit :'D (Tho I hope I'm doing pings correctly- I know it sometimes differs from site to site, but @/username is usually the way.)

@EddiEddi @Ur Degaton @TheSly

As said above, I've made from decently big changes! Primarily about the world concept, as I felt like I was shying away from the dual digital-and-real world concept bc I was afraid it might get too confusing- But heck with that, we like confusing in this house!

@/TheSly
Gotcha-gotcha~ I'm personally a smidge more in favor of B, but I also like the concept of following both worlds. But, now that I think about it, maybe following the out-of-mmo characters could be optional? Like, players could do full narratives for that if they wanted, and the group would still discuss what their character is doing in meat-space, no question about that - but the full narrative roleplay would primarily take place inside the mmo/rpg, following what the avatar-characters are up to. (Primarily because .dungeon focuses on the game-world, and dice-stuff would only apply to the avatars.)

 

[Ur Degaton]

What are the stakes? If our characters are playing an mmo, what conflict would they encounter outside of gameplay? Unless I'm interpreting this all wrong.

 

[tapedeck]

@Ur Degaton
That is actually something I forgot to mention in the new notes, oops- But you're good, no worries!

I'm planning on the meat-space setting being very cyberpunk-y, to help explain some of the tech involved to play the mmo/rpg. As for stakes/conflict, .dungeon actually offers some really good prompts for this via the "connection" mechanic.

In .dungeon, instead of health / hit points, the party has a collective "connection" rating, starting at 100. This is their literal connection to the game-world, and optionally to each other as well. To quote the rulebook...

If the party's Connection reaches 0, it's "Game Over". It's the end of summer and you've gotta focus on school. The servers hosting the game have fallen into some corporation's hands and they're pulling the plug. Or you're just drifting apart.

(As a note, we may be altering some rules to better fit a play-by-post format, so take any other quotes from the rulebook with a grain of salt lol)

Outer-game conflict could be anything, depending on the character's environment & identity. Maybe they're a very average person with mundane problems, or maybe they're a for-hire mercenary with a slew of enemies.

@/Ur Degaton @TheSly @EddiEddi
All that said, I'm kind of flip flopping again on which idea I like better - this dual-world one, or the original concept.. I kinda feel like I can actually get better mileage out of the old one, and come up with some more concrete plot concepts, but it depends on what ya'll might be feeling!

 

[Ur Degaton]

@Ur Degaton
That is actually something I forgot to mention in the new notes, oops- But you're good, no worries!

I'm planning on the meat-space setting being very cyberpunk-y, to help explain some of the tech involved to play the mmo/rpg. As for stakes/conflict, .dungeon actually offers some really good prompts for this via the "connection" mechanic.

In .dungeon, instead of health / hit points, the party has a collective "connection" rating, starting at 100. This is their literal connection to the game-world, and optionally to each other as well. To quote the rulebook...

If the party's Connection reaches 0, it's "Game Over". It's the end of summer and you've gotta focus on school. The servers hosting the game have fallen into some corporation's hands and they're pulling the plug. Or you're just drifting apart.

(As a note, we may be altering some rules to better fit a play-by-post format, so take any other quotes from the rulebook with a grain of salt lol)

Outer-game conflict could be anything, depending on the character's environment & identity. Maybe they're a very average person with mundane problems, or maybe they're a for-hire mercenary with a slew of enemies.

@/Ur Degaton @TheSly @EddiEddi
All that said, I'm kind of flip flopping again on which idea I like better - this dual-world one, or the original concept.. I kinda feel like I can actually get better mileage out of the old one, and come up with some more concrete plot concepts, but it depends on what ya'll might be feeling!

I'm more partial towards the original idea. It would be easier to get off the ground and start sooner than planning for all of this outer world stuff. Regardless I'm still on board as both concepts are intriguing.

 

[Kazama]

Never seen someone pitch something like this. I'm down for it.

 

[EddiEddi]

I like the 'focus on the game' as it were. But I also want throw another idea in the ring:
note, all 'character' terms are talking about avatar vs character. We also let there be 'out of character' conversation for the players. EG, I can talk in game as my avatar zalzabrack the ork barbarian. "Me smash ugly bone man!" then on voice chat, or whatever "I'm gonna bum rush the lich, can someone watch my ass for the mobs?" but don't have 'out of avatar' OOA, I like that, OOA 'roleplay' in the real world, but more just low-teir character interaction, like forum chatting ect.

also, how cyber punk are we going? because if we're going full cyberpunk I want to play a UI.