I once created an RPG that was kinda like a MUD, but was run over a message board forum. The DM would post the storyline and those playing would post what they were doing. Since there were 4 squads (it was a future cop game, and there were 4 games being run at a time), it meant that there could be crossovers between missions. For the most part it worked ok, but once the game became to popuar, it was difficult to screen those joining, so people including DM''s would suddenly up and leave for weeks at a time since it was through forums. Anyways, after a while I had to shut it down. Now recently ive been thinking of starting this up again, but on a much larger scale. I was thinking of running a site that you can create your own RPG world and run your own game, whether it be Stargate, startreck, or starwars. Anyways, im trying to think of a way to run these RPG''s without running into the same problem of communication between players. I think the forum idea failed because the game took so long to play, so how could I avoid this. Should I do it through forum with a new techniqe? Some kind of chat (but not digichat..its a pain to get running), a MUD system?? So basically, what kind of formats do you know of that I could use? Which should I avoid?

I''m not exactly sure what you''re trying to achieve. What are your requirements? What are the problems you need to avoid?

[ MSVC Fixes | STL Docs | SDL | Game AI | Sockets | C++ Faq Lite | Boost
Asking Questions | Organising code files | My stuff | Tiny XML | STLPort]

I''m assuming, since you ran it on a message forum, that there were no hard-coded stats for people and everyone ran on a sort of honor system. How were outcomes decided?

I''d suggest dumping the message board format; I once tried a play-by-mail rpg and it died a quick and horrible death. People lose interest, their mailboxes fill up, ISP''s have problems, you have problems screening players and getting them caught up. Too much lag time.

Try the chat version; I used to play and run them with a lot of success. If you don''t want a pure chat program try the MUX/MUSH variants of MUDs, if for no other reason than formatting. They use what was/is called Free Form Role Playing (FFRP) - it does, however, require the players to have a strong sense of fairness and maturity. The FFRPG format worked just as well in chat rooms, since there is no reliance on graphics or coded stats - just coded dice rolling on-screen and GM macros for text descriptions.

Also, try to keep sessions to a minimum. If you have one-night events that tie together you''re more likely to keep people involved than if you have major events that span several days. As a player, I might have outside obligations that I can''t dismiss to play a gaming session; this means my character can''t be involved, and if you span it over several days it may happen that my character is in a key position in the storyline. The whole scenario is now shot to hell, and you''ll lose players for the next one because they don''t want to deal with it again.

On the other hand if I know I can show up and a session will be in play that I can pop in on, participate and then it ends that night - it''ll be a fun night and something to look forward to. Anything I missed on previous nights I should be able to read about on some form of web newspaper related to the game world, allowing me to be involved without actually being in the game sessions.

Thanks for the tips eric. I will go the way of a chat based game, but I am thinking of somehow running it through a more HTP type end, so that its not PURE text, allowing people to have pics of thier character, the DM display maps, pics of NPCS etc. Kinda like a forum, but it acts like a chat....mmmm....

I was hoping to use coldfusion, but now I might have to use &#106avascript aswell. Dang, I ill have to learn JS all over again <img src="smile.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle><br><br>Thanks all.

How about organizing play times, source material, and character stats on forums and then using voicechat or IRC to play?

If you want to run it all from the site, then you could use a Java applet for IRC, but with voicechat so handy and easy in the online setting, I would opt for it.