I''m presently working on developing a Roguelike (RL) game. Roguelikes, for those who don''t know, are a genre of games similar to Rogue, and are, invariably, turn-based single-player Tolkienesque fantasy. They''re similar to CRPGs, but tend to be extremely complex, have most areas randomly generated, and usually have no graphics (other than ASCII). The established games in the genre have all been in development for a long time, and have depth that would be unheard of in any other genre. My plan is go multiplayer (MUD-like in scale), while preserving the advantages of turn-based gameplay through a rules system called pseudo-time (not by me). I have three major decisions to tackle before I go too far into the implementation. First, and most important, is setting. I could go with generic fantasy, the easiest route, and differentiate in other ways; or, I could try something new. I''ve toyed around with a few ideas; introducing space-age technology into a Tolkienesque world through first contact being the only idea to stick. On the other hand, fantasy is tried-and-true, and it lends itself exceptionally well to the genre. I''m also afraid of biting off more than I can chew (the demise of 99% of ameteur games), since I have a technical challenge, this being my first networked game, AND moving the RL conventions into a new genre. The second design consideration is how to handle death. Traditionally, death ends the game and you must start over (saving is allowed only so you can resume later, not for resurrecting). This is both a strength, in that it keeps things exciting and challenging, and a curse, in that it frightens away casual players. It seems to me that in a multiplayer game, where players will put a lot of time into characters, and where PKing will probably come up eventually, it might be better to soften death, either by allowing friends to resurrect eachother (at great cost), by making monsters take captives, or something similar. The third problem is how I''m going to handle leveling. It''s expected that more monster killing leads to higher levels, and that this continues indefinitely, but that normally creates massive power and wealth inflation, and creates an unrealistic and artificial division between different level ranges which don''t interact, and a trivialization of game elements that don''t scale along with levels. I hope I''ve made my meaning clear. If I were well-rested and coherent I''d be writing code right now. Feedback is greatly appreciated. P.S.: This is my first delurking