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Open World Roleplay - MMO Style RP

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LoganAura
thematthew
Dusk Raven
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Zarhon
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Post  Dusk Raven Tue Apr 02, 2013 1:59 am

thematthew wrote:You do realize that the Earth Pony "nuke" is to tell people they can't have food, and then get beaten up for their food since they can't do much compared to fireballs and hurricanes, right.

As for the 'Unicorns wouldn't stop raising the sun' it was explicitly stated they took the tithe of food for doing that job. No food means no sun, since this really screws over the Earth Ponies after a quick raid on their stores.

The whole problem is that there aren't a whole lot of different stories to be made in the setting, there is a small handful. Enough to make a game, but not enough to make a group of games where each group is doing their own thing that feels like it means anything at all.

The entire point of a nuke is that all sides die. I should say it's not so much a nuke as a faildeadly - if any one side dies, they all die. If the unicorns don't raise the sun and moon then the earth ponies can't grow food. If the pegasi don't control the whether the earth ponies can't grow food. If the earth ponies can't grow food than everypony's just screwed. Which helps nopony.

Ramsus wrote:Otherwise, I don't even understand how the Earth Ponies or Pegasi can do anything about the Unicorns. The Earth Ponies grow food... and both other groups just take it from them. They can't do anything about it because all they have is medieval tech vs fireballs, lightning bolts, and force fields. The pegasi similarly can't not make crop growing weather because the Unicorns will start using their fireballs and force-fields to just mow them down without taking any casualties.

I can only say that I think you vastly, vastly overestimate the military power of the unicorns as a whole.

Look, I'm not suggesting that this idea actually be used for an MMRP, just that I think the idea in itself has potential for a story. Just not this one.
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Post  Greywander Tue Apr 02, 2013 2:01 am

@Ramsus
As I said, the bit with the resource nodes was derived from an RTS concept, I didn't mean it to be used verbatim in an RPG context. It corresponds to the earth ponies being the only ones able to grow enough food to support the population, and likely extends to other types of resources as well. As for having multiple worlds, well that's kind of the point. What if someone doesn't care to play in the setting you're working on? Not that it's a bad setting, but just not what they're looking for. Granted, we probably don't have enough people working on this yet to be able to run too many worlds, but there's nothing wrong with putting forth ideas.

As for "plot", it's really more of setting background. I'm setting the stage for interesting conflicts to occur, instead of having a bland setting were the source of tension, if it exists at all, is so thoroughly vague and uncertain that it is uninspiring. Really, it's no different than setting up a "Solar Empire vs. Lunar Republic" setting, except that I'm being a bit more specific as to the sources of tension. It's still vague enough that individual DMs could put their own spin on it. Every good setting will have this, some sort of threat or danger looming over it, otherwise everything is sunshine and rainbows and why are the PCs even there? In fact, I've done one better by making each faction morally ambiguous; with no clear cut good and evil factions, it's up to the PCs to decide who they want to root for. And, of course, it's still possible for DMs to include clear good and bad guys.

You're probably right in that we should try to set up one world first, and then see if we're logistically able to support more.

@thematthew
I don't think you're seeing the setting in the right light. Yes, they were all jerks, which is what makes it easy to have morally ambiguous factions. Realistically, though, the unicorns can't turn off the sun, nor can the pegasi withhold fair weather, because, guess what, the earth ponies need those to grow the food, and the unicorns and pegasi need that food. That's one reason I brought up the idea of a localized eclipse. Many earth ponies accept the unicorns and pegasi for what they're able to provide, but some do revolt, and those are dealt with individually, not by turning off the sun for everyone. Plus, with different pegasus factions, it means that a group of earth ponies can rebel against one group and bring in another to take over weather duty, and provides a very good reason why many earth ponies would be against a unified pegasus empire.

So the unicorns are relics of a past age, being reduced to glorified time keepers. And it's a role they can't refuse, because they need the sun and moon to maintain their constant schedule just as much as everypony else. The pegasi are scattered tribes, unable to cooperate enough to actually pose a large scale threat with regards to global weather manipulation, and will happily sabotage each other whenever they get a chance. The earth ponies remain largely apathetic to their situation, but they still control the food, which means, like it or not, each faction needs earth ponies.

Basically, they all have the power to screw each other over, but they can't do so without screwing themselves, nor would they be able to bring themselves to do so in the first place. It's like the Cold War; every side has nukes, but they can't nuke someone else without getting nuked themselves, and no one, no one, wants to escalate things to that point.

As for stuff to do and places to explore, well, there's pretty much no canon whatsoever regarding pre-Equestria locations, which means we can make up whatever we want. The world is a blank canvas. The politics of the setting provide obvious plot hooks, but you can freely ignore those and go exploring. That's the joy of world building.

@Both
Gaiz, I understand if this setting doesn't interest you. You've both been putting a lot of work into your own setting, so obviously that's going to be the one you'll want to play in. There are going to be people, though, that are less interested in the setting you've created. It's nice to have more options. This is a setting I'd like to play in, and I think it has a lot of potential.

And then I was ninja'd. Gonna post this then read new posts.
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Post  Ramsus Tue Apr 02, 2013 2:14 am

Since we agree it doesn't have potential for this concept, why are we discussing it?

So, the issues of note for the setting we're currently working with that does work for our concept here are that.... We could use more people who actually want to world build for the setting in question. Also, thematthew proposed that we have the previous map just be the Solar Empire's territory (makes sense, it's a circle and means we can have the Lunar Empire be a crescent shaped chain of islands since that's something that actually happens realistically) and was wondering what people thought of the idea.

We also talked and had a few more ideas. For Crystal Switzerland (needs a real name....) we came up with the idea of perhaps an entirely crystalline area (two large islands that had clearly broken apart at some point and some other smaller islands nearby) where the Crystal Ponies are just from. They'd have crystalline plants and trees and stuff and normal plants and things would actually be a sign of wealth since they'd have to be imported from other places. They probably phased out their currency a long time ago in favor of not having to keep track of three separate currencies and their exchange rates.

On the subject of the currencies. Thought about that more and while Solar Dollars and Lunar Yen (I just picked random names here) are different currencies, there's no need for us to try and do real math about their comparative values. We can just say they're worth more or less the same. The important part is just that people in the Solar Empire don't accept Lunar Yen as legal currency and vice versa. Of course some ponies are going to do so anyway but, it's illegal for merchants to do so and only worth doing if you're in a position to be able to trade the two currencies back and forth. Otherwise you basically have to trade with people outside out the two empires to use both currencies and there's no guarantees there that they'll take both or either.

Edit: Ninja'd. Grey, you'd have a point if anyone besides the two of us had signed up for world building duties or suggested any other setting people seem to agree on at all. We're just assuming this is the setting we're going with because people are more or less not saying they'd rather do something else. We've gotten people chiming in with random ideas and "I don't like X" but, otherwise no actual settings. We're doing our best to work in the things people want and deal with working around things people don't. Other than that, someone has to make choices at some point and we've already gone in circles on things long enough. Since thematthew and I are the only ones who have said we're fine with taking on the responsibility of making choices, it seems a little unfair to then say "no, we should do this instead!" and assume despite nobody really seeming to agree that we should abandon what we're working on in favor of that.

Edit 2: Note that the above ideas and a few of the previously mentioned ones haven't been added to the document because we haven't gotten any feedback on them between people getting distracted by how to deal with vampires/lycanthropes, random isolated ideas for completely different settings, and Dan randomly coming in and saying things we'd already said.
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Post  Greywander Tue Apr 02, 2013 2:48 am

I didn't say you should abandon your current setting, I just thought it would be nice to have multiple settings to choose from. It seems like we've run that particular line of conversation into the ground, though, so unless someone has something new to add, we're probably better off dropping it.

As far as currency, I don't think it was uncommon in ancient cultures for there to be many types of currency. After all, anyone able to work metal into coins could make currency. All that really matters is the weight and material. If you're using solid gold coins, then you just weigh it on a scale, so something might cost 3 ounces of gold, rather than 3 Solar crowns. When you have larger scale empires with their own standard for coinage, though, then the composition and weight of each coin should be fairly common knowledge among merchants. For example, a Solar crown might contain two ounces of gold, whereas a Lunar crescent might be one ounce of gold and one ounce of silver.

Point being, coins would be accepted everywhere because of their composition, and exchange rates would be common knowledge in the business world, although using a foreign coin might cast suspicion on you.

This is, of course, assuming the world isn't using fiat currency. If that's the case, then Solar crowns and Lunar crescents aren't really composed of valuable metal, and are only worth as much as their respective governments say they are. That being the case, it makes total sense that those currencies would only be accepted in their respective countries.
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Post  Ramsus Tue Apr 02, 2013 3:15 am

Maybe the solar coins are made from copper or brass or such and the lunar ones from nickle and like things. Thus they're "value" exceeds their actual value and just makes it pretty bad to trade where that coinage isn't accepted at the value the empire says it is.
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Post  Greywander Tue Apr 02, 2013 3:34 am

That's what a fiat currency is.

Basically, gold, silver, and other precious metals are expensive, so governments decide to make coins out of less valuable metals and assign them a value independent of their actual composition (by fiat, as it were). It leads to weird cases like the US penny having a lower face value than the value of the metals that compose it. The point of it, though, is that you can make coins or bills with a high face value without having to actually spend that much money to make it.
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Post  Zarhon Tue Apr 02, 2013 5:34 pm

What about non-material boons and services, or the races that don't need money, compared to a different vital resource, needed by a specific faction?

Changeling hives likely don't need money in itself to work, but need love, so there is likely some kind of unique market for them. The urban changelings (that need money to live in cities) also probably offer *cough* love related services, or other services that their shape-shifting/love draining gives them a unique monopoly of skills (theater, movies, spying, diplomatic negotiations, bodyguards, soap operas, lawyering...).

Similar thing applies to vampires/Lycans as well, at least those that are a bit organized and urban - they need blood more than money most of the time.

Minotaurs probably have something akin to a mercenary/bodyguard/hired muscle/professional high-yield labor as their main export.

Pegasi offer weather services and effects to areas (a subscription or monthly fee, perhaps?).

Unicorns can sell magic services and items.
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Post  Ramsus Tue Apr 02, 2013 5:45 pm

Yes Zarhon those things would all be stuff that come up.... in like every PT game. I don't see any need to specifically address them though.
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Post  Stairc -Dan Felder Mon Aug 12, 2013 1:21 am

This is months old, but I thought I'd report my results.

Been running every campaign of mine as a single world where multiple parties' actions affect one another - including my D&D summer camps. A few days ago, a Summer Camp managed to break a Rod of Wonder (similar to Tons of Fun table) that ended up making an entire city of people into minor divine powers - diluting the power of the gods so severely they can't provide for their churches anymore. My players in my main campaigns are equal parts excited and horrified and are already trying to plan how to handle the new cosmic situation.

Lots of other examples, like a party blowing up a gnomish lab only to have another party in the same world sent to investigate it (not knowing it was due to the antics of the other group) and an NPC of the investigating group thinking that the other party intentionally set it up to kill him... Leading to him going after the first group.

In short, it's been awesome.
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Post  Mind Gamer Mon Aug 12, 2013 2:00 am

I'd not heard of this prior to now, but I have my own stories to tell regarding MMO style gaming. And not good ones.

I was a player, not the DM in control of this group universe, by the by. So a different viewpoint.

This is also what might inevitably happen when one group gets powerful and another joins.

It started simple enough. The setup we were told for our tabletop 4e D&D game boils to this; Desert continent, ancient ruins, Orcs rule all, Black Sands (the desert) is both a gold mine and a landmine waiting to go off in everyone's faces.

So, dropped into the middle of a town with little to no idea where we were, I (along with some comrades who also wanted to try it) decided to go into business. Buy a Kiosk, since they were the only way to sell goods in the city, and build from there.

We had dreams of someday cornering the market, with back room schemes, shadow corporations, and a plot to unite the city, good and evil, under the banners of two opposing companies that supposedly hated each other. Basically, Yin and Yang.

At least, until we actually tried to buy any land. See, the DM had dropped us in the most influential market area of the city... And it was apparently meant like a tutorial area. We weren't supposed to touch anything, because the entire area belonged to The 12 Cats, an organization run by another of the DM's groups. That's when things got bad.

Frustrated that we couldn't purchase any land, despite the DM not telling us then why even with our most charismatic people getting high rolls with ludicrous offers couldn't do anything, we were eventually forced to drop that altogether and move to another area. Next gaming session, we're informed we're being followed.

Turns out, the DM had told the 12 Cats players that we, a start-up group, were trying to wrestle in on their power. This group, with kingdoms under their control, decide to hire the most effective badasses on the planet to find us and track our movements at all times. You know, tens of levels above us. Further, the group decided that if they couldn't manipulate our party and we became problematic, they would do the following. Ahem. "Use the most powerful creatures in the land on leashes, summon Archlords from the Abyss to kill us dead, and drop an effective Nuke on our heads using the Black Sands."

They didn't care about collateral damage. They just wanted to make sure we were dead no matter what stupid overkill that had to use.

And of course, the DM chose to let them, if they chose.

They never got the chance, since shortly after the DM finished telling us how we were effectively being given orders with the Sword of Damocles over our heads, I did my best to point out how much he had screwed us over, and left when he started blaming us for trying to buy land and ticking off the 12 Cats to begin with. We had no chance, no way to escape, and no potential to change the situation. Because the DM said so.

So yeah. I don't like the idea of MMO style RPs anymore, because when the power gap gets wide enough, you (pardon my language) either become the bitch or the pimp, with little to no way to bridge the gap.
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Post  Azureink Sun Aug 18, 2013 2:25 am

Gamer is correct, there is a tendency for these type of games to be abused. If we were to do something like this, we would need to try to keep everyone at a similar playing field in order to avoid one group dominating everyone. Also, there are plenty of poor DMs out there like the one that Gamer was under in the example given. It would only take one such DM in this project to ruin it for everyone involved. Even so, this could still work though.
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