Witcher MUSH Design

[hellfrog]

Just to throw a dissenting opinion into the ring: you don’t have to play on a bunch of games to make your own game. You don’t even have to play on a bunch of games to make a ‘successful’ game. Apostate had played I think one RPI and 1.5 mushes before he made Arx.

Don’t get disheartened! Making stuff is a good in and of itself.

[Istus]

@shit-piss-love This was good to look at.

Further refining my ideas on character advancement, I have the following items in mind:

• I am building my system with the idea that it will take a year for the first character to hit maximum power. I suspect that very few people will actually get to this point.
• Mechanical power gain will be non-linear with most of your advancement happening in the beginning of your character’s career and tapering off as things get to the end. For example, the last six months may actually only represent a power delta of 25% versus someone making the exact same specialization choices.
• New players will only require half the time to get to the point of the player with the highest level of experience.
• The ‘advantage’ that comes with being around longer than someone else is reputation you earn through social interactions and the opportunity to acquire ‘stuff’.
• XP earned beyond the cap will be converted to a currency for fun things like custom item descs, recolors, or whatever cosmetic nonsense. It’s a little mobile game-y but no mechanical advantage will be had.

[Tat]

@Istus said in Witcher MUSH Design:

I am building my system with the idea that it will take a year for the first character to hit maximum power. I suspect that very few people will actually get to this point.

I’m curious what makes you think this. I think a lot of people play characters for longer than a year.

[Faraday]

@Tat said in Witcher MUSH Design:

I think a lot of people play characters for longer than a year.

So, so many.

[IoleRae]

Five years is probably a better timeline. If the game lasts that long, if it’s not a goal you want everyone to get to, I’d go 5 years. If you plot the growth curve out on a 3 year bar, you’ll probably see a significant number of people, but maybe not the majority. One year, you’ll definitely see more people making it than not. Game life dependent, of course.

[Duke Whisky]

Curiously, is this more planned to be a MUD, MUSH, MU*, or something else?

It seemed to get described as one thing, but the layout and plans looked like another so wanted to check before excitement levels.

[Istus]

@Whisky I probably should not have attached a label to it. I don’t think I truly understand the nuance between the various flavours. I’ll do my best to describe the end goal.

It is not a MUD. It may feel like that since my focus on chatter here has been on mechanical elements. That is only because that is where my current interest lies.

What I am shooting for is a storytelling platform with TTRPG elements. I do not expect, nor wish to encourage, a roll with every pose. When you roll against someone the result is not automatically applied. There is no enforced social or combat cadence such as turn order. There aren’t NPCs running around to whack at.

I personally like ‘stuff’ and I like acquiring abilities or whatever. I also like writing flowery nonsense as if I was authoring a novel. I am attempting to combine these in a reasonably cohesive way with a slant towards favoring narrative over rote execution of a system.

Theme-wise, I want to focus on city life and its outskirts with pressures coming from an on-going war, organized banditry, a powerful religious faction, and the aristocracy. Of course there is room for ‘monster of the week’ type stuff as well.

A little fluff piece I’ve been fussing with:

Novigrad, a city of wealth, power, and decadence, is a place of contrasts and conflict. With its towering spires, grand structures, and bustling streets, it is a hub of commerce and politics, where powerful factions vie for control. The church, with its imposing cathedral and army of fanatical faithful, holds a great deal of power, seeking to impose its will on the masses through holy doctrine and the threat of excommunication. Meanwhile, the criminal underworld, embodied by the powerful King of Beggars and his network of thieves and assassins, operates in the shadows, manipulating the city’s commerce and politics to suit their own ends. The rich merchants and powerful nobility hold court in the city’s many taverns and palaces, vying for influence and wealth, while outside the walls, the common folk struggle to survive. The air is thick with the scent of intrigue and the sound of clashing steel, as the different factions jostle for position and advantage. Amidst all of this, witchers, sorcerers, and other outcasts roam the city’s streets, surviving by their wits and the edge of their blades, always searching for the next job that will keep them fed and clothed. Such is the city of Novigrad, where the strong rule, the weak suffer, and only the cunning survive.

It’s a little puffed up but I’ll pare it down eventually.

[Duke Whisky]

That’s okay, I know enough of the Witcher world to know what Novigrad is and is like.

Thanks for the clarification on what setup it might have, will be keen to see how that goes. Guessing using a traditional Telnet-type connection then or Evennia code system?

[Istus]

@Whisky It’s on top of Evennia.

[Duke Whisky]

@Istus - Thanks!

[Wizz]

@Istus said in Witcher MUSH Design:

I probably should not have attached a label to it. I don’t think I truly understand the nuance between the various flavours. I’ll do my best to describe the end goal.

What makes a game one or the other can be pretty arbitrary imo, and I do think there’s sometimes a bias here as to the difference that isn’t necessarily shared with the rest of the hobby.

Arx has as many coded systems as some RPI MUDs, for example, but they call themselves a MUSH. It’s a pretty hazy line.

I think most people would agree that if the focus of the game is on MMO-style gaming, it’s a MUD, and if it’s roleplay it’s a MUSH/MUX/whatever, the latter distinctions depending on the codebase you’re using. Since Evennia can be used to make either a MUD or a MUSH it’s basically whatever you want to call it, depending on the crowd you’re trying to attract.