Are you creative?

Here's the deal:  I'm designing a game that is sort of like a tabletop game heavily centered around role playing.  The game takes place in a massive world and the story line can vary as long as there is a good guy and a bad guy (of course!).  However, because the world is so massive, it's taking me a -reeeeaaallly- long time to set everything  up.  I was just thinking earlier as I was getting ready for my first day back to teaching that I have a really great resource right here on vizzed!

I need writers....AND players.  Granted, since I will be grading 150+ papers a night, this is going to take time, so you also need to have patience and plans to keep in contact with me through here or an email address.

First, Writers:  I am planning on having at least 50 cities.  Each city needs a name, a small description, a list of buildings, and NPC's running those buildings.  For each NPC, I need a short description.  Is he/she greedy?  Kind? Searching for someone to take on a quest?  Are they selling or buying goods?  Do they have information on the enemy? The game is set in the medieval times, so no airplanes, cars, helicopters, guns, etc etc.  Anything you can gather or produce with limited technology would be great.  The towns of course can be kept simple for the gamers' sakes.  Towns can consist of 1 to 10 buildings....that'd be up to you!  Individuality is what will make the game fun and interesting.

Secondly, Players:  There will be a battling and leveling system in this game.  Coming up with the game set up is easy, just resource intensive.  Creating acceptable formulas and numbers for character stats is NOT easy. I need people willing to play the game as a trial version, and realize there will be many screw ups and inconsistencies.  That's why we will be playing it....to find those imbalances and fix them!

For those of you who have never played a game like this, it's relatively simple.  We'll take turns basically writing a story together, with each of us having ownership of one or more characters.  Turns will involve exploring the map, gathering resources or intelligence, building or buying or selling things, battling, flipping cards or rolling dice....etc etc.

For those interested, I can send you my ideas so that you have a better idea of my plans.  It will be slow progress.  I don't even have the map viewable on a computer yet, as I have it drawn out in a graphing paper composition notebook.  I'll only be able to work on it a little each week, but if you have patience and like to write or role play, it should be TONS of fun.

Just post a response or questions here if you're interested in helping out in any way or fashion!  Thanks!

Oh, and as a side note, there is NO MAGIC involved in this game.  Magic will not be tolerated.

Hmm... Okay I might be interested. But you talk about play-testing the battle system to get things right, but why don't use just use the d20 system or something similar? You can still write your own story with your own rules, but you'll also be given a few resources to start with. Especially a battle system. That's probably one of the hardest things to make, at least in a balanced and fair manner, especially if you want to have different classes and such. D20 comes with magic, but you can choose to ignore that since you don't want it.

Send me a PM or something if you're still going on about this.

I think I may be interested in being a writer. Just reading what you required I began thinking about how I would go about creating and designing my own personal city. When I read it will be in the mid-evil times era, I immediately thought of the legend of Zelda series, but my own personal approach to it

I have a laptop so I can check up on progress and write little pieces of dialogue etc. ever so often.

Just let me know what you want and when and how, because I'm not entirely sure what exactly your vision of this is.

Sorry for not responding sooner, guys. I've had a CRAZY two weeks, and I imagine it will take one more week for a routine at work to set in place.  I have relatives coming over to spend the day tomorrow, so I can't give more detail until Monday.  I want very much to respond to both of you on Monday.  If I forget, please remind me?  Thanks!

I look forward to future interactions!

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BluemageKyle : That post is completely unrelated to the post and you had better hope that I don't find many more posts like it tonight.

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Ok I'll send you a pm on Monday if I haven't heard from you yet.

when I first read your thread, I got excited. Then when nothing happened, I kind of just assumed you bailed.

You did say it will be a long slow process so I'm ok with that. Also, if I am not mistaken you said you are a teacher. As a student myself, I understand how much time you must spend on your job.

@Lazlo Falconi, I've never actually played a table top game, so when you suggest that I use the d20 system, I only vaguely know what you are referring to.  That's why I said this would -sort of- be like a table top game.  Since I've never played one, I'm not sure how to set one up!  From what I -do- know and -have- seen though, I wanted something that would be slightly different from what I know.


The battle system IS hard and is just about the last major thing I have to do.  I've already decided the game rules, plot line (adjustable of course), and general game play idea. Though I've currently filled all the details in, I've designed the game as a blank slate: the players can decide most of the game set up, determine their own plots, and use an almost new map with generally no effort every time!  Also, the way I've designed my game allows it to be played with or without a game master.


I just need to decide on a battle system (and hand in hand with that, a leveling system that coordinates with battle well)!  Gr!  I've been playing around with a lot of numbers, and it's not been easy at all.  If I can steal a battle system that would work coherently with my game? I'd be thrilled!!!  Every part of my game is uniquely designed by me, but the battling numbers are so hard that I don't think I'd complain.  Especially now that the school year has begun, it's hard for me to find that much time to play with numbers.  (At least, outside of teaching my own students. )



@bobq, The great thing about my game is that it doesn't have to have a game master.  It can, but it doesn't need to.  In my game, cards serve the roll quite well.  Therefore, it's not something you'd need to actively be involved in unless you so choose.  Instead, there is a set of "town cards" which are drawn and determine town locations and personalities.  For example, when a player runs across a "town" dot on the map, they draw a town card, and then, and only then do they know the name and specifics of that town.  My vision, for example, is that player what's-his-face draws a card and sees the town's name is called BLABLABLA.  There will be a brief description of the town (is it big? small?  messy? stifling? pristine? orderly? Rich?  Poor?), a list of the buildings in the town (I think a minimum limit of one building, and a maximum limit of ten will do), and a listing of the people running those buildings. This list would only include key players, and would briefly describe the building owners (do they have information on the enemy?  Things to sell? Missions to give? Things they'd like to buy? Are they easy to bargain with or do they prefer to try and cheat our players?  Whose side are they on?)


Using this card, the players could decide what to do within each city.  I plan to have 50 cities on the map, but I desperately lack creativity to write them all.  I also struggle to find the time.


I can type up a short version of my rules if the both of you are interested and would like to know more?


I would also like to point out that although I say my game design doesn't have to have a game master, it's a lot easier to play with one.  In my game, the characters travel in a group and the leader of that group serves as the "game master".  Just about the only thing they control, however, is playing the voice of NPC's, using the descriptions on the cards.

OK then. I would be ok with designing some cities, and some of the buildings can be in multiple cities, as more of a mix and match regarding what each town card has as far as buildings. I have a general guideline for what each building in the towns contains. For example, every town would have a market, but only select towns would have a casino or mini games hut.

I would also like to know what the general idea of the entire game is. Will there be dungeons/caves/castles to explore? If so, I can also write up some side quests that involve finding items in these places and returning them to people from these towns. Also, if you enter a town dot, and then leave, will you return to the same town if you try and re-enter it, or will it be continuously random?

I start school in 2 days. Saturday - Tuesday I am free, assuming I don't get a job/have homework to do or out with friends. I have a laptop so I have continuous access to my computer.

Please, let me know more details through PM.

PM sent, but for those that also want answers:

Yes, buildings can be in multiple cities.  I was thinking, for example, that several towns would have taverns or open-air markets, etc.  Some towns, of course, could have completely unique buildings!

You know, I had NEVER thought of having dungeons or caves or castles, but I LOVE that idea!  I'd have to find a way to make it conveniently fit into the game, but I adore it.  I was thinking shop owners might ask for certain resources, and that players would have to go get those resources, but I never considered that those wanted items might be in an enclosed building.

If you enter a town dot and leave, but re-enter it, it will be the same town. I think this makes the most sense and is easiest of course.

I got your pm, and I replied to it with a very thorough idea and game plan.

I can not wait until this game begins to take form, regardless of how long of a process it is.

I guess this is just kind of a bump to re-check for interest.  I seem to be a little more busy than I anticipated this year, but I would certainly still like to give this a go.  The GOOD news is that I now have a more detailed description of the game typed up for anyone that is interested.

I would LOVE it if I could get at least 3 players so that testing could commence.

Again, I just have to remind each of you to please have patience if I'm slow to post responses.  Crazy busy year!

I know bobq has been busy because he pm'd me to let me know. However, I did just pull out this notebook and I'm interested in doing a bit of work on this for the next few days.  Since we have some newer members who are much more creative than I am, I thought I'd let this get seen by them. 

Edit: Weird, why did that get posted here?  *is confuzzled*

Are you still looking for people? If so I will gladly offer a few cities, NPC's and a battling system. Maybe a main character if you need one and you have a few guidelines you want he/she to have.

Are you still needing people for this, Singelli? I am more than willing to help out.

Ok. I will probably be able to be a player asap. I MIghT help, but not until after Feb 10 (i have a talent show on the fourth, spelling bee on fifth, and huge band concert on the sixth X_X). But first, i have a few questions.

To those still interested.. YES this is ongoing.  LOL  I plan to work a little bit on this during the upcoming weekend, though I wont' be able to get much done.  Mostly, I will type up the basic rules of the game and discuss a few details.  I would love input from all of you if you're willing to provide it.  

Popeye116 :
Romances are fine as long as they are appropriate.
I'm not ENTIRELY sure what you mean by the second question... I'm sorry.  
I'm going to START some very BASIC work this weekend, but the bulk of the work will be int he summer.
And I don't know if you are over thinking it or not.  LOL

I found my notebook in which I started to design the game.  There's a LOT to the game, and so I don't want to overwhelm anyone by posting it all at once. Instead, I'll talk about one aspect at a time and make sure everyone understands each aspect before I move on to the next.  Since landscapes are probably the simplest thing to understand, I'll start there.

Okay, so basically my game has a really large map which you can customize every time so that game play will always be different.  However, there will be a 'default' map in case someone doesn't want to take the time creating an individual map (it will be a time consuming process).  The map is split into 50 areas and those areas will contain certain types of landscape.  The biggest differences between each landscape is that each one has a different set of resources, though I've also made sure various landscapes affect things like speed travel, health, and characters' abilities.

Since there is a wold 'template', there are three types of landscapes which will never change location for obvious reasons: oceans, lakes, and rivers.  The rest of the globe will be determined by dice roll.  Forty of the land areas will be randomly assigned as desert, forest, hill, jungle, mountain, or plain. The remaining ten land portions will be ghost towns, quicksand, or volcanoes.

Each of the beneficial land types (green) will have a different numerical value between 1 and 6.  Players will take turns choosing a partition and rolling the dice to determine the land type, and those partitions will be labeled appropriately.  Once 40 spaces have been filled, 2 numbers will be assigned to the less friendly landscapes (red) and the process of choosing and rolling the dice will be repeated for the last ten pieces of land.

I thought this would offer the most variety of game play, since there is no telling how many of each type of land will exist or where those types will be.  Of course, players could vary this to their liking, eliminating the die rolls period, if they wanted to.

Oceans, lakes, and rivers can obviously not be traveled over by foot.  Characters will have to gather necessary supplies to build a boat and sail, or they will have to complete enough quests to buy a boat if they are lucky enough to stumble across someone selling one.  Bigger bodies of water will require bigger boats.  On ocean water, character movement will be a little slower, while movement will be much quicker on rivers.  (I thought about limiting this to one direction only... with the flow of the current... but I didn't want to complicate the game more than it already is.)

Deserts would cause characters to get hungrier in a shorter amount of time, and hills and mountains would cause slower movement.  However, deserts will contain very valuable resources with high selling points, and hills and mountains will contain necessary materials that can't be found elsewhere, and will increase defense stats while characters travel over them.  The other green landscapes have no benefits or downfalls.

Ghost towns, quicksand, and volcanoes will cause health points to lower or defense stats to increase.  Obviously, quicksand will limit movement.  All three of these landscapes have a possibility of causing death.

Of course, there are also towns to consider and place.  However, those are actually determined -during- game play, so I'm going to not touch on that one quite yet.

I do have a map drawn out, but it's on paper.  Of course, anyone can draw a map however, so this is not a huge deal.  During the summer (though I'd love to do it sooner if time permits), I'll build the map in Excel or Paint, or some program in which I can place the map on a grid.


Any questions or suggestions on landscapes?  I know I didn't say much about other aspects of the game, but likely if you suggest anything, I can somehow incorporate it if I like the idea.  There are lots of character stats and abilities and species to play around with, so if you say "Characters should have an increase in this stat while on this type of land" or something of that nature, I can probably use it.

If it is still open, I would like to help in being a player