Electronic Beardage

[Dog Pants]

I was sure we had a thread about enhanced gaming using internets and software, but I can't find it so I'll start a new one for this RPS article:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/01 ... ooting-dd/

Basically, WotC have decided they fucked up with D&D 4th ed and are asking the players what they would like. Fair enough, but probably not going to get you a popular game. However, RPS commentator Alec Meer echoes what I've been saying for ages quite eloquently, and maybe 5th ed might set a new standard for enhanced RPGs. If done right it could potentially open up tabletop to massive new audiences who see it as another, more freeform, form of videogaming.

[FatherJack]

Let the players decide!

Well, that could be spectacularly the worst decision, ever - even from the first comments on that article we have:

After the atrocity that is D&D 4.0

After the atrocity that is 3.5

Even though a fresh, revolutionary approach to attract new players is clearly what the franchise needs, I can't help thinking it's the last thing the posters above would want, if asked.

Hopefully WoTC will only consider forward-looking ideas for the new version, as fans of the old revisions can simply carry on playing the old revisions.

[Joose]

Yeah, if they actually were to "let the players decide", it would be an almighty cluster-fuck. There is a reason why "designed by committee" is used as an insult. I'm hoping that what they mean is that they will take ideas and feedback from the players, learn from their experiences with 4th Ed, and hopefully end up with a game that will appeal to old and new players.

Personally, if I were to wish D&D 5.0 into existence, I would try and combine the strengths of 3.5 and 4. 3.5 is brilliant because there are so many options, both for the players and the GMs, even if you are only using the core books. I could build a 3rd level ranger, and you could build a 3rd level ranger, and they would be easily identifiably different from the stats alone. It puts an emphasis one the RP part of RPG. 4th, on the other hand, puts the emphasis on the G bit to such a degree that it waters down the RP. Its all very gamified, with lots of options taken away in the name of simplification. What you end up with is closer to the old game Hero Quest than it is D&D. That being said, it is a lot more approachable for complete noobs exactly because of that simplification. I would take the range and scope of 3.5, and apply some of the simplified rules of 4th on to that. Of course, there is a pretty strong argument that what I have just described is basically the Pathfinder system, but hey ho.

As far as the digital aspect goes, it continues to amaze me that a company like WoTC, which was built on RPGs, and which has so successfully digitalised its other big cash cow (Magic the gathering) has failed so utterly to provide D&D with equally good computer tools. Just off the top of my head, what I would like to see from them is a tool that can act as a character creation and management tool (like Hero Labs), a GM tool for keeping track of maps, storylines, gribblies, other NPCs and the like, a configurable on line game table and dice roller, and all of that with integrated rules books, so you always have references and everything in the tools can have links to the relevant part of the relevant rule book. How awesome would it be for a GM to be able to go "right, I want a group of 5 bandits with assorted gear worth a total of x gold", and the tool spit out stat blocks, gear lists, all the appropriate dice rolls you might need for them (damage rolls, to hit, all that shite) for you?

The key thing for this to work, in my mind, would be flexibility. Don't make any part of it obligatory. If someone wants to just use the chargen bit, let them do that. If someone wants to use the GM tools, but is going to be doing it in a traditional, sat around the table style, don't make it so they *have* to use the game table too.

Oh, actually, there would be one more thing critical to making this work: they need to not gouge their customers. If they make it so you have to pay £20 a month to use their digital stuff, and GM's and players need to all pay separately, no fucker is going to use it. If they price it sensibly, they could make a killing, as it would be daft *not* to use it. Being WoTC though, I wouldn't be pleasantly surprised if they managed do that, I would be pleasantly astonished.

[Roman Totale]

The thing about a good game (or system or test or whatever) is that the difficult and challenging parts are what make it fun - players often forget this, and so when devising something themselves they end up removing it (possibly unintentionally).

Kurt Vonegut once gave several pieces of advice to aspiring writers, which included this tip:

Be a sadist. Now matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — in order that the reader may see what they are made of.

The problem with gamers writing the rules, is that they are essentially inserting themselves into the book, and very few people want awful things to happen to them (then again, I've seen some websites). Just look at crap like Twilight - one dimensional characters with no interesting features, mainly because the author wrote to them to be her own wet dream fantasy.

[Dog Pants]

This isn't really what I had in mind for this thread, the computery bits should free us from the biggest problem in beardygames - finding people nearby to play with. However, it's an interesting approach.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu4O6hczQS4[/media]

[FatherJack]

That looks and interesting, but expensive device. It's pity lightpens only work with CRTs, otherwise you could bodge that by just putting a big LCD flat on a table.

I guess you could still do that, but you'd have to have a wireless mouse or something and pass it around or just have it as the GM's tool. Could be worth investigating what's possible for a future beard bash.

[Dog Pants]

I had an idea in the shower this morning. That's where I have most of my ideas. I've seen RPG software which simulates tabletops, but none which really tie together asynchronous games where the players aren't online at the same time. Like our forum games or PBEM. I think you could really streamline that type of game with a software package that ties it all together though. Features such as:

Built in IC/OOC comment logging and private messaging, like a forum.
An alerting system which will ping all the players to post a response or acknowledge that they are content to continue. This means less waiting for everyone, the GM (or other player) can assume everyone is happy and keep going rather than wondering if anyone has read it.
Built in dice rollers which can write directly into the 'forum' stream.
Possibly automagic so you can one-click use skills, weapons etc, auto-track ammo. Possibly even do a 'attack X with Y' and it works out the results.

I've absolutely no skills to make any of this reality, but I liked the idea.