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Actual Game Mechanics


eternalshenron
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Hello everyone.


So, I run a Dragonball Z RPG. I use the word RPG because it's actually a game. Maybe more like a freeform RP/tabletop game hybrid. We use a dice rolling plugin on the forum to roll for attacks and deal damage. You have character sheets and can progress by gaining points. The battle system is very much a modified version of the D20 system, made to better suit the feel of Dragonball's intense and ridiculous fights. 

 

I notice not a lot of sites out there are games. More just places to write collaborative fiction? How do you feel about sites with game mechanics? Is it a turn of or is it something you've wished to see. 

 

Thanks for sharing! 

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I personally prefer more of a story-based aspect. However I very much enjoy game-like mechanics as flavor to the In Character universe.

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I do enjoy them if they assist the narrative, rather than them dictating what happens. What you have is a bit full on for my preference. As CovertSphinx said, mechanics (for me) should be the herbs and spices. Story is the meat and veggies.

 

That's just the culture I'm used to though. If I ever saw a forum that I really wanted to join, full on game mechanics wouldn't be a turn off.

Edited by Kit the Human
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Every forum I have ever created has been a game, and each one has had a different type of system based on what the point of the game was. On a mafia RP for example, we used the shop system to buy items from the shop for a faction, which would then be resold back to the shop for a profit- and the boss would then have to make sure everyone in his faction got paid, or else he could get killed and replaced. The system is always designed to encourage the type of gameplay wanted on the forum, which is typically some form of competition and cooperation.

 

On any forum I make, such a system is a requirement. I get bored without the challenge; RPing is what I do in my free time instead of playing video games, so I need to have those similar aspects brought over.

 

However, when I join someone else's forum? I tend to not like it if there's much of a system. That's because these are sort of "side forums" that are just there for me to post on if there's nothing for me to reply to on one of my own forums. I don't have the same amount of time or energy to invest in the characters there, so I'm content to just write a story.

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That's good to hear. I always felt like I was strange that I always wanted precise mechanics in the sites I've been on and created myself. I think that some people just want to write collaborative fiction. That's super awesome and fine! In fact, I've been on numerous sites that were just that. 


Maybe there's a thrill in the game and with randomness such as dice rolling. Much like D&D, on my current site you may not always hit your opponent if you're doing a battle. Not knowing what comes next can make things a bit more thrilling. The downside I'd say is that sometimes the mechanics can drag out the narrative longer than it needs to. In those cases, I usually say story trumps mechanics. 

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4 hours ago, eternalshenron said:

Maybe there's a thrill in the game and with randomness such as dice rolling. Much like D&D, on my current site you may not always hit your opponent if you're doing a battle. Not knowing what comes next can make things a bit more thrilling. The downside I'd say is that sometimes the mechanics can drag out the narrative longer than it needs to. In those cases, I usually say story trumps mechanics. 

 

From my experience, it's actually the other players that bring surprise and randomness into the game rather than dice rolls and other mechanics. But, you also have to have a specific kind of board culture for that to happen, as well.

 

I feel that on a lot of forums, you can pretty much predict the way certain events will be reacted to or how they will unfold. In fights, for example, people tend to pull their punches a bit and there's a lot of evasion going on because no one wants to deal or take serious damage. That's not surprising, and in cases like that dice rolls and the like (to decide hits and misses and what have you) can be a good way of actually having a fight happen, and making sure the game gets played like it should. But also in my experience, the types of players who balk at taking damage or dealing it also don't join forums where their character has to do that is built into the forum. Generally, anyway.

 

But it's also possible to get a group of players together who can have a fight without having it have to be dictated by dice. It can lead to surprise injuries and even death, and I feel like it can be more meaningful because it's not just something random- the other player made the decision in this cooperative writing venture to give your character some teeth, for better or worse. This carries over to outside of fight settings as well, for things that can't be covered by dice or a combat system. Most recently, my friend @Syn banished one of my characters from a faction my character had dedicated his life to. It was a huge surprise and shock to everyone, but it was also super exciting because there had been no warning that it could possibly happen. Other surprises include things like @SusieQ's character finally revealing a secret power, after making so many tiny hints. @Kit the Human had a character shoot mine in the face without warning. @Meia Fox's character's been poised to stab mine in the back with a pair of scissors- and had every reason to- but didn't. Hell, I was surprised when @Ariah's character asked mine why he was such an asshole, after her character had already determined (correctly) that mine was about ready to smack him in the head with a weapon.

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that dice tell you what could possibly happen, in most cases, before they even tell you what the result is going to be. By the time you have to write your reaction to it, it's not really a total surprise since you already knew that losing a limb or losing life was a possibility. When you're writing with the right group of people, you never, ever know what's going to happen, and that can lead to reactions that are much more raw.

 

But it can be tough to wrangle up a group of folks like that, of people who are willing to and totally unafraid of letting things happen to their character, which is what stats are helpful for.

 

Which brings me to your last point- dice rolls and stats can draw things out more than necessary sometimes, which is why I think it can be good to introduce a bit of both sides of things into the game. Even if a game has a fighting system, it doesn't always need to be used. It can be good to let the writers take the reins at times! When I make systems, I try to create something that can work as a backbone which allows this to happen. It's an ongoing process that I've not found a perfect solution to yet, but I think that's part of the fun of it too.

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2 hours ago, Gothams Reckoning said:

I feel that on a lot of forums, you can pretty much predict the way certain events will be reacted to or how they will unfold.

 

 

Especially when you've been RPing with those members' characters for long enough to get an idea of how the RPer thinks. I MAY have used this to my advantage to manipulate certain twists in board-wide plots in the past....

 

Thankfully to the approval of my members when all was said and done lol

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Mechanics... What can say about them. It really depends on the mechanics. I don't like dice rolls to determine hits and misses, I prefer talking it out with my partner because the fighting style of the characters I believe comes more into play than the "damage" that the dice say they can do.

 

That being said on the Sci-Fi site I'm developing there will be an upgrade mechanic via posting/earning an on board currency. That way people aren't starting with the super mega awesome but they have to earn it. It will be fun to see what people come up with.

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Mine is a sort of game--you can roleplay life on the streets as a stray. members have the freedom to write how they would see life in the eyes of canid. we have a low word count so it's not that bad. but it is a game overall.

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  • 2 months later...

In my RPG we use dice rolls for some things, like acquisition amounts of ingredients or scrap metal, but our spar system is very complex.

We take a character's breed, experience (in the rp) with the weapons they are using, typing speed, description, and grammar/sentence structure. Since we prefer speed over paragraph, our players need to be inventive and quick as if the fight were real. The mods determine a hit or miss, so you don't have to spend 5 minutes trying to figure out what move your opponent made and whether you have room to dodge or respond in any way. It also keeps anyone from OPing their character and claiming their dodge or hit rate is absolute.

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