Golden Deer Pub Community Forums

It seemed about that time again for someone to try to revive roleplaying on this board. Since I'm the one who asked for this board to exist, I figure, hey, why not me?

So I got an idea for an RP that I don't THINK anyone here tried before (if they did, I didn't see the thread for it, but I could have easily missed one). It's a fairly simple premise, in fact it only has one key difference from your usual Etrian Odyssey themed RPs: players will take on the role of an entire 5 person guild, rather than a single person. Multiple guilds will be completing the same tasks, exploring the same caves/labyrinths (thinking of doing a thing similar to EO4). Guilds will be able to interact with one another in a number of different ways, and may be able to help or hinder others, up to the players' discretion.


Why I think this might work:
It kinda solves one issue that kills roleplaying. By having each player control a guild, you essentially only need one player and the GM to make the game continue. That way, if one person slows down their posting, the game won't have to grind to a halt to wait up on them. There's also room for more creativity, as you have five characters to make. And, let's face it, making characters is one of the funnest parts of RPing.


Why it might not work:
This doesn't solve the issue of availability. Specifically, even if I'm the GM, I'm not sure if I could be able to post every day (I'd damn well try, though). I plan to work around this by trying to give players extra things to do before I know I'm going to have to be away, so that they don't get bored waiting for me to come back. Also, my sleep patterns are weird, and so I might not be online until most players are in bed.

Aside from that, there's also the problem of complexity. Having five characters per guild might make posts a little too big, names hard to keep track of, etc. I'm not sure if this would be a huge deal, as I personally like long posts, but it really depends on the player I guess. Besides, it's not like ALL five characters of your party need to do something EVERY post...


Issues that still need addressing:
Combat. Not sure how this will work, be it for random encounters, FOEs, or boss fights. For that matter, if multiple guilds are competing to the end of the labyrinth, does that mean only one guild can lay claim to victory against a specific boss? I'd have to balance it out and give all players a chance to do so (or I guess make multiple bosses somehow).

Skills, equipment/items, and subclassing are also some things I ponder. Really, I think I plan on more or less giving people free reign with their skills (though, subclassing would not be available from the start). I trust everyone is mature enough not to turn their character into GOD HIMSELF when they're in the first labyrinth. But then there wouldn't be much difference from one player's Nightseeker to the next, for example. This isn't really a big issue, just pondering if I should bother to make some sort of specialization system, or if that would just over-complicate things...


Other Miscellaneous Features:
-Characters can be any class from any of the EO games (some racial and/or subclass restrictions may apply)
-Players' actions and choices can directly affect the flow or direction of the story
-Free drop in/out at any time during the game.
-Possible RP newbie training via PMs (probably will only be implemented if this gets popular enough to continue for quite some time and people want to drop in super late)
-Possibly some free roaming exploration, like EO4's Airships? (Not sure if this would be relevant or interesting enough to be used for a game mechanic, though)
-Maybe NPCs that work similar to Guest characters?



Well, that's all the thoughts I have on it now. Feedback is both welcome and appreciated, and help with those issues would be great. If things go well and I have enough interest (even if it's only like 1 or 2 players), I could get the ball rolling on this within the week.

Wow. This is a great idea.

This was my idea of a Guild so far...

1. - 5-11 of them will be from Armoroad
2. - 5-10 of them will be from Tharsis

So it's not really a five-person Guild, unfortunately. BUT. BUUUT... Some skills from other classes would be important and it'll bring in different perspectives.

Also, quick questions...

1. Can we


2. If that issue comes to mind later on in the game, can you write out how it will work?

That'll have to be something else for me to think about. The only NPCs I had in mind were essentially my own, with the purpose of aiding in certain quests or whatever. I never decided if they'd become permanent parts of players' guilds... But I digress. I guess I don't have a problem with using NPCs from EO games.

Apparently, I'll also have to think about how to handle guilds that have more than 5 people... I don't really see a problem with such, it'd just be more text to manage.

Hmm, that's not a bad idea actually. Saves post space and looks neat, too.

I am worried if I handle normal combat like that, however, it will require a bit more micromanagement on my part than I wanted. So I may allow players to fight regular enemies at their own discretion, barring specific events (EG, the party gets ambushed while resting at a creek or something). For FOEs and boss fights, I'd obviously take a more hands on approach.

I myself am not particularly keen on posting on behalf of an entire party. Why not just write a fanfic or short story about it if I want to go through the trouble?

Regardless, I think normal combat shouldn't be posted as a standard, and when special cases arise, such as an ambush, characters building character during those fights, two parties meeting in the same fight, encountering new enemy types, etc. that's when you go into the gritty details of beheading a treerat or what have you. As for bosses, who's to say that several guilds can't just team up against it, like monster hunter or Guild Wars 2? There really isn't a way for others to get "ahead" in the labyrinth, since we're not rolling die or anything, and the bosses are unique and a challenge, I would be bummed so hard if I couldn't fight because I fought that first deer boss earlier.

BUMPING THIS:

Why? Because I could.

Sorry for the delay in responses. Considering only two people replied, it doesn't seem like there's a lot of interest. But, like I said, it only needs 1 or 2 people to respond (and run...in theory) so it's not a major issue.

I understand the issue with the length. Yes, posting on your whole party would get rather big (though, I myself don't mind long posts). But, the idea was that you wouldn't have to post your entire party's reactions specifically. Like in the EO games themselves, you could be quite vague on what your guild does. EG, you could say "my guild does X so then Y happens." The individual characters would exist more for flavor than anything else, and you could put as much or as little into their involvement in your post as you'd like.


Not sure if I'm actually going to go ahead with this game. If I do so, I'd like to have most of the story planned out beforehand (already have plenty of the groundwork laid in that area). I'd really like to avoid stopping due to a lack of direction or whatnot. Really, my goal is to either go for broke (as in, a complete RP) or not at all, so as long as I have any doubts, I'm going to keep it on hold. In the meantime, you guys can continue to ask any questions, give suggestions, etc.

Here's a quick preview on the setting and background (subject to change, as not all the specifics are set in stone). I tried to keep it pretty in line with EO themes (spoilers, ).

I like this premise. I shall start on my characters then.



I know those spoilers had some Etrian Odyssey 3&4 spoilers, but I hope you don't mind. You can edit it however you like.

The spoilers should be okay, unless someone starts to complain. I will put a disclaimer in my first "official" post of the game to warn that there will be spoilers for hidden classes and the like from previous games.

Might as well add more to the prologue as a means of bumping.

So is this a "going" thing now? You're doing it in this thread?