Progress on creating the rules

[Submachine]

Way back ago I planned to host an unofficial event, but school and RL interrupted things harshly. Now I'm trying to finish the rules so it can be playable sometimes.
The discussion: http://elementscommunity.org/forum/off-topic-discussions/i-want-to-start-a-new-forum-game/

Any and all help are appreciated.

What I have currently:

• 43/43 magic items
• 43/43 fixed skills
• Buffs and nerfs 95% done

• 100 % full map
• 0/100 % of the descriptions
• Decided to do it board-game style
• Item and event probabilities TBA

• 1/6(?) fix character skills
• half/6(?) skill descriptions

98/100 % Combat Manual
Starter physical items: 100%
Acquirable physical items: in progress

I, the organizer, have a full map which shows all players' locations.
The game will have rounds. The map will be used as a board, where the players can move 1 square (=1 room) at each round's beginning.
After each round starts, each player gets his own map in a PM, where he can't see anyone else. Maps are discovered step by step, except for a special class, who not only starts with a full map, but can also enter at any of the hidden gates.
When a player enters in a new room, the organizer shares the room's name and its description in a PM (unless it is dark, or protected by a magic item wielder). The descriptions of each room should be stored somewhere on my PC.

Players CAN'T communicate with each other if they are neither in the same location nor they have a magic item for distant communication.
Players can communicate with other people of the same area with PMs, but their communicational PM must be sent both to the organizer and to the target player(s) of the same area in order to be valid, otherwise it doesn't count and may have penalties for exchaning info secretly. It is also possible to send an "anonymous whisper" to another player if the circumstances make it possible (e.g: it is dark or the sender is invisible). For doing this, the sender must send the message and the recipient's name to the organizer, who will deliver it anonymously.

Note in the rules: sharing any information out of the game's bounds is not just illogical (because if you want to win, why do you give away precious info for others?) but it also kills the fun.

The school has an inner communication system: there are loudspeakers in some of the main rooms, which can be heard from every other room on that floor. This may be the way to have a one-way team chat, unless 2 players at the same time can use loudspeakers. Also, there is a magical item for distant communication purposes.

If a player discovers a magic item, he/she is instantly told the name and the skill of said item in a PM.

Needed:

Full background story.
Rest of the balancing (3% of the full work).

Should they move around unlimited in 1 room until a round ends?
Should there be doors, which they can see through if they open it? Should others see through previously opened doors? Is there any point in having doors?
ANSWER: there are doors but only for the logical method of passing between 2 areas. They cannot be left open at the start of the round without a serious reason.

Every new ideas were moved to a private discussion with ARTHANASIOS. If you don't plan to join the event, but you want to join the developer team, you're always welcome to join our ranks.

ARTHANASIOS is no longer working with me.

[ARTHANASIOS]

My suggestions:

* Use elemental icons to represent the map, room, obstacles etc. ( ).
* Use expressions to represent players and, maybe, NPCs or villians ( 8) ).
* That way, you can easily display your map and/or edit it according to each player's movement.

Spoiler for example map:

View is considered to be top-down in the following map.
 =road, =ground, =river, =plants, =player, =monsters

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

[Submachine]

That's a nice idea, ARTH. So do you suggest that all players placement on the map should be visible?

I mean, should Player A see and know where Player B and Player C are?

[ARTHANASIOS]

That's a nice idea, ARTH. So do you suggest that all players placement on the map should be visible?

I mean, should Player A see and know where Player B and Player C are?

Not if you PM every player their own map each round instead of having a public map.

[Torriku]

That's a nice idea, ARTH. So do you suggest that all players placement on the map should be visible?

I mean, should Player A see and know where Player B and Player C are?

I know you not asking me, but part of me wouldn't like it because I can't be as stealthy/secretive then

[iancudorinmarian]

I agree with ARTHANASIOS and Torriku, I don't think we should know each others location.

You should have your "host" map known only by you where you can see all players, monsters and everything.

According to that "host" map, you can edit out other players before sending the map to others so they only know their own position.

[Submachine]

I added these 2 ideas in the OP, because I liked them.
However, here are some other questions:

(NOTE: Everything that I list below is questionable. I need you to confirm the right parts so I can add them in the final rules)

1.) Should all players see the full map from the beginning, or only the parts they explored so far? (decided)

2/a.) Should I allow players to talk to each other while they are not in the same location? (answered)
2/b.) If 2 or more players are at the same location, should they only be able to communicate in PMs or in a separate topic? (answered) Or should they even be able to share informations? (answered)

I can't force the players to stick together, because that would destroy the point of the game. But when they are separated, it would only be logical that they can't talk to each other. So I have the following ideas:
- Each player would have his/her own Inbox topic, where other players can talk to him/her whenever it's possible. For example, if Player C and Player D were in the same room and player D wanted to say something to Player C, Player D could write in Player C's personal Inbox topic, which wouldn't be read by anyone else.
The flaw of this, is when someone wants to write a new message to Player C, he/she could see the previous messages too by other players.
- After the start of a round, I tell players who they can communicate with in PMs. The flaw of this one is that I won't be able to follow what the players are talking about. There are 2 options to solve this:
1. Ask players that they also send their ingame discussion to me.
2. Make players first send their messages to me with the recipient, and then I send the message for them afterwards. (this would be extremely slow to do, but it's good as an optional way to talk to somebody without being recognized)

Whichever I go with, I'll have to point out in the rules for the players, that sharing any information out of the game's bounds is not just illogical (because if you want to win, why do you give away precious info for others?) but it also kills the fun.

[ARTHANASIOS]

^
Tell the people to communicate with other people of the same area with PMs, but their communicational PM must be sent both to you and to the target player(s) of the same area in order to be valid, otherwise it doesn't count and may have penalties for exchaning info secretly.
That way, the PM is going to be read both by you and the respective target at the same time (a.k.a. no time wasted).

[Submachine]

That sounds reasonable, even though there won't really be penalties, because if someone is secretly sharing stuff, I don't think I can ever realize it. ^^" For now, I'll put this part in the OP rules.

What about this other question? 1.) Should all players see the full map from the beginning, or only the parts they explored so far?

[DoubleCapitals]

1.) Should all players see the full map from the beginning, or only the parts they explored so far?

I would personally prefer a full map, but I think for this game, perhaps only sketchy details about how the location is like should be given, the rest left for exploration.

[Submachine]

1.) Should all players see the full map from the beginning, or only the parts they explored so far?

I would personally prefer a full map, but I think for this game, perhaps only sketchy details about how the location is like should be given, the rest left for exploration.

That's ok, because even if I share the full map in the beginning, i only share the outlines of each location. If all players start with the full map, the reason for that would be that their "characters" already had a map/draft with themselves.
Right before the moment of writing this down, I had an idea. How about players don't see the full map by default (so they need to explore first), but there would be a character skill (maybe called: Engineer), which would have the special ability to hold a full map from the beginning and have a possibility to enter the map anywhere (on the sides) on the very first round.

[theelkspeaks]

This seems really cool, and I'd love to be in when it comes around!