Omnificent Role-playing System ruleset free to download
dreamborn:
Quote
Steve writes, “No, I still don't see how that works. The computer can only increment the player's sailing skill when it knows certain facts;
- The player is on a ship.
- Time on a ship slowly increases Sailing.
- On the ship is a Salty Old Sea Dog.
- A Salty Old Sea Dog is an +2z teacher of the Sailing skill.
- The player and the Salty Old Sea Dog talk together for 1 hour every day.
- The player spends 14 consecutive days on the ship.”
Correct, the GM just like in any other game will prepare an adventure ahead of time, the adventure has many of those details. On game day, the players start playing. They get on ship, using main screen (page 21 & 25) {{pages are GM guide}, The player then interacts with Salty sea dog (page 29). Player then uses sailing skill (p25). Each player would be simultaneously doing their things, (training, sleeping, reading, fishing, etc). Depending on how much the players deviate from the GMs adventure the GM either does next to nothing or has to interact with the program. The GM is of course playing the role of the salty old seadog and telling a story. In my games we actually play this out. In your example you seem to blow this off (In which case your game would be faster). Then the even driven sequencer (p 25) cycles through time and updates the characters based upon what they are doing or if an event happens. Then resolve event via the actions it involves using the action templates or player can personalize choices.” The software is running continuously only stopping to get input from GM or players as appropriate. That is when an event occurs that the characters notice (25-27)”.
Quote
Steve writes, “Now, you need to tell the computer this in order for the teaching process to run in zero time. I might imagine using a formal language, or a UI, to add these features to the computer's internal representation of the gameworld. Some work I can pre-empt and do before a session, some must be done inside a session.”
Yes it is a UI, DM UI’s can be seen section II of GM’s guide. Player’s UI are in Section III of standard rules. Yes absolutely, the GM needs a world (best situation) or at least an adventure that is done ahead of time, using the GM Toolbox for ORS. So remember my goal is to add realism and playability during game play. Now you could argue that the GM has to do A LOT of work. Yes, if he is doing everything himself, his World, his Adventures, his NPCs, etc, etc.. But Some GMs spend 1-1 or even 2 hours preparing for every hour of game play. At least, they did back in old AD&D 1st edition days. Yes I had no life….”
Quote
Steve writes, “To provide a concrete example; there's a very nice language for designing gameworlds for interactive fiction (text adventures) called Inform. It's a lovely way to describe a gameworld to a computer. ORS is going to need something similar because I must convey my imagination into an executable form within the computer.”
Yes, what can I say you are right again. The ORS GM Toolbox, was the idea BUT Inform may be a way also, if they are compatible. NOTE: For ORS the plan is to have a GIS (Graphical Info Sys) as part of the GM Toolbox, see section 11.7 of GM’s guide, and Section VI—The World Setting.
Quote
Steve writes, “Again, I'll need specifics. If I decided to use ORS as the generic part of my system, and then I decided to add my own specifics, what do I have to do?
Can you take me through two examples; one straightforward, one harder.
First example; I want to run a game where there are things called soul-stones. If you are carrying a soul-stone, it makes you elated, and sharper mentally, but it slowly destroys your sense of self. How would I go about putting that into the system such that players could have a soul-stone in their inventory, and the effects get applied automatically?”
See Appendix, section 37 on magical items. The GM would create the soul stones using the procedure outlined. Once created the ORS engine knows how to use it.
Quote
Steve writes, “Second example; I want to run a game where players cast spells by composing poems. The more complex the poem, the more powerful the effect. Limericks can do petty magic, and twelve-book epic poems can destroy cities. Take me through the steps I'd need to perform to incorporate that magic system.”
This is handled already see ORS Codex magic rituals and components, section 3.2, In ORS, singing/speaking poems is considered a verbal component. More information on how it mods things are in the Magic Rituals and Components section of GM guide section 9.1 page 18. This would handle it based on the user’s abilities traits and skills. BUT if you are asking the player to do a limerick/poem, then ORS doesn’t do it. In my opinion the players are not the ones doing the action, their characters are. I like to think about my 1st edition AD&D mage. He had a 19 intelligence and a 16 wisdom, my character is both more intelligent and more wise than I am. I could figure out a lot of things in games and adventures but it wasn’t my character it was me. ORS allows the character’s skill, ability and traits to be used in a multi-variate distribution and then based upon the difficulty and the environment around him an outcome is ‘drawn’ from the distribution.
I realize I didn’t answer all your concerns here but. I can only type so much. Sorry about the references but this was quicker for me. Besides the vision is codified there, my brain is a selective sieve. Only somethings stick!
Kent
dreamborn:
OPPS my mistake...
Quote
Quote
Steve writes, “Again, I'll need specifics. If I decided to use ORS as the generic part of my system, and then I decided to add my own specifics, what do I have to do?
Can you take me through two examples; one straightforward, one harder.
First example; I want to run a game where there are things called soul-stones. If you are carrying a soul-stone, it makes you elated, and sharper mentally, but it slowly destroys your sense of self. How would I go about putting that into the system such that players could have a soul-stone in their inventory, and the effects get applied automatically?”
See Appendix, section 37 on magical items. The GM would create the soul stones using the procedure outlined. Once created the ORS engine knows how to use it.
The section on creating magic items in actually on page 34 Section IV of the GM Guide. The reference above is for items I created from my world.
Sorry for the confusion
K
SteveCooper:
Hi, Kent.
What you are describing in ORS seems very much like the Aurora adventure development tools in Neverwinter Nights;
The item designer.
So now, I think I'm understanding what the experience of designing and playing an ORS game is. I'm understanding it to be a computer RPG like Neverwinter Nights, but where certain interactions (like conversation with NPCs) switches everyone out of the computer environment and into freeform, social interactions over the tabletop. Play flip-flops between the two modes.
This understanding is starting to make me more comfortable. I was trying to fit it into a mental pigeonhole; tabletop RPG with computer assistance. But actually, the computer aspects are so dominant that it feels better to think of it as computer RPG with GM assistance.
My main reason for feeling this is considering how we'd both approach the scenario of the PCs on a two-week ship voyage. In my approach (and I think this is typical of tabletop RPGs) I'm simply describing the passing of a large amount of time in a few words. The interactions are conversational. In yours, the time is managed mostly by time spent in a computer UI.
Also, I considered the kind of people I know and the games they play, and wondered who I could get to play ORS. Some of my friends are avid tabletop RPG players but won't play computer RPGs. I think if I were to suggest we play ORS, they'd either decline, or dislike the experience. The required interaction with the computer for every action would pull them away from the things they enjoy in tabletop.
On the flip side, the players who will have LAN parties to play Neverwinter Nights would be more open to a game played like this. They'd be comfortable with the idea of designing characters through a computer interface and managing their inventory on an inventory screen.
Also, of course, there is the matter of designing gameworld; in this system I must build a great deal in a computer, and the players' interactions are largely involved with the computer model, not a discussed imaginitive idea.
--
So we come back now to the idea of design goals. This game is going to appeal to some people and not to others. It's going to be great for certain types of play and rule out others. However, at the moment the story you're telling about it misled me.
The story you need to tell is of a hybrid of computer games and tabletop RPGs. Make it clearer what experiences players and GMs are likely to have. Explain where it sits within the wide range of existing games. See if you can distill it down into an elevator pitch.
I think in order for you to pick up people willing to help, you'll probably need to start looking in some additional places. You might want to talk to people who write interactive fiction (IF), and computer RPG designers. You're going to need a team of programmers for the user interface and the networking, and you'll need a group of people who are willing to code the system itself, and a whole bunch of understanding about how the world works.
dreamborn:
Hello All
The latest versions of the 4 core rulebooks have recently been uploaded.
Kent
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[*] Previous page