Firefly Roleplaying Chatroom by GuerillaTheatre

FIREFLY UNIVERSE

Firefly Roleplaying Chatroom

POSTED BY: GUERILLATHEATRE
UPDATED: Tuesday, October 18, 2005 10:00
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VIEWED: 7896
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Sunday, October 16, 2005 10:26 AM

GUERILLATHEATRE

Anyone know if these exist?

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Sunday, October 16, 2005 10:29 AM

HAKEN

Likes to mess with stuffs.

If you need one, I could probably build one on FFF.NET. Nothing fancy, of course.

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Sunday, October 16, 2005 10:49 AM

GUERILLATHEATRE

I know that I would be interested in playing in a Firefly Online RPG. I'd hate to have you go to alot of trouble if noone else was interested though.

Anyone else interested in playing?

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Sunday, October 16, 2005 12:02 PM

FIRETHORN

Just received my book today and hope to get in a game or start one over at the WOTC's site.

-Fire

"You have to finish it, lad. You have to finish it. For a man to lay beaten... and yet breathing? It makes him a coward."
-Harrow

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Sunday, October 16, 2005 6:59 PM

JONESY

Being married with 2 little girls about the only way I can play would be online either at night after everyone goes to bed or on Saturdays.

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Monday, October 17, 2005 10:54 AM

PYREFX

I'm a long time roleplayer and I've been involved in online RPG for about 10 years now. I was the head ST for white-wolf online's open Sabbat game up until recently.

Online games are easy to pull off. Even if you can't get a bunch of folks into a chatroom at the same time, in a setting like Serenity, where your "crew" is on a ship, close quarters, for sometimes months at a time, playing in a format like MSN, Yahoo, or AOL Instant Messengers would work great for one on one or a three to four person session.

from there, sites for the game like www.geocities.com/praisecaine can be set up to get people up to speed on what's going on and give a basic set of rules and references, not enough so as to make purchasing the book pointless (gotta thank joss and co. somehow for thier efforts). personal character pages can be built, fanfics based on the actions taken can be written, crews can be set up to be NPC'd, etc. etc. etc.

The sky is the limit on something like this and if anyone is interested, i suppose i wouldn't be opposed to helping out as much as i can. i'm still heavily involved in other online games and my wife and i are expecting a baby in late november, but if it helps get the ball rolling, you can contact me at...:

MSN and e-mail: pyre_fx@hotmail.com
yahoo: pyre_fx
aol: pyrefx
icq: 36100071

"I call her Vera."

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Monday, October 17, 2005 11:33 AM

ENGINEANGEL

i'm definately interested.

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Tuesday, October 18, 2005 2:03 AM

JADEYEOW

Wow! Lots of White Wolf refugees here!

I'm also a former White Wolf Storyteller from the Dark Ages: Vamire Game at white-wolf.com. Kind of interested in something a little different and I love Firefly. I'd be willing to aid in getting the game off the ground if you guys want to set it up.

Just let me know!

~Jade

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Tuesday, October 18, 2005 2:18 AM

HAKEN

Likes to mess with stuffs.

Quote:
Originally posted by pyrefx:
Online games are easy to pull off. Even if you can't get a bunch of folks into a chatroom at the same time, in a setting like Serenity, where your "crew" is on a ship, close quarters, for sometimes months at a time, playing in a format like MSN, Yahoo, or AOL Instant Messengers would work great for one on one or a three to four person session.

What would be required to run something like this in a forum-like environment? It wouldn't be exactly like a forum per se, but more like a MUD, but not real time. What would I need to build to make it possible for people to play on FFF.NET? What tools would a GM need? What tools would players need?

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Tuesday, October 18, 2005 2:29 AM

PYREFX

well, first and formost you'd want the ability to Send and Update. You don't want an auto-refresh on something like this because it'd be real easy for folks to get swept away by it. From there some of the basics are, well, basic: Font Color, Size, Format. Picture posting capabilities be it through java or otherwise.

The difficult bit is the dice roller. There are 6 different types of dice used in this game. It would be handy if a roller were set up to post in the chatroom. With it you could select the number of dice and what type... Yeah, that'd be abit more difficult. deffinately something to be discussed.

"I call her Vera."

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Tuesday, October 18, 2005 2:52 AM

JADEYEOW

Also, a possibility to be considered is to deviate from the actual pena nd paper dice game that was released and to focus on a free form roleplaying environment guided by a Storyteller or GM.

I've played in these before and they are very fun without being bogged down with dice rolls and such.

The GM's role would be to ensure that people were playing fair and not exploiting their freedom to create. (ie: Coming into the game with unlimited money and a hand of god that always bails them out.)

The drive of the game would be (as in the Firefly TV Series) the characters and how they interact with one another.

I'd suggest creating a simple "space port" chat room where people could gather on a planet looking for work and then give people the ability to create private chatrooms of their own once they form a crew. This would facilitate an open environment for new people to get involved and also for small groups to band together and tell their own stories.

Java or HTML based chatrooms can be created pretty easily...or at least I've heard they can. ( I have no programming knowledge at all)

~Jade

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Tuesday, October 18, 2005 2:54 AM

PYREFX

i'll drink to that.

"I call her Vera."

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Tuesday, October 18, 2005 6:44 AM

HAKEN

Likes to mess with stuffs.

Adding dice rolling to a chat room insn't difficult, neither does adding image upload. All the basic components for building that is already on FFF.NET, which I wrote.

What I want to build is something that isn't real time, so that players can take their turns and make their moves when they have time to. Sort of like playing a RPG in a forum thread, but without the clunkiness of a forum thread. Know what I mean?

I'm thinking I'll need to build some sort of content management tool for the GM and the players that'll track what happened in each turn, etc.. Is there something like that out there now that I can model after?

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Tuesday, October 18, 2005 6:52 AM

PYREFX

now that, i don't know about. there are plenty of BBC programs out there, or forums. Maybe a section on the site specifically for RPG purposes; looking for local gamers, looking for Forum RP, looking for IM RP, looking for Real Time RP, etc. etc. that way RP posts don't get mixed in with the blogs and people looking will be able to find anything they want in one spot.

"I call her Vera."

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Tuesday, October 18, 2005 6:54 AM

ASTYANAX

Hey, y'all,

White Wolf veteran and writer here, and a motley group of us have a nice Serenity game going on over at http://s14.invisionfree.com/Serenity_Dark_Skies/index.php?act=idx

It's not real time (heck, I don't have time to do more than about 3 posts a day most days). It's just getting going, and it's been quite fun so far. Very interactive; the captains are more or less the STs, though there are a couple of admin staff who help with things, too...Right now, there are 3 ships (each with a different crew), and I know mine could use a permanent engineer and a doctor for sure.

Dee McKinney (Astyanax)

Mal: "See, morbid and creepifying, I got no problem with. Long as she does it quiet like."

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Tuesday, October 18, 2005 9:13 AM

HAKEN

Likes to mess with stuffs.

Quote:
Originally posted by pyrefx:
now that, i don't know about. there are plenty of BBC programs out there, or forums. Maybe a section on the site specifically for RPG purposes; looking for local gamers, looking for Forum RP, looking for IM RP, looking for Real Time RP, etc. etc. that way RP posts don't get mixed in with the blogs and people looking will be able to find anything they want in one spot.

Well, let me ask you this. If you were to run a game here on FFF.NET, what would you need? What are the basic tools you'll need to organize a game and get things going?

About a year ago, before there was a Serenity RPG, I was working on a Firefly Universe World Builder program for the site. It's nothing fancy, just a web based thing that'll allow a GM/ST to build a textual map of the world and perhaps even let him organize his plots and storylines for a game.

The idea was that anyone could contribute to the Firefly Universe and make it richer and more expansive as time went by. One could think of this as a poor man's MMORPG without all the graphics and fancy AI--just good writing and storytelling.

Now that the Serenity RPG is out, I would like to dust off that project and continue working on it. I can't build a whole game, but I certainly can try and build the tools that a GM/ST might need to start one.

Any comments from others?

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Tuesday, October 18, 2005 9:53 AM

JADEYEOW

Quote:
If you were to run a game here on FFF.NET, what would you need? What are the basic tools you'll need to organize a game and get things going?

The most important tool would be a motivated group of players who love the setting and wish to contribute to a continuing game. (Think we can put a check on that one here!)

The second most important thing would be a dedicated team of Storytellers or GMs that would drive the stories and keep them moving in a particular direction. I'd suggest having three to begin. Assign two as ship captains and one as the leader of a Port Town.

Next, I would create three chat rooms or thread based sections: One for each ship and one for the Space Port. Make the space Port the primary starting point for anyone who jumps into the game. The ships would routinely come here to get supplies and new crew/passengers/etc... Players could get involved in storylines on the planet while they wait for passage on the ships. Some of them may choose to stay on land instead of heading out into the black.

I'd leave the potential open for expansion if the game grows so that you could accomodate more ships, but I would definitely keep the number of ships small at first so that the games can be more organized and fun for all.

A database program for GMs to access would be useful so the team could know who's who and what's what in the game. GMs should have the ability to make notes on individual players and storylines to facilitate better games.

A general database containing NPCs and such would also be useful for players and GMs alike.

Lastly, a dice roller program would be great to decide random tests of fate situations. I would encourage that the game be kept story based over dice based but the dice would be a handy GM tool on certain situations.

I really think that alot could be done with a simple set up. Simple is sometimes better, in my opinion.

Oh! and the mapping program would be very cool. I don't know how to use it, but being able to create maps of worls and such sounds like an excellent idea!

~Jade

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Tuesday, October 18, 2005 10:00 AM

PYREFX

Yeah, this is kinda turning into a two way conversation here... other people's input would rock.

as far as what I would need? All I would need to run a Serenity game is a chat room with the words "SERENITY RPG" across the top. I could run this game from MSN if that is what it came down to. To get really in depth, i'd say we'd need 3 to 5 different chat rooms, each signifying a different location (Canton Bar, Persephone Docks, Ariel Dance Club, Mos Eisley Cantina, etc), and at least one of them would need to be an Open room. The beauty of an online RP is the ability to interact without an ST around. Capn' Ron lands his ship on Persephone and sets up a lawn chair out front. Bob the Passenger is passing by and the two get into a conversation. The Open Room would be used for stuff like "The Ship is suddenly intercepted by an Aliance Patrol and they're looking to dock"- those sorta things.

everything else is just bells and whistles. The world builder program would be amazing for both online RP and for Table Top RP. i'd build stuff on it and print it out like crazy. Other bits and pieces would be provided as time went on. Another necessity would be the ability for the players to create and contribute to the game. If someone makes up a drug den on the Dust Planet and actually draws out the map, they should be able to submit the map to someone and that map would be put up on a webpage for anyone to have access to.

With the following that Firefly, this would be the oppertunity to fill in the blanks of this amazing 'verse that's been put on hold. I don't see any supliment books coming out for the Serenity RPG any time soon, so this would be a great way to provide our own supliments. While the Serenity RPG book provides ALOT of info, that info isn't all that varried. I think it only gives the schematics for like, four ships, tops. It tells you how to build your own devices with the Newtech system (which is completely brilliant by the way), but it doesn't offer many suggestions. And what about Jobs? How cool would it be to have a Jobs section somewhere where players could submit job ideas that any ST could pick up and use. Hell, I think I'll start a few new threads asking for all that. Might even build a webpage if I get enough input.

So what else folks? What other ideas are out there that could be applied to an online RPG?

"I call her Vera."

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