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Dead But Dreaming posted:If he's still learning, don't worry about the plot. You can just make something up and focus on the code. One's first game will be rubbish, same as with any hobby, and it's best not to get hung up on the details. Save the storytelling ambition for when he's got some experience. He's already made himself a super-generic thing to test out various aspects (a combat system, branching paths, etc.) and wants to work on something more complete. I know the game will almost certainly be pretty terrible, but he's got his heart set on making it and I intend to try to give it my best shot for what he asked of me - especially since I know no programming whatsoever and all he really wants out of me is a story. Hearing that the evil overlord idea has worked before is encouraging though, so maybe I could see about developing it a bit more.
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Jun 7, 2015 15:26
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Simple plots work all the time for many JRPGs because they have good mechanics to back it up or even good writing to present it, just trust on your little bro and try to think outside of the box but still using the tools you are presented with.
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Jun 7, 2015 15:38
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Bob Quixote posted:I don't know if this is on topic enough for the off-topic thread, but my younger brother is teaching himself computer programming and he wants me to help him make a text based computer RPG. His main interest is just in working on the code and coming up with ways to handle the various systems and he just wants me there as the 'idea man' to come up with the plot and possible game mechanics, menu layouts and other stuff for him to program in. Do you mean like a roguelike or an Infocom-style text adventure? Because there are tutorials out there for both.
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Jun 7, 2015 16:10
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Evil Mastermind posted:Do you mean like a roguelike or an Infocom-style text adventure? Because there are tutorials out there for both. Probably a text adventure style thing - I think roguelikes might be a bit beyond his abilities at the moment. Most of the tutorials I've seen online for making text adventures focus on using specialized software to make games, but his main interest is in doing it in C++ from scratch. I'm mainly trying to think of how to go about writing the scenario for the game itself. I'm sure if I look harder though there are probably some good tips out there for setting up puzzles and such. TheLovablePlutonis posted:Simple plots work all the time for many JRPGs because they have good mechanics to back it up or even good writing to present it, just trust on your little bro and try to think outside of the box but still using the tools you are presented with. That seems fair. He's a pretty smart guy and I got faith in his ability to do this. He did have a relatively elaborate combat demo that he showed me yesterday that I thought was fairly impressive for his first time programming anything like it.
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Jun 7, 2015 16:20
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Bob Quixote posted:Probably a text adventure style thing - I think roguelikes might be a bit beyond his abilities at the moment. People recommend using Inform or TADS for text adventures because writing a good parser is a pretty thankless task. Sure, it's easy to parse GET LAMP, but PUT THE SHORTER CANDLE ON THE CANDLESTICK (Which candlestick? The red one or the blue one?) THE BLUE ONE is more complicated. (Inform and TADS also use a virtual-machine system, so the same game can be played on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and even inside a web browser.) You certainly can write a parser from scratch in C++ if that's your interest, but you should be aware of the alternatives. I'd recommend reading "The Craft of Adventure", by the author of the Inform system; it's a good introduction to making puzzles that are both difficult and fair, as well as the sort of worldbuilding people expect in text adventure games. Another resource is the Interactive Fiction Theory Reader (PDF or paperback), which came out in 2011. Twisty Little Passages is a scholarly history of the medium, published in 2005 by MIT Press. inklesspen fucked around with this message at 17:52 on Jun 7, 2015 |
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Jun 7, 2015 17:43
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inklesspen posted:People recommend using Inform or TADS for text adventures because writing a good parser is a pretty thankless task. Sure, it's easy to parse GET LAMP, but PUT THE SHORTER CANDLE ON THE CANDLESTICK (Which candlestick? The red one or the blue one?) THE BLUE ONE is more complicated. (Inform and TADS also use a virtual-machine system, so the same game can be played on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and even inside a web browser.) You certainly can write a parser from scratch in C++ if that's your interest, but you should be aware of the alternatives. The writing of the code is my brothers interest, not mine - the whole project is his idea since he thought it would be good practice and fun to code a game like this since it would be simpler than something with graphics/physics/etc.. The only programming I've ever done was one class in BASIC that I took in highschool over a decade ago and barely scraped by in. inklesspen posted:I'd recommend reading "The Craft of Adventure", by the author of the Inform system; it's a good introduction to making puzzles that are both difficult and fair, as well as the sort of worldbuilding people expect in text adventure games. Another resource is the Interactive Fiction Theory Reader, which came out in 2011. Twisty Little Passages is a scholarly history of the medium, published in 2005 by MIT Press. These links look really awesome, and I appreciate the help!
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Jun 7, 2015 17:56
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Are there any great guides for running RPGs online with chat or voice chat? Roll20 and Skype seem to be common options, but I'm thinking of dipping my toes in finally to get some far-flung friends together, and I'm probably going to be organizing things, but I'd like to have some idea of what the best tools are and what the common stumbling blocks are.
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Jun 7, 2015 23:45
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Why would you need guides and tools? Skype and Roll20 aren't that counter-intuitive, on my personal experience playing we just spoke through voice chat and stuff, cracked jokes, made turns and stuff?
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Jun 8, 2015 00:14
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When I was a kid I wrote my own text parser in basic. If he really wants to build his own to teach himself the language and not just to, you know, make games, there are worse ways to go. Then again, most actual developers don't work from scratch; they use whatever libraries exist. Someone just made a text adventurish library for Unity; this may be helpful to him. Point him to the interactive fiction community forums for all his interactive-fiction-related needs.
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Jun 8, 2015 01:29
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Are there any great guides for running RPGs online with chat or voice chat? Roll20 and Skype seem to be common options, but I'm thinking of dipping my toes in finally to get some far-flung friends together, and I'm probably going to be organizing things, but I'd like to have some idea of what the best tools are and what the common stumbling blocks are. Roll20 is pretty easy to use once you get used to making the maps. Just treat it a lot like playing an RPG with a shared whiteboard and it'll go fine.
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Jun 8, 2015 01:54
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Roll20 has some nice tutorials on their wiki too. the Crash Course and Getting Started GMs are pretty nice
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Jun 8, 2015 03:10
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Are there any great guides for running RPGs online with chat or voice chat? Roll20 and Skype seem to be common options, but I'm thinking of dipping my toes in finally to get some far-flung friends together, and I'm probably going to be organizing things, but I'd like to have some idea of what the best tools are and what the common stumbling blocks are. Just start your Roll20 in a Hangout. Skype is garbage and Roll20 is fully supported by hangouts. Looking at Savage Worlds. Why does the game have attributes if you roll a D4 for something you aren't trained in? What purpose do attributes serve?
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Jun 8, 2015 03:42
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alg posted:Looking at Savage Worlds. Why does the game have attributes if you roll a D4 for something you aren't trained in? What purpose do attributes serve? To dictate skill costs (skills are cheap as long as you aren't buying them above a corresponding attribute) and some of them are important in steps of combat resolution (like rolling Spirit to recover from being Shaken).
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Jun 8, 2015 03:58
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Yeah, some attributes are extremely important for skills (namely smarts and agility) because they serve as a "ceiling" for skills (being very expensive to raise skills above the attribute). And of course the other attributes are important all on their own (strength determines damage, vigor determines toughness and soak rolls and Spirit helps resist a lot of effects and recover from Shaken).
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Jun 8, 2015 04:43
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Also, unless there was some major change I missed, you roll d4-2 for untrained skills, not just d4.
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Jun 8, 2015 12:05
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I'm looking for some good game or film soundtracks to fill out my "background music" playlists. In my current campaign, I'm getting some good mileage out of the Witcher 3 soundtrack, with some Assassin's Creed 1-4 stuff thrown in for good measure. But I'm trying to diversify, especially as we start to push out into other settings (I'd like to have different playlists for each area of the game world they go to, for both background and combat music). It's been tough to find music outside of what I already know about, because any time I try to Google for good tabletop gaming music, it's invariably playlists of over-the-top epic Two Steps from Hell-type stuff, or power metal, or that kind of thing. I'm set for the epic stuff, the music for when poo poo hits the fan. I've got plenty of that. What I need is more low-key, mostly orchestral/instrumental stuff for "routine" combats or just exploring. Anyone have any recommendations?
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Jun 8, 2015 22:37
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The Moneyball soundtrack has become my film -> RPG soundtrack of choice for a few years now. Beasts of the Southern Wild is also country-creepy, so that could be good for explorationing.
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Jun 8, 2015 23:25
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TheLovablePlutonis posted:There are, they just patrol around in police cars. This is literally the second or third joke after they arrive the Big City. The sweet old lady gets thrown in jail overnight because of it  .
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Jun 8, 2015 23:31
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Harrow posted:What I need is more low-key, mostly orchestral/instrumental stuff for "routine" combats or just exploring. Anyone have any recommendations? Check out somafm.com for some great DJd ambient music with no commercials. Secret Agent radio is my go to, but there's a new station that overlays distorted San Francisco police scanner chatter that I'm dying to get into an urban apocalypse Dread game. Also a big fan of looping ambient tracks off of YouTube. Layering something very low and stringy with an hour of howling winds, for instance. fosborb fucked around with this message at 23:47 on Jun 8, 2015 |
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Jun 8, 2015 23:45
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Harrow posted:I'm looking for some good game or film soundtracks to fill out my "background music" playlists. All of the instrumental music that Brian Eno did during the 70s, including the three David Bowie albums he produced, are my go-to for creepy dungeon music. I used to have a big playlist of that stuff that I would put on while playing Pool of Radiance and other old dungeon crawlers. I also bust these out for anything horror related, especially Lovecraft-related. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5o-GTgonDQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBprICVPzKA Man, I'm already back in the slums of Phlan. poo poo poo poo poo poo a pack of wights gently caress
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Jun 8, 2015 23:52
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god drat that's good advice.
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Jun 9, 2015 01:16
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Halloween Jack posted:All of the instrumental music that Brian Eno did during the 70s, including the three David Bowie albums he produced, are my go-to for creepy dungeon music. I used to have a big playlist of that stuff that I would put on while playing Pool of Radiance and other old dungeon crawlers. I also bust these out for anything horror related, especially Lovecraft-related. The producer was Tony Visconti, who had worked with Bowie in the past. P.S. Low is the best album in the trilogy.
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Jun 9, 2015 01:36
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FactsAreUseless posted:Eno didn't produce the Berlin trilogy, he co-wrote and performed on it (not vocals though). Agreed re:Low.
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Jun 9, 2015 02:09
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Shadow of the Colossus is my go-to soundtrack. It has epic battle music and calm exploratory stuff, and enough variety of both that you don't have to loop the same two minutes for hours at a time. For pure ambience I found http://tabletopaudio.com/ recently and it's pretty neat.
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Jun 9, 2015 06:16
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Halloween Jack posted:Ah, I was getting everything confused with 1. Outside, when he actually dumped Tony for Brian, if I remember right.
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Jun 9, 2015 11:23
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Holy poo poo there was a sequel to the DragonStrike video. For motherfucking SPELLJAMMER. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHGz5r-b1do
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Jun 9, 2015 21:25
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Evil Mastermind posted:Holy poo poo there was a sequel to the DragonStrike video. For motherfucking SPELLJAMMER. Oh, man, you missed WILDSPACE (WIIILDSPACE!)
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Jun 9, 2015 21:27
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Apparently WildSpace was never actually released, but going by the YouTube comments there was a complete game with the VHS tape on eBay a while back. I actually never played or owned DragonStrike, despite being around during that time. I was pretty much all "standard" RPGs back then.
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Jun 9, 2015 21:31
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"She steals…for good!" *whipcrack*
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Jun 9, 2015 21:33
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Legit question: why are none of the retroclones out there like that? I feel like hey're always so focused on recreating the core rules they forget all the awesomely nutbag stuff that came out to support the games. There's such a focus on stuff like Tomb of Horrors or the Giants series everyone ignores stuff like Barrier Peaks. I want a retroclone where "Awesome Pecs and Hair" or "stab enemy with its own weapon" are fighter abilities, where spelljammers just show up when you hit level 9, and your wizard's power is tied to the intricacy of his tattoos.
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Jun 9, 2015 21:49
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My favorite part is the fighter blocking the firebolts with his sword. "When does my fighter get the ability to do that?" "Never, Timmy. Now roll on the critical fumble table again." To be fair, the illithid did look pretty cool.
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Jun 9, 2015 22:06
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Evil Mastermind posted:Legit question: why are none of the retroclones out there like that? I feel like hey're always so focused on recreating the core rules they forget all the awesomely nutbag stuff that came out to support the games. There's such a focus on stuff like Tomb of Horrors or the Giants series everyone ignores stuff like Barrier Peaks. Because the people invested in the OSR are really only looking for some platonic ideal of old-school D&D that didn't actually match up to what was found in D&D during the actual time it was out there, to the point where some retroclones deliberately go out of their way to excise Gygaxian Androids and pulp sci-fi elements during their translation. We've gotten to the point where OD&D, BECMI, AD&D 1e and AD&D 2e all have straight ports now ... and then progress is slowing because "all the awesomely nutbag stuff" is actually kinda still fringe past to swathes of the OSR demographic.
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Jun 10, 2015 02:59
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gradenko_2000 posted:Because the people invested in the OSR are really only looking for some platonic ideal of old-school D&D that didn't actually match up to what was found in D&D during the actual time it was out there, to the point where some retroclones deliberately go out of their way to excise Gygaxian Androids and pulp sci-fi elements during their translation. I know. It's just so depressing how much awesome stuff from the Actual History of D&D has been abandoned in pursuit of "the game I played when I was 12". Did you know that in BECMI/RC D&D, Lawful fighters became paladins, and Chaotic fighters could convince monsters to join them as followers? Or that it had a whole weapon mastery system that let fighters pull all sorts of awesome moves that supported the golf-bag-full-of-weapons idea? You wouldn't based on the majority of OSR/retroclone stuff out there!
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Jun 10, 2015 03:08
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I'm willing to bet that the reason OSR materials are more descended from Keep on the Borderlands/Against the Giants/Tomb of Horrors than Expedition to the Barrier Peaks/White Plume Mountain/Island of the Ape is because the former have and had greater mindshare, rather than revisionism of the conscious or unconscious variety.
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Jun 10, 2015 03:32
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The first two episodes of Wil Wheaton's Titansgrave TRPG show have been released: http://geekandsundry.com/titansgrave-chapter-0/ http://geekandsundry.com/titansgrave-chapter-1/ Evil Mastermind posted:Did you know that in BECMI/RC D&D, Lawful fighters became paladins, and Chaotic fighters could convince monsters to join them as followers? Or that it had a whole weapon mastery system that let fighters pull all sorts of awesome moves that supported the golf-bag-full-of-weapons idea? You wouldn't based on the majority of OSR/retroclone stuff out there! To be fair, Dark(er) Dungeons, the retroclone of RC does cover the Weapon Mastery rules, and then Labyrinth Lord as the retroclone of B/X has them as a supplement. gradenko_2000 fucked around with this message at 08:01 on Jun 10, 2015 |
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Jun 10, 2015 05:59
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gradenko_2000 posted:Labyrinth Lord as the retroclone of B/X has them as a supplement. It doesn't seem to be available anymore.
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Jun 10, 2015 17:56
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At the risk of sounding whinily un-satisfy-able, LL and Dark* Dungeons are good retroclones and recreate one of my favorite versions of D&D (hell, it's the edition I started with), but the problem I always end up having is that they're so dry. They're not trying to do anything new, or present an expected playstyle, or draw inspiration from anything but the old core rules. They're just rules that, admittedly, I already own. Going back to the DragonStrike and WildStar videoes: that's the kind of stuff I want in my retroclones because that's what D&D was actually like to me. What got me going in RPGs wasn't the mechanics, it was the cheesy 80's fantasy-with-some-sci-fi movies and comics.
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Jun 10, 2015 18:14
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It sounds like what you need is a dose of Encounter Critical. http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/encounter-critical.htm
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Jun 10, 2015 18:19
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unseenlibrarian posted:It sounds like what you need is a dose of Encounter Critical. http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/encounter-critical.htm Thank you for reminding me I own this.
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Jun 10, 2015 18:23
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3rd/3.5E question: from what I gather, it was really hard for the Wizard to actually get enough spells in AD&D to really become the powerhouse that they're generally regarded as, so the Sorcerer was supposed to be a sort of deal-with-the-devil: you could have a lot of freedom with what spells you learned, because you learned them naturally and you could pick and choose from the book, and you could spent your slots on any given spell you knew, but in exchange, you'd never be able to learn as many spells as a Wizard Except it never actually turned out this way when the Sorcerer was finally introduced because 3E was also the edition that made it much easier for Wizards to obtain spells, since they'd learn a spell just by leveling up, and they were no longer at the mercy of the DM for scroll drops nor the dice for succeeding at scribing spells. Is that accurate? Were there any other factors that made Sorcerers so much worse than Wizards and make them not worth it? Evil Mastermind posted:At the risk of sounding whinily un-satisfy-able, LL and Dark* Dungeons are good retroclones and recreate one of my favorite versions of D&D (hell, it's the edition I started with), but the problem I always end up having is that they're so dry. They're not trying to do anything new, or present an expected playstyle, or draw inspiration from anything but the old core rules. They're just rules that, admittedly, I already own. Hey I know what that feels like - it's really only OSRIC that I really appreciate out of the bog-standard retroclones because while you can run a game of B/X or RC straight from the original books, gently caress trying to do that with AD&D 1e.
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Jun 10, 2015 18:42
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