Forums → The Tavern → Making your own RPG

Well, if I had the time I would make a forum RPG about my own story. Doesn't have to be extremely long paragraphs, since most people don't read it (fully) anyways. I think the best RPG's are the original home made ones, not the copies etc. Also, I think there's plenty of zombie games at the moment, so I suggest something post modern or medieval. Besides that, make sure there's an abundance of choices, or always add a choose yourself option. Keep some rules to keep the board clean, and don't start too early, nor too late. (too early gives a mess, to late makes a game die)

Teamwork games are often better than solitude games, since you can cooperate and talk ingame. You don't have to start together though, but the best is to allowed team games.

Sorry, kinda all I can think of.

For a proper RPG to lift off, it first has to have a good game master. The game master being you, the maker of the RPG, or whoever you appoint to deal with the game. To be a proper game master, you have to have common sense, be realistic while still keeping people's attention, and be fair. What this means is, let things last as long as they can before you make someone move on. Example:

Turn 1: Player wakes up and finds some items.
Turn 2: Player moves out the room and hears a scream.
Turn 3: Player follows the scream and finds blood, and an item or two.
Turn 4: Player follows the scream again and sees a shadow at the end of a hall.
Turn 5/1: Player chooses to fight. You use your dice roller to determine if they win, what happens to them.
Turn 5/2: Player chooses to run. You use your dice roller to determine if they are chased, and if so, if they escape, and what happens.

What most people do is:

Turn 1: Player wakes up and hears a scream.
Turn 2: Player finds a zombie.
Turn 3: Player fights, and is now bored.

Always remember to use the right kind of dice in your dice roller, to make sure things are fair. To keep fairness in the game, make every player equal. No, I don't mean give them the same stuff, in the same place, with the same monsters to fight. I mean set them up with their own advantages and disadvantages, based off of their character bio. If the choose to be an epic knight with epic armor, make them fight epic dragons. If they choose to be a begger with no skill or equipment, make them fight other beggers for food, or fight weak creatures.

Now, assuming you're a good game master, the RPG itself needs some good aspects as well! An RPG requires:
A character sheet, or else things are WAY too confusing for you, and the players.
Players, or else you have no RPG. (Meaning don't start with just one or two people. Wait for at least three to start, unless none seem to be coming.)
A story, or else it makes no sense. If you have a big RPG going, lead people on with a small story about the area their in, and information that is well known, and let them find small information about places along the way.
And, finally, excitement. If you're making a life game, give them challenges to overcome. The stock market is plummeting! Sell, or do nothing?! It could fall farther, or it could rise to incredible heights! Or, if it's an action/adventure game, give them fights that require strategy. The enemy is flanking your squad! Do you hold, or do you retreat?! It's a long shot, but it looks like you might be able to push through their exposed flank!

Once you have your RPG set up with a good area, a good background, a good plot, and players, you're ready to go! Remember to think up things that people wont expect, but also give them a break every now and then. People don't want to see dragons and griffons and sky ships around every corner, sometimes they want to find a pot of gold, or finally find that inn they longed for to rest and recharge.

That's what -I- find you need for an RPG.

Dice roller program I use: [url=http://www.wizards.com/dnd/dice/dice.htm]

Hope that helps everyone. Remember, if you can't do a big RPG, start basic. And if life becomes overwhealming, call upon a trusted friend to take over as the game master. Don't just leave the people hanging. (Like I did in my Warfare RPG T_T No one wanted to gamemaster for me.)

Fixing the link, didn't notice I messed it up.

I personally have never made an RPG, but I do have my opinions on RPGs I have played, though I cant remember exact names at the moment :P.

I find that most RPGs which let you, the player, choose where to take the story is generally lacking in realistic and interesting story and also lack depth since its focus is more on how the storyline can be adapted according to the player's choices. In the end I look at the whole story, and to that extent, the adaptability of the story is no factor for me when deciding how good the story is. So my advice would be not to let the player make major changes to the storyline. Maybe you can let the player take a slightly different route to the next chapter, but not change the destination entirely. Work on the main plot and stick to it.

Also I find RPGs which have you click the enemy and simply wait for it to die, to be extremely tedious and boring, specially when the levelling system is badly revized to the extent that you have to kill hundreds of mobs to get a level after just 20 minutes of playing. Add some abilities other than auto attack for your characters obviously. Even if you add many abilities for your characters, it may not be enough, the most fun games have many feasable combinations of abilities that provide 'synergy' between different abilities. The keyword is 'synergy'. For example, you could have an ability which deals 400 damage, and another ability which deals 600 damage but can be done less often or has more mana cost, but that would be boring. Instead you could have something like, the first ability does 400 damage and knocks the enemy away, the second ability charges at the enemy and stuns it for 3 seconds. For me the second option would be far more interesting and would also open up new strategies depending on what other abilities I could learn. For example, I could charge at the start of the fight, and if there was an ability that dealt more damage to stunned enemies, then I would use it, after the stun I would knock the enemy away and ither use a ranged move or run away for a little until I can charge at the enemy again. Talents also add more choices for players but may be very complex to make. If you add talents, make them more dynamic than, you deal 5% more damage. Instead try something like, if you charge the enemy, the next attack to deal does 20% more damage, that way a player can save a big attack for after charge. A talent learned ability that has a very long cooldown timer but deals a lot of damage could be placed soon after learning the talent which makes charge better. World of Warcraft has a good outlook on how talents should be designed, since different 'talent trees' specialize in different aspects, like control, damage and defence, as well as different playstyles like burst, average damage, multiple enemy killing or single target. But be careful not to make certain ability and talent line ups too powerful, which brings me to my next point.

Balance is also a key point in RPGs, if a specific ability and talent line ups is more powerful than other line ups, then the player may only choose to play that line up despite not liking its playstyle. This could bring the quality of the game play down significantly, and also prevents players from trying out other abilities and line ups that you worked so hard to develop. Also if you base the difficulty of each level on a certain line ups, then weaker line ups may be unable to complete the level, atleast not with the same amount of player skill that you intended necessary. Ofcourse the player may find the difficulty of a level ludicrous based on how far the player is in to the game, simply because his line up, while perfectly reasonable, is weaker than other line ups. The player may simply give up and quit without seeing the rest of your game.

Being able to learn many abilities with synergy to each other may be easier on RPGs in which battles take you to a different screen, focused on the fight itself, such as sonny, FF games and the like.

I hope I provided some useful information and didn't bore you to death.

0_0 ^


One main factor is you. If your too boring, well, your players would probably leave. The most important thing is the imagination. Without it, we wouldn't have cars, planes, buses, all those stuff. Nobody wants a boring story. Think about it. Ask yourself about the story. Is it Boring? Does it sound like something else? You decide.

Posting again pressed submit accidentaly

Starting off

So your making a RPG? And you just can't see the RPG working. You have no idea what to do and your just standing there. Well, don't publish it with more information, RPG's like that never work.

Follow my step by step guide to making the first post.

Step 1- The idea

Now first you need an idea. Have none? Still want to make a RPG. Well think of a movie or a book. Anything with a storyline that you like. Any at all. Have one? Ok, think of another one till you think you have enough. Now, what were the movies about. Put them into what you think they were. Say if you got:

Comedy
Guns
Guns
Futuristic
Futuristic
Robots
Zombies
War
Medieval

Well, I can congratulate you. You are a killing person. Most people tend to like RPG's like that. Let's think now if you combined all those together what do you get? I see a robot war. Filled with matrix style slow motion and the latest guns. Seems like a movie I would watch.

Now you have your idea. I'm going to go cliche on you so it will be called

"ROBOTS VS HUMANS RPG"

That's step 1, you have a name and a concept now for step 2

Step 2- INFORMATION INFORMATION

All I can say. If you make the first post like this:

Character sheet:

nAme:
raCe:
gUns:

sTArT

Robot and Human lost in battle. Fear is surrounding the men. At the distance a small robot comes up and slits the throat of a human. The human quietly dies. The robot was smart he used a silencer on his knife (that was the random comedy bit). Fortunately a human see's this he takes out his P99999999999999999999999 (comedy) and shoots a one hit kill bullet. For robots it did little damage though, and all then men fire again. A little boy sneaks through the..

I hope this helps

To make a forum game, I follow some *pretty* simple rules.

PLOT
The plot of your forum game is the main backbone of your forum game. If it wasn't for it, you are just pretty much killing hordes of enemies without a reason.

A good plot could probably be made by atleast one paragraph in an OP. Be sure that there are more story that you can uncover as you progress to the game.

A good tactic in making a plot is making players curious. For example, a plot in which you kill the evil shit-shit monster is good, but a plot in which you have to find who killed your families is better, since the players will get curious who killed the family, making them play.

In making a plot, be sure that you show the players obviously that they have lots of paths to choose from. It is better that players picks their path in the game, not beforehand.

TURNS

For me there are two kinds of turns, Programmed and creative

Creative
Creative turns are turns that say " what will you do "
This kind of turns should be used sparingly. Why? you ask?
Here is an example.

Let us say that you let the players use creative turns only.

The mission: Kill evilshit-shit which is the main boss.

You say:

You wake up in the room. What will you do?

Player says:

I go directly to evil shit-shit

You say:

But he is the main boss, you only started, you will lose. You have to level up.

Player says:

I don't care

You say:

You went to the evil shit-shit, and he is level 100 and you are level 1, what will you do?

Player says:

I use my fireball spell n the pillars of the mansion and the mansion collapses, killing the monster.

You see what I mean? Use creative turns only and only if it is neccessary...

Programmed

That is why its called programmed, its like a programmed choice. You should use this mainly, It limits the user's choices, but it makes the game more manageable.

Sheets

There are *again* two kind of sheets.


User based

User based sheets are sheets that have been modified by users(hence the name) It provides the gamemaker less work, in the cost of creativity. This is an example of a userbased sheet.

Name:
Age:
Intelligence:
Strength:
Speed:

and you get something here like, 10 points to spend, or something like that.

Description based
These are sheets that are based from the description the user gives you. This provides you with more work, for more creativity and realism.

Eg.

Name: Krakatoa
Age: 20
Description: Muscular, but is not very smart.

The sheet would be then made into this.

Name: Krakatoa
Age: 20
Intelligence: 10
Manueverabilty: 10
Strength:20

Take note that you still need to make the number of points equal. I used 40 as my base score.

What the stats mean are based from you, but if you are curious, here is what I use.

Intelligence: Every two point means a 'one out of ten shots'
meaning our character would land five out of ten
shots.(I use intelligence as accuracy)
Things like decrypting passwords, and picking
locks are based from intelligence too.
Speed: 10 is the base speed, and the base speed is always
2mph. That means if you have 5 speed points, you
run 1mph.

Maneuverability: Shows how good you can manuever through
situations, so it means evasion chance.
every manueverability point means one percent
evasion chance.

Fighting sequence, general choice making
Unlike Tray(no offense please) I do not use Dice in knowing who wins in a fight. If you do that, it would be pretty much a test of luck. Turns are supposed to be a test of strategy, not luck.
Here is an example if you use a dice rolling program.


A. Flank the enemy to the right
B. Go out and shoot like rambo

If you use a dice, that means even if you pick b, you will have the same odds of winning and losing.

For me I use the player's stats, and the enemy's stats.
First of all, make stats for enemies too, but you do not need to show this to the players.

Here is an example:

Player sheet:
Name: Krakatoa
Age:20
Intelligence:10
Speed:20
Manueverability:10

Enemy sheet
Intelligence: 5
Speed: 25
Manueverability:10

The choices:
A. Have a shoot out
B. Run

Having a shoot out is the best idea, since the enemy has a significally lower inteligence level. If you run, the enemy will catch you, since it is faster.

And that is how I know who wins and who loses.

Pictures, Maps etc.
Pictures once every page would make the environment clearer, and much more fun for the players.

........I have to go

Mapper picked up where I left off. Nice.

Does it have to be an RPG or just a simple RP? RPGs don't work very well when you're working with text alone.

Can someone explain when numbers every come into play?

Intelligence:10
Speed:20
Manueverability:10

The choices:
A. Have a shoot out
B. Run

It can be RP. It normally helps with RPG's anyway.

Most of the time, it's just "whoever has higher numbers wins."

Well, I personally think RPs are best. This is my opinion.

1. Don't RP over the forums.

Try to start an RP group through a live chat service such as instant messenger or a chat room. This way, you don't have to wait any more than a minute for someone to reply, your story develops as you go and everyone is involved in its creation, you are not limited to a few options, everyone is far more able to focus on helping each other out rather than their own part in the RP(G), and you don't have to screw around with calculations.

2. Be picky! Choose your fellow RPers!

Some people are show offs. Boot them from the RP, or just kill them... then boot them. Make sure everyone is on the same level when it comes to realism.

3. Don't use stats! Don't use numbers!

I don't suggest keeping track of HP, but if you need something to determine health, HP is excusable. Numbers only slow things down. Not only that, but you need to know before hand everyone's stats, the enemies stats, and you need to have a formula. If everyone is going to influence the story, this is impossible. Not only that, but stats generally don't come into play like they do D&D. The only way stats work at all is if the higher stat wins and the higher stat loses, but that limits what can be done during the RP.

~~~~~~How to RP~~~~~~

1. Promote a DungeonMaster/Admin/Leader

The Leader makes up all the rules. They are in charge of determining who is being a butt nugget, in which case they must boot the person from their group. The Leader determines how realistic the game is going to be. The Leader also has the final say when it comes to what happens. You say you shot a zombie in the face with a sniper rifle? Think again! If the leader says you missed, you missed.

The leader determines the actions of the non-player character, nobody else is allowed to choose their actions. The Leader may or may not have their own character.

2. Be courteous in taking your turn.

You can perform actions as quickly as you can type, as long as you are not going faster than the Leader. If the leader is fast at replying, be courteous and allow other people to jump in and perform their own actions.

3. No Mary Sue characters

Don't make a character who is perfect. Don't make a character who has no weaknesses, or their weaknesses only make them more appealing. If you're good with melee, range, and magic, and your weakness is that you can't resist women, then you're a giant *sshat and the Leader should do his job and boot you from the RP. Make all weaknesses realistic.

If you're character is clumsy, then allow the enemy to hit you some. Not only are you making the RP more challenging, but the Leader may allow you to do something super awesome to the enemy! If you're awesome all the time, you are no fun. If you do something awesome once in a while, you are awesome.

4. Get into character!

If you can't get into character, RPing just won't work. You don't tell everyone what your character says, you speak as your character! If your character is dumb, act dumb! Do dumb things! If your character is a flirt, flirt with all the women (or men).

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.