Timewaster's Guide Archive

Yes, 42, where can I acquire that program?

Spriggan, I'm not sure I understand why PHP would be easier than Perl. But then, I'm not doign the coding and I'm still a beginner at both. I generally try to use Perl because I have two very close friends who are Perl experts and will help me out. As for not logging in, you can probably disregard that. I'm thinking of a problem specific to UBB that requires to login (using the same account) separately to perform admin functions and posting functions. It's annoying. But just make it so I don't have to login INDEPENDENTLY of logging in to post in order to moderate.

Now the idea of having 3-4 different characters for each player is interesting. Although I can see more code going into it. It'd be nice if the display name inside a forum specifically used the character name rather than a login name, however. But I again, I REALLY like the idea, as I've had people in more than one game on AORP and therefore needing different accounts to have different names (Deadlands names don't necessarily wor for Arthurian England etc...)

Entropy: it's simple. I use D&D 3rd Ed. mechanics (mostly), and every player gets a copy of their char sheet, but I handle all the rolls and every thing (I frequently cheat to make sure something happens, like a critical bluff attempt, that sort of thing). I let people level their own characters if they like, however. Mostly you just post on the board. Normal text for actions, quoted text for dialog, and italics for meta-game comments. I prefer first person posting, but it's common to see 3rd person (since I have to post that way to run NPCs and many others pick it up).  Are you interested in picking a character?

Fell, I like that idea too. There are a few people who've told me they'll be playing and still haven't posted. Maybe all they need is a reminder, but it's sort of a bother to do all that manually, since I can't define a mailing list in UBB by most recent post.

To start with shameless self promotion, I'm not introducing any NEW characters, but I have a number of OLD characters that have been made into NPCs lately. Most of the characters are male and of a warrior bent, but some have some very interesting backgrounds and stories. Feel free to contact me and let me know if anyone at TWG wants to join in (Fell and Tage as obvious exceptions, since they already have characters).

There are two things I currently have issue with a strict msg board format. One, is making sure people post to it. There's nothing you can do but personally screen game applicants and not be afraid to make PCs into NPCs if someone won't post.

The other is when a few people need to make a plan. The current thread shows this. It's a weird situation, in that I've got everyone in the world back together with the aim of splitting them into different groups to get a few people who encourage others to post to interact with the maximum number of players. (if that made sense, you win a prize). However, it illustrates a real problem. If we were all around a table, they could all yell at each other and have a grand time till someone decided "THIS IS WHAT WE'RE DOING! NOW PUT UP OR SHUT UP!" However, on a msg board, that sort of argument takes days. With this many people, it takes weeks.

I have a solution when no one is coming up with any action (another minor problem, the format encourages personality, but not action, so a lot of people will say things, and then leave me with a "now what" question as a DM). But if only one person proposes action, I can just assume that's what they all do. In the current case, there's about 3 plans (with a billion variations). So I have to wait for them to decide (although if they don't start agreeing, dawn will come and a certain NPC will make some changes to the scenario). I don't know how coding can rectify this situation.

As for features? Well it depends on progression. You can't (well, you CAN, but you SHOULDN'T) base level progression on assigning xp for traditional D&D things. Because those come so infrequent (though, as has been pointed out, the game so far only takes place over 3 days, and many people have gained several levels...). I base progression on quantity and quality of posts. Quantity is insufficient, it encourages people to post "Me too" type of posts. You can delete those, but it makes you look like a jerk. Quality means judging how well they do, which as a DM, you really are in the job for. However, it's tedious to do this individually, so I just try to remember how well they did.

Now to the point. If I could immediately moderate a post without having to verify it or log in as something special (ie, my admin account was automatically capable of it) it wouldn't be tedious. That way, I could make a post worth any xp value (though I may not want players to see what it was). It would also need a page that would display to admins what each player had gotten from their posts. It should also let me know if there are any non-valued posts (ignoring things in the certain forums, I don't need to moderate posts to the "Cool things..." thread, jsut ones game related). I guess that mans I'd like it related to forums, not a universal feature.

It'd also be nice to have HIGHLY customizable user accounts. Including stuff only admins could alter, like game stats, etc. If you want to get really advanced, mix in the user accounts with the chargen engine. When they create an account, it let's them build a character (either by points or by a 4d6 minus one die option for my D&D game). Then anyone can reference their sheet just by looking at their user account.

To be honest, that's sort of my goal with learning perl, making a BB that allows me to do all those things.

It doesn't hurt to try, does it? I think I'll give it a shot. I have a week off work specifically for writing, so I'm sure I'll be working on this.

I think I'll stay away from "Nastia." Though Anastasia goes with my idea of Katya.

I thought his name was "Duck Dodgers" and it was the 24th and half century.

Heheh, I like that.

Thought "allowed for investment" is what I'll take issue with. The economy is falling because people won't invest. It's not the other way around. Otoh, it's really not that bad an economy. In '96 we made a big deal about how things were bleak. You don't remember that do you? Because in '96 the US was at the height of economic rise. Ok, so our unemployment is a bit higher, etc, etc. But it's not *that* bad. Not yet anyway.

It's slightly off subject, but some time back I wrote a review of The Gregory Horror Show. I have no idea if they continue to produce it, but it was a manically fun idea. The "collectible" aspect were playing pieces. Why I bring it up was that it had a board. ANd uh... really that's all.

I know that Card Captors drove me insane when I playtested it, mostly because it sucked, but it sucked at least in part because it required this freakish layout.

On the other hand, The SUrvivor CCG (i know, I know) also requires a certain amount of specific layout (more than magic, but not so much as Star Wars or Card Captors) and it's actually the best CCG that Upperdeck makes/made. The branding is crappy, but the game was pretty fun. I'll review them soon, I guess.