Advice/Help New to the forum, how would I execute this abstract group RP idea?

[Zef The Owl]

Hey, so, I had an idea for a group RP. Or possibly a quest RP? I dont know if it would count? Here, let me explain the idea;

I had a plan for a group RP based around Dragons. I would make a world with a bunch of claimable territory divied and chopped up. It would be a, 'Drop in, Drop out' RP. Long term, you could join at any time, leave any time, and rejoin any time, easily explained by your dragon OC going into hybernation.

People could do what they want here, just explore, talk, make friends, make rivalries, etc. However I wanted to impliment a 'system'.

The idea here is that the RP would have the aforementioned territories that dragons could claim and even fight over. When a Dragon claims a territory they basically become a 'God' of that territory. It morphs to the type of dragon they are; (For example a firey red dragon might have a landscape turn volcanic, with people living in it who are warmongering and barbaric, while a nature dragon would have the land become verdant forests, with elves and sylphs living there.) Thus, the RPers would make and morph the landscape that everyone is playing in.

However, the problem comes down to territory disputes. I want Dragons to be able take territory. Chasing out the local population to replace with their own worshippers/devotees and changing the landscape to their dragons preference. Then they can do anything there, hold big draconic summits, make festivals, make tension for neighbors by sending out raids, etc.

I'd probably make it so people can only contest territory once a week or month or something, so someone doesnt just blitz through the world taking it over.

However, settling those disputes is the sticking point. Obviously I dont want to leave it to just RPers deciding the outcome since theres real tangible gains that would effect everyone's characters. I had the idea of maybe letting them fight, doing a few posts back and fourth. Then doing a Poll with all readers as a whole deciding who they think wins based on those combat posts. Whoever wins the poll, wins the fight. No player death unless they agree to it, the loser just backs off and concedes, or is knocked out and unable to fight.

Despite only using the poll for this one aspect, would it still be a quest? Do you think its a good way to go about resolving conflicts? I'd love input, and if you think this idea will be successful.

 

[nerdy tangents]

It’s an interesting idea. I would offer three suggestions.

1.Give the dragons limitations. Having all powerful god characters is fun for a short while before the ability to do anything gets dull (or you just end up with players trying to one up each other, especially as you have a combat element).

Solution : I would make the reality warping something the dragons do not do themselves. Each territory has some kind of magic location that holds a lei stone. The lei-stone changes the environment of the territory. Whichever dragon had the lei stone can alter the environment

Limitations : The lei stone can be taken by non dragon entities (it’s a physical object so it can be taken by whomever finds it). It is powered by lei lines, meaning alterations must be made in specific times when the power is at certain levels. (This can be tracked by you. More on this below).

1b. Dragons need to have specific strengths and weaknesses. None of this “My dragon can control fire and ice and summon demons. Oh sometimes their shy.”

No make sure your players give specific limits to their abilities.

Ex.” My dragon has the ability to sense ill intentions and can cleanse curses, disease, or rot from individuals/their surroundings. They do this by touching their horns to the aflicted person/place. Their horns are like antlers and can be taken off in a fight or just when they become damaged. They are ground dwelling and can move swiftly but lack strong armor or talons. They tend to win battles largely by tiring their opponents out over physically beating them.”

2. Stat trackers and RNG.
So you as the GM can track two types of stats. One how powerful the lei lines in each territory are. So I would message the person in charge of that lei line saying “Hey this week you can alter your territory if you want. Just remember if you do others might attack”. I would also do a personal RNG to determine if NPC characters attempt to take the lei stone from the dragons.

With you essentially flipping a coin and informing each player in a post. This week there are no thefts or this week an NPC will try to take your stone. From there let the players decide what happens.

b. player vs player fights
So as the GM you can randomly generate a number between 1 and 3. 1 - the stone is stolen, 2 - the intruder is run out, 3 - the fight is a draw and players decide.

I would do this myself until you get a feel for how competitive your players are. This way they can’t lie and say well I always get 1s or 2s. If your players seem willing to play nicely you can either let them do the RNG or just discuss within the OOC what needs doing.

3. Have some events planned out for your players to react to. As just giving people free reign can be overwhelming to some people. So have just random little activities that people can do that will allow them to get a feel for the world and also some idea of how to interact with their characters. You can even have players submit roleplay wide activities as well.

Example Activities
1. Lei storms - happen at random times in the year and cause the lei stones to act up. They are too unstable to move at this time because they cause random transformations in the enviornment, so your dragon might randomly be turned into a duck. The environments will randomly alter to some other landscape during the length of the storm.

2. Festivals - yearly festivals honoring the elements/gods. Not to be confused with local festivals these are massive ones where every territory gets involved. So people move freely between festivals and there is no fighting allowed.

3. Mage Summoning - pesky mages attempting to use the lei lines for their own purposes. Dragons have to team up to run them out and show them whose boss.

 

[Zef The Owl]

Fantastic advice, lets see...

1.Give the dragons limitations. Having all powerful god characters is fun for a short while before the ability to do anything gets dull (or you just end up with players trying to one up each other, especially as you have a combat element).

Solution : I would make the reality warping something the dragons do not do themselves. Each territory has some kind of magic location that holds a lei stone. The lei-stone changes the environment of the territory. Whichever dragon had the lei stone can alter the environment

Limitations : The lei stone can be taken by non dragon entities (it’s a physical object so it can be taken by whomever finds it). It is powered by lei lines, meaning alterations must be made in specific times when the power is at certain levels. (This can be tracked by you. More on this below).

1b. Dragons need to have specific strengths and weaknesses. None of this “My dragon can control fire and ice and summon demons. Oh sometimes their shy.”

No make sure your players give specific limits to their abilities.

Ex.” My dragon has the ability to sense ill intentions and can cleanse curses, disease, or rot from individuals/their surroundings. They do this by touching their horns to the aflicted person/place. Their horns are like antlers and can be taken off in a fight or just when they become damaged. They are ground dwelling and can move swiftly but lack strong armor or talons. They tend to win battles largely by tiring their opponents out over physically beating them.”

Yeah, given I'll be approving charactera I'll make judgement calls on their strength as far as abilities, but all dragons would have strengths and weaknesses, itd be a requirement in the sheet, with limitations as far as certain abilities. (For example summoning armies, etc)

2. Stat trackers and RNG.
So you as the GM can track two types of stats. One how powerful the lei lines in each territory are. So I would message the person in charge of that lei line saying “Hey this week you can alter your territory if you want. Just remember if you do others might attack”. I would also do a personal RNG to determine if NPC characters attempt to take the lei stone from the dragons.

With you essentially flipping a coin and informing each player in a post. This week there are no thefts or this week an NPC will try to take your stone. From there let the players decide what happens.

Yeah NPC threats to stones is an interesting idea, since I could make narratives if they lose their territory as to what moves in. (Say, a big group of Trolls or Orcs that the next dragon has to chase out)

b. player vs player fights
So as the GM you can randomly generate a number between 1 and 3. 1 - the stone is stolen, 2 - the intruder is run out, 3 - the fight is a draw and players decide.

I would do this myself until you get a feel for how competitive your players are. This way they can’t lie and say well I always get 1s or 2s. If your players seem willing to play nicely you can either let them do the RNG or just discuss within the OOC what needs doing.

Hm so you dont suggest the Poll idea then? This does seem like a simpler and easier method, though it takes away the community interaction aspect. (Then again I can see how polls could be bias)

3. Have some events planned out for your players to react to. As just giving people free reign can be overwhelming to some people. So have just random little activities that people can do that will allow them to get a feel for the world and also some idea of how to interact with their characters. You can even have players submit roleplay wide activities as well.

Example Activities
1. Lei storms - happen at random times in the year and cause the lei stones to act up. They are too unstable to move at this time because they cause random transformations in the enviornment, so your dragon might randomly be turned into a duck. The environments will randomly alter to some other landscape during the length of the storm.

2. Festivals - yearly festivals honoring the elements/gods. Not to be confused with local festivals these are massive ones where every territory gets involved. So people move freely between festivals and there is no fighting allowed.

3. Mage Summoning - pesky mages attempting to use the lei lines for their own purposes. Dragons have to team up to run them out and show them whose boss.

I had this exact idea and these are some fantastic things to work into it. I was going to have two types of 'events'. 'Forecasts' and 'Major Events'.

Forecasts would be smaller things effecting the land and change weekly. Just things to flavor RP, like "Trolls have left hibernation and are hunting in the lands, theyre very common this week!" Or "Its a rainy windy week, flying is a bit troublesome."

While 'Major events' would be things like major plots. Like putting some monstrous warlord on the map, or aforementioned festivals. That sort of thing.

 

[nerdy tangents]

Yeah I would say RNG since it's truly random and you can't be accused of favoring any one participant. Plus you don't want to promote bullying or people getting sore in the OOC if they don't win. This way it's basically random chance and if people get snotty about it they don't have any one person to blame (other than you). And as the GM those type of people wouldn't like you anyway.

 

[Idea]

Regarding the questions about a quest RP, a quest RP functions like a choose your own adventure book. One person writes the entries, the rest just vote and maybe discuss. If it ain’t that, then it ain’t a quest RP.

 

[Crayons]

I would second nerdy's idea for a simple dice system to resolve combat. If you let a poll decide on pvp it would just be OOC trouble constantly. People getting pissed other people didn't vote for them. Players strongarming other players to vote for them or forming reciprocal deals. Popularity contests (which is what it will become) are just ugh no.

Not all players will act with immaturity with such a system, true, but you are going to attract power gamers and pvpers who are statistically the least mature and cooperative players with these dragon fights, and conflicts between those rarely turn out well.

 

[Beckoncall]

I made a game like this, but it was with gods AND dragons.

This is what the map looked like: (The different colors were the different players)

I developed a kind of dice system for the fights. A lot of characters died, but the game was fun enough that people usually just made a new character.

Let me know if your idea gains traction and maybe I'll help you!

-Beck

 

[Zef The Owl]

I made a game like this, but it was with gods AND dragons.

This is what the map looked like: (The different colors were the different players)View attachment 844721

I developed a kind of dice system for the fights. A lot of characters died, but the game was fun enough that people usually just made a new character.

Let me know if your idea gains traction and maybe I'll help you!

-Beck

This looks awesome! I'm not going to have player death (Unless they voluntarily want it) as I don't want pvp to be its sole focus. More on the focus on an ever changing world and living in that world day to day. Still this looks like a fantastic start!