I would like the full word/rune list if you DO discontinue it.
I'm not saying I want you to, mind.
Of course. I'd basically just make the "Perplexicon" folder I have public on Dropbox.
I'll jump in with my own unique suggestion that takes elements from the others.
A few players volunteer to be helpers, and they collect all the actions and put them in a google doc or something. They add the statuses themselves, to prevent cheating, and entirely handle the simple/mundane turns where people just summon a sword or walk into an area with complex spawn mechanics or something.
They leave all the stuff that is important, vauge, or needing spice to Piecewise.
That would cut down the workload immensely, spreading it betweem many different people, and everyone else would be able to continue on with their game. The only issue would be the helpers not playing anymore, except maybe as the heroes or something.
...
If this idea gets accepted, despite how much I love playing Perplexicon, I volunteer to be a helper. I've been hoping to run a copy of this game on another forum anyways, and this would accelerate that plan greatly.
If you do go with lowering the player count, please give the rules out to someone, so they can run a copy (with jumbled words) in a different thread, with mutually exclusive players. That way people would still be able to play, even though they can't play with so many people.
As much as I'd love to get several people all working on this (and as much as I want to get a small team together and kickstart a rpg system or 2. And be paid for GMing, etc) I doubt it will really work. Mostly because as soon as some part of the group starts to lag or disappears we're gonna grind to a halt.
((Here is my prototype of a player-managed status list. It currently only lists people in the "Temple Grounds" area who have been recently active.
Locations are bolded and underlined, player and NPC sections are separate for each location, each are under an italic heading.
Character names are listed with player names displayed via mouseover, actions linked to their message, interactions as dotpoints underneath actions.))
Looks pretty sweet man. Something like that would be very helpful, I think.
Hmm, I've actually wanted to get a list of what all the words mean, just without their corresponding word (a list of all materials, shapes, targeting things, special effects and tattoo locations) as I've wanted to start a Perplexicon derivative here at uni with some friends in the style of the old arena days.
I actually thought about coding some sort of Perplexicon-helper system for me and my friends, but I'm not sure just how best to go about it, just a method of tracking all of the players, their inventories, a way to "easily"(subjective) import a turn, wordlist/runelist auto translate (for the GM obviously) and auto/easy rolling system. Even better an output PW can easily just add the creative flair and kickassery we have come to treasure.
Truth be told, it may also be a bit out of range of my abilities. I tend to aim a little out of my reach.
@PW: If you don't mind it being written in Python, I should be able to at least make a fast-translator.
Hmm, I may have found a fun project.
I wouldn't mind such a thing. I'm sure you could do an automatic translator, though only one that translates the words, not one that actually says what could be made.
I would help but given my track record with games nowhere near this size I'll be more help as a player.
What if we cut out random encounters entirely and set all NPCs to a single location? This plus the in-post location and status.
Random encounters and npc's aren't really a problem. Mostly because I remember most of them by heart.
Man, things took an odd turn through the rest of these posts eh? Alright, so here's the options as I see it.
1. Through a combination of programs, user tracked data and general help, keep things going as is.
2.Throw on a player cap and then run the world with a smaller number of people. Either lower creature spawn rate to force more PVP or increase mob danger to increase turn over.
3. And here's the one thats a bit odd. See, perplexicon started as a test of a system that would be placed into a different kind of game; a more ER'y style roleplaying game that would revolve around what amounts to magical gang warfare centering around territory control, resource management and research. If you guys wanted to, we could end perplexicon and move on to the game I originally had in mind. It would take a while to set up, but it might prove interesting. Though be warned, magic would work a bit...differently. If you're curious, here's the original "World intro" mini story thing I wrote up for it one night at 3am while on vacation in canada.
"At the University they used to say that Magic is the perfect force, below and above all others, simultaneously greater and lesser then heat and light and kinetic energy and all other manifestations of power. All things spring from it yet are under it's sway, and mastery of it grants mastery of all things. It bound our society together just as it held the world in place; it powered our machines and healed our sick, replaced the chisels and brushes of our artists, and even the lowest beggar could summon a flame to keep himself warm. And so our cities rose, endless forests of marble columns and domed roofs, Prismatic furnaces and Thaumic forges burning with prismatic flame from dawn to dusk, slivered streets gleaming like liquid mercury beneath the purple flame of constantly burning etherlamps. We flourished in that utopia, thinking ourselves invincible as we weaved stone and steel with careless abandon, as our leaders grew to become demigods, as we siphoned limitless power from the ether.
But it was not to last.
The power which we always believed infinite, which we took for granted as much as the air we breathed, began to wane. And as it vanished, as we tore greedily at the air and stone, bled power from the life of our livestock and fought bitterly for those few wellsprings of magic that yet existed, our society fell. Gone are the street performers, the summoners who conjured life for the amusement of children, replaced with Starved Magi who tear magic from their own bodies. Gone are the artists who formed the mosaics and statues of our grand cities, replaced by the Blood Skimmers, who drink the souls of animals and men to power themselves. Gone are the arcane machines and boundless factories, replaced by coal and mainspring and the clumsy emulation of our past. Our leaders hide within their crumbling palaces like forgotten gods in empty temples, their power slowly fading and their actions growing desperate. Our armies expend the last of their arcane force against each other and become nothing but wild brutes in iron plate. And now the university, what little of it remains, speaks of magic in the passed tense, with awe and bitterness at what we once had."
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Topic: Perplexicon: Magic is Confusing:Derm has entered the Booze Dimension (Read 950720 times)