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[a1s]

Q: How much does the position pay?
A: This is not a paid gig; We're making a forum game, so no one is making any money.

Q: What is "Ventures by Torchlight"?
A: See for yourself

Q: Dude, that's like 40 pages of stuff. Use your words.
A: VbT is a semi-cooperative game where players purchase and outfit adventurers who go into dungeons and have adventures. The dungeons are completely automated.

Q: Your concept seems somewhat popular, so what is wrong?
A: The game is boring. There is not enough crafting recipes, the lore* is lackluster and the world doesn't make sense.
(*) I tried to crowd source the lore, with rather predictable results.

Q: So what do you want from me?
A: Someone needs to write out the world history, so it makes sense and is fun to discover. A secondary concern is making more crafting recipes.

Q: I don't like the current setting can I make it horror/cyberpunk/modern/ whathaveyou ?
A: Yes. You will have full creative freedom.

Q: Can I add new mechanics?
A: Yes please.

Q: Cool, cool, I make all the hard stuff,  so what will you do?
A: I am responsible for the engine that makes the adventures work. Anything you come up with I will code.

Q: What if I want to use this all somewhere else?
A: You will retain full copyright of your work, though I would very much appreciate a mention in the credits.

Q: I noticed VbT2 is till ongoing...
A: I will try to get that game to a conclusion the natural way, before it runs out of players. This just means we have some time to do this project properly. Not that we have to publish right away after VbT2 ends.

Q: I have another question!
A: please ask.

[Whisperling]

I'm usually willing to throw some ideas at a wall. That said, I do have a few questions -

What's the scope here, in terms of how much material you want/need?

What do you consider your own ideal level of involvement? Are you angling for polished material that you can just copy-paste into the game? More of a back-and-forth? Do you have some ideas or aesthetic opinions of your own?

Lore is a pretty broad term. You mention world history - what are you hoping to accomplish with that, and how are you expecting to deliver it? Are we talking about a dark souls situation where item descriptions imply things about a setting? Scraps of information that hint at the location of lost treasures or cursed ruins? Dungeon backstories?

I just flipped through the OP of VbT2, but since I'm otherwise unfamiliar with it - what's the gameplay like? Is the idea here that gameplay goes through a consistent loop, are players working through a series of locations until they reach the win condition, something else entirely?

[a1s]

What's the scope here, in terms of how much material you want/need?

I don't know how to measure scope. There should be about 5 dungeons worth of stuff. Does that help in any way?

What do you consider your own ideal level of involvement? Are you angling for polished material that you can just copy-paste into the game? More of a back-and-forth? Do you have some ideas or aesthetic opinions of your own?

The former 

Lore is a pretty broad term. You mention world history - what are you hoping to accomplish with that, and how are you expecting to deliver it? Are we talking about a dark souls situation where item descriptions imply things about a setting? Scraps of information that hint at the location of lost treasures or cursed ruins? Dungeon backstories?

I haven't played Dark Souls, but that sounds about right. Item descriptions and monster descriptions. Maybe also wall inscriptions (see below?)

I just flipped through the OP of VbT2, but since I'm otherwise unfamiliar with it - what's the gameplay like? Is the idea here that gameplay goes through a consistent loop, are players working through a series of locations until they reach the win condition, something else entirely?

This I'm finally qualified to answer: the gameplay loop goes like this: players bid on adventurers and equipment (this requires cooperation, at least in the beginning, although ideally throughout the game) they then send adventurers into the dungeons where a series of 'events' happen to them:

• "Pickup": They get a small amount of loot risk free
• "Combat*": They must defeat a monster to get its loot.
• "Chest": They must pass a test to gain a bigger amount of loot (currently this means picking or breaking the lock, but I'm open to other tests such as 'having previously discovered the password', 'finding a key in the dungeon' etc.)
• "Trap": They must pass a test to avoid taking damage or a debuff.
• This is not in the game, but finding a bit of useless lore (an inscription or a mural) could also be an event. Maybe it grants XP?

There are (currently) 4-7 events per dungeon-day, dungeons last 5 days (because I'm boring and it feels right to my autism that all dungeons are the same in structure)
At the end of every dungeon (day 5) lies a boss encounter, which is a harder version of the "combat" event.
Once their adventurers are back from the dungeons (this can be done at the end of any of the days) players can sell their loot for money (to buy more adventurers and stuff from the shop) and/or keep some of it for crafting purposes (an example recipe is "stick with nails", which requires a stick and 3 nails, all of which one can obtain from loot.)
Players may also buy 'enterprises', that give additional benefits, like healing and additional adventurer hiring opportunities.

Spoiler:  win condition (click to show/hide)

This is not know to players, though they can probably guess, whoever collects all the map pieces to the final dungeon and defeats its boss will become the winner

(*) I can go into detail on how combat works, but have omitted it for brevity.

[Whisperling]

I don't know how to measure scope. There should be about 5 dungeons worth of stuff. Does that help in any way?

Depends how much Stuff you want per dungeon. There isn't really a precise way to measure scope, but for the project you're describing I would want to have an average number of items/monsters/inscriptions per dungeon. If you want, say, inscriptions that are longer than a paragraph or two, that might also be something to mention.

The former 

Fair enough, I guess.

I haven't played Dark Souls, but that sounds about right. Item descriptions and monster descriptions. Maybe also wall inscriptions (see below?)

Neither have I, actually, it just has a distinctive style which gets referenced a lot in worldbuilding/ttrpg circles. In any case, I think I catch your drift.

This I'm finally qualified to answer: the gameplay loop goes like this: players bid on adventurers and equipment (this requires cooperation, at least in the beginning, although ideally throughout the game) they then send adventurers into the dungeons where a series of 'events' happen to them:
[snip]

So, given that the dungeons are automated, I'm guessing most of the action happens in the bidding and planning stages?

Hm.

Just to explain my thought process here - I'm sort of wondering what you hope to get out of the extra worldbuilding. If the goal is just to make the game look a little nicer, that's pretty doable, I can just write up some concepts from my notes.

If you want the worldbuilding to be what holds players' attention, I'm not sure you want "lore," per se. Usually players don't go in for exposition with no actual effects, you have to make it relevant to gameplay in some way.

So I'm poking around for places where I could work in that gameplay relevance. Hints that let players find bonus content, if they're followed up on? New abilities or equipment? Access to useful information, like a monster's weakness? Generally, I think players like making interesting plans, experimenting, accumulating mechanical advantages, and occasionally opportunities to be creative. So I'd try to facilitate those. Probably that veers more towards adding mechanics and crafting systems and whatnot, but those have to be built on what's already there.

[a1s]

I don't know how to measure scope. There should be about 5 dungeons worth of stuff. Does that help in any way?

Depends how much Stuff you want per dungeon. There isn't really a precise way to measure scope, but for the project you're describing I would want to have an average number of items/monsters/inscriptions per dungeon.

There are, in the current game, 3 dungeons, of which:
#1 contains 3 enemy types (plus a boss) and 14 items. Of those 3 are craftable and 11 are pure vendor trash.
#2 contains 3 enemy types (plus a boss) and 18 items (some intersect,) of those 2 are directly usable, 7 are craftable (4 of those are found together and are used together as a set) and 1 collectible.
#3 contains 4 enemy types (plus a boss) and 22 items (some intersect) of those 1 is directly usable. 5 are crafatble, 1 collectible and 4 are recipes.
I would say monster count can be a bit higher, item count is fine, but crafting recipes are lacking.

If you want, say, inscriptions that are longer than a paragraph or two, that might also be something to mention.

Not really, I guess.

So, given that the dungeons are automated, I'm guessing most of the action happens in the bidding and planning stages?

Yes. Players bid on items (I can say from experience getting the highest bid can be pretty exciting,) craft (discovering recipes can be fun) and they plan to dispose of the monsters (the current meta is "Spam ranged", which, I suppose is because enemies in a particular area don't share a weakness) then wait for the outcomes.

Just to explain my thought process here - I'm sort of wondering what you hope to get out of the extra worldbuilding. If the goal is just to make the game look a little nicer, that's pretty doable, I can just write up some concepts from my notes.

partially this.

So I'm poking around for places where I could work in that gameplay relevance. Hints that let players find bonus content, if they're followed up on? New abilities or equipment? Access to useful information, like a monster's weakness? Generally, I think players like making interesting plans, experimenting, accumulating mechanical advantages, and occasionally opportunities to be creative. So I'd try to facilitate those. Probably that veers more towards adding mechanics and crafting systems and whatnot, but those have to be built on what's already there.

I'm not sure about hints for bonus content (dungeons are, after all, automated, so you can't just visit a hidden area,) although I would be open to players (rather than adventurers) solving puzzles for extra loot. New abilities sound nice, but I'm not sure what that would entail. New equipment- 110% yes. Access to useful info is also a yes. Anemic crafting was mentioned by name as a concern, so also yes.
Adding mechanics is fine, as long as we have a conversation about what's feasible.