The Basics
What does any/most RPG forum need?
Well, I’ll start off by what all RPG forums worthy of the name have:
- Story Board
- Characters
- Objectives/levels
Story BoardThe Story Board is the basic bloodline of any RPG.
It includes events, past history, future predictions etc…
It is the novel part of your forum.
Without it, your forum is deprived of aim. Because, why progress? What to accomplish?
The story-line fills in this.
For example:
In times to come, man expanded his empire throughout the solar system. Unfortunately, man wasn’t the only species gifted with thought. Their were also Martians… who weren’t very keen on man’s arrival. Join the ranks of the human army and fight off the on-going assaultsThis story-line, very basic, gives everything needed.
It gives you the reason why the ‘game’ is going on. It tells you who you’re enemy is. It gives you your species and alliance.
It also gives you some background on the game’s world. By this I mean, that we know for instance, that this didn’t happen a year ago.
You can play around with the story-line like an author would in a novel, and choose various angles, and methods.
But this tutorial being a RPG tutorial, we’ll leave it at that :shock:
CharactersYour members will incarnate a character in this game. Their character has different stats (force, energy, health etc) and different levels. Their aim will be to ‘finish’ the game. For that, they will have to progress through the different tasks laid out before them.
For example:
Same RPG as earlier. To progress to level 1, you need to present yourself. To reach level 2, you need to buy a laser gun…
Obviously, if the tasks are laid out like this, you won’t be getting too many members.
It’s up to you to choose what these tasks will be and how to accomplish them.
Objectives/LevelsThese will be the main reason why your members will keep coming back to your forum.
There are many ways you can set the levels and objectives.
You can have the levels lain out in ranks, for which to reach, you need a certain number of posts.
You could have the need to solve riddles or accomplish quests
In short, the world is large and the sky has no limits. So, I’ll leave it up to you to choose how :shock:
Character SheetsThese are a must for RPG Forums
They can be used in various ways, of which I will describe the main ways.
Reference sheetThis method is the most basic and is also the basis for all the others. It basically resumes the member’s character into a series of numbers, bars and labels. It includes the main stats of the character (ex: species, health, level)
Stat SheetThis is simply a more complete version of the reference sheet, and is often found in more complex RPG’s. It includes the values of the different stats as well as the main ones (ex: strength, magic, progression (%), speed…)
Bar SheetThis version is a sort of mix of both the previous, involving, as its name suggests, mostly bars. These are often found in simulation type RPG’s (ex: Dragon Breeder). This will includes stats such as energy, health, hunger, life span etc…
For example:
In the same RPG once more, a level 1 character’s sheet will say he’s a human, level 1, with strength 5 and 50 health points
Making the RPG workOk, we’ve talked about the main features… but how does it all work?
Well, that’s what this next point is all about.
To resume, we have our story line, our characters and their stat sheets, and their objectives.
But we don’t know how they’re going to attain those objectives.
The method generally varies according to the type of RPG.
- Novel
This is basically a writing method, like it’s name hints. The member/player asks for a mission (or quest) and then writes it out in an appropriate place.
Of course, it’s up to you to choose how exactly they’re going to have to do it :shock:
Simulation type RPGAs mentioned before, the most often used form of this is breeder games. Obviously, the goal here will be to make sure what you’re breeding stays healthy, happy, and maybe even growing powerful.
Therefore the progression in this game will be either upgrading or maintaining.
As with War type RPG’s there are several methods:
- Buying
The player needs to buy the resources and whatever his creature needs.
This obviously obliges a cash system and the player has to be able to earn cash (virtually of course) if he wants to be able to continue
- Mini-Games
The player can earn his points and resources by playing or accomplishing a set of tasks or mini-games…
I’ve noticed though, that most RPG’s of this type use, however, a combination of both methods previously listed.
Index 
Onderwerp: Re: Roleplay Game 
zo 26 aug 2007 - 17:47
