Why donÔÇÖt people create? GM's and players how is it going?

[BeanDip]

Oh! I'm sorry Theis. You really deserve the apology. No sarcasm.

To be perfectly honest I never checked out your game before... but yes. It looks awesome, reading through the entire thing right now as a matter of fact.

[M0rtimer]

I'd point you to Threads of Reality as well, weren't it for the fact that it has quite an complex plot and the old forum ate most of it. In other words even if you wanted to read it, the whole beginning of the story is just gone. :/

(Well, I suppose you could go to the keenspot forums and check out the start there, but doing that would be like reading about two chapters and then suddenly skipping to character 8 with what has forever been lost in the void that is known as the internet)

[SamWiser]

M0rt, you don't do that will all of the books you read?

[M0rtimer]

Yes, I do actually. Due to my psychic powers I can determine the important plot details that were listed in those missing chapters.

[Theis2]

That's okay Beandip, I didn't really expect people to read it (besides the players but one does wonder sometimes ). But if you think it is awesome or have any critique of what have been done so far I'll gladly listen to it. I'm always interested in improving how I should make my players get mutilated by a magically enhanced creature able to shoot fireballs out of its antennas
And I don't hope you write a book M0rt.. Having chapters at first and then dropping them to focus on characters? That seems like a weird transition to me (And trying to get into your game fried my brain and spare time if I remember correctly because of everything that happened which I still not dare to attempt figuring out)

[thinkslogically]

I'm always interested in improving how I should make my players get mutilated by a magically enhanced creature able to shoot fireballs out of its antennas

Wait... what? That thing we're trying to sneak past can shoot fire out it's antennae?!?! ...Shit.

[M0rtimer]

You know what I meant.

Honestly though, I'd like to think my games are great fun, assuming you firstly actively get to participate in them and secondly actively take time to follow the updates since if you don't you're definitely going to get lost, even if the basic premise is simple- (Some big catastrophy is going to hit the planet and you have to collect all 7 pieces of the macguffin to do something to prevent it, but then there's this crazy bitch who sends out these half-man half-robot things to try and murder the party)

Regardless, closely following would eventually make the later events all the better since then the players would see that it had always foreshadowed it. Sadly with most of the updates being eaten now I will no longer have the opportunity to shout "SEE?! This was going to happen ALL ALONG!" and then point them to the relevant point where it was almost literally written.

(There's also so many points which seem absolutely clear to me but picked up only by few. Then again I'm the DM and I know everything going on behind the screens so I'm probably biased there.)

Anyways, I blame that fucker in my avatar there. He's the reason for the huge mess. Also why you never ever involve time travel in your forum games. EVER.

[LAYF]

So... I was thinking (Yea yea... I know I should stop before someone gets hurt) but....
With all this broadcasting Thunt have been doing... I decided to look into what it takes, and apparently its not that much...

So... the train of thoughts was going towards:
Many of the GM's here have given up on different things, including playing them self, to be able to GM for others... so... why not use this...

If the GM feels like, and any players or aspiring GM's would like to... we could create live broadcasts of us creating the updates, with chant and all... allowing for people to ask questions...

It was just a thought.... what do you guys think?

[Theis2]

It could be nice enough, but it kinda depends on the person behind the broadcast. (I doubt I would be that great to watch as I'm rather silent and my updates are primarely writing a bit of text and rolling a couple of dice)
But to be honest I'm not sure how much I would be able to check in on it.

[LAYF]

Well.. the silent part might change when you have people watching... sit there, write and tell about your possess and if questions rise, answer them... well... and it was not supposed to be anything on special times.. I for one makes my updates at random times...

So it would be something like, telling some time in advance when the update would be.... make a link and then just be there....
My updating usually takes about 10-30 minutes per game, depending on actions... The getting back game is mostly graphic work, the MyrMen is mostly getting things in the right place and roll a lot of stuff, and The Horde is a place in between...

Just got another thought... some of the God school lessons could have a Broadcast.. say 3-4 days in, showing and explaining....

You know what... I'm going to try that.... just to see how it works... I'll make the update for The Horde within the near future... the link is here:

http://www.justin.tv/looksatyoufunny#/w/6045257616

[Nerre]

Well, while I think I could for sure put some comments on updating, I don't think it would look nice for my game, which is mostly text-only. For your graphical ones it might look good, but me creating an update could just as well be an audio file.
Also it sometimes takes up to two hours, depending on the length and amount of player posts, the complexity and the amount of items moves and battle happening. The longest one was over four hours, I think update 204 or 205, when everybody suddenly roleplayed and wrote much more than normally and the characters had very much interaction.

On the other hand, showing how it is done might end in loosing some of the magic an update has for the players.

(There's also so many points which seem absolutely clear to me but picked up only by few. Then again I'm the DM and I know everything going on behind the screens so I'm probably biased there.)

I know that problem.

[thinkslogically]

(There's also so many points which seem absolutely clear to me but picked up only by few. Then again I'm the DM and I know everything going on behind the screens so I'm probably biased there.

Yup, I get that too. One of the hardest things is keeping my mouth shut sometimes (like in LOTMK when you guys were worrying (albeit completely legitimately) for aaaaaages about the dragon-nest even though I knew it was how you'd unlock an extra player and wasn't (probably) going to kill anyone. I really thought at one point you were all just going to leave the cave and never come back).

[LooksAndSmiles]

Well, I surely won't do live casts for three reasons:

1) Both my current games are a repetitive (and thus boring) to update:

-Open Gimp
-Open forum, hit on quote previous update, delete what is unneccessary

foreach(player in mygame) do
- I check player actions
- I update my data sheets to reflect their stats after their actions
- Update the xcf (Gimp) file to have visual on their actions
- Update the new post I'm about to make

Then I check things whether they are correct, upload the exported png to photobucket, change the image and hit reply. In all seriousness, you surely don't want to watch at that.

2) It might contain spoilers. For example I have to check the map to see whether the players explode in minesweepers or not, and also double check whether that current tile is correctly numbered by its sourroundings. Which means anyone looking at the livestream would know the map, and then what's the challenge in playing? If I only stream the steps in-between, the stream would be too chunky.

3) Even though they are simple, making an update for a game takes me at least about an hour. This is because even though my mind tends to be sharp, "pouring things into the real world" takes me a lot of time: I'm a slow post maker, updater, worker. Even writing this post takes me a lot more minutes than it really should. I don't know, I just like looking at the lines, re-reading them, making sure I post what I really wished to say.

So yeah, no stream from me, sorry.

[thinkslogically]

Yeah, I wont' be doing a live feed I'm afraid, mostly because of spoilers. I don't want my players to be able to see what game areas are coming up, or what artwork I've got prepped for future updates (even if it never gets used in the current game, it still might pop up elsewhere in the future). I also don't really want the players seeing exactly how the mechanics work either. Some things are better to have as surprises I think

I guess it works pretty well for the 'getting back slowly' / Escape! / Memories type games since there's potentially less secret stuff going on, but it would depend on the GM I imagine.

[Nerre]

I think the only part of the updates for which it makes sense (without risking spoiler or boring people) is the graphics part. After all the math, story and check-what-happens and dice-out is done.

[Wolfie]

I posted my idea for a game that I'm planning to run over in the Games Idea Workshop in the Resources forum.

[askstoomuch]

I want to start a zombie game, agh no time

[deathofbarney]

Im too intimidated by lack of knowledge to even join a real game, let alone make one.

[Nerre]

Play a few times to get used to how games can work, then some day you might feel confident enough to create one. But you have to take that first step.

[Theis2]

Im too intimidated by lack of knowledge to even join a real game, let alone make one.

The lack of knowledge doesn't need to hold you back. Many of the games have a new set of rules and rather simple if you compare them to games like D&D. Most of them are also written in the recruitment thread or the first post in the game.

But most of all it's my experience is anyone is nice and willing to help you understand how the game works and teach it even while playing. I personally created a D&D game where half the people didn't know how to play D&D.

And if you just want to slowly creep in to the games here you could always try Myrmen, Escape! or the getting back slowly game. Myrmen got a ressource thread describing the player rules, but also got a couple of NPC you vote for to do things (you need to vote 5 times before you get a character though). Escape! and Getting back slowly are free form games that just require you to input an action that you think would fit in or be funny. (Seems both of these games are getting close to a finish soon though).

There is also god school to help you learn how to create games, although it is on a hiatus at the moment as the next bit needs more participants before continuing but the previous lessons can still be done.

But most important you can just ask away either by PM, in the OOC threads or in the random chatter thread and I'm pretty sure people would be glad to help you feel at ease joining games when they appear in the recruitment subforum.

[gamecreator]

The lack of knowledge doesn't need to hold you back.

What about lack of creativity?

[Nerre]

give people chars and a map and they will do most of thre creativity. Else watch a fantasy movie or read a book, will give you enough ideas.

[LAYF]

Im too intimidated by lack of knowledge to even join a real game, let alone make one.

Well.. As Theis says... there is no reason to feel intimidated.
and while some games are more complicated than others, only few requires you to know much.
The games in here are mostly simple having only few stats (compared to games like DnD or if you are in to pc games, like wow)
I'd say.. try it out if you want to... playing some games, then later if you like you might make one yourself, or stay as a player... nothing wrong with that

[Theis2]

The lack of knowledge doesn't need to hold you back.

What about lack of creativity?

I mostly adressed the point about not daring to join the games

[Nerre]

Just check out the recruitement channel. Since it exists, many games are not announced any more in the regular forum and only exclusively there.