The Campaign Builder's Guild

I had an interesting idea this morning and I want to bounce it off the Internets first. Everyone has said that 4th edition is too much like the MMOs like World of Warcraft. Back in 3rd edition, White Wolf produced a World of Warcraft Roleplaying Game with their Sword and Sorcery company. Frankly, I was disappointed. It didn't really capture the essence of World of Warcraft. To me, it felt a lot like they were hammering a triangle peg into a round hole.

So I'm thinking about making a "Roleplaying Game" book based on a fictional MMO. It will be a little bit of a parody off of the games like Warhammer Age of Reckoning, Age of Conan, Lord of the Rings MMO, and of course World of Warcraft.

It will be written with the idea that you are actually playing the game on your computer. What this does is change how the world works, a lot. For example, people might have icons floating over their head. You will have to compete with NPCs who are fictional people playing the fictional game (so you might be fighting over the same resources for example) It will also allow the chance to play as the more evil races (Orcs, Minotaurs etc.) Just like in WoW. No idea what the fictional game is yet, but it will even have it's own fictional real world history!

What do you think? good idea? or waste of time?

So you will essentially be playing a computer game around a table? Now, admittedly, i have never really managed to get absorbed in MMO's like some people can (maybe because i'm pretty bad at them), but what do they add to a roleplaying game? In my perspective they mostly limit the game rather than add it, with the only obvious advantage being ease of use. But if you focus on the parody aspect you mentioned it could probably be pretty funny. But from a more serious perspective I'm not sure how good an idea it is. So it all depends on your approach (couldn't quite decipher exactly how comedic you wanted it to be)

I haven't deciphered how comedic I want to be either

I was just thinking about making use of some of the tropes of the MMORPG, things such as Dungeon Instances, Collecting all the bits and pieces of animals, the Auction House, Item Sets, etc. etc. Naturally, I don't want to limit things as much as some MMOs do. I just want to do something interesting.

In all honesty, I would rather just play an MMO. Mind you I'm somewhat biased since I've never tabletop'd.

As for common elements of an MMO, I don't see how you couldn't incorporate them into a normal game.

Dungeon Instances seem kinda pointless, since you have complete control, you can just make another dungeon whenever you have the need. The only thing this would grant you is "realistically" playing the same dungeon over and over, which is probably as fun as it is in real life (not that fun). Now this could be cool with gimmick fights (knocking a boulder onto a boss mob, having to activate stones in a sequence or something) but still.

Animal parts are dubious unless you have some sort of Crafting system, another common element, so I guess it could go together.

Item Sets seem like a good idea. I mean why wouldn't famous people enchant there items to work well together? I never understood their lack int able top games.

They aren't lacking in tabletop games. There was a splatbook for 3.5 that was pretty much filled with sets. Can't remember the name, but it was probably something with treasure or equipment if i know the market right.

Like a .hack PnP game? I could dig it. Started writing that myself once. Notes got lost when my hard drive went poot.

Well, there are a lot of things that I am thinking about. The Dot Hack idea is a good one. I will have to think a little more about it, but the overall response I have gotten from people is something like this:

It'll probably have some good novelty value, but I don't see it getting enough traction to really make a niche for itself.  After all, people play MMOs because they enjoy the way the game moves online, and taking that to a PnP game will change the pacing of the game.  Also, there are gamers out there who don't do MMOs (shocking, I know...but as I'm one of them, I know they exist, I just don't know how large a market they are), so the parody factor will be lost on them.

or...

Waste of time...
There already is 4e and WoW, the RPG...
(although that guy's name was Hater and his signature said "4e is terrible... "

or

Hmm, surely if you wanted to play a game like an MMO (with the things you mentioned) you'd play a MMO? :P

which is pretty rough response, I was surprised with how much opposition I've hit. And I'm not a MMO fiend, I like them but I always feel like I want to be doing something more creative.

Quote from: Gnome NachosIt will also allow the chance to play as the more evil races (Orcs, Minotaurs etc.) Just like in WoW.

Where does WoW allow play evil races? AFAIK, all the races are good, including even the Forsaken who are not all that evil-to-the-core, actually the playable ones are suggested to be good.

About the other points, well, if I want to play MMO, I'd play one, tabletops are generally for different purposes.

I was suggesting a RPG based on MMOs, the way the World of Warcraft card game is based on the MMO

and I was thinking about the Dark Elves, Chaos, and Orcs from Warhammer Age of Reckoning

I'm not going to preach against it or anything, but I just don't think it sounds like very much fun. You seem to be combining two things by taking some of the most frustrating and least rewarding aspects of each, trusting that the parody factor or the novelty of the format is going to carry it through, but I just don't think the humor has that kind of traction.

There are certainly things you can learn from these types of MMO games, and elements you can incorporate into a tabletop RPG quite smoothly. (You mention item sets, auctions, and a few other ideas.) I think that going to the extreme of creating "MMO the RPG" is pushing the idea quite a bit farther than you can get away with, though.

In other, more shocking news:

Quote from: LlumI'm somewhat biased since I've never tabletop'd.

I am amazed to hear this!

I want to play a male level 39 basement dweller equipped with a female Night Elf rogue!

I'm going to go against the general consensus here and say that, as long as this does have a heavy comedy side to it, MMO: the RPG would be TOTALLY AWESOME. Where is T-Rex when you need him to make something epic?

I am not looking forward to mindless grinding and fetch quests, especially at a table when every fight takes an hour instead of 10 seconds. I can see it now.

 [ic=Fetch Me some Boar Brains]
The town elder, who never leaves the front steps of the town hall, demands that you fetch him 10 boar brains from the nearby boar zone. If you come within 10 squares of them, the boars will charge you automatically and use their basic attack on you over and over until they die. Only 5 percent of boars actually have brains, and you can't tell whether a boar has a brain or not until you kill it and loot its corpse. Once you complete the quest, you will be a high enough level to survive in the next zone over, where there are even bigger boars with even fewer brains!
[/ic]

Well I think you can still carry out a fetch quest without it being lame. Yes, if we sit here and farm boars it will be a little boring... However, if it was something like running into a battlefield and collect some of the fallen weapons from the dead bodies strewn around everywhere while dodging arrows, fireballs, etc...