Design Notebook: themes

[shasarak]

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Mythago Wood (obviously derived from Robert Holdstock's books)

In Holdstock's books the fantasy world comes to life out of the subconscious of individual character's minds (in this case ordinary people from England in the mid-20th c.), as well as the racial subconscious (i.e. collective subconscious) of the people of England (and presumably other countries too). However this fantasy world is confined to 'primal woods', which regular mortals can sometimes enter (but usually cannot). The thing I like about this theme is you could set up a system where mobs and rooms are created based on the 'subconscious' of PCs (some parameters that perhaps they choose at chargen and/or accrue over the course of play). The main inspirations in the books are European mythology from neolithic times through to medieval, so there's a lot of source material to draw from. Other than that the theme is pretty open-ended, but a lot of it is based on questing and myths -- the characters could take part in their own 'myth cycles' that have a definite beginning and end.

Alternatively the players could control 'mythagos' (the characters created from the subconcious), with NPC ordinary mortals that 'create' them -- a good explanation for a permadeath/recreate cycle.

[Vopisk]

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Unloading (uploading?) some of the notebook again...

Warband

(not a guitar hero mod)

Players control a band of warriors, somewhere between 0-50 fighters. They could be something like a troop of Apaches or a company of 17th c. Low Country mercenaries, but their objective is to hire on to armies, take missions, fight wars, pillage, loot, get new recruits, and bury their dead. Over time a player can develop an ethos for their band, collect trophies, earn fame, get gear, improve tactics, fight other PC bands and NPCs. There could be a wide variety of potential fighters for hire into your band, but maybe only certain types work well together.

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Troll Tribes

You are the chief of a small tribe of trolls, living near other tribes, in a vast mountain range. The chief is your PC, but you also have a large retinue of NPC pets, guards, wives, kids, all at your beck and call or tugging at your sleeve. Kill other chiefs (PC and NPC) to get more guards, wives, witch doctors, gold, and so on. Enslave gnomes to dig new tunnels and caves. Explore existing caves to the very root of the mountains, and make raids into the valleys at night...but avoid the sun!

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(as you can tell I've been on a real kick with groups-as-PCs lately)

Shamans

You are the shaman for a primitive tribe in a vast wilderness untouched by civilization. Your goal is to make sure that your tribe prospers...but you can only do this by learning tricks to impress your tribesmen, and real magic to impress the spirits. Magically duel with rival shamans, hunt down evil spirits, seek out the mysteries of the land around you. Provide for your own family by hunting big game, snaring birds and catching fish. Teach younger shaman the craft of their calling and learn from your elders.

[shasarak]

Those last two ideas sound suspiciously like Dungeon Keeper and Populous: The Beginning respectively. Both games made by Bullfrog at about the same time.

But something inspired by Dungeon Keeper might indeed be rather fun. That game cast the player as a powerful evil sorceror in charge of an underground dungeon layer, and required him to dig tunnels, set traps, and organise monsters to repel invasions from annoying goody-goody heroes who were trying to break in to steal your treasure. It was a rather enjoyable inversion of the standard sword-and-sorcery setup. (The game's tag-line was "Evil is good").

An additional twist was that you also encountered other dungeon keepers whose creatures had to be killed off (or abducted and tortured into joining your cause) and their dungeon tunnels annexed in order to increase your empire.

[KaVir]

The Hunters

The PCs are paranormal investigators and monster hunters - think of something along the lines of the X-Files or Supernatural TV series, or the Call of cthulhu roleplaying game, or perhaps even Ghostbusters.

The game world is split into multiple sections, called 'scenes', each of which are connected through transportation-specific exits; walk, cycle, car, train or plane. Not all scenes are directly connected to each other, so to travel a long distance you might to have drive (or catch a taxi) to the airport, then catch a plane, then take a train journey at the other end. From a mechanical perspective these all work the same, effectively teleporting you from one scene to another, but the mechanics would be hidden behind pretty cosmetic messages. In this way the game world can cover any parts of the real world you like, without having to literally map out the entire world.

At many scenes it is possible to initiate a quest, called an 'episode', which could be either predesigned, randomly generated, or some mixture thereof. Players could also actively look for paranormal activity, which might lead them from one scene to another as they pick up clues - in this way they could meet up with other hunters who are on the same trail.

Any bad guys that survive an episode should be kept track of, so that they can return in a few episodes to cause further trouble for the player.

Players should also be able to form organisations, develop or purchase monster-hunting weapons and technology, collect private libaries of books, and so on.

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[KaVir]

On TMC, someone mentioned "a mud based on being a house cat" as an example of a theme which would be "mega unpopular". However I think such a mud could be novel enough to attract some interest, and with fun gameplay could prove moderately successful. Here's how I'd do it.

Each player is a house cat, living in a busy neighbourhood of cat lovers. When you connect, you get to select your house (a bit like a hometown, combined with clan elements) and breed (Burmese, Oriental, Siamese, Bengal, Ragdoll, Manx, etc). Different breeds have different modifiers (Maine Coons have a thick protective coat, the Turkish Van can swim, etc).

Cats cannot talk, but instead use vocalisations and body language for communication, including a range of socials based around meowing, purring, hissing, growling, squeaking, chirping, clicking, grunting, etc.

There are various skills available, ranging from hunting, fighting, jumping and climbing, to indoor tricks such as opening doors, turning taps and using the litter tray. Each cat also has two separate reputations; human reputation is based on good behaviour and cuteness rating, while cat reputation is increased through aggression and intimidation. If your human reputation drops too low, your owner will hang a bell from your collar, making it more difficult for you to hunt.

The gameplay revolves around a mixture of personal challenges and competitive activities. A new character can train his skills by completing various quests such as climbing trees, hunting down small animals (and returning them to the house), leaving a "present" in a hostile location, taunting a dog, getting stroked by a particular child, avoiding a trip to the vet, evading the bath, etc. There are also a selection of "tutorial" quests, where the human trainer teaches you the various house skills.

The mud also includes PK elements, as the different cat factions attempt to expand their marked territory. Combat is typically non-lethal (if you lose, you're described as running back to your house, where you're too scared to leave for a set period of time), although it is possible to be killed in certain situations (such as being knocked down by a car). Fortunately each cat has nine lives, so true death isn't too frequent.

[KaVir]

I recently read "Orcs: First Blood" by Stan Nicholls, which is a rather entertaining story about a band of orcs, with the humans generally cast as the bad guys.

One part of the story described an underwater battle between two aquatic races (merfolk on one side, and vaguely humanoid slug-like creatures on the other), and it made me think about the tactical options available in such a three-dimensional fighting environment.

I do think it could be rather fun to have a mud based entirely underwater. Perhaps landwalkers play a minor role (swimmers who you can eat, drowning people you can carry to the shore, fishing boats that can entangle you if you get too close to the surface, "treasures" that sometimes drop in from above and either float on the surface or sink towards the sea bed, etc), but the actual gameplay would all take place underwater.

As well as a whole host of underwater creatures to deal with (with different creatures living at different depths), players would also have to avoid natural dangers such as whirlpools, currents, reefs, etc. The dangers could also have potential rewards, however - following a current would allow you to move much faster than normal, while coral could be collected from reefs and used to create weapons. Other equipment might come from creatures, such as armour made from scales, shells or sharkhide.

I've yet to see a mud with decent support for underwater activities. But I think there are enough options to make it the exclusive focus of a mud.

[jmurph]

I don't know that I have seen this theme in a MUD, but it would probably be entertaining. The MUD would be based around a Romero-esque zombie setting. Players play as survivors attempting to endure the post zombie world. Characters would need a variety of skills from combat to stealth to mechanical repair. Securing resources from sites would be of crucial importance. Sites could also be barricaded to form safehouses, but would likely draw greater zombie attention from lights, noise, etc. Avoiding infection is critical, but would probably not be nearly so difficult as it is in the movies (IE lethal infection from even a minor wound). Additionally, medical skills could minimize infection damage.

Players would probably want to play as zombies, too. That could add an interesting angle. Survivor->zombie->permadeath.

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It would be cool to add a RTS aspect to it (of course graphical games are doing this now, but I think it'd be cool with a mud), with one or more players as 'zombie masters'. Then you could have a huge ascii map of zombies running around for players with the master bits.

[martin]

Holes in the backstory
You could set the backstory of your game not as one canon narrative, but rather as different sets of faction-dependent interpretations and beliefs. That would allow you establish factions not on a good/evil pattern, but on different beliefs how the world became what it is. This would work especially well with any post-acopalyptic setting - in the widest sense, any catastrphic avent in the bakstory (a big war) can be the thing everyone is squabbling about why it started.
To make things even more better, don't make all the information on said event available to all teh players at once, but rather disperse different (conflicting) clues in the game-world for players to stumble upon.


Post apocalyptic
I know this has been done before, but (I think) not in the way I envision it. Some catastrophic event has wiped out civilization as we know it, only small isolated communities survived and are struggling for survival. Different communities have different backgrounds, they could stem from pre-apocalyptic military posts, hippie communes, survivalists, normal small towns, religious communities or monasteries, isolated oil-rigs in the wilderness ....
different communities will have different mixes of technology available to them ... Some may be entirely high tech (always struggling for spare parts), others entirely low tech, most will have a mix - maybe raiders on horseback armed with assault rifles, or others driving bio-diesel fueled buggys armed with DIY-steam cannons.
The only thing connectig them are your players - traveling the land, offering their services as traders, entertainers nad storytellers, couriers, technicians, mercenaries, or maybe they are just plain thieves.
The gameworld will have to be large, and a lot of attention has to be given to travel, vehicles and other transport, and so on.
An important theme element is the scarcity of high tech ressources, like guns and ammo, fuel, spare parts for your radio ...
Some sort of crafting system will be very important, it should allow players a great deal of freedom as to how to build vehicles, weapons, etc. Think of the camel drawn car in Mad Max 3.
Even a mediocre town with only ten thousand inhabitants will make, once empty, for a great megadungeon, with indoor and outdoor scenarios in close proximity. Even without human bad guys or zombies or whatnot, these places could be made extra dangerous by the additional hiding places for your mouintain lions, buildings falling apart, radioactivity ...
Plots can play around trading and avoiding robbers, beeing a robber, raiding or defending towns, scavenging hight tech goods. In a large game world, Plots like "A convoi to isolated town xyz will start at <time and place>. Those who want in on the action, as mercs or traders, or just as fellow travellers, meet up there" could bring the dispersedplayerbase together.