Welcome to Endless Journeys Wiki []
Endless Journey's is a design wiki about a living RPG world. What is it exactly? Well, it is a few things. First off, it is a set of RPG mechanics. However, they will be mechanics designed more with CRPGs in mind, not pen and paper RPG. This will probably mean more math, more complex calculations, and the like.
Second, it is a custom setting in which the game(s) will take place. I am focusing on humans and their Empire in the setting for now, and will slowly add in more distant lands as time goes by.
Third, EJ will be a living world. What does this mean? Well, that requires a bit of discussion. I love MUDs...the textual precursors to MMOs, if you aren't familiar with them. I intend for EJ to be a sort of hybrid between a MUD and a table-top RPG.
Gameplay[]
All gameplay would take place in the form of modules. A module will be a set adventure, consisting of a map of tiles. Very similar to a D&D module and the like. The creator could use their own art assets, which would be uploaded to the server, or use the provided assets. Each tile or area of tiles could have a text description that could be printed to the player as they move through the level.
The default view will be a top-down, 2d view of the tile map (at least when using the web client). PCs will be represented by tokens/jpgs/gifs of some sort. Movement will be across the tile grid (or perhaps a hex grid..). Movement rates, etc, will be determined by game statistics.
When monsters attack, custom art of the monster could be displayed, along with the monsters status. PCs/GMs could also view the other PCs character sheets.
Much of the module could be pre-scripted. Monsters could appear when players pass a certain point, traps could be set, etc. However, the GM could take control of individual monsters (or let AI run them), add more monsters for a greater challenge, etc.
Modules could be released publicly for anyone to play, or kept private, as the creator desires. Players could also create multiple characters. What I envision for a module is this:
GM says Hey guys, let's play this new module, and creates a new game instance
All the PCs create a new character, and submits their PCs to the game instance for GM approval. Of course, they could also submit any character in their library.
Gaming would then commence.
Campaigns could be run by using the same characters over and over through multiple modules.
I envision two ways to play the game. The first through a web client or desktop client. web client. This would give you the tile map, the monster art, music, and module creation capabilities. The other would be through telnet, where you could not see the overhead map, except possibly as an ASCII map. But you would use the standard mud/text commands to play through it. This would probably be what I would code first, as I could work on the server (I suck at client coding), and then add the client later.
Dice rolling would be managed by the game. You would, for example, select an attack to use on a monster, a spell to cast, etc, and the game would handle to-hit, damage, etc. If the GM wants more granular control over this, we could potentially provide a dice roller and the ability to manually edit all statistics. I would like, however, for the game to handle as much of the mechanics as possible.
Fog of War would be really easy to do, and really useful. You could set ambient light levels for determining visual distance, areas around corners could be blacked out, etc. Races with infravision (which is really crappy in real life, actually...) or better night vision could see farther, etc.
Traps could be coded fairly easily. They could be drag and drop from a library as well.
A Living World[]
EJ will have a living world. What does this mean? Well, a few things. First of all, there will be a canon world, and a non-canon world. The canon world will be created by myself and approved writers. General writer(s) could develop an area of the world, and then submit it to make it part of the canon. The goal here would be an ever expanding game world, worked on by the community.
Second, there would be monthly Official Modules. Players could play these modules with their official characters, and would be tighly scripted in terms of possible outcomes. Say a module contains 2 possible outcomes, each one of which affects the canon game world in a different way. 100 groups play this official module over the next month, and for 60 of the groups, they achieve outcome A. This means that that outcome becomes part of the canon world, permanently affecting the world.
Of course, non-official modules could be played, and even non-official worlds could be created.
There would also be official characters These would be characters created by players that are integrated into the official game world, with detailed backgrounds. These characters could only advance in official modules, perhaps. And they could be the only ones that can participate in official modules.
The Client[]
The client will most likely be a webapp, written with FlexBuilder or Flash. AIR integration for a desktop app is possible. The module creator would be a separate application. The server will be written in Python, and use a MySQL database. I'd also like to make a telnet client using ASCII art possible, though I am not sure of the feasibility of those.