I've played stuff like this - it tends to be referred to as "freeform". Although the social niceties you refer to from an implicit system in the Lumpley Principle sense, to get all Forge-y for a moment - the lack of need to interface with an explicit system does tend to make things run more smoothly. However, I think there is mileage in having explicit mechanics, even if they're only consulted rarely. I talk about that kind of thing a lot.

This is a problem. There are various ways you can adjust a game to handle it - running games with an ensemble cast so that the absence of a player doesn't break the game, running several "scenes" in parallel so that the temporary absence of one player doesn't break the session.

It would indeed.

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Hm, in theory then it might be possible to create some useful utilities. I remember from my MUD/MUXing days we had some handy little extras in those which oughtn't be too difficult to reproduce if the scripting language is robustly made. Stuff like utilities for encrypting languages so that only the people who know them can understand them, or automated character sheets so that all you have to do is type 'test skill / attribute X' to get a result rather than having to cross-reference. Not that these kind of accoutrements are things that everyone needs, or even things that everyone would want to have around, but it still ought to be possible.

Ash

I've come to think of play via IRC and similar text chat programs as in some ways a different kind of thing to playing face to face - rather than one being a second best to the other, they each offer separate things.

IRC play is slower - but thus more meditative. You have the chance to create narration that's well formed prose, which actually reads well after the fact (in the way that a transcript or recording of a face to face session might not). You get more of a chance to consider your responses. You get thoughtful play.

It's possible to directly differentiate In character and Out of character play (and indeed I typically do so), which means you can produce a clean log of fictional events. This clean delineation between in character and out of character has helped me to "immerse", to feel the character, much more deeply than I would otherwise. (This may be an artefact of my face to face groups typically not taking their games very seriously, however.)

Anyhow, that's a bit of my apologia for text best internet chat gaming. If nothing else, I recommend people try it - it won't do everything your face to face games will, but it might do a few things for you your face to face games don't.

Yes, I think you very much need a different play ethic for an online game of either nature. Sure, there are utilities around that will handle things like dice rolls and stuff, but I've always found that online play works best of all without the encumbrance of 'rules' per se, just a well-understood doctrine of social niceties, like not narrating for other players' characters, not arbitrarily killing things off like a big munchkin without giving everyone a chance to participate and so on. There have been various attempts at making rules specifically designed for this mode of play, but none really stick in my mind at the moment.

In my experience, the biggest problem with MSN-based games has always been finding a time when everyone could get together to play. Not that this isn't a problem with regular games, but at least when you've gotten everybody into the same room chatting away it's harder for other people to interrupt because there is manifestly something going on that it would be rude to impinge upon. With MSN games, I found they were always being interrupted because someone had to get the phone, or cook the tea, or do goodness alone knows what.

Anyway, I think you're right to treat them as two separate entities so to speak, and I also do think that there is room somewhere for a few more formal rules designed for these circumstances (and maybe utilities to back them up, a'la D&D 4e's apparent shift towards digital play) but I think people have yet to make something of this nature that really captures the imagination. Maybe it's something that would make a good project?

Ash

Depends on exactly what you mean. There's a dice roller bot built in to the servers at MagicStar, although it's none too clever. People script stuff that's more elaborate sometimes - IRC allows scripting in some forms. But usually the standard die roller does most of what we'd want it to do, backed up by perhaps a wiki to store common information, character sheets etc. on. I've also occasionally made use of other web programs that weren't in any sense part of the IRC program.

All that waffle and I forgot to ask what I was going to ask! Does IRC provide the ability to create user-made utilities and plug-ins to any extent?

Ash

If you have a MUD client, there's the (little used, so far as I can tell) "Foundry" where people sometimes come to play games also. Very few people on there these days, but they do have some neat things, like Dogs in the Vineyard dice already set up and such.

Yes, dice conventions are extremely easy to program. I use a similar method to test the random distribution of my own dice mechanics if they're too convoluted to calculate by mathematical means.

Ash

I used to indulge in a number of rules-less or rules-lite forum based games and generally they were fun enough, but they didn't go brilliantly, too much cowboys and indians rules when conflict appeared.

More recently I have been playing email based games of Ars Magica, which tend to be surprisingly rules heavy, with the GM doing all the dice rolls. It makes combat a pain, and spontaneous magic isn't very spontaneous! I enjoy it alright, but it can really drag, and if someone vanishes everything lags.

http://www.solipsist-rpg.com/

Have you used any of the many VTTs out there such as Maptool, Fantasy Grounds, Battegrounds, or ViewingDale? If you have only ever used IRC, Yahoo IM, or AIM for an online game you are missing a great opportunity. The VTTs out today incorporate maps, chat, images, white boards, dice rollers, character sheets, lighting effects and a multitude of great applications for online gaming.

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snikle
fouruglymonsters.com