Gameplay
From SteelStorm
Contents |
Flow of Gameplay
| Note: This page has been imported verbatim from the text of the original Steel Storm RP system. It may require significant revisions and corrections, and should be verified before being accepted as a final page. | ||
A Note on High-Latency RPGs
Here's the issue: In a regular RPG, most communication is seamless, as all players are in the same place - conversations take place, along with the official game actions taken by characters, and the DM's responses. In this low-latency situation, all of these things can work side-by-side, in either a very structured or a less-structured way.
In a high-latency environment, however, such things become somewhat more complicated. RPGs are still a turn-based system, but in an environment such as a forum, you have not only very high latencies, but also very variable latencies - devoted forumgoers could make posts within minutes of their last, where as more casual members may post only once a day, or quite possibly less. Of course, the best possible solution to this is to find both players and a DM who can post in near-realtime, but such a situation is rarely achieved. As a result, certain compromises must be made to ensure a reasonably smooth gameplay. The battle system is the result of such compromises, and the general gameplay structure will follow a similar methodology.
Flow of Actions
There are two different types of posts that can be made in a Steel Storm campaign thread: Actions and Conversations. Conversations can be had in realtime, essentially, and are not limited - players can converse through conversation posts without advancing things, and conversations can cover just about anything, including talking through situations and collaborating on what actions to take. You can post as much conversation as you want between actions, but make sure to distingush the two.
During non-battle situations, there are 2 types of actions - Instant Actions and Ongoing Actions. Instant Actions are very basic actions that can be accomplished quickly, in 30 seconds or less. Such actions can be considered incidental to doing common tasks, and are completed within that 30-second timeframe - they are not waiting for any additional information. You may perform any number of these tasks during one round.
Ongoing Actions are actions that take longer, or are dependent on additional information being fed to them before they are complete. Only one Ongoing Action can be taken per round of play at the beginning levels of your character - this may change once your character becomes more advanced, for certain types of tasks that, with a sufficient amount of skill, can essentially be done "without thinking about it."
Each round of actions will allow for a set amount of real time for all characters to post their actions - however, this time range will be finite, and if no actions are posted during that time, the character will essentially just stand there for the duration of the in-game round, not really doing anything. If you like, you can specify a default non-battle action to add to your character (such as playing solitaire, pacing back and forth, or tunelessly humming), and they can then perform that action if they miss a round, but these actions generally cannot further your character's advancement or participation in the campaign (aside from, perhaps, upgrading your character's skill to tuneful whistling). A round can also end before this time once all characters have posted their actions.
Once the round is complete, the DM will then post a "keyframe" update, summarizing the outcomes of all of the component actions, as well as listing all NPC reactions, advancing time forward by a proper amount, as well as listing all other pertinent information. There will be a more specific listing of precisely what is involved in the upcoming Dungeon Master's Guide section for Steel Storm.
Battle is slightly different, but in essence is actually a somewhat more complicated action round - see the battle section for details.
Timeframe
In most realtime RPGs, time is not quite in realtime, but is on a certain conversion (for example, 1 melee round of battle = x seconds in game time, 6 hours of completing a task in-game is 30 minutes, and so on). However, in a variable high-latency situation, this doesn't work quite as well, as the time in which the actions for each character comes in is highly variable.
So, in the case of Steel Storm, time is somewhat relative. That is, people can post actions and do various things, but in-game time does not officially advance until the DM's "keyframe" post. The amount time is advanced is up to the DM's discretion - for example, having the team build a makeshift raft will obviously take longer than, say, picking a couple of simple locks, so time should be advanced in increments that match the scope of activity in that round.
Standardized Posts
Remember to be clear on which type of post you are making, and be sure to post all relevant information. Also, make sure that you refer to the battle section for more information on the information you need to provide for each battle.
As a courtesy, when performing a skill, it is best to list the skill category that you are drawing upon, as well as your current proficiency - this makes it easier for the DM to determine the outcome. Also, make sure that your action posts are clearly differentiated from your action posts - you can use prefixes (such as Act: and Conv:) to code the different types of posts.
