Possibilities for online play?
Wed, 09/22/2010 - 05:57
Hello,
I run a forum at PostApocalypticForum.com and a few of my members have asked if anyone knows of any games that we can play via the forum. They're mostly thinking of RPGs, but I came across Inevetible a while ago and think it would fit our genre of interest fairly well.
Has anyone tried playing online? Either live via chat, or turn-based via forum posts. I see there will be a print-your-own version, so I'm wondering if it would work if we each bought our own copy and then had our own version of the live game board.
Any suggestions or opinions are appreciated.
Thanks
Fri, 10/01/2010 - 05:18
#2
Hey, thanks for the
Hey, thanks for the reply.
I guess I hadn't realized how complicated each turn of the game could be. But if you do figure out a good way to play online, I think we'll be able to try it out. Particularly if it allows for play via forum post.
Thanks again
Sun, 09/26/2010 - 16:29
#3
Sounds like you need a chart of FATE fx...
Megaton wrote:
Has anyone tried playing online? Either live via chat, or turn-based via forum posts. I see there will be a print-your-own version, so I'm wondering if it would work if we each bought our own copy and then had our own version of the live game board.
Hello Megaton,
No-one has tried playing a game of Inevitable online...
Yet.
Could it work? Sure. It could totally work. There are plenty of chat rooms with reliable on-line die rollers, so you don't have to worry about players fudging those. The one that's a kicker is the FATE deck – especially since it has Holdable cards.
How can we make a FATE deck that works for distributed internet play?
-
Honor system with players having to declare what their Holdable cards are when they draw them.
(Not a good answer for a game that's this cut-throat. Also, it violates the value of many holdable cards.) -
Honor system with all Holdable cards removed.
(Just as bad as the first suggestion, with the added disadvantage of not having holdable cards.) -
Create a "table of FATE effects" specifically for distributed internet play. Let players roll on the table with a trusted chat room dice engine. Have effects that have already been used "bump" the result up to the next unused effect.
(Meh. This is probably the best compromise between ease of implementation and satisfying game experience.) -
Create a "table of FATE effects" specifically for distributed internet play. Let players roll on the table with a trusted chat room dice engine. Don't worry about duplicated effects.
(Same as #3, but easier on the players.) -
Create a "FATE card" website that players can go to for FATE card effects.
(There's so much to implement here that it makes my head spin. Specifically: How to create a site that creates results that the other players in your group can trust? I suspect it involves dynamically created URLs with time/date stamps. It'd be nifty, but that's beyond my ken right now.)
...and the options just go on and on.
It sounds like you're genuinely interested in trying a distributed game of Inevitable, and I think that's totally awesome, so here's what I'll do: I'll work with the rest of the Inevitable team to create a chart of FATE effects specifically for distributed internet play. When that chart is complete, I'll post it here. I figure this'll take about a week. If I'm really inspired, I may work on a structure and vocabulary for turns so each player declares exactly what he or she needs to on a turn (and so other players get sufficient opportunity to interfere (Combat, Mugging) accordingly).
Thanks for asking. This is a nifty mini-project!
Tue, 12/14/2010 - 03:02
#4
. . .and then there's the GM solution
You could just pick a person as the GM, and let that player handle all of the stuff involved in the game. The GM could be in charge of dice rolls (in cases where the forum/chat room does not have that feature,) as well as the cards (thus avoiding the inevitable problem with having hand cards exposed for all to see.) Of course, that person wouldn't play, but that's. . .inevitable.
In fact, if there's enough interest, I would be intersted in GM a game here. That way, new people could use it as a "sample" game, thus making it easier to learn the rules. But that's for another thread. And after final exams. And probably after Xmas too.
(Speaking of Xmas, awesome postcard.)
Tue, 12/14/2010 - 15:54
#5
Inevitable PBEM GMing
JTJmockT wrote:
You could just pick a person as the GM, and let that player handle all of the stuff involved in the game.In fact, if there's enough interest, I would be intersted in GM a game here.
That's a brilliant idea. I am also totally willing to GM a game. I'll do it now, for that matter.
I wonder if I should create a "Inevitable PBEM" section of the forums?
JTJmockT wrote:
(Speaking of Xmas, awesome postcard.)
Why, thank you! Awesome fans deserve to receive random awesomeness in the mail.
Wed, 12/22/2010 - 23:56
#6
Final Exams: Check.
I would
Final Exams: Check.
I would be totally interested in a PBF game!
Sun, 11/28/2010 - 06:54
#7
Vassal or Zuntzu module for Inevitable
You could always build off what others have done before you -- create a Vassal or Zuntzu module for Inevitable. There are other options too, but these are the ones I've looked into. It's a "virtual board", so there's no AI (it won't enforce rules for you, it won't auto-move stuff), but it has virtual dice and a shared board, and it has the advantage of having a single deck everyone draws from, and allows each player to keep their cards hidden from other players.
I have very limited experience with either of them so far, but off the top of my head I think Zuntzu is real-time and Vassal is either real-time or turn-based. Zuntzu is WinXP only (no, not even Vista or Win7), but Vassal is cross-platform. I can't speak to which is an easier module to create.
Hope that helps, and I hope you create a module for me to use! :-D
Tue, 12/14/2010 - 15:56
#8
Learning Vassal.
I'm working on learning Vassal. With all the other stuff I'm doing, it's probably going to take a long time for me to complete an Inevitable set in it, but it's certainly a viable solution.
If anyone out there is already Vassal-competent, and is willing to help. Ping me!
I whipped up a first draft of an asynchronous FATE table. You can download a PDF of it at:
http://inevitablethegame.com/sites/default/files/asynchronous_FATE_table...
It's not much, but it's a start. Enjoy!