The backstory

Here is a short and possibly poorly written draft of the back story:

A long time ago a living planet was born. The why and how of this occurance will have to wait for another time.  But, I will say it was born using extremely powerful magics. This living planet spends most of its time asleep and has only been awake twice in its lifetime. The first being when it was born and the second when almost all life was wiped from it’s surface.

This planet, we’ll call it Utopia, controls everything that happens above, below and on its surface. The storms, the quakes, everything is a result of it’s will. Now that it sleeps, the world’s happenings are controls by pure instinct and unconscious thought. Utopia spins on an axis similarly to Earth. It rotates around a similar sun. It also as two moons that rotate around it.  These moons control the tide and other cool things, but those things will also have to wait.

The sleeping planet’s instinct is curious thing. It creates what seems to be random natural diasters. Usually these can be explained if you dig hard enough to find the reason behind it. For example, in what could be call summertime, it will send a cool rain to wash over lands to refresh its dry fields and thirtsy trees. However, the gentle rain could manifest itself as raging storm due to several factors. One of which being its unconscious thought. Yes, this living planet dreams and has nightmares, which usually have some impact.

Another factor is the reaction of the lingering, and often wild magics – the very same magics that create Utopia itself.  When the beings that dwelled on Utopia discovered how to harness these various magics, things became unbalanced. When things are imbalanced, the effects on Utopia can be quite unpredictable.

Now, while Utopia was awake, it tried very hard to keep its inhabitants happy. But as they say, you cannot please all of the people, all of the time.  A manifestation of Utopia would appear when needed, communicating with some and not others, “blessing” crops or “smiting” evil doers. Wars were fought in its name, with the victor hoping to gain favor over this living planet.   Utopia cared for the well being of all that dwell on it and for the sake of fairness, it went into hiberation. Its hope was the things could happen naturally and without bias. Hopefully that would keep peace.

Now, the Utopians needed someone to worship apparently because the holiest of them all prayed and prayed for the planet to wake again. Instead of waking Utopia itself, their prayers merged with its unconscious and triggered a fluctuation in the lingering magics. Out of this confusion The Avatars of Utopia were born and they were  immediately accepted and worshiped as major and minor gods.

That’s where I’ll end. One, because I haven’t decided on how many Avatars there will be. And two,because my son just woke up.

Thanks for reading!

So, I switched it up

So, I’ve been gone for a while. But I’m back now!

Again, I’ve changed my mind, but I think that I have a solid idea planned out. My name will be a game a “sandbox” that focuses on crafting and light roleplaying.

So, Eboni what in the world do you mean.

Well, I mean crafting..everything. The player will be in control of almost every aspect of the game – from the economy to the world around them. They can build a camp or cottage of their own, take up residence in a cave or tree or even create a private, floating sky castle.  From there the can grow it into a larger village or fortress or anything they want.

Its ambicious, but hey. I have nothing but time (Sorta…)

When I say light roleplaying, I basically mean “Stay In Game”, as in no take of the superbowl or your nasty, cheating girlfriend on IG channels, says, etc.  This game will be about politics, magic, discovery and a bunch of other stuff.

Ok, in a nutshell: The players got to this planet by means unknown.  After much exploration, they find several villages and towns that are complete devoid of any human life.  The buildings are in various states of ruin and almost always completely overrun with plants and animals. The player’s goal is to salvage what tools, information, etc they can to survive. I know this sets up as a Zombie survival, but its not. Really!

So basically they are stuck on this planet and must find a way to survive against all sorts of beasts and acts of nature, then tame said nature and start their own colony. Everyone can work together or they can work against each other.  Along the way, the devastated cities (as well as the forests, jungles, etc)  hold tons of secrets for the explorers to find: ancient treasures (which may or may not be any value to them), powerful magics and hints about the possible history of this world.

As I said earlier, there will be resources to find and like Magic: the Gathering cards, they will be common, like iron and copper; uncommon like gold and silver; and rare like mythril. The players will start out with basic, primitive skills, then work their way up by branching skills and learning from what they find salvaging the cities. They can later teach the skills to others or hoard away the knowledge.

Well, that’s it for now.

So, A Year or so later and not much progress has been made…

I’ve been away form this project and MUDs for the good part of the last year. I have moved back across the country and returned to my beloved Phoenix (finally!), had my son, started a business of my own and started an insane workout regime.

As you can tell, I’ve been really busy.

I’ve thought about my game on and off, but mostly, I;ve been helping my husband* brain-storm on his game. He aims to start a gaming company.

Anyway, now on to MY game. (haha)

So, like I said. I haven’t given too much thought to my game. However, I did make a snap decision that I think that I will run with. I’m going to move away from RPI and focus on a RPE, which I guess means Roleplay Encouraged.

Drawing from my inspriation: “A Tale In The Desert” (ATITD), the game isn’t a role-play game, however most of the time, the players were in-character, or in-game at least. I would like to have a central theme and story, run events and such for those that are interested. However, for those players who would mainly like to enjoy the other things, that’ll be fine, too.

Another thing that has changed is my codebase choice. LPMud is still a heavy contender. But, I L-O-V-E EmpireMud. I really wish I knew more about programming. I would really work with that codebase. Anyway, more on this later.

That’s it for now.

Back for the first time…

Its been so long since I’ve even touched this blog.  I’ve moved from AZ to NY and I’ve been busy ever since I’ve arrived.  I’ve been actively looking for another mud to play, but after trying a bunch, I remembered exactly why I wanted to start my own MUD.  Of course everyone, their moma and, somehow, the kitchen sink wants to start and run their own mud. Especially, in those cases when absolutely nothing fits your criteria.

I can’t help it. I’m extremely picky about my RPI’s. There’s always something going on that makes me not want to play a game. Its either the story or the mechanics or the players or some little thing that just irks my nerves.  Every game I’ve played usually has one or two features that I love and that I hope will be that game’s saving grace, but in the end, I always leave for what I think could be greener pastures – which usually doesn’t work out that way.

Anyway, I’m still going to try to start my personal MUD in the tradition of “If you build it; they will come.” If anything, I think it’ll be fun.

Well, I’m officially on the market for an Adim position on a MU*.  Heck, I’ll need the experience. Plus, I have some time to kill.  As a soon to be mommy, I’ve been working on ways to fit everything I want to do into my day. By the time the baby’s born, I’ll be working at home. So, that frees up a significant chuck of time. As of right now, I’d say I have about 10 hours free to devote to someone else’s game and about 5 for my own. Since, I’m still in the “How in the world do I do this” stage of planning, 5 hours a week seems like too much time.

I actually broke this post up with the next one “Content or Design First” . If I didn’t this post would be incredibly long.

Codebases:

Well, one of the first things I’d like to do is get a code base or server to run the game on.  I figured that I could pick a base, play on a game that is already running it and/or become a part-time staff member. What better way to learn to administer and to code that first hand experience.

I’m so picky, but in a way I’m flexible.  I’m still learning, so language isn’t a barrier.  I could pick any codebase that is written in any language because I have to learn it anyway.  I’m leaning toward Java, C++ and Ruby, though.  Lua intrigues me, but I haven’t found anything I like.  I can always find a stable server, then embed Lua on it for my scripting needs.  I think that is too advanced for me.

As for me being picky, the code base I need has to have one thing. The ability for me to accept donations, written in the license. I don’t plan on making money with this game, but if this goes well and people play and love the game, I may need help running the server. And who knows,  I may even make a *great* game and people would *want*to give me money. I’d hate to spend time building and perfecting a product and then be restricted by an overlooked clause in the license.

I’ve been looking a DIKU and Circle, which may be great starting points.  But, better not touch them at this point.

Welcome, my darlings!

This is my blog and I’ve created this to be sort of a brain dump of all of my ideas, thoughts and fustrations about designing a game.  I’m not designing an ordinary game here; but a MUD. A MUD is a Multi-User Dungeon.  Just imagine WoW, without the graphics. Instead of the beautiful and colorful landscapes that you see with your eyes, you get rich descriptions that will feul your imgination and work your mind.

I plan on doing this from the ground up.  I have an idea for this game. I bought a few books to get me started and the rest I’m adding the my wish lists. Speaking of wish lists, I’ll have a few. Book List, Feature List and one other that I thought of, but can’t remember. Maybe it was To Do List – I have no clue. ( this is why I need this blog so bad. Its as good as a note book, plus if anyone is interested they can follow me and pitch in their suggestions, questions and comments.

Anyway, that’s it for my first post.

Thanks for reading!