Does anyone want to do a a live text-based "fabletop" RP?

I have no idea what to call this, because I don't think this style of RP is an official thing, but it's something I did in the past with a friend (in voice chat form, but text might well work better), and I miss doing this style of thing. The reason that I don't do much forum roleplay any more is because the slow pace of forum posts frustrate me; I don't do much msparp style character roleplay because there's not enough structure; I don't do tabletop RPG style RP because firstly I don't know any rules to any tabletop games, it works better irl and I don't have friends for that, and I also find prescriptive rules limiting.

The "fabletop" as I have just dubbed it is a style of RP that mimics the gameplay style of a tabletop RPG, but is played entirely online and follows no official pre-designed ruleset. Instead, the story and mechanics are generated entirely by the players, usually the DM, who establishes initial conventions (that are then kept of DM switches for different story arcs, although could be potentially overhauled at any time. When I played with my friend before, the original character profiles were taken from D&D, as our initial intention was to follow the D&D ruleset, but, quickly growing tired of the prescriptive nature of this and particularly my lack of access to rulebooks, etc, we eventually devised our own (to a degree, simplified) basic ruleset, combat mechanics, spells, items, enemies, story lines, dice-roll mechanics for determining outcomes, et cetera. This resulted in a highly dynamic style of roleplay, in which the sense of collaborative fiction-forging was incorporated to the forging of the game itself rather than simply the storyline.

Here's how it would work in a new instantiation: The first DM presents the setting, and criteria for characters and stats for players to create and submit. Much of the mechanics of the game can be determined by the current DM, although this can be a collaborative process with suggestions. Character stats, inventories and info are stored in text documents that the DM edits, potentially stored online such as in public google docs so all the players can view them. Similar info is created for story elements, item descriptions, and enemies, which are kept private by the DM for story management purposes (but, for instance, the stats of an enemy would maybe be shown to the entire group when said enemy is encountered). The RP as a whole is divided into different "arcs". Each "arc" is a distinct story or story segment and is designed by a different DM, or the same person can write multiple arcs but each consecutive arc can have a new DM/designer. This system is used in instances where the group wants to do multiple stories with the same characters; alternatively, everything can be wiped and the next DM can ask for new characters for a new story to be authored from the ground up, optionally changing up established rules or conventions (or not!).

The game is played live in collaborative roleplay sessions. Dice roles (at least when did this) were utilized, often with an online dice roller. The DM can have their own character, but this is optional.

If we did this I'd be interested in DMing as I really enjoy that (or maybe I'm just a control freak), but I also feel kinda bad nominating myself and acting like I can take over the whole endeavour for the first arc, aha... so I suppose it'd be up to anyone who is interested, assuming some people are.

What do you think?

 

Hi, Re showed me this thread. It's nice to meet you. I'm pretty much always down for RP, and the format seems cool. There might be scheduling issues on my end for the live bits, but otherwise I'd be interested. Do you have any thoughts about what the setting/genre might be if we did this?

 

Hi, I also got linked to this by Re, and I'd also be interested in trying this out. I'm free most days, but I should warn you that I don't have much experience with forum RPs. Looking forward to hearing what you have in mind!

 

It sounds interesting. What kind of setting or system were you thinking of using?

 

Oh hey, I thought this thread had not attracted any interest. I'll come back and post on this some more later this week, when I'm done with uni work! :)

 

Okay! I still am not really entirely free of things I need to do, but I want to talk about this now, so... I guess I'll do that, aha.

I'm personally very fond of sci-fi-esque settings, or fantasy with a sci-fi bent. I think if I was designing the first story, then that's something I'd go for.

Are you guys interested in taking part, then? If yes, then I will cook up a more detailed setting description and also a character submission sheet if you guys are amenable. Then we can schedule a live session! :D

(I love crafting games and then playing them with others, aha... it's been too long, mostly because spoons, but I am thinking up some cool ideas about different mechanics I could implement and items and settings and such)

 

Yeah, that sounds fun! I love scifi-magic mixups.

 

Cool! (I'm gonna struggle not to reuse some of my old Time-Cloaked worldbuilding, lol) But I will prepare a thing!

 

Okay, I am in the process of devising a thing! It's currently very much sci-fi, but there's some more stuff I want to do with it as well.

What do you guys think of this concept/introduction?

If that flies I'll have character sheets and such prepared soon.

 

I like the idea! What sorts of species are you thinking of including? Evolutions of Earth species? More along the lines of Star Trek type aliens? Non-humanoids? Non-carbon-based lifeforms?

 

Sci-fi sounds good. I'd like to ditto the question of available species, and also figure out what sort of positions the PCs might have held while on the Antecedent.

 

Alrighty! I will prepare some more stuff, assuming people do wanna do this! Sorry for not reporting back for a bit, aha.

 

I know this hasn't been updated in a while but if this was still gonna be a thing I'd be interested!