Greetings all! I wanted to reach out to the community and gauge how interested EotE players would be in something along the lines of a Persistent World, EotE PBF (Play by Forum). I'm a veteran of a couple of Roleplaying Forum Based games, such as Heroes of Ivalice (a Final Fantasy Tactics Roleplay) and the Star Wars RP.

I think that this universe and game rules would make an awesome persistent play by forum system! I enjoyed the Star Wars RP, but it is strictly an RP. All combat was decided by players prior to fighting... There were no skill checks, no risk of any losses or strategy, just who wins who loses, then RP the fight scene. Heroes of Ivalice was a great persistent world RP and one of my favorite experiences as a role player. However, it was complicated and it strained the GMs which recently caused the community to end its almost decade long run.

As I mentioned, I believe EotE would be an awesome persistent world, due to the simplicity of skill checks, the freedom of character creation and the Star Wars universe allows for massive grand adventure between Episodes IV and V.

Would anyone be interested in participating in a game with persistent characters in a persistent game world? We'd need some dedicated GMs willing to learn various aspects of the Star Wars Universe and a player base that wants to participate in a grand adventure, rather than a typical 4-5 player consistent group.

The only real problems I see are rolling mechanics on a board are a little difficult, which would need to be decided by the community; a system like RPGGeek could be a possibility. Also, how to ensure that the participating players are owners of EotE core rules.. Perhaps PW lock with submittable of a character? I'm note sure. In any case, I'm looking for feedback and thsoe who would be interested in this type of game.

I'd enjoy some PbF action.. I'm the GM for my group, and have been wanting to play. I'm not sure what a Persistent World is, though. Can you expand on that?

Rolling by forum, as long as it's got BBCode, isn't hard.

See?

I'd enjoy some PbF action.. I'm the GM for my group, and have been wanting to play. I'm not sure what a Persistent World is, though. Can you expand on that?

Basically, rather than operating an RP with a single group of players (a party of 3-6) going through the game solely by themselves, a persistent world would allow multiple player groups, let's say 20 for the sake of an example, to be running around in a single game universe. It would also allow players to progress their character over a longer span of time, as they could keep their characters over multiple campaigns and can interact with more than just one player group. Also, Factions and Obligations can be expanded upon.

The larger setting allows for more interesting campaigns as well. For instance, joining factions (Hutts, Black Suns, Empire - corrupt and otherwise - or staying a freelancer), expanded obligation (a contract put out on a PC for not paying up, could cause a nemesis to appear, or a PC group trying to cash in the bounty) and even intertwining story play.

Basically, you can think of a single table-top group as a coop, stand-alone game, where as a persistent world more of a larger multiplayer experience.

Rolling by forum, as long as it's got BBCode, isn't hard.

Skulduggery to Steal: 2eA+2eP+1eD+1eC+1eS: -2 (S, A) (S/A, A/A) (F/F) (F/Th) (F)

See?

I didn't realize there were 3rd party sites to execute this one. Thanks, this is a possibility!

I would totally be interested. How would this be managed? Would it require a subforum? Org charts? Is there like an "overlord" GM who manages the GMs?

Is there an example of what you're thinking of that you could link to?

I would totally be interested. How would this be managed? Would it require a subforum? Org charts? Is there like an "overlord" GM who manages the GMs?

Is there an example of what you're thinking of that you could link to?

I'm trying to find anything I can on Heroes of Ivalice, its tough due to the game ending its run earlier this year. I found this little post on another which gives a description of how the game was like:

http://joukaiden.forumotion.com/t169-heroes-of-ivalice

This looks like someone trying to reboot the project:

http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=9568.0

This HoI game was based off of SimRTK which is a Romance of the Three Kingdoms Online RP Forum:

http://simrtk.net/

These are the two best examples of what I can find for what I mean by "Persistent Play by Form". However, I wouldn't see an EotE RP Forum as complicated as the previous two concepts.

What I mean by similar, but less complicated, is I'd like a dedicated team of GMs and PCs that have a significant impact on a persistent world, with a larger scale than just a simple one group table top. While PC may be smuggling spice for a Hutt, another PC might be taking out a small time crime-lord that's hampering on a Black Sun Viggo's power and yet another PC might be rising through the political ranks of the Empire, but disguising the fact that he's swiping credits for Imperial Coffers to fund his Outer Rim spice smuggling ring. Each of these things have a real impact on the players' universe.

I'd like to have 3-5 dedicated GMs to begin this concept. Three at least to an NPC hierarchy of the three main factions. I'd like to keep the numbers odd, because there are a lot of "per-GM" ideas in the Core Rulebook and I think we'd need to keep a consensus of how to interpret the rules consistent through each RP. The easiest way to do that is to have an odd number of GMs. Obviosuly, we'd be running Core Rulebook WAR and we'd decide as a consensus of what and where we'd want to add in additional books, as they are released.

How does this work? Who interprets the dice? How would you handle someone who couldn't actually use the dice thing?

I'm certainly interested in this.

How does this work? Who interprets the dice? How would you handle someone who couldn't actually use the dice thing?

I'd say honor system. Just roll the dice, post the result, and do your best to take into consideration where the results came from (like, if your Boost die from someone's assistance comes up with a Success, narrate your ally being particularly helpful).

The graphical representation of the dice is just nice because it makes it really easy for the GM and players to have input on dice pool interpretation, but if it doesn't work for you, it shouldn't be a big deal.

This Sounds Fun in Concept. and i will totally participate on at least the player level as i just recently picked up the system and i Doubt a whole lot of people would like my GM style at first, and might shy away instead of flock to it.

I want to play as a player.

How does this work? Who interprets the dice? How would you handle someone who couldn't actually use the dice thing?

The dice roller posted earlier breaks down the results in text form too. You could have text to speech read it for you. That result was written as -2 (S, A) (S/A, A/A) (F/F) (F/Th) (F).

• The -2 is your overall success, in this case 2 failure.
• Each set of values contained in brackets is based on the dice color and comma separated per dice result.
• First bracket (S, A) was for the green dice of which there were two of them, one came up Success and the other Advantage denoted by S and A
• Second bracket (S/A, A/A) was for the two yellow dice. First one came up with a Success AND Advantage, second one came up with two Advantage. Basically multiple results on a single dice are separated by a forward slash symbol.

• For the remaining dice, an F denotes Failure and a Th denotes threat.

If you want a more in depth breakdown PM me.

Edit: Just as an addition, PrettyHaley, what would make an online dice roller usable to you. What would you require? Would biggish fixed positions for the dice, a text readout of the results and a fixed position for the ability to copy a link to the result which you can put into the PBF thread so the GMs can check your result work? If so that is very doable, I can program something for that.

RPGGeek has the Edge dice roller images built-in. I'm playing in a game there now and it works fine (here). You can also create a wiki there which could be very useful. To build a persistent world I also think it would be useful to create a guild at RPGGeek to group up the players and get a dedicated forum.

I would be very interested in joining if you decide to host it at RPGGeek.

About players owning the core rules. Why would you need to check this? You're not required to own the book when playing face-to-face. One of the players in a given group needs to own it, but that will easily be the case in a 20 person group.

How does this work? Who interprets the dice? How would you handle someone who couldn't actually use the dice thing?

The dice roller posted earlier breaks down the results in text form too. You could have text to speech read it for you. That result was written as -2 (S, A) (S/A, A/A) (F/F) (F/Th) (F).

• The -2 is your overall success, in this case 2 failure.
• Each set of values contained in brackets is based on the dice color and comma separated per dice result.
• First bracket (S, A) was for the green dice of which there were two of them, one came up Success and the other Advantage denoted by S and A
• Second bracket (S/A, A/A) was for the two yellow dice. First one came up with a Success AND Advantage, second one came up with two Advantage. Basically multiple results on a single dice are separated by a forward slash symbol.
• For the remaining dice, an F denotes Failure and a Th denotes threat.

If you want a more in depth breakdown PM me.

Edit: Just as an addition, PrettyHaley, what would make an online dice roller usable to you. What would you require? Would biggish fixed positions for the dice, a text readout of the results and a fixed position for the ability to copy a link to the result which you can put into the PBF thread so the GMs can check your result work? If so that is very doable, I can program something for that.

For some kind of graphic interface, fixed positions or buttons labeled with text (not part of the image) is nice but just being able to type the codes and read the results in text form works fine. I couldn't ask anyone to do anything like that, though. I'm not even sure how playing by posts work. I'm curious enough to want to watch but I can't thank you enough for even thinking of it.

Thankyouthankyouthankyou!!! I had no idea how to interpret that. I thought the algebra was codes to make the dice roll, not the results! Now it makes sense.

For some kind of graphic interface, fixed positions or buttons labeled with text (not part of the image) is nice but just being able to type the codes and read the results in text form works fine. I couldn't ask anyone to do anything like that, though. I'm not even sure how playing by posts work. I'm curious enough to want to watch but I can't thank you enough for even thinking of it.

No problem, any time.

Play by post works the same way as how you would normally play around the table except everyone writes their posts and scenes tend to take longer to play out since no one is playing in real time. An advantage of it is that it can be a creative writing exercise much like collaboratively writing a book. People tend to be far more detailed about their players actions and thoughts if they are writing about it instead of just speaking around a table.

It has its pros and cons, but it's worth looking into.

Another pro is that it gives GMs all the time they need to look up rules in the book

Thankyouthankyouthankyou!!! I had no idea how to interpret that. I thought the algebra was codes to make the dice roll, not the results! Now it makes sense.

For some kind of graphic interface, fixed positions or buttons labeled with text (not part of the image) is nice but just being able to type the codes and read the results in text form works fine. I couldn't ask anyone to do anything like that, though. I'm not even sure how playing by posts work. I'm curious enough to want to watch but I can't thank you enough for even thinking of it.

No problem, any time.

Play by post works the same way as how you would normally play around the table except everyone writes their posts and scenes tend to take longer to play out since no one is playing in real time. An advantage of it is that it can be a creative writing exercise much like collaboratively writing a book. People tend to be far more detailed about their players actions and thoughts if they are writing about it instead of just speaking around a table.

It has its pros and cons, but it's worth looking into.

This is correct. It's a little bit slower, but this is why we'd need a dedicated staff and player base. I have a couple of options to deal with players disappearing during a campaign to keep things moving along for the whole party. And the statement about PbF's I've found to be correct. What it also does, in this sense, is allows for GMs to collaborate on a bigger overall game world, which is something that's rather difficult in stand alone groups. In addition, it allows players to experience the game in a much different way than a standalone, such as utilizing their persistent character with different groups of other PCs. Let's say, you run job for a Hutt Boss with one group, after you complete that job, you can run with another group on a bounty for a Black Suns Viggo. I think this allows players to flesh out characters with more of living game universe.

Another pro is that it gives GMs all the time they need to look up rules in the book

This is true and it also allows GMS to collaborate and discuss how we should interpret the rule going forward.

RPGGeek has the Edge dice roller images built-in. I'm playing in a game there now and it works fine (here). You can also create a wiki there which could be very useful. To build a persistent world I also think it would be useful to create a guild at RPGGeek to group up the players and get a dedicated forum.

I would be very interested in joining if you decide to host it at RPGGeek.

About players owning the core rules. Why would you need to check this? You're not required to own the book when playing face-to-face. One of the players in a given group needs to own it, but that will easily be the case in a 20 person group.

This is a good idea, but sometimes I find RPGGeek Limiting. I'd like people to be able to post avatars of their characters without having to pay a donation. Things like that steer me toward creating something like a VB board for this game world. I like many of RPG Geeks built-in systems, but its not something we can't create free standing.

As for verifying that players own the core rulebook, the reason I bring that up, is that this would be a grey area with FFG. If we provide stat sheets, or character creation guidelines outright on the internet, I'm not sure if that violates FFG's policy. Technically, we'd be distributing their rules to anyone who comes to our Forum, whether or not their engaged in play with what we are trying to do. Also, I'm not sure how they feel about people signing up for a forum with rules being actively posted, and not participating in the game. I'm not saying that this would be the way we would operate, but I simply am trying to look at something like this from FFG's perspective.

The reason I brought up dice rolling, is that we would be operating on an honor system, but one of the things that tends to happen is eventually a player will try to exploit the system - ex. rolling dice continuously until they receive favorable rules. The one drawback to this type of game play is limiting that sort of action. While I believe that players should be actively rolling and involving themselves in the game play, I do see this as a potential problem that other players will look down upon and ruin their experience. This is why I posted the comment regarding myself having trouble figuring out how to manage rolling mechanics.

In any case, I'm more than willing to explain more details for all that are interested. But I would like to start rounding on some GMs that are dedicated and interested in participating. If you're interested, please PM. I'm also considering allowing GMs to have PC characters, but with certain restrictions, but this too I'd like to brainstorm with our initial GM team. As soon as we get three GMs, I think we can begin the process of organizing.

So interested in this. BUMP!

If I can watch for a while, see if my own writing isn't an embarrassment and if I can keep up, at would be great. If that's a problem, I promise not to pout too much.

You might want to consider running the game through RPOL. They allow for multiple characters per player, each with his own avatar, character sheet, and input. GMs can have unlimited NPCs, also with their own avvies, and can even impersonate PCs should they need to speak through one's mouth for a moment. A single game can have over a dozen groups, with characters having access to only the groups they need — they don't even see the other groups, allowing for groups to be managed without sharing info. You can add private lines to a post, that only specified characters can see, or add language filters that look like gibberish to those who aren't flagged as able to read them.

You can have co-GMs, or multiple GMs with full access, or players with some 'admin' rights, or lurkers who can read the open forums but can't contribute — and you can promote lurkers to full player status. (I once ran a D&D game where a lurker was given access to the wizard's familiar.)

They don't yet have an EotE die-roller, but it's in discussion right now.

You might want to consider running the game through RPOL. They allow for multiple characters per player, each with his own avatar, character sheet, and input. GMs can have unlimited NPCs, also with their own avvies, and can even impersonate PCs should they need to speak through one's mouth for a moment. A single game can have over a dozen groups, with characters having access to only the groups they need — they don't even see the other groups, allowing for groups to be managed without sharing info. You can add private lines to a post, that only specified characters can see, or add language filters that look like gibberish to those who aren't flagged as able to read them.

You can have co-GMs, or multiple GMs with full access, or players with some 'admin' rights, or lurkers who can read the open forums but can't contribute — and you can promote lurkers to full player status. (I once ran a D&D game where a lurker was given access to the wizard's familiar.)

They don't yet have an EotE die-roller, but it's in discussion right now.

Thanks for the information, this is definitely an idea we may try and pursue. I'm a little hesitant on allowing multiple characters on a PbF, really due to power gaming and ruining the experience. I'd also like to have information active to everyone on whats going out, but keeping the internal workings on factions, such as scheming, internal to the faction. I'll definitely read up on the options for RPOL.

In any case, I'm still looking for GMs. I've had a couple of people interested in player positions, but without GMs we can't get anything started.

Thanks for the information, this is definitely an idea we may try and pursue. I'm a little hesitant on allowing multiple characters on a PbF, really due to power gaming and ruining the experience. I'd also like to have information active to everyone on whats going out, but keeping the internal workings on factions, such as scheming, internal to the faction. I'll definitely read up on the options for RPOL.

In any case, I'm still looking for GMs. I've had a couple of people interested in player positions, but without GMs we can't get anything started.

The GMs running a game have total control over how many characters are present, both players and NPCs. Regarding transparency of information, that's easy to handle there -- you can just make the player sections open, granting all players access to all areas, and have a few private channels for scheming.

There's also a private-messaging system, allowing players and GMs to communicate without it showing up as an in-character post. GMs automagically see all private messages, even ones they're not involved in, and can step into any such discussion if they feel the need.

Like I said, it's really tailor-made for this sort of game.

I'll consider helping as a co-GM, though I'm limited to late evenings (and, sometimes, early afternoon) for posting. I haven't yet had a chance to do anything with the EotE rules beyond look over the book and fiddle with my dice — I recently moved and haven't found a gamer group yet.

I've only had time to play a couple of games and the forum based gaming system provides a lot more flexibility for this. From a GMing perspective, only being able to post a certain times makes forum gaming a lot easier to maintain. I would just require at least one post a day from the GM staff minimum.

I will write your name down as a GM candidate. We need one more before we can begin the process of setting this up.

A great site for PBF gaming is roleplayinggames dot net - the same site where Darth Nightingale and myself run our games. FuzzyLog1c, being one of my players, will hopefully verify that it's a worthwhile place to run a campaign.

A great site for PBF gaming is roleplayinggames dot net - the same site where Darth Nightingale and myself run our games. FuzzyLog1c, being one of my players, will hopefully verify that it's a worthwhile place to run a campaign.

I'm FuzzyLog1c and I approve of this message.