Planning our tutorial game

Using the general plan from last lesson we'll now establish what kind of game we want to create for this tutorial. Remembering that we need to keep the scope down, let's establish some parameters. Note that for your own game you don't need to agree/adopt any of these. Many game-types need more or much less than this. But this makes for good, instructive examples.

We want a small game we can play ourselves for fun, but which could in principle be expanded to something more later.
Let's go with a fantasy theme, it's well understood.
We'll use some existing, simple RPG system.
We want to be able to create and customize a character of our own.
We want the tools to roleplay with other players.
We don't want to have to rely on a Game master to resolve things, but will rely on code for skill resolution and combat.
We want monsters to fight and NPCs we can talk to. So some sort of AI.
We want to be able to buy and sell stuff.
We want some sort of crafting system.
We want some sort of quest system.

Let's answer the questions from the previous lesson and discuss some of the possibilities.

Administration

Should your game rules be enforced by coded systems by human game masters?

We want to have a game that doesn't require human game masters to run. Human GMs are great but only when they are available.

What is the staff hierarchy in your game? Is vanilla Evennia roles enough or do you need something else? - The default hierarchy should be enough: Player - Player Helper - Builder - Admin - Developer.
Should characters be able to send mail (IC/OOC?) to each other in-game? - Why not!
Should players be able to post out-of-characters on channels and via other means like bulletin-boards? - We will not be implementing a bulletin-board in this tutorial, but we'll allow use of the default channels coming with Evennia.

Building

How will the world be built? Traditionally (from in-game with build-commands) or externally (by batchcmds/code or directly with custom code)? - We will show examples of a few differnt ways, but we'll build the brunt of things using Evennia's Batchcode system.
Can only privileged Builders create things or should regular players also have limited build-capability? - We will only allow privileged builders to modify the world. The exception is crafting, where we will allow players to to use in-game commands to create specific, prescribed objects from recipes.

Systems

What are the game mechanics? How do you decide if an action succeeds or fails? - We will let the system decide this from case to case by passing questions to a rule module we'll create.
Do you base your game off an existing RPG system or make up your own? - We will make use of Open Adventure, an 'old school' RRG-system that is available for free under the Creative Commons license. We'll only use a subset of the rules from the blue "basic" book.
How does the character-generation work? Walk from room-to-room? A menu? - We'll be fancy and do this as a as a menu, it's all the rage.
Does the flow of time matter in your game - does night and day change? What about seasons? - We'll find there is a contrib to add this, so we'll do so.
Do you want changing, global weather or should weather just be set manually in roleplay? - We'll not model weather in this tutorial.
Do you want a coded world-economy or just a simple barter system? Or no formal economy at all? - We'll allow for barter and buying/selling but we won't try to emulate a full economic system here.
Do you have concepts like reputation and influence? - We will not have anything like that.
Will your characters be known by their name or only by their physical appearance? - We can easily add this because we happen to know there is a contrib available for it, so we'll add it.

Rooms

Is a simple room description enough or should the description be able to change (such as with time, by light conditions, weather or season)? - We will make use of a contrib to allow us to change these things, so yes.
Should the room have different statuses? Can it have smells, sounds? Can it be affected by dramatic weather, fire or magical effects? If so, how would this affect things in the room? Or are these things something admins/game masters should handle manually? - We will not model any of this.
Can objects be hidden in the room? Can a person hide in the room? How does the room display this? - We will not go into hiding and visibility in this tutorial.

Objects

How numerous are your objects? Do you want large loot-lists or are objects just role playing props created on demand? - We will have a mix - some loot from monsters but also quest objects.
If you use money, is each coin a separate object or do you just store a bank account value? - We'll use coin as-objects.
Do multiple similar objects form stacks and how are those stacks handled in that case? - We want objects to to stack when they are put together.
Does an object have weight or volume (so you cannot carry an infinite amount of them)? - Sure, why not.
Can objects be broken? Can they be repaired? - While interesting, we will not model breaking or repairs.
Is a weapon a specific type of object or can you fight with a chair or a flower too? - We can let all objects have the ability to be used in an attack.
NPCs/mobs are also objects. Should they just stand around or should they have some sort of AI? - We won't be very sophisticated about it, but we want them to move around and have some rudimentary AI.
Are NPCs and mobs different entities? How do they differ? - Monsters you fight and NPCs will be variations of the same parent.
Should there be NPCs giving quests? If so, how do you track Quest status? - We will design a simple quest system.

Characters

Can players have more than one Character active at a time or are they allowed to multi-play? - We will allow
How will Character creation work? Walking room-to-room? A menu? Answering questions? Filling in a form?
How do you implement different "classes" or "races"? Are they separate types of objects or do you simply load different stats on a basic object depending on what the Player wants?
If a Character can hide in a room, what skill will decide if they are detected?
What skill allows a Character to wield a weapon and hit? Do they need a special skill to wield a chair rather than a sword?
Does a Character need a Strength attribute to tell how much they can carry or which objects they can smash?
What does the skill tree look like? Can a Character gain experience to improve? By killing enemies? Solving quests? By roleplaying?
May player-characters attack each other (PvP)?
What are the penalties of defeat? Permanent death? Quick respawn? Time in prison?

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