Idea for an MMO-esque forum game, brainstorming welcome

[Arkbrik]

Coal: With a good skill roll you can get several units of coal from a single log.

Leather: If you want anything else than food rations from an animal you hunt, you'll have to specify it in your post (eg. "I hunt and tan the skin of any animal I kill.") to avoid everyone ending up with tons of skulls, bones, skins, etc. Tanning is a free action that requires a normal skill roll (3+) to succeed. If you get an awesome roll (7+, by having skill points in Tanner) you can get several pieces of leather from one animal.

[knolli]

So we get the leather directly by skinnin the animal? I'm fine with that. Doing all the preparations that are need IRL would be too complicated. What is needed to further process the leather say to an armor? I presume you'd need some tools for that. That's why I wanted to make needles.

[mgb519]

Olothontor, can I get one of those pictures?

[knolli]

I just thought that it would be nice to have weather in the game. It would make to world seem more alive. It could be one additional role per day that tells you if the sun shines or heavy rain drenches your clothes. The table could look something like this and could be costumized for different seasons:
1: Really bad weather. Blizzards in winter or fierce storms. Potentially dangerous. You should seek shelter.
2: Unpleasend weather like heavy rain, freezing cold in winter or scorching heat in summer. Not dangerous, but effects outdoor work.
3-5: Normal weather, no effects or small benefits for some jobs but panelties for others. I.e. a good day to travel but bad for a hunt.
6: A perfect day. You feel motivated and work is easy.

Maybe one storm per week is too often, ...

The introduction of  weather would make houses more important because they shelter you from rain and storms. Everyone who didn't reach shelter in time would risk either hurting himself or catching a desease.

Another option would be to introduce events like catastrophes that affect single areas or even the whole map and that forces the players to react. This could be an earth quake, a volcanic eruption or a landslide, forest fires or a flooding. Some catastrophes may be anounced so that the players can prepare, i.e. a week of heavy rain results in overflowing rivers, so players know that these areas may better be avoided.

I'd like to hear what you think about it.

[Olothontor]

Olothontor, can I get one of those pictures?

Shoot me a PM of what you'd like in specific and I'll get to work for ya.

A basic idea of his outfit, stature, weaponry, and hair and eye color would be awesome.

P.S. Knolli, I am working on your dog, but it's proving to be DAMN difficult.

[knolli]

Coal: With a good skill roll you can get several units of coal from a single log.

Could you please state the formula you will use to determin the amount of coal produced?
If I spent two whole days chopping wood, I will get w= 6* (d6 - 2 + s), in average 9+6*s, units of wood, where s is the skill bonus in lumberjack.

If I want to make charcoal, I have to spend some actions chopping wood and some using the charcoal clamp. So we start with w=d6 - 2 + s units of wood (1,5+s in average) we can burn. Let's say I got lucky and produced 5 chunks. If you used the same formula now, I can use the chunks to get c= 5*(d6 - 2 + s) units of coal, that are 7,5+5*s in average. If I were to get worse results in woodcutting, the overall outcome after two days of work would be even less.
So if one unit of coal had the same properties as one unit of coal when used as fuel, you could only lose. The only positive point is that you don't need to chop down entire forests. That could be important with many people in the same area, but as it is now, there is a seemingly endless supply of wood.

[Olothontor]

but as it is now, there is a seemingly endless supply of wood.

That could definitely change, as people start realizing that they have two more characters they can make that serve no purpose other than to gather resources. This MMO essentially allows for two free arbitrary units of peasant labor.

[knolli]

but as it is now, there is a seemingly endless supply of wood.

That could definitely change, as people start realizing that they have two more characters they can make that serve no purpose other than to gather resources. This MMO essentially allows for two free arbitrary units of peasant labor.

Ok, change sentence to:

That will be important as soon as many people gather in the same area.

Have we already decided on the details of how to treat multiple character? What if I decide to introduce Geron and Arionar, Gerionar's younger brothers who happens to be charpenters and farmers, by tomorrow?

[knolli]

New thing that came to mind: Inventory capacity

How much load can a single person carry? As long as I stay in one area you can assume that all the things you own are stored somewhere. But if you move from area to area, it's fairly unrealistic to bring 50 logs and 2 anvils with you on your back.

Should we limit the maximum capacity of the stuff you can carry around? Using backpacks, wheelbarrows or carts can increase the capacity.
Using big carts will slow you down. That way bringing the gold track from the mine to the capital would be a big project. And you would need to hire guards to protect you from bandits.

[Arkbrik]

I've thought a little about this too, but I don't know of a good way to handle it. The system has to be 'idiot-proof'. When a player just posts "move to region 10" and has twice as much stuff as they are capable of carrying, which items are left behind? There's a lot of attention required from both the players and the GM. Having infinite inventories gets around the problem.

Possibly very large items (statues, pianos, etc.) need to be transported by cart. That can be decided on a case-by-case basis.

[knolli]

The way I see it, you community works best if work as a team where everyone specializes in another field of work. There are too many different skills to be good in more than only three.

One professional lumberjack who trades or even shares his logs is far more efficient than a group of people only who have only one point invested each but won't share their goods with each other. The lumberjack could satisfy all their demand for wood. But that also means that the professional rarely does anything other than his job.
If Rade were to take the job of the miner and smelter operator, he could give his iron to John, who is the better smith. I could bring the wood that John would then burn to charoal. Before you knew it everyone would have a complete collection of +1-tool sets and plate armor and weapons and,....

Since I doubt that I can persuade you all to such a communistic way of playing, I do my best to use the power of capitalism to get as far as possible.
That's the reason I don't want to set a fixed prize for my logs. I want free-market economy. I want you to use your talents on my behalf.

[Arkbrik]

But if you don't set a fixed price for your logs, then you will have to negotiate the price every time someone wants to buy some. If you specify your price, then buyers will just have to post "buys x logs from Gerionar" with no further input needed on your part.

Of course, you can change the price of your logs at any time.

[knolli]

What's wrong with negotiations? I see that setting a fixed price would simplify much. But I will make some restrictions.