I generally do things for the longer term.
I think the 'Long Campaign' model was impressed into my head from the beginning, and that is still how I see the way a game can be at it's best.

My last online foray, the Steel Isle Game, I attempted to make it a basic dungeon crawl.  My nature (and the nature of my game so spawned) pulled through, and the SIG, as it came to be called, ended up going to exactly 160 sessions, with five forays into the Ruins of Vexchian and some good times in Steel Isle Town.


For my next Online game, we are taking advantage of our game mechanics which allow us to create younger pre-adventure level characters, to play a game of novice, student mages in the hoary, most ancient magic school in Celtricia.  This will include some time in classes, dorm time, time with teachers, building relationships, choosing next classes, rolling for successes and a lot of social skills, exams by way of casting, and tests, but there will be a number of undercurrent plots going along, which the PCs may or may not take part in.

While still a work in progress, some has been finished, which is what I am sharing so far.  Some bits and pieces of that.

Here is the game introduction page.  It goes through the type of game and some general mechanical ideas.

Now, I've been working with this system and setting since 1983, and the crunch heavily supports the crunch.  The way magic works in the setting is very, very clearly defined and understood.  The first day of class in "Introduction to the Void" class is a good example, very useful and central in terms of this specific online game, but my casting players have found it useful in general.

There is more done, but this is a good start.

I am putting this here more to share it and get some feedback.  There is a lot of player interest, but I am not sure how big a player pool we are going to work with.  I'd say we are maybe a month out from starting.

And for those that read this far, here is the History of the Collegium Arcana....

Good introduction - I didn't feel overwhelmed, and from skimming the sidebar, the emphasis on skill aquisition and factions makes your ruleset a great fit for such a campaign.

Quote from: Sean !;667066Good introduction - I didn't feel overwhelmed, and from skimming the sidebar, the emphasis on skill aquisition and factions makes your ruleset a great fit for such a campaign.

Man, I hope so.  Could be ugly other wise.

More on the acclimating the players to the game area, trying to create more feel.

The Dormitories of the Collegium Arcana
From here.  often better to read from the site as there are more linked terms there.
This section is one of those that helps players I the game really acclimate to the area, and the maps are being worked on right now.  What dorm the pcs start in will affect their social lives somewhat.

The next installment, about the life of a student in the Collegium.  This is more about mood and feel and to help the players get into character, and to understand routines and what a day is like.
I am trying to have a lot of background at the disposal of the PCs once gameplay starts.  It is looking like 70-80% PbP/email, and 20-30% online IRC.
This is one that also may be better read in the wiki itself, as there are a good amount of links inserted, especially on setting specific stuff.   From here.

We've added a bit more onto this, but much of the underpinnings of the game are also being done.  Unlike most guild school games, where a player chooses their factions and chooses skills from that faction, all players are from the same faction, first year students of the collegium, and as such, their experience mods are very low.  However, unlike most gs games where acquiring new skills or improving expmods is difficult, that is part of the point in this game, since much of the game revolves around classes and choosing which classes to take (ie, which skills to get better at) as the game progresses.

We are looking at a mid August start, still.

I was on the Ipad earlier, too clutzy to link pages.

Here is the Experience Modifier Page for starting characters in the Collegium Arcana gamer for choosing skills and using their starting experience.   Every guild or faction in the game has a Base EXPMOD for a skill, which is added to the ATTRIB EXPMOD (the native ability the character's attributes give them in learning a skill) to create the TOTAL EXPMOD the character has in that skill.

Basically, we keep levels in every skill, with them going up a tiny bit at a time.  This gives the players the feel of constant movement and growth while keeping the power curve very low.  Every bit of experience is multiplied by the EXPMOD the character has in that skill.  And as the modified Experience chart shows, after a while it gets difficult to move up a level, the PCs can pick up sub skills and other skills, so their ability 'pool' gets wider as well as deeper.  A low health character may have a .15 EXPMOD in hitpoints, and takes about 700 raw EXP to get to level 1 in HP (which means an additional 2-5 HP added to the 2 they might have started with.  A high health character might have started at 3 or 4, and have an EXPMOD of .35, and need only about 300 raw experience to get to level 1.  (hit points has a larger ATTRIB EXPMOD portion than many, BTW).

More on EXPMODS here.

As you can see by the chart, there are over 300 skills to choose from.  And while that sounds daunting, and does allow for very different starting characters, all skills nest into up to 4 levels of skills and subskills.  You always have to have a higher level in a parent skill than the subskill, so with only 3k experience to spend, the PCs will choose mainly from the 90+ basic commonality 1 skills.

*Updates, pages fixed, working on maps for School neighborhood, physical descriptions.
first three play 'sections' mapped out, four if we include character creation.  
I have also been putting time and effort into the Gigantic Godstraat Neighborhoods of Stenron, since this will come into play regularly.

As mentioned, play will be mainly PbP and one-on-one IRC, in between the bi-weekly group sessions.  The group sessions will represent more mainstream timestamps, such as the end of a semester, a dance, a special lecture, where the in between stuff may be as mundane as choosing classes or rolling to see how well a paper is written or meeting a crush in the hallway, or perhaps a meeting with a Warden...or as deep as searching for a hidden library, gallivanting through the Grace of Water district, or joining one of the hidden Orders.  

I am hoping to get a rolling, staggered start in the next 10 days.

I'm still interested if you remember about me LV . If all slots taken, no worries.

Quote from: Rincewind1;680441I'm still interested if you remember about me LV . If all slots taken, no worries.

I have 13 people interested I feel pretty sure about.
I think I am going to start with five or six.  But things always happen.  So stay tuned.  Besides, new voices are awesome.

Quote from: LordVreeg;680468I have 13 people interested I feel pretty sure about.
I think I am going to start with five or six.  But things always happen.  So stay tuned.  Besides, new voices are awesome.

Rincewind, I'll probably be on Roll20.net, under the Celtricia Campaign later on.

Quote from: LordVreeg;680954Rincewind, I'll probably be on Roll20.net, under the Celtricia Campaign later on.

Okay, I have some experience under Roll20, slap me when I should invite myself over.

you bet, probably around 9ish eastern, maybe right after,   Sorry for the later reply, work is being a pain in the ass.  If you are around, we can go over some of the basics abnd maybe even start chargen

Quote from: LordVreeg;681019you bet, probably around 9ish eastern, maybe right after,   Sorry for the later reply, work is being a pain in the ass.  If you are around, we can go over some of the basics abnd maybe even start chargen

Alright, I think that works, though I apologise in advance for a broken mic - that won't be a problem I assume? I'll get it fixed ASAP should you want actual talking done .

Edit: In fact, is there a chane we could do this tomorrow? I have a bit of an early rise today (well, relatively early).