Hello. I'm a little apprehensive about posting-I've just recently been exposed to Drupal, and have little to no experience with website design. I am eager to learn, however, and everything I've discovered about Drupal leads me to believe that I could use it to do exactly what I want-that is, run a roleplaying game online. With that in mind, I've joined the games group and would welcome any advice y'all would have for me.
I have been running roleplaying games for a very long time, and have always wanted to use some sort of online mechanism to streamline certain elements of the process. Lately I've been intrigued by Scion, a d10 system heroic game set in the modern day, and I've come up with a setting and system for running a play-by-email campaign. I'd like to use Drupal to provide setting information for my players, and to organize and keep track of the game for myself.
My primary goals are to produce content that...
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Can be accessed only by certain users as I determine them Each content type should be filterable, but I also need to be able to limit access and visibility for each individual object within the content types to specific users. So I want to be able to filter NPCs and "Instances" by their type, but also have specific NPCs and Instances visible to certain users and not others.
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Contains images and locations, so that I can construct a tangible, coherent setting for the players to use. My thought is that if I build my world and populate it, my players will be able to make plans and have agendas as player characters without my being present and involved constantly.
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Can be organized and viewed in a geographic fashion, using google maps or some similar online mapping mechanic. I plan to set my game in Portland, OR and use the local sites and geography to create a tangible environment. Giving my players the ability to lay out a map with all their available information arranged by geography is one of my primary goals-I want people to be able to visualize the game in terms of the places they can visit and what they can do there.
I realize that this is ambitious-moreso after wandering through Drupal and becoming aware of how powerful it is. I don't think any of this is out of the question, though, and I'm eager to nail down the basics of these goals so that I can start producing content. Any advice or feedback you more experienced Drupal users (is there a Drupal user plural? Drupaliens?) can offer, I'd welcome it. My site's rp.happypunch.com-there's not much there at the moment, but I have high hopes.
Comments
How has it worked out?
fimbulwinter
I think Drupal would work very well as an rpg game assistant. It looks like you have been experimenting with it somewhat, but in case you still need somewhere to start with these issues:
The built-in Drupal permission system would work up to a point, but if you need to get specific to certain nodes, then you will need to use something like Content Access or Taxonomy Access Control modules.
You can use the Content Construction Kit (CCK) to add any fields you want to a node, including Imagefield.
And there is a Location module which can be used for real world locations which ties into the Google Map module. You will need Views to allow you to have a google map with markers to multiple locations (and it is very useful generally).
I wish you success with your game!
A little over a year later
How'd it turn out?
Just thinking about point 1). How is access determined? you could reveal certain weapons based on experience points. For example:
http://drupal.org/project/userpoints_nodeaccess - using User points to grant access
If you're only DM for one campaign at a time, and it's a few players you could use Node access user reference.
NB: node access user reference completely overrides the default view access, so you'll need another module such as TAC lite to manage view access for the rest of content
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Make sure to carefully read the labelling on all node access modules before mixing.
Keep in mind Drupal grants access, so once it's granted by one module, it won't be un-done by the settings in another.
Another module: Module grants can save you a lot of headaches.
I think if you're working on one game at a time, it'd be easy enough. If you had multiple groups and games... It would be tougher.
Mailhandler module, btw, could make it easy to let ppl reply (comment) by email, if that is a preferred method. Comments can be saved on the site.
Each encounter could be a new node.
Ok, I'm just rambling. But I'm curious if anyone else is working on RPG games recently?