rpg module

How would one go about creating an online version of GURPS with the RPG or Game modules? Is it very difficult? Does it require a lot of knowledge of PHP programming, or is it mostly adding/changing variables? This is something I'd be very interested in doing.

After a conversation with dmitrig01, I think I found the way to best integrate the flexibility I can see with the current system with the robustness & speed of using php include files that was part of RPG originally. Because I'm not near my computer this weekend, I'm going to just add some notes here directly to remind myself this direction when I get back to programming next week:

Import Rulesets

I just updated the RPG project page with a more current description. To add to the discussion, I'm cross-posting the juicy parts here and at Drupal RPG. (Sorry in advance for the spam if you're subscribed to the three posted groups...)

RPG

The engine itself does little more than provide a core to build a game with. Although it is intended to be for online RPG's, there is no reason the base couldn't be expanded to create other types of games, such as Turn-Based Strategy games, RTS games, or even slidescrollers. The engine is able to do this by providing basic functionality for administrators to create, use, and share 'rulesets'.

Rulesets are definitions of the Types, Attributes, and Actions used to create in-game objects. They may be created in forms available to game administrators, and may also be imported/exported from forms or even files. RPG Object Types follow inheritance rules, and may even include multiple parents, allowing types to share and even override attributes and actions.

For the RPG module, I just published the API, which is "bleeding cutting edge" since it is the development copy I use before it even gets committed to the CVS repository. Go take a peek!

Drudge is the first Ruleset I'm designing, to give an idea of how things will evolve. From the include file:

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fudge_die

After actions are done, the next concept I want to tackle are Rulesets. Games built with the RPG will have a Ruleset, which may be unique to the site, shared with other sites, or a combination. Rulesets are the Actions, Events, and basic Objects that build the world for that site. They may be imported and exported, either through a form text area or with an include file. Once in the site, they may be customized using the various administration screens.

Objects may refer to 'resources' in the game, for things such as 'sprites' (graphics for display or animation), 'scripts' (php scripts that may be run at certain times), and 'nodes' (which refer to Drupal nodes, for use as the designer deigns).

Modules may define a new resource, using a hook (something like hook_rpg_resource). Once available, objects may or may not be supplied a hook by that module, allowing such things as an object to have a default sprite assigned for display.

I recently became reacquainted with the Actions module, and realized that it might be a good hook for RPG actions, rather than reinventing the wheel. So this week I'm studying that (and the workflow module), to see how it might work. I would need to create the basic RPG actions and the admin UI, but I think it would work.

Aaron Winborn
Drupal RPG, home of the RPG module.
Spindowners, an upcoming text-based rpg being developed with the RPG Module for Drupal.

The RPG module is nearing an official 'Alpha' release. There are still a few things to flesh out, and I'll go over them in some detail soon. Here are some notes for fleshing out Attributes, which will be required before creating Actions and Modifiers. After those three sections of code have been finished, we should be ready to make some test game platforms!

Attributes
Attributes are defined by types, and may be overridden by descendant types. Objects will inherit the attributes of all its parent types. The default value of an attribute will be set by the type.

Just added the admin screen for Action Rounds to the RPG module. These settings don't actually do anything at this time, as one still can't perform actions. However, I also added new database tables to begin handling types using widgets, which begins to create the framework for actions.

So the way that action points are set up: