Multiverse as a Virtual Tabletop

Could Multiverse be used as a virtual tabletop?

There would always be a referee, and the number of players would be relatively small (typically 3 to 10). The main requirements would be as follows.

-The GM needs as close to complete control as possible (for example, the ability to teleport characters from one location to another and to take control of NPC's).

-The GM should be able to alter the ratio of game time to real time. Normally this is 1:1. During combat, it might be set to 1:20 or 1:30 (1 second of game time passes for every 20 or 30 seconds of real time); this would allow what is effectively turn-based play with a time limit (act within a certain amount of time or lose your turn). When the characters are travelling, the ratio might be 60:1 (60 minutes of game time pass for every minute of real time) or higher.

You could use it as a tabletop but it would require some modification.

Some of the key things:
You would probably want to run the server so that each group gets its own instance when the group is created.


Moving the players would not be difficult to implement you would just need to designate the GM maybe just the group leader and then give that character the ability to move all of the other characters in the group

Taking control of the npc is a little more tricky but can be done with custom NpcBehaviors

The game time is where things get tricky there isnt a centralized game time to the servers. You could simply setup a command to increase and decrease by a ratio all of the movements speeds but I am not sure what all you would want to have controlled by the game timer. This might require a lot of modifications.

Delurin wrote:

You could use it as a tabletop but it would require some modification.

Some of the key things:
You would probably want to run the server so that each group gets its own instance when the group is created.

Yes, I would expect that to be standard when using Multiverse as a virtual tabletop. There would be a single group of 2 to 10 players plus one GM.

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Moving the players would not be difficult to implement you would just need to designate the GM maybe just the group leader and then give that character the ability to move all of the other characters in the group

It wouldn't be practical for a player to also be the GM; there would have to be a dedicated GM, just as in a pen-and-paper RPG.

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Taking control of the npc is a little more tricky but can be done with custom NpcBehaviors

Very good. Essentially, when the PC's are interacting with a particular NPC (talking, fighting, or what have you), the GM should be able to control that character as if it were his PC, just as would be the case in a pen-and-paper RPG session. However, the GM should also have the option to leave the NPC on “automatic pilot,” and should be able to place it back on automatic pilot after the interaction.

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The game time is where things get tricky there isnt a centralized game time to the servers. You could simply setup a command to increase and decrease by a ratio all of the movements speeds but I am not sure what all you would want to have controlled by the game timer. This might require a lot of modifications.

This is probably the one critical requirement. How difficult would it be to add a centralized game time? After all, time should pass. Night and day should alternate; stores might be closed on Sunday; NPC's age and eventually die as the years go by; children grow up; and so forth. Of course I realize that some of these things (such as children growing) might not be feasible right now, but a centralized game time is needed before they can ever be possible.

The hardest part I foresee would be having the time be variable on the same server with multiple different GMs working. You could have separate servers running but that introduces its own complexity.

Basically you would have to link it to the instance. The only places that I know of that have any sort of timing are in the Abilities and in the movement. A lot of things are setup as triggers.

This is kind of advantageous for you... the lack of timing means that you can create your own timing system and you would only have to modify movement speed ( which is a property and as such is pretty easy to modify) and activation time of abilities/effects where you can just add a couple line of code to multiply the activation time by the instance speed.

Models aging might be a little more difficult to implement you would need to have at the least multiple texture maps for each model and then set the size/texture of the model based on their age

It sounds feasible, then. Could you tell me where the changes should be made?

I will try to tomorrow

I would start with modifying the MarsEffect.java and MarsAbility.java both found in the multiverse.mars.core java files

Okay. Thanks very much for all the information.