Legend of the Red Dragon: How Far Is Too Far? reddit / bbs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jdavidramsey · 2018-10-26 19:36 In your opinion, how far can you go with "modding" an instance of Legend of the Red Dragon before players won't enjoy it because it is too different? I'm working on creating a LORD experience that maintains the core gameplay and balance but adds a lot more immersion and interactivity through things like new IGMs/LADYs, ANSI/text screens, and external "daily event" programs. The goal is to expand on the LORD "universe" by creating an ongoing story, complete with quests and mysteries, that the players interact with in the IGMs or in the random events you can create for the town and forest. I'm not changing the core story or NPCs and I'm sticking with the classic "-=-=-=-ORD Green-=-=-=-" aesthetic, but I am trying to expand on them, matching the original Seth Robinson humor as closely as possible. But, I've seen great new things in the current BBS scene get overlooked (or actively avoided) just because they aren't "old-stock" LORD, TW, BRE, et al. One particular comment I remember was someone just getting back into BBSing, asking for a good ongoing LORD game because the one they were in had too much added and they couldn't just go to the forest and hit "l-a-l-a-l-a-l-a-l-a" without looking.**^(1)** Is LORD something that shouldn't be tampered with, aside from having only well-known IGMs from the 1990s? Or is it possible to add some new experiences rooted in the core game mechanics without turning off longtime players? If it were well done, would you choose to play a LORD game with lots of new options and an expanded story? **^(1)** ^(I actually think the comment could have been a joke. It seems too knowing to have come from somebody only just getting back into BBSing.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nolageek · 2018-10-26 22:30 I would like it, personally. I started to make a doctor who themed one a while back, but stopped. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LambdaErrorVet · 2018-10-26 22:51 I think it depends on your user base. To me, the obvious solution would be to run both the stock LORD and your custom one. See which one gets the most usage. That should give you a clear answer. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- cloverskull · 2018-10-27 06:13 I think it could be really cool. In fact I think the best thing for LORD fans at this point would be an open source clone that we can mod to our hearts delight. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jdavidramsey · 2018-10-27 12:19 I'd thought about this, too. However, instead of it being a clone, it would be more like the game engines that allow old games like Quake to run on modern systems. It wouldn't include the LORD data files, but you would need to drop them in from your own copy, just like you need your own WAD files for today's open-source Quake ports. The problem is, the unregistered version of LORD uses the same files as the registered, so I'm not sure how to protect the IP rights. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jdavidramsey · 2018-10-27 12:47 Of course, the choice being available almost assures a loser, once a couple characters get established in one of the games. Few want to start in the instance with no players. Besides, it's not so much that I'm trying to find out which would be more popular. It's that I'm trying to find out how far I can push the LORD envelope before it stops feeling like LORD to the players. I just don't want to put in a lot of wasted effort. Your point is still valid, though. I guess I could keep the "old- school" game available, but just heavily hype the new game. I have a good core of regular users who have become friends, at least in the BBS sense, so I think they would give my mod a chance. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jdavidramsey · 2018-10-27 12:50 Whoa! I'd definitely play that. Of course, that's like nerd overload: combining Doctor Who with Legend of the Red Dragon. I guess that's why I love the idea! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NuSkooler · 2018-10-29 16:37 While I like LORD, it's *extremely* basic -- including what you can do with mods. I think a much better (and funner) use of time would be to make new doors with new mechanics. Draw what you like from the past, but LORD itself has seen most of it's possibilities played out already. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jdavidramsey · 2018-10-30 17:28 True. I agree that a new, from-scratch game would be cool. I'll certainly do one someday. But, I'm interested in the challenge of working with the ancient bones of LORD. I know it is very simplistic, and that's where the players' expectations are. However, playing with those expectations could be a lot of fun. Imagine something as simple as going into a seemingly normal forest fight with Bran the Warrior, but at some point he starts begging for mercy, and then ends up leading you on a short quest that, if successful, gives you information about things to investigate in one of the IGMs. And then that, in turn, leads to further revelations. Or, imagine that one day the daily news starts off with "Turgon didn't return home from the forest last night." Now, nobody can advance to level 12 until a player (or group of players) complete a quest to find out what happened to him. I guess I should have been clearer in my original question. When I was asking how far I could push LORD, I should have said that I feared that even the addition of little tweaks, jokes, and story lines would be too much for most players. Sorry about that. I always tend to get a little ambiguous when writing off the cuff like this. Still, thanks for the suggestion, which is definitely something I'd like to do in the future. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MrGrayPants · 2018-11-21 20:46 I played an *amazing* Harry Potter themed LORD on the web years ago; I think it might have been called Room of Requirement RPG or something like that. Not sure what ever happened to them though. In any case, I throughly enjoyed it, so I would encourage you to mod away.