I've got a game that I've been harboring for a few years now, that's almost nearly finished, except for the world "map" (it's a MUD-like text game), which needs a lot of fleshing out and connecting areas just yet... this is a game that I early on pledged not to ruin by indiscriminate hosting before it's ready... but as it nears readiness, I find myself wondering if it'll be worth it... if other people will find the game worth playing.

One thing I'm often accused of is not giving players enough to do in my games... when I play games, I prefer to "make my own fun", but I guess I err on the side of the easily amused... I know people who beat Donkey Kong 64 in less than a weekend, but I spent like the first three months with it just climbing trees... but I digress. Often.

Anyway, the game is meant to be high roleplaying. My other attempt at a high roleplaying game has been almost nothing but a headache to me... my other attempt at a text game, which was not meant to be high roleplaying, seemed to bring out the roleplaying urge in people, which is a definite plus if history repeats itself for this game.

Character creation is fairly detailed, requiring you to pick not just your character's starting attributes and skills, but equipment (including clothing) and appearance (in terms of colors and adjectives).

The setting is modern world, smallish town. The game plays out in real time. Monsters don't carry "gold" or other money... the only source of steady money is a job system... very simple, basically a way to convert your skills into a weekly paycheck, and working doesn't need to be "played out", you just have to punch a clock once a week to represent the fact that your character is showing up, presumably during your off-hours. You can rent a dwelling, from a sleazy motel room to a lush beach house, and even customize it to some degree.

A lot of the things available in stores are simply roleplaying accessories, to dress up your character or your house... there's no "armor" per se, but as many equipment slots or more than the average MUD, so you can put together a complete outfit and thereby establish your character's look. It even has smart layering, so pants or a skirt will cover underwear, a cloak will cover almost anything, etc.

The town the game is set in has things like a post office, a bank, a library (where you can look up different topics, including other player characters), and various stores, including a shopping mall with such favorite franchises as Sucklessories and Victoria's Underpants... there's also a fully functioning telephone system, which incorporates regular phones, payphones, and cell phones, plus an in-game email system.

So far, sounds like nothing more than a simple "real life" simulation, which oddly enough does seem to appeal to a lot of people, at least as a novelty. The fact that the environment is relatively small and jobs don't have to be played out would make it get boring, I'm sure, if that's all there was. Thing is... the "real life" thing is mostly a facade. Although most everyone appears human, some (probably most, if I know gamers) of the player characters are actually vampires or other assorted oddities... humans have many advantages in terms of starting skills and resources, which I hope will encourage a bit of balance in the mix.

Monster characters aren't automatically evil, any more than humans aren't automatically good... but obviously if your character needs to ingest blood or brains or whatever to survive, you've got a strong motivation to attack others and others have a strong motivation to attack or flee you. However, death is permanent, and you cannot (in most cases) tell the true nature of another character at a glance, so I'm hoping it ends up being more intelligent conflict than "see other player, kill other player"... have combat be the possible climax of interaction, not the beginning and end of it.

So with evil creatures trying to make a killing in the same town where ordinary human characters are trying to make a living, and middling-to-neutral creatures trying to escape detection and get by, you've got some built in tensions and conflicts, which I'd love to see evolve into player-vs-player plots. In case that doesn't happen, I've got computer generated events going on, too.

The small town has a monster problem due to a localized phenomenon (think Hellmouth/Kryptonite/Mixmaster, if you're up on your television watching). Random monsters in bursts... and when I say random, I mean really random. Each new species of monster has a random name (which is not displayed when you encounter them), a random description, random statistics, weaknesses, and powers... the average monster will be weak enough to be taken down fairly easy by a beginning combat-skewed player character, but some come out more powerful, or almost immune to most attacks. The monsters mostly start out in a cave outside of town, and then roam according to their nature... some will stay near where they're spawned, some roam, some aggressively hunt humans... and some are less discriminating. Only the most aggressive monsters will go out of their way to kill you once you're down, and few are intelligent enough to care about looting, but that does still leave you injured and vulnerable.

Player motivation for hunting monsters can vary... it can be a matter of necessity, for the pesky ones that wander right up main street or the ones that lay eggs that threaten to hatch and overwhelm the game... a matter of curiousity, or of proving one's skills... or the monster may be known or suspected to have something valuable, as random artifacts of varying powerful are also generated by the game, sometimes being "buried" in a particular spot with clues generated throughout the game, sometimes placed in the hands (claws, tentacles, pseudopods, whatever) of a monster, etc.

Equally random beings of vast power are ocassionally created, demanding this or that and offering a reward to the player character(s) who can do it for them. This is how the really powerful artifacts get put into play (and sometimes, taken out of it)... sample "quests" include slay every member of a dangerous new monster race, with a bonus for every one killed, bring a particular artifact to a certain portal to receive a boon, bring a human heart to an altar to receive a stat bonus, etc... permanent stat bonuses being very rare, artifacts which increase stats or skills while worn/held being more normal (so you can build your character, but more in a mix-and-match fashion.)

Experience points are a part of the game, but in a little different way than most games reckon them. They're awarded on a weekly basis, with several different one point bonuses available depending on meeting certain goals. Examples: entering combat, winning a combat, losing a combat (and surviving), reporting to work, slaying an NPC monster, encountering a new (to you) monster race, and handling a new (to you) artifact. Each of those is worth only one point, no matter how many times you do the action. Actually identifying a monster or artifact that no one has identified before is worth one point for each time you do it, as is slaying a player character who is your legitimate enemy (with few exceptions, this means a human slaying a monstrous character or vice versa.) These experience points can be used to permanently increase skills.

On a more day-by-day basis, it's possible to gain short term boosts to skills by studying or practicing them, and there are other ways to build up your character. If you have the Theology skill, you can build a relationship with different deities and then pray for bonuses to skills that fall within their domain (for instance, Apollo could help with archery or sun spells, Hekate can aid in magical skills, etc.)

I think that the classic "four categories" of gamers would each have something going for them, even if there's not much to physically explore, there would still be new monsters to check out, new prophesies to track down (a major way the game communicates impending monster swarms or holy grails or whatever), and the inventories in some stores change as items are bought and stock is replaced... socializers have a rich roleplaying environment in which to interact... achievers have numerous ways to improve their characters, plus the possibility of conspicuous consumption through big houses and fancy clothes... and killers have the ocassional hordes of mindless monsters to slay, plus the ability to legitimately go after the most dangerous game... maybe skewed a little bit towards socializers and achievers, but that's almost a given with high roleplay environments.

So what I want to know is... does this game sound like it has enough to do, or too much? Does it sound like it's too complex and too busy, or just like it's offering something for everyone? There are a lot of different things you -can- do, but there's no big flashing sign telling you what you -must- do... like Hedgerow Hall, there's nothing you're "supposed to do" except what you want your character to do. If you want to surround yourself with priceless antiques, that's what you're supposed to do. If you want to consecrate yourself to Set and sacrifice others to increase your mystical strength, that's what you're supposed to do.

I guess the easy answer to this is "Wait and see how it plays out," but I was wondering if anybody has any feedback... it'll be easier, both psychologically and practically, to make changes before I sew everything up into a hostable, playable format.