Cantr II Discussion Forum

What if there was an online RPG where a team would write the characters instead of letting players create their own characters, and players could pick one of the written characters? They would have secrets that are only visible to the player, but a public description would be visible to everybody. That way there could be interesting characters who fit into the societies they are born into, and they would have skills matching their occupation, although some might be more fit for something other than what they're initially doing, and left to discover their actual strengths on their own. Could this work? Obviously it would require a lot of work from the staff, but they could hire new people into the character building team. People who have characters in towns could also suggest characters who would fit in or alternatively cause conflicts, but the final characters would be written by a team of creators and the secrets would also be created by the team, so that none of the older characters would know them.

Check out Firan MUX.

I read that ceased to exist. It seemed potentially interesting, though.

Huh, news to me.

Interesting - it reminds me of that Mafia forum game, which has become an online flash game in some places; each person has a role - like citizen, sheriff, investigator, and mafia roles. No one knows what role each person is. You talk for a bit, and each night you all vote on one person to execute based on discussions. In the morning the role name is revealed - so instead of taking out a mafia member, maybe you killed the investigator for being suspicious!

I know your thing is not really similar, but it has similarities!

I can't help but feel like I played something like that in person somewhere, at some point in time, MattWithoos. Like at a summer camp or something

Seko, I'm not sure if what you're looking for exists anywhere, but it sounds enjoyable. I think that having the job of character creator for this game idea of yours might be a lot of fun, too.

Sounds similar to the gameboard game "Secret Hitler". A small preview how it looks.

SekoETC wrote:What if there was an online RPG where a team would write the characters instead of letting players create their own characters, and players could pick one of the written characters? They would have secrets that are only visible to the player, but a public description would be visible to everybody. That way there could be interesting characters who fit into the societies they are born into, and they would have skills matching their occupation, although some might be more fit for something other than what they're initially doing, and left to discover their actual strengths on their own. Could this work? Obviously it would require a lot of work from the staff, but they could hire new people into the character building team. People who have characters in towns could also suggest characters who would fit in or alternatively cause conflicts, but the final characters would be written by a team of creators and the secrets would also be created by the team, so that none of the older characters would know them.

I've done this in forum roleplay, back before I was playing Cantr.

I've also played the Mafia game, where each role is determined by shuffling and drawing of cards. Initially, nobody knows who is who except for the narrator.
I don't remember how the narrator was chosen, but the narrator doesn't actually play a part in the story except to, well, narrate.
Ace - Mafia (often two, picks who to kill)
Queen of Hearts - Nurse (heals one person per turn, can include themselves)
King of Spades - Sheriff ("interrogates" someone each turn, narrator tells them if that person is mafia or not)
All other cards - villagers
At the end of each turn, everyone wakes up, the narrator announces what happened during the night, and then everyone votes someone off the island, so to speak. As people are killed/voted off the island, they no longer have a voice or role in the game/debates.
If the Mafia kill everyone, the Mafia win. Obviously.
If the villagers successfully vote the Mafia out, the town is saved. Obviously.
If it comes to a standoff between a self-healing nurse and one mafia, the game is a draw.

Then there was also the Murderer and the Psychic, the forum version of Mafia I hosted here some time ago, and that Alladinsane was supposed to have hosted in the second round. The host can play along in this one too, though it's a bit unfair I guess if the host is also the Murderer (but I'm sure it has happened). There are three distinct roles: murderer, psychic, and normal people. The murderer, obviously, kills people. The psychic knows who the murderer is and tries to convince the people that the murderer is the murderer without giving him/her/xirself away (and if the host is a good storyteller, there'll be clues and red herrings everywhere). After each chapter is posted, the people, again, discuss publicly and send PMs to vote on who gets kicked out. The host normally doesn't vote, except maybe in the case of a tiebreaker.

There's an online animated mafia game called town of Salem that includes other roles like:

Town
Vigilante - kills someone each night
Jailer - can choose to jail one person at night and if someone tries to "visit" that person they get caught.
Veteran - Will kill anyone that tries to visit them at night.
Bodyguard - protects one person dies in their place
Etc...

Mafia
Framer - select a person, and anyone who watches them at night will see the selected "visiting: someone
Fixer - makes it so you can't see the role of the dead person



Eh I forget the rest. Wouldn't mind playing it though lol. You don't really have any time to rp but still fun.

What I suggested was different than roles, as in Town of Salem and Mafia. In the Mu* I mentioned, there was actually a huge list of characters you could pick through and take control over who had their own families, jobs, houses, secrets, etc. already created in the game. It always struck me as unusual for a MUD, which is why I remember it. If you meant roles or archetypes, though, and not individual characters, look no further than pen and paper role-playing - the party needs a fighter, healer, mage, whatever.

Yeah, I meant in depth characters like in LARPs, not archetypes.

Firan MUX was the only MU* to my knowledge that had individual characters up for picking from, but other RP MUDs have had similar situations with "roles" - so, for example, while you still would design your character in terms of personality, physical features, etc., you'd app in for something like "Squire to Seeker Knight So-and-So" and have a background/history and skillset to reflect that role.

Edit: I've included an example from a dead MUD via the wayback machine - here.