It is getting harder to play Shadowrun recently (family, work, other activities, etc.), but I still want to play the game. I saw the program that is coming out for D&D 4.0 that will allow players to play their game from different areas. This means you can play a game of D&D even if you are not in the same country. There will always be a game going on. I thought a similar tool for SR would be great. I was thinking of starting an Open Source project that would create the tool set needed to run a SR game. GMs would be able to host a game and invite players to the season. A built in IRC chat program will be used to let players communicate and there would different visualization tools to show what is happening in the game.

Of course I would only go ahead and start this project if there was first interest in using the tool set, and secondly people that could help me program the tools.

EDIT:
After looking over the ShadowNet project I think that it would be better to develop with that project rather then start a new one (why reinvent the wheel). I would encourage others to take a look at the project as well.

Just some brainstorming:

• The program should be cross platform (maybe even web based)
• Hosted games should be either web hosted or local (so servers won't have to be maintained)
• There should be some form of common canvas tool so that players and the GM can visually express ideas
• A PDF reader with "rule" search feature for any books you may have in PDF format (extra good for rule nazi GMs )
• GM approval screen (so GMs can check over character sheets before letting a player join a session)

sadly i can't code AT ALL . . there's a reason for me playing trolls you know? O.o
i'd love something like McMackies(SP?) NSRCG3 for Shadowrun4 . . if it were Web-based it would be even better, but probably close to impossible i'd think . . no, i really don't know shit about programming, so i might be wrong there too *g*

Problem would be making it uncheatable, but that should be doable by making char-gen strictly server-based and have the server save those files . .

I'm going to be negative here, so bear with me...

I am not all that interested in playing RPGs with strangers. In my 15+ year gaming career, I've been in several groups, but they have all been made up of friends. The rare occasion when we have brought other people into our group, it usually didn't turn out all that well.

So, an online game, while it is technically doable, I don't see the point, well, unless you are interested in playing with a bunch of strangers. I guess there could be some egoistic GMs out there that can't get enough and wants to run games for a bunch of strangers, but I think overall, the amount of people wanting that will be small.

Even looking at the DnD model, I just don't see it being all that desired. I just think tabletop RPGs should be played on the tabletop...that is why they are so fun and when you take that away, a lot of luster is lost...and really, at that point, you might as well play an MMO that will be a lot more polished...

The only people I've ever gamed with are people who were strangers until I started gaming with them, with the exception of my brother and a cousin. Online can be an excellent tool, and it has nothing to do with ego and everything to do with geography and convenience.

Moving this to an appropriate forum.

Caine, Redjack, Dash, myself and one of my local buddies all play in an online game right now. We use Skype voice and text, and physical dice. I might eventually throw MapTool into the mix if I can find the time to learn it and prepare stuff for it. Right now, since I'm GMing, I also use SR4W (available in Community Projects) for player tracking and combat calculations (most of them anyway), and I use WikidPad for planning and notes. I'm looking at using Init Tool for initiative at some point, but right now I use paper.

My reticence in getting excited about another new online RPG tool isn't because I have something against playing online. It's due to the fact that there are already so many things out there for doing so. Add on that out of every 10 projects I see online that get kicked off with the end goal of being a usable tool, one might eventually become usable, and my excitement is tempered further. So I wish you all the luck in the world if you decide to do something like this, but I already play online with what's available right now.

Not to be a buzzkill or anything. One big program that did all of this and was Shadowrun specific would rock ass. No offense intended, it's just a "I'd believe it when I saw it and started using it" situation.

Well Dashifen is doing a web based shadowrun thing, check it out. Here is the link:

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...opic=19581&st=0

-The Frawg

Shameless self-promotion (and the repository). It's "SR3-oriented", but that mostly means that the default dieroller explodes and uses variable successes; it's intended to be modular enough that most RPGs could be played on it. I certainly wouldn't turn down help

It's actually currently working at a basic level of functionality, though it'll take some time and effort to get it over the hump of "better than an AIM chat room" (to be fair, the apparent reduction in AIM's unreliability had raised this bar, though their breaking unicode in IMs (but not in chats!) lowers it again).

Also:

An interesting proposal. I already do some Shadowrun gaming online using message boards. I haven't needed live chat since all the players are in different areas and time zones. The message boards move slower, but the players are all active and I'd say that all of them have been enjoying the game immensely. It's almost more detailed and engrossing when you have to post RP rather than speak it.

I also see Deek's point of view where the average person generally wants to RP with people he/she is familiar with. In my 15+ years, I've had one solid group for most of it. However, I've also been an admin of a couple mass player (500+), message board based RPGs before and it's been lots of fun. I think there would be substantial interest in Shadowrunning with strangers. It's kind of like Gen Con or any other convention. You run with people you've never met and see what happens.

I already do this to a point, my group uses the chat room on barrokstowers which has a built in dice roller and then we use ventrillo for voice chat, between the two we got what we want but would love a site that had that plus a way to post maps and such as well, right now we use photobucket

Either I'm far too tired this morning, or you're using "web" and "internet" interchangeably. Could you clarify a bit more? Do the clients communicate over HTTP, and if so, how do you get around the statelessness?

My next project is probably to create a formal specification for an SR3 character in some language-independent format, probably YAML. I'd suggest that'd probably be a good thing to do pretty early for you as well, as it'd avoid getting locked into something like Java and permit use beyond this project.

~J

I know they aren't, hence my confusion

But yeah, I see what you mean now, I think—a web view of much of the material, at least, and I could see a case for grabbing certain resources via http.

~J

Currently just starting a campaign using Fantasy grounds II, map ends up looking something like this: http://usera.imagecave.com/Raij/overheadmap.JPG

It's designed for D20, but we've adapted it to SR with a different skin and some other minor changes. It would be great if it had a built in SR ruleset though (but due to copyright cannot)

Copyright almost certainly does not apply to rules, though it does apply to a specific expression of them.

Not a lawyer, not legal advice.

~J

All legal stuff aside, I think it would be great to at least have someone try to cook up a program like this. It would be great for all of us gamers who have limited/restricted time/traveling abilities.

Now, I can't program, but if you end up needing help for the GUI, or other images and such, I've been a graphic designer/digital artist for a long time, and would be happy to help put some graphics in.

The only way you would interfere with the copywrite on a program like that is if the GUI is more then 20% the same (I love knowing copywrite laws). So as long as the background rules were totally different and you created a GUI (similar or not) from scratch, you would be fine. For a project like this I would also licence it as open source so that the project overall has the chance of a longer life cycle (also makes things a little more legit).

I've posted a screen capture of what I've got so far with regards to an SR 4th ed ruleset for FG2, it can be found at the Fantasy Grounds Forums.