Yeah, I think you *did* lose me somewhere in the process. But maybe a few helpful points would clarify something
¤ This is a LIVE roleplay(LARP or LRP), which is completely different compared to average RPG. Especially (not sure how it's done abroad) in Finland the rules are almost nonexistent (meaning, there are no silly hitpoints and such) and rely heavily on putting your soul to the character. But the main thing you've missed here is that when a live roleplaying event is organized there are actual people and actual places, not imagined ones. In this case, we're really building the insides of a small cruiser / freighter (not in a game engine, in real life) and assigning it with its appropriate crew, with their own personality and background (with actual people, you cant just imagine them there, at least it wouldn't be fun that way). My problem here isn't the roleplaying part or advertising, eventhough I'm greatful for the tips. This part is after all the part I and the other members are familiar with. The thing that we need help with is only the technical aspect of the engine we use to emulate the feeling of actually flying in space, which we are planning to implemented with the modified Freespace 2 multiplayer, but all the same can be done without.
¤ This is not your average LAN-game, or even Massively-Multiplayer-Online-Role-Playing-Game, this is a live roleplaying event, eventhough it exploits the possibilities of multiplayer space simulation, the Freespace engine is just a small (but interesting) part of the project. The most important thing is the characters taking part on a journey, not trying to win something (blaah, blaah, sorry).
¤ The game masters, or even the non-player characters arent what I think you have in mind. I know this can be a bit confusing, at least if you're RPG person, but the game-masters (or preferably writers, or organizers) only set the game in motion, write the backgrounds, explain the events, elaborate the characters, design the settings. But when the actual game begins they usually dont have any control over the gameplay, the game is driven mostly (preferably entirely) by the players in their character. The non-player characters in live roleplaying doesn't mean "characters controlled by the game master" but players that arent entirely playing in-character, or inside the game. For example a non-player character in this project could be a mother calling to his son who is a player in the spaceship. In this game the gamemasters have a more demanding role because of all the Freespace organizing (docking, mission loading, alerts and such), usually they're just part of the game as players themselves.
¤ The game isn't done in segments. It has a clear beginning and ending in which time the players ARE their characters.. they cant just "lets have a coffee while the next mission is loading, eh what did you think of the football match yesterday". Fortunately we dont have any need for a FPS engine, since all actual conflicts inside the ship are dealt with less virtual weapons (softairs), as I tryed to explain before.
softairs = replicas of guns that shoot 6mm plastic bullets.
> The rest of the peons who make the ship fly right and shoot
> stuff would be run by the gm kind of autonomously
Not in our game they wont. Not if its up to us. We have a great background story for the navigator and the pilot, and damn if i'm gonna let some virtual player in my head act them out, besides whos gonna start a mutiny in the ship if there are only virtual first officers ..
If specific questions arise concerning live roleplaying, or non-specific .. i'm not that picky, they can always be addressed directly to me via email, I understand that this isnt the place for that kind of discussion.
