Well, my personal feeling is that things like relationships and politics are best handled through roleplaying, not through dice rolls. Which is more satisfying: to win a contact's assistance with a successful Diplomacy check, or by making a bargain through clever negotiations?

If it were me, I'd use d20 Modern / Open Gaming License, but that's just because that's what I know best. I'm not really happy with d20's psionics system, though, and the vampires would need serious revisions.  GURPS could work, if you could find a GM obsessive-compulsive enough to handle the game's minutiae; if you go that way, I recommend 3rd Edition, because I modeled the psis' power/skill duality on the 3E GURPS Psionics mechanic.  SJGames completely replaced that system in 4E, and I don't think the new version would be able to model Metamor's psis very well.

As for other systems ... well, I've never played them, so I really couldn't say. I like the idea of White Wolf's Storyteller system, and it seems to handle supernatural beasties well, but you'd probably have to invent a whole new set of mechanics for the psis, and I don't think that sounds like a ton of fun. Some of the more story-driven game systems would probably work, as well, as long as you didn't have a bunch of rules lawyers taking it too seriously.

If you do decide to run a game in Metamor City, let us know how it turns out!

I've been thinking of how cool a setting for an RPG Metamor City would be since the very first episode, frankly. I'm also a long time online RPG player, having played on several MUSH-style places (Wikipedia) since the early nineties.. and maybe I'm biased there, but, a Metamor City MUSH would be pretty freakin' brilliant. I'd play in it in a heartbeat (hint hint, nudge nudge, hell I'll set it up myself given half a chance).

As for game system.. I'm partial to (and familiar with) the Storyteller system from White Wolf.. especially the 'new' version for the latest games from them. I think it would be a close fit for a lot of things in the city, though, of course, would require some tweaking and refitting, but could certainly be used as a base. Their 'Sighted' mechanics seem relatively flexible and adaptable for the Psis, too.

A Second Life setting for it could be cool too.. though I will admit to a certain preference for full-text based mediums. it may be just me, but I find that the idea of an avatar, pretty as it may be, just standing there doing whatever its idle animation is while your type out your poses kind of detracts from the immersion that full-text brings. And no graphics are ever as good as your imagination. :)

> a Metamor City MUSH would be pretty freakin' brilliant. I'd play in it
in a
> heartbeat (hint hint, nudge nudge, hell I'll set it up myself
given half a chance).

Consider yourself drafted! Metamor City is released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, so you're welcome to create such a MUSH as long as you give me credit for the setting and link back to the Metamor City website. If you've got the knowledge and the motivation, do it!

*laughs* Sure! Let me see what I can cook up over the next few days. I'll have to do a bit of hiring, and will need codehelp and such, but.. Well, I'll just introduce people I already know from the MUSH community to Metamor and let them fall in love with it as well. ;)  I'll post something on this thread soon as I have something to offer!

Wow.  It has been a LONG time since I've played on a MUSH...

But for this I'd come out of retirement.

OK, just a quick update on the status so no one thinks I've let it lapse: Finally decided to go with Rhost as a codebase, got access to the code and setting up hosting, which should be up in the next day or two. After that, gonna be going on OGR to see if I can't recruit some staff, preferably coders and builders, to help make Metamor a (text-based) reality. Will need to re-listen to a lot of Metamor to get the layout of the city and specific places and descs right.. but that should be fun. :) In the meantime, though, setting up a few Anywhere Rooms off the main login area for people to do freeform light RP in should be easy enough, until we get a proper city and character system built. More news here (and address for logging in and such) once I have them!

Excellent. After talking with Nobilis at Balticon, I've decided to provide the MUSH players with news items and other tidbits that are tied to the events in the ongoing storyline. Obviously most of what's happening in MAKING THE CUT is secret, but these little snippets should give you a hint of what characters outside the Psi Collective and the Vampire Syndicate are likely to know about events related to the story. Other "adventure hooks" are also possible, depending on how much time I have.

I'll be counting on you, Katsushiro, to help me make this special content available to the players, since I don't know the first thing about MUSHes.  A primer for new players would also be helpful.

Rock on. :) I've had a busy work week, so haven't had time to sit down properly and set things up.. but the weekend is looking nice and long and free, so I'll be in there hacking away and will post info here as I go. As for the news snippets, that's wonderful, and much appreciated. It should be easy enough to provide them through a +news system (IE. A player types in '+news', they get a listing of the news topics, then they type in, for example, +news Psi Collective or +news Vampire and they can read the provided info. Easy peasy. :) A quick primer/intro into the world of Metamor City would also be a huge help, and I can put it up as a +intro or +beginner or some such.. I'll let you know, Etherius, when I've set up a basic system you can log into, and we'll set up a time when you can log in and poke about and I can be there too, I'll be glad to give you a quick intro into how it works. It's not rocket surgery. ;)  Expect something going up over the weekend, definitely, since I'll have plenty of free time to do it.

On a separate but related gaming system note, I was originally thinking of shoehorning the nWoD storyteller system in for the actual RPG aspects of the game.. but a couple of people have recommended I look into FUDGE as a system. Never played with it myself, but I hear nothing but good things about it, so, looking into that as an alternative. It'll still be a bit before I can incorporate the system itself into the MUSH, whichever one is finally chosen, but there'll be at least freeform RP rooms open from almost the very beginning.

One thing that would help *immensely*, Etherius: a map. Well, not neccesarily a detailed map, mind you, but at least a quick overview of 'Okay, these are the main areas of the city, these are the levels and what you can expect to find in each, these are the major landmarks in each level'.. That would go a *very* long way towards speeding up the building of Metamor City itself in the MUSH, so people can wander about and explore inside it. I know you're a busy man, but any help in that area would be hugely appreciated.. or if another fan wants to take on that task? That'd be fine and dandy too. :)

Having played on a few MUSHes in my day, I'd like to suggest that you not try to model all of Metamor City on the first day.  Instead, take one aspect that the majority of players are likely to find interesting, and focus your attention there.  You don't want people drifting away from the "RP Center" too much.  Keeping the built-out area small helps people be where they need to be for RP.

Ideally, the location you build should be something of a microcosm, a small place where the larger world is reflected.  The first thing I think of in this regard is a university.  Not only do you have a wide variety of students and faculty, but you have all kinds of political squabbles, social gamesmanship, and interpersonal drama in a fairly confined space.  You could have mages, psis and engineers all rubbing shoulders, as well as humans and cursed thrown together.

The initial buildout could be just a single building, with the dormitories in the lower levels (except for the exclusive frathouses, of course) classrooms in the middle levels, and the offices and laboratories of the senior professors in the highest regions.  Commercial spaces would involve a few bookstores, a place for magical and laboratory supplies, a convenience store, and of course a few bars to get away from the stresses of study.

That's a great idea, Nobilis. Empire University is the most prominent uni in Metamor City, so that would be the natural place to start. I have hardly established anything about it, so there's plenty of space there for an ambitious fan (or group of fans) to take part in the world-building.

The basic setup that Nobilis describes sounds accurate: Empire U. would run from the second level of skyways up to the fourth level, with dorms, classrooms and labs/offices in the areas you described. The big auditoriums and stadiums would all be on the fourth level, where they can stretch way up into the sky and present the optimal view of the city for patrons, visiting sports teams, and guest speakers.

As for geography, the city is divided into five boroughs: Central, Valley North, Valley South, Broadfield, and Soulshore. The
first three should be self-explanatory; Broadfield covers the
southern suburbs of the City, beyond the Metamor Valley, while
Soulshore covers the corresponding region north of the Valley and along
the shore of the Sea of Souls. I'll see what I can do about putting together a map for you.

Kat, any news?