Would YOU accept the challenge?
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Welcome watchers of anticipation, to the castle of constipation. Phase across time with us once more, for this is the age of not being able to tell left from right, potion from poison, shovel from spade, Lord Fear's Helmet from something made out of an eggbox on Blue Peter and a wall-monster from a pair of old underpants dyed grey and soaked in Vim.
Allow me to introduce myself as this is my first post since registering this evening. I'm Jim, a thirty one year old Knightmare fan who loved nothing better when I was a kid than the keck-wetting scares our old favourite TV show used to give us. And that was just watching!
When I was thirteen or fourteen (around 1991 or 1992 – I forget when exactly) I decided I wanted to go in for the show and assembled a crew of three hopefuls at school who also fancied the idea and sent off my letter to Anglia TV for application forms. The four of us had our Andy Warhol fifteen minutes of fame at school as a result. We were “the kids going in for Knightmare”.
Six months later they sent them, telling me I needed to get four sets of parental permissions and four sets of completed forms and passport photos sent off to them by the deadline... which was about ten days later.
Needless to say we failed miserably.
Baffling Cedric the rude monk? Psshaw! Dancing rings round Mogdred or Lord Fear? Easy-peasy! Mincing in underneath Malice's nose to nick the cup of cide... err, the cup that heals? No problemo! Get four teens organised enough to do the paperwork and collect photos from the nearest town with a photo booth? No chance! Anglia TV and Tm Childs may you rot forever in hell for being so damned unreasonable!
Oh well, we'd probably have failed in level one with me being shrunk to six inches tall by an evil wizard and ended up being sold on Sylvester Hands's trinket stall at the local market.
However, I grew up to be someone who enjoys writing a lot for pleasure and hopes one day to make a living at it.
Well a couple or three weeks ago I was watching a few clips on Youtube and reading an interview with Tim Childs about how he wrote and operated the game and I thought, “I could do that!”
So here I am now, with a large pile of ideas and semi-written scripts that requires polishing and finalising that stand in three piles for level one, level two and level three.
Here's how it works...
If someone is interested in playing they and I set it up through a messenger like Yahoo or MSN/Windows. I copy and paste the script for their game into the chat window, including character dialogue, room descriptions and so on and then they tell me what they would do next. Anything that needs to be said by me that isn't directly from the script I ad lib depending on the circumstances and what the Dungeoneer is doing.
Unlike the old gamebooks from Corgi that used to give you direct choices like “If you want to go right turn to 24, if you want to turn left go to 80, if you want to jam the bar of gold up Motley's left nostril, go to Boradmoor” it plays far more like a classical game of Dungeon's and Dragons, where literally any choice is possible and the Dungeoneer can do anything and have virtually anything done to them in consequence. There are no limitations.
I would like to post the transcripts of these conversations in a thread related to the game, in whatever board of the forum is considered appropriate, so other people can see how they've gotten on, or at least post my own short reviews of it, done in Treguard like rhyming tones.
So entered Bill to the Dungeon deep,
Intent on a triumphant flight,
But caverns dark awaited his cheek,
And he had his head eaten by a mangy cavernwight.
Okay, that was awful, but I thought it up in twenty seconds, so it was supposed to be.
So here's the million squid question: Would YOU accept the challenge? Is there enough enthusiasm from the fans of our beloved old Knightmare to make this worth doing?
Let me know your thoughts and I'll carry on polishing in anticipation of a favourable response.
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What you're describing sounds very much like the RPG. This happened in Knightmare Chat for three seasons (the logs from seasons one and two are here and here, to give you a clearer idea) and four more had video clips recorded, although due to various "stuff" ("complications" isn't really the right word), they didn't actually happen. The text-based idea you're describing is very similar to the RPGs that did happen.
If people are keen, then by all means go for it, but remember that:
i) it's happened before - on a grand scale
ii) Aegis Quest is being made, which is also a fans' remake
iii) there is, in potentia, still a Knightmare RPG team floating around somewhere
So, yeah. I'm unsure. It's a great idea and all, but would it actually work as well?
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Hello!
Welcome to the board, site and community Mr Nasty
I've been trying to frame a suitable response for a day or two. However, Pooka has elegantly summarised the situation for me. All that leaves, therefore, is my opinion:
Personally, I think the text-based RPG worked well. It wasn't overly ambitious, it was fun, easy to produce, and got people talking and interacting. I think that reintroducing it is a good thing. The RPG took place on IRC. This allowed for teams of people to play and for other people to watch their progress. It also provided a chat environment for after-discussion. Given our declining community, I strongly endorse bringing it back in a text form and see no problems in doing so.
Restarting the video-based RPG is another matter and is not something I would encourage at this time.
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Sounds like a good idea - I wasn't around for the original Knightmare RPG so would be interested in this. Perhaps set a target to do it between September and December this year to make it like the original series (I thought you should be able to have time to set that up). (By all means do it sooner if you can get everything ready).
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AAAARRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!
Two months, nearly three since I posted this. I thought I had had no replies because I had received no notifications of them. kicks computer If I'd known I'd had two replies in as many days...
Well many thanks to Alan Boyd for emailing me and letting me know what was going on. Without him showing said initiative I wouldn't have ever known. I guess that's why he got on Knightmare and I didn't. Doh! > >
Yep, I'm still here and still interested in runnning such a game. Glad to hear you guys are too. I shall bookmark this page so I can check it daily from now on.
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I think that since we already have a chat infrastructure in place, that IRC is really the place to run this (as opposed to MSN)
If you take a looksie at:
http://www.knightmare.com/fan-stuff/interactive-rpg.html
You'll see Adam Battersby's previous attempts at running an RPG.
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I tried to use IRC once and was utterly baffled by the instructions for use before I got even halfway through them. I don't even understand what it is or how it works, other than that it seems primitive compared to simple log in a use mmessenger services.
I say "seems" because I have no clue if it actually IS primitive in comparison. I am a complete and utter technophobe, so I wouldn't know. Anyone share a few tips?
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IRC is extremely primitive, it actually predates the web and IMHO is not at all user friendly compared to modern chat systems. That said, it's actually easy to use despite appearances.
The knightmare IRC server has also been the home of KMchat for 10+ years. IRC also has the advantage that it's more designed for chatrooms and multiple person interaction than the likes of MSN/ICQ which tend to be 1-to-1. I know they can handle more, but IRC comfortably handles thousands at once
Tips:
What operating system are you using?
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Hi there. I thought it might be useful to update the link to the archived RPG section, undervalued as I believe it is.
http://www.knightmare.com/fan-stuff/interactive-rpg.html
The season two logs in particular go some way towards proving how effective the type of game, as you describe it, could be. They are an excellent demonstration of the amount of work required, the amount of recycling that can be done, the sort of puzzles (and the difficulty) that work well in a text based setting, and so forth. Knightmare was famed for its difficulty; it’s tough to pull off. Also in your favour: the technological glitches that haunted many players on dial-up a decade ago should be much less of an issue now.
Certainly, keep the dialogue open!
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hrm, this has all gone rather quiet again. I was looking forward to a resurgence of text based adventures
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I'd be interested
Kim
xxx
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Hi all,
been away for a while!
Hope you're a-ok not, and yes I am an FFVII fan
Kim
xxx
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