The Daily Grind: What tabletop games would make good MMOs?

Well, with the image in the article, I would definetly agree. Both Cyberpunk and Shadowrun would be great properties to bring to the MMO world. Both have very strong and distinctive backgrounds. They are fairly easy to pick up and understand thematically wise, though the Shadowrun cyberpunk-meets-fantasy throws some people for a loop. Adventures could easily be small group or solo, and have a wide variety of character types that people could be. Both systems are complex enough to keep the number crunchers happy and moderately loot-heavy, but not so complex to drive away those unfamilar with the system. I'd love to see them both, being a fan of the PnP games.

Champions, despite the much rumored announcement by Cryptic, I don't see translating well. The system is to complex, to number crunching heavy, both in creation and play. It largely scoffs and stomps at the concept of loot, and standard concerns like levels. You have to buy everything with character points, which are given out in very very small increments. And with the ultimate flexability of the system, leads to ultimate problem characters without someone looking over them. I love Champions, but this would need a lot of work.

The World of Darkness games, Vampire, Werewolf, etc. My only question is: Why hasn't this be done yet. This would be like printing money.

i was gonna say 40k, oh wait they are already looking into that :P. i agree the World of darkness games would translate well, as they are very heavy on RP, which works well for mmos, actually th only people i know that play WOD games LARP them wich is interesting in its own right, but if they put it out, i would try it.

also a GURPS like base set with many different varieties, where each sliver was not just another copy of the same world but a completely different experience, while keeping mechanics and upkeep overhead down.

Some example :

Dark earth (a french one) was a magnificent "post apo" RPG from Kalisto and Multisim. Since now Kalisto has closed its doors, the license might belong to Scott Free production (Ridley Scott's own studio, which had previously bought the license to make a tv show out of it (in 1999) )

After Eberron, for DDO, Iron Kingdoms (From Privateer Press) might be another good choice : Pirates, magic & technology mix, battlegrounds plus a very 2000's stylish universe known by a large part of wargammers and roleplayers.

et caeterra.

One word:

Paranoia

Tabletop or Pen and paper :P ... if we include both.

Shadowrun

Mechwarrior

Cyberpunk

And a slew more of decent IP's out there to be made into MMO's, M$ had a battletech/mechwarrior MMO in production before WoW was released but they canceled it just as it was going into beta (I actually got to play it :P). Possibly their biggest mistake to-date I think.

Both shadowrun and Battletech would make amazings MMO's with so much storyline, both have over 2 dozen books written about the world with a metric ton of source material from the proper source books available.

When Dungeons & Dragons Online was announced, I was rather surprised it wasn't actually DDO: Dragonlance instead. I was partial to Weis & Hickman's novels, along with the largely unexplored continent of Taladas on the opposite side of Krynn from Ansalon.

The Dark Sun world of Athas was freaking rad, too, if for nothing else then the fact that Gerald Brom is my #1 fantasy artist of all time. But I imagine, in such a harsh, harsh land, that MMO loot drops would be rather underwhelming. "Congratulations! Select from one of these rewards: (1) a gallon of water to stave off dehydration (2) a splintered thigh bone +1 (3) a packet of seeds to begin regrowing the shattered, thirsty ground. Ahhh! And if RvR combat could be waged between the Defilers and the Preservers, with the landscape growing green or withering depending on the winners?!

Word of Darkness, but then again they are already working on a WOD MMO. I think it's gonna be Vampire and Werewolf, but I would _love_ to have Mage: The Awakening as an MMO.

The "Rifts" universe is also a ripe one for an MMORPG conversion. There were rumours of a movie a few years ago, but it would definitely be a lot of fun wandering around pummeling monsters from a distance with your GlitterBoy boom gun! Or pummeling them from up close for that matter. :)

Lots of various power armours, plenty of Mega damage, and the opportunity to scoot of to various dimensions and worlds via the rifts themselves. Loads of fun to be had there! :)

You can laugh at me all you want, but I'll still suggest Kobolds ate my Baby! OK, so, you would lose some of the charm (Such as the whole "All hail King Torg!" thing) but you would also gain the advantage of a real time cooperative competitive thing, ala The Legend of Zelda: The Four Swords. Really, I think that KAMB could shine in video game form. Just thinking of a raid in a KAMB MMO feels awesome. Now, if the hypothetical developers could add proximity based voice chat, I would faint.

PS: Please keep an open mind towards my suggestion. Just because it's not a serious Tabletop RPG, doesn't mean it's not fun!

RIFTS....

thats my two cents

Deadlands. Zombies in the Wild West. How can you go wrong?

I just loved Cyberpunk 2020 having played it and gmed it. Its a great gritty RPG that does a good job of getting rid of the gamers who get too attached to their characters. Cyberpunk MMO yeah that would rock.

To continue my rant from http://www.massively.com/2008/02/04/dragonlance-a-property-ripe-for-the-pillaging/ ... It's not the IP that makes a great game, it's the game that makes the IP great. When I see big-name IP like Matrix Online and Star Wars Galaxies getting a resounding "meh" while non-IP games like Everquest, GuildWars, and (debatably non-IP) World of Warcraft, this argument of great adaptations of existing media doesn't hold much water.


"Are there any particular rulesets that you think would lend themselves more readily to the workings of an MMO?"

No, no, a thousand times NO! Table top games are created specifically to work well in a narrative role-playing situation by reducing the amount of data and need for calculations. Computers have far greater capacity for storing data and doing complex simulations, and to use these basic simplified tabletop RPG rules does not nearly do justice to what is possible in computer games.

It is a bit obscure, but I have to say...

Twilight 2000

A cyberpunk alternative future game.