Matthew is not a ¡°hardcore player¡±, but a regular player of SoR. Reminded of his days as a Game Master in Pen and Paper RPG, he decides to test R² and to create a first scenario (players with very different profiles from Matthew¡¯s can, of course, exploit R² in different ways, but Matthew serves us well for today¡¯s example).

After a quick overview of the Ring tools, Matthew knows what he wants to do: he enjoys the journeys across Atys (scouting out the land ahead, skirting past dangers, pausing to regroup and admire the awesome scenario, ¡­.) and decides to recreate this experience by developing a convoy escort scenario: the players will have to help an NPC to escort a herd on a perilous trek to their desired destination.

The scenario is created via the editor tools (we won¡¯t go into the workings of the editor tools here as they have already been introduced in previous articles and will be revisited in the articles to come) . Negotiating the various pitfalls and ambushes in the terrain, the final objective that Matthew sets for the player is to reach the end of the adventure with as few losses, within the herd, as possible.

A first version seems to satisfy him, so Matthew decides to propose it to some of his fellow guild members with whom he gets on well. Matthew contacts them ingame and agrees with them on a date. When the moment comes, Matthew launches the scenario and opens an access to the players. Those players are warned ingame and via their personal space on the R² website (see frame n¡ã2)¡­ and the fight for the survival of the mektoub herd begins.

Editing scenarios with the aid of other players

One of the participants -we will call him Olivier-, particularly appreciated the way Matthew animated the scenario. He has developed a component which he called ¡°ambush¡±, in which the players must counter waves of increasingly aggressive enemies. Olivier thought he would use it for his own scenarios before diffusing it via his personnel space on the R² website. But after participating in Matthew¡¯s scenario, he estimates that for a first use, his component would fit in here perfectly.

He contacts Matthew to make him aware of his idea and he also thinks that the component would have its place within his scenario. However, he would like to have the assistance of Olivier to integrate the component, so he loads the escort scenario up in the R² editor and uses the ¡®invite¡¯ feature to give Olivier the possibility to log in and join him. Together they set up the ¡°ambush¡± and fine tune certain elements of the story.

Frame n¡ã1 ¨C Multi-users Editing

When creating or modifying a scenario in the R² editor tools, a pioneer can invite one or more friends to join them. The host keeps administrative control of the session, allowing them to invite in other players, toggle to and from tests mode and so on. The participants share the work of creation and synchronize their actions via the game chat interface.

Bolstered by the positive feedback from his fellow guild members, for his first run of the escort scenario, and by the addition of the "ambush" component, Matthew reckons that the scenario is ready for the player community. He decides to run the scenario for anyone interested from the Ryzom-playing public. Matthew posts a ¡®planned session¡¯ on the R² Web, specifying a date, the number of player places available and the rough level required to participate. He adds a general description of the scenario giving a little story background to set the scene. As soon as Matthew hits the ¡®Done¡¯ button, players can see the session listed on the R² Web and in the R² interfaces ingame. They can sign up to play the scenario, as long as there is an open player slot. As players sign up, Matthew can keep track of his list of players in real time.

Frame n¡ã 2 ¨C Personal web space of R² pioneer

The pioneers have a personal space within the Ring web site that provides all of the functions briefly described above.

- Event tracking: this is a sort of pioneer calendar that displays the current sessions the pioneer can join (as a player, dungeon master or editor), and the upcoming scenarios, as either a player or dungeon master.

- Scheduling a scenario: creating a new, scheduled scenario, and tracking the player registrations for scheduled scenarios.

- Management of the content published by the pioneer: this area lets the pioneer manage the content that he/she has published on the R² site).

- Subscription management.

This is a private space (visible only to the pioneer concerned), but it is linked to a public space that is visible to all visitors to the site, where information on ?planned sessions? and such like can be found.

Scenarios with multiple game masters

As the planned date approaches, Matthew runs a few test sessions with a few friends. It becomes clear that the combination of an elaborate scenario and a bunch of players splitting up and running off in different directions is more than Matt can manage on his own. To prevent problems, he decides to invite Oliver, with whom he clearly gets along, to help him run the session.

Frame n¡ã 3 ¨C Multi-user scenario running

According to the same principle as for co-editing a scenario, a dungeon master can invite one or more friends to assist in running a scenario. The pioneer who launched the scenario keeps administrative control (the power to invite or ban players, change acts, etc.). The assistant dungeon masters can do things like incarnating creatures, managing NPC texts, and so on.

The session was a big success and, although Matthew had initially only called on Olivier for security (in case the players split up and things got out of hand), he had actually played a big part in making the session truly memorable for the players. It became clear from the feedback at the end of play that, above and beyond the quality of Matthew?s story telling and of Olivier?s ambushes, the true strength of the session had come from Olivier and Matthew?s collaboration. While Matthew put words in the mouths of the escorted NPCs to warn the players of the dangers ahead, Olivier played out the role of a prowling Gingo boss looking out for opportunities to dispatch his minions to go after the escorted animals.