I think it is important to get down to specifics here, so here are the issues that come to mind. Keep in mind I haven't ever played MP or a DM game, this is all information I've heard from others. I'd be interested in hearing from people who play MP games as well, since I'll also be doing something similar for my MP & DM friendly module.
First, a separate starting room is important. This allows the MP party members to come together and have some OOC talk before the action starts. Ideally, it also allows them to do some other things like cleaning up their inventory from the previous module. So a trash can and something that will remove all item plot flags is extremely useful here.
Depending on where merchants can be found in your module, you might also want a merchant here with basic items, and probably without a gold cap. There's nothing worse than having a ton of awesome loot from the climax of the previous module and having to carry it around for most of the next module because there is no merchant around.
From a game perspective, it is of course very important to ensure that the party is never left without a critical plot item if the player holding that item logs out or gets disconnected. From the author's point of view this involves some scripting, but from the player's point of view it's a fundamental game play mechanic. There are numerous ways to address this, but it seems to be frequently overlooked.
When possible, don't place encounters near area transitions. Players will appear at the transitions at different times, based on how fast their machine can load the area, making things hard to handle. You definitely don't want the first guy in to die while his companions are still loading the area.
Providing some way for players who get disconnected/reconnected to jump to the party's current location is very important as well. Most people won't be happy about taking the long way.
It's also probably worth considering whether or not you want to force the party to gather close together before using area transitions (BG style). This can simply things for you as a builder, and reduces lag.
Another big question here is whether you are going to design your module to allow for a DM in MP scenarios. If so, there are several great articles specifically about how to make your module and documentation both MP and DM friendly over at the the
Dungeon Master-Friendly Initiative Website. A lot of this overlaps what we're talking about here.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to discussion of these issues by folks with MP experience. Hope this helps.
Modifié par Invisig0th, 09 septembre 2010 - 04:00 .
