Hello Everyone, friendly neighborhood Admin here again to talk about how things are going to run. Mostly because it bugs me how things have been running and i want to believe that I can fix it somehow.
first and foremost to address,
why I do this. Why do I create rules boards when some of the rules I am the worst offender for breaking?
So I have something to look back on,
solid and established, where we as a group agreed that certain things were unacceptable practices; and certain practices weren't acceptable. so i have a standard to hold myself to. quite frankly, most of the time it doesn't matter to me if any users follow the rules of the game.
users aren't bound by the knowledge of every knitty gritty detail of plot and infinite ability to work with that knowledge and adapt it without the users knowing. it's the equivalent of me rolling a 4 behind the DM screen and making it up that it was actually the thing i wanted to happen that would have been a 17 on the dice. Dungeon Masters do i all the time because it's with the intent of creating a more interesting story in the interest of the characters. the trick is doing this without players or users knowing you are doing this because it fosters distrust between players and dungeon master.
what i am saying is there is a whole bunch of meta knowledge that players don't know, which limits their abilities as it is. but with a rule set in place, have guidelines about how to reveal that information, how to handle combat resolutions, how to avoid these arms races with the bad guys and how to handle things discussed outside of the forum that don't make it to the forum or change and evolve in transition from head cannon to cannon, how to handle mistakes in cannon. (my favorite example of this is Francine and Roger Role Playing on American Dad. Francine makes a slip of the tongue saying Roger's character is a Professor of Economics rather than Political Sciences. Rather than say it was a mistake and that Political Science is what she meant {which is far easier over a forum than in real life} Francine's response was "Oh well, It's been established." Spiteful about this establishment of cannon Roger didn't agree with, Roger decides to establish his own line of cannon. A Marriage slowly unraveling after the death of a child at Francine's negligent hands.)
our own example of this was Sterling Junior potentially facing a trial for murder after the reckless way a child attempted to handle an engine of war typically manned by 2-4 people. 99.9% of the situation involving that entire plot twist was head cannon and so was in fact the plot twist. the only cannon to the situation was that the martial investigated into who used the machine (Sterling Junior) how (as best as a 12 year old can) and why (self defense).
but I can't stress enough how I want to avoid anything remotely close to that happening again.
i do this because it makes me feel better about the prospects of the game continuing. because eventually with enough effort and discussion about what works and what does not work for this group it will be able to weather players moving on and leaving and new players coming in and joining without friction or confusion as to how things run.
i do this because it is my happy place and helps me to combat my depression. if i can't advance plot i can deal with details of the forum like look, flow, board functions, polls, etc.
Bringing us to,
cannon and head cannon.
I understand it's fun to talk about things. Hell, I'm the worst offender because this is my happy place to escape my depression. the separation comes from what is and isn't cannon; effectively what did and did not actually happen.
Light Bringer and the Illuminati, for example; there is a whole lot that is even still up in the air about what happened.
My resolution to address this particular instance, I've decided to take a more active roll as Dungeon Master and I've taken what remains of the Illuminati plot unto myself and it will be a series of side quests and options for players to interact with. Not too many villains were left, in fact i had to build a few to fill positions. But where there were questions and vague allusions now there will be clarity. Now there will be order. There isn't a lunatic behind the reins now and you will know your enemies, by chapter and verse.
Ideally, this will make it easier and more streamline harder for players to fight more than one villain at a time and should provide more clear avenues for players to follow to actually achieve goals and accomplish tasks.
Talking about things brings me to my next point,
Decline in interest.
I get it; people have lives and get busy and sometimes forget to think about a game like this. Sometimes games like this cost more creative energy than people have to spend at a given time. I get it.
I think what has happened is, in my attempt to probe players for what would make a more visceral and tangible experience for a scene, I've facilitated players to live out those fantasies already without needing to post. Obviously, i don't want to do that because nobody actually gets to play. And we never get to see the full scope of how a player sees a scene in their head as opposed to others or mine.
I think, also, that the intent behind the event (faces and places or times and places) gets lost in the gritty details of how do you want me to portray this to you. So I'm going to try my best to stop asking you those questions. Instead i will ask you different questions and that will avoid the arms races we got into in the previous chapter, both with Light Bringer and with General Leghorn.
Going into an event,
I will ask players to provide me with a list of their character's inventory for situations, or in the case of a stationary place being the target of an event, i will ask for a list of fortifications. This will avoid arms races because you can't magically pull a landmine out that wasn't in your inventory, and you can't have a canon that your fort didn't have in it's fortification list. This does require that players trust that i will not ramp up the villain's plans based on the player's information provided, however in instances where players do not believe that the villain's already intended to use that much force, there are several users registered who are inactive players and petitions could potentially be put forward to those users for an unbiased ruling of the situation. (users like Sasksungod, Tauzak, and Tealorn potentially.) If they are unwilling, I am more than willing to turn over my screens to other users, and have more experienced dungeon masters make a ruling.
Events will be posted in secondary topics from the main arc (because an event isn't the main arc it's just a segment of the arc)
An example of this would be the topic assaulting the Steeles. It's a part of the arc, that had long lasting effects and consequences but it was not the entire arc just the beginning catalyst event.
Carrying on, another issue that haunts us like a specter;
Relationships and fluff,
One particular example of a complaint i heard was that players could put such detail into "throbbing cocks" as they put it, but players find it hard to put together more than a paragraph of a plan, if that.
To which my only reasonable answer was, well, you write what you know. If players have a lot of experience with relationship drama, for example, but not a lot of experience with convoluted heist planning, for example, well then you can already see where the details are going to be more concentrated in the content. Players are welcome to play that kind of thing out, but, it will be a sub thread that will have a content disclaimer so players know what they are getting into if they choose to read it.
This is the best i have to offer at the moment. I am anxious to hear what you think, and encourage you to post it here to encourage a positive and progressive conversation with transparency between players.
