Short-Term MU*s
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@cumush I'm on and around from noon to 7pm Pacific, then again after midnight most days. Thursday and Friday I have off, so from noon on.
Most big events would likely be on Friday nights, but I can run things during afternoons and evenings, too.
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For me I'm too attached to characters to do short-term mu's. Its not that it can't work, but its not an event or story that makes me interested, but the development between stories.
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Completely random, but: it occurred to me that a potentially fun idea for a short-term game 'over all theme' would be something like... 'changing channels'. Completely different setting and story every so often, but with the same 'cast'.
Could be done in a self-aware fashion as 'this same group of people ends up roving around Sliders style', or in an 'ensemble cast' style, in which the basic look and feel of a character persists, but it's more the way an actor might take a different role for each iteration of a series. (Think 'American Horror Story' and similar.) For the latter, a list of available roles could be posted in advance and claimed, etc. by the 'cast' through whatever mechanism people want to use.
The latter could potentially be weirdly fun. Be someone's teacher in one season, their mother in the next, their employee in the next, their commanding officer in the next, and so on, while keeping some core traits and story elements in each scenario, or evolving through some of them.
My inner improv geek would find it fun, anyway, and if a certain season or theme doesn't appeal to someone, they can wait for the next to come along, etc.
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@ixokai I totally understand, and even agree somewhat as a player. I just miss running LARP events at conventions, I guess.
@surreality I could look at ways to let people recycle characters from story to story, like alternate universe versions of a core character. That would be fun. Even could be a Dollhouse/Westworld game within a game thing. Or not.
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From experience running a few short term side-campaigns (alternate grids & settings) on my games in the past 2ish years; you will get lots of initial interest but the lack of long-term drive for people means for short term settings that it's hard to maintain long term interest.
You might be better off considering forming a small tabletop group instead where you can get a half dozen people who are interested in continuing every Friday or something.
RE:R had Xenophobia for example, which was an Aliens themed mini-MUSH but it quickly burned out as people lost interest in their temporary characters.
Thanks for reading and good luck!
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Is anyone else familiar with Monte Cook's The Strange? Its based on the same RPG as Numenera.
Its premise is like, secret agency, infinite multiverse.
I could see that as a 'short-term-mu' I could get behind if all the PCs were agents, and maybe every month we're in a new dimension. Maybe filling a new role. Solving a completely different kind of issue.
This month we're in a Wild West universe and there's a black tar plague threatening it. I'm a prospector! In town looking for gold. Don't mind me.
Next month we're solving zombies in london. I'm a reporter for the local newspaper! What's going on?
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@surreality I've wanted to do this for a while. I actually was thinking of making it The TV Game, where the same general archetypes moved from show to show as plotlines wrapped up. Personal storylines could be continued (with minor tweaks), but the genre and setting would change every 5-8 months.
I was pondering a single system that would work for everything, something like Savage Worlds where the skills are highly generic (today's Wizard becomes tomorrow's Hacker, with Magic being the same as Computer somehow).
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Anyone interested in helping set things up? I could use building and wiki help, the latter most of all. As staff/story-runner, I won't have a PC on the game (I enjoy playing NPCs just fine) but people helping out can.
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Developing this now.
Characters will recycle from story to story - different versions of the same archetype - and there IS going to be a meta-plot tying it all together, so long-term IC development will be a thing. I can't say more than that yet without spoiling something, but I think it'll be neat.
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A very brief tease:
Horror MUX is a game of mortal horror set in a variety of rotating settings and themes, using different versions of the same characters, and with an underlying connection running throughout. Inspiration includes American Horror Story, Cabin In The Woods, Dollhouse and Westworld. Players choose an Archetype for their character to embody, and that Archetype takes on a new character/role in each story. In between stories, Archetypes find themselves trapped in a sterile, lifeless place known only as The Facility, with no memory of who they are - or if they're real people at all! - but full memory of each story they've experienced and the role they played.
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@botulism Sounds awesome! Hope you knock it out of the park.
