Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning

saosmash · Nov 28, 2016, 7:31 PM

I think it's my favorite system too. That and being bribed for writing journals, because I like journal writing for characters anyway.

Ominous · Nov 28, 2016, 7:35 PM

@Apos said in Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning:

@Ominous That's a pretty good one, and I like that, though I'd have to think about how to implement it in ways that don't give a significant advantage in conflicts- some of these are designed to be very, very dangerous to look into and so on. Will need very careful tweaking.

That's where the false positives can come into play. You're looking into the magic spell that summons a demon? We'll list Head Inquisitor Gareth as one of the people with clues you can get. He doesn't have any clues actually, but he will be very interested in hearing why you are asking. Or maybe Gareth does have clues for this but he ain't sharing his and is offing anyone who comes asking him.

Knowing the system gives a few false positives that can bite you in the ass should be enough that the first thing out of your character's mouth isn't "Hey, what do you know about dirty secret X?"

Kanye Qwest · Nov 28, 2016, 7:36 PM

@Ominous There are red herrings in the system, you get them when you botch a roll.

Ominous · Nov 28, 2016, 7:38 PM

@Kanye-Qwest said in Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning:

@Ominous There are red herrings in the system, you get them when you botch a roll.

I am referring more to the idea of providing a list of clue holders along with clues. The danger there is, using Gareth again, why doesn't Gareth just go around killing everyone on the list he gets? Well two of the people on his particular selection of clueholders are the pope-dude whose title I forget and the Duke of a great house, and pestering them about this info might not go over well.

Arkandel · Nov 28, 2016, 7:40 PM

I'll say this, a research system where you get limited resources to do things sounds pretty damn good from where I'm sitting.

"Hey, give me an extended roll for this, it will take 8-hours per roll".
<player rolls 9 times>

Sure, I'm sure you just played a whole week basically doing nothing but stay in a lab. But when it means literally nothing to do so... it's basically just extra dice.

Glitch · Nov 28, 2016, 7:45 PM

@Arkandel You can only run an investigation or help someone else do one once per week. So it is imperative to prioritize. And making that choice is pain. PAIN.

Ominous · Nov 28, 2016, 8:01 PM

@Glitch True, but the system could do much more. I honestly think it can do what Tasks does, only better. Right now, it feels a bit more of a 'I am investigating this', roll, get result, wait another week to investigate again. Letting the dice mechanics provide little RP hooks would be fantastic. It could be extended to requiring certain missions (GM-ed plots) or even use the task system, only instead of giving resources it gives a new clue.

Arkandel · Nov 28, 2016, 8:04 PM

@Ominous Still, it's an improvement over every other system where research is free. You can literally claim to spend more hours a week working on things than there are hours in a week because who can check?

Apos · Nov 28, 2016, 8:08 PM

@Ominous said in Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning:

@Glitch True, but the system could do much more. I honestly think it can do what Tasks does, only better. Right now, it feels a bit more of a 'I am investigating this', roll, get result, wait another week to investigate again. Letting the dice mechanics provide little RP hooks would be fantastic. It could be extended to requiring certain missions (GM-ed plots) or even use the task system, only instead of giving resources it gives a new clue.

Agreed, 100%. And this is very much intended. Keep in mind, we definitely don't see them as finished systems. A goal of beta is, 'Put in a basic, workable model. See how it goes while adding in next basic, workable model for core missing systems' and then continually refine before we go live. So I see investigation right now as that, its most basic form, and a lot more layers of complexity and RP incentives should come as time goes on, though it probably won't be revisited until at least after Dominion and Dynamic Exploration. Just no harm in discussing ideal, 'This is what I'd like to see' until then.

Roz · Nov 28, 2016, 8:17 PM

Also, on the subject of how much plot there is going around: I apped in with several friends in a couple of original houses for the most part. We all got meaty metaplot secrets offered to us that gave us a distinctive place to start looking into plot things.

We now have so many clues flying around that we literally made a private wiki to keep track of all the connecting threads.

ThatGuyThere · Nov 28, 2016, 9:36 PM

@Kanye-Qwest said in Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning:

@WTFE said in Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning:

But no amount of repeating the mantra "just use a temp email" is going to change the fact (and yes, it is actually a fact) that requiring email for a pretendy fun-time game is an idiotic decision from the get-go. Especially given, again, the history that is paired with such requirements.

So do you promise that an email requirement will keep you away? Asking for a friend!

That's some high quality staffing right there.

lordbelh · Nov 28, 2016, 9:43 PM

@Cupcake Its not to late to scene with me, even without the @randomscene bonus! I have yet to turn down a single person looking for RP with me. I just stopped being the one poking at you for the scene. Start being the one to poke at me, and you're likely to get somewhere.

Olsson · Nov 29, 2016, 1:50 AM

So how screwed would I be to try this as a euro time person?

Catsmeow · Nov 29, 2016, 2:07 AM

There are actually quite a few people I can think of that RP on Euro time. I'm around because sleep hates me, so I can see there is active RP going on.

Noodle McDoodle · Nov 29, 2016, 9:19 PM

@Olsson It's one of the few games I see that has stuff going on both when I go to bed (midnight PST) and when I get up (8am PST). It's pretty active on quite a few 'weird' timezones.

Ominous · Nov 29, 2016, 10:52 PM

It helps that there is a pretty large player base. There seems to be a critical mass of players for around the clock events to start being a thing.

buttercup · Nov 30, 2016, 2:35 PM

Well, shitballs.

Thrax and any non-tainted future it had just went to hell and that is entirely a shame.

Max = Custodius = Flee

I was loving the game, too.

Kanye Qwest · Nov 30, 2016, 2:45 PM

@buttercup
OR you could trust that we're not going to tolerate anyone cheating or bullying. I mean, either way. I'm not chasing anyone.

lordbelh · Nov 30, 2016, 3:32 PM

@buttercup I don't know about that. I suspect the future of Thrax will depend on the players of Thrax. There aren't a lot of Thrax vassals at the moment, but since he's a Count there's still two steps between him and the High Lord someone could app in on. That doesn't exactly put his character in the center.

And if you're not even in Thrax, the amount of association anyone needs to have with him is minimal to none.

That said, avoiding things and people you think will destroy your fun isn't something I'll judge anyone for.

Kanye Qwest · Nov 30, 2016, 4:00 PM

So I'm going to be making a spreadsheet of orgs/families (families are orgs but not all orgs are families so there will be some overlap) so that we can make sure we are handing out plot clues and GMing more evenly. Not that I think we've been showing any intentional favoritism, but we have a LOT of players and awesome player created orgs and things slip past when we are busy doing other stuff.

That said, I'm interested in opinions. If you play, or even aren't playing, what types of GM events do you crave the most? Small, intimate adventures? Big battles? Grand displays? Just crowdsourcing for ideas, here. Shamelessly.