Posts made by Arkandel

@wildbaboons said in Wheel of Time MU(SH|X):

I think the crux of what I am trying to wrap my head around for choosing a setting is: What is the Wheel of Time?

That's what I tried to break down a few posts up. No matter what there are some elements you 100% want in a game (you want to use the 'magic system' for example, it's too good to leave out) and after that it depends on the kind of game you want to run.

• You can absolutely get away with a WoT Lords and Ladies.

• An adventurous take is definitely possible (hunt down darkfriends, recover treasures and knowledge lost to the ages)

• You can do dark 'alternate' apocalyptic states (the Dark One already won and humanity is staging its last stand against the Blight!)

• It could be a Hogwards-like school setting focused on teaching young channelers the ins and outs of the world and channeling while they try to save the world from the Forsaken conspiracies.

• You could even run a high-magic more light hearted MU* in the Age of Legends where all kinds of whacky things are possible, even crossovers, time travel, adventures in Dreams... whatever the hell you want.

So, what kind of MUSH are you (generic you) trying to make? At some point we'd need specifics before we delve any deeper into it.

@goldfish I think it was an interview on Wizard magazine (yes, that long ago) by Ed Brubaker for a then upcoming Batman run that's stayed with me for a long time. He said that one of the writing tricks he uses for characters is to know a menial couple of things about them no one else does, and which don't need to be ever brought up. It's just a way to get into their head.

Whenever I've done it over the years I must say it works. I'm talking about stuff like... grooming habits, what the PC does on his 'true' downtime (i.e. not during bar scenes); does he donate to charity? How does he pick clothes, and where from? What do his interactions with his neighbors look like when he takes the garbage out?

It's weird but it works.

@streetwitch Can you please clarify what Scry does in practical terms?

If you can take a glimpse at a room (basically a remote 'look' command) that's pretty much fine, else I'd be worrying about OOC privacy.

Your game seems to be developing nicely, keep us up to date!

@wolfs said in Wheel of Time MU(SH|X):

You guys can have your male channelers and all that. I just want a wolfkin.

Username checks out!

@tempest said in Wheel of Time MU(SH|X):

I'd just remove Black Ajah on account of the fact that staff will probably pick the wrong people to play it and it'll be a disaster, and because almost everybody will want to be one

In the game I was playing it wasn't that popular. I mean... there were some, but definitely a minority.

Also I'd definitely not want staff hand-picking anyone other than book characters, if there were any, and I'd advise against that.

@seraphim73 said in Wheel of Time MU(SH|X):

As far as Black Ajah goes... it would be really nice if recruitment into it could happen ICly, but I know that would draw all sorts of claims of (and likely actual examples of too) favoritism and clique-ism.

Oh for sure. The risk that over time some people would stop playing and the remaining oldbies would get to hand pick all other generations of Black Ajah from then on is scary. And not in a darkfriend way!

@seraphim73 said in Wheel of Time MU(SH|X):

Definitely a reasonable view. In any game that wasn't male-channeler friendly (Asha'man-okay, Age of Legends, etc) I would actually suggest something that Cuendillar did quite well:

Since I've no idea how this went over on Cuendillar, what was well done about it? Did 'enough' people choose to play male channelers anyway? Would you call it a successful experiment?

Heh, I actually put the Aiel War one up there because it's one of the few other times the Aiel come out of the Threefold Land, so I figured they could be viable character concepts. Just a few of them, no doubt, because they would have to be captives/turncoats/spies/SOMETHING to interact with the rest of the playerbase, but at least they're around. It's problematic to bring Aiel into the playerbase in that era, but at least it's possible.

One of the reasons I like the past-the-books approach is that all the cats are out of the bag. We know what happened in their past, their prophecies have been fulfilled and they're already out and about. In any other time period I can think of you either don't have those elements or you need to go off the books which while doable, would for example mean the Prophecies were wrong.

The one thing I do like about going off the books is that... let's face it, that shit involves some heavy duty reading! Demanding that your players are knowledgeable about them can be a hefty requirement for newcomers.

I mean, what happens after the Last Battle (besides clean-up)?

That's the game!

What I dislike about Facebook in regards to privacy concerns, and their CEO admitted it in yesterday's hearing so it's on the record, is that the application is aware of the sites you visit in other tabs on your web browser.

That is a no-no. If I volunteer my data to Facebook and check in at my favorite restaurant to show off the pulled pork that's my choice, and I can't bitch them out when they target me for BBQ sauce ads later on. But if I open a tab to a Nintendo Switch site, and I've never said a word about Nintendo on FB, they should not have access to it.

@seraphim73 said in Wheel of Time MU(SH|X):

Well, PCs aren't the average person. In most Star Wars games (except WEG D6 with experienced characters), Force Users aren't that much more powerful than other PCs.

True, but the IC power gap between Force-trained characters and other combatants is much smaller than that of channelers and non-channelers in the WoT. If you go by the books, just the ability to wrap an enemy in air is too much - you can't beat that. In Star Wars you have all kinds of chemicals and high-tech weaponry to bridge the gap.

@Arkandel I actually think that limiting male channelers is GOOD for the game, as mentioned above, because it helps keep some semblance of balance between channelers and non-channelers where fighting is involved.

I'm just not a fan of limiting special playable concepts. I'd rather not have them at all than restrict them - because who ends up with them? It creates a big ugly divide, generates drama and appearance of favoritism that I've never seen work out for MU*, you know?.

But yes, if you set the game pre-books, you either have to completely divorce your game from the timeline (which is fine, in my opinion) or accept that the Aiel aren't going to get involved (unless it's the Aiel War) and there won't be Asha'man. That's why I still think that the best course is either a) somewhere Saldaea/Arad Doman way during the book period, or b) Whitecloak War/Aiel War period.

If I had to pick one I'd go with the former option. Not having Aiel around (let alone Asha'man) would deprive the game from too many great options.

@yyrqun said in Wheel of Time MU(SH|X):

A couple hundred years after Hawkwing at least would be enough for all the cultures in the books to be in place. The After the Breaking years/Free Years are interesting, but might not be that familiar for a main setting.

Yeah, that's my concern. You don't want to alienate the book lovers, you want to grab their attention - in my experience deviating too far just turns the game into a playable fanfic that doesn't resemble what your players are looking for in the first place.

@seraphim73 said in Wheel of Time MU(SH|X):

Agreed on all points, although I would add one more option to the timeline: a decade or two before the books. The Aiel War would be interesting, as would some of the False Dragons that pop up in the years before Rand. In many ways, running a WoT MU has the exact same problems as running a Star Wars MU: you need something familiar to get people readily involved, which means close to the media timelines, but the feature characters have the absolute potential to overwhelm all possible PC actions.

The only problem I have with an almost-but-not-quite Rand era is how hard it is to detach it from the books. All those Prophecies won't fulfill themselves, and if you're waiting for the Dragon to rise (or even to be born) then it's easy to end up with a stagnant setting. The Aiel can't find a Car'a'carn, their shame can't be exposed, Wise Ones can't be outted for what they are, and there is no one forcing them to interact with wetlanders in semi-friendly terms,

Also, the male channelers thing is really limiting IMHO, for the reasons you mention. I think most games would benefit from allowing all kinds of channelers to be playable.

@dontpanda said in Wheel of Time MU(SH|X):

Actually, I'll extend it: Limit darkfriends of all stripes. Have some active and sneaky ones, and that's way more effective than operating with the general understanding you're likely to hit one if you threw a rock in a room full of people.

One way you could have darkfriends is to allow someone to take over them after the War is over. After all they didn't all die or become exposed, there were many who simply didn't even take part in the physical war - and they are nothing if not opportunistic, or lacking in resources.

Having a secretive group of nefarious people in control of caches of knowledge, resources and of course items as part of your game strikes me as a good idea. Should they be limited? I mean, maybe... it depends on the kind of game you want to run though. I don't think a single approach will fit all takes.

If nothing else, and in my experience, the Black Ajah was super limited in what they could do in a during-the-books setting since if they got exposed it was over for them. Your character could just survive the experience, relocate and be as successful as she liked, but that wouldn't do you - the player - much good since your roleplaying days as a Sister accounted for the grand majority of your scenes, and those were over.

@three-eyed-crow There is no way - simply no way - you can get around the fact a channeler is more powerful than a non-channeler. I spent many hours back in the day trying to design a system that reconciles the two and the only plausible way is to force PCs to be much weaker than the (admittedly top notch, strongest-in-the-world) book characters we know about.

Otherwise a channeler can blow up a house with his damn mind. It's kinda hard to explain why a guy with a sword is as powerful in a white room situation.

I completely agree though that limiting numbers of popular archetypes is a great way to piss off your players. If they want to play Aes Sedai let them; in fact, and to be honest here, the combination of romantically involved AS+Warder couples were such a strong trope it's practically guaranteed to generate player interest.

One thing that should be done though IMHO is make sure people have to make the choice of whether to improve in channeling or in their fighting skills. Yes, Rand had a heron-marked blade. No, Joe Asha'man shouldn't be just as good as an Aiel in melee combat and be able to bust out them rolling rings of earth and fire; force them to pick what they're good at, or to be average in both.

Here are some things I consider essential to a WoT game. By its nature, the list is of course subjective.

• The channeling system; it's the coolest thing about the setting, after all.
• Politics. It's a big part of the original books - the Dragon Reborn took like ten books to get all these nations to work together even in the face of their own complete annihilation.
• Non-channeling niches. The second coolest part about the books are the fighting systems - the Flame and the Void, Warders and Far Dareis Mai, archers and sword-breakers, all that stuff.
• Prophecies. It's a Wheel of Time because things keep happening and cryptic things are destined to occur again, but no one quite knows how until after they do. I think a strong metaplot should be a given.
• Bad guys. We had some kickass ones introduced in the books both in terms of characters (the Forsaken were an amazing touch) but also the Black Ajah, darkfriends not knowing each others' identities, constant paranoia about who is one, etc.

I think if a game can retain and use these factors it will succeed, but I'll add one more that's MU* specific:

• Retaining as many book elements as possible. Sure, a game could go off script completely ("we'll place this in the Second Age, all the Houses are different, the Ajahs are different, there are no Warders, the Aiel are still getting formed...") and maybe it'd be super cool, but then you lose the instant access a book reader has to this stuff. You lose playable archetypes that got players wanting to play there in the first place.

I'd personally either place a MU's timeline in the period of the books or basically right afterwards while the dust has yet to settle.

@dontpanda Having played on WoT for longer than I care to admit, I can't say having book characters around as key figures seems like a good idea to me any more.

They can add flavor and act as NPCs, but they can also very quickly turn PCs into their sidekicks.

@yyrqun The Dragon's Peace will fall apart once the Dragon is out of the picture. I think there's a lot of room to create a kickass political game with all the nations picking up their pieces, some more destroyed than others, all trying to gain the upper hand in this brave new world.

Shara would make for some good NPC antagonists, as would factions within the Seanchan Empire.

@wildbaboons C'mon, there are lots of possibilities!

• Darkfriends (as noted)
• Black Tower
• Male Aes Sedai in the Age of Legends
• Male channelers in general with a cleansed Saidin and/or following the final book.
• False Dragons in general. Just because your character is destined to go mad and die in a couple of years it doesn't mean you can't play them

@seraphim73 I guess I hadn't thought of that possibility. That's probably because it sounds like a very bad way to design a game if they're making one of the major, unique archetypes in the setting literally unplayable.

@nemesis, we have rules here and we're trying to enforce them across the board. Posts must be appropriate in presentation as well as 'sentiment' (which is very subjective) when they're outside of the Hog Pit.

Now let's not argue this point on this thread any longer.

@streetwitch As a mild disclaimer - most of the users on this forum are probably used to roleplay-heavy environments, which typically entails more than puppeting an already present NPC in case a PC talks to them.

Some miscommunication is certainly possible here, which is why you may not be certain about the questions you're getting asked, but if you don't let that discourage you then you can find players and storytellers around these parts.

@coin It can go the other way too. Having de facto allies on your side who will always be there no matter what counts for something.

FYI:

Your Linode(s) have been assigned maintenance windows during which they will be rebooted. This maintenance is necessary to patch for variants 1 and 2 of the Spectre vulnerability[1].

...

Your reboot schedule in UTC is as follows:

2018-05-11 3:00:00 AM UTC - linode3343044

The above listed maintenance windows cannot be altered, postponed, or rescheduled.

A two-hour window is allocated for each reboot maintenance window, however, the actual downtime should be much less.

@coin For all that FB has some scummy practices I hate the overreactions there.

"Mr Zuckerberg , would you tell us which hotel you stayed at last night?" was one of the questions he got asked, indicating somethingsomething about privacy.

Here's the thing; if you volunteer the information there is no fucking privacy violation. If you manually do a check-in on Facebook which explicitly posts your whereabouts what the hell do you expect?

@yyrqun said in Wheel of Time MU(SH|X):

Sounds great. As long as I can RP channelling saidar (or saidin, depending on the time period) in the not-too-distant-future, all is well.

Why would the time period determine whether you RP channeling saidar or saidin?