@roz
Right, and that's totally, 100 percent, okay.
But, as Auspice points out, if a player is sending communication from his PC to set some political situation up with another PC, and that PC's player isn't responding, it slows down the politics. This just happens: it happens on Vampire games, as it happened on Fifth Kingdom, as I'm sure it happens on Kushiel and other Lords and Ladies games.
Responding back with a simple "I'm not sure what the fuck is going on or what to do" is as much a response as any other, and is a pretty reasonable position to take on a game that just opened up with a system that is pretty rare on MUSHes. I'm almost positive that Arx had a similar situation when it first opened because I didn't know what the fuck to do, and that's okay.
The economy system could use some better documentation, that's for sure, but I complained about Arx's system similarly too.
But not responding to +mails and attempts to communicate? That's also going to cause a problem. That and +mail because, FFS, I hate +mail so much.
@pyrephox said in Valorous Dominion:
Anyone more familiar with the system have more insight on how to create social/intellectual challenges and opportunities that rely on characters' competencies rather than players' competencies (and my competence to accurately and usefully convey all the information in the scene that the players might need to make effective choices)?
I think I read somewhere that the entire point to Pendragon is that it relies on player competencies socially and intellectually. Any rolls related thereto demonstrate the effectiveness of the choices, not the choices themselves. There are some massive holes in the system (e.g., Awareness, but no Stealth?), but I'm guessing plots are supposed to unfold in a very organic way. That, and some agency is left to the Trait system, which can be a little frustrating.