I retract any suggestion of Dark Spires. Magdalen (head staffer) in her infinite wisdom just decided to remove a wizard's ability to advance magically. At all.

Can't get more potion slots. Can't get new enchanted items. Can't improve your enchanted items. Can't learn the two elements you can't start with, at all.

Ever.

It's the SILLIEST knee jerk I've seen in a long long time.

Her reasoning? There are PC's who are more powerful than some of the NPC's /AS THE NPC'S WERE WRITTEN IN THE SOURCE MATERIAL/.

Instead of limiting the problem children, or capping advancement at a reasonable level, now Wizards are just fucked. Any magic user is just fucked.

If someone tells me how to spoiler this I will edit and fix:

=============================== Announcements ================================
Message: 1/99 Posted Author
Refinement Sun May 01 Magdalen

For a while now, Dark Spires has been struggling with an increasing imbalance of power levels on the grid. In part, this is due to the fact that the site has been up for over 2 years and we have PCs that have been an active part of our community for that entire time. As we do not intend to reset our environment, create alternate locations for higher power levels, nor do we intend to place an XP cap on our players, Staff has had to come up with a way to keep our balance functional.

A huge cause of the imbalance on grid has been determined to be the Refinement power. As it stands, we have people walking the grid that can, in one shot, kill the Merlin, easily cripple the Gatekeeper, and even take down the Blackstaff. Obviously, this isn't a viable situation.

Staff has been discussing a solution to the balance problem for over a month now and the only resolution to this issue that we can see is to remove the Refinement power entirely. We know this will have massive repercussions for our Wizards and other magic users but it is an essential move to maintain the balance of power and PCs on grid.

Going forward, we will be opening jobs for each person to reformat their characters. This will require adjusting any rotes/foci/enchanted items as necessary.

In addition, due to the lack of cohesion between the delineated PC templates, we will no longer be allowing the Powers From Magic option.

Magdalen

TL;DR

Dark Spires is now the world of Scions and Faithful/Artifact Users. All hail the children of the gods.

Should be called British Rick Riordan World now.

One of the things I have considered is just dropping plots on IC gatherings. Like, if I (or other staff) see a group RP'ing in public then boom, I drop a 1 shot on them and depending on what happens it could lead to more plot.

This way it encourages people to get out of their bedrooms.

I've also seen games that don't allow voting unless there is 3 or more people in a scene but I am of mixed feelings on that one.

Lately though, I have been leaning more towards fixed XP increase across the board, with options for bonuses (Like running scenes/plots).

Vote circles annoy me, as does incredibru fast xp gains.

I will play anything really, so long as it's my creation. I don't do FC's, or Roster games, because I feel zero attachment to the characters. They're not mine, I don't know their minds.

This is even /worse/ if it's a character that's been played before.

For me characters are disposable, but, I want to own them from start to finish.

@SG said in PVP games/elements?:

@Lithium As far as I can tell, the most recent version has the deck for initiative. I was just thumbing through my deadlands book, and they have a cool dueling system that works off of a game of texas holdem. I think that would be fantastic for a samurai game as well.

Probably one of those things that works better in tabletop than on a MU* in my opinion.

@acceleration said in PVP games/elements?:

@Lithium

I don't know what RIFT is, but I assume the issue is basically one of potential staff busywork.

Automating as much of the mechanical process is on our to do list. We're currently doing as much non-code-essential stuff as possible (getting lore and mechanical systems worked out) so we can move to Evennia's Python-driven stuff when @Volund gets his Penn>Evennia port finished. Job drudgery isn't anyone's idea of fun and reducing as much of that type of work as possible is definitely on our list.

Actually no it's not so much busy work as Palladium actively GOES AFTER MU*'s that automate their code to much or put to much information into it as infringing on their IP and suchlike.

I could easily code up CharGen, combat, everything else, have it pull the requisite numbers from requisite sheets etc, but Palladium has zero problem with attacking fan ran games if it makes it so they could possibly lose profits.

@SG said in PVP games/elements?:

@Lithium Savage Worlds Rifts kickstarter just started up:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/545820095/rifts-for-savage-worlds?token=e38ccc40

I've been trying to learn how to code for the last few months on and off in sweaty anticipation, but can't find the time to be consistent with my learning.

I'm not that big a fan of Savage Worlds, it is interesting but it has certain mechanical elements I'm not that big on. I hear that there is a new version that doesn't use a deck of cards but I don't have access to those books if they exist.

If I wasn't afraid of Palladium I'd make a RIFT's game that was no holds barred sandbox, but, I'd want to automate it so not everyone needed to have every book and to make chargen not a nightmare.

@icanbeyourmuse One of my favorite oWoD games (CrackMUX) had highlander style immortals. It was very much a sandbox though. The people were stuck in this city, and the government didn't /care/ what happened inside the city. It was like Arkham City in a way.

Was a fun game, lots of ICA=ICC. I played a Highlander Immortal who got pretty good (Quickening 5) but then got taken out by a 7th gen Malkavian and while incapped another immortal chopped off my head.

@ShelBeast Initial impressions have been lackluster from what I understand. I haven't had a chance to take a look at it yet so can't give one of my own.

I liked Scion in theory but the MUSH I played of it was... pretty cray. If you weren't in with the (admittedly few) staff, you had zero chance for advancement. At all.

Thematically... It was kind of a more serious version of Percy Jackson except without the Legion and without Camp Half-Blood. Which I could get behind but the stories...

Hard to do in large scale format without killing off huge chunks of player base. Which, is not inherently bad imho, if it furthers the story.

@ThatOneDude Scion was like a half assed mix of Aberrant + Exalted + WoD. It had some neat ideas but overall was to scattered and unfocused in my opinion. It was trying to be to many things at once.

@Bug-In-A-Jar Actually that's not true entirely.

I do not care about downvotes. I don't really care about upvotes. It's kind of cool to see who agrees and disagrees with me without them having to write a post to say as such, which is the only thing I really note about upvotes and downvotes.

I don't think they should be removed because sometimes I can't be bothered to actively type /why/ someone is an asshat and I can just click the downvote button.

It matters just as much as my actively posting a negative response.

The plague of people supporting the latest troll from the RPI/MUD community is funny because they are downvoting /because/ they think we care. That's what's funny. That's why it's worth shots in the WORA drinking game.

It's hilarious.

@Sunny Every buffy game I've seen has devolved to horribleness just the way Anita Blake games do.

My system on PrP's is that players can run them so long as they don't violate the (listed) theme points on the PrP help file /and/ do not break theme. Breaking theme is important, and is a very /expansive/ thing. It stops not only the Smurf Revolution in downtown Los Angeles, but it also stops people acquiring .50 caliber sniper rifles off a drug dealer on the corner as well. Just for examples.

Anyone can run a PrP, at any time, and so long as it follows those rules (le-gasp, rules) and they post an edited log to the wiki, while mailing staff the unedited log that can be approved for bonus xp or whatnot, then they get the bonus goodies unless they break theme.

That might be to restrictive to some, but it works for me, and I hope it doesn't restrict what people do on my game.

@Three-Eyed-Crow some people think downvotes actually matter in the grand scheme of things.

Though I have heard rumor that if you get a low enough reputation it affects the amount or time between postings you can do.

I just want to see some people play to actual /archetype/. When I last played anything remotely oWoD (Years ago) there was no such thing as a gang banger Brujah iconoclast. There were no Biker Gangrel's about. There were no actual Artist Toreador (They were all trying to sleep with Nosferatu). There were no hard core Children of Gaia Rahu (they were all like, white hat hippies even when they should have been in frenzy). There were no Ragabash who were actually bad ass (They were all sniveling bitches).

The amount of social power a gang could bear down with is immense, but I never see them used for anything other than bodies with shotguns & Dragonsbreath rounds. Not every Glasswalker embraces cybernetics & the internet. Not every Shadow Lord is evil. Not every Silver Fang is the next coming of Albrecht.

Maybe things have changed in the many years since I've played oWoD, maybe not.

I would just want to see those Archetypes that made me think a clan and it's lore was cool, not all the 'out of the box' characters who are so far out of the box you have to wonder why they would be embraced into the clan to begin with.

@ThugHeaven Lots of friendly and welcoming people, most concepts are pretty open, and the staff will work with you to help you get something made that has a good chance of fitting in and such. Fair amount of plots and rp, just have to look for it and be available. Which can be an issue. I have a good time there, just don't have enough time to get very deeply involved due to RL unfortunately. I wish I could play more.

@ThugHeaven There's lots of ways to get guns, realistically, but from what I've experienced its just not a thing there. Even with reason. Staffs decision.

@ThugHeaven It's Oxford, there isn't really a criminal underground per se. Not as you might think exists in London, or any large American city.

Since it is Dresden Files though the bend is more towards supernatural threats rather than street crime in what is essentially a college town.

@Usekh The game is very good, but they don't allow guns even when you have really good justification for /having/ them. My character can import guns without ever having to pass through customs but I wasn't allowed to bring any guns with me, not even revolvers. Which is fine, it is their game, but it is far more restrictive than even 21st century Oxford is.

Not able to get Hunting Rifles for example which is kind of silly.

So it can conflict with some concepts, was just warning in advance not attacking.

Only one I know of, currently, is Dark Spires. That's Dresden Files urban fantasy set in London. Head Staff has some crazy anti-gun fixation though so it can neuter some concepts entirely. Basically every fighter is a bad ass puncher because weapons and guns are just not really available for the most part.

Or so it seems.