@Ganymede @Misadventure My thoughts on this also tie into some of the discussion on the metaplot thread too. It has come up that good metaplot requires a lot of work and leads to ST burnout. With everyone playing the characters and working out the story themselves, a metaplot controlled only by STs is no longer needed, as it's a group effort as to where the story goes.
However, I do recognize that I am looking at it with rose-tinted glasses.
@faraday I think this gets back to Apos' summation that it comes down to "Are you running a sandbox or a plot-heavy/thematic game?" If you claim your server is the former, don't pull the rug out from under your players by suddenly making it the latter.
@Ghost This ties into xp bloat. "Oh, there is a metaplot? Well, why should I care, since superman will save the day anyways?" If one person has all the skills and stats to solve all of the problems, it's hard to create a plot that requires group effort. It's like playing the Pandemic board game but giving one of the players three of the role cards and four extra actions. You have to ask "Why are there other players in this game at this point?"
@Ganymede That is a valid and understandable position. What if everyone got one character that was solely their own, but the rest were available to be played by anyone?
@surreality said in World Building: What are the essentials?:
As a player, what information do you want and need about a game world to effectively play the game (ex: be able to formulate a character you feel fits the world and knows what the characters should know about it)?
If we're talking about what information I want right up front, as I come across your server for the first time, this is what I look for.
First, you're home page should have in big bold letters near the top the address and port to connect to your world. It surprises me how many servers have this information tucked away somewhere rather than having it be prevalent. Some have it hidden so well that it's quicker for me to go to MUDstats or Top MUD Sites and just look it up there than it is to scour every page to find it. Maybe this is to cut down on bots or something. I don't know, but it's a good way to deny yourself players. If it's that hard just to find out how to connect - the most important thing of all in regards to playing on a server, just imagine how hard it will be to find out all the minor details.
Second, the main page should have a summary of the themes, the setting, and current events on the server. Give me an elevator pitch summation as well. It's DUNE, Pirates of the Caribbean, Earthsea, Planescape, Birthright, and Conan the Barbarian all rolled into one. I want to say to myself "I love some/all of those things OR that combination sounds intriguing even though I am not a fan of many of those things. Sounds badass and I should check it out" OR "I dislike most/all of those things OR that combination sounds awful. I think I will stay away." You've already got me invested a bit, so I will dig deeper with the first, and the latter has helped me not waste my and you and your player helpers time, as I won't dip my toes in things and pester them with questions. Once you have my interest and I am logging on as a guest, I like the few servers I have been on that allows Guests to walk a small part of the grid to get a feel for things and even see some RP.
If your server uses a pre-existing IP, state that upfront and give me information on where I can find more info. Give me the entire list of books, the names of the TV series in the franchise, the names of the video games in the franchise, or whatever, so I can check it out and get a better feel. Also be damned specific of what time period and location in this IP we are working with and where the server departs from the IP. Are we doing Battlestar Galactica but without any of the cast from the series and only player created characters filling the important roles instead? Is this Star Wars but in the Force Unleashed Universe where spoilers Darth Vader gets killed by his apprentice and the apprentice becomes the Darth Vader character?
Now that I am interested and am trying to make a character, this is the information I would like to see.
Seriously what characters does the server have a glut and scarcity of? I don't want ads by players asking for someone to play their cousin, sister, former roommate who all would be filling roles that are superfluous at this point. The vast majority of players have no idea what the server needs. You, the staff, should, and, if you don't, I probably don't want to be playing on your server. I want a list made by staff saying "We need sniveling thieves; devious, cold-hearted information brokers; and a player for flamboyant Prince Floofypants. Applications are closed for big, strong, dashing McFightyman as 98% of the male characters are in that archetype currently." This is one thing that Kushiel's Debut was good at. I always knew what character types were being looked for and they offered an xp bonus if you created a character that fell in those areas. Firan also did this a little bit with their bonus xp for taking certain characters off of the roster.
What is the typical day for a character of this archetype and what are the cultural norms they are expected to adhere to? This one needs no explanation. Help me get into character by understanding what this character would be doing on a regular basis and what their worldview is. What titles are used for who, what kinds of food do we eat, what kinds of products are available, what's the typical salary, what religions are there and how devout is my character expected to be, what will get me murdered in the street, what will get me executed by the state, what do people see as being virtuous/necessary traits and what traits do people see as vices/liabilities? Be as detailed as possible. While I won't absorb it all in one go, it will be used as a reference for practically everything.
What plots/factions/interesting things are accessible to me so that I can get involved? Make a big jobs board if you have to. Sure, it may be a bit MMORPG-like feeling like a quest vending machine, but, if that's what it takes, do it. Give me a list of the people to contact to join X faction/get involved in Y plot/join Z club. If after the first week I am unable to tell you what the big plots are and how I can get involved in them, your server has a problem.
What expectations are there for specific roles? Does being the head of a faction come with a lot of OOC responsibilities like being the president of a club IRL or is it just a fancy hat to wear and, if I have a problem, a question, or an idea, I should instead poke Soandso? If I do have to poke Soandso, make it clear that that is who I should be poking, rather than wasting my time trying to reach the person with the fancy hat. ALSO, if it's not just a fancy hat, don't go over that person's head. If Bob is the treasurer, then ALL expenditures MUST go through him or Alice the vice-treasurer. Don't tell me it's a position with clout but deny me the clout. I became treasurer to control the purse strings, so let me control them and let me smack people with my e-peen when they try to go around me. If you don't want that on your server, it's a fancy hat title and make it clear it's just a fancy hat from the get-go. Furthermore, if it does have clout but the person isn't doing their job, kick 'em out. Don't toe the ground and demurely say 'Well, they're busy IRL." I don't care. Life happens, but you're holding up people's shit. Yes, this is a hobby, but so are clubs and they won't put up with a missing president or treasurer. Appoint someone as an acting treasurer or let the vice treasurer have the full role for a time, if you can't bring yourself to apply boot to said absent backside.
As a player, what kind of information do you find gets in your way more than it helps you accomplish this?
Do not have player made Wanted Ads without staff made ones as well. As I addressed above, nine times out of ten players have no clue what the server needs. I don't want to get excited about playing a character then a month or two into playing them realize that they are in a niche that is oversaturated and they have nothing to do aside from being the advertiser's sister/brother/cousin/maid/butler/sextoy.
The History of Everything Ever is nice but it is not as important as the now stuff. I need to know what is going on NOW and what my character's regular, daily life is. I like having access to a giant page of history, but it is a nice, secondary addition. If you have to decide between the giant history write-up or the daily life write-up, do the latter.
The ginormous page of feats/merits/bennies should be able to be saved until later. Kushiel's Debut had a merits page on their wiki that probably took half an hour to a full hour to read in its entirety. Nothing kills the thrill of creating a new character like having to stop and peruse every entry to see if it might apply to my character, then doing the arithmetic of which of the feats are essential and which I have to cut and get later with xp. I should be able to skip that section of chargen, if I want, and add merits as I play, figuring out my character's background and role on the server better.
Is it important to you, as a player, to have information available that distinguishes 'what locals would know' vs. 'what out of towners/new arrivals' would know?
Absolutely! If your server doesn't have the helpful gimmick of all new characters have to also be new arrivals to the area the game takes place in, I need to know what my character would know from living there for the past X number of years. I hate it when a new player says or does something that is incorrect and someone poses that the character is acting odd, is an idiot, etc. when it's simple ignorance on the new player's part rather than intentional. And it almost always happens! I page the player and let them know of the error, but there is always that one person who makes a big deal out of it IC. Can we all agree that these people need smacked?
If you're a new arrival, what kind of information is useful to you about your character's original culture? (This is more relevant in original settings than modern 'real world' setting games for obvious reasons.)
Everything. If you thought of it, write it down on the wiki/website in that giant page of cultural stuff. I may not absorb it the first time, but at least it will always be on hand to refer to.
Does it help to have information about what misconceptions, rumors, etc. from your character's original culture's perspective about the game's setting?
Yes. This goes hand in hand with the answer immediately above this one. There is no such thing as too much information for this. At some point, everything will get touched on by RP, so might as well cover it in the culture write-up, letting players know for sure how things are rather than them winging it and being way off of the mark, possibly starting a wrong viewpoint for half of the playerbase.
More and more this thread makes me want to see a server where everyone plays all of the characters. The mention of people wanting to avoid valleys and maximize peaks may get subverted in way. If the playerbase as a whole works for Bob the Underdog to succeed, then it is more likely to pan out that way with fewer complaints and drama, and, since everyone has a chance to play Bob and leave their mark on his story, everyone gets to feel like they succeeded too. This is just theory and spitballing ideas. Practice is where the rubber meets the road and we see if it actually pans out that way.
@Tempest said in Wheel of Time MU(SH|X):
My experience tells me the "regular PCs" will eventually (because omg what about CHARACTER GROWTH? If my character isn't getting stronger, why am I even RPing!? /s) be powerful enough to wipe out every single Forsaken at once without batting an eye.
Because all MUs are secretly shonen anime. Everyone wants has to be over 9000.
@Lain If the easiest method of presenting the information is also the best, then that's a win-win.
@Lain If the writer is a lazy, a set of "commandments" would work. Just a bullet point list of thou shalts and thou shalt nots.
Thou shalt rise when any noble enters the room.
Thou shalt always be on hands and knees when the emperor is present.
Thou shalt not look at the emperor, lest his guards behead you.
Thou shalt always give Duke Biganmighty a 20 stroke handicap on his golf game and let him have a do-over when he hits the ball into a water hazard. First round at the bar is on him.
I feel like MUs don't give enough detail on what the majority views of NPCs are, especially on L&L servers. What beliefs do they have? What's their day to day life look like? What cultural norms do they expect to be adhered?
Are commoners expected to rise from their seats and offer a bow when even the lowest of nobles enters the room? When the king/queen/emperor/empress shows up are they supposed to prostrate themselves before them and never look into their face? Is a noble sharing a drink with a commoners a major faux pas that will get the noble censured? Or are they just fancy titles and Duke Biganmighty is some rich guy who goes out with Bob, Frank, and Dave for a drink after their Saturday golf game? The latter is what we tend to default to in our RP because it's what we know. Without details on how this unequal feudalist society works and some reinforcement of that, nobles just become rich people in America.
@Lithium I think I spent some money there a few years ago, and that translated to requiring a fee in my mind.
@Admiral That succinctly explains the mindset then. I could see why they would want to avoid the channels in that case.
So we could grab an empty server and start running D&D or Runquest adventures? I had never considered that possibility. Why pay for Roll20?
Correct. RPIs take their RP very seriously. No OOC channels. No planning scenes ahead of time. No or very limited +where functionality to find RP. Some do solo RP, like writing poses while in an empty room hunting mobs. No +who and names are hidden (You only see a shortdesc or whatever name you have assigned to that PC). I like a lot of elements of RPIs, but the hatred of OOC channels really stumps me.
@Thenomain They may be leaning more towards RPI? I've not heard of social MUD either.
I am going to lean on the side of Thenomain and @ixokai. Automated combat in a game that has freeform magic sounds like a major feat.
As nice as "if you build it, they will come" would be. Without a plot and things to do, I suspect the place would be rather boring with people TSing for a year or so then slowly dwindling away. We already have a few MUs that fill that particular niche.
Isn't Shang sort of like that, only with more sex dungeons?
I had an idea for a server where the PCs were gods/spirits, explaining why they could create areas in an empty void. And that was it. No other theme or anything. "You guys are are gods/spirits. Make of it what you will. Have fun." Not sure how long it would last without a metaplot.
@Wizz
Yeah, he swings from "artistic, philosophical sort" to "misanthropic, badwrongfun neckbeard" pretty quickly.
@Misadventure I have poked at ORE a few times, but that second one is new to me. It sounds a bit fiddly, like you have to keep track of a bunch.
I never got into Wheel of Time. My only experience with it is that I have the d20 tabletop RPG book somewhere. What sets it apart and makes it more appealing as a setting compared to the other existing IPs out there?