Posts made by WildBaboons

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

Pretty much this is what I'd like to see. Scale back all the power levels (Moiraine and Liandrin are the the tippy-top, not Nynaeve), thereby allowing Warders to be pretty kick-ass, and go from there.

This is probably something that will happen no matter what I settle on. Unless taken by surprise channellers would still be able to wreck anyone that can't channel one-to-one, or even three-to-one. But not 500-to-one.

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

I always wanted a third age game from a mirror world with no dragon, no big names, there may be people in those same positions but they aren't FC's...
So you wouldn't even need to mention anything about the book chars at all. They just never existed in this turn of the wheel.

I am considering this too, but it has its own hurdles. How do you make some of the key thematic events happen without a Dragon Reborn? The founding of the Asha'man? The Aiel joining the fight as allies (mostly)? The cleansing? It's certainly doable but would need a very good ST team in place to help coax it all along and has the problem of running a game on rails if people want to be able to have those sorts of characters introduced to the game.

I would not want to have any character be ta'veren or be the Dragon Reborn otherwise you're just doing a find and replace on the FCs from the books and what's the point, plus the usual problems having a small group of PCs of grossly imbalanced importance on a game.

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

@WildBaboons I would totally dig on a "The Folks Who Make It So The Big Names Can Win" game. But I know that very, very, very few others would, so I've been making alternative suggestions.

I actually wouldn't mind this myself, to an extent. It's what I played on for over a decade so know it can work, but does tend to make things small scale because the big stuff is handled by the big kids.

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? At its most iconic and 'true-to-theme' feel I think a game set around books 8-12 or so makes the most sense, but that severely limits plot options, the time to do them before the big event, and requires the big name FCs.

One of the consistent things here in this entire thread is that I don't think anyone (and sorry if I've forgotten where someone has) has said that they would want a game that ran in parallel with the books to fit to cannon and had all the various NPC FCs running around. In some ways this would be the easiest way, but in other ways the most difficult given the lack of ability for players to actually make a difference.

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

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

Lenn flies to the moon on a flaming eagle and other stories.

But really, what Arkandel said. That's the game.

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

After the books could be interesting but... eh. Something about it just doesn't appeal to me... I guess it doesn't feel Wheel of Time to me. It's post-Wheel of Time, not actual Wheel of Time. But that could just be me.

It strikes me as odd to, but I can't quite put my finger on why. The big thing is that the main conflict is over. The Last Battle happened and its on to something else. but that something else is intriguing.

The question of Prophecy was brought up and if that sort of thing interests people there at always more prophecies out there and after the books seems the best place for that. Bao the Wyld for example if you haven't read that is a great example of this.

I wonder how people would feel about channelling if it was Book 1 presentation of channelling as opposed to book 13 version.

In book 1 one of the current strongest known Aes Sedai throws a few fireballs, makes a big wall of fire, and lends some stamina to people and ends up absolutely exhausted to the point of nearly having to be carried.

In book 13 people are throwing around a dozen fireballs a minute while countering others, making Gateways to travel around the country, and getting into weaving duel without breathing hard.

double post in my own thread!

Other alternative is setting maybe a year or two after the books. Gives all the people and factions that folks love but also includes super strong channellers of both sexes and only a subset of them limited by the Oaths. This can be balanced out somewhat systematically (need to have strong enforcement of just how exhausting channelling can be).. but it's difficult.

For some of you new to the thread that haven't read all the back pages (because who does that?) these are some ideas I had had regarding setting:

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

This is really day 2 of me really considering this, but at the moment I am leaning towards a time before the books. One of several options there:

Trolloc Wars? Set the MUSh in Manetheren. Same world, but leaves some world building up to the MUSH and its players... any gives a good end of the story. Everyone dies, but inflict a lot of damage and fun on the way!

War of Hundred Years? Hawking is dead, almost all of the familiar countries and cultures are there, but new and fresh. Conflict, enemies, politics!

White Cloak War Leading up to the Aiel War? Lots of wars.. But conflict, enemies, politics. Similar to War of Hundred Years but closer to book timelines, more established with known theme

Setting it before the books means no Seanchan, Aiel or Asha'man.. but I'm probably fine with that. Means that channeling would be limited to Aes Sedai and they have the Three Oaths to stop them from being completely obnoxious murder machines.

System wise I am really leaning towards something very similar to the Dresden Files RPG magic system. It's a good way of balancing raw strength with finesse and talent.

Part of the balance within the theme, if set before the books so male channelers aren't much of a concern, is the Three Oaths. It prevents the average Aes Sedai from being murder machines, but not entirely.

I would not limit channeling characters by requiring a super special app, being my BFF, or monetary bribes or anything of that sort, but more like a limit of "one per player" since they are meant to be rare.

Out of the ideas i have had none of them had involved repeating the time frame of the books, mostly they had been before, though the idea of after is also intriguing.

There are other issues to deal with though, such as the channeler/non-channeler imbalance and everything that comes with that.

It does also raise an issue of setting.. if it is set after the books end then the game does not necessarily need to be set in one location, it can easily be spread all over the place with Gateways providing easy, instantaneous travel from one place to another either through NPCs or just automated Gateway stations setup with PCs to provide travel around ala space game shuttle systems. It would still make things easier if it WAS focused on one location though

In the US at least. In the EU it may be a different story.

RL thing I love: Not having to deal with GDPR at work

@yyrqun I was considering that as well, but wasn't sure what the reception would be for folks looking to get more the feel of the books themselves and the absence of the Dark One/Shadowspawn/etc as the big bad to go up against. Quick brainstorming of the idea was making Shara an unplayable faction (not enough info on them anyways) to set them up as the Others and some other sort of evil like Mordeth establishing itself.

@krmbm Documentation would be needed no matter what I end up choosing.

@Arkandel Without the Black Tower they are a rather unplayable archtype thematically as it is or at least a very difficult character to play well in a cooperative environment.

It is a pity they became such a slog, but he needed a better editor. They easily could have cut a couple of books worth of material and been fine. It's been a long, long time since I read them but I remember just flat out skipping certain PoVs on the first read through and never feeling like I was missing anything substantial.

And this still is something I'm considering doing. I'm on the fence between rolling out an Evennia (since its Python and I want to learn that anyways for professional reasons) or re-purposing a WoT MUD codebase I have into a MUSH since it's in beautifully written C++ and I already know that. Waiting on a couple of things to fall in place before I pull the trigger.

@admiral This may also be a poorly designed attempt at letting people that enter the building know they are being watched. It is a proven deterrent.. but works better when they aren't walking to the back of your head too.

@arkandel said in Game Restarts:

But if - again, for example - Coin gave me permission to relaunch Eldritch and for the sake of saving myself the effort I just took the code, grid, wiki... everything about it and started it on a new server then I don't know what good that does anyone.

I would assume in this scenario that you wouldn't just get the came up and working and then walk away... you'd actually run the game at that point. I get what you mean though, restarting a game just for the same of saving effort doesn't make sense, it's got to be from a combination of things.. but because its easier is a valid motivation to be in the mix