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@Jennkryst said in Arx:
populace had forgotten a lot of stuff
I think the neatest thing is that it wasn’t just forgetting about magic and history, but you could come down with a bit of amnesia, which my understanding is the whole reason for the journals, so you could write little reminders for yourself in case you forgot (and also so if/when you dropped the character and someone else picked them up, they obviously had a case of the forgets and the journals are right there to remind them of things)
i don’t think that was the thematic reason for the journals; the practice existed long before the Big Plot Point of Forgetting. it was a religious practice to honor wisdom and knowledge and such.
but also super duper useful for picking up a roster who had been played before, yeah.
she/her | playlist
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Will this game use Evennia, Ares, or a Secret Third Thing?
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@Juniper Arx was lore rich for people who wanted to delve with an active grid that had something for anyone and more than enough social RP for anyone who didn’t necessarily want to deep dive into all the fantastical things.
Arx also had a secret system that tied most into some aspect of the metaplot or history, giving every character something they could pursue out the gate that was more or less “theirs” and could hook in to wider story arcs.
Arx 2 is probably going to be a completely different setting and I don’t know what - if any - of the lore will remain the same. But I do know the way magic is meant to work is pretty fucking cool.
So I think the biggest selling point of Arx 2 (without knowing anything about it except the outline of magic we played around with at the end of Arx’s run) is going to be that magic system as a core part of the game, a new immersive lore, and a cool grid with diverse RP options.
Will this game use Evennia, Ares, or a Secret Third Thing?
Evennia
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@InkGolem evennnia, yeah
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@howyadoin said in Arx:
Arx also had a secret system that tied most into some aspect of the metaplot or history, giving every character something they could pursue out the gate that was more or less “theirs” and could hook in to wider story arcs.
To clarify, this was a system about Character Secrets, not a system that was secret.
He/Him. Opinions and views are solely my own unless specifically stated otherwise.
@Faraday said:
Pavel is probably right
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@howyadoin said in Arx:
Arx also had a secret system that tied most into some aspect of the metaplot or history, giving every character something they could pursue out the gate that was more or less “theirs” and could hook in to wider story arcs.
To clarify, this was a system about Character Secrets, not a system that was secret.
No, the systems were secrets, too. Every time I tried to learn a system to be able to answer questions on help chan or to try to recruit folks, it always ended in more confusion.
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dang, gonna have to remember how to set up a MU client.
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If there is gonna be an Arx 2, I honestly can’t wait.
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@Juniper So the first Arx was designed more for a pretty small group in that it was very much a mush with a very few immersive grid based elements. People coming from muds frequently said some version of 'I do not know how to play this game ’ as mush design was still a very top down ‘go out and find RP and get involved in story’. There is a lot about mushes and this kind of play I enjoy, but there’s some fundamental differences in Arx’s reboot, I’ll talk mechanically a bit about that and then start doing lore teasers in follow up posts.
So I am very big on interactive grids and the coming game might feel a good bit more like a mush merged with a RPI or old style moo in how much someone can do without needing staff to make it real. I view automation as kind of in tension with high quality personalized story telling, so I’ve been very pointedly trying to make sure I, and anyone else storytelling on the game, can try to focus on that and have as few barriers to doing that as possible. Structurally it is mostly born of me thinking about the different pain points people have playing a mush and trying to smooth them out, to the point where role players I know on other formats might be able to enjoy it, as I remove a lot of the blockers that we in the hobby grudgingly tolerate.
Mostly this means me designing a game that I hope would be better with my storytelling there, but it isn’t as reliant on me or any one person. I am believer that if things on the game engage people, if there’s mini games on grid they find fun and want to do, it is more likely they will be around and available for RP and creates a reinforcing environment. I expect my testing to take a good bit as it’s just too important I hit the right notes there.
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Okay, as I have time I’ll do some lore posts that will give a hint about the theme of the world and what changed, though it is still medieval stasis adventure-fantasy. So starting areas, beginning with Arx itself.
The Necropolis
“One stands before us in Durance. Speak thy name and testament.”
Arx is a city of history and memory. If one wished and spent time in the Great Archive, they could learn of each different age of the world. Of how the Great Necropolis of Arx was built, of how the Compact of Arvum rose with the now city of Arx as its capital, and how the Compact spread through all the world. In these walls, you could learn of the Sixth Age and how this place came to be the greatest city in all the world. We have no shortage of memorials with the names of deeds of the great heroes from those past ages, and there are reminders all around us of how many spent most of their all-too-brief lives here. Near all rest here, in our Necropolis. We built a golden age, an empire with Arx as its crown jewel.
That was before the Penitent’s arrival and the Shroud over Arx.
To this day, we don’t know who the Penitent is. Or was. There were always guesses, and the most popular was that he was the god of Justice descended in mortal form, the Sentinel made manifest and come to Arx to shield the city from what was to come. The Sixth Age ended with the Penitent crafting the Shroud over Arx, a great gray haze of a barrier that prevented all entry. The Penitent was near never seen, but we felt his eyes upon us always, and those inside that threatened the city were struck down by the Penitent’s magic without a word. Not quite without warning, his statues would turn to give notice, but near enough for most. We wouldn’t quite call it a prison, not when the Shroud only blocked entry to Arx, but any could pass through if they chose, never to return. It was, we were told, a safety measure against the end of the world, for the greatest city that ever was, a city of three million people, to ride out the apocalypse. Most at the time thought it would pass quickly.
It has been a thousand years.
“As Arx endures, we remember.”
Years winnowed us. There were the Great Callings, when the greatest among us would be gathered by the Penitent and ride out through the Shroud, never to return. Over the years, more and more stifled under the Shroud’s gray sky and the unceasing watch of a being we know nothing about, and traveled to see what world remained beyond. Age after age passed, underneath the Shroud, and we kept and honored this city despite a malaise that tested us all. Few who were born here did not at least consider leaving, even knowing that we could not be certain anything at all existed beyond the barrier. Of the three million when the Greatest City was sealed, there are under fifty thousand living within Arx today. But at least we were safe.
And then came the Vanishing.
Five years ago, during the Eclipse of Mirrors masquerade under the Blood Moon, a great mist entered the city and with it came the demons. Those with magic to fight, our Gifted, were not great in number in our current age, as how many could stand to remain and languish here when possible adventure called beyond the Shroud? But few as their number were, every last one of our puissant was killed or taken from us on one night, shocking us to our core and breaking that lifetimes long lethargy from us. We could see cracks in the Shroud now, fractures in the gray sky, and not a word from the Penitent as our city was gutted in a surprise attack.
We still know not what directed the attack, who the demonic foes were, or where those captured were taken. Some believe the city could have been massacred, and know not why it wasn’t. Some left the Shroud to seek answers, never to return. And we started to see beasts, corrupted abyssal things prowling the lands around the city. Minor foes we could handle, but more proof they could penetrate the weakened Shroud.
“Still Here.”
And now the Shroud has broken completely. The sound of breaking glass, like a million mirrors all shattering at once during the night. The lands are open to us, and as we are to them. Those with strength to do so gather to go forth. Others panic and pray, hoping that the Penitent will answer, despite that he has never done so during the past thousand years. We were born and raised in a city of ghosts and echoes, a Necropolis that has been the resting place for the greatest men and women of every age. But if one cares enough to read their stories, some believe they know what the gods will ask of us.
Because most of the heroes were born here too.
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@kalakh Stop pulling levers… actually pull them all. Send it. I’m here for it like the little chaos demon I am.
Also… squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
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Welp, I’m hooked.
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Okay, that’s badass. I am here for postapoc Arx. I like that it’s moving away from the L&L stuff that can cause a lot of interpersonal bullshit and cause massive theme drift. I also like that it is far enough removed from OG Arx that the theme is recognizable, but lore hounds from the original game won’t be at TOO much of an advantage. Good way to level the playing field. And I love that you have made systems to keep running the game sustainable for staff.
I’m looking forward to this.
Are you willing to answer personal metaplot lore questions that we never got a chance to uncover in PMs? Not a need-to-know. Just have one or two that I’ve been curious about since I stopped playing a few years ago. And I totally get if the answer is nah, fam. I’ll live, I promise.
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@Apos I’m gonna ask a juicy question:
What’s the biggest secret in the original Arx run that nobody uncovered?
Proud Member of the Pro-Mummy Alliance
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@MisterBoring Biggest is kind of subjective. Like if we are talking about mechanical clues, out of 4904 researchable clues, 125 were never discovered. At a glance, the majority of those were written in response to some player investigation and they never completed it, so didn’t see what the GMs came up with, like someone looking into the Stonewood, or about their character’s secret, and so on. Some were clues seeded in response to major events, like there were clues around Esera’s disappearance that were never found in season 1, for example.
But for biggest, in terms of ‘how would this change how people perceived the world’, I think it would have been a lot of the backstories of major historical figures and how things developed the way they did. Like I don’t think people found out why Onyx was kind to mortals, or what was behind some of the disputes or wars or things like that. Like I’m not sure how many people would guess what in Arx 1 would lead to the cataclysm hinted at in the above lore, though some probably would.
But turning back to Arx 2, what I think I’m going to do is post a bit about mechanics/design and then follow up with a
very unreliable narratorlore post, and probably keep at it for the different major starting areas every so often. So for the game design post of today:When making systems for Arx’s reboot, I separated systems largely along three different axes.
One is Player to Player, and for that all the systems around relationships, making social scenes feel very meaningful to character progression, the ties that strengthen characters and yield benefits and drive story, that’s one axis.
Second is Player to GM, and this is going to be primarily GM tables, where GMs (whether player or staff), have tables of groups of players to run stories from, manage the stories of the PCs at them, help guide them on adventures, keep track of what they need to do and what can happen. I didn’t like how often people stalled out in Arx 1, and specifically I think the ambiguity of whether a next step existed at all caused way more harm than good. I think we can make enough mystery without not knowing whether a story is over, or if it’s waiting on it to be written or if a PC needs to do things first in order to advance.
Third, and which was basically completely absent from Arx, is player to environment. I am just a huge believer in a living grid. This is what I missed the most in Arx 1. A PC, or group of PCs, being able to go just do things on grid, whether that is breaking into a place and do an automated crime heist, checking out a shard haven in the wilds, doing a spy mission, tinkering with alchemy and seeing if you are eaten by a demon, managing a domain, anything. The goal here is to have strong enough automated tools where people feel they can make meaningful impact upon the game world without needing to go through staff, and it to feel fair both to them and the stories of everyone around them. This has been a not inconsiderable percentage of my time working on the new Arx. Special shout out to the first PC to opt into doing something extremely high risk and dying. Risk, for obvious reasons, will be extremely clear and opt in.
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