Well, I should probably start by saying I (Director) am not dead.

I hit a massive brick wall of burnout and thought two weeks was going to fix it, but it didn’t. I am sure there are many other reasons why this burnout happened – some beyond my control (real life) and others simply the realities of gamerunning that I had, admittedly, never before experienced. My background is storytelling, and I’ve DMed/GMed in a variety of different mediums – everything from forums to MMOs to tabletops to Arx – and I entered LA with a very specific vision. I think that vision quickly escaped me and snowballed beyond my control.

Rather than dwell on the negatives, I would prefer to focus on the positives produced by this experience. Creating LA was quite the undertaking. I have no regrets about it. I met a lot of great people and had a fantastic time watching players generate characters and interact with the world. The community was rock solid and full of some of the best writers/roleplayers I’ve encountered to date. I hope to go back to it some day, though I can’t promise that day will be soon.

For those of you that had fun, I am very happy to hear as much. That was one of my big objectives and why I did my best to engage the playerbase. Your enjoyment brought me pleasure! I hope you look back on your time there with some degree of fondness versus regret or disdain.

For those of you who did not, or are upset that things have stagnated, I wish things had been/were different!

I learned a lot about this hobby during my tenure as a staffer and gamerunner. I hope to channel these lessons into something productive some day soon, whether that be in the vein of low fantasy or modern Lovecraftian horror (ala Delta Green).

I am always available to discuss things via PM here or discord. Feel free to reach out. Cheers!

also s/o @Faraday ares/FS3 are great u the bomb

Synopsis:
Humanity has mastered space exploration and colonized the solar system. You are one of the unfortunate millions who remain on Earth, locked within the confines of a futuristic and dystopian Los Angeles. Society is split between haves and have-nots. Fear of synthetic humans, known as replicants, fosters open harassment and political violence. The world is dying. Countless species are extinct, vast portions of the continental United States are unihabitable, and the climate has been irreversibly damaged.

Nonetheless, you must survive. Work. Shop. Reproduce. Find entertainment. The dreary overcast skies, night and day, are bathed in eccentric neon lights. There is no shortage of food or water or spirits or crime. Gamble, eat, seek out employment with a megacorp, avoid street gangs, and stay under the LAPD’s radar.

At night, you dream of blue skies and white sand beaches and warm sunlight. A life you will never live. But then again, who does?

Site: https://la2043.aresmush.com/
Client IP: 157.230.48.227 / 4201

Other deets:
Hi folks! Have been working on this project for a few weeks. Always was a fan of Blade Runner and felt the setting might make for an interesting MUSH. Made a choice to diverge from some of the film canon to accommodate specific themes and technologies, so you’ll probably see a bit of general cyberpunk floating around. We’re entering the open beta phase of the game after ironing out a lot of the essentials. Grid is 95% built, relevant guides have been written, and all of the major lore pages are complete. In the past week, posted an exploratory prologue plot hook for interested parties.

If you’ve ever had an inclination to explore a setting like this, now is your opportunity. We’re accepting both human and replicant characters. Feel free to reach out to me here or via messaging ‘Director’ on the website. Happy to answer any of your questions, and I hope to see at least a few of you on the other side of chargen. Cheers!

Edit 1, 1/23:
After speaking with a friend of mine, I realize it is probably in my best interest to provide some additional information.

• I will be accepting player-run-plots.
• There is a metaplot, although it will be a ‘slow crawl’ during the beta.
• The world will change based upon player decisions, and I encourage players to reach out to me with their ideas – including places they’d like to see added to the grid, or if they wish for specific lore to be expanded upon. In this sense, players will help dictate what is built and what becomes important or influential.
• https://la2043.aresmush.com/wiki/philosophy covers some of these things, including the themes we’re looking to explore, in more detail.

Update, 3/5:
So tonight was the last major event related to the game’s prologue, meaning we’re in the process of wrapping that particular arc up. Chapter 1 will begin within the next 2-3 weeks and will focus on one of the game’s larger megacorps/criminal syndicates

We hit a few big milestones that I would like to share:

• 349+ completed scenes one month and some change later.
• Consistently between 12-15 active players during the day and 20+ actively players in the evenings.
• 20+ scenes in progress.
• 3 approved player-run-plots.
• Addition of one staffer.

I wanted to take a moment to thank my active playerbase. Everyone has been very inclusive and typically goes out of their way to make new players feel welcome. We have a plethora of solid writers. People proactively establish pre-existing relationships/connections, which dramatically reduces the prevelence of awkward first conversations and interactions. There’s a strong sense of community, at least from my perspective, and I am routinely surprised by/pleased with everyone’s contributions.

I intend to continue to prioritize quick responses on jobs involving application reviews, grid additions, and lore clarifications. My goal turnaround time is less than a day, if not less than 3 or 4 hours from job creation.

I hope everyone still hanging around is having fun. Anyone reading this is more than welcome to come check us out. Feel free to message me on ‘Director’ if you have questions. Cheers!

@bear_necessities

Roleplayers are the worst thing about roleplay. This hobby sucks, we’re all debilitatingly mentally ill for doing it.

@Testament

I think any worthwhile GM would concede they don’t know what they are doing half the time. It’s a lot like Whose Line Is It, Anyway?, at least in my opinion – the rules are made up and the points don’t matter.

There were a few things that could have been done better/differently. Staff seems to be acutely aware of as much. Nothing fundamentally wrong with trying a different system during a larger scene. Every mistake is an opportunity to learn something.

Chaos and disorganization are inevitable when player counts exceed 10. To staff’s credit, they wrapped up a large event in about 3 hours and no one walked away terribly upset. There was good communication and most of the playerbase seemed engaged.

Next steps are just about refinement. They called for constructive feedback, so it’s a good idea to submit a job if you have any ideas or observations.

@Rucket

Before the civil war, events specific to the isles were incredibly sparse. A few STs ran events now and again, but unless you were part of their core group or had connections to other fealties, you were stuck with parties on the grid.

The civil war is an incredible opportunity for a metric ton of roleplay. That is good. Full stop. Not seizing this opportunity is a crazy concept to me.

Realistically, the civil war STs have deadlines. Some stories are going to require multiple events. Those events need to be done within a specific period of time. STs are coordinating dates and times to prevent significant overlap.

I am also 100% with staff on this one. War requires commitments. You can’t be everywhere at once. You are going to win and lose. You could potentially strain some IC relationships based upon the decisions you make for your house. But that’s okay! It’s good roleplay.

This is easily the most fun I’ve had in Arx in 2 years.

Source, for the sake of disclosure and potential bias: am Mourning Isles ST.

@Apos Good to see you back bud, hope things are well, best of luck in the undertaking, look forward to what you have in store for the future.

@bear_necessities

Yeah honestly I don’t think any of the player run organizations have accomplished anything other than create themselves. Being a member of an organization, or its “founder” (see: someone who took initiative and asked to do something), has given no one a competitive advantage. People expressed an interest in creating something and staff thought it was neat, so they let it ride. Game has been out what, two weeks? And a lot of the foundation is still being written. Nothing is permanent in an alpha. System’s malleable.

@Tez

agree, player organization bloat trivializes their purpose.

@Snackness

This cannot be stressed enough. Nothing in Arx is really “urgent”. If something was urgent, people would reach out – usually well ahead of time – and indicate it was significant. A good example is the Turo/Navegant subplot. Staff has given people an entire month to think and submit their hooks/goals. If I need input from specific players, I usually ask them days, if not a week or so, ahead of the event.

@Whisky Good luck bud happy to see things taking off.

@Apos Good to see you back bud, hope things are well, best of luck in the undertaking, look forward to what you have in store for the future.

@bear_necessities

Yeah honestly I don’t think any of the player run organizations have accomplished anything other than create themselves. Being a member of an organization, or its “founder” (see: someone who took initiative and asked to do something), has given no one a competitive advantage. People expressed an interest in creating something and staff thought it was neat, so they let it ride. Game has been out what, two weeks? And a lot of the foundation is still being written. Nothing is permanent in an alpha. System’s malleable.

@Tez

agree, player organization bloat trivializes their purpose.

@tsar come play concordia nerd or 1v1 me on rust interventions only ur choice

@Rathenhope believe it or not I somehow did this after trying to ‘x’ out of BMD in the middle of a work meeting. I am become boomer.

@Rathenhope

@bear_necessities

Roleplayers are the worst thing about roleplay. This hobby sucks, we’re all debilitatingly mentally ill for doing it.

@Testament

I think any worthwhile GM would concede they don’t know what they are doing half the time. It’s a lot like Whose Line Is It, Anyway?, at least in my opinion – the rules are made up and the points don’t matter.

There were a few things that could have been done better/differently. Staff seems to be acutely aware of as much. Nothing fundamentally wrong with trying a different system during a larger scene. Every mistake is an opportunity to learn something.

Chaos and disorganization are inevitable when player counts exceed 10. To staff’s credit, they wrapped up a large event in about 3 hours and no one walked away terribly upset. There was good communication and most of the playerbase seemed engaged.

Next steps are just about refinement. They called for constructive feedback, so it’s a good idea to submit a job if you have any ideas or observations.

@Whisky Good luck bud happy to see things taking off.

Well, I should probably start by saying I (Director) am not dead.

I hit a massive brick wall of burnout and thought two weeks was going to fix it, but it didn’t. I am sure there are many other reasons why this burnout happened – some beyond my control (real life) and others simply the realities of gamerunning that I had, admittedly, never before experienced. My background is storytelling, and I’ve DMed/GMed in a variety of different mediums – everything from forums to MMOs to tabletops to Arx – and I entered LA with a very specific vision. I think that vision quickly escaped me and snowballed beyond my control.

Rather than dwell on the negatives, I would prefer to focus on the positives produced by this experience. Creating LA was quite the undertaking. I have no regrets about it. I met a lot of great people and had a fantastic time watching players generate characters and interact with the world. The community was rock solid and full of some of the best writers/roleplayers I’ve encountered to date. I hope to go back to it some day, though I can’t promise that day will be soon.

For those of you that had fun, I am very happy to hear as much. That was one of my big objectives and why I did my best to engage the playerbase. Your enjoyment brought me pleasure! I hope you look back on your time there with some degree of fondness versus regret or disdain.

For those of you who did not, or are upset that things have stagnated, I wish things had been/were different!

I learned a lot about this hobby during my tenure as a staffer and gamerunner. I hope to channel these lessons into something productive some day soon, whether that be in the vein of low fantasy or modern Lovecraftian horror (ala Delta Green).

I am always available to discuss things via PM here or discord. Feel free to reach out. Cheers!

also s/o @Faraday ares/FS3 are great u the bomb

Update, 3/5:
So tonight was the last major event related to the game’s prologue, meaning we’re in the process of wrapping that particular arc up. Chapter 1 will begin within the next 2-3 weeks and will focus on one of the game’s larger megacorps/criminal syndicates

We hit a few big milestones that I would like to share:

• 349+ completed scenes one month and some change later.
• Consistently between 12-15 active players during the day and 20+ actively players in the evenings.
• 20+ scenes in progress.
• 3 approved player-run-plots.
• Addition of one staffer.

I wanted to take a moment to thank my active playerbase. Everyone has been very inclusive and typically goes out of their way to make new players feel welcome. We have a plethora of solid writers. People proactively establish pre-existing relationships/connections, which dramatically reduces the prevelence of awkward first conversations and interactions. There’s a strong sense of community, at least from my perspective, and I am routinely surprised by/pleased with everyone’s contributions.

I intend to continue to prioritize quick responses on jobs involving application reviews, grid additions, and lore clarifications. My goal turnaround time is less than a day, if not less than 3 or 4 hours from job creation.

I hope everyone still hanging around is having fun. Anyone reading this is more than welcome to come check us out. Feel free to message me on ‘Director’ if you have questions. Cheers!