@SqeakyClean What did they have to say for themselves?

Interesting but I’m sure you’d have found the same thing by googling LiberationMUSH. I can’t fathom using a tool for research when it’s wrong like… Most of the time.

@RedRocket Man, I’m a little sad I missed this game. Sounds like something I’d have tried.

The trailing off without resolution is why I don’t RP on forums anymore. At least in a MUSH people don’t start and abandon a story a week.

Is Songs of Avaria still running? It looked like an original setting.

@Pavel said in Lords and Ladies Game Design:

Is there some way to have the typical Lords and Ladies experience people desire whilst also removing the reliance on/availability of NPCs?

I guess it depends on the scope of your game and what kinds of characters are included. Like you said, NPCs are for the boring bits. If every character is nobility I think it’s probably fine to send your lackeys. If your L&L game has a population of commoners and lower nobility, people really need to think about who’s missing out when they delegate to NPCs.

In my experience the PC with the most power, or the first player to hear about it handles it using their NPC minions. It ends up as:

GM, to King: There are reports of zombie coyotes around the villages west of the city.

King, to GM: I move my personal army to go take care of it, and my best friend Danielle can go bless the land.

Abelard, Bridget, and Camille: How can we get involved?

King: Fuck off, it’s handled.

Later, some political rival: Why didn’t the City Watch Commander do anything about those zombie coyotes? They’re inactive and lazy!

This is why I’m a fan of the bottom-up version where Squire Manfred and Lady Ophelia get looped in. The scenario is more immediate and if they end up needing backup they can kick it up the chain of command. But the best way is for the GM to directly loop in as many people as possible because if you’re relying on players to involve other players… they fucking won’t.

Empathy fatigue.

To me, story hooks and avenues to distribute information is so important.

My experience with metaplots is that a big mystery will open up, a bunch of players will put together a PRP to touch the plot, it will utterly bounce off, and then the plot will go underground with the player it was always meant for and I’ll never hear about the mystery again. Then a new mystery pops up, repeat ad nauseum.

You really need to be honest with players about how they can get involved and actually be open to them doing so. And if you rely on hearsay for information to get around, a lot of the time that simply won’t happen.

UGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHJJ

That is all. I just had to get it out of my system.

I think ideally they shouldn’t play because they will benefit from insider knowledge and bias, and will also form their own positive biases about characters their character becomes close to. But as multiple people have pointed out, that’s kind of an insane ask. Nobody wants to put in that kind of work for no reward.

In my opinion the next best thing is for staff characters to be totally anonymous. That way they can be just another guy in the background without getting mobbed by people looking to do a little bootlicking for brownie points. If their identity is known, they are constantly going to be thrust into the spotlight ahead of anyone else, and people will be afraid to oppose them.

@Warma-Sheen I’m so sick of having to justify my stats. I shouldn’t have to write that my character was a career chef just to beg enough points to make toast. I’ve been told multiple times my character needs more experience for their build but I look at what I’m asking for and my character is in the range of “fucking useless”.

@Jumpscare Descriptions are supposed to convey as much information as possible with as few words as possible.

ChatGPT fills as many words as possible with as little information as possible.

“Do you think I should ban people for having conflicts with other characters and making indirect references to these conflicts? Do you think I should ban people from nicknaming other characters or police the nicknames they provide to other characters?”

Holy hell, talking down to someone doesn’t even begin to capture the hostility radiating off this admin. I feel like there’s a few possibilities available between “ban people for nicknames” and “do nothing”.

This could’ve easily been talked out. This is why people don’t talk to staffers unless it’s a last resort.

Maybe this is just the context blindness of someone who isn’t on this game, but aren’t they talking past each other?

The initial complaint claims that leadership has effectively been in long term radio silence and the game has been “basically frozen”. The question is if the game is in hiatus and if there’s plans to bring it back.

But in the removal explanation they don’t seem to acknowledge this, rather pretending it was a complaint about “slowness” and implying that in fact there has been a lot of activity.

I don’t know which of these viewpoints is more accurate, but if the game is open and active wouldn’t it have been better to just say that?

“Hey! Despite [extenuating factors], we are actually not on hiatus. X, Y and I are running the game and here’s a list of plots you can get involved in right now!”

I guess 80% sane is fine

Finding sane players for your descendants has got to be gaming on hard mode. I shudder to think about it.

I do not think these people know what encryption is.

So, Dune?

@Pavel lmao. What the fuck kind of game was this.