Though, I am remiss in not pointing out that he is considered a fantastic lover even though he has no genitals.

@Apos said:

@hellfrog said:

So who is the Blood Patriarch, and can he be my boyfriend

You don’t want that. Nobody wants that. Trust.

@Dreampipe They go quiet at the nagging feeling that they forgot something at the start of the evening. After a few quiet minutes, they suddenly bolt upon remembering that they forgot to take the Hell Hound out for walkies and it is now probably using the household staff as chew toys to vent it’s pent up energy.

@Pavel Retcottonwood.

@Roz That was my interpretation as well.

What are khati?

The mention of vampires and lycans in a previous post and the description of beings with wings, long claws, and water breathing in the last one makes me think this a post-human setting like Arnold K’s Centerra.

They sound like the descendants of the Oathlands and the Lyceum, respectively, or perhaps a reimagining. Hopefully each group has some nastiness to them so that we don’t have a reprise of Thrax getting dunked on morally for slavery.

I love seeing some Tannistry. It scratches that Crusader Kings itch.

@Apos said:

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.

You probably already have a solution in mind for addressing this, but Pathologic 2 and 3’s Mind Map might have some ideas to steal: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/pathologic-2-mindmap-a-questlog-people-actually-read

Pathologic are games built around philosophy, mysticism, and mysteries, and the Mind Map works really well as a quest log for that atmosphere as well as the word heavy narrative. Unfortunately, the Mind Map is built heavily around the GUI so some work would need to be done in translating it into something that works on a MU*

EDIT: Maybe have some sort of GUI on the website? But that makes the player have to leave the MU* client to go look at their “quest log.”

@Kestrel said:

For my part, I recently found myself deep-diving some studies on how preferences for certain genres and literary themes correlate with certain personality traits.

Game design theory is right up my alley. Care to share the sauce?

In response to the main question of the thread, I am not sure anyone intentionally incorporates game design elements to weed out specific subsets of players. I think people just try to build the best game for what they’re looking for, and if that weeds out certain groups that the designer didn’t want playing the game anyways, that’s a bonus, as Apos and Faraday said.

@Apos said:

…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.

@Apos said:
<lore>

Ooooh, a darker and edgier post-apocalyptic Arx.

@NotSanni said:

This has reminded me to back it

I’m glad I posted something then, as there is only 3 days left to back it.

Adding into this, I would love to see this expand into a megagame. It may take away some of the mini-games for the wizards - for instance, of the noble court positions are played by players, then the Warlock loses a chunk of what they do - but I think there is the start of a fantastic megagame hiding in here, especially since megagames tend to be a collection of various role-specific mini-games mixed with the politics of a bunch of various factions with disparate goals stuck in a big room together.

@Thionoxial I am concerned that the side plots that can happen in a larger central hub might distract from the missions. I’m imaging several missions going on at the same time, and missions being multi-scene, multi-RL day affairs.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sjgames/seven-part-pact

Part board game, part tabletop RPG, and part collaborative storytelling experience. I’ve backed it; though, it is rather pricey. Also, I’m going to have a hard time finding a group to play it with. Anyways, here’s the rundown in their words:

Set in the magical archipelago of Isha, the game follows seven legendary wizards who protect their homeland while struggling with loneliness, mortality, and the burdens of power. Players take on the role of one of seven unique wizards, each with their own abilities, backstory, and dedicated rulebook. A shared Grimoire can change the rules of the game, while an Orrery at the center of the table helps shape the story as players guide their Domains through months and years of gameplay.

The seven greatest wizards in the world convene upon the Faraway Sea, their magic aligned in the service of an ancient Pact. Each governs one seventh of this world and wields power beyond comprehension over the very fabric of the cosmos. While these wizards are indeed mighty, so too are they trapped: by the pressures of masculinity, by the weight of their loneliness, by the tolling bell of their own mortality. Each has a choice: will he maintain the systems which imprison him, or will he rebel against his pact and destroy the fragile balance of his world?

@junipersky That middle link is the article I linked to.

The main thing I support is the penalties against district boards for bad student performance. If things are going that poorly those at the top should get canned.

I am trying to practice what I preach more. Anymore, I will reach out in pages or OOC and outright state what my goal is for the scene, which might not be what my character’s goal is, even if it’s revealing some secret or ulterior motive of my character and inquire what other’s goals are. Then, with all of that in the open, I write my poses as best as I can to push the scene towards everyone’s goals.

@junipersky I think every state should adopt something similar to the Mississippi Miracle and get it right.

@Thionoxial said:

or, for that matter, an actual X-Com mush. But VINTAGE.

Like you X-com call of cthulhu bullshit while pretending to be ordinary people in 1940s noir chicago or whatever.

I got a few likes to the below similar ideas, so there is at least a modicum of interest amongst this crowd.

Ominous said:

A setting in the X-Files, Delta Green, SCP, Control, Triangle Agency, etc. vein. You could even include World of Darkness stuff, but the setting would mostly from the viewpoints of a government agency of “Hunters” and the occasional Mage, Vampire, Werewolf, whatever that decided to work with the agency. The server is mostly PVE as PCs work together on missions they take, but the server could also can go the Paranoia TTRPG route by having some NPCs and PCs belong to secret societies, have ulterior motives, be given contrary secret missions from the Directorate, etc. to keep people a little uneasy and wary. Operations could be investigations into weird shit, neutralization of weird shit (more tactics and combat oriented), covert ops (cause weird shit to happen so we get a funding increase), etc.

Ominous said:

@somasatori said in Missed Settings:

@bear_necessities said in Missed Settings:
Take the guiding principles behind a West Marches game for this: make the standard town area be your home base where people get refueled and are generally safe. The plots and scenes run by GMs/Keepers/player-STs-if-you-allow-PrPs are where the danger comes in. All of the in-town stuff is handled by players and any player ST reps you have, the only staff involvement in plot stuff happens when you assemble investigatory teams to search out the Mythos lore. You wouldn’t be running a town MUSH, the players would just be doing their social RP and whatnot while you occasionally (weekly or semi-weekly basis) come in to run mythos stories.

This is what I was going to say. In my vision of the game, the base the agents are stationed at is like Los Alamos for the Manhattan Project, Groom Lake (Area 51), or something. The base is the town and has facsimiles (bars, restaurants, a theater, etc. staffed by soldiers or their family members) and no one leaves except for missions, until they and their family, if any, are “decommissioned”. Mages, vampires, werewolves, etc. can’t be decommissioned; well, they can, but the agency uses the sun, silver bullets, etc. instead, which probably adds to the uneasiness people have around their supernatural allies. Just how allied are they, when there is no opt out option?

@Wuff