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@Alveraxus said in Thoughts on pre-planned Time Jumps to Retire Characters and Play Their Descendants:

After a time skip, I can’t see myself searching out a player whose RP I don’t enjoy and trying to lay down some groundwork between our new personas. That seems to be a masochistic exercise so that I can claim to be a better role player, and I don’t have the time to undertake unpleasant RP to make some sort of strange claim of superiority.

I do admit that this comment confuses me. Where do you see this happening in what I’ve said so far?

It was not in anything you said. It was an attempt to show why the time jump would not result in that much of a reshuffling of existing group dynamics.

It was meant to say why players A, B, and C will continue to focus their play on one another, even while remaining open to occasional RP with players D and E and excluding F. It wasn’t meant to imply anything negative about the qualities of any of those players (even player F, despite my statement about masochism). It was merely an observation that some people mesh nicely, and others don’t, and it seemed unlikely that the time jump would significantly alter those dynamics.

(I think you already understood my more significant point, so I’m not trying to convince you further. I’m merely trying to dispel any confusion about where my statements originally came from)

@NotSanni Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound as if I was in favor of it. I was simply noting it as what I believe is a valid concern.

I brought up the counterpoint of how technological growth affects the job market simply because I try my best to view all sides of an issue.

I hope this will be clear and not taken as simple negativity. I am not saying this is a bad idea. However, I wonder if it will have the effects you expect.

While given ‘names’ will age out and die and be replaced by their progeny, I believe all you will do is replace the definition of ‘character.’ Rather than having them represent individuals, they will represent families and bloodlines.

An excellent example of the flaw in this thinking is:

It will prevent stagnation - instead of the same Duke Duke of Earle sitting in the role for three years, after a year he dies and a new Duke of Earle takes over. Or all of that political scheming comes to roost and two rivals vie for the seat.

Mechanically, aside from a name change, how is that different from most other Lords & Ladies games? Sure, we’ve gone from Duke Baron I of Earl to Duke Baron III of Earl. However, it is still the same player in charge of the dukedom (unless another player has overthrown the old family, but that seems about as likely as a non-generational overthrow in your average Lords & Ladies game).

And given that players will gravitate to other players whose RP they enjoy, I doubt the time skip will do much to break up existing cliques. I strongly suspect that most players will simply make new personas that continue the relationship of the previous personas (our families have stood beside one another for generations).

After a time skip, I can’t see myself searching out a player whose RP I don’t enjoy and trying to lay down some groundwork between our new personas. That seems to be a masochistic exercise so that I can claim to be a better role player, and I don’t have the time to undertake unpleasant RP to make some sort of strange claim of superiority.

To be clear, I’m not saying this is a terrible idea or anything like that. The periodic resets allow people to try something new, especially if the new experiment doesn’t work out; the player can move on to something else in 18 months. I’m simply offering my perception that this concept probably won’t be some earth-shaking end-all-be-all transformation of the genre.

And the reason I’m saying that is not to be harmful. Indeed, as I said, it definitely does have the potential to enhance the game if done well. I bring these issues up because if the setting overly focuses on this concept, especially with unrealistic expectations, then there is a genuine danger of the idea moving from ‘enhancement’ to ‘gimmick.’