Making Domains Unique

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Making Domains Unique

Postby Gossamer on April 18th, 2016, 4:30 pm

Those are really good points you two. Thanks for the input. It's definitely food for thought.
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Making Domains Unique

Postby Fiachra on April 18th, 2016, 6:38 pm

I think Azira probably summed up the majority of my opinions. I would only elaborate a little.

There are a fair few closed areas, so as stated, starting new ones is likely not the answer. Instead, it might be a good time to look to the writing community and actively see if anyone wants to step up and take on an area.

Here are my thoughts on why. With more areas open, play will likely spread out a bit. Obviously some places will always have a higher percentage of the writers, but with more options, it might take a bit of the pressure of some places, and some staff. Which means that the staff in each area might have more time to pop into peoples threads and add colour.

Is it realistic to expect an AS, DS or ST to show up in every one of your threads? Gods no! But with more of them sharing the workload, it could happen more often. lets say ideally once per writer per season. Since what they interject can be area specific and really highlight the culture, NPCs, area itself etc, I think that would be awesome.

Plus new players kind of love when staff or other 'important' folks interact with them in a positive way.
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Making Domains Unique

Postby Baelin Holt on April 19th, 2016, 6:23 am

I'd love to see some natural disasters! It doesn't have to be to the scale of the Djed Storm (though I am a huge fan of that plot). Hurricanes and earthquakes are more the speed I'm thinking of.

Natural disasters give players in the region something to join together and work on. Infrastructure would need to be rebuilt, search parties may be necessary for finding lost friends or coworkers, trade may be obstructed and could impact PCs.

PCs could run their own plots. What did they do to weather out the hurricane? Did they wander outside during its eye? Did they join together with others to help search for people in collapsed homes after the earthquake rattled through?

I think it's a nice prompt to lay down for a city or region of Mizahar. And it brings a flair of realism that is a bit absent from cities that don't deal with much more than harsh winters or brutal summers.

On a side note, I don't think it's a bad thing that cities are run similarly. It brings unity and a cohesive structure to the site. The city backgrounds and culture are all already so different. Different cultures in Mizahar are one of the best things about this site. You shouldn't have to worry about making the cities feel different, they stand apart on their own merits already.

I would argue that instead of trying to make the cities more different, you might want to consider doing things to draw PCs from different cities together. Maybe something like religious pilgrimages with discounted travel expenses. Maybe the user base wouldn't jump at that particular idea (the travel time expense isn't going anywhere), but I'm going to stand by my thought that Miz benefits more from site cohesiveness and bonding than it would from trying to make each city more unique. Maybe something more along the lines of a penpal system or more inter-city trade.

I'm very sad to hear that you're bored. An administrative load is the easiest way to suck the fun out of anything, and I don't know how to fix that. Delegating tasks to others helps, but currently everything is volunteer based. It's hard to keep volunteers around for long when the work is administrative or tasky. Best suggestion I have is to pay someone to do it. What was tedious and time consuming then becomes easy money. That brings its own issues, however. I have immense respect for what you've done here and for how long you've been managing it. I've tried running roleplaying sites before and its incredibly difficult to keep them afloat.

Hopefully none of this post came off preachy or argumentative, that really wasn't the intent. I'm a happy customer, regardless of whatever direction the site goes.
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Making Domains Unique

Postby Gossamer on April 19th, 2016, 9:32 am

Baelin,

That was very informative. Thanks for the suggestions and thoughts. I know all the STs, not just myself, are benefiting from these ideas.
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Making Domains Unique

Postby Devi on April 19th, 2016, 12:59 pm

I love a lot of these ideas, especially events which are unique to the domain they're in as Arch mentioned (though I do appreciate how much work these can end up being). Still, I do think that those kinds of events have the potential to inspire a lot of PC-driven plots, even if the ST is quite hands-off with it. Sometimes all people need is a little kick to get going, a little nudge to be braver in interacting with the world in a way they wouldn't have considered before. Encouragement to try bolder storylines with a wider impact without fear of going too far or 'breaking' an existing, strong setting.

I love writing and reading about situations which give you or the character choices, especially where there's no easy, obvious answer to the problem. Say an unknown figure holds a loved one hostage, asking you to complete a task for them. If you complete the task then your loved one lives but potentially lots of others may die - if you don't complete the task then you save the others but your loved one suffers.

What if a whole city were effectively presented with that choice? Using Syliras as an example, as that is the location I'm most familiar with, say an underground sect attempts a power-play against the Knighthood. They manage to hold a key group hostage, medical patients in Soothing Waters perhaps, and make demands in return that would make them more powerful.

The Knighthood, as the governing body for the city, would officially make the decision about what to do but what would PCs do? What if the knighthood decided to sacrifice the people in Soothing Waters - would the families of those people do anything? What if PCs have friends in there?

The important part of rounding a situation like that off for me would be the consequences of it all - you can use polls to see what the players would do/would like to see happen and then let everyone RP it out in their own way.

In this example say the Knighthood decides to sacrifice the people in Soothing Waters but enough PCs vote to try and free the people there. At the beginning of the next season the consequences of what everyone decided are revealed – Citizens attempting a rescue of the hostages managed to free some but not all before being overpowered by the underground sect. The Knighthood came to their aid but were unable to re-take Soothing Waters. The consequences for players could be:

- Soothing Waters is held by enemies of the city, effectively cutting off the service and anyone inside for the season.
- Anyone who attempted a rescue attempt, against the orders of the Knighthood, will now have an arrest warrant issued against them.
- The families of those few saved from capture pool their funds to say thank you to those responsible for their rescue. Each rescuer received 50GM for their part.

Again it relies either on a lot of trust in the player-base or a lot of work on the part of STs but the interactivity of it is wonderful. It also helps domains feel more alive, more changeable and less likely to get stale, in my opinion.
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Making Domains Unique

Postby Nesska on April 20th, 2016, 2:29 am

I absolutely detest posting anything without having my signature made or any progress on my character at all; however, I've got a thought and I feel like I shouldn't wait to get it out. Forgive me if this has already been done, I'm still working my way through an overwhelming amount of backstory and information intake.

My thoughts: Launch a world wide competition that starts off at the city level but ultimately unites for a grand finale at one location. I'm thinking of a dungeon like quest or labrinth for teams of players. It could start off with city officials posting everywhere that the games are coming and they need the support of the player base to bring the competition to their city. Story tellers would literally make single posts, like subliminal messages, in all but private threads detailing an npc hanging a flyer or simply that the players overhear whispers while they're doing whatever players do.

Then, phase two begins after the excitement levels have increased enough. Players are called upon to support the construction of each city's arena or play area. This can be done by the donation of money or labor, promoting skill building threads. Players will be offered some token in response to their aid; free admission into the games, the ability to bet on participating teams, a small trinket, etc.

Once the arenas are built, each city hosts its own event, crafted by the storyteller of that city or whoever they choose to run it for them so that each one is unique. The trials could include combat, but I'd much rather see traps and puzzles; especially if it somehow incorporated forcing the player to look up information OOC. For instance: a door that can only be unlocked by setting the correct race statuette on a pedestal bearing the inscription, "The rarest species in all the land." Teams would be scored based on turns taken to finish the quest, attempts taken at each problem, completing the quest, etc. All teams would get their own thread with the same storyteller but all threads should happen simultaneously or be locked to only those invited to prevent cheating as much as possible. Encourage the use of skills and lores as much as possible as well as utilizing team building exercises like requiring two people to push stones in different locations while a third pulls a lever.

Once each city has a victor team they'll receive a free trip to whatever city will host the final trials or Superbowl esque event. Ofcourse there will be a prize. Maybe a gnosis from some on looking and pleased deity?

I think this will bring a lot of players together and give the storytellers all something very unique and exciting to work on. If we're lucky, it'll also encourage players to learn more about Mizahar's history and general knowledge of all that exists within the lands. Plus, you get the added benefit of having a new location in each city after the games are complete.

Now... I must return to character creation. If anyone would like my brain to further explode liquid ideas upon them, send me a message! :D
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Making Domains Unique

Postby Tanith Sitai on April 24th, 2016, 6:18 am

I was thinking something a bit different, like a god related lucky/unlucky dip of sorts. In my opinion, the gods don't meddle enough in the game, and I think a system where we can have gods interact with characters would be cool!

It could be an opt in system, for example at the beginning of the season the players decide on their seasonal registry if they'd like to opt in, perhaps it could be limited spaces, perhaps not, and then once a fortnight or whatever, a scenario could be paired with a player at random, with either a god deciding to screw around with them, curse them, bless them etc. For example, a player has to do something to annoy Eywaat, who then curses them to have birds follow them/attack them for a period of time, like a season.

To make it easier on the ST, only the first 3 to opt in could have moderated threads where their character may interact with the gods, or have something drastic happen, and the others could have simpler interactions that don't require moderation.

Deciding on and coming up with scenarios can be the responsibility of the cities ST, or maybe the DS depending.

I'm not sure, it's just a quick idea off of the top of my head.
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Making Domains Unique

Postby Shimoje on April 24th, 2016, 4:07 pm

I am going to go by the rules for this suggestion using this KISS method :)

Keep. It. Simple. Stupid.


How about calenders for every region that involves weather that all PCs will have to abide by? It is kind of depressing always having to deal with perfect sunny weather or coming up with rainy water in one post and then go look at another post on the same day and it is sunny out.
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Making Domains Unique

Postby Caesi Starguide on April 24th, 2016, 8:37 pm

Shimoje, Prophet makes the Calendar with weather for Endrykas, I think it is lovely so everyone knows what the weather is going to be like and weave it into their threads.

I also agree with the Gods/Goddesses being more meddling, even if it isn't all rainbows and sunshine. I want to see them come in like a "wrecking ball" (yep hate that song) and destroy some things, curse some people... I feel like most things are so... happy at times. I want to see a mod come into a thread being a God and meddling with that thread, whether it be Solo or not, with out warning the players. So they have don't have time to plot how they will react, it would be challenging. Hell, it doesn't even have to be a God, perhaps a random disaster occurs. Like a herd of Glassbeaks appearing, Grass Bears, Tornado, Hurricane, Lightening Striking the Ground (or person), a Serial Killer attacking the PC in the cover of the night.

This could be STs or even Guest STs since the staff is low at the moment the Domain ST could appoint Guest STs to do the random disasters, events, ect. in PCs thread (with the exception of the Gods) and give them guidelines to follow so people do not feel like "they are being picked on" and what not. They do not have to post in collaborative style either. Instead they would just make one random post and the PCs will then have to react and access the situation, working together to over come what ever happens to them. That way there is not a strain on the STs or Guest STs to continually post on a thread when they have other quests and modded threads to attend to, simply posting a "shit just got real" post and explaining and detailing what is happening would be sufficient.

When it comes to the God threads more then one post would have to occur since PCs are not allowed to play the Gods/Goddesses, so I can see where that could be troublesome for some STs, although fun at the same time if they have the time.

STs can put a disclaimer on the Codex stating that random events like that could occur so people have a warning and can not b**ch about it happening too. That why if someone gets butthurt, the ST can simply tell them to read the Codex more thoroughly.

Just trying to cover the bad that could occur with the good of such things. But yeah, I would like to see less happy-go-lucky and some threatening, disastrous, random, things occurring within the threads that challenges us as writers and makes our PCs struggle. (Maybe I am just evil though..?)
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Making Domains Unique

Postby Vivienne Clarissa on April 24th, 2016, 10:39 pm

i agree having more guest ST's could solve many things in my opinion and they could literally just (As a grader would at the end of a thread) Post as their own character as a guest and just meddle around or interrupt in the middle of threads and people could request specifically during their registry in the location if they would like extra events to happen too their character or not I Also wonder if perhaps there could be an area in a city where a character could (If they where inclined too) Fight things other than bandits or your typical yukman such as a dungeon or labyrinth stocked with with creatures that is owned by a nobleman promising rewards if you make it through alive or some such it would cut down on lower level characters just spamming ten thousand threads of fighting each other or training dummies and gaining little experience as well as not letting them think on their feet because in a battle between two PC The fight is pretty much choreographed from the beginning, as well as when fighting NPC Bandits Without determined stats or guidelines they could be anywhere from grandmaster ex knights or a common back alley thug so i think perhaps A Guest ST or The ST For a domain could create something similar of a range of generic NPC's that could be used in the city for players references to have some kind of guide to write generic NPC's anyway those are some thoughts i had and i wanted to share i apologize this isnt me trying to write its me trying to get these ideas out there as fast as i can because i a not so great at wording things professionaly so please be calm if my writing upsets you i apologize.
I Regret to inform any and all users i have posted with that i am retiring this charecter and from Mizahar for a time until i see my health is in a better place.

I Apologize to all who i have posted with and wished to post with me currently i cannot devote any time to this site as my health has left me behind mentally and physically i am sad to say it may be a long time before i return and likely it will be under a new charecter title

Too cut myself short i will miss you all and i will miss Mizahar Goodbye too all you lovely writers out there.
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