- Joined
- May 17, 2016
- Messages
- 1,513
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- 3,018
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- 403
- Age
- 26
- Location
- Regalia.
- Website
- conflee.tumblr.com
Hello! Like always, to hell with the intro, lets get into the meat. Ill open by saying I know this year hasnt been a great representation of how Progressions should work, because a lot of stuff came up to cripple the story, like Marty's paperwork woes and such. This stuff is partially addressing that but mostly focused on the general structure of the Yearly Event Progressions, and the options for Quests in the future.
Palate Cleansers:
First things first, I think a palate cleanser is due for Staff and Players alike once the Dragon Arc is wrapped up. For anyone who doesn't know, a Palate Cleanser is basically something new, fresh, no so exciting. (usually its a term used for food, a neutral flavor to eat between things so you can taste the flavor or the next without issues but for writings ill use it as a break in style and theme to 'reset' everyone so to speak). I think one of the AU settings would be fun to do this with, though it would need to be something different enough from the usual Alorian theme and setting that it stands out as something refreshing, and it would generally need to be a bit more light in tone I think. The idea for doing this, and having the AU take precedence over other Progression for a short time (maybe 2 months at the forefront) is that Staff will have a chance to write, build, and er- Progress, a world that's new and unique to the normal Medieval setting, and Players would be able to toy around in it in a looser environment, relax after everything, etc.
Overarching Antagonists:
There is a general idea in writing, that the best antagonists are the ones who reflect some aspect of the main character back at them, either in being the opposite or in sharing some traits. For a scenario like Massive, that's not quite feasible, but I think we are, close, to a good answer. In the past most antagonists seem to have had conflicting views with a large portion of the populace, though they delved into Generic Evil TM a lot too to make up for the lack of personal connection to most people. Lo literally ate people, etc. And I think this can be fine as long as the RP they drive is engaging enough. But there has always been this kind of, sense, for me and others I've asked, as to a real purpose for the endless series of events always hitting Regalia outside of the 'we are here' thing. Giving a sufficiently powerful antagonist(s) a hand in these events, while establishing why they target Regalia, would be a good bridger to connect some otherwise rather strung about plots. My recommendation would be the Midnight Court really: Its made of of the Arloran King, and some of his top men, who were previously in conflict with Regalia, and then were turned into some supernatural proto-Deathling things by Estel. They made Lo, so they already have a hand in that, just give them more to do in the future, leave little hints about their involvement around, and boom. We go from 'everything happens in Regalia because duh' to 'everything happens to Regalia because we pissed off some guys who happened to know a demon lady'. The reason im not saying make it Estel herself is because, if Arken are anything to base it on, if Estel really wanted us gone we would be gone, and suggesting we could ever beat her is a massive stretch and would undoubtedly lead to some deus ex being needed.
Structure and Forethought:
This one is a lot, but basically, End of the Year Progression needs to be formed into an idea and ready to be acted on by September, but not necessarily acted on right then. And that doesn't mean it has to stay as it is envisioned at this point, but preplanning, gathering ideas from Lore Staff and player feedback, mapping out some rough plot beats, etc, should be in a state that if you had to it could be made happen. From then on, until the decided time for it to actually begin, Staff would basically be free to examine what everyone came up with, poke holes in it, elaborate further, etc, and they would have more time to think about the best way to execute things. To pick into one thing that was a bit fun, but really disconnecting this year with the Dragon Arc: The Skyrim Parody. While it was fun, and kind of funny, to take the intro from Skyrim line by line and use it to introduce dragons, in practice it really just left everyone kind of, out of the scene entirely, and made the foreshadowing less foreshadowed and more telegraphed than anything. I think if more time had been given to think it over, it probably wouldn't have happened. Beyond the contents of events, there's also the effects to go along with it, which would also have more time to flesh out. Pre-building, plotting out events, etc would give more time that a few hours to throw together, say, another Fort Loyalty, etc. Fort Loyalty could have been introduced as a new Mercenary keep, before financial woes hit the construction company and it was left unfinished and abandoned- until it was suddenly needed by the Emperor and was rushed out the last bit in time for use. Instead of it magically popping up then vanishing.
Foreshadowing and Buildup:
Following up on the above, Foreshadowing. It is useful in a story because it lays ideas in people's heads and then when the thing happens, it doesn't seem so out of left field. It sets some precedent in people's mind that "this is a thing that could happen or might happen" then it happens. Preferably foreshadowing should be of things months down the line, so its not too obvious, but it would help with the buildup of events. Laying the foundation for whats going to come is important so it doesn't feel random and spontaneous, especially if its going to be a yearly thing. Using this progression again as an example: We had Progressions for months building up the Elven conflict and the Elven Empire's return- then a dragon showed up and was like 'lol sup'. While it might be more obvious, in the end I think having this year's event be something the Elves caused (not an occupation though), like say, some new strain of Undeadism or something, instead of a dragon casually sliding into frame, would have been a lot better and less random and jarring.
Documented Plans:
Basically, ill keep this one short: When ideas are finalized mostly, or even before they are solidly, they should be kept in documents with the information needed to make them happen, incase emergencies happen again like this time with Marty's paperwork issues. That way things don't stall out for months because someone is busy. Its not anyone's fault if issues do come up, IRL > Massive, but there should be some contingency in mind for this sort of thing.
Questing:
This final thing isn't as involved as the others, but its simple. Give Approved Charters the ability to organize Progression Reports like Nobles and Gangs and Military people can. One of the issues that felt heavy during the Dragon Arc this year was a major lack of investment or involvment from other players. People inside the Noble System, as either guards, house guards, or nobles, were involved in events ordinary uninvolved players had not even the faintest glimmer of an idea were a thing, such as the rescue on the mountaintop. Having other groups be able to try to get their hands dirty and into the muck would help a lot with this- and making it Approved Charters is basically just opening the doors for stuff. Right now most are lead by Nobles anyway but it means there's more of a chance for non-Nobility to be calling shots for something in the future if they put in the work.
That is, basically, it. A long post again, I know, im becoming a meme with this, but Ive been sitting on these ideas for almost a month now thinking them over and I think its at a point that its solid. The general idea is simply giving more time, and putting for forethought into now only what happens, but how and why, and bridging things better, and pacing things better.
Ill just leave it there I guess- any thoughts? TELL ME! lol
.
Palate Cleansers:
First things first, I think a palate cleanser is due for Staff and Players alike once the Dragon Arc is wrapped up. For anyone who doesn't know, a Palate Cleanser is basically something new, fresh, no so exciting. (usually its a term used for food, a neutral flavor to eat between things so you can taste the flavor or the next without issues but for writings ill use it as a break in style and theme to 'reset' everyone so to speak). I think one of the AU settings would be fun to do this with, though it would need to be something different enough from the usual Alorian theme and setting that it stands out as something refreshing, and it would generally need to be a bit more light in tone I think. The idea for doing this, and having the AU take precedence over other Progression for a short time (maybe 2 months at the forefront) is that Staff will have a chance to write, build, and er- Progress, a world that's new and unique to the normal Medieval setting, and Players would be able to toy around in it in a looser environment, relax after everything, etc.
Overarching Antagonists:
There is a general idea in writing, that the best antagonists are the ones who reflect some aspect of the main character back at them, either in being the opposite or in sharing some traits. For a scenario like Massive, that's not quite feasible, but I think we are, close, to a good answer. In the past most antagonists seem to have had conflicting views with a large portion of the populace, though they delved into Generic Evil TM a lot too to make up for the lack of personal connection to most people. Lo literally ate people, etc. And I think this can be fine as long as the RP they drive is engaging enough. But there has always been this kind of, sense, for me and others I've asked, as to a real purpose for the endless series of events always hitting Regalia outside of the 'we are here' thing. Giving a sufficiently powerful antagonist(s) a hand in these events, while establishing why they target Regalia, would be a good bridger to connect some otherwise rather strung about plots. My recommendation would be the Midnight Court really: Its made of of the Arloran King, and some of his top men, who were previously in conflict with Regalia, and then were turned into some supernatural proto-Deathling things by Estel. They made Lo, so they already have a hand in that, just give them more to do in the future, leave little hints about their involvement around, and boom. We go from 'everything happens in Regalia because duh' to 'everything happens to Regalia because we pissed off some guys who happened to know a demon lady'. The reason im not saying make it Estel herself is because, if Arken are anything to base it on, if Estel really wanted us gone we would be gone, and suggesting we could ever beat her is a massive stretch and would undoubtedly lead to some deus ex being needed.
Structure and Forethought:
This one is a lot, but basically, End of the Year Progression needs to be formed into an idea and ready to be acted on by September, but not necessarily acted on right then. And that doesn't mean it has to stay as it is envisioned at this point, but preplanning, gathering ideas from Lore Staff and player feedback, mapping out some rough plot beats, etc, should be in a state that if you had to it could be made happen. From then on, until the decided time for it to actually begin, Staff would basically be free to examine what everyone came up with, poke holes in it, elaborate further, etc, and they would have more time to think about the best way to execute things. To pick into one thing that was a bit fun, but really disconnecting this year with the Dragon Arc: The Skyrim Parody. While it was fun, and kind of funny, to take the intro from Skyrim line by line and use it to introduce dragons, in practice it really just left everyone kind of, out of the scene entirely, and made the foreshadowing less foreshadowed and more telegraphed than anything. I think if more time had been given to think it over, it probably wouldn't have happened. Beyond the contents of events, there's also the effects to go along with it, which would also have more time to flesh out. Pre-building, plotting out events, etc would give more time that a few hours to throw together, say, another Fort Loyalty, etc. Fort Loyalty could have been introduced as a new Mercenary keep, before financial woes hit the construction company and it was left unfinished and abandoned- until it was suddenly needed by the Emperor and was rushed out the last bit in time for use. Instead of it magically popping up then vanishing.
Foreshadowing and Buildup:
Following up on the above, Foreshadowing. It is useful in a story because it lays ideas in people's heads and then when the thing happens, it doesn't seem so out of left field. It sets some precedent in people's mind that "this is a thing that could happen or might happen" then it happens. Preferably foreshadowing should be of things months down the line, so its not too obvious, but it would help with the buildup of events. Laying the foundation for whats going to come is important so it doesn't feel random and spontaneous, especially if its going to be a yearly thing. Using this progression again as an example: We had Progressions for months building up the Elven conflict and the Elven Empire's return- then a dragon showed up and was like 'lol sup'. While it might be more obvious, in the end I think having this year's event be something the Elves caused (not an occupation though), like say, some new strain of Undeadism or something, instead of a dragon casually sliding into frame, would have been a lot better and less random and jarring.
Documented Plans:
Basically, ill keep this one short: When ideas are finalized mostly, or even before they are solidly, they should be kept in documents with the information needed to make them happen, incase emergencies happen again like this time with Marty's paperwork issues. That way things don't stall out for months because someone is busy. Its not anyone's fault if issues do come up, IRL > Massive, but there should be some contingency in mind for this sort of thing.
Questing:
This final thing isn't as involved as the others, but its simple. Give Approved Charters the ability to organize Progression Reports like Nobles and Gangs and Military people can. One of the issues that felt heavy during the Dragon Arc this year was a major lack of investment or involvment from other players. People inside the Noble System, as either guards, house guards, or nobles, were involved in events ordinary uninvolved players had not even the faintest glimmer of an idea were a thing, such as the rescue on the mountaintop. Having other groups be able to try to get their hands dirty and into the muck would help a lot with this- and making it Approved Charters is basically just opening the doors for stuff. Right now most are lead by Nobles anyway but it means there's more of a chance for non-Nobility to be calling shots for something in the future if they put in the work.
That is, basically, it. A long post again, I know, im becoming a meme with this, but Ive been sitting on these ideas for almost a month now thinking them over and I think its at a point that its solid. The general idea is simply giving more time, and putting for forethought into now only what happens, but how and why, and bridging things better, and pacing things better.
Ill just leave it there I guess- any thoughts? TELL ME! lol
.
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