I can't see Extreme believing hard enough in magic for airships to really fly,* and summoning spirits to do the work for you isn't the style of any of these factions. Such things would certainly be possible, though, and the verser who realized that might try it.
D.C. can still be there, it's just no one listens anymore. Some folks blame the government for the whole Apocalypse (see also: Rock, Rap), some folks don't see how the old central federal government can possibly keep order given the new status quo (and they have a point, see also: Classical), and some folks just don't see the point in taxes and patriotism anymore when things are so obviously different - who needs the government? (See also Extreme, Rap.)
And sure, I imagine several groups of people are trying to start new nations, with varying degrees of success. It just comes down to the internal social workings of a splinter of a Faction, in the end. Maybe in time, that will change. Maybe the verser will survive here long enough to see it change, but that's unlikely.
Pretty soon I want take out individual time for each of the genres and expand on its flavor of paranormal abilities, sort of like what we did for Death Metal with slightly greater detail. I'd want to do them one at a time, probably starting with Jazz ('cause it's next on the list). Once we have a clearer idea of what exactly is hands of whom, a clearer picture will emerge of how that's changed things since before the The Day.
__
*No apologies for made for any puns, real or imagined.
I admit that I am only following these threads in a cursory fashion. (No, that does not mean I am cursing at them.)
However, a comment was made about "bo stick" being used to refer to relatively short sticks.
I, at least, have never confused a bo stick with a jo stick.
Kyler's bo stick is rather short, but it is as tall as he is. You wouldn't want one too much taller than yourself, I think.
--M. J. Young
Ah. I at one point read a description of the stick's length in units, and I apparently greatly overestimated Kyler's height. Apologies for the confusion; it appears it was only mine.
Be evil...in one universe, have the two terms interchanged.
Or you can go for the puns...like that Constellation game where one guy had a quarterstaff which was an eight foot long roll of quarters....which yes, I know would break, but logic was out that game and Pun-ishment was in.
In that case, a bo stick makes you smell bad, and a jo stick makes you happy....so a bo stick has a dead skunk attached to it, and a jo stick is a short cigarette with illegal pharmaceuticals wound up in it.
Tad - ... I'm gonna go sit over here with MJ and Wodium now... :-P
And I agree that we should sit down and pluck out faction handbooks. Maybe you guys who actually know how the mechanics work can help us develop "magical styles," based on the fighting style templates, where different factions learn different specific abilities or different styles of abilities based on their theme.
It's more like outlining an electrician's skill set or the training given a Special Forces operative than putting together a martial art. We don't have Death Metal necromancers who can't learn Jazz teleportation because they're necromancers; we have a collection of abilities that Death Metal folks tend to have and a collection of abilities that Jazz folks tend to have.
For example, there's no intrinsic reason why a DMer couldn't learn to teleport someone just as well as a Jazz musician - it's just that he doesn't. Part of this is personal philosophy and goals; what he thinks is useful, what he's willing to spend his time getting good at. Another part of it is opportunity. He learns his magic from other Death Metalers; they know what they know. If he wants to learn transport magic in this setting, he either has to try to invent it himself or try to trick a Jazz man into teaching him. The latter is not only risky, it would require learning to do it the jazz way - which likely involves playing jazz, which in the mind of the indig is tantamount to betraying his Faction. The former is difficult and risky even if it occurs to him in the first place, which isn't likely; in his mind, that's something Jazz people do. Whereas the verser tends to think in terms of "if he can do it, so can I," the indig thinks of other Factions' magic as being somehow inherently different - it sounds to him like you're saying, "if a computer expert can do it, so can an out-of-work actor."
I was skimming the Magic Skills section while I wrote that paragraph about Death Metal magic earlier, so I'll probably start with them. I might do that tonight, or I might end up writing for other threads.
Incidentally, it occurs to me that the Jazz magical profile lends itself to smuggling operations.
Er, just a disclaimer about this:
It's more like outlining an electrician's skill set or the training given a Special Forces operative than putting together a martial art. We don't have Death Metal necromancers who can't learn Jazz teleportation because they're necromancers;
That kind of looks like I'm saying martial artists can't learn other martial arts, which I'm certainly not.
Oh, and a question for ya'll while I'm working up mechanics for skills and things:
We've said that Rock and Roll relies heavily on magic. What sort of things do you think a Rocker champion ought to be able to do? "Goodness Gracious, Great Balls of Fire" - do we take that literally?
I think that might be a bit violent for 60's Rock. I'm thinking of them - if you don't mind yet another D&D analog - as sort of bard/druids. Animated plants, intoxicating effects, nature-based magic. I admit, one with a hardcore Elementalist streak probably could manage a Fireball or an ice storm or something like that, I just don't imagine Rock as being particularly military.
Doesn't have to be military, but we don't have to restrict ourselves to old archetypes either. Let's come at this another way. Let's say they're attacked by -
Er. I just went back a page to see who we had down for "rivals," and I came up with this:
V: 60's Rock
1: Leftover Hippies with a Psionic bias and a Magic bias. (Since they focus mostly on mood alterations and mind-effects, their bias is divided between Magic for their Druid-like tendencies, and Psionics for the rest.)
2: Bonuses to their magic and defenses if they are high.
3: Bonuses to their magic when in a natural environment.
4: Capital in Memphis, the Divided City.
5: Supported mostly by begging.
6: Psychadelic music causes confusion, calms emotions. Very hard to resist if the Listener is high at the time.
If that's the totality of the faction, what do we do with followers of the King? Or the Ramones? We either need more than one faction for Rock, or we need to make Rock more inclusive.
John (A1nut)? Most of the divisions were yours to begin with; what do you think?
This might be a nomenclature thing, but I (who entered kindergarten in 1960) think of "Rock 'n' Roll" as Elvis Presley, Chubby Checker, and a few others whose really big music careers ended in the early sixties, to be replaced with "Rock", the mid sixties Beatles, early Stones, Byrds, Lettermen, maybe The Association, moving into people like CSNY, early Who, and then splitting into Pop Rock and Hard Rock in the late sixties with the rise of groups like Iron Butterfly, Led Zeppelin, Cream, and such on the FM band (the stations no one listened to before that so owners let their radicals program) and the conservative stuff on the AM side. There is, of course, an overlap, and a lot of the earliest Beatles stuff was Rock 'n' Roll, but in the main, that was in my mind stuff the previous generation played, and not the 60's/Woodstock generation. Thus when you connect Rock 'n' Roll to the whole 60's radicalism, you lose me--the former was radical musically in its time, but was archaic by the time the latter was prominent.
--M. J. Young
Wodium - I agree that Rock ought to be more inclusive.
We've also neglected Techno, as you've been saying, which I think ought to be their own faction.
And what about Folk? People who play, for instance, traditional Irish music probably have magic, but don't fit any of our current factions. (Great Big Sea, The Brobdignanian Bards, Blackmore's Night, Three Pints Shy, et cetera ad nauseum)
MJ - my musical education and awareness is sorely lacking. It's actually kind of funny that I'm even working on this world at all.
We're being to equally brutal to Jazz, actually. Perhaps we need to create some sort of explanation for the broadness of the groupings - the population has shrunk to the point that any Jazz supporter (say) needs to band with all the others for the sake of numbers. Ragtime, Swing, Bebop, Cool Jazz and Soul Jazz are all "close enough" to form a Faction, for example, perhaps with those finer distinctions forming the equivalent of political parties.
O'7s - I've got ideas for Techno which involve the wreckage of the alien craft (from The Day), but I'm not sure it will fit well with everything else. We'll see.
I admit, I've not been following this like I should. I've just spent the last half hour or so trying to catch up.
Yeah, I can see how one person would try to become a leader. I'm not sure that's a problem. I really like Randy Travis, and would probably follow him into battle, but I still consider myself a fan of country music as a whole. I would think of leaders as being generals in the same army.
The reason I've not been following this is because a lot of it is over my head. I can't understand a lot of this. Why don't you guys try to work it out, and I'll try to better follow it. If I see something I don't understand, I'll ask for an explanation.
I do like the suggestion made that all rock is rock, all jazz is jazz. If we try to split them up too much, no one is going to be able to follow it. Perhaps the population has been decimated so much that they band together, and put minor differences aside.
This is a bad analogy, I know, but whether you're from Germany, France, or England, you can still be white. Whether you're from Jamaica, or Zimbabwe, you can still be black. See what I mean? Elvis and The Beatles may have radically different music, but they're still rock. See what I mean?
In Alpha, the numero uno leader of Rock is called the Current King of Rock and Role, and has Graceland as his palace. But, its close to a primus inter pares, first among equals.
For one thing, you don't have large scale organizations. You have to have federalized, decentralized organizations because the large scale orgs are dead.
And the Legendary Bluesman runs the Jazz in Alpha.
But with both, I'll say there is a large group of important people beneath them.
For Beta...I'd say make the top leader the effective Chairman of the Board, and the board members are all the Champions. Everyone is turned loose to do mostly what they want to do within some broad guidelines. Its not a dictatorship because no one would stand for it.
In fact, I suspect that the DMers are the most like a dictatorship because they use 'operational' discipline on their own members who step out of line...."You've been a bad boy, but we're not all that mad at you. So when we blow your kneecap out with a shotgun, we'll shoot from the front instead of from the back."
This is IRA type stuff, I think, and I've heard the CPUSA might have used operational discipline as well. Really scary stuff.
DMers... yeah, brutal but effective.
I agree with not parsing things too finely. So shall we say then that "60's Rock" is now just "Rock" and includes pretty much everything that could be called Rock?
I think Rock may not have one single leader, but a loose alliance of the most powerful Princes of Rock, with their followers being mostly free.
I have big plans for P&W - I know /exactly/ how their hierarchy works.
Techno probably should exist as a faction, but without the emphasis on alien technology, since we're not using an Apocalypse.
As for Jazz... yeah we've been neglecting them pretty badly. I don't have a character sketch largely because I don't generally like Jazz, so I'm not really inspired by it. If anybody else feels like championing them, feel free.
No one has replied to this one in a few days. I don't know what else we could put down, so maybe some of you others have some ideas? I'd love to hear them.
Yeah, sorry, I've been meaning to put together some skill packages for various genres and let y'all pick over them and tell me what needs to be different. I've just gotten caught up in my game threads.
So, until then:
Techno probably should exist as a faction, but without the emphasis on alien technology, since we're not using an Apocalypse.
Does that mean I get to keep my four-fold apocalypse to reuse somewhere else? And if so, what happened on the day this world diverged from the history that Alpha diverged from?
I thought A1 agreed on using a Bioweapon Apocalypse.
I'm not sure what I wanted to be perfectly honest.
I'm not keen on the idea of an apocalypse. I kinda fond of the idea of a ShadowRun style "Magic Blooms Suddenly" version. It allows us to keep the working infrastructure, and then screw with reality however we see fit thereafter.
Scott had an idea for a multiple apocalypse, I kinda liked his idea. Why don't we all give our thoughts on it. I'm for going with Scott's suggestion, but of course, I'm open to just about anything.
JohnA1Nut, I'd like to take over as senior editor on this Beta, m'kay?
Tad - I wasn't aware we had a senior editor. Somehow I got the impression we were all talking about an idea someone had for a world.
Johns - It all depends on what we want the world to be like. We never really got together and came up with one unified idea; this is my impression of what each of us has been thinking this whole time:
O'Sevens has been picturing a world just like ours, but different - for whatever reason, music is important to people. Some folks have special powers related to their chosen kind of music, and musical subcultures have developed that have been lent strength and sociopolitical clout by virtue of those abilities.
Pope W T Wodium has been picturing a world just like Tad's Alpha, but different - instead of a nuclear war that reshaped society and left the radio stations and federal governing bodies thereof as the only remnant of the old government and social organization (with factions forming around genres and having skirmishes with each other), something else less gritty and more fantastic happened. Results were similar, but the biases are much higher, as is the general quality of life. Just about everyone feels a renewed connection to music, but some folks have absolutely ridiculous powers that render the old ways of doing things close to meaningless.
A1Nut has a very clear vision of a few things that he would like to see - music having the power in reality that it feels like it has when you listen to it, really high biases, big fights between groups of people who pattern themselves after their genre (with loud music in the background played by both sides) - and as long as those things are in there and done well, he doesn't care all that much about the rest of it.
_
Does that seem accurate to everyone else?
If it does, the next step is to figure out how we want the world to play. Then we'll have a basis for making decisions about how we want it to be.
Any particular reason? I don't have a problem with that, I'd just like to be kept informed of what is happening with it.
Yeah Scott, that's my thoughts exactly. Music having the power in real life that it seems to have. If Eric wants to take this from me, that's fine, just as long as I am kept informed of it.
I think Wodium pretty much nailed it.
Given my choice, I'd like it to play sort of gritty, pulp/sci-fi-ish, with sort a somewhat dark tone. This is a world at war, whether there's been a multipocalypse or not.
Wodium,
A1Nut has been acting as the senior editor. We defer to him, and wait on him to say the final decision as to what the world is like.
We don't do every setting like that, but Beta has been like that.
And it seemed to me as if we were stuck. I think A1Nut is struggling with some creative issues that all creative people have to learn how to deal with, and so he's not been able to provide direction because he doesn't know where he wants to go.
Now, me, I don't intend to be dictatorial. Its not in my nature, although I suppose I could try. John7, send me a thousand bucks. At once!
So as my diktat's I'd say.
1. There has been an apocalypse which is necessary if this is twin to Alpha.
2. The Multapocalypse works well for Beta. Let's use it.
3. Any major holes in the overall 'cloth' need to be identified, and day by day, various people as they see fit, need to try to patch one hole at a time. Jazz is one such, and so is the powers that each group has.
4. A1Nut had the thought of making this a contingency world. In my opinion, this is not as good as making it a parallel, but it is a good idea. So, in keeping with my general philosophy, lets have A1Nut write up a couple hundred words on an alternate history of this setting which makes it the contingency setting sixty years in advance of Alpha. We'll stick that in as a side note....."GM NOTE: A variant for this setting is the Descendant Beta in which biases have risen over the last sixty years....."
5. Tad's Alpha is fairly pulpish and gritty, and if Wodium's follows this tone to a degree, then I think OSevens will find no problem with his desire for a gritty pulpish world.
6. And as my last diktat--I resign as senior editor with this ringing speech...
"An Okay decision made today is better than a perfect decision made next week. When a bunch of smart guys have the same general idea in mind, and different ways of getting there, its reasonably safe to consult a quarter to make a decision because both ways will likely work. Beware the deflation of energy that comes from getting stuck. Apple pie is great, but cherry pie is even better. Yea Motherhood! Vote for me in 2008."
An Okay decision made today is better than a perfect decision made next week.
Or at least, it's better for a week. After that, it's debatable.
I don't know about the individual powers each group has. Theoretically anybody can learn to do anything with their style of music (we had that discussion a while ago, and it sort of resolved), it's just that some groups have an easier time of it than others. (DM has an easier time with shadows and pain, P+W have an easier time with healing, Jazz have an easier time with movement, etc.)
Compare the TRS-80, affectionately called the Trash 80, with your latest laptop. The TRS is the first personal computer. I think it might need an expansion to run Pong.
Primary difference? Speed of decision making.
Toss in 2)Vastly greater memory 3)And an ever gathering more effective array of software tools to make new software tools and you have most of the Computer Revolution.
I'd like a Wiki to address Point #2. A Wiki would give Multiverser a greater institutional memory. Point #3 is the Vampire article, the Weapons article...all this is primitive, but these are Developer's Tools we're building.
And that leaves issue #1 Speed of Decision Making. I want to do Open Source Gaming, at least to a degree. With everyone tossing in their bits, the end product can be better, and faster. Many hands make light work is true. And it can be much faster.
So that's good. OSGaming is an improvement in speed on Single Author Gaming or SAG.
But I think some method of closing off dead-ends, and fruitless discussions is needed. We've all been in the place where there's a half-dozen people trying to decide where to go tonight as a group. Chances are, most of the ideas floated (except for the really weird ones) would be better than standing around in the parking lot, and would be perfectly fine. But, sometimes nothing gets done, and people get more and more frustrated.
I've sat at a gaming table, and discussed with a few other gamers what we wanted to play. I wanted to run--sorta. Another guy definitely wanted to run. And there was another guy who had a few ideas of what he did not want, and so on. We discussed it a bit, and then being adults....got out a quarter.
I lost. It was fine.
Ideally, a quick discussion, some flexibility, and everyone is on the same page. Less ideally, we make a Side Note, and then move on. Still less ideal, we have a serious disagreement, and perhaps have to appeal to MJ for arbitration. And worst case, we spin in the mud, going nowhere fast, but burning up the transmission.
I wish I knew how to get people to move faster without being slightly blunt. But, its my experience that nothing but power works in some cases. I remember, because the sheer horror of it is seared in my memory, a Champions game at the library. There was a question of whether the heroes did 23 dice of damage to the supervillain or 26 dice of damage.
They argued that pitiful point for FIVE hours! I was not the GM, so I could not say. Cut this nonsense out, and lets game. I did pound the table literally on two separate occasions trying to restore sanity. At least one time they agreed with me, and then went promptly back to their evil ways.
As a result of that maddening experience, I have a 'five minute rule' in all my games. The player has five minutes to make his case, and for me to render a decision, and any appeals etc.. If he wishes to discuss it further, it can come after the game.
Speed is life say the fighter pilots. I'm inclined to agree.
Seconded, if anybody knows how to bring it about.
John7, I would agree with the proposition that it is resolved.
Let's see if I can remember the group names...
Death Metal
Praise & Worship
Jazz
Country
Rap
Classic
Questions for the floor:
1. Is it agreed that everyone has magic MORE than the morale-boosting Loud Music Magic each group has? If not, which groups don't have higher level magic?
2. Describe (and later stat out) 4-5 spells for each group. It is at this point that I highly reccommend you go loot Alpha's store of spells. Since this is a Twin world, it makes sense for you to have the same spells. Since this is a higher magic world, it makes sense for you to have more magic, and higher levels of it, but the Alpha bits are a worthy starting point.
Forex: Death Metal Spell: "Blood and Chaos" This spell sends racking pains burning through the targetted victims body even as madness assaults his brain.
Now go forth, and make four more DM spells, and then stat them all, and you're good to go for DM.
If you don't think that is enough, it is my recommendation to do this to all of them, and then to go back and add more as needed. Its like making a giant snowball, roll upon roll. This way allows you to say "I'm exhausted, lets finish up the corners, and call it done."
Eric
Tad, I learned a long time ago that unless you can do something better than someone else, it's usually a good idea not to tell them they are doing it wrong.
That said, I'm just throwing out ideas of what I personally would like to see. I don't know nothing about no stinking game design though, so I'm kind of at a loss of what to do at the moment. You say you can take it over, well, I have very little doubt that you can do it better than me, so I'm not going to tell you that you're doing it wrong. Why don't you and Scott have a sit down chit chat about it, and see what you can come up with. I liked a lot of Scott's ideas, and I like a lot of your ideas. O'Sevens had some good ideas too. However, you seem to be at a crossroads of what to do, so you do it your way. I just ask that you keep me in the loop so I can offed my 2 cents here and there. Sit down with Scott and see what he thinks, then get back to me.
A1,
No secret meetings, its all here.
For someone with practically zero experience, you're doing marvelously well. You rolled and got a 1@3 in Game Design on your first try. Keep on pitching in your two cents, please. Create a spell, make a character, write up a bit of history of a battle or something....offer some more ideas of what you'd like to see.
I'd prefer to leave it with Wodium and OSevens. I'm in the position of coming over to the neighbours to kickstart the car, and then wanting to go back home. I still have Alpha to finish before I want to help here. I hope the car is now fixed, and can get back to running smoothly.
And some of what I'm discussing with Wodium is general theory of game design stuff.
O'Sevens,
Amen, brother.
Point Two. I think the British model in Hong Kong is the way to go. The Brits had tremendous powers to do pretty much whatever they wanted to the populace. But they almost never used it. As a result, on paper, HK looked like a dictatorship, but in reality it was one of the freeest places on the planet.
So, someone with the power to move things forward who is very diffident.
Add in a populace that is aware of such problems, and tries to forestall them before they become problems--in other words a minor bit of self-awareness.
I think that may solve the problem.
At least thats my theory....
I can't stat these out - me and my 1@2 Multiverser Game Mechanics are going to step aside, but I can flavor four or five spells per group.
Okay, Death Metal and P+W are my little pets, so I'll do them first:
Death Metal:
Death Metal does have a higher-than-normal concentration of magic, more than the Inspire Morale ability all music-mages share.
1: Blood and Chaos - Even the most basic casting of this spell causes pain in the victim. A moderately skillful caster causes wracking pain sufficient to paralyze one target or distract a small group. A true master also causes temporary insanity in a victim who is the sole target of this spell.
-Requires that the caster be standing in shadows to cast.
-Requires that the caster gesture forcefully, caster's choice whether with an instrument (like a guitar) or an empty left hand.
-Requires the caster's choice of curse upon the victim. Each caster chooses one when learning this spell.
-Requires no material component.
2: Embrace the Night - The caster plays a haunting melody, calling forth the Abyss in her listeners. Those devoted to Death Metal get a dark, pleasant chill from hearing her song, while those who resist feel their faith plucked asunder by the insidious tune.
-This IS the DM Morale spell.
-Requires that the caster do nothing else but sing and/or play while the effect is maintained.
-Requires one minute of uninterrupted singing/playing before the effect begins.
-Requires the use of a musical instrument appropriate to Death Metal to be used as a focus.
-The caster can gain a bonus against those of a specific enemy faith by destroying a holy item of that faith during the casting.
-Those of Death Metal faith gain morale bonuses (we should figure these out at some time).
-Those of other faiths are not dealt damage and are not caused physical pain, but their faith is assailed by doubt. If they cannot resist the mental attack of the Abyss, their own faith degrades. Those with more faith are hurt worse (P+W suffer especially brutally from this spell). Anyone whose faith is completely destroyed by this spell is offered by the Abyss to have their faith levels restored, but they are DM converts.
3: Call Forth the Beast - The caster plays a violent piece, full of epic intonations and the music of war. Those who hear with violence in their hearts become wild, uninhibited, free...
-Requires that the caster play an instrument appropriate to battle (violin, cello, drums)
-Kicks in for neutral listeners after five minutes.
-Kicks in for listeners who are already in a violent mindset (i.e. attacking the caster) in thirty seconds.
-The effect is a provocation to violence. Listeners attack more aggressively, show no mercy, and have no inhibition against reacting with violence if that would be their instinct. (If your boss told you you had to work on Sunday while this was playing, you literally would stab him with a letter opener.)
-Listeners who kill while incited to frenzy by this spell are tainted by the Abyss. Each murder counts as two (or three) evil acts, adjusted still higher for particularly depraved actions.
-Those rare few who genuinely have no violence at all in their hearts do not hear the notes of this spell at all.
4: Shun the Light of Day - The caster holds a single, mellow, unwavering note. It need not be a particular note, nor a difficult one, but for as long as the caster can maintain that one note, Alliance-aligned holy magic cannot affect her at all. It ignores her as a target, passing through her as though she were a ghost. Other magic and physical attacks affect her normally.
5: Clarion of the Void Beyond - This spell is an escalation of "Blood and Chaos." The hallmark spell of Death Metal, this turns the distracting mental pain of that basic spell into a truly lethal psychic assault. This spell can kill if focused on a single listener, drive a small number of listeners irrevocably mad, or cause racking pain to everyone who can hear it. Although it takes no more time to cast than "Blood and Chaos," following the rules for casting time and duration as that spell, it is vastly more complex. A caster who channels this much of the Abyss through herself all at once risks succumbing to madness along with her victims.
I had the idea for this while working on DM but it works better for Extreme:
Blood in the Water - The caster holds a sample of the victim in her right hand and speaks her group's rallying-cry over it as part of the casting. Listeners who hear her hunting song are incited into a frenzy. If they can see the victim, they attack relentlessly without regard to their own safety, ignoring all penalties for being wounded until the victim is brought down. If they cannot see the victim at the time the spell is cast, they gain a general sense of the victim's location (similar to a vector) and may pursue the target in a direct physical path, giving chase for days without tiring.
-Requires a blood or flesh sample of the intended victim. If cast using only a cast-off article of clothing, it can be done but is significantly more difficult and does not confer tirelessness or painlessness.
-Lengthy ritual casting time, at least thirty minutes.
-Requires a pack of at least three Listeners to be inspired. Cannot inspire only a single hunter, nor more than 3 per Level (9 for any 3@ skill). Duration is based on Intensity.
-Both the caster and the listener must have some cybernetic enhancement or have committed some gruesomely inhuman act. An undamaged human soul cannot abide the induced insanity of this spell.
-All Listeners must be willing recipients.
I'd prefer to leave it with Wodium and OSevens. I'm in the position of coming over to the neighbours to kickstart the car, and then wanting to go back home. I still have Alpha to finish before I want to help here. I hope the car is now fixed, and can get back to running smoothly.
Tad, I appreciate the sentiment - you want to help. I'm not sure why we're obsessing over speed, though. We have no publishing deadline. We're fans building an idea, not employees developing product. I'm all for developing this world and encouraging folks on this board to develop material, but I'm also doing other things - running a game or three, developing other ideas (yours, for example), playing a game of my own. I'll work at the pace I find comfortable - efforts to "kickstart" won't influence that.
You have ideas about business models and game development theory; you want to see them put into place. That's fine. But is this forum, or more particularly this thread, really the best place to do that?
I understand that you don't want to see things flounder. But the pace of a "quick discussion" on a forum such as this one is different than a discussion held in a library during a game of Champions. A lack of posts for a day or two days or four may not mean that no one knows what to say; it may be that they're working behind the screens, or celebrated a birthday. In fact, right around when you returned with your statement about senior editing, I thought we were making an excellent start toward exactly the sort of "quick discussion" you were advocating: I laid out our differing visions of the world, and we were about to work toward defining goals that would allow us to merge those visions or come up with something else altogether. I expected that quick discussion to last only a day, maybe two. Then I take an hour out to eat supper and see a play, and when I return to continue the discussion, I find that our working pace isn't snappy enough for Eric R. Ashley.
We aren't game developers. We aren't fighter pilots. We aren't in a parking lot deciding where to go for dinner. We're a group of gamers communicating by what amounts to email. Have patience.
Praise and Worship
1: Amazing Grace - The hallmark song of P+W, this is their rallying song, their morale song. They are uplifted by it. Any listener drawing inspiration from this song is moved by it (literally - double the rate at which you walk or run), and gains bonuses to soaking damage, shrugging off poison or disease, breaking or resisting curses, and so on.
2: On Eagle's Wings - The ultimate power of healing and the ultimate expression of faith, this song allows a trio of Praise singers working in a choir to return someone to life who has been dead only a short time.
3: Battle Hymn of the Republic - Sung solemnly, when marching to war. This song grants the listeners accuracy and strength. It is always sung in unison by all the members of a Choir (their equivalent of a Company of men who fight together). As long as the song is maintained, they fight without tiring and are completely immune to fear.
4: Ode to Joy - This is their initiation song, sung over the newly annointed Soldiers. Those who have not been through this ritual cannot benefit from the P+W songs of those who have.
I'm popping in to say that you guys are a very interesting collaborative group, and I think you need to be aware, each of you, of your own strengths in this.
- Eric is well among the most prolific imaginations I've seen. Sure, a lot of it echoes the work of others, approaches plagiarism at times, but he also has the familiarity with the genres to know when he's getting too close. He's very weak on the mechanics, but he knows that.
- Scott, quite seriously, ranks easily in the top five people I know of in the world on Multiverser mechanics; I'm tempted to say the top three. If he says, this is how to do it, he's probably right. Sure, he's innovative--I'm impressed with the worlds he's run for his players--but what makes him really valuable is that grasp of system.
- Harry keeps denigrating his abilities because he's new to Multiverser and doesn't have the book--but he's got a solid background in role playing games otherwise, and so brings a fresh sense. Someone locked into this game is likely to say, this is what we've done before, and it works well; someone like Harry will say, I saw this done in another game, how would we do something like that here? That moves things forward in a significant way, because it makes everyone else think outside the Multiverser box. I've always believed that there wasn't anything that couldn't be done somehow with Multiverser, and having people throw things at me that I've never considered only confirms me in that opinion.
- John thinks he knows nothing because he's never played a role playing game and doesn't have the book--but he's been with us for several months, and has seen some of what the game can do, and is in the position of being able to bring ideas to the game that no one has ever really considered trying in a game before. Our publication of The Zygote Experience wowed critics, who observed that we succeeded at things no one else had dared to try. Having that completely outside perspective trying to make something work stretches everyone.
I'm considering the repeated suggestions of a Wiki. My gut feeling is that if we're going to do this, I'll get a new domain and set it up as a Wiki with our current hosting service, and then give a couple of people chief editor status, or whatever it is that controls the Wiki. But I don't think I'll do it until February, because I know we've got a domain renewal looming and with Christmas tapping resources around here I don't want to overspend or overcommit.
--M. J. Young