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@Alveraxus I would be Very Interested to hear how this goes. Good luck!!

I do love a good, structured downtime between major arcs, whether those are episodes or just metaplot pushes. It’s nice to have some time where you know you can relax a little and pursue some slice-of-life or personal drama without the “tea party in the zombie apocalypse” issue.

But I do think you have to be careful about how long those times are. The Network tended to feel a little too long for me, but I think that’s also because it was such an isolated setting and blank slate characters. I could see being more chill with a longer downtime if it was like - the ‘episodes’ were missions into alien territory, and then the ‘downtime’ was being back at home base, having access to all the NPCs and your character’s life to pursue.

Balance in all things, I suppose. And making sure the downtime still has something hooky for people to poke at - this doesn’t have to be a mystery or something staff-run. If, instead of full amnesia, you had a situation where specific chunks of someone’s memory were gone at the start of the game, and each downtime they could pursue and ‘reveal’ that part of themselves if they wanted, it would be very player focused, but still give that feeling of ‘pursuit and revelation’ that could keep restless players engaged over the lull.

And it doesn’t have to be memory. In a horror game, it could be player-led additions to the setting - each downtime you get to create a piece of the town or an artifact in the creepy vault, or whatever, and explore its curse and backstory. Or if you’re in a weird magical school setting, every downtime each character gets to work on and demonstrate a single magical project. Just something to provide enough structure for people who need it.

I’d actually be curious to see how Alveraxus handles this, when they get there. In many ways, a generational jump is episodic, and I know it’s a thought I’ve kicked around as a problem to solve when thinking about generational games or time jumps. Anyone playing there that can speak to it?

@helvetica said in MU Peeves Thread:

But also… I don’t want to play in some kind of pre-established utopia. I’d rather play fighting for one and building one. Having no adversity and no socially structured limitations on a game sounds boring as fuck.

@Roz said in MU Peeves Thread:

…But I absolutely don’t think it’s wrong for a game to explore or reflect these sorts of prejudices that exist IRL (either in modern days, or historically). Some people who have experienced prejudice or trauma don’t want to touch anything that resembles it in their hobby space, and some of those people actively want to engage with it in their hobby space. It’s just different preferences here.

Agree with you both here. I think what’s most important for me is just that it says on the box what you are getting into. I don’t want to find out a year in that actually I’ve been living under authoritarian jam control.

I quite enjoy playing scrappy underdogs fighting against a terrible status quo. @Yam and other friends have run some great little games that let me tell amazing stories in those kinds of worlds. You wanna talk wish-fulfillment, man. Fulfills my wishes to think we can overthrow corrupt institutions. :')

I get where game runners are coming from when they try to push against the tide. I think there’s a tendency to over-correct and avoid some of the more uncomfortable elements of theme because you always run the risk of getting the players who actually think it’s super cool and fun to run around slinging slurs and call it historical. They are not there to overthrow institutions. There are there to be institutions.

As ever, the problem is players.

It’s easier to just lean hard into a more progressive setting rather than navigate the sticky bits.

@hellfrog D:<!!!

Side peeve: why do games insist that they are in beta for years? Why can’t we just admit that things change? ARX I BLAME YOU.

I admit, major theme changes do tweak me more. Minor clarifications, fine. You need that all the time. Major changes? Unless it’s a developing thing, it’s a little weird to insist major theme has always been like this, for real.

But systems always change in live games. Policies and theme always need clarification in live games. That’s not beta. That’s LIFE.

@GF And what percent of the population triggers the spawn of horrors on birth? All peasantry as well? Obviously the players are L&L, but how are you maintaining the necessary population to support the PC class if this is the case?

Are peasants free of this curse? (In which case, off with the cursed heads of the nobility!!) If they need fuck fruit, your logistics issues enter.

I have so many questions about this thematic approach.

Like the jams!!

@imstillhere said in MU Peeves Thread:

IMO, it’s not great to take a stance like ‘the church is in control of reproduction’ unless players are explicitly allowed to take a swing at that institution and that massive social control. Are they allowed or encouraged to make motions back to their own autonomy? Fuckfruits for all?

‘The church is in control of reproduction’ is one thing. ‘The church is in control of people’s bodies and everyone is chill with this IC because that is our ooc policy’ is uhhhhh less good.

I’m going to push back on this.

A game should disclose elements of its IC setting which are going to be dealbreakers for people. If you read an element of a game that is a dealbreaker, and decide “Oh man, don’t want to play there because that’s not something I’d find fun,” that’s good! The system is working, and now that game can select for players who will engage with the setting in good faith, and the players who would hate that setting can go elsewhere.

But saying, “Oh, I hate that element of the setting, so it’s a bad game unless you let me make a character who will try to dismantle that setting because of my OOC dislike for it…” well, that’s not good. That’s a dick move, unless the game is specifically set up to be ‘about’ cultural revolution.

Let other people have fun doing their thing. You don’t have to be involved. Not everything has to be for you, and no game should feel obligated to cater to or support characters that are just there to be disruptive because their players don’t like the setting.

@real_mirage said in MU Peeves Thread:

This one just has a unique world-building aspect that can lead to unique stories specific to the setting.

‘The Church has absolute control over all reproduction.’ is certainly a unique world-building aspect, and it seems particularly naive to gloss over that aspect of it in your post.

@Floof Me where demon is concerned, tbh. I just start yelling until Flamingo shows up.