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Two Elevator Pitches
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I got the bug to work on a new Evennia MUSH project. Help me workshop some ideas. I’ve got two that are fleshed out enough for elevator pitches at the moment. Would love any feedback.
Do either of these sound like things you would want to play? What questions do these pitches inspire? Do these get your creative juices flowing? What kind of characters could you see yourself playing? Any and all thoughts are welcome.
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Ten Thousand Burning Stars
A Sci-Fi Epic About Identity and The Use of PowerA massive starship drifts through interstellar space until it is caught in the event horizon of a lonely sun. Light and warmth touch the hull for the first time in untold millenia, and it comes alive in fits and starts. A handful of ancient stasis pods disgorge their occupants, shivering and afraid. They have no names. No histories. No understanding of the labyrinthine vessel that is their new birthright.
Inspired in part by Xenophon’s tale of the Ten Thousand, this is a science fiction game about building a community from nothing. Of forging trust between strangers and working together to overcome even stranger opposition. And of how struggles for power test the strongest bonds to the point of breaking.
Unfolding in distinct seasons each with their own theme and focus, PCs will play starfarers that struggle constantly with concepts of Identity. Their own, surely, but also those of the communities they form. And, ultimately, that of the transformative force that is The Ship. A rising power that cannot help but alter the fates of the worlds lying in its path.
Touchstones: The Foundation series, Farscape, Event Horizon, Dune
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Liberty
A Transgressive Inversion of Lords and Ladies GenreA game of political intrigue in a fantasy realm where the corrupt domination of the ruling class has set a course toward events mirroring the French Revolution. Rather than taking on the roles of the society’s noble movers and shakers enforcing the cultural hegemony, PCs are instead limited to roles that place them at odds with the prevailing social order; lower classes, criminals, members of oppressed groups and the very few with a little bit of legitimate power that are trying to walk the line between duty and compassion.
This game is about Punching Up. It is about hopeful people trying to shape the future into something less hopeless and it is about angry people taking vengeance upon those who have kept them in bondage. Lords and Ladies are primarily antagonists, the religious orders are bulwarks of ignorance, and the aftermath of a devastating war has left a generation of haunted soldiers standing apart from civilization.
There are other games that offer an escapist experience of historical fantasy roleplay in a world that subscribes to our modern sensibilities. This game’s escapism is about the spilled blood, fire, and ruthless commitment that it might take to make such a world.
Touchstones: The Handmaid’s Tale, Black Sails, Turn: Washington’s Spies, The Assassin’s Creed franchise
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@shit-piss-love The first idea sounds appealing. Watching players collaborating on how to build and define a community sounds fulfilling, and Faraday’s Battlestar games have left me nostalgic for space rp.
The second idea sounds like it might have a lot of headaches re: theme enforcement. I don’t have a lot of experience with players who enjoy playing oppressed characters as much as they enjoy making them.
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SPACE GAME SPACE GAME.
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Hi, I just blundered into this thread to say yes to the space idea.
Hell, I potentially like the second idea too depending on how it’s executed.
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Just here to tap the first option. That sounds really interesting to me.
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I’m here for both ideas.
Because I absolutely love sci fi and the mush community needs more active ones. Just don’t use HSpace, it is a pox.
And I like the second one because it’s so different in the fantasy mush genre in mushing. Also, because I like the idea of making nobles suffer. It appeals to the protester in me.
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Very into the first one, not so much into the second one, but outright fantasy just isn’t my bag.
I’ve never played on an Evennia game before, but a sci-fi concept like the first one is definitely enough to get me to give it a whirl.
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Just want to put in my own vote for SPACE GAME!
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Spaaaaaace.
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I like both ideas, except for the amnesia part of the first idea. It’s so hard to make an amnesiac character, especially if you’re legitimately supposed to leave the PC’s past blank. (At least, it is for me - a lot of personality and motivation comes from memory and previous experiences, and exploring that is a key fun point for me.) But they both sound incredibly fun - especially if you take the gloves off in the latter one, and PC deaths are very on the table. Midnight raids, doomed runs to get information to another revolutionary cell before you succumb to your wounds, executions and desperate escapes!
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Really appreciate the comments. I’m honestly surprised which pitch is getting the greater share of interest, but that’s part of why I am reaching out for feedback. Please keep it coming!
@helvetica said in Two Elevator Pitches:
@shit-piss-love The first idea sounds appealing. Watching players collaborating on how to build and define a community sounds fulfilling
The community-building from a complete blank slate is a major piece of the puzzle for this one. I want to challenge players to self-organize and see how that forms, and then how it changes as the ongoing story opens up new opportunities. Are you comfortable with the current status quo when the stakes getting higher and the buttons they can push begin to have real consequences?
The second idea sounds like it might have a lot of headaches re: theme enforcement. I don’t have a lot of experience with players who enjoy playing oppressed characters as much as they enjoy making them.
This is one of the major risks in that concept. Especially in terms of triggering subject matter. It’s entirely possible the whole game is a giant X Card for a lot of people. Of the two, it’s certainly the more risky and asks for a lot more responsibility on the part of both staff and players.
@Testament said in Two Elevator Pitches:
And I like the second one because it’s so different in the fantasy mush genre in mushing. Also, because I like the idea of making nobles suffer. It appeals to the protester in me.
The genesis of the idea really came from being frustrated with the L&L trope of playing the upper classes as if they aren’t inherently problematic. The whole idea is to engage in a cathartic release of classist rage. Does that make a game? I don’t know.
@Pyrephox said in Two Elevator Pitches:
I like both ideas, except for the amnesia part of the first idea. It’s so hard to make an amnesiac character, especially if you’re legitimately supposed to leave the PC’s past blank. (At least, it is for me - a lot of personality and motivation comes from memory and previous experiences, and exploring that is a key fun point for me.)
That’s interesting. The idea for that game, as I have it in mind, leans heavily on the premise that PCs have absolutely no idea about their own pasts or the past of the ship. From a story perspective those are wells from which a lot of the mystery would spring. How did we get here? How long have we been asleep? How old is the ship? Where did it come from? What can it do? Who is out there?
Beyond the metaplot, this is also meant to provide a unique quirk to both individual and game-wide stories. If you come into the game as a complete blank, everything about your character is informed by live gameplay. Who you are is a product of interaction with other PCs and the story beats that you participate in. You are defined by the actions that you take rather than off-screen history.
I don’t think this particular game would work the way I want it to absent the blank slate starting position. Maybe this further explanation sparks some interest in you? Either way I appreciate the perspective.
But they both sound incredibly fun - especially if you take the gloves off in the latter one, and PC deaths are very on the table. Midnight raids, doomed runs to get information to another revolutionary cell before you succumb to your wounds, executions and desperate escapes!
This would be a very gloves-off game full of high stakes conflict where there would be a big, bold, flashing warning about not only the potential for permadeath, but an expectation to have goals regularly thwarted and treasured things destroyed. That’s absolutely crucial to depicting the inhumanity of class imbalance. It needs to be constantly, relentlessly personal.
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@shit-piss-love said in Two Elevator Pitches:
If you come into the game as a complete blank, everything about your character is informed by live gameplay. Who you are is a product of interaction with other PCs and the story beats that you participate in. You are defined by the actions that you take rather than off-screen history.
Interaction with other PCs who also have no memories. Consider how difficult it can be to sink your teeth into a new character, how long it can often take to “hook” in and find their voice. Now excise any background to lean into and…
Both The Network and HorrorMU* (and the short-lived Last One Standing and the one game that was set in space whose name I now forget) use/d amnesia, so it’s a thing that’s been pretty well play-tested - and it’s getting to be one of those “will not play amnesia again” things for me.
If there’s an option to wait a few months and wake up as a PC with at least partial memories? I’d take it and skip out on the opening RP just to avoid playing another amnesiac.
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I think both the pitches sound REAL COOL, but I also would struggle with the amnesia thing a bit. Like, I’d just have to make up an actual history to ground the character. Blank slate isn’t interesting to me; the struggle to recovery identity is. People are built from their experiences, and the process of getting into a MU* character can be really different for different players. Even partial memories would be good for grounding a character experience, and those memories could not include anything about how or why they ended up on the ship, that sort of thing.
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@Testament I’m only replying to say that HSpace is the worst.
It’s so bad it justifies repeating someone’s point.
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I personally love the idea of an amnesia game. Easy to jump into and test the waters without overcommitting. I like both ideas, but I’m just chiming in to make sure you know that not everyone hates the idea of starting out on a blank slate amnesiac!
One suggestion I might offer as a compromise, if the feedback makes you reluctant to commit to the bit: there was a short-lived AresMUSH called Last One Standing made by a pal of mine, so I’m assuming he doesn’t mind having his ideas stolen and thrown into the void. It was also an amnesia setting, in which all characters wash up on a deserted island with no recollection of how they got there. However, players were able to choose from a very limited selection of feats to allow for some leeway with that. Options included:
- Memento: You start out with a small personal keepsake from your former life, but no actual memories other than that.
- History: Instead of your memory being entirely gone, you start out with only most of it gone, and can remember bits and pieces of your former life.
- Deja Vu: Something about the island feels strangely familiar to you, and your character’s occasionally able to produce insights into their surroundings that other characters don’t have. (By DM correspondence.)
There were a few other options unrelated to past recollection, which in many cases were more practically useful and equally enticing. (There was even one which makes you repeatedly lose your memory all over again, just for people who really wanted to lean hard into it.) So not everyone chose from the above; we had a decent spread and the theme was still mainly, ‘No one knows who or where they are.’
With regards to your Lords & Ladies pitch: I don’t like L&L games, and know many others who avoid them for the same reasons. It’s hard to compete with SPACE, and I’d play either one, but I will say that your L&L inversion is exactly what would make me change my stance on L&L games. The complaint I tend to hear from others who share it is that we really just wanna play gritty peasants and underdogs, and don’t see the appeal of romanticising the stuffy upper class .
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@shit-piss-love said in Two Elevator Pitches:
@Testament said in Two Elevator Pitches:
And I like the second one because it’s so different in the fantasy mush genre in mushing. Also, because I like the idea of making nobles suffer. It appeals to the protester in me.
The genesis of the idea really came from being frustrated with the L&L trope of playing the upper classes as if they aren’t inherently problematic. The whole idea is to engage in a cathartic release of classist rage. Does that make a game? I don’t know.
I pitched a similar idea on MSB a while back that got a lot of positive feedback at the time! At the very least you’d have an interested and enthusiastic playerbase hungry for something different after years of mostly-typical L&L places.
I think as long as you were able to keep the fires stoked and the lights on, you’d have a game!
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@shit-piss-love said in Two Elevator Pitches:
The genesis of the idea really came from being frustrated with the L&L trope of playing the upper classes as if they aren’t inherently problematic. The whole idea is to engage in a cathartic release of classist rage. Does that make a game? I don’t know.
Speaking only for myself, I’m too damned exhausted at the moment to do cathartic release of classist rage.
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OK, hear me out:
Amnesiac space peasants rising up against the space lords and ladies, to create a better space future.
