Bad News: Seven Nations is shutting down.
Kinda Good News(?): It’s only sort of shutting down.
The realization this past weekend hit me that ever since I’ve taken a new, albeit temporary position at my work, I’ve had very little time to really focus on the game. The passing of my elderly cat last month didn’t help, as the two basically happened right on top of each other. It was also pointed out to me, by numerous people that I had been burning the candle at more than a couple ends, with my almost obsessive focus on the plot, making sure that everyone had a large part to play and going out of my way to create a far more story-driven game rather than one that was driven by the players. I started to ask myself if this was a game with a story that the players wanted, or if it was a game that I wanted. And at that point, i was no longer sure. In my desire to make sure no one was overlooked and everyone felt like they were apart of something larger, I think I lost sight of something important.
One of the things I noticed was the large reliance upon me when it came to staff running plot. There was a noticeable lack of scenes run by players, be it social or otherwise. In the beginning I looked at this more as simply an aspect of having a lower amount of players. But as the game grew to around, at it’s peak…18 players, I think? The number of scenes didn’t really improve. I had started to consider at that point something was wrong, but I wasn’t sure how to fix it at that point. Fundamentally, I couldn’t keep things going as they were, but also the fact that we were so deep in, I wasn’t really sure how to fix it.
There’s a lot of other factors. The wiki never got a place where I wanted it. I think I had created too much lore(a terrifying amount that I had never actually put onto the wiki), a magic system that worked…okay and clunky at best, and potentially unbalanced at worst. And the biggest issue that I was never really able to solve in a way that I found adequate, being that I had made the game too big. Having grand aspirations and then trying to temper those aspirations with something more realistic is a lesson I’ve tried to take away from this, a fact that had been pointed out to me by other staff. Even in the planning stages of the game. I made the game too big. Any of the seven nation themes could have been it’s own game within itself. I could have made a game surrounding the Empire, or the Noble Clans, or the Vhenedhal, or those weird Lanites. I saw a lot, and figured a melting pot like Karwald would have been a good way to handle it. Problem was, I don’t believe I ever introduced those nations in a smaller way to make it apart of the world and rather felt like it’s own world in of itself.
So, where do I go from here? Firstly, as I was mostly held by threats by my friends and other staff that I just…go be a player for a bit. Clear my head, just play some various MUs. “Yes, we know you love to run plot, Testament, but you don’t need to create fun for everyone all the time ever because you’ve been doing it non-stop for the last two years.” Okay, fair point. Besides, with this job I’m in, I can’t really do much running anyway given the workload, which far more relaxing in an odd way, is also far more demanding of my time. But it’s not infuriating work, if that makes sense. Just less stressful work. And this goes till June, where I get tossed back into the salt mines of my personal hell.
I’m going to revamp Seven Nations. I still believe in it’s core themes, I still believe in the weird, dark fantasy post-apocalypse world that I had opened two years ago. I know it can be better and I’ve definitely learned what not to do. For starters, I’m decreasing the scale of the game. I don’t know where exactly, but it’s going to be a smaller location made for a more intimate game. Maybe some frontier town on the edge of the Wastelands. Maybe everyone is Stalkers or Lost Legion and the game takes place operating one of their larger outposts, separate from the major factions. Maybe it’ll take place between the underground cities of Cairn Praha and the stupidly hot deserts that’s above them. Or I’ll cop out and everyone gets to be Vikings of various Noble Clans, I don’t know. What I do know is that I need to hammer down the magic system and create a location that’s smaller and encourages the players to RP their own scenes without waiting for me or another staffer to show up with one of the various NPCs to drop some metalore information. Because I did that far too much.
Regardless, I’m taking this time to recalculate and rethink. Then plan, and start writing again, refining what I already have. I’ve learned a lot about running a mush, and for all the headaches I got, i still really enjoyed it. And I’d do it again. Which, I will do it again.
And this time I’ll get rid of the fucking Discord.
