@Tez Keys did not invent the wheel re: portal, stargate, fanfiction, whatever term you prefer games. It’s a trope because it works: It gives you a lot of creative freedom.

I wouldn’t say that changes to the homebase region or overall story are entirely out of the question. As staff, we do quietly nudge things here and there. But on the whole, players seem very happy with having the peace and quiet (read: not being looked over the shoulder) to create their own storylines, some of which have consequences that can be felt back home too, through how the characters are affected.

There will likely come a time when the status quo begins to feel well tested and tried and maybe a little old. When that happens, we’ll shake the dice bag and pull some rugs out under people. Change is good, at the pace that works.

@Faraday said in Metaplot: What and How:

Can’t speak to LB’s game, but that’s how it was on BSGU. Folks could run missions of their own whenever they wanted. (Also other plots connected to the war, though folks rarely did so.) But they couldn’t affect the overall trajectory of the war without staff approval and coordination. This was spelled out in the game policies, so if that was a deal-breaker for someone, they could decide that before playing.

This. It’s on the landing page of Keys’ website. If not being able to ‘solve’ the metaplot is a deal-breaker, there’s no point in wasting your time with the rest.

@Warma-Sheen said in Metaplot: What and How:

If the metaplot can’t be affected by the players in any meaningful way (or at least work towards being able to affect it), that’s not a metaplot (usually). Its just a setting.

I think that part of this discussion is what exactly constitutes a setting and a metaplot respectively. For us, in the design phase, setting was the where and metaplot was the what. Those are obviously not the only options in design so I’m not going to tell you that you’re wrong.

@Tez The conflict between order and chaos works as a metaplot / backdrop because it’s a backdrop – and because anyone who wants to GM can do so.

That means players designing stories within the framework that they want to pursue. And because they design the realities they want those stories to happen in they

• get to decide which rules apply there
• what the theme/setting is
• whether this is a oneshot or a brick of a novel size plot

and nothing they do there can affect the main setting (besides the characters themselves). This way, we have a buffet of stories and a diverse cast of stories. But most importantly, we don’t have anyone sitting around waiting for storyteller-type GMs to make shit happen when they’re around and remember to include them.

Is this the solution to everything? Nah. But it does help with the ancient quandary of not enough GMs. Obviously, not everyone wants to GM. But a lot of people feel comfortable running a scene or three for a few people at a time, without taking on an official mantle and having to run everything past staff.

@Tez You want names and examples, so, I’ma toot that horn.

On Keys, the metaplot is a never-ending conflict between stagnation and flux, order and chaos. The metaplot overlaps heavily with the setting in our case – we use it to create numerous storylines that have conclusions (as opposed to the metaplot which will not be solved because, well, it’s never-ending).

Our setting, on the other hand, is the small town island of Chincoteague. There’s ponies and a lot of swamp grass. And a secret community of people who spend a fair bit of their time fighting back against increasing stagnation, and try to preserve magic across the multiverse. And get a decent cup of coffee.

The two are different because the metaplot (law! chaos! drama!) triggers the many storylines whereas the setting is the anchor for those storylines. Whatever happens, in this reality or another, you always go home to Chincoteague in the end.

Of course staff should play their own game. Not just because why the hell invest so much time into something you don’t get to enjoy – but also to have a first-hand knowledge of what works and what doesn’t.

What kind of GMing can staff do? Any. If you want to run a game that’s essentially about how great your character is and how everyone else are just mindless, fawning minions, do it – you’ll see a lot of tumbleweed and not many players but you do you.

After all, that’s the beauty of the hobby: We vote with our feet. If you feel that a game – or a GM – is pulling a complete Mary Sue and turning you into a member of a forced audience, leave.

My vote goes to two options: Channel block and traditional block.

Channel block blanks the ‘offender’ from channels. Used for when somebody hasn’t bothered you per se but you find their communication style / dad jokes / venting sessions / soap opera babble / whatever annoying and don’t want to see it.

Traditional block, well, as always. Block pms.

@junipersky No clue, alas. Just wanted to say that we miss you, too!

@Pacha Old, but good.

I’m still waiting to wake up and realise that this was a nightmare.

@Buttercup I know we have a couple of sight impaired folks on Keys who use various devices. Unfortunately, I don’t know which devices.

But if you want to pop by and talk to them, look for Rhia and Araminta (character names, not player names).

@RightMeow If you ever feel like just ranting at somebody and venting, you know where to find me. Anytime.

Random observation: The telnet access is what makes Ares accessible to visually impaired players. Which of course doesn’t rule out having the coolest web portal ever.

Come back and visit us on Keys sometime, Jin.

I prefer live scenes where the immersion is 110% and the speed is breakneck for four hours straight. It’s just – health, age, and real-life geography make that pretty much a utopic fantasy most of the time. Sounds like I’m not the only one, either.

So to me, Async (and Glacial, the ultra-slow asyncs) is the lifesaver – I can do those or I can step away entirely. I balked some at first, I’ll admit – but I have also come to appreciate, as a writer, that having more time sometimes also means being able to provide a more interesting narrative.

I advise against large asyncs, though. Passing the speaker token around between six people like that is… well, little short of torture. Three to four seems to work, with room for an extra if enough of the three to four are faster.

Async is my staple and I don’t mind Glacial (those that take more than a week) either – but it’s important to be clear about what a scene is before firing it up. Otherwise, half the people in it are going to be frustrated and the other half stressed.

Ah, Shamash, yes. We had that experience briefly as well. Didn’t ban him – he got into a fight with another player and they both left.

@saiiwolf said in Saiiwolf’s parade of goofs!:

Don’t forget liberal dashes of wish fulfillment!

It’s not that I want to have sex with my PBs. I want to be them.

@RightMeow That’s pretty much me too. I reach out to a dozen people but then I forget who I already talked to and really, the safest way to catch me is to ping me and be like, ‘you there, make a thing happen’.

That said, ping me anytime you visit.

Most of what I think has already been said so I’m just going to chip in one thing: The more options players have to make things happen themselves instead of waiting for a story teller to do things for them, the more likely they stick around, too.

@GF No, power has nothing to do with it unless you count knowledge and connections as power (which it admittedly can be). I just like really immersing myself in a character and seeing how they are affected by living their life, so to speak. I’m perfectly happy for them to stay at the bottom of the command ladder, that’s not the point.

@alveraxus To be honest – if the rest of the game appeals to me, I’ll adapt to however it’s being run, whether there are time jumps or not. But if I get a choice I’ll stick to linear time and progress naturally (where, again, progression does not have to equate accumulating power).

I can definitely see the charm, though, in doing jumps ahead and working out how the character has changed from twenty to forty to eighty years old, too. That does spark some very interesting mind theatre opportunities.

Flat no from me. I enjoy playing the same character for years and years, taking my sweet time to develop their life path and experience them changing as the world changes around them.

However, I fully understand that others do get bored playing that way – and that my character will be experiencing a continuous coming and going of friends and enemies over time. That’s fine. I’m perfectly happy to be the neighbourhood sage archetype whom the young hotshots come to for lore.