Shadowgate

Verbannon · Joined: 30 Sep 2013 Posts: 398

Please give HMs more authority. It is freakishly boring doing plot and RP that only involves the few active characters. I would like to explore some tempusian politics, maybe have some super short emote only battles with other characters vs some NPCS just for story purposes. You know, actually do stuff thats fun.
_________________
PM me in the forum here when you want me on to RP or dungeon dive. The forum will automatically notify me by e-mail. Then my e-mail will send me a text message. Then I will get on likely within minutes.

Nienne · Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2015 11:25 pm Post subject:

I'm not sure exactly what you mean here. Are these not things you can work through with an immortal in some way? Eg/ I'd love to give you free license to explore tempusian politics, for example, but there's no way to know the reality of them without asking us, since we track this on our side. Emote battles can be done if you're responsible with them (ie. repercussions can and should stand), but if you're about to take out a city again that's going to require at least an imm green-light, if not their involvement.

If you're talking major world-shaping events, you wouldn't walk up to your tabletop GM and say "I got bored between sessions so I took out Tabor with my uber magely skillz and I'm now king". He'd laugh you out of the room. Same thing stands here - major events are either done in-game (as you would in a tabletop session), or done in downtime (via mudmail). Not even HMs have free license to put the world on its head, as it can and has previously caused a lot of grief for us where what they've done just didn't make sense with the world itself, as they don't see all the machinations we have behind the scenes. If you want to do something major (blast out a city or whatever) please get an imm on side first, or we will mostly ignore that it happened, as you didn't have to deal with appropriate challenges that the coded mud just can't throw at you.

For lesser events, HMs are already allowed (and assumed) to instigate them responsibly. Another tool I'd suggest is followers, as then you have a number of NPCs directly under your control that you can use for all kinds of machinations; you only have to watch a few of our HMs already to see how many plot angles can be instigated by them.

If I'm off-track with your intentions, please clarify further... otherwise I'm really not sure what you're asking for beyond your ability to either already do, or work with an imm towards doing Smile

Verbannon · Joined: 30 Sep 2013 Posts: 398

I don't mean, just instigate, I mean full from beginning to end with the imms, if they're around, to just check in and make sure its not off-base. Like it would have been nice if back when my character did that thing he did that upset all those priests, if I could have RPed my temple's reaction, investigation into my character, and some of the fallout with other temples happening behind the scenes.

Or when an imm leaves a plot hanging, that we had the authority to wrap it up at least to a degree ourselves. At least enough that the whole issue doesn't have to be pretended it doesn't exist or shrugged at when brought up.

Or maybe go full new and two hms from different temples, say Tempus and Auril. If we wanted to ourselves clash, we could also RP conflicts happening between our temples and it all sort of 'heating up' thus making it bigger then just us and giving a reason for others to be drawn in.

Or maybe on a whim I could RP my characters interactions with the Tempusian War mages, maybe I don't know, spitballing here, maybe agree with some other character who is an assassin to be met by some disgruntled war mages and paid to assassinate me. So basically I would be paying to have someone assassinate me by RPing the someone else paying someone else to assassinate me.

Or if we need to do something that should have an imm response, maybe after a few days of no imm response we can decide for the imm so the plot doesn't die.

And I mean without followers, they suck. But right now I don't have the authority to do any of the above. In any way.
_________________
PM me in the forum here when you want me on to RP or dungeon dive. The forum will automatically notify me by e-mail. Then my e-mail will send me a text message. Then I will get on likely within minutes.

Nienne · Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2015 8:16 pm Post subject:

Uh. Not sure what's stopping you. Several things listed are not a problem and have been done by many HMs before. Hanging plots can be challenging (both for the rest of us imms when one vapes, and for you) so I'm not sure I have an easy solution for that.

The only one that isn't ok is "if I get no answer I'll decide for the imm" which can, and has often, made a hell of a mess of things - this is a no-no. RL does happen to all of us, so patience is a necessity for all of us, imms and players alike. You seem to think it's one-sided, but it isn't; it can be just as frustrating as an imm to lose key plot players, as a player to lose an imm; either way the plot gets derailed & we need to learn to deal with it as best we can. It's a game, it happens.

For the rest, ask an imm, they can give you guidance, and you can do stuff. Avmail or mudmail can be enough for most of these that you've listed; we imms can simply let you know of any issues/repercussions that are necessary, and either we or you can handle them accordingly as you proceed.

You seem to be under the impression that nothing can be done without our direct intervention, which is definitely not the case! Just ask first if it involves any control of NPCs or their reactions, or major impact to the broader world itself - and wait for a response, don't decide silence is a green light, as we may have RL to contend with. Not only can you, but you should - it's an expectation of HMs to direct appropriate interactions & instigate things between players. But for many it does take a lot of first-hand learning even as a HM to know where the lines are. Some more experienced HMs may be able to help you as well in knowing how far is ok and where you may be crossing a line into actually GMing or contradicting mud story/reality.

And followers certainly don't suck - they're NPCs under your control. There's no other way to get that. They're not a personal army, and were never intended to be, if that's what you're implying - they can't 'suck' at that if they were never designed to be such.

Verbannon · Joined: 30 Sep 2013 Posts: 398

I'll give it all a shot again.
_________________
PM me in the forum here when you want me on to RP or dungeon dive. The forum will automatically notify me by e-mail. Then my e-mail will send me a text message. Then I will get on likely within minutes.