Changes to Conflict & World Plot
Over the past few months (and primarily the first arc of Verdict), we've learned a lot about how plot and conflict work in a game like this. I'm sure everyone has their own opinions as well, of course, but this thread will detail the conclusions that I have reached after heavy observation & discussion with my team, as well as my intentions moving forward.
Firstly, I loved our world events. I genuinely think we've never seen something of that scale or even similarity in the history of RP games like Verdict or its siblings/predecessors. I am immensely proud of my event team for that reason. However, ultimately, the actual involvement of players was drastically lower than what can be achieved with even a single PC just offhandedly deciding to do something. One person can walk into town with a (metaphorical) gun and twenty others will follow, RP, fight, etc., whereas in an event, only eight or less can even touch the 'real' stuff. And in that case, it's only 1-3 people who can get the spotlight.
In other words, there's fundamentally almost no difference in result with world events run by the admin team versus natural player conflict (where we, for the most part, don't push or manipulate plot, or even really do anything at all). When there is a notable difference, it's usually a negative one (in favor of natural player interactions).
In fact, we've even observed that we can hit the same player spikes and peaks /better/ without forcing events on people, as they can discourage conflict and ultimately cause less people to become enthralled with Verdict.
Now, fear not, this isn't my "I'm done, good luck, I'm letting you do whatever" post that you might be expecting. Quite the opposite, in fact. But I think it's important to shift away from our current system of weekend-based world events for arcs. Players clearly have a harder time getting involved with those on average, and if you can't get involved in those, then the world plot sort of leaves you behind.
Going forward, I'm going to be shifting the intent of the event team to one that augments PCs instead of spotlighting them. Rather than having huge battles with crazy stuff happening every weekend, we'll push tools into player hands and let them make the choices that change the world at their own behest and when they decide to. We'll try to do better with private events, but also have more roaming ECs dedicated to educating or foiling for PCs.
This is alongside my intent to make PCs the antagonists as well.
Or, rather, in a less clickbait-y way, my intent to make PCs more /able/ to be antagonists. Right now, it's very difficult to break out and grace the world as an antag, partly because, in fairness, the game is built for ECs to be the antags. A key change we'll be making administratively is understanding, recognizing, and allowing players to be the antagonists they want to be. With the update, a few prominent things are happening to facilitate this:
1. Alongside Relic magic, "less savory" magics (such as Fel magic) are being added as options for those with a desire to stand out.
2. We're also adding a "Touched" system for Fae- and Void-touched individuals, who can use these trees as replacements for their racials to become undead, Fel-corrupted, a Wild sorcerer, and more.
3. To help guide these characters, we're also including two new app-only races with conflict-focused mechanics. They start like any other PC race, but are expected to die quickly (on average) in exchange for more experimental racial mechanics & the potential of becoming a more permanent fixture at high levels.
That isn't all, though. Given these changes only require topical/OOC-based makeovers, and not mechanical ones, the upcoming update has grown even larger with more content to access. I've decided to include Artificery (with mana rifles & the mentioned focus weapon type), the above stuff, and a million other things.
Right now, in my opinion, Verdict is a fun game until you hit the lategame. Then it gets boring unless you put in a lot of work to change that, and it's not easy for most who have jobs and otherwise. In the prior system, miss a weekend and you're basically excised from the "interesting" parts of the game. With this change, it should be a lot easier to get involved and to survive as an antagonist as well.
Fear not, though: our policies on killing & similar things aren't really changing. This is just shifting how we look at the game as a staff team. I posted this here so you guys can discuss & ask questions. Fire away!
PS: No, none of these changes are being made to push for war or injury counts to go up or whatever else you might imagine. My goal is to keep these factors about the same as when events were happening every week, just spread out instead of clumped up on weekends.
Firstly, I loved our world events. I genuinely think we've never seen something of that scale or even similarity in the history of RP games like Verdict or its siblings/predecessors. I am immensely proud of my event team for that reason. However, ultimately, the actual involvement of players was drastically lower than what can be achieved with even a single PC just offhandedly deciding to do something. One person can walk into town with a (metaphorical) gun and twenty others will follow, RP, fight, etc., whereas in an event, only eight or less can even touch the 'real' stuff. And in that case, it's only 1-3 people who can get the spotlight.
In other words, there's fundamentally almost no difference in result with world events run by the admin team versus natural player conflict (where we, for the most part, don't push or manipulate plot, or even really do anything at all). When there is a notable difference, it's usually a negative one (in favor of natural player interactions).
In fact, we've even observed that we can hit the same player spikes and peaks /better/ without forcing events on people, as they can discourage conflict and ultimately cause less people to become enthralled with Verdict.
Now, fear not, this isn't my "I'm done, good luck, I'm letting you do whatever" post that you might be expecting. Quite the opposite, in fact. But I think it's important to shift away from our current system of weekend-based world events for arcs. Players clearly have a harder time getting involved with those on average, and if you can't get involved in those, then the world plot sort of leaves you behind.
Going forward, I'm going to be shifting the intent of the event team to one that augments PCs instead of spotlighting them. Rather than having huge battles with crazy stuff happening every weekend, we'll push tools into player hands and let them make the choices that change the world at their own behest and when they decide to. We'll try to do better with private events, but also have more roaming ECs dedicated to educating or foiling for PCs.
This is alongside my intent to make PCs the antagonists as well.
Or, rather, in a less clickbait-y way, my intent to make PCs more /able/ to be antagonists. Right now, it's very difficult to break out and grace the world as an antag, partly because, in fairness, the game is built for ECs to be the antags. A key change we'll be making administratively is understanding, recognizing, and allowing players to be the antagonists they want to be. With the update, a few prominent things are happening to facilitate this:
1. Alongside Relic magic, "less savory" magics (such as Fel magic) are being added as options for those with a desire to stand out.
2. We're also adding a "Touched" system for Fae- and Void-touched individuals, who can use these trees as replacements for their racials to become undead, Fel-corrupted, a Wild sorcerer, and more.
3. To help guide these characters, we're also including two new app-only races with conflict-focused mechanics. They start like any other PC race, but are expected to die quickly (on average) in exchange for more experimental racial mechanics & the potential of becoming a more permanent fixture at high levels.
That isn't all, though. Given these changes only require topical/OOC-based makeovers, and not mechanical ones, the upcoming update has grown even larger with more content to access. I've decided to include Artificery (with mana rifles & the mentioned focus weapon type), the above stuff, and a million other things.
Right now, in my opinion, Verdict is a fun game until you hit the lategame. Then it gets boring unless you put in a lot of work to change that, and it's not easy for most who have jobs and otherwise. In the prior system, miss a weekend and you're basically excised from the "interesting" parts of the game. With this change, it should be a lot easier to get involved and to survive as an antagonist as well.
Fear not, though: our policies on killing & similar things aren't really changing. This is just shifting how we look at the game as a staff team. I posted this here so you guys can discuss & ask questions. Fire away!
PS: No, none of these changes are being made to push for war or injury counts to go up or whatever else you might imagine. My goal is to keep these factors about the same as when events were happening every week, just spread out instead of clumped up on weekends.
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