The Dungeon Master Project.

As a biggest drama hater here.

I hereby APPROVE!

I support this idea. It's a more advanced version of the WPvP campaign thread we had. But while that one met some support by the looks of it, this one does not. Which rather surprises me. I'll try to outline the good sides and address the issues raised by the more pessimistic ones.

Let us look at the bright side of these things first. What this project can offer is interactivity and consistency. It can centralise the RP of all guilds of both factions into something with a life on it's own. That's what our server's RP should be like. We need a consistency that such a DM&T team can offer by writing of the state of the world based on the impressions of the participants. The centralisation of things they can offer will promote more spontaneous RP and will help everyone interact with one another more.

The bad side of things...this has already been stated so far. Quite strongly, while there's been too little accent on the good side, I think...DM&T wishing to seize power, drama and fights between the "big" people, stagnation due to some people just not being able to take the initiative about things.

DM&T wishing to seize power? They only have as much as power as the community gives them. This is and always has been true for all forms of "government" and will never change. There's naught to worry about. If you really fear that you'll accept someone's "authority" and be unable to break from it (for reasons I cannot possibly comprehend) then I think there's some problems of your own you need to sort out.

Drama and fights between the big people. Is this not happening now? It is. Fights will always be there. It is unavoidable. But I think this project might actually solve that problem, if the DM&T is proper. And I think it sure as hell is.

And the stagnation? That's YOUR responsibility. Stop bickering over how it might go wrong. Nobody has ever achieved anything like that. Take the initiative, TRY it. If it fails, it failed. End of. Cherish the experience. If it succeeds, all the better. I'd like to shout out to everyone reading this thread with a positive feeling about it to show his damned support. We bloody need it to get this going.

I applaud all your optimism, but I fear it's very misplaced.

I, for one, will certainly not be participating in this, when I get back.

Perhaps it's even time to put it to a vote, to get a clear outline on how many will "sign up" for it.

Garmegin is absolutely correct.

Lexius wrote:
However in this situation you start with a group of people who can not see each other. And they all leave at different moments. And while they are off-line new people come in and change the scene and logg off as well. When the others come back their knowledge of the events are outdated and they need to be updated. That should be the game master task. But he might not be on-line as well. So he needs to be updated by the ones who were on-line. That means you have to start and make records and send them to the game master. Or you need to discuss it with him. And that...takes a lot of time and energy...and makes it feel more like work then a game. And that will take a lot dedication and patience from the dungeon master and all the other players involved. Because also the othet players will have to take the time to brief the dungeon master and be briefed by him. And also as you said they will have to take up the energy to brief their guildies who will have to take the patience to listen to him. Which makes it I think rather complex.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this already the case in big events where several guilds are involved? Or at least should be the case for everyone to remain updated. If anything, having one or a few people to run to and ask for an update on the current plot, is a lot better than running around like a headless chicken, not knowing who knows what and who you should ask for information. Apart from that, I think every decent RP plot requires dedication and patience from all participants in order to be a successful one. You're just over-complicating it in your post

Felinaa/Dijie/Finnabhair wrote:I applaud all your optimism, but I fear it's very misplaced.

I, for one, will certainly not be participating in this, when I get back.

Perhaps it's even time to put it to a vote, to get a clear outline on how many will "sign up" for it.

I agree, let's line up who's for and who's against this idea.

It might work, it might not.

I'm willing to vote for the idea, atleast on a trial run.

I just want to make sure that everyone that is on the DM&T, realises the job they have to do and I just hope it doesn't ruin the game for them.

Ariyuni wrote:I agree, let's line up who's for and who's against this idea.

I don't feel I have anything to add to this thread that hasn't been said by someone else at some point, but since this point has been brought up, I'm against the DM idea. I never like people having too much say in others' RP.

After having read Shrogan's response which included his second attempt at trying to explain his plans, I re-read the first post. The way it was summarised in the first post, however, seems rather different from the second explanatory post.

In the first post's explanation, I was under the impression a few select people would decide for other guilds and people what their final plot would be. Summarizing what each guild is doing in what area, however, is something quite different. Even then, however, not all guilds may want to have their plans be known publicly, nor perhaps have specific others be able to know where they're located so they could simply barge in unwanted (as was the case with the Duskwood events as well).

No matter who you may try to put in charge, there will always be drama or disagreements about something. That's what we're humans for. So you won't have to try and form some kind of an initiative on behalf of attempting to 'reduce' drama. Do it for the sake of RP instead.

I think it's kind of unwanted to tell people to stop bickering and to be all negative about it. There's nothing wrong in a bit of scepticism and trying to discuss how such a system can end up more profitable in the name of the community itself. I believe that's why Shrogan intentionally made this thread to begin with, so by all means, don't tell people to stop putting question marks in places they think it fit to do so. If he truly wouldn't have wanted any more comments, I'm sure he would have long tried to set up a first set of events with this kind of system, albeit on a small scale for the time being.

If the second post is how Shrogan intended this project to truly be like, I still agree a small try-out project is free to be made, though I still don't think all this kind of paperwork is something some of the guilds I've worked with in the past would need. Some of them typically know who or what guild they will want to cooperate with, instead of having it rely on what may be the most convenient or without needing help from others, or however you'd like to put it. As Lexius said, this sounds like it demands a lot of work, which could be done far easier with less effort too, which once again makes me ponder about the fate of these "dungeon masters" or "representatives", as it might end up being more work than game to them. But that's their decision.

An alternative would be some kind of twitter-esque function for à website on which guilmasters officers and individuals can state the latest development in their storylines (one sentence could suffice). The only work that would be required is building such a website and some moderation. Could also state if the next event is free to join or on invitation.

Aaanyway just thinking. And excuse the lack of details. Typing on my phone :-)

As I already told to Shrogan, the best way to explain how this project would work is doing something in game and involve people, so they can see with their eyes what is this about.

Very well then! I assume that a poll is in order then?

Seems so, yup.

While i`ve expressed my opinion to Shrogan`s idea and my support for it aswell as critisism, i think the pole voting will be subjective. If by the end of the time given for this pole atleast 80% of the people on this forum havent submited their votes, i personally cannot consider it valid because having 15 people submit votes and a decision made over that will be silly as 15 people or so (mind you that is a figurative number i just thought) do not and cannot represent for the opinion of the entire community. Personally i think that another way to advertise this should be found to see if people are up for it.

So far from what i see, there havent been many people replying to this thread, not including the 6-7 people who argued for 10 pages. My personal opinion again as i say is that another way should be found if a decision is to be made which involves the opinion of more than 15~ people (again subjective number).

Geldar wrote:Personally i think that another way to advertise this should be found to see if people are up for it.

Although I've already submitted my vote, Geldar really does have a point. The scope of RPers on Defias isn't restricted to just these forums. And although a different way should be found to gauge the opinions of those other individuals, it should also be an anonymous one. A lot about Defias, sadly, involves politics and diplomacy and many would feel reserved in offering their honest opinions to spare certain others' feelings.

I wish I had a solution to offer right away, but I'll do my best to perhaps come up with a suggestion.

I say we give it a shot.

Politics involves the distribution of power -- who gets what, when and how. A criterium for this is that there should be something of value at stake. In a small RP community, this doesn´t really apply.

If you insist on playing the conspiracy card, go ahead, though.

EDIT: It would seem only fitting to demonstrate this idea with people who read this forum. As the poll says it is just a demo and shouldn´t be blown out of proportion by involving more people just for the sake of involving people.

Finnabhair wrote:A lot about Defias, sadly, involves politics and diplomacy...

Gnash wrote:Politics involves the distribution of power -- who gets what, when and how. A criterium for this is that there should be something of value at stake. In a small RP community, this doesn´t really apply.

If you insist on playing the conspiracy card, go ahead, though.

Politics can be played in many various forms, even this community. I don't see how that can be considered a "conspiracy card," but in all forms of society, there's always some politics involved, even on a small scale.

Where is option D: Ralph Nader? Everybody always forgets about the greens.. :<

Alrighty Geldar, I do agree with your point, question is... how to advertise it further?

Shrogan wrote:Alrighty Geldar, I do agree with your point, question is... how to advertise it further?

Best publicity is mouth to mouth as they say, unfortunatly we can only type here. Spread the word, channels, RP hubs get the word around bring the attention of the majourity to the discussion and then lets roll.

Geldar wrote:

Shrogan wrote:Alrighty Geldar, I do agree with your point, question is... how to advertise it further?

Best publicity is mouth to mouth as they say, unfortunatly we can only type here. Spread the word, channels, RP hubs get the word around bring the attention of the majourity to the discussion and then lets roll.

Perhaps it might be a good idea to move this thread to the Public section?

If the OP wants it moved, just PM me, can fix it.