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A Discussion on Map Storylines


Xarkly
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1 hour ago, Arafel said:

 

In Anthos, didn't the Adunian meatgrinder frontline against the Harbingers at Ard'Kerrack cause the entire event-line to get derailed and fall several weeks behind schedule, culminating in the rushed end of that map?

That sounds pretty based from the Adunians

 

I don't recall the ending of Anthos really being rushed though. We had the Verge co-exist with Anthos for a while and because no one was using it and performance was getting shitty, it was removed. 

 

In any case, I think in situations like that it's fair to eventually make a unwinnable fight, call in the entire ET and spam absurd amounts of mobs and throw stupidly strong spells around (the plugin back then was crazy).

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Another epic Xarkly post

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@Xarkly
As a long time Dungeon Master , I am a big supporter of this. Players certainly can drive a story, but they inevitably don't have access to the sorts of 'mechanics' and tools that Game Dev does that can do things that kind of suspend reality in ways that create enjoyment for the player base.

When I ran a small roleplay server as the Head Dungeon Master, I was responsible for developing an over-arching Long term storyline that would span years while the sub-DMs developed episodic "chapters" that might last a single map/season, and then a team of actors/NPCs helped bring these stories to life. Often we assigned different DMs to each of the 'factions' on the map, and then met frequently to make sure events were not biasing any one group. In addition, the DMs were not allowed to play - their purpose was to be DMs, NPCs, Actors and storytellers. 

I believe in one such storyline the DMs were represented by 8 powerful Archmages that lived in some tower who would sometimes 'descend' into the realm but we had competing interests, akin to the Greek pantheon. We got to have fun as all powerful Archmages, but our purpose was to drive a story - not force lightning people. However, it created a sense of wonder and power for the players.

To address some previous players concerns, about 'impact' our team often developed branches to every story plan. A 'player success' outcome, and a 'player failure' outcome to ensure the story had weight. This ensured players felt there was consequence and that defeat was an option. I believe in one of the concluding seasons, the failure of the players resulted in a perma death PK for all current characters - and that all players had to re-roll new characters.



 

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