Lore Structures & Environment Warping

[squakhawk 7303]

Lore Structures & Environment Warping

This thread covers the advice and ST’s thoughts on Lore Structures & Environment Warping abilities, spells, rituals, lore areas, and so on.

 

 

Environment Warping is a big set of words to describe a somewhat basic function. Some lore has the ability to, or does, “warp”, or otherwise change, environments from what they are. This can be small and localized, to large and gamechanging. An example of this could be Voidal Tears, which can be made of theoretically infinite size, and can later explode to cover an area three-times it’s own. Paladins have chanceries, druids have fae rings, mystics have menhirs and their deadbreath, etc.

 

Lore Structures are defined as the specific structure created by a lore, such as a voidal tear, chancery, menhir stone, and more.

Environment Warping is defined as the effects of that structure, either during or after it’s creation and-or destruction. 

 

 

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When making lore structures and environment warping, consider a couple of things. 

 

Be sure to be mindful of region permissions, and how that may affect your lore structure. While you can place signs globally, you cannot place blocks globally. Consider how that may limit your lore, or interact. The ST operates on a policy that while we may sign a structure, we will not build or create it for you. This is up to you, and requires you to have some form of permissions on the tile from the lair/settlement/nation owner, or for you to own that area yourself. 

 

While there exists some exceptions with this, this is our standard. Be mindful also of how others may interact with the area. We will not tolerate lore structures which are deliberately unreachable or hidden to a point where it indicates bad faith In the past we saw this in the form of Soul Trees far underground with block-perfect sunlight exposure, menhirs hidden at bedrock, and chanceries behind dozens of locked doors and switches. While you shouldn’t write your lore around the possibility this may happen, as the ST are diligent in their upkeep, you should be mindful of how your lore structure could be abused in this manner.

 

Environment Warping is another thing to consider. You will always want to create roleplay, flavor, and intrigue with environments, rather than non-mechanical forced mechanics. Such as trying to lock players out of a region, or block their magic entirely, or to weaken and incapacitate players in the region. A region message is a region message, and tracking how ‘long’ someone is in there is difficult. You should avoid banning other lores from interacting with your warped environment unless it makes complete unavoidable sense to, as with Voidal Hollows and Thanhium. Instead of banning magics or incapacitating people in your area, try lowering tiers or mana pools, or instead inflict symptoms like dizziness, fatigue, weakness, and so on which are more freeform and suggestful rather than forced. While there is the frustrating truth that OOC curiosity will always best roleplay reasoning, and that characters will always be “fearless” in a scary zone, and that characters will “power through” the pain or symptoms they may acquire, you should simply flow with it and encourage things elsewise to best suit both parties. 

 

With lore structures and environments, consider how they can be removed, or broken. Can they be purged by holy magics? Cleansed with druidic or spiritual magics? Obliterated with mundane things like flame or tools? Consider these and always make sure the average player can by some means interact with your environment without ST guidance to do so. Make sure the lore is clear, concise, and friendly to people who may be unfamiliar to it. 

 

A suggestion or alternative one might take to both warping or cleansing land is incorporating a cost of some kind. More than mana or a couple of emotes, maybe think about incorporating material reagents, or more users, in your lore when warping or cleansing land. This gives the warp/cleanse a little more value, and makes it feel more impactful and friendly to roleplay than something that may simply appear, then disappear.

 

Another thing to consider is what lore structures and environments do for those who benefit from it. It is mostly fine to give your lore buffs and boons while within their region, but be sure that it is not too “gamey” to where players feel required to be within their zone, or that they are unstoppable within their zone. Make sure lore structures and environment warps are first and foremost, flavorful and interesting. They should be fun and unique, and not just an excuse to have stronger casting or greater stamina. Think outside the box on what you can do here, what opportunities are present that you can allow for creative roleplay, crafting, character changes, ability changes, that can make for something unique.