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Announcements and Discussions!
Hi Court!
So it's been over a month since the last announcement and it seems like Court has settled into a fairly slow pace, which is in line with how there have been lulls in the past during the holiday months. However, I'd like to do a little planning ahead for December and January this time, since the game could probably use a kick over that hump. Aside from some activity/interest generating stuff below, I also wanted to mention that I plan to keep Court open and running until at LEAST June or July next year, when we can re-assess. If at that time the game is still as slow as it's been recently, there'll be plenty of heads up at that point if it feels like a wind down is the answer, or if it has enough traction for another stretch. SO THAT'S THE LONG TERM PLAN. Now for the short term.
A Test Drive Meme
I've been thinking about doing Court's first Test Drive Meme! In the past, due to being invite only and how we handle privacy with the game, it's been put off for brainstorming on mechanics, but I think it's a good time to consider opening up the game a little! "Test Drive Meme" is probably a little misleading here, since what I'm thinking of is kind of a combination of TMDs and 4th-wall events, that takes place in game canon the way CFUD's did back in the day. So here's a quick bullet list of how I want to handle things so far. Please let me know if you have any suggestions or concerns!
- IC CONSIDERATIONS
- Play as old resident, new arrival, or guest. Technically there are always people coming in and out of Court in the background: "NPCs" or player characters who have been apped as higher ranked and thus have "been in Court" for a while. This event would step that up and include characters who are obviously guests, just visiting to see if they intend to stay.
- Characters who used to be in the game are free to visit Court in the TDMs too. How that carries over is up to the players involved.
- The theme isn't set yet, but I'll be planning to incorporate the TDM/4th wall event with the Challenge, so that guests can also interact with that aspect.
OOC CONSIDERATIONS - Due to the current pace of the game, I'm thinking the event will be active for 3 weeks in December, and the last week will be for wrapping up threads.
- YOLO memoryfuzz options are still in effect when dealing with characters that leave Court. So threads with characters not in the game can be remembered or discarded at individual player discretion at the end of the event, whatever is more interesting for the players involved.
- TDM post(s) will be on the main comm, unlocked and public, and allow anyone to comment whether or not they are part of the comm. At the end of the month they will be locked to comm members only to uphold Court's status as a locked game. You are free to play NSFW stuff in the TDMs, but if you're uncomfortable with doing that while a post is public, feel free to continue threads in your own journals and such instead.
- New players who decide they'd like to app into the game after a TDM thread still need to have someone in the game who is willing to be your reference. I'm considering expanding valid references to anyone who was previously a player who left in good standing as well. References have been kind of done by the honor system in the past, but if we're going to do a public event, I'd like current players to fill out an invite on our Invite a Friend page, to match up to apps as they come in.
- I do plan to get all our information pages cleaned up and updated before the TDMs go up.
- If it's a success, I may consider making it a regular event.
Challenge Volunteers
So aside from figuring out how to run a new kind of event, I'd also like to have a more sustainable way to do our regular monthly Challenges. In the past we had set up suggestion boxes and contact by email and did our best to figure out ways to incorporate what was suggested into our Challenges, but I think as a lone mod and in terms of engagement that doesn't work as well as opening up the possibility of running a Challenge to players
- DETAILS
- Interested players would claim a month and write up a summary/pitch of their Challenge and how they would like to run it.
- It'd be a commitment of coming up with a theme and at least two or three posts throughout the month (that includes the Challenge post). It can be as involved as the Anonymous Challenge earlier this year or slightly more hands off, depending what the theme is or what would be most engaging. Post format currently doesn't require replies from the runner, so theoretically it shouldn't be too much work and can be prepared easily in advance.
- I'd be there to help with bouncing ideas, and ideas don't have to be fully formed before you claim a month.
- I'd want to set a deadline for claiming, since last minute Challenge designing is not particularly fun. Probably I'd want the claim to be in by the 15th or so if someone is aiming to do their Challenge the following month
- The next open month is January. December is a mmmmaybe if someone has a really solid idea that'd work with the TDM, but I need to start locking that in soon so no guarantees.
Other Discussion
I have a bunch of other small things I'd like to talk about and I want to also open the floor to the players if there's anything else people would like to address too, especially since there's stuff that probably still needs work from previous discussions (just keep in mind my limits as a working adult). Please label discussion topics in the comments!
Premise Updates
I've been wondering a little about how everyone here handles that personally with their characters. For example, Shima isn't in Court to win at all, he's just hanging out. Do your characters think only one person can win? I was considering an update where it's official that some "miracles" don't need a rank of Queen to be achieved, but you do still need to be able to pay for the thing you want, and it'll be expensive, but a little more technically achievable. Obvs players are allowed to move the goal OOCly to keep their characters motivated. Does this seem like a worthwhile change to make official?
2) In the game info, it's stated that characters come to Court willingly.
And stay willingly (or that you can yolo handwave brainwash them to believe they did it willingly). How have players been handling this aspect? Is it worth keeping? I was thinking I'd like to shift it so that characters come willingly or think they do, but whether they can leave after they get here is up to what is convenient for the player. Some charas are the type that will stick around on their own, or come right back if they need to leave for a "canon update". Some have to be acted on by outside force. Would it be confusing to have it both ways? We try to keep Court technically "opt in" for the characters, but maybe it's in their contract /shrug??
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2) One of the great aspects of Court is that people do come willingly and more-or-less informed (depending on how much they paid attention.) That said, I do think there could be an interesting dynamic where people came along to Court but it wasn't what they actually signed up for -- see, someone made a sales pitch to them that wasn't 100% truthful, or they were tricked, or what have you. Having a contract signed without reading the fineprint is actually a really great example of this, especially for more difficult characters. Plus, it's in the theme-- Masters and Servants need to sign contracts of their own, after all.
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(AGAIN that's assuming that it's still an unattainable goal OOCly-- if it was actually going to be implemented ICly so that characters could drop under the premise of "I got my wish" then I kinda feel like that's a literal game-changer and would need a more in-depth discussion in terms of what kind of wishes could be attained at what ranks etc., because characters ICly seeing that "hey I'm a King and all I want is my fleshy arm and leg back but this guy's a Rook and he got to bring his mom back to life" could have consequences for IC community morale and willingness to play along with the Court system.)
2. I would at least want the brainwashed-voluntary option to still be available if an enforced option was made! I don't think it would be too confusing to have both options side-by-side with some characters being go-at-will and others being made to stay put. I feel like this is another thing that could have a ppppotentially negative effect on IC mood but I know none of mine would like, want to bail immediately if they were suddenly meeting people that couldn't leave at all, so I'm interested in seeing what other people have to say on this one too!
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If you go home a Knight, you definitely wouldn't qualify to bring someone back to life for example. I was sort of thinking that like, the OOC cap rank is King, and maybe the cap for miracles there is like... change a thing in your world that only effects your closest circle of people, maybe two or three things within your close circle if you're an especially rich/influential King, but definitely no world-saving or Key Magical Items or undoing the destruction of a planet or stuff like that? The Queen's wish is exponentially more powerful, and each rank below King is exponentially less useful in terms of what you can bargain for. Though different things matter differently to different characters.
ANYWAY, SOME SLEEPY THOUGHTS.
I definitely do appreciate that it changes things more if it can be used to give a character what they want when they leave.
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One potential compromise could maybe be that lower-tier rewards are never EXACTLY what the character wants-- if they're a Rook, and what they want as their Big Wish WOULD be a Rook-level wish for someone else, they're going to get the "three levels lower than Queen" equivalent for themselves regardless? So they would always have to be settling for a lesser reward on some level or another, and the system would remain the kind of Equally Unfair thing that it is at the moment. (HOWEVER idk if that would provide the same IC motivation boost/OOC satisfaction upon dropping that this plan is being suggested for in the first place, so, just a thought.)
IN SAYING ALL OF THIS I really actually do think it sounds like a cool idea that could have really positive effects for character motivation! I'm just nnnnnnot sure how to implement it to where it would ONLY do that and not also, at some point, lead to a situation where either CHARACTERS don't care about ranks because they don't correspond to the benefits you get from Court anymore (moving the goalposts/vaguely-defined reward tiers), or PLAYERS have to opt out of ranking up because otherwise their characters will achieve their goals (strictly-defined reward tiers). It could be that other folks aren't super concerned with this, and if that were the case I would be okay with the change even if those issues weren't accounted for! But I'd def. like to see a big, focused discussion on those points before a decision was made (WHICH I TRUST THAT YOU WOULD DO ANYWAY but yeah, it just really does strike me as a game-changer!)
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In terms of the change, I think it depends on the scale of the miracle. If somebody came to Court to cure an illness, that might be something worth exploring in terms of just being able to pay (an obscene amount) for it. But if the goal is, like, "Fix the DGM world's problems", maybe that stays only Queen territory.
2. Again, I love this aspect. Shirasu is yolo, don't care about weird things in Court (mostly), here to get my wish granted. No brainwashing required. I had Lavi come to Court from a really bad canon point for him, so he was more grabbing the opportunity to escape -- and it's been eating at him until recently. But he's more or less committed. And when something happens that really disturbs him, I like the idea of a little bit of brainwashing to make him be like "wow this sucks but it's Court, why would it be otherwise, I really don't want to leave yet".
But I'm cool with the idea that they come willingly/think they do but sometimes an outside force is required to keep them from bolting if something happens.
Re: Premise Updates
2) I have been playing all my characters as here willingly and only staying as long as they want to. The only time this has come into conflict was when I was played out on a character who wouldn't leave others, and even then, I came up with excuses to justify it. I think you could shift it to player variable on whether they could stay BUT if it's inconsistent characters will ICly all become more suspicious of Court. Like, why are people's standard conflicts varying. Then again OOCly we might just avoid talking about it. I think probably the best bet is to figure out if you WANT some characters-vs-Court conflict and then declaring as much--we're all good at avoiding having our characters examine things too closely if it's player-chosen and stuff, but if that kind of tension is desirable that could be a way to shift things.
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Also I'm really happy for there to be a TDM and maybe get some fresh interest and blood in a game that has waned a bit. I really like the approach you're taking for it too.
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Signing up in pairs or groups sounds totally legit by me also, especially for more involved challenges! Players have always been allowed to run themed posts that go along with a Challenge's theme without need for permission too, whether run by a player character (if it's not an opt-in event) or with
Players have indicated in the past that the surprise of Challenges is part of the fun, so I'd be reluctant to do it as like a publicly recruiting for a Challenge theme thing, but if a few people want to run a Challenge together, they could also claim a few kinds of posts they intend to do and announce those when their Challenge goes up. (e.g. Anon Challenge had a list at the bottom of it that mentioned what kind of posts would be going up throughout the month to avoid accidental event sniping).
My thoughts on that!
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TDM thoughts
I approve of the TDM but yeah I think the permissions will have to be done by whoever plays in it, including old players—keeping in mind not everyone will want to reveal in a public forum who is playing what characters, too. It's a complex thing to juggle but I think searching for fresh blood is a good thing.
Challenge thoughts
Challenge volunteers sounds good to me! I like the pitching it since you'd need to confirm it's in the right spirit for Court etc. I think the problem you may run into is inertia—If you were getting a lot of suggestions probably the active playerbase has the momentum! I think it could be exciting to do things that could shape Court, but also a bit intimidating in places.
NPCs or more worldbuilding?
Things that would be interesting to me would be some actual NPCs. Right now Court has as part of its premise the concept that something is driving the world, via NPCs in the shops, whoever set the rules and gives the rewards, sends the spooky kids, and a general question of why this is provided. But there's nothing deeper to actual dig into ICly at this point. A lot of the successful games with challenge type mechanics (like games) have strong NPC presence, because the kind of games that NPCs run become part of the patchwork of the game. Obviously shifting this wholesale would change the overall game vibe and I'm not sure it would be desired, but I think part of what is making things go quieter might be an overall sense of something more museboxy—in that ICly the characters know NPCS ARE HERE and that SOMEONE set up this Court system so ICly they may want to understand or dig into that, but OOCly we know they aren't here to play with and there's no point in engaging with Court as a setting beyond it being a stage for our characters to interact on. Now, I like the lack of time constraints and being able to focus on a lot of character first stuff, but I'm wondering if the disjoint between what our characters might engage with IN the setting and what OOCly we know doesn't actually exist might not contribute or could be a possible tackle-point. (I think it'd have to be a careful tackle point because obv we don't want to change too wholesale, plus getting that wound up when you're solemodding might be cruel lmao, but even adding a little more in-world points of interest to engage with could ideally also function to give non-castmates more to react to together, or bond over).
IC/setting wants vs OOC player wants
Which relates to the other conflict of IC/setting vs OOC desires that I see sometimes, which is that Court itself is a setting of consent (which is great! Very honestly) but we also all want to play with effects or scenarios some of our characters wouldn't consent to. Basically a lot of the time we want our characters to do things they don't want to do lol. So far we've had it go pretty well with having some PCs willing to act the villain and cast effects on Court but it's still one of those need-vs-need (fun effects vs environment of consent) things that I'm not sure if there's a solution to, esp because I don't think we want it to become a characters-vs-court scenario. But since I've seen it I thought I'd toss it out in case it's even as simple as a round of applause for our magical villain players and/or a note in the TDM that due to the consent-only COURT effects we always can use more players willing to run Trapped In A Closet posts or whatever. (Though obviously that'd have to be worded more carefully than I just did etc etc).
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Worldbuilding
I definitely do want to work on having more things in the setting to be engaged with, and might do more with the Court environment shifting stuff since in the past we wanted to rely on characters to build new things onto the blank-ish slate, but that approach only works when there's lots of players/characters looking to make new things (and being able to justify the 'work' for it since Court isn't as flexible setting-piece-creation-wise as say Camp from a player's perspective). BUT YEAH it's careful balancing, trying to figure out how to give the setting some weight beyond being a simple stage without making amounts of work that aren't manageable. I actually put in those moving Silent Corridors a while ago on the settings page with some Plans and Mentions ICly, but it's true that just having stuff exist doesn't mean they get much use since it's not relevant in general play and like without plot-type stuff happening, it's sort of easily forgotten or reads as unexplorable. BUT YEAH I'm not sure here either basically. For now I'll probably have Challenges cause environmental changes sometimes that stick around.
NPCs and IC vs OOC wants
I've honestly been giving this element a lot of thought since a while ago. I've been kind of unsure about the best way to handle this since part of the fun of NPCs is learning about them, so I don't want to give too much of my process-thoughts, but also that means I don't have many ways to really build hype-interest before I introduce anything, haha. ANYWAY, I'LL JUST SAY I MAY TRY SOMETHING SOON AND SEE WHERE IT GOES, giving more details when it becomes more relevant, at least in this area. I would not be aiming to shift the dynamic to characters-vs-court though, at least with initial testing.
ANYWAY I HOPE SOME OF THAT MADE SENSE.
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