How's The Game

[wearethecrystalmods]

HOW'S THE GAME?

Welcome to Cosmographia's first "How's the Game"! This is essentially an open forum for discussion about where to take the game from here and anything that might need changing. A lot has happened in the past week and going forward we feel it's more important than ever to have a discussion like this.

This is not a place for criticism of specific players or characters. This is purely about the game itself. Please save player specific criticisms for the upcoming How's My Driving. Any disregard for this or out of hand conduct will be frozen or deleted.

We are inviting not just all current players (old and new) to participate in this discussion but also past players that have left and new potential players considering the game; we encourage everyone to pitch in their two cents. That being said, since this is the game's first HTG we are currently going to do it without anon or sock journals (for future HTG this may change).

Like said this is a completely open forum. We have a list of topics we want to discuss (listed below), but after all those have gone up players are completely free to start their own threads with anything not covered by the other sections.

Current sections (please wait until all these are up and linked to post your own they're all up now!):

The Staff
Applications
Setting Suggestions
The World Outside Waverly Bay/Potential World Plot
Event Schedule/Power Distribution
Player Plot Approval
Power Limitations/Guidelines
Fate of Cosmonet
Network Comm?
Day Cycle Comments
The Temp. Drop System
Future Event/Plot Suggestions

Comments

[nailed_it]

Aww, heck yeah, missions please!!!

I'm not sure if it's being revised or not but I think the "Gemeral Information" post mentions something about characters being compelled to return to the Temple/the Heart Gem to some degree? Perhaps that could be incorporated as a way to keep the slice of life aspects intact? Like, Characters need to get their missions from the Heart Gem or they have to return to the Temple every so often to heal or recharge in some way?

[hasmovedon]

Yeah, this has confused me since this topic was brought up. I thought there was a very definite 'your character cannot leave and will be compelled to return before they get too far' rule in place (to the point it's been mentioned to Roland IC), so people talking about leaving the city didn't make any sense to me. If there was a workaround for that like getting missions from the heart or leaving only being allowable through warp pads it would make a lot more sense.

[foolreversed]

Yeah right now from what I understand it works like this:

-gems are compelled to stay close by/return to the temple (presumably as its own defense mechanic)
-you CAN leave but you'll always want to come back/be drawn back eventually
-leaving and not coming back can be used as a way to excuse a hiatus
-in general it's more like a feeling that you belong at the temple

I believe it was part of the setting just so that there would be less stress on characters who don't react well to the whole "jamjar" sort of setting, i.e. by giving them a reason to feel "at ease" because they felt like they belonged there. But that in itself is something that creeps people out.

We actually started talking about exploring the world beyond Waverly Bay while talking about this aspect of the game. Personally I feel like properly establishing that it's not a compelling force that makes you want to stay by the temple but rather just a general feeling akin to homesickness would be a good route to go in making this workable but also keeping characters from leaving permanently (since that seems to be the other reason for this aspect of the game).

[hasmovedon]

That could work! I definitely like the Heart having a defense measure in place to keep its gems from leaving, so I wouldn't want to see it gotten rid of entirely. I'm lucky enough to play a character who wouldn't have the usual 'I HAVE TO GO HOME' jamjar problem anyway, but it can get tiresome for other players and I know it's got tiresome for me in other games.

I think making sure it's clear that it's not like... outright creepy mind control would help. Some characters may still treat it that way but the thing itself has always seemed fairly low-key and benign.