SHORT VERSION is that I've been thinking of expanding an old psl into something a little more game-y

and I think I'm at the point in the revamping process where I'm ready to show it to people and be like "uh do y'all want this?" / "should stuff get added/tweaked to be more playable" before I do the rest of the Stuff

feeling very invite-only about the openness of the game, for reasons that I'm sure are obvious to anyone who's had a conversation with me since like July

but that kind of broad "hey we're already friends, you've got an invite if we're already plurk buds" situation where the "do you want this" applies mostly to like. y'all

objectively as possible
this is a hell of a premise and one of my first questions would be "does it have a timeline/lifespan or would that be more Vibe Based"

Vilyasage: entirely vibe based. I can see where it could lead to an ending state. in its psl state one of the npcs was this oldbie conspiracy nut who was trying to dig tunnels and uncover lore and stuff. he was fun and I'll probably use some version of him to progress any like. "here's
what's really going on" conversations

You already know I am interested

so I guess it could be plotty if people want to play
plotty? but it might just be like "go do shit and here's some mild seasoning for people who want a spicier experience"

ooooh I would be down for this

one of the problems that came up early on in the psl-version of this premise was that people felt like they didn't have enough reasons for characters to interact, so I've tried to make the writeups for this seem a little less like "you must stop at an npc for a hall pass before every thread" but I'm not sure it's there yet. so if there's any instinctive

"I want to be able to do this" energy you're feeling, I would love to construct a way to do that which is baked into the setting

Potential yes, depending on on the genre lean? As a setting I like it and I don't require actual plot if there's stuff to engage with, but I can't tell what those engagement point for characters would be. (You know my tastes lean towards Fuck Their Shit Up, and I have ideas... so it depends what vibe you're going for!)

even like - so this started as a smutbox, and I don't think it has to be a smut experience if it's open to everyone, but I'm also not sure where to set the horny dial

"genre lean" is a much better way to describe the horny dial

WELL I MEANT HORROR OR MORE "their suffering is having to cater to drunken rich assholes for their contract terms" kind of SOL but I am also down for turning up the horny dial!

This sounds SO cool omg

Oooooh shiny. I think you know that I am interested

Can we have a Squid Games event

Conspiracy nut opens the door to there being weird occurrences and mysteries that fall somewhere in between? Like I already have theories and ideas depending on where you were going with this lmao.

minimoffs: yeah see it could totally descend into squid games antics with the debt and desperation to win angle.

oh OH definitely not an explicit horror game Maybe like a tense horror event here and there but I think I'm all full up on "sit in a box and torture someone" prompts

There are different flavors, def! I'm also full up on torture but if it was just SOL you work in a casino... eh. If you went dark and weird I'm def in.

oh yeah most likely weird. I'm much better at writing "weird" than sol

Visually this is the bomb already, Jessie, dude

just based on the general stuff I tend to write, I'm more of a "shits weird but you can probably sol if you want" designer in general

I do like how weird this is. I'd be game for it

Like I considered running a persons unknown thing for awhile but there was no interest -- they were in a hotel setup being fucked with like subtle/weird psych testing and manipulation? With the hint that if you "passed" there was something at the end, so like. Very weird and fucked up but not HORROR and if this tipped down that alley... fuck yes.

Smutty horror you say

i'm not entirely certain this game would be for me, but just looking it over, i do think having a more solid idea of what genre/tone lean it's going for would be helpful. similar to others, i don't always require a metaplot (hell, in a game rn that doesn't have really much of one to speak of), but as long as there are events happening that feel

naturally cohesive/connected and fall within a similar theme without being the same event on repeat

then that's all that's needed

minimoffs: LOL YEAH it was weird revisiting this premise from 2019 with (current year) eyes and being like "oh no the real villain is Capitalism"

there's no need to keep a TWEWY mark of the exact number on your hand because all the numbers are fake and it's not a game that someone can win while playing in the system

I thought about Squid Game and also about that Apple show where people partition themselves to only be able to work while they're working

very interested

I didn't want to go that extreme with it (that's not fun to play) but also that vibe of like. Usagi can't become Sailor Moon when she's got time to actually help people but she can totally do a burlesque magical girl henshin sequence in a room full of billionaires ogling her flower petals

idk I think it could be interesting to play around with a conditional power nerf

Yes this sounds very my vibe now that there's discussion... I'm in.

Yzaksama: thank you!!! Shikki and Saro have been listening to me grouse about aesthetics in rp for weeks now so I'm glad I ended up with something that isnt an eyesore

coding is fun but also a cruel master

rebreather: yeah, I'm trying to stay conscious of a lot of the things we talked about around Srptember-ish. I think it can help to have a system where people can suggest things they want to play? which I've just realized is more in my head than on the stuff I linked so I'll just ramble here

so since I don't really care to keep track of individual characters' finances (who cares? play a rich boy or a poor boy it makes no difference), I think it wouldn't hurt to just have it open to be like "sometimes people gamble well and they get to be the rich person who picks the event" so while theyre playing king for a day they

blurt out something like "idk I could really go for some ice cream" and then the monkey's paw curls and the next day all their friends are ice skating around in sub-zero conditions constructing an ice cream throne for them

but like oocly that translates to a form you can fill out to suggest shit you want to play

so everyone's not just stuck doing the weird shit I think is fun all the time

That's a really happy medium between like.... no input vs having to plan out a whole event when maybe that isn't someone's forte.

I have noooo idea when it comes you coding so I can't even imagine. but it looks beautiful

yeah like, for all the complicated emotions I have about Entranceway, I really enjoyed the element where you could just say "my character had this cool thing happen in canon and I think it would make for a fun event". I don't think I've seen a game do it like that in a while

I never have, tbh. I've only been in games with no input or you have to design and run a player plot, except maybe like... hadriel was my favorite game experience ever and we could vote on outcomes oocly based on ic actions? So every character journal would vote what that character was throwing influence behind.

oh fuck a severence event could be dope

minimoffs: wow omg this is such an elegant solution??? "this premise is so fun but it probably wouldn't be fun to play a game where you interact with friends while they're working but they don't know you" immediately gets resolved by "make it an event"

like a stern fingerwag "you guys screw around at work too much stop screwing around" limited time deal

I am having trouble articulating the level of compulsory work ethic. like I want to set a baseline where the minimum participation is "bored teenager at an after-school job"

you can't just fuck off and ignore your shift to go punching holes in spacetime but you can probably get away with reading magazines at the register until you get caught by that one guy who says "if you've got time to lean you've got time to clean"

I'm not sure WHERE that goes on a game info page. maybe an faq

"I don't know what to put on an faq" is also part of why I plurked about this

yeah i think thats an faq question under like a daily life section

I DO like the premise.

candycigarettes: I was thinking of the job things as more thematic rather than keeping a list of like "you work specifically at this one thing" - do you think it would need narrower categories than these?

I know people like to be like "this is my assigned housing with its built in cr" and people also like getting to talk about who their character is and where they're suitable

like I haven't started designing an app yet but I think th answer to "where do you think your character would be sorted" would serve the same function as your average personality section

it might mean we gave like 15 entertainers and 3 people hustling around other jobs, but eh that's what nameless npcs are for

ngl as someone who has a game that plays v fast and loose with the setting & gives people a ton of liberties - i have really noticed it gives people a lot more tools to take ideas and run & make the game 'theirs'.

but people who aren't good at coming up with their own fun can really flounder.

I think like. one of the things that became a point of stress for me with Penance was when players would over-ask for decisions and end up boxing in themselves or someone else

I do need to do a writeup about general locations and community access things, but I will never again fall into the trap of giving a direct answer to "but how does my character get haircuts"

(is that mean? that feels mean. I probably shouldn't have said that )

minimoffs: and yeah, that's the struggle, right? you want to support people who need the support while leaving the sunroof open in case people want to fly in a different direction

that's very kind of you. ;-; thank you for supporting this amorphous blob of "guys do you wanna play something?"

sincerest: yeah, the best solution i've had is like on the months that are player-plot focus, we're gonna do a q&a / rapidfire thing with players where they can say the thing they want and we can build a thing for them

yeah I'm fully planning to steal your event suggestions post and tweak it to be like "what does your character want" and "what do YOU want as a player"as separate questions and use it as inspo

sometimes people are going to ask for taco Tuesdays because they want to have a taco tuesday

but then other people might ask for taco Tuesday because their character's baby brother died in a horrific taco accident

event where everyone's arms turn to noodles and not one heimleich maneuver can be performed

we're all here for different reasons

I wandered away for a while, but I'm already interested

I also can't remember if I thanked people so I'LL DO IT NOW IN CASE I DIDN'T DO IT THEN because it's useful to hear about the things people like/don't like in their RP experiences.

makes me wish my rp brain was in gear but i like

I like the set up.

a week later and I'm still plugging stuff in but WOW there are a lot of new games opening specifically right now

kind of getting a feel like "oh maybe now is not the time for this

I was feeling like I might be on pace for next week to maybe have a firmer "here is this thing, TDM will be playable after I've given the internet a chance to see this in a more formal capacity" but it would be the... sixth?? game to be trying to generate excitement this month?

maybe more than sixth? idk I'm not friended to everyone

but also maybe that could be part of the vibe? It would be easier to manage a smaller group and let things get established at a more natural pace

just 3am thoughts, which are notoriously full of anxieties and untruths

oh also since this has been out in the air for a while, addendum that daytime brain laughed at 3am brain and went "all those games are opening but none of them are doing THIS so you're still fine"

it's not a bad thing to have a scifi game and a fantasy game and a fairytale game and a western game and a monster game and I don't even remember some of the new offerings that are popping up

but it does feel nice to see that so many things are happening but they're happening in different ways

so it doesn't fall to two or three games to try to be something for everyone

I fully agree

Nothing wrong at all!

I would be more than interested

yeah I might be joining one of the new games but not the majority so I'd still be interested in this one

thanks guys T_T

rogress update, there's most of an faq now

I was spending the afternoon hashing out a navigation page that will double as my to-do list

still avoiding committing to a locations page and sidestepping it at every turn

I have a question I am afraid to ask on an faq page where strangers could yell at me, can I ask it here

oh good. you allow ocs.

skeletone: sure! Nothing is set in stone yet

it's still in the drafting stage

kindaklutzy: I don't have the energy for warriors of light or weird slapfights about what Commander Shepard ACTUALLY thinks, but yeah I'll read about everyone's original fiction!

just sliding a quick note to self "read all of this later" in here

the more I write, the more nonsense there is to read! I'm sorry if anything gets to be too girthy

it's hard to find a balance of like "what's enough information" and "that's too fucking long bye"

okay so! Can someone who apps a character opt out to someone else apping an alternate, or is it required to be ok with alternates unless you're an OC, because that changes my character choice!

(last time I asked this in public I got nasty anonymous replies about being a highlander; please note I don't even have an opinion on what the rule is, there are just some characters where I'd prefer to avoid the chance of alternates!)

I would say that an invite-only game inviting friends and friends-of-friends would engender that kind of conversation before the app phase? I don't like to encourage highlander behaviors. If two people want to app canon multiples, it shouldn't have to be a competition

oh sorry I write that before I saw your reply - I don't mean to use highlander as an insult or a dirty word!

it's just more of a shorthand because we've all met a person or two who ends up being a little too precious about their favorite

and I have a LOT of feelings about the importance of separating IC and OOC spaces and knowing where one ends and the other begins

yeah that's legit! like I said I don't actually care, there are just a few where their IC response to it would be a total funsponge for me and so I would want to. avoid that. by not apping that person.

yeah, that makes sense. sometimes existential crises aren't something you want to have to play out

Current Status: she's getting close! Absolutely dreading the idea of designing an application

but the little fiddly pages are coming together

did some soul searching and decided that I hate AC more than I hate dealing with inactive rp partners and went with the "just tell me what your dude did" method after all

the idea of checking game activity? Nah I'll pass

especially after all the weird things I've seen where people falsify AC or link to AC that isn't valid or from the current month or whatever?

why even bother playing that game

just tell me what your dude's up to, if the answer is "idk hanging out" for like three months in a row maybe I can talk to you like a human because we're adults who communicate

normalize talking to people or something crazy idk (unrealistic fantasies)

that kind of ac is appealing.

it's easier to read than to click and count.

welcome to the summary ac life

minimoffs: idk if you remember the time I was like "guess I'm going to reverse-engineer ac this month!" And then got mad and dropped it an hour in

I remember that day. that day was awful.

but I also have a lot of disdain for like ac rewards and stuff so it probably goes hand in hand

(sighs in "this is a stat sheet not an app what do you want me to do with this")

but then I also have a lot of disdain for apps wonder how that'll pan out when I sit down with it

the plus side to having a different app is that people can't just c&p most of their app. they have to think about it.

I dont mind recycling apps! I am one of the people who hate writing them. my priority is usually like "do you intend to be a headache with your powers"

I'm not the grand vizier of ICness and don't care about that, but you should give off an idea of what your take on the character is so other people know what they're getting into

but if you plan to be like "well my character has a Fortress of solitude that he keeps in a space rock in his pocket and I need to know how that rock is impacted by every single game event or my character is unplayable" that's. I don't want to have to care about that for you

also the early signs of "im going to be incredibly upset if my character is not The Best all the time" because power sections usually blurt that out pretty clearly too

but everything else is kind of window dressing. so I need to see what kind of curtains other games put up because I'm not sure what I'll like

i always c&p apps. i loathe writing apps. i actually enioy the unique game-speciifc question ones, but if i'm gonna have to write a personality section i am only writing it once and reusing it forever ... because that kind of thing isn't my writing strength OR my fun time