Player Roleplay Events System

[Monketh]

I'm rolling together a few ideas from some other threads and some other people here.  I'm fairly sure this hasn't been brought up just like this before. 
In the game we have guilds.  Guilds have members.  Guilds have ranks.  Guilds have leaders.
The idea I'm presenting here is that of the roleplay event as a guild.  More accurately, the guild as a starting place for this in the current system.

The Event will have members, ranks, and leaders.
-Members join the event (should be invited).
-Ranks exist solely to delegate authority.
-Leaders because, well, someone needs to be running the event.

The Event could have experience.  If the GMs trust the event leader enough, the event leader would be given experience to parcel out among participants.
-The Event Leader could not reserve any for him/herself.
-Experience would be given to an Event by a GM.
-Forced equality could prevent griefing.  (Every player gets the same.)

The Event will have an in-game forum.  This helps keep track of what's happening, from who, and where or how.
-Players could subscribe to a specific thread, such as the Event Leader's daily summary.
-Multiple threads could exist.
-Ranks would decide moderators.
-It would be viewable (read-only) on the internet.  Save your adventures to your character's diary!
-Posts could contain links to other posts as references.  (This should be possible in character descriptions too, if implemented.)

Items could be "placed" in the event.
-Although it would be much more awesome to receive the item from the person him/herself, this helps to ensure OOC scamming is less likely.

Q: Should just anybody be able to do this?
A: Why not?

Q: How will you prevent this from being abused?
A: Inactive Events will expire from time limits.
One Event per account.
(Possibly, to prevent use as a bank) Items given can not be returned.

Q: What about special items?
A: Items could have custom descriptions and names.  Their statistics would remain the same.

Q: Why an in-game implementation?
A: So much easier on the players.  Events will sprout constantly and I suspect it will enrich the environment of Planeshift.  Not to mention more transparent.  Out-of-game implementations of such a system wouldn't interface directly and would be awkward solutions at best.

Q: I'm in-game now.  What if something important happens and I need to be there?
A: A /guild like message can be triggered for now-happening events for participants.

This will require trustworthy players (characters are a different story.)  You know why.  I feel that it would certainly be worth it, however.   Thoughts?

[Karyuu]

Sounds like a great idea for player quests

A personal opinion/preference: an in-game forum/message board for such a thing seems excessive. I understand that it may be easy to keep track of RPs that way if you're gone for a while, but it seems a hassle. For me, anyway. (Most of the time I play just to play, for the spontaneity it brings - if I were involved in a really cool RP but it required that I check an OOC source multiple times throughout its course, I'd get tired. Plus I personally have a bit of a difficulty understanding why an in-game event board would be such an awesome feature.)

It seems you managed to put into words pretty much what I was envisioning for a player quest system in Zazibar's thread. The ability for GMs to give Quest Leaders awards to give out is great too, though I predict there will be quite a queue of events awaiting "approval" for this

[Under the moon]

Some people would not use it, others would use it all the time. The  Ingame RP forum is -supposed- to be used this way, but it feels distant from the game. More people would use it if it was in the game. There are many features that are in the game now that I do not use, and think are bothersome, but it is not up to one side to decide what features the other side should have.

On consideration, the way the 'questbook' is set up may be a good model to start with. A play could add their own notes, but also, quest leaders could add 'world' notes as well.

Now comes the big question of who gets to set up quests or events. Everyone? Hmmm.... No. There would have to be some sort of limits based on quest type and duration. And also on the actual ability to run a quest or event. But who should decide this?

I suggest the people, and GMs. The players of the game will quickly come to realise who is good at setting up RPs. This is often proven by the "You should be a GM" statment. What I suggest, is that players can give each other limited amounts of 'RP' points (GMs could give out -or take away- unlimited points) that could be spent to access certain features of the Quest system, including rewards, board postings, NPC use and scripting, and even mob control if you have enough points. This would be a self regulating system, as no one would support a bad RP for long.

Of course limits and restrictions would have to put in place to ensure the an unskilled (in RP) n00b could not get all his buddies to dump points on him for his l33t qu3st. This means GMs would be able to delete any quest. Perhaps the number of RP points you could give out would be based on those that you already possess. One good roleplayer can easily see another. Also, players could not give points to others who had just given them points. If you join in an RP, you could continue to give points to the leader if you liked the RP. This way, those RPs that people lost intrest in would simply die out.

That is a very rough plan of what it could be like.

[Karyuu]

Just one thing:

The  Ingame RP forum is -supposed- to be used this way, but it feels distant from the game.

It's actually not. Check out this thread. But all things "mutate" with time, so it's not a big deal.

What I like this idea for, again, is player quests. Not "Hey these RPs are going on right now, let's check them out." I think you are supposed to learn about roleplay through your own exploration, not a predetermined "This looks interesting, my character will just conveniently hear a rumor and I'll be off." That feels unnatural to me.

[Under the moon]

Again, that is your opinion. And not one that I share. Nor do many others that have asked for such a thing. The tasks (quests) ingame now feel very unnatural to me, yet I do not say other players should not have them. I just take the option not to do them.

My characters hear many things while I am offline. It would feel silly to me otherwise, as they would have 'vanished' for weeks sometimes. That is not hard to do, as one week in RL time equals.... a great amount of time ingame, which should be changed, in my opinion.

[Karyuu]

Again, that is your opinion. And not one that I share.

You certainly have that freedom, while I have the freedom to share what I feel about a feature suggestion. Saying that something is my opinion is a moot point. I'm not too sure on how the NPC quest system can be compared in this situation, as it is "unnatural" only due to being unfinished and unpolished. The unnatural factor I was referring to for myself was having to check some OOC in-game window to know some of what's going on in the world, and then imparting that knowledge onto my character without learning of the events ICly from the very start. You're playing an MMORPG and not roleplaying on a message board. I feel that if you want to know what's going on, you should look and ask around.

[Monketh]

Not all of us have the memory you do, Karyuu.  You certainly do not have to read threads which are unrelated, or spoilers (these could even be hidden.)  It's much more a matter of record and informing the leader, than it is a matter of informing the participants.

I must disagree on the limiting of the quest system to certain individuals UtM.  I do not see much danger in letting just anyone run a quest.  It completely skips the popularity contest and allows for alts to be used as characters more easily.  One quest at a time, of course (accompanied by other mechanisms.)  Points, on the other hand, are the realm of the GMs.

[zanzibar]

Monketh, I absolutely despise your understanding of roleplaying events and I ask that you remove my name from your post.  I do not want to be associated with your wish.  My wish was for an automated mission log.  It has little to nothing in common with what you're proposing.

I find that such a system as you propse would make in-game roleplaying caged-in and inorganic.  It encourages people to see the developement of roleplays as event-based rather than character-based, and to me, if you have no character then roleplaying loses its meaning.

Your wish also encourages a rather sterile, black and white interpretation of things.  A character is either in or out.  Events have definate begginings and endings.  Isn't it better to have a naturalistic approach to it?  Isn't it better to say that the events last so long as characters are touched by them?


@Under the moon:  Point systems are vulnerable to powerlevellers and should thus be avoided.

[Monketh]

As you request.

Not all of us have the memory you do Zanzibar, so for me a system such as this would be invaluable.  As it stands, I have had people /tell me and I don't have the slightest clue who they are.  If I so much as attempted to run an event I would need to set some outside infrastructure in place (such as a wiki) to keep track of it all.  Spontaenity is nice, but to see a good event flowing from it is rare.
If you have to ponder whther you're in or out, you're in.  How the system is utilized, or if it is used at all, it up to the players.

[Cha0s]

I agree with Zanzibar. How odd.

No, seriously, most events should not require much setup. This issue of "events" as coherent and defined units is bothersome. Events should be a lot more vague in definition and more "normal." These OOC systems for finding events take away some of the realism from those events I think I know what the issue is... Hrmm... *goes to ponder a solution*

[zanzibar]

I agree with Zanzibar. How odd.

Not really, and not funny.  We've agreed on countless things in the past.

[Cha0s]

I know Zanz, just teasing ya a bit.

I think Roleplay has become sort of artificial. On the one hand, I'm really glad everyone wants to roleplay (ok, not everyone, but many people), but on the other hand, this explicitly defined event-by-event method seems a bit sterile to me. Roleplay should be spontaneous and should involve the characters near you in the game world. You shouldn't have to do any advance recruiting for most roleplay!

[Under the moon]

Agreed. I don't even do the 'quests' ingame now because of the static feel to them.

Now, this would be much more helpful in creating and 'directing' the path a roleplay takes: http://hydlaa.com/smf/index.php?topic=26135.msg292832#msg292832

And into that an ingame bulletin board, and perhaps tie it into a categorized buddy list...