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Post by Admin on Jan 18, 2017 22:03:37 GMT -5
Many other iterations of the game have come before, usually born of someone dissatisfied with what is currently being done. Much like this one. But with the release of the trilogies, there are options for when it is set.
Before the books or after the books. Each has their pro's and cons.
Before:
Pro
- Plenty of source material
- Less diversity of concepts that need to be accommodated. Easier to get off the ground.
- No ones done this before.
- No gunpowder, no need to worry about that element.
- Allows for some of the "Major houses" in the books to be minor or up and coming houses and to get their way up the totem pole. This also allows for the houses in the books that were "formerly great ones" to be working their way down.
Con
- Source material for before the books is a little less filled and fleshed out as post books might.
- Alba/Eire characters are concepts that cannot be explored as the Straits have not been unblocked. This does however leave the CU, Aragonia and across the mediterranean as concepts that can be. This means though, that the vibrant red hair that some may covet is about as common as facial hair - read, very.
- Night Court still practices indentured servitude, be prepared for plenty of "My parents abandoned me" and the potential for players who are not servants of naaman but just servants of the houses.
After:
Pro
- All previous iterations of the game were pre-third trilogy. This gives the potential to have a game with gunpowder. To allude to the discovery of "north America" as it would be in the books.
- Massive source material and ability to incorporate pan-asian based characters, and northern races into the game. Massive diversity available for players.
Con
- Others have tread down this path, and the third series of books was not out at the time, so it would be further out than current and past iterations of the time and you have to balance theme hrs unknown quantity.
WORK IN PROGRESS
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Post by vulgarkitten on Jan 18, 2017 22:50:37 GMT -5
What about the possibility of setting it between the first and second series? Skaldi tried to invade, Master of the Straits is freed, Drustan and Ysandre are wed, Phedre and Joscelin have returned with a young Imriel, and the original story starts there, as if the second series will never take place and anything comes after will draw only from the canon that can be established from the first series, or what can be reasonably believed to pre-date the second series.
Either staff as NPCs for the main book characters, or book characters given as Features to players who show knowledge of the source material and a willingness to create play.
It's both a tricky setting (because Features can be tricky if handled awry), but also simpler in many ways, because a) the book canon is not so overwhelming as it might be if you used all three series, and b) because then you do have a little bit of wiggle room to create a story that is partially your own, but still fully immersed in the midst of the stories we all love.
This is just a thought. If it's not worth debating, then I would cast my vote for After.
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Post by insomniac on Jan 18, 2017 23:56:39 GMT -5
I personally don't want to have to deal with piloting any canon characters. I don't want to deal with the potential of being criticized for not writing Phaedra or Yasandre correctly, nor do I want to deal with the pressure of doing so.
I also don't want the timing of plots to be constrained by the books.
Setting it between the two series gives the game a shelf life. Eventually the Imriel trilogy will start.
It just seems needlessly stifling.
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Post by insomniac on Jan 18, 2017 23:59:49 GMT -5
Gunpowder is also a tricky subject.
I'm fine with canons and rudimentary guns, which are expensive as hell, but firearms in combat are historically a pain in the ass. Don't even get me started on bombs.
I worry that the introduction of the "new world" will over extend our scope starting out. We can certainly have it be a plot.
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Post by vulgarkitten on Jan 19, 2017 0:12:40 GMT -5
I personally don't want to have to deal with piloting any canon characters. I don't want to deal with the potential of being criticized for not writing Phaedra or Yasandre correctly, nor do I want to deal with the pressure of doing so. I also don't want the timing of plots to be constrained by the books. Setting it between the two series gives the game a shelf life. Eventually the Imriel trilogy will start. It just seems needlessly stifling. Point of clarification: the Imriel trilogy would never start, in this case, nor would the latter series. Those events would cease to exist, from a story point of view. |
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Post by insomniac on Jan 19, 2017 0:32:16 GMT -5
Ah.
Thank you for clarifying.
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Post by Admin on Jan 19, 2017 11:56:48 GMT -5
Should note, that this is something we need to hash out first and foremost, even quicker than hashing out a CG system. Because when we have this, we can start with splitting up the wiki and fleshing that out. This is our jumping point, but also our bottleneck.
I'm in the "Past" camp, despite some of the drawbacks - and there's drawbacks to any place that we put the game. I'm leery about setting it right after the first book and placing the other two book in the series in the 'discard' pile so to speak as that then brings about book characters and people will always be criticizing whether they feel like the book characters are being played to how they feel they should. The future brings with the concrete need to pop in gunpowder, and the terra nova.
Past does eliminate Albans and eirans from play, does indeed possibly kill off some people who might only want to play those, but there are other countries. Setting it in the past means that we have (if we go around where Nathaniel has suggested setting it in the past) 300-400 years to let folks alter and move shit around, and more than enough time that we don't have to worry about ensuring that Ganleon is King, etc etc. That's 300-400 years down the road and moot. Plenty of time to mess around with the Skaldi, the aragonians, etc etc.
It's also something that's never been explored in other Kushiel iterations and thus we won't have to endure as much 'BUT YOU ARE COPYING US SHAME :rings a bell: SHAME! :rings a bell:
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Post by insomniac on Jan 19, 2017 12:14:59 GMT -5
If we want to eventually open up the Eirie and Alba (or if there's demand) we could consider going AU and turning opening the straights into a plot.
Or the PCs might push for it on their own.
The Eirie had some plot elements I was interested in exploring, but I can live without it.
Past also means we don't have to hand waive "the unfiorgiven"
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Post by Admin on Jan 19, 2017 12:17:31 GMT -5
Oooh I like that idea... How opposed are we to alternate universe and tweak the opening of the straits?
Or alternatively, the straits WERE open, but then were closed at some point in the past. We could start with them open and then a mega-plot be the closing, of the straits... thus cutting off on grid albans and eirans from their homeland and the inherent drama and political chaos that comes with that....
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Post by insomniac on Jan 19, 2017 12:21:31 GMT -5
If we're going with before the books nothing obligates us to facilitate the canon of the books (aside from staying in theme)
A policy of AU from game start tends to allow players more freedom in the world and staff more freedom in writing.
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Post by insomniac on Jan 19, 2017 15:39:06 GMT -5
If we're going with that we'll inevitably have characters may it their goal to open them again.
Do we want that to be a thing people can do with enough time and effort?
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Post by vulgarkitten on Jan 19, 2017 16:51:20 GMT -5
Oooh I like that idea... How opposed are we to alternate universe and tweak the opening of the straits? Or alternatively, the straits WERE open, but then were closed at some point in the past. We could start with them open and then a mega-plot be the closing, of the straits... thus cutting off on grid albans and eirans from their homeland and the inherent drama and political chaos that comes with that.... I feel like if we start before the straits were closed, we fall into a really archaic time period, well before what I'd ideally like to play. It's noted in the books (when they come to the Three Sisters and Hyacinthe is first trapped) that they speak, dress, act, etc in archaic D'Angeline. The Straits closed 800-ish years before the first book in the first series. If we set the MU then, we set it when the Angels (ie Rahab) roamed the land and took lovers (ie. the woman he loved who didn't love him back). It's a lot of 'thee's' and 'thou's' and 'thine's'. |
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paul
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Post by paul on Jan 19, 2017 17:14:02 GMT -5
My vote is for as late as is reasonable for the number of night court houses to be reduced. I feel 13 is too many and spreads things too thin for the Month. I think they could be reduced down to 7. This is an oog issue that I am basically looking for an IC justification for. If it's set later, one can argue that a bunch of houses merged.
House 1 - Cereus, Camellia, Dahlia
House 2 - Mandrake, Valerian
House 3 - Alyssum, Heliotrope
House 4 - Balm, Gentian
House 5 - Jasmine, Eglantine
House 7 - Bryony, Orchis
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Post by insomniac on Jan 19, 2017 18:19:32 GMT -5
Nathaniel is right, the Night Court is a sacred cow.
Also I've found that there's some important nuances between each house, that are actually really interesting to play with if plot staff is paying attention or players are enthusiastic.
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paul
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Post by paul on Jan 19, 2017 18:26:19 GMT -5
I would argue it is not a departure from theme. The Night Court exists and still has the same feel. It just has fewer houses as a realization that what works for a book isn't necessarily what works for a MU*. Honestly I feel a night court house needs to have 5 active characters to maintain a feeling of having an active house. That's 65 characters total. While that would be fantastic, one cannot go into making a new server counting on such wonderful numbers.
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