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Shalvenay

23:00

back to our original topic though -- how do I apply this when I only have control over one or two characters, not the ability to set up an entire world for the rest of the involved PCs?

and more importantly, how do I prevent myself from being excessively simulationistic in such a formulation?

(i.e. basing responses on details other players don't want to interact with)

eimyr

WElll....

I don't quite understand what the game setup is

why can't you influence more than a handful of characters?\

Shalvenay

@eimyr it's mostly-freeform RP within an online CRPG. that's why...

eimyr

ok, what's the crpg?

Shalvenay

@eimyr I'd rather not say because that's a big worm-can opener. suffice it to say that it's obscure enough that you probably haven't heard of it, and it's also quite incomplete and unbalanced mechanically speaking

eimyr

If it's Lineage 2 I spent ages in it doing exactly that.

Shalvenay

23:08

@eimyr negative.

eimyr

Anyway. The way I always invented plots was to treat cahracters as devices

so I've had maybe 2 RP-only chars, which I've used as questgivers or whatever

Shalvenay

@eimyr your own characters?

eimyr

their past and motivations were quite obscure and they never belonged to any in-universe factinos

yes

though admittedly some were very low-level while pretending to be something else

Shalvenay

alright, continue with your formulation -- I've done one or two questgiver-type things with chars in the past

eimyr

but I've had one character which was the best character I've ever made and it was used only to set up relevant adventures and challenges for others

nah, that's too easy

what you're looking for are not questgivers

these characters are problems

say it's DnD and your co-players include a paladin and a druid

Shalvenay

23:12

@eimyr ah.

eimyr

you create a setpiece-character "questgiver" a dude who poisoned a lifewell in a forest

your dudes dispose of him and find a note where he lives and where the macguffin that has to be destroyed to restore the lifewell is

co-players find it and lo and behold this is the guy's ill daughter, which is only alive because of the stole lifewell power.

and that's where your real adventure begins

Shalvenay

so, dilemmas

eimyr

and the best thing about it? you don't have to do anything else

you can even log in as your regular character and participate

pretty much

tough decisions

your players will go out of their way to incorporate elements of the world into the quest

e.g. decide that maybe they can find the cure in X dungeon and then go run it

Shalvenay

ooh, I have a really nasty idea for a villain

eimyr

or maybe there is a flower in an inaccessible mountaintop

shoot, I love villain design

Shalvenay

23:17

basically, someone who can "tie" the lifeforce of others to his own

eimyr

cool

but you see what the idea is?

you don't introduce your characters as characters, but as devices to start the plot

Shalvenay

yeah, I think so -- just start throwing dilemmas at the rest of the players and let them do the rest of the work

eimyr

and then you throw them away (or not)

My best villain ever was created this way. It was a good friend and reliable companion but also a complete monster and sociopathic fiend

Shalvenay

@eimyr yeah, character design is something I will admit I'm poor at because I don't really have a good handle on what makes normal people tick. :P

eimyr

the guild he was part of was debating out-of-game about whether they should keep him or not, especially that his monster side only showed to certain people

Shalvenay

23:35

as to that lifeforce-tie villain...I'm thinking he needs to tie the lifeforce of others to himself to stay alive, but it can slowly sap the lifeforce of those he ties to, and if someone kills or harms him, that is reflected to all his victims as well

eimyr

naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Hidan