Harry's Blag

[HarryMcScary]

Yes, I mean blag.

I have struggled to find my place in ToM since first coming on board last year.  I was invited as my interest was beginning to wane in CoA and my weekly campaign was hitting some roadblocks.  I had played ToM all of three, maybe four times- but I knew a good portion of the DM team from my time playing and DMing elsewhere.  In hindsight, I don't know if it was the best of ideas to invite me, because I remember being overwhelmed when I came in.

There is so much lore on the DM forums that I still don't think I've read it all.  Even a year after the fact, when I consider myself pretty "up to date" on everything, not a day goes by that I don't browse the forum or the DM wiki and think "crap- how did I not know that"?  It was different on CoA- I had player there for some time, knew the server, the people, and the stories.  I'm a terrible scripter and an even worse builder, but there, I had the hang of the DM client from day one and was able to run with things.  Here, not so much.

But- I have a new computer, and it works.  This has made things immeasurably easier.  DMing in-game is fun now; it's not the chore it was just a few short weeks ago.  I've caught up again on things in-game, and I'm doing my best to watch the way our current crop of players and their characters develop.  What's more, I've found that this computer will run the toolset well enough for me to knock around in it, and I've had the opportunity to put together a few things.

The first is the bounty system that was just put in.  It seems like such a little thing- "go there, kill them, fetch those, get gold," but in a lot of ways, that's the essence of D&D.  You can break most of the great stories down into that formula, the only difference being that the truly great stories really expand on each part.  What happens when you go there?  Who do you go with? What do you discuss?  Why are you killing them?  Who told you to fetch those, and are your motivations for doing it?  What do you do with the gold when you get it? 

Fill in those blanks and you have the main idea behind the bounty system.  In some ways, we made it for players to have "something to do" when DMs weren't online.  The big point, though, is that DMs don't have to drive character development.  Think of the bounty system as a way to do that.  Your characters are helping rebuild a city- not just killing monsters.  Like everything else we put in, use it as a tool to develop your characters and bring awesome to the server.

The second thing I've put together is not something the DM team has agreed upon yet.  I post it here hesitantly, and I do so with the disclaimer that our discussions on how this could affect server balance are not yet finished, so this may never be implemented.  This collection of screenshots ought to give you the gist of what I worked on today.  If implemented, I'd hope it's used in the same way as I envision the bounty system- a tool for character development and the creation of good stories.

So, it's been a pretty good week for me altogether.  I've written one thing that should be useful on the server, enjoyed some time online, and developed something else that may be implemented (pending balance discussions).  I have a few more projects planned, including a new upper level (5+) quest, some more RP aids, and some building to expand on the awesome lore this server has.  I'll do my best to keep my blag updated (if for nothing other than a weekly +1), but I suck at that, so no promises.

[HarryMcScary]

So, the big evil life rears up and strikes again, but in a good way.  My participation with the DM team has slowed down a lot since taking this new job, mostly because I'm not checking the forums every five minutes from work.  There have been a few remaining bugs with the new skills that I hadn't managed to track down, and I think I got them all today.  (For some reason, there's another one lurking in the back of my head, by I can't remember why...)  The last time I tried to fix those bugs, I was a little inebriated and ended up giving everyone epic feats.  Still, it's better than Strawman turning everyone into a gnome on CoA!

My next project will be a stretch for me, and I can't really give a big hint as to what it is yet.  Let's condense it into this:  Aggy's built a wonderful guild system that we hardly have implemented into the module.  We're getting to a point where we can finally see the possibility of putting it into practice, and it should make things really, really awesome on the server.  NPCs will react to your character based on your standing with them.  How do you get standing with them?  Join a faction.  Scripted conversation choices.  Manual manipulation by a DM.  Background.  Lots of fun stuff to make the gameworld react to your character as you envisioned it. 

I have another two things in my queue after this is finished, and another two (smaller ones) before it.  The timeline works like this:  1.  Make sure all skill bugs are smashed; 2. Add skill focus feats for the new skills; 3. Add some support for the forgery skill;  4. Secret thing related to guilds that will affect your character's interactions with the world;  5. Secret thing related to the theme of the server that will fundamentally change the way your characters interact with each other and with the setting.  I am super-excited about 4 and 5.

Now, experience has shown me that people will complain when things are added that change their character, but that's OK with me.  In the long-run, these changes will allow for greater customization of your characters, and a richer game experience as the setting itself becomes a character.