[Poll] Local or inter-ducal RP focus?

[Kinaed]

Greetings, players.

We've had a long tradition of disconnect on TI where we had one fully built-out locale and a few satellite locales, but had roles that were kingdom wide. For example, the Seneschal ICly running the entire kingdom for the Queen, but only has small parts of kingdom-wide RP accessible through quests. This disconnect is a problem for many GLs as well, from the Merchants to the Troubadours.

Staff are currently considering if we ought to build-out TI to have the other cities, their Dukes and Duchesses, other level GLs, etc, or if we reduce the scope of the roles we have to be more local - or if we do nothing at all.

Where do you want to see the game? What do you want to play? Does an expanding kingdom scare the pants off you? Do you find local-focused RP more boring than international politics? Should we take the plunge? Leave well enough alone? Get better at being local? Have your say by voting and leaving comments below!

[Dreams]

No, please. People already complain about not being able to find people to RP with. If people were spread out between duchies, that would make it even more difficult.

[Kinaed]

I think we could solve for that without too much problem. If everyone starts in Lithmore and there's no change to that, I think that's generally easy enough. I think the main concern for me would actually be mages running off to Vavard and hidey-holing there... but maybe that's just as valid as hidey-holing in someone's basement. Who knows?

[plague]

A new player's opinion!

It seems to me that as it is, Lithmore City is already relatively unpopulated. There are lots of discussions about issues with splitting up the playerbase, and though I think it could be very cool to portray the whole world if the game had, say, five times the population it currently has, I feel as if expanding the game in the direction of the other duchies could be an inefficient usage of design space, and a move which (at best) separates the already just decent (certainly enough to get scenes, though the game already feels big for what is currently there) population. I do not feel as if there is a significant degree of value which can be realized by the expansion of these mechanical boundaries.

I think that having an outside world to go to is fine, but I think that travel times between various areas introduce a strange disconnect between IC and OOC time, and that any location which takes more than an IC week or two to get to, should probably be part of a GM-run quest. Concentrating love and effort into a small area means that it is most likely to be accessible and appreciated by the players and their characters.

TL;DR: Maybe if the population surges in the future, building out could be good, but right now I feel it would spread effort and population too thin.

[Dreams]

I think we could solve for that without too much problem. If everyone starts in Lithmore and there's no change to that, I think that's generally easy enough. I think the main concern for me would actually be mages running off to Vavard and hidey-holing there... but maybe that's just as valid as hidey-holing in someone's basement. Who knows?

It's not the same. You can't really... track them to a different duchy. I mean, the same people would hide out then as hide out now, I guess, but... I can see potential issues, certainly. Especially with the playerbase so small.

[Taunya]

I'm going to say build them out, as it will be nice to have the option to go there when events take place outside of the city, and would give freedom to look around and explore while doing so.

I expect most of the game will still be taking place in Lithmore City, however. The original TI included all of Vandago city, Talfore, and some other places, but were nearly always empty.

Edit: When I wrote this, it came to mind it would be fun to host the Talfore turkey calling festival in Talfore, too

[Myrella]

Firstly, I have never played a noble, or Seneschal here, so I've not got any experience with the responsibilities at the core of this survey, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

I did, however, play for many years on TI:L's erstwhile sister mud, The Burning Post 2. The setting of that Mud was a single unimportant island on the Bren called New Yarsith, (A locale that doesn't exist in our version of Urth) It was so tiny, that the noble leader was only a Baronette (A step below a Baron in a noble heirarchy) Being an island was a rather good solution, for keeping everything local. However, staff there eventually added a neighboring coastal city called Lindale, with its own capitol, and taverns, and shops and parks etc. etc. You had to travel through a ferry, (similar to the carriage system we have) to get there.

To my mind, that was a huge HUGE mistake, and the beginning of that MUDs downfall. Their population was a good deal smaller than TI's, and adding that separate location split the player base up in a way that made it much more difficult to find RP. Roughly half the players moved to the new city, or created characters for over there, (mostly nobles, and political folks) while half stayed on the island. Essentially cutting the population in half. While characters could travel from one city to the other, there was a cost in silver, and travel time, and you needed a decent RP excuse, as it made little IC sense for characters to travel back and forth regularly.

I think TI already has a very sizable grid. Making it larger, and more segregated, I feel will have a similar effect. How many newbies will end up creating a count in Vandago, only to discover most of the player base is in Lithmore or Vavvard or something similar?

On the other hand.. International politics could be fun, but maybe it could be handled locally through something similar to a parliament?

[Taunya]

I'm just going to point out that it's already currently possible to leave the Lithmore city grid if you choose to, and be sent to a traveling room, by yourself or with others. I think this could be much the same, but better. Travel rooms feel stuffy OOCly since you can't move around, and there's nothing to see or do. While it's possible to ask for a custom grid to be made for a ST or such (I've done so before), it would be much better to have something ready to go. It will also give the opportunity for those who do go off grid for whatever reason to have the chance (even if slim) for random RP encounters, which is not currently possible.

On the matter of opening up Dukes/duchesses and expanding roles outside of the city, I'm not sure about that. I thnk that since their attention would be needed in their own duchies, and most of the game will take place in Lithmore city, it might not work well.

[plague]

I think that having multi-room areas for each duchy might be fine in the case of facilitating travel RP, but I do not think it would be a benefit for this to be anything but an extra option. It becoming a staple constant - that is, a "playstyle" of remaining primarily in other duchies being directly supported - is likely to have negative effects on playerbase concentration.

[Sparkles]

Any other game I've played that already had trouble with active numbers was not improved by a vastly expanded world map and different "spheres" or play areas. Indeed, things over got considerably worse.

While I think it could be interesting to allow people to -visit- small versions of various places or interact with them for plots or on occasion (like opening up travel for a week or so) I think allowing people to permanent live there would be a serious determent to the game.

The issue with inter-ducal RP focus is not the lack of the physical locations on grid, IMHO, it's about how the impact of decisions by the GLs affects or does not the wider playing world. Indeed even the plot system notes in bold letters that it is the responsibility of players to make things seem "real" on grid. The old inter-ducal focus I think had more to deal with how much "power" it felt like characters used to have. How much they could change or impact the game at large.