Give us tools to drive our own events

[Skjotur]

I was going to bump one of my Dunwyr request threads for the GMs but then I thought it might be better to make a more general and public post. Another GM has resigned. The dev is overworked IRL. We see little hide nor hair of most of the other GMs. What is probably going on is life just being what it is, and GMs being real busy. That's okay. It happens. But it leads me to this request: Give us more tools to drive our own events, so we don't have to nag you guys all the time for little things.

I don't mean sophisticated and world changing tools where we're all mini GMs. I just mean things like, for example, the corpse spikes. Those are cool, something some players can use to run their own events that demand attention and action but don't require the GMs (at least I don't think they do, do they?). Give us more stuff like that. Let people put up their own signs, let other people chop those signs down. Let people paint things on the rocks in the area, and others can wash that away. Let sorcerers grow those wraith plants in the wilderness or haunt a room with a mini bone charm that just makes it feel creepy. Let druids and Dwaedn Wyr place wooden totems. Let monks and templar consecrate an area with a simple wilderness shrine of stacked rocks topped with a sacred candle or something.

None of these things actually do anything. It's just an object in a room, and all of them can be destroyed pretty easily by other PCs. They don't give any advantages or disadvantages. The only purpose they would serve would to provide tools for us to use to help drive our own RP events and stories when we need them. I think things like this could really help CLOK, especially with our dynamic we have with PC conflict. Imagine the bad guys staking claim over more and more of the wilderness with their wraith plants and staked corpses and all. Then the good guys come in to clean it out, and claim some area with their own things, or being good guys not claim it, but show that it's under their protection. The turf war thing is just one potential application, and probably not the best example. And the GMs already know all my ideas for the Dunwyr, which I won't share here but they follow the same idea.

My specific ideas might suck. Does anyone else have any ideas that we can tempt the GMs with to give us more RP tools to drive our own stories?

[Kiyaani]

I don't have any specific ideas to contribute to this unfortunately, but I just want to say thank you for posting this. I like to see that people are still working to make this game great by being willing to share ideas that benefit everyone - especially when the population is a bit lower than usual and we have to rely more on each other for RP and event-type stuff. So thanks, Skjotur, and thanks to everyone else who has been posting ideas lately.

[Jirato]

Coding entire new mechanics/systems for player events would be a bit of a chore right now considering my limited time. Do keep in mind that you're still free to request RP props from us though. I think it was originally mentioned in a Zoiya post several years ago, so I'm not sure how up to date the information in the thread is, if anyone can even find it, but if you want to run something and need a prop to assist with it, all you need to do is drop us an email at support at clokmud.com with the details.

[Skjotur]

Well the suggestion was so that you could give us the ability to do more ourselves instead of having to request or email or bug GMs every time we need something little, and would be a net gain in saved time for both of us. The GMs don't have to deal with all the little requests, and the players don't have to wait around and very possibly get no response when we make the requests. I understand it would take time to do, I thought I would just put the idea out there.

[Jirato]

Looking back over the original post, which admittedly I only briefly skimmed before, I see lots of cool ideas. I especially like the idea of a graffiti system and easier access to adding and removing signs. That would add a cool element to the world and empower players to make more lasting changes to the environment (until another player undoes them). Sounds fun!

[jilliana]

I know J already put his stamp of approval/consideration on this idea, but I wanted to say that I really like it. I'm sitting here thinking of more things that can be used for temperary props, but I'm drawing a blank because Skjotur seems to have covered most of them. Just those spikes alone have garnered lots of attention and great RP. Add that to all the rest that everyone could have access to and it'll be even better.

[Jirato]

This was on the list in my head, which admittedly, I forget 99% of the time. Now it's on an electronic list... getting there!