Getting YOU more involved in the story

[Rithiel]

We always want to make it so that players can create their own stories within Clok. We see some of this, but I'm interested in how we can make it easier for you, but as you know, we're pretty busy around here. So I was thinking about ways to make it so that you do the bulk of the heavy lifting. And so we're going to try something out for this month and see how it goes.

This was prompted by an event that required only a small GM-made item and allowed a lot of fun to happen. A lot of the RP we see is coversation, which is awesome, but we'd like to allow PCs to do more than just go hunt and then sit around and talk.

So! The idea is that each player gets to request a small thing per month. (Yes we know who your alts are). This can be something like small, temporary item (this will not replace merchants and will not be alters), a conversation with an NPC, a small lore question or clarification, or something similar. Basically what we want if for you either to only need about 30 seconds of our time to make an item, or to step the situation so you just need us to step in for a moment and provide that last little thing you can't as a player (or players, you guys could get together and plan something).

It needs to be small; if it doesn't fit within what I've described above, you just won't get your request for that month (no take-backs).

The idea here is that are only five of us, and sometimes it's hard for us to come up with event ideas. This would provide us with a way to let you guys do some of the planning, plus, it's what you really care about - there's only so many times Timmy can fall down a well before it gets boring.

I'm happy to discuss this more, I'm sure Rias will chime in, and I hope that this fills a void that I hadn't even noticed was there until recently.

Address all requests to the general GM address, as requests sent to particular GMs will be thought to be trying to get more than one request per month.

[xavier]

I think this is a fabulous idea, but i work best with concrete examples so i'm going to list some things and I'd like yes, no, or maybe's to let me know if this is what you are talking about.
1. 3 people sitting around in the inn and a loud roar is heard from the <insert place inside city here> shocked citizen runs in and screams there's a monster at blah blah and it's eating people!
2. asking for a particular visible trait that can be showed off to other people on your person, or special non mechanical item to do the same, sort of like a curio piece you haggled a down on his luck merchant about. (I think this could open up potential for mini events if it's worth it)
3. randomly generated npc's that need escorting from one place to another. or a gm controlled npc and some variation of same.
4. mindless esp "static" for a time with an associated problem, not major, with the pendant network a group would have to work out. I could think of several relatively quick and easy ways to arrange but as I'm wholely unfamiliar with the code i'm not sure how easy the code part would be.
5. special summons for an "important" guild task that may require more than one person to accomplish. Announced on esp network as a summons to person from guildmaster. this could be one of those moments where the targetted person has the choice of dragging his/her companions along for moral support or excusing themself for a moment then comes back stumped on the task or any variation of reaction.

[Rithiel]

I think this is a fabulous idea, but i work best with concrete examples so i'm going to list some things and I'd like yes, no, or maybe's to let me know if this is what you are talking about.
1. 3 people sitting around in the inn and a loud roar is heard from the <insert place inside city here> shocked citizen runs in and screams there's a monster at blah blah and it's eating people!
2. asking for a particular visible trait that can be showed off to other people on your person, or special non mechanical item to do the same, sort of like a curio piece you haggled a down on his luck merchant about. (I think this could open up potential for mini events if it's worth it)
3. randomly generated npc's that need escorting from one place to another. or a gm controlled npc and some variation of same.
4. mindless esp "static" for a time with an associated problem, not major, with the pendant network a group would have to work out. I could think of several relatively quick and easy ways to arrange but as I'm wholely unfamiliar with the code i'm not sure how easy the code part would be.
5. special summons for an "important" guild task that may require more than one person to accomplish. Announced on esp network as a summons to person from guildmaster. this could be one of those moments where the targetted person has the choice of dragging his/her companions along for moral support or excusing themself for a moment then comes back stumped on the task or any variation of reaction.

1, 3, and 4 all sound like events we would do. These would likely take a lot of GM control and preparation.

2 would be what a merchant does, and this isn't meant to replace or overlap merchants.

5 might work, if it was a relatively simple set up - I'd like to be assigned a task for a particularly dangerous mountain lion in the Stone Canyon where I would have to get a group of individuals together to accomplish it.

Let me see if I can provide some examples of what I'm thinking about.

Individuals A and B had a conflict with individual C, and A and B want to teach C a lesson. B requests a piece of rope so that they can tie up C and teach her said lesson.

Templar A wants to go after dangerous criminal B to bring him to justice, but doesn't want to have to kill him. A requests some shackles to do so.

Binding mechanics will be severely limited in prevelence and you had better have a really good RP reason in order for us to give them to you. Griefing and abuse will not be tolerated.

Elemancer E has spent some time RPing with individuals and NPCs (which may or may not have been controlled by GMs) looking into the nature of Item Y. She has gathered a lot of pieces together, but needs an expert to answer some questions, so E requests a short conversation with Y (request should contain a list of questions you want to ask so we can prepare).

Group Z wants to go on an adventure to some scary place, but normal hunting is just boring. They request a number of harder than average creatures be placed in Area M, possibly along with some hidden items (nothing special) or maybe some tattered clothing of a slain fellow adventurer.

Individual T wants their backstory to feel a little more personal, and they've been reading up on their immortals. They want to write a myth from their hometown about said immortal and have it put in cannon. They can write it and request that it be added. Likewise, Individual T may have a question about an immortal and how they would be viewed in their hometown. They could request some lore knowledge.

Utasa U wants to know some Tse Gaiyan lore, or how they feel about Question Q. They ask to speak with a guildmaster for a few brief questions.

Remember, we want you guys to do the heavy lifting here, so the more structure you give your request, and the less actual work it requires on our part, the better.

[Orris]

This sounds awesome! I remember doing a few things in GS where me and a couple friends would set something up on our own, an RP event. It was always funny when others were disappointed to find out it wasn't run by a GM. Come on, you had fun anyway right? Anyway I think this is an awesome idea, we can do things and get the tiny amount of GM assistance we might need to make it really work.

[Rithiel]

More ideas!

It's your birthday (IC) and you want to rent the party pavilion for an evening (probably require riln, but not much).

You want to play Robin Hood and steal pies from the bakery to feed the various small woodland creatures.

You want to go on a romantic hay ride with a special person. Okay, maybe not. You want to go on a romantic picnic with somebody and need special food (request should include food and eating messages).

You want to send anonymous mail to somebody as their "Secret Admirer."

You want to put on a storytelling session or concert and want a bunch of random NPCs there (in addition to hopefully players).

The possibilities are endless.

[xavier]

awesome thank you for the clarification and again this is gonna be awesome

[Orris]

Hey, what about using this for my fishing contest? All I would really need is some accurate scales to weigh the fish, and maybe a little pavilion or something.