I liked the idea of goals from Toulouse (obviously, since I suggested them) but I need to change them for Alexandria because I want them to be a little more important. My plan to do this is to take short-term goals out of the hands of most players and giving them to faction leaders.
This means that an entire faction (i.e. The Church of the Black Magdelana, The Cult of Typhon-Set, The Prometheans, etc.) will have access to the same goal, set by the faction leader. Its a nice carrot for the leader to keep faction members on task, though it will require a few people to actually play the faction leaders. Faction leaders get minions to help accomplish their goals, and minions will work towards the faction's goals because of this XP bonus. Though I was thinking of reducing the bonus to 2 XP rather than three.
Now, getting people to choose leaders isn't always easy since apparently many people would prefer to stay out of the spotlight like this. Funny, because people like to be the Admiral or President in Battlestar Galactica just fine. All I can do is appeal to the players that if no one opts to take this burden, no one will have fun. I have a few additional players to try to invite, and am planning on giving a bonus dot of Generation and/or Age to leaders, which should amount to a substantial bonus for making a powerful character.
This means that an entire faction (i.e. The Church of the Black Magdelana, The Cult of Typhon-Set, The Prometheans, etc.) will have access to the same goal, set by the faction leader. Its a nice carrot for the leader to keep faction members on task, though it will require a few people to actually play the faction leaders. Faction leaders get minions to help accomplish their goals, and minions will work towards the faction's goals because of this XP bonus. Though I was thinking of reducing the bonus to 2 XP rather than three.
Now, getting people to choose leaders isn't always easy since apparently many people would prefer to stay out of the spotlight like this. Funny, because people like to be the Admiral or President in Battlestar Galactica just fine. All I can do is appeal to the players that if no one opts to take this burden, no one will have fun. I have a few additional players to try to invite, and am planning on giving a bonus dot of Generation and/or Age to leaders, which should amount to a substantial bonus for making a powerful character.
The goals are a good idea, but it seemed as though they could be "gamed" in Toulouse because of the early completion bonus. What's to stop a player from setting his LT goal to something he *knows* he'll accomplish next turn?
ReplyDeleteThe Faction-leader set goals sound good, and will certainly help at the beginning.
Also, I think the reluctance to hold positions of power stemmed primarily from ignorance: No one in Toulouse had any clue of what would be (dramaturgically) required for any role due to a lack of info / context.
Everyone is familiar with Battlestar and everyone knows (generally) what the admiral and president do in BSG. I suspect that if we were to do "Toulouse 2.0", people would feel more comfortable jumping into roles, because we now know at least a bit about how 13th century French vampiric politics work. :)
So, maybe a grand, sprawling "setting" document with clearly defined roles would make us more comfortable volunteering for positions of power? I know that before I would volunteer as a faction leader, I would want to know who my enemies are, who my predecessor was, how the faction is viewed, etc.
--Alonso Nicomedo :)
Yeah, the trouble is figuring out how much text I can create and people are willing to devour. Also, until characters are made it isn't at all clear how to tell people how many members each faction has, and the like. I am hoping to have some clearer positions and possible factions though. But what to do if someone really wants to be the leader of the Church of the Black Magdalena but no one is interested in being members of that faction (they all prefer the Prometheans, Cult of Typhon-Set, Pharoi, Children of Osiris, etc).
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