The Rules Document

One of the things that I think will help with the rules is a bit of a reorganization of the rules document, not just a bit of an edit to the text itself. For example, in my current draft, the rules for feeding are spread out in three places: your general feeding, the extra feeding personal action, and a Blood and Feeding section. Some of this is inevitable, because obviously an extra feeding personal action or the ability to augment your feeding like you can an influence needs to be discussed in the relevant places, but it also makes it harder to flip around and see how it all fits together.

I'm of two minds on this still though. On the one hand, I like having things in the PDF format since I don't have constant internet access and I like to be able to look at things if I'm in a taxi or at the pool or on a plane. But something more interactive like a wiki might be nicely able to show things is chunks that are the right size and not an intimidating 20+ page rules document.

Setting Changes: Clans, Roads, Disciplines

While I'd like to keep the many of the rule and setting changes minimal, I have a couple problems with some disciplines and how Dark Ages: Vampire presents some of the clans. The major one on the list though, is Serpentis and the Setites.

Obviously the Followers of Set (or Typhon-Set as the case might be), are going to be one of the potential factions in Alexandria, but their write up and discipline are a little lacking. Looking at the discipline, it isn't really clear how it might augment an influence, unlike just about every other discipline (barring the physical trio of fortitude, celerity, and potence and also Quietus from the Dark Ages: Vampire book). I think the Setites also suffer a little from their earlier incarnation where they were given this strange Serpentis discipline, and the later interpretations which didn't change the fact that their most powerful discipline level is a bizarre ritual which can only be preformed once a month.

The fix? Obviously a few key thing setting elements will need a slight update, so I'm going to do a bit of a rewrite to fit some other setting material about the Setites a bit better and not portray them as one-dimensional manipulators. A couple other clans might need a little attention too, but I'm not sure if a simple paragraph is best or to do a cut-and-paste job with some alterations from the book. A couple of the roads might need a little work too (Heaven seems clearly Abrahamic and I want it to include Neoplatonism, the Cult of Isis, and other Greco-Roman and Egyptian pagan cults).

Keeping players interested

One issue with games in general, and probably online games like this in particular, is player retention. I haven't done a lot of thinking about this yet, other than trying to keep in mind that it can be a bit of an issue. If anyone has feedback on what helped them keep some interest or what was less motivating, let me know.

I hope, however, that a few things might help:

First off, being clear on what the game is about and why it is fun. I found this video about explaining game rules in the past couple months, and it was kind of eye-opening. Not just because I've been playing a bunch of board games and we almost always seem to have one new player, but because it's applicable to at least this sort of game in particular.

Second, but related to the first, we can be clear about what the commitment is. I found that about 1-2 hours a week was correct for me, but I'm not sure if that was everyone's experience. If you had 9 levels of influence, that might have been easier to deal with than 21 levels though. But not just a weekly commitment, but also the game's duration. I'm currently thinking of having a set end-time after about 4-5 months. It'll give players an idea of how much time they have to plan, but also bring the story to at least an interim ending. Then we can decide if we want to start a new chapter of the same game, take another do-over with the same sort of rules in a different setting, do a different style of game completely, or call it a fun time and be done with this sort of game for the time being. This also ties into that "why it's fun" bit because you can feel good about sticking through with it till the end if you have an idea of when the end will be.

Third, and still related to that video, is being clear about the rules. I like having them all in one pdf because I don't have internet access all the time, but some people might prefer things in a few shorter chunks that a wiki might provide. But we can look at how the rules are laid out and what we can do to help people understand their options. I think a quick three-minute youtube video showing a sample turn or how some influences might interact would do wonders, but also something like a one-page rules/turn summary so you could at least see all/most of your options at a glance. I already mentioned renaming some of the actions (Attack an opponent's influence, Conceal your Resources, etc.) so they're a bit more descriptive, which could help as well. In terms of a pdf of the rules, it could be linked a bit more, and page-breaks might make the document a lot longer, but dividing things into logical sections and making them a bit more digestible could also help here.

Fourth, we know that Toulouse had a bit of a slow start which may have put off some some people, not to mention the needs of real life, travel, etc. which might have interrupted things. For that, all we can do is try to make sure that people have some clearer goals and info on other characters from the beginning and try to accommodate to different schedules and timezones and so on. On the faction front, I'm hoping to get characters organized into factions, and also that clans will all actually have known relations (even if those relations aren't all sire and childe.).

Feedback and the blog

Just so everyone is aware, I'll try to post a reply to any (non-spam) comments here. I've got a few posts in the works, and I'm trying to automatically schedule them out so that if I forget to post things every other day something will appear, though it might not be as polished as it would be if I did a bit more thinking on the subject.

If anyone has any requests for commentary on any aspect of the rules or game, let me know. I can potentially publish that post sooner than expected or add it to my list of things to think about.

Thoughts Going Forward: From Toulouse to Alexandria

This is an email I sent to the Toulouse ST and a few of the players who were interested in the rules:

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Gentlemen,

Here's a summary of the rules changes I'm thinking of making from Toulouse to Alexandria. It was going to be quick, but turned out to be comprehensive. I still tried to keep this quick though:

1) Personal Actions. You get three of them, rather than one. Most people will use the Manage Influence and Correspondence actions, so it should be fairly similar. This might require a few redefinitions of other actions (ritual research, etc.) but I like the idea that you can personally do a couple small things, even if you'll largely be doing Manage Influence and Correspondence. Possible additional action to let you really focus on one particular influence action by throwing multiple abilities/disciplines into the effort.

Introduction: First Things First

Back around the beginning of this year, a good friend mentioned the idea of doing an online RPG. Now, we've done this before with some success, but not for a decade or so. In high school, I ran a game of Mage: The Sorcerer's Crusade (with plenty of non-mages) which was fun, but ultimately a little unsatisfying. From what I remember, most characters were in a monastery of some sort, trying to solve some kind of mystery or obtain some power presumably. There were definitely mages, perhaps a mummy, a vampire, a cockatrice (thank you Bygone Bestiary), and probably some kind of werewolf or changing breed, I forget. At any rate, it ended (I think) because I got tired of writing lots of really awesome high-school quality prose each turn for people who weren't always responding at times. I'm pretty sure I ended it just by killing everyone as a diabolic ritual happened which the players were unable to stop (either through their own incompetence or my own fiat, I can't recall per se).