Writer's Block

[binidj]

So the referee of our regular Exalted game has decided he needs a break, the Seventh Sea ref still doesn't have any ideas for continuing the campaign we started a while ago and everyone in the room looked at me and somebody said "EverQuest?"

So there you go, somehow I've been bullied into reffing an EverQuest campaign. Currently I have no ideas for a story arc and I'm rather hoping that character generation with give me a few hooks ... otherwise I'm properly screwed. One thing I have decided is that I'm going to start them at 6th or 7th level, I don't want to have to ref months of pointless vermin-slaying before the classes start to differentiate and get their defining abilities. I know that the story I want to tell is a tale of heroes as opposed to "Local farmboy makes good".

The first time I did this quiz I got answers that were neither entertaining or relevant. This time, however, I gave it a bit of thought with the utterly terrifying result you see below.

Your LJ RPG Team
LJ Username
Sex	MaleFemaleGender Neutral
Favorite Color
Weapon of Choice
Your Partner	sexbat
Your Warrior	jfs
The Giggly, Flirtatious Magic User with Big Breasts	forbinproject
The Talking Animal	westernind
Main Archenemy	curlwomble
Evil Incarnate	nyarbaggytep

Comments

[oldnick.livejournal.com]

In other words, you kept playing with near-random words until you got that scary crew?

[binidj.livejournal.com]

Actually no, I just had a good think about things and realised that my favourite weapon was not a quarterstaff. My favourite colour really is indigo.

[westernind.livejournal.com]

Can I be a ferret?

[binidj.livejournal.com]

Didn't you have a magpie heartbeast in (http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=jfs)jfs (http://www.livejournal.com/users/jfs/)' Ars Magica (http://www.atlas-games.com/arsmagica/index.html) campaign? Remember I mentioned this being scary?

[jfs.livejournal.com]

She did - and she was playing a character who was the female equivalent of Paul Wilder.

Now she's playing an Ex. Misc Diedne hedge wizard with a ferrett familiar.

In a fit of irony, the ferrett is more intelligent than a couple of the other magi.

[jfs.livejournal.com]

Okay - that's twice I've been the warrior - I like that.

In terms of plot; given that you're running Everquest, make the big bad whatever pisses you off most in the MMORPG? Whether that be veterans who camp near spawn points or whatever (I could give a list of my pet hates from MUDS but I don't know how much they'd apply.)

Here's an example though; mages used to get a little bit of XP for casting spells - no where near as much as actually adventuring, but a bit.

So what some enterprising twats did was write a series of macros that allowed them to keep casting ("rabbit out of the hat" was usually a favourite) then when they'd finished adventuring for the day, they'd find a safe location, start the macro and quit without logging out. In Game, they then stood there and cast and cast and cast, earning XP (and over 8 hours, you could earn a lot) doing nothing.

Unfortunately, it would have quite a hit on the server - the pooter had to create all these little monster rabbits (thousands over an 8 hour period) each of which takes some processor time. So we as Gods had some tools that highlighted whenever there were more than 100 monsters in a location and we'd 'port there, watch to make sure it was a macro-caster and once we were certain, remove all their xp, snackies etc.

How does that become game relevant? Well, in a tabletop game, what's the equivalent of processor cycles? Mana flow?

Have a big bad who is training up his minions by getting them to cast lots of little spells, rather than by going out adventuring. Let them find the results (hundreds of rabbits?) And let the party magic users realise that big spells are becoming difficult to cast because of the drain on mana.

Any use?

[binidj.livejournal.com]

Started the evening a little early haven't we? *chortle*

That said, the 'bandwidth' idea is moderately intriguing ... might be interesting to tie it into the Plane of Time in some way.

Thanks

[jfs.livejournal.com]

binidj
Started the evening a little early haven't we? *chortle*


Actually, I'm in work, with little to do. I could start several things, but I wouldn't finish them before home time, so I'm not going to.

Instead I'm writing fiction and scanning the boards before I go to the leaving do for our chief exec.

Hmmm ... you could have lag demons being real in an Everquest tabletop game ...

[nyarbaggytep.livejournal.com]

I dun nuffin.
Carnated or otherwise.

[davient.livejournal.com]

Hey bin!

Just trollin around and found you on rebby's friend list, hope ya don't mind being added to mine :D

D