Sorry about the lack of posts. Dental work+all my classes giving me exams at once mean I have 5 minutes to mess around on ooc a few times a day, but no where near enough to do any significant work.
I know that Ozrazk offered to act as like a co-GM for everyone who's not on mission.Do you think that would work? No idea if he's still willing to do that just offering the idea of maybe appointing some apprentice GM's to help.
A Co-Gm to handle non-major mission stuff would certainly help.
Right now though I'm still not sure what to do. You guys are so split between the options that I'm having a hard time deciding.
Regardless though, we're gonna have to do something about massive numbers of people on mission at once unless you're ok with missions being like they are now.
It's not like you have to decide today, or even this week.
How about another poll, that instead of "which one of these options is best for you?" asks "Would you like to play A if we went that way? Would you like to play B if we went that way?"
current vote on the wiki is 16 to 18 in favor of a game unrelated to ER over one related to ER but markedly different.
I want to get started on the future if I can though, so we don't go on 3 month hiatus as I work on things.
So lets talk a little about what ER Beyond would be like, if it was done. We won't talk about mechanics because those could change. This also assumes things complete roughly how I think they're gonna. If Xan nukes the EUE and we all die via Fatal Forced Face Based Lurker Lovemaking, then all bets are off.
1. Playing as Aliens and non-humans:
This is a distinct possibility. Humans are the main characters in ER because they're the species with the most clout and force in the galaxy at the time, but once we wander elsewhere there could be all kinds of contemporaries to play with. Not to mention all the self enhancement that we can do. Who knows, maybe you'll play as sentient space spiders and reincarnated crystal men. Depends on what people do at the end.
2. Your decisions matter...but you don't.
So how I'm gonna decide the future is look at where we end, and then look at what people are currently doing and what they plan to do in the future. Then roll dice to see if they're successful or not. But the point of the time skip is that you'll all be dead or at least absent, or at least least not player characters in the future. So Lenglon's desire to see what happens to lyra might just not go anywhere. I mean, she's an invisible, shy catgirl who avoids talking. Her influence over the world as a whole will probably be minimal. Meanwhile someone who makes it their life mission to do some specific thing and rolls well will probably have some level of noticeable influence. Xan's life long goal to fuck the world to death with a dick made of screaming baby flesh will probably pay dividends in some form. Just don't expect to get to see your character or continue them or anything
3. No fate but your own.
Steve is gone, so is ARM. Beyond will still have a general meeting ground, a hub, which will probably take the form of a bar, but the players will be mercenaries or men out for their own goals, not for some greater good. Missions and payment will vary, and they'll be no one around to keep the peace. It also means that in general the gear you'll have access to will be a lot lower power. You're soldiers of fortune or mercs or disgraced scientists or jobless doctors or refugees from other worlds or universes.
4. Smaller missions, more death, retirement.
I want to keep the missions small and I want to murder people more. And when people get to powerful, I want to have them start again, perhaps in a sort of NG+ mode of some kind. Smaller missions mean more time to describe them and actually run them well, but there is the downside that if 60 people still want to play, it means that the posts per mission over a set period of time will be less than if we had smaller numbers of active players.
5. Player autonomy and co-GMs.
I would like for players to have some level of autonomy when it comes to simple things, and I'd be ok with having co-gms to help me handle things in the way that Sy is currently handling tinker. Not someone running the game with me so much as someone running a subsection or offshoot part of the game. I know people not on mission will want to do stuff, but handling 60 interactions all the time will take a lot of time and, as a GM, handling a bunch of minor things like "Yes, you move to that room" or "Yes, you buy that thing" strikes me as rather silly.
6. No tinker, but maybe crafting.
I think one of the things that inevitably leads to power level inflation in ER is tinker. You guys are good builders, too good, and I know the second you get access to something dangerous in the world at large you're gonna start building over powered crap. Well, we're not a military anymore, and you don't have access to an infinite amount of resources, so that ain't gonna happen. But traditional crafting with recipes and items, that seems reasonable. Especially if we visit the same place multiple times, which I feel like we will.