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Edmond Dantes
Sep 12, 2007

Reactor: Online
Sensors: Online
Weapons: Online

ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL
Oh, I never got into it to 'make it big' or anything of the sort, I've always loved LPs and making one looked like a fun longish term project to tackle, and I do enjoy the editing part. And I did have fun for two of them; got a few views and regulars that got some discussion going in the threads, but after I came back to 2033 it started to feel more and more like posting into the void. Views in the 10-20s, a couple times went for 2-3 updates in a row without a single post... and updates started to feel an obligation rather that something I looked forward to.

I agree with the 'do it for yourself', but I also think there's an inherent 'hey look, I made this!' to anything you put out there. It's not looking for validation exactly but... a nod of acknowledgement that it was made? If that makes sense? Like, I love baking brownies and I'm confident in my brownie skills seriously I make stupid good brownies, but If I baked a tray to take to a dinner at a friend's and at the end of the night nobody had even tried a piece, It'd sting a little.

I know it's closer to bringing brownies to a brownie party when talking about LPs, just let me have my analogy or would it be a simile. :colbert:

Jamesman posted:

Also crying. Lots and lots of crying.
:hmmyes:

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Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!

Edmond Dantes posted:

Oh, I never got into it to 'make it big' or anything of the sort, I've always loved LPs and making one looked like a fun longish term project to tackle, and I do enjoy the editing part. And I did have fun for two of them; got a few views and regulars that got some discussion going in the threads, but after I came back to 2033 it started to feel more and more like posting into the void. Views in the 10-20s, a couple times went for 2-3 updates in a row without a single post... and updates started to feel an obligation rather that something I looked forward to.

I agree with the 'do it for yourself', but I also think there's an inherent 'hey look, I made this!' to anything you put out there. It's not looking for validation exactly but... a nod of acknowledgement that it was made? If that makes sense? Like, I love baking brownies and I'm confident in my brownie skills seriously I make stupid good brownies, but If I baked a tray to take to a dinner at a friend's and at the end of the night nobody had even tried a piece, It'd sting a little.

I know it's closer to bringing brownies to a brownie party when talking about LPs, just let me have my analogy or would it be a simile. :colbert:

this is how i feel about it.

Fedule
Mar 27, 2010


No one left uncured.
I got you.
Yeah it's like, look, I made this one ~20 video long series about this weird stealth game I like and honestly the fact that anybody at all watched the last video of that, let alone responded in the thread, is what made the whole thing worth it, after that point I don't care if it's 100 more views or 100,000,000. Like, gently caress, if you have like 20 people who'll stick with you through 20 episodes of anything that's a hell of a thing.

I also happen to know that we do get a lot of silent viewers on SA in particular, and for better or worse (let's be honest; better) we don't have any way to track those. If you really want to obsess over thread stats, I recommend comparing your post total to your view total at the end of an LP; I've found that you're doing pretty well if you hit something like 50 views per post, although definitely don't obsess over that metric either. Honestly if I could find a way to hide all numbers from the LP sub, forever, I would.

That said, though, what all this does quite tidily demonstrate is that you should absolutely find threads you like and :five: them. This, too, is an imperfect metric, but it's good as hell to see that Gold pop up.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
If you enjoy doing it then don't worry about the analytics. Engagement and reactions to doing it are always nice but it's not why I do it, I just enjoy doing it. I've been concentrating mainly on old adventure games, some of the more obscure ones have gone through two or three updates without before someone replied in the thread. I've just taken a look at some of my previous LP's, one of the more obscure ones took a month to complete and didn't even reach a second page. One of my least-watched LP's was an audience participation LP which I was recording every third day for five months solid, it's the LP I've put the most work into it and it remains one of my lowest viewed. I have absolutely no regrets and despite the pressure, it was a lot of fun to do.

If you love baking brownies and bring a batch to a party, wouldn't the empty plate at the end of it be the best compliment?

Nidoking
Jan 27, 2009

I fought the lava, and the lava won.
I've made food for parties that hasn't been touched. Then I take it home, and hey, I've got a ton of some of my favorite food and absolutely no reason not to eat it all myself. Sometimes, I rewatch some of my highest-effort videos just to enjoy the spectacle all over again and remember the time when I didn't know how to do chromakey with sprite animations. It's absolutely wonderful to have an audience, no doubt. But the best LPs you'll ever do are the ones you'd enjoy even if nobody ever watches them but you. For me, the way I play a game for an LP is very different from the way I play just for fun, and I love that experience.

TheMcD
May 4, 2013

Monaca / Subject N 2024
---------
Despair will never let you down.
Malice will never disappoint you.

Another thing to remember is that once you get your LPs up on the Archive, they'll see a sharp uptick in views for a while, and there's a much larger audience out there watching LPs there.

A few of my LPs were definitely made with the Archive in mind somewhat - in a "I want there to be a complete LP of this obscure game up on the Archive so that if somebody wonders about this weird obscure game they played in their youth, they can go there and have a full playthrough to check out and enjoy" sort of vein.

My personal best example is the Udoiana Raunes games. Nobody read that loving LP. Why should they? It's obscure German point-and-click games that some students made entirely based on the premise of "one of our teachers kinda looks like Indiana Jones". You couldn't be less appealing to anybody but connoisseurs of the most obscure crap if you tried.

But I just went and checked the music link to the main theme. It had one view in the last 28 days. On December 14th, somebody clicked on that link. Somebody out there was reading that LP. Maybe not all of it. But at least some.

That's something I like to remind myself of. Gives me a little warm feeling when I remember there's an eternal audience out there. It may not be large after the LP goes off the "recent uploads" list, but it's there. Somebody out there is still reading/watching your stuff. Makes me feel like I created something lasting longer than just a thread on SA.

Covski
Jun 24, 2007

Bringing the forums together with the greatest thread!
It's also worth keeping in mind that there's not really a huge correlation between the amount of effort and the size/activity of the audience, whether you're doing an SSLP or a VLP. From my personal (strictly SSLP) experience, it has more to do with the game itself and the amount of audience participation involved. Hell, I think most of my most popular LPs have been the relatively low effort ones. (Rock Papers Scissors being a good example :v:)

Crosspeice
Aug 9, 2013

No matter the LP, it takes way more work than those seeing the final project will really know, but dammit if I've played the same game 25 times so I know absolutely everything about it then I might as well use that time to impress people on the internet, and really, isn't that the whole reason we're here?

Covski
Jun 24, 2007

Bringing the forums together with the greatest thread!
I only ever do audience participation LPs because that means I don't have to be good at the game myself :colbert:

MagusofStars
Mar 31, 2012



Covski posted:

From my personal (strictly SSLP) experience, it has more to do with the game itself and the amount of audience participation involved.
From the perspective of someone who purely reads/watches LP's but lacks the time or dedication to do one, this is definitely how I decide how much to follow/be involved with an LP. Does the game provide me with an interesting walk down memory lane? Is it a game that I've always wanted to play but just haven't had the time? A game that I haven't heard of but seems like it'd be right up my alley?

Presentation matters of course; there have been a few LP's that I've just bounced off of because of a style that doesn't click with me. But as a general rule, my interest in following the thread is going to be driven by the game more than the editing.

Also just going to toss out that the LP Archive is a goddamned treasure and I have gone through a LOT of LP's on there that I never even saw/posted in the thread - so the original poster (unfortunately) doesn't realize that I really enjoyed their efforts. So even if people aren't necessarily reading it right now, there will be people who see it weeks/months/years later and still appreciate it.

CirclMastr
Jul 4, 2010

I recently hit 5,000 subscribers on YouTube, and my mental state has been a weird mix of "I don't deserve 5k subs" imposter syndrome and "I have been making LPs for ten years, how do I not have more subs?" entitlement. Which is to say I don't have any helpful advice. Just make LPs because you enjoy making them; if it feels like work, take a break.

TheMcD posted:

My personal best example is the Udoiana Raunes games. Nobody read that loving LP. Why should they? It's obscure German point-and-click games that some students made entirely based on the premise of "one of our teachers kinda looks like Indiana Jones". You couldn't be less appealing to anybody but connoisseurs of the most obscure crap if you tried.

Hey, I read those LPs, they were good!

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!

Covski posted:

I only ever do audience participation LPs because that means I don't have to be good at the game myself :colbert:

those require their own skills! and can be more challenging than those without.

Danaru
Jun 5, 2012

何 ??
Participation LPs live or die by how the audience decides to participate, so it's always seemed way more stressful to me. I've had a space empires 5 democratic LP in the back of my mind for years, but I dont at all trust my ability to hold a crowd (basically wholesale ripping off Bobbin Threadbare's Galciv 2 LP since it's so loving good)

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Now we're talking about feeling unpopular, I've been holding out on a few projects because there are no solid solutions behind them because of various reasons.

Danaru posted:

Participation LPs live or die by how the audience decides to participate, so it's always seemed way more stressful to me. I've had a space empires 5 democratic LP in the back of my mind for years, but I dont at all trust my ability to hold a crowd (basically wholesale ripping off Bobbin Threadbare's Galciv 2 LP since it's so loving good)

I didn't even intend to start a Sherlock Holmes audience participation LP. I started a mega thread and it was one of an officially licensed series that I said that I'd look into as it fell into the last thirty years of adaptations through video games. It happened and I'm glad that I did even though I thought it was destined for failure.

Maple Leaf
Aug 24, 2010

Let'en my post flyen true


Test post

I love this game and I've been thinking of doing an LP of it for some time, but I'm having a bit of trouble with the presentation, particularly when it comes to the resolution of the images. I wanted to try and keep them at 900x506 since I remember baldurk saying the archive doesn't support larger resolution pics without breaking its tables, but anything smaller than 720p and the game's text gets too small and blurry to read. There's no in-game way to increase their font size, either.

I considered maybe trying to do it as a VLP, with either subtitled commentary or voice-over commentary, but recording and editing just didn't feel very fun to do, and the product was coming out kinda meh.

Also, the character dialogue has mismatched resolutions intentionally:

quote:

: A dead Magister? Somebody’ll have to take the blame for this… and it won’t be me.

: So much for a peaceful stroll.

I did this because I wanted to ask which one looked better. The smaller, thinner one looks better, but it's not as intuitive for me to capture and edit. Also, they're both pretty massive anyway, which is something I'll have to look into on my next pass.

DoubleNegative
Jan 27, 2010

The most virtuous child in the entire world.
It’s been my experience that text in images resized from 1080p is not going to be readable at all. 900x506 might be marginally better than 800x450 but it’s not great regardless. So you’re probably going to have to transcribe all the text.

I also personally prefer the full sized portraits. Actually the smaller ones look better.

Kanfy
Jan 9, 2012

Just gotta keep walking down that road.
I assume you're gonna have to crop the text boxes if you want 'em, IrfanView can batch crop/resize with the same presets pretty easily. I don't own the game but using a 1920x1080 screenshot from the internet you can get something like this:



And yeah the portraits are definitely oversized, whichever style you end up with. Probably want something closer to this:

A dead Magister? Somebody’ll have to take the blame for this… and it won’t be me.

So much for a peaceful stroll.

Kanfy fucked around with this message at 08:50 on Dec 24, 2020

Metis of the Chat Thread
Aug 1, 2014


Kanfy posted:

A dead Magister? Somebody’ll have to take the blame for this… and it won’t be me.

I like the size of this character icon.

quote:

So much for a peaceful stroll.

These ones look weird to me, even smaller. There's something strange about not being able to see a character's mouth if they're meant to be talking.

Maple Leaf
Aug 24, 2010

Let'en my post flyen true
You know, all yesterday, I never considered just cropping the text box. That makes much more sense than anything else I tried.

I did some research online and there's a few ways to increase the assets of the game to make them more legible at different resolutions. One is to edit the game's fonts directly, and another is to increase the size of the GUI. I think I found a combination that could work at 900x506:






: A dead Magister? Somebody’ll have to take the blame for this… and it won’t be me.
: So much for a peaceful stroll.

I could increase them further, but they're already starting to look misshapen and misaligned - it's particularly noticeable on the words "Unlocked" and "Attack of Opportunity," where the lettering looks like something out of a Lemony Snicket movie poster. But at least they're legible enough that a reader can understand the gist of what's happening.

e: the images look blurrier to me on browser than they do on disk. Is that just a me thing?

Maple Leaf fucked around with this message at 16:18 on Dec 24, 2020

Maple Leaf
Aug 24, 2010

Let'en my post flyen true
I normally do my SSLPs by inserting all of my screenshots into my update posts by hand, and I recall hearing about a plug-in that makes inserting screenshots into an update post much more streamlined, with the click of a button or two. Anyone know where I can find that?

TheMcD
May 4, 2013

Monaca / Subject N 2024
---------
Despair will never let you down.
Malice will never disappoint you.

Maple Leaf posted:

I normally do my SSLPs by inserting all of my screenshots into my update posts by hand, and I recall hearing about a plug-in that makes inserting screenshots into an update post much more streamlined, with the click of a button or two. Anyone know where I can find that?

You're looking for Admiral Curtiss's Replacer command line tool. You give it a TXT file with all the URLs for your images you get from your uploader and a TXT file with your update with placeholders for the images (so if your images are named 08-01.png, 08-02.png etc., the placeholders would be [08-01], [08-02], etc.). It then automatically replaces all placeholders with the image links.

Maple Leaf
Aug 24, 2010

Let'en my post flyen true
Thank you very much!

Quackles
Aug 11, 2018

Pixels of Light.


One of these days I was going to finish my own image replacer tool, for character portraits and such...

Admiral H. Curtiss
May 11, 2010

I think there are a bunch of people who can create trailing images. I know some who could do this as if they were just going out for a stroll.

Quackles posted:

One of these days I was going to finish my own image replacer tool, for character portraits and such...

Depending on what you need, there's also this thing I made for Vesperia to quickly copy individual character expressions.

That Italian Guy
Jul 25, 2012

We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.
Question for the LP experts.

I was planning to run a game of King's Dilemma once our Railroad Ink LP is over, but I'm not sure how to handle the "auction" phase in a way that doesn't take 2+ weeks, while leaving enough time for the players to take part in the game.

Without getting too much into the nitty gritty details, the players are divided in factions, like in a game of Diplomacy or other team based LPs; a "dilemma" is selected, with a Aye or Nay outcome.The starting faction decides if they want to bet one or more Power tokens on either Aye or Nay, or if they want to pass (and gain other benefits). The auction is supposed to keep going in a way similar to a hand of poker - factions can "Raise" their current bet to match or surpass the current highest one.

Problem is, even without getting into the other mechanics (like bribing and the bonuses you can get when you Pass - which I think I have a good way to handle), this could mean having multiple back and forth between 2+ group of players and you can already see why this mechanic would either alienate players with less than infinite time to follow the LP, or take several weeks per vote.

I'm sure I'm not the first one having to deal with this kind of game mechanic in a LP, so I'd like to see what has been succesfully used in the past. Since the game is much, much more than the simple betting mechanic, I'm not against using another betting/auctioning system that works better in an asynchronous forum LP format.

I was thinking of using a "blind" betting system - each faction chooses in secret how many maximum Power Tokens they are willing to bet during the betting window, then whoever has bet the highest amount wins (there is already a method to solve ties) and everyone else loses Power Tokens equal to the maximum amount they bet. Since everyone is using the same system, things should work in theory. The main issues I can see with this is that it may result in more total Power Tokens being expended (since if the leading faction starts with a high bet, other factions may fold instead of matching it).

EDIT: a second question for the team LP experts - how much time do you usually leave for each "decision" phase/turn of the game?

That Italian Guy fucked around with this message at 13:55 on Dec 29, 2020

Rosalie_A
Oct 30, 2011

That Italian Guy posted:

I'm sure I'm not the first one having to deal with this kind of game mechanic in a LP, so I'd like to see what has been succesfully used in the past. Since the game is much, much more than the simple betting mechanic, I'm not against using another betting/auctioning system that works better in an asynchronous forum LP format.

After skimming the rules, I think your options are the following:

1) Run as written.
2) Everyone preloads a maximum amount they're willing to bet/whatever action and then you simulate what the result would be.
3) A combination of the above.

Option 1 has the problem that it'll take a while, even with a tight turn timer. A decent question is: would this actually be too slow? I personally thought 48 hours per Gloomhaven round was too slow to be viable but that's been running fairly smoothly.

Option 2 seems like it would lose part of the arguing and negotiation. This approach works for e.g. digital Through the Ages because colony bidding isn't a negotiation part of the game.

So we get to Option 3. This could be "just do option 1 with preloading in case of no response", or it could be "change to Diplomacy style negotiation phase and then orders phase". You could also just do auction style: every player calls out a vote and value they're bidding, with a time limit cutoff (maybe base 24 hours plus some amount after the last bid). There would have to be a distinction made between "I'm thinking of voting for X, someone want to bribe me otherwise?" and a formal "Vote X", the latter of which has rules implications, but this isn't too taxing, I feel. There does appear to be a bit of a catch with regard to the Leader Token, but even that I don't think is unfixable (just give it to whoever makes the next highest bid, since the result is determined by total power cast for an outcome, not merely the highest).

The more I think on it, the more I feel the auction variant might lead to the best discussion, especially if you enforce all negotiation to be done in-thread, as though it were at a table.

That Italian Guy posted:

EDIT: a second question for the team LP experts - how much time do you usually leave for each "decision" phase/turn of the game?

12 hours if you can get a small group of people in compatible timezones to coordinate, 24 hours for a larger group, 48 hours if you're working with people all over the globe who themselves need to take time on a decision.

If you're planning on having one game player = one LP player, then 24 hours is probably fine. If you're planning on having one game player = multiple LP players, then 48 hours is probably best to give people time to talk.

Another factor is your own update schedule: people are much more likely to care about making decisions on time if you're on time. 48 hours might be a sedate pace, but it also gives you time to handle putting together updates.

Rosalie_A fucked around with this message at 18:45 on Dec 29, 2020

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Another possibility would be that the players would need to join a realtime chat for the duration of the auction, and then you could publish the chatlog.

That Italian Guy
Jul 25, 2012

We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.
Thanks for the input!

The only issue I see with the open auction system is with people not wanting to be the first to bet, since you can still get the result you want if the option you support wins - you don't get to sign the law if you are not the one betting the most Power, but you can still get what you want in terms of Resource management. I'm afraid this could lead to eBay sindrome, with everyone waiting till the last moment to bet, especially if they want to pass.

Also yeah, I'd like to keep negotiation to the table, since this is what would happen by playing it irl - but I've considered creating team-house discords for internal discussion (since this would normally happen in player's head).

EDIT: it may be simpler to just post the prospective OP in here. It's in the next post! I'm considering scaling down the rules section even more and have a more step by step approach, while adding some more thematic worldbuilding to the OP.

If I keep the "bet up to X" system instead, I would have to figure out a way to have everyone participate when they win (maybe splitting the necessary Token cost "up to X" between the winning Houses). Also I guess the Leader/signer would be the House with the highest hipotetical bet, but that opens up to other abuses (like betting "all in" to become the Leader when there is a prospective unopposed vote).





EDIT2: I would also ask the opionion of the Sandcastle on the very first vote. My first idea was to simply have players sign up directly for a House (with one or two backup houses), and have the 5 most popular ones be the one selected for the LP (with people moving to their second or third preference based on their signup date if there is a massive player imbalance between Houses) Do you think this could work?

That Italian Guy fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Dec 29, 2020

That Italian Guy
Jul 25, 2012

We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.
This is the OP - it includes the very basic rules I would explain at the start (or a video review of the game if you want to know a bit more but you don't want to read it all).


In The King’s Dilemma, players become the representatives of various influential families (or “Houses”) and members of the King’s Council: imagine being part of the King's Council in Games of Thrones / A Song of Ice and Fire - cause this is probably one of the few cases where the elevator pitch is also a perfect match for the game itself.

Each round, we will draw a card from the Dilemma deck and experience the game story unfold. Each card is unique, and it will pose us a problem (or Dilemma) that the Council will have to solve on the King’s behalf. You will have to discuss, bargain, and make decisions that will shape the story of the game and determine the fate of the Kingdom of Ankist. Occasionally, your decisions will result in the addition of new cards to the deck (unlocking new events that will happen in the future as a consequence of your decisions); they will also create Legacies for your House, that will influence the way the people in the Kingdom sees you; or they will create new Agendas for your House.

You will have to keep the kingdom going while also seeking an advantage for your own House; this power struggle may lead the kingdom into war, famine, or riot, or it could generate wealth and well-being. It will depend on your choices! Each decision has consequences, though: what is good for the kingdom as a whole may be bad for your House. Will you act for the greater good, or will you think only of yourself?

The Campaign is split into games, that represents the reign of a single King; the Campaign, will last several "games" (15 on average) - it'll take decades or even generations for the Story to be over*. At the end of each game, you will score Agenda Points used to determine the winner of that game. Additionally, depending on how you ranked during the game and the circumstances that triggered the end of the game, no matter if you won or not, you will also score Prestige Points and/or Crave Points . Both are “endgame points” that will help you shape the ultimate fate of Ankist, and determine the overall winner of our Campaign.
*Hopefully, only in game :v:

I don't want to read a long OP!
You can check out this video instead! Please note that we will use a different mechanic to vote for our Council decision, to better accomodate the asynchronous nature of a play by forum.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaTHH7xDRqE


You are members of the Council, a governing body ruling in the name of the King located in Lybra, the capital city of the Kingdom of Ankist. You represent one of the twelve noble families who rule the Duchies and the Marks into which the kingdom is divided. Your main interest is obviously to make Ankist prosper; however, you are also trying to increase the power and the prestige of your own family over the others. The game campaign spans decades and generations, so you will assume the role of a different representative of your House each "game"—you won’t be the same person for the course of the full Campaign.
  • We will choose 5 out of 12 Great Houses of the Kingdom of Ankist to be parts of this LP.
  • Players will be able to become members of one of these 5 Houses and sit on the King's Council - directly shaping the policy of the Kingdom.
  • One player per House will be nominated Sitting Councilmember and will have the last word for how their House will Vote on a given Dilemma. They are also the only ones whose word is binding for their House when Bargaining. The Sitting Councilmember will be decided freely by each House and can be changed in between Dilemmas.
  • The thread represents the Royal Court, where the Nobles meet to decide the fate of the Kingdom. The Court is full of spies and the walls have ears, so you can expect almost everything to be public knowledge in a matter of days; because of this all the communication between players has to happen itt. Everyone will be able to say their piece in the thread, trying to sway support for their cause and to inform the current Sitting Councilmember of the will of the House at large. This can be used by savvy Councilmembers to gauge the tentative vote of other Houses...or be a red herring.
  • Each House will try to complete their own Agendas (secret or public) while reaching unique long term Achievements (narrative or mechanical ones) and build Prestige (or Crave!) for their noble House. They will receive additional bonuses if they manage to stick to their House core principles (Alignment). All this, while trying to keep the kingdom afloat!

Basic Rules
Each game is played in rounds, with each round divided into several phases:
  1. Draw and Read a Card from the Dilemma Deck: the story for the current Dilemma is read and the potential outcomes for both Aye and Nay votes are made public - although there could be unexpected consequences!
  2. The Council Votes: each House bargains and express their public opinion on the matter; then a secret vote takes place. Each House can spend their Power Tokens to try and sway the King. During this phase, it is possible to bargain for favors or Coins to try and win the vote of other Houses.
  3. Dilemma Resolution: the motion is either Approved or Rejected, Power and Money pass hands and the consequences of the Dilemma are made public.
  4. Endgame check: if the Kingdom is too unstable or enough time has passed, it's time for a new King to take the reigns - the scores are tallied and a new "game" starts. During each "game" each House may have an Open and Hidden agenda, plus a series of Achiements specific to each house. The actions of each House during a "game" influence not only the fate of the Kingdom, but their endgame score as well.
NOTE: I'll try to explain the most basic rules in the OP; I'll keep several additional mechanics and rules for the relevant posts, once we run into them. This should give everyone a good understanding of the game while not being too monolythic. If you don't want to read too many rules, feel free to skip to the "Kingdom of Ankist" section - the true strenght of the game is in the way the simple mechanics simulate the stakes of an involving centuries long story that is directly affected by the players' actions.


1. Draw and Read a Card from the Dilemma Deck
Each Dilemma moves the Story of the Realm forward from a narrative and from a mechanical point of view. The most common effects are Positive or Negative outcomes for one of the Resources:

Beware! Not all consequences will be explicitly indicated in the AYE and NAY spaces on the front side of a Dilemma card. You should analyze the text of each Dilemma card carefully, to predict potential unexpected outcomes.

2. The Council Votes
Each player is encourage to express their opinion in the thread, but only the Sitting Council Member can cast their Houses vote. These are the options that can be expressed:
  • Aye or Nay: the Sitting Council Member will have to bet X Power Tokens to support the Aye or the Nay decision. If the supported decision wins, the House will expend X Power Tokens. Otherwise, they will expend none.
  • Pass - Gather Power: the Sitting Council Member does not support nor oppose the proposal at the end of the Dilemma card, and they spend
    their energies to gather more Power for future votes. After the vote, everyone who has chosen this option receives an equal share of the Power Tokens that were left on the table by the winning side of the previous Dilemma (during the initial one there are 3 Power Tokens). They also receive 1 Coin.
  • Pass - Become the Moderator: the Moderator decides who wins if there is a tie. Normally, the House with the lowest Prestige is the Moderator; the Sitting Council Member can pick this option and bet X Coins to become the Moderator. If multiple Houses pick this option, the one who has bet more Coins receives the role; they spend X Coins - while the other Houses spend nothing and receive 1 Coin.
Bargaining: during the Voting phase, Houses can freely bargain and make arrengements. It is not possible to directly trade Power Tokens or the Moderator or Leader role, but you can trade Coins for Favors. For example, you could ask another Councilmember to vote on your side, or even ask them to Pass instead of joining the vote. You could also “buy the right” to Sign something from the Leader, or you could pay the Moderator to break a tie in your favor.
- For an arrangement to be valid the proposal has to be formally declared by a Sitting Councilmember in the thread (start the sentence with a bolded "Proposal:") and formally accepted by another Sitting Councilmember (by quoting the Proposal and replying with a bolded "Accepted").
- If the reply has a counteroffer, the Proposal is not formally accepted (until the original party quotes the counteroffer and replies with a bolded "Accepted").
- It is only possible to trade Coins<>Favors and not Favors<>Favors - there would be no mechanical way to enforce an accord of that way in case of non compliance or disagreements on the terms; also Coins have a mechanical place in the game.
- Once a Proposal has been formally placed and Accepted, the accord is binding. By common practice, the payment of Coins is witheld until the agreement has been fulfilled, although this can be changed during negotiation.
- If two Houses are in disagreement on the way an accord has been fulfilled, the current Moderator will decide on the matter. Of course, the Moderator can be swayed...If the Moderator is part of one of the Houses in dispute, the King (me!) will decide. The King is notoriously weak willed, though, and will always side with the party offering the largest amount of Coins to influence him.


3. Dilemma Resolution
After the vote is over, we will need to resolve the current Dilemma:
  • Read the outcome for the winning side of the vote (AYE or NAY) on the back of the Dilemma card.
  • Apply the changes indicated by the outcome: this may include moving one or more Resources along the tracker, influence the Kingdom stability or create additional effects (like applying a Chronicle Sticker to the board or open a sealed Envelope).
Resources and Momentum: each Resource tends to continue going up when it is rising, or down when it is dropping. This means that it's easier for consecutive decisions that influence the same Resource in the same way (IE: multiple positive or negative outcomes) to have extra effect.
Stability: Whenever a Resource is moved, the Stability marker must also be moved up or down an equal number of spaces (including any additional spaces due to Momentum). If a Resource marker reaches either end of the Resource track, its movement stops, but the Stability marker must still be moved the full number of spaces.


4. Endgame check
The "game" can end in two ways:
  1. The King Abdicates: If the Stability marker reaches either end of the Stability Track when applying the outcome of a Dilemma card, the King abdicates and the end of the game is triggered. Further changes to Resources must still be applied, but the Stability marker does not move any more.
  2. The King is Dead: If the last Dilemma card was placed on the Time Counter space marked with a Skull, check if there is a Skull symbol on the central space of the back side of that Dilemma card AND/OR if it is the fifth card placed on that space. In either of those cases, the King is Dead, and the end of the game is triggered.
Scoring: we'll discuss the scoring system once the game has started. There are short term goals (Open and Hidden agendas, Majority of Power or Coin tokens, etc) that will score points at the end of the "game"; long term goals (Achievements and Alignment) that are House specific; and Campaign goals, tied to the Prestige/Crave and the REDACTED systems. The game itself doesn't really reveal the meaning of these "endgame points" until the Grand Finale - it is a highly experimental game, deeply tied to its narrative structure and - I think - perfect for a team based forum LP. In general, playing in accordance with your House's tenets will be rewarding from a story and mechanical point of view.



Ankist is one of the largest states in Lywik, but it’s not the only one. Ankist itself is the result of the union of many formerly independent kingdoms, conquered in wars or united by diplomacy, that were incorporated over the centuries as Duchies or Marks. The north and the south of Ankist have uncertain borders: the unclaimed borderlands are full of raiders, cutthroats, and dangerous nomadic tribes.
The structure of the kingdom is feudal. The Duchies and the Marks are managed by their ruling Houses, represented by the players; these families are all loyal to the king of Ankist, but also have counts and barons that are loyal to them. The Houses are responsible for rallying the army, gathering taxes, and generally administering their territory in the name of the King. The King is personally assisted by the Chamberlain, who will deal with the Council about several general matters. The Council can also rely on the Royal Treasurer, who is charged with monitoring the finances and dealing with the economy of the kingdom.


The Great Houses
These are the twelve noble families who rule the Duchies and the Marks into which the kingdom is divided. Players will be able to pick a name for their Noble Family, once we have selected which ones we want to keep in this LP. We can only pick 5 out of 12, and we will divide players according to their preferences once these houses have been selected.

The selection of these 5 Houses will have a deep influence in the way the LP and the Kingdom of Ankist develop, since each House has some long term Achievements and Alignment bonuses that will shape their actions during the game.



:siren::siren::siren:
This is where the voting for the 5 Houses would go.
:siren::siren::siren:

That Italian Guy fucked around with this message at 13:23 on Dec 31, 2020

Covski
Jun 24, 2007

Bringing the forums together with the greatest thread!
I'd argue that the option of letting people pick a maximum bid and having the one who picked the highest pay the second highest bid + 1 is perfectly fine. This is essentially how an auction works, and from a perspective of economics the entire point of an auction system (getting the highest possible price given all participants' spending limits). In the case of a tie, you could do a quick runoff with the competing players picking a new maximum bid following the same rules, or leaving it up to a coin toss to incentivize players to put in a higher maximum bid if they really want to win.

From my experience with team LPs I agree with either 24 or 48 hours to have a predictable update schedule, nothing stopping you from having a 48hr deadline but updating more frequently if all players get their moves in before that.

Also the game seems super interesting, and I look forward to seeing the LP!

That Italian Guy
Jul 25, 2012

We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.
The game actually has a way to solve ties - a Moderator role that can be bribed as usual :D

The role is by default assigned to the House with the least Prestige, but if a House abstain they can try to become the Moderator or to gather power.

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!

That Italian Guy posted:

The game actually has a way to solve ties - a Moderator role that can be bribed as usual :D

The role is by default assigned to the House with the least Prestige, but if a House abstain they can try to become the Moderator or to gather power.

:hmmyes:

Danaru
Jun 5, 2012

何 ??
I don't have any advice that hasn't already been suggested by others, but I do want to say this game looks cool as hell

bunnyofdoom
Mar 29, 2008

Jaxxon: Still not the stupidest thing from the expanded universe.



Danaru posted:

I don't have any advice that hasn't already been suggested by others, but I do want to say this game looks cool as hell

Can confirm. Especially since i got to dunk on crclmaster while playing it.

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

Quackles
Aug 11, 2018

Pixels of Light.


I just want to say that that LP idea sounds dope. I'm in.

Leal
Oct 2, 2009
Welcome to the new year lp goons we survived 2020

Quackles
Aug 11, 2018

Pixels of Light.


We made it! :dance: :toot:

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!

Leal posted:

Welcome to the new year lp goons we survived 2020


Mister Facetious
Apr 21, 2007

I think I died and woke up in L.A.,
I don't know how I wound up in this place...

:canada:
Speaking of surviving, what ever happened to SkippyGranola's channel? All his vids are gone. :(

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Jobbo_Fett
Mar 7, 2014

Slava Ukrayini

Clapping Larry

Mister Facetious posted:

Speaking of surviving, what ever happened to SkippyGranola's channel? All his vids are gone. :(

iirc some goon or other internetizen had download all (or most) of his videos and was gonna ask if it was ok to repost them, or something.

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