[DGD] Feudalism

[Raymond Jennings]

So basically, rotating puppeteers (players) controlling the same puppet
(character)?

On Mon, Nov 14, 2016 at 11:46 AM, Schmidt, Stephen <schmidsj at union.edu>
wrote:

> I wasn't thinking so much about canon characters - the level of control
> that requires admins to have over players worries me.
>
> Rotating pack of players occupying a number of pre-defined roles is more
> what I have in mind.
>
> I was thinking more in terms of there being a set number of positions,
> which players fill in rotation. If you manage to become the Duke of
> Bananaland, then you gain control over some NPCs (automated) which do your
> will when you're not around. If you don't log into the game for a week,
> though, the position becomes vacant and a new player (who may need suitable
> qualifictions such as some kind of player level, or experience in lower
> level positions) can take over the dukedom. There would be some default
> settings for the NPCs to use during times of no duke.
>
> One could also make the Duke of Bananaland a fixed character - Sir Carmen
> Miranda Chiquita, Duke of Bananaland - and allow different players to play
> that character. But that's more structure than I had in mind. I was
> thinking that there's a position, different characters can occupy the
> position, each player runs one character. I think that'd work too, but my
> thoughts had been running the other way.
>
> I was really thinking there'd be a fixed number of castles, and "duke"
> means you control one of the castles. If you don't log in you lose control
> of your castle, someone else takes it over, and becomes the new duke.
>
> Steve
>
>
> On Mon, Nov 14, 2016 at 4:34 AM, Raymond Jennings <shentino at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > On Sun, Nov 13, 2016 at 9:57 PM, Schmidt, Stephen <schmidsj at union.edu>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > been toying with a version of this for many years myself... but got
> > > sidetracked into wargames  :)
> > >
> > > The problem I ran across was that players are not active 24x7. If
> players
> > > are lord-vassal relations to one another, then what happens when your
> > lord
> > > is logged out? Or if there's a high position - duke, or something like
> > that
> > > - is it empty most of the time, when the duke is not logged on?
> >
> >
> > My assumption was that the role was mostly bluebooked with some
> > administrative buttons in OOC land.
> >
> > Interestingly enough though ICO just posted a public message on their
> forum
> > about having a problem with patrons going poof for extended periods of
> > time, but still having the characters mop up favor points even without
> > being logged in.
> >
> > Their solution was having patronage relations between characters dropped
> if
> > one of them went offline for more than a month or so...maybe something
> > similir would apply here.
> >
> > Basically, make the relation between lord and vassal a real one, but keep
> > it mostly bluebooked unless RPed, give both sides some relevant buttons
> to
> > push, and have an arrangement to have the relationship broken if one side
> > goes awol for too long...or maybe have the vacant role "eschated"
> (snicker)
> > to game staff?
> >
> > you do make a point about maybe having noble roles be interchangeable
> masks
> > that different players could occupy.
> >
> > Some RPs have this sort of thing with the concept of a "canon"
> character, a
> > position that can be occupied by any trustworthy player, with guidelines
> > and supervision.  I think this sort of thing also came up once before on
> > this very list.
> >
> > Is that what you were suggesting?
> >
> >
> > > Or can any
> > > player who happens to be logged on take the job of the duke, if he's
> the
> > > highest-ranking player currently logged in?
> > >
> > > A feudal system requires long-term relationships between players. That
> > may
> > > be hard to model in a traditional MUD environment where new players are
> > > created frequently, old ones disappear without warning.
> > >
> > > I came to the conclusion that it would have to be the other way around
> -
> > a
> > > player could take any role in the feudal hierarchy that happened to be
> > > vacant at a given time. So someone would always be Duke of Bananaland,
> > one
> > > player replacing another in the role as people logged in and out of the
> > > game.
> >
> >
> > Would this be an NPC puppetmastered by a rotating player base, or a
> > rotating pack of characters occupying a single role?
> >
> >
> >
> > > That raises some continuity problems of its own, though - the person
> > > to whom a vassal owes loyalty may change frequently.
> > >
> > > I didn't get very far through that thought process before I gave up and
> > did
> > > wargames instead.
> > >
> > > Steve
> > >
> > >
> > > On Mon, Nov 14, 2016 at 12:43 AM, Raymond Jennings <shentino at gmail.com
> >
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > Hey, would it be feasible to use a feudalism hierarchy to organize
> > > > characters?
> > > >
> > > > Maybe a vassalage system, where each noble PC can have an optional
> lord
> > > and
> > > > zero or more vassals, and then they can be given buttons to push
> about
> > > the
> > > > land they have.
> > > >
> > > > There could well be PCs or NPCs as serfs at the bottom.
> > > >
> > > > I've been bouncing this idea around in my head for awhile, why not
> ask
> > > the
> > > > dgd list about it?
> > > >
> > > > I'm thinking of a game world geographically as large as England,
> > possibly
> > > > with some constraints to discourage the "players go spread out as
> much
> > > > wilderness as they can, but then spread too thinly to socialize"
> > problem
> > > > cited in one of shannon's skotos articles.
> > > > ____________________________________________
> > > > https://mail.dworkin.nl/mailman/listinfo/dgd
> > > ____________________________________________
> > > https://mail.dworkin.nl/mailman/listinfo/dgd
> > ____________________________________________
> > https://mail.dworkin.nl/mailman/listinfo/dgd
> ____________________________________________
> https://mail.dworkin.nl/mailman/listinfo/dgd
>