Intrigue RP Recommendations (For everyone!)

[Steve]

It is very true that if the BGTSCC "game" isn't seen as a collaborative storytelling experience, then nearly always someone will feel left out, feel "made to lose," etc. If there is any "winning" here, it is when some storybuilding between Players and DMs creates or changes the actual Environment. Literally, buildings go up, buildings go down, Areas appear, Laws/Factions/interactions are both built and torn down, which always has a new "form," that which we can now Role-play with—or against...—into the future.

Alas, some problems in the above stem from the history of the Server often favoring one side of the coin. I shouldn't have to elaborate here, but if you are totally in the dark, then simply: the paradigm is Good always wins over Evil. And, there are so many places/factions/groups/NPCs of Evil Minded bent that cannot get very far at all, in the sandbox.

Why I mention this is that it creates a paradigm where many Players RPing on one side of the coin claw and fight there way towards any sort of IC "gain," and with so little to get and so hard to create/hold onto, this OOC need can so easily turn into the "I'm going to win at any cost" mentality, which is OOC but comes into the game IC and just mucks it up for everyone.

And of course, the anonymity doesn't help. It actually works against trust, and the only way trust is built is when after X amount of years you can rely—or not...—on that Named Avatar-of-a-person that regularly logs in. But even then, that can be fragile as glass.

The OP here is great. It gives good guidelines. But it doesn't address the entire gamut of hurdles any one Player will experience, in trying to "be a part" of a group already established in Intrigue RP, and a group that doesn't easily trust others, or simply DOESN'T WANT to trust a player (or group of Players).

Personally, I don't trust Intrique RP that much anymore, because I find it hard to have DMs also as Players, with PCs in intrigue-based organizations, and with biases and such. I also find it difficult if not impossible to start Intrigue from the bottom up—you can only do so much without starting to godmod. And furthermore, if the OOC issues are there, as in it isn't really an open game from all players, the intrique RP just falls flat. I can't tell you how many times I've seen Players go out of their way to initiate intrigue RP, but get ignored from top to bottom and back up. The end result, usually, is the shrinking of the playerbase. Not good!

Really though, the IC of Intrigue RP can have both winners and losers, but OOC, players can on both sides of the "win" can be rewarded, for their actual RP efforts. The RCR used to be one type of reward, for a Player to "retire" their PC in a losing conflict or intrigue RP story (so that they could start something new).

Lastly, I'll just say that Intrigue RP is great, it just needs better and balanced support, so that Players are far more relaxed to "lose," knowing that it is a cycle of experience, and sometimes, with the help of the DMs and other Players, they'll likely win. It isn't easy, it requires good OOC management—and willing managers...—but it can be done!