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Numos Profile
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Registered: 12-2006
Posts: 968
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Something I learned Tonight


There was way too many people involved in the event last night. Everyone was tryin' to do their own thing, so it took forever to get moving. The more people you have on a quest the longer it's gonna take, and the quality is gonna decline because the DM can't give individuals a lot of attention.

I don't want to do anything like cap the amount of people that can go on an event. That's just silly. It sucks to be left out of one and as a DM there's a lot of pressure to involve everyone in your stuff.

I don't even know if there's a solution to this besides aiming for a higher population or appointing more DMs. But it's sort of a snag, since it slows things down a lot.

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Characters:
Numos: Shapeshifting wizard
Taevis Bentham: Woodsman
2/24/2008, 6:16 am Link to this post Send Email to Numos   Send PM to Numos
 
Eddyward Profile
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Registered: 03-2007
Location: England
Posts: 5
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Re: Something I learned Tonight


I often find that it's agood idea to have 3-5 DMs on a particularly large event (like yesterday's) and when a single DM is on, assuming they intend to do some sort of event, they could do small events for 1-5 people and give them one thing to focus on, or you could do random events for one or two people, like having a mugger confront in the city.

Also, while I'm on the subject of DMs, it can be a good idea to appoint DMs in different time zones (this was a problem on my last server), to at least make the people who go on in the different time zones think their RP is worthwhile.
2/24/2008, 6:29 am Link to this post Send Email to Eddyward   Send PM to Eddyward
 
Mike Borodin Profile
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Registered: 11-2007
Posts: 70
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Re: Something I learned Tonight


I thought about volunteering to DM for a separate group defending the city while the elves attacked when the lag spikes struck. But since it's Numos's big plot most likely players would like to stay with him for the major event(s) anyway instead of simply fighting waves and waves of insignificant NPCs. For major plots involving more than 1 DM things need to be worked out beforehand anyway.

I hardly play as a player anymore so I'm ok with leaving the quest and DM if required. Though it's not a bad idea to recruit people willing to DM full-time. By full-time I mean making DMing a priority over playing.

I'm in the Asia-Pacific timezone but I work from home so I can DM most of the time. However most players are in the US time zone I believe. After 'peak time' either you only find 1 or 2 players on the server or there is none. It wouldn't be bad idea to make a list of who and what our timezones are.

Last edited by Mike Borodin, 2/24/2008, 9:56 am


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CM Stacker Nvidia: E6750, 4GB DDR2 800, GA-P35C-DS3R, Gigabyte 8800GTS 640MB
CM Stacker 832: Q6600, 4GB DDR2 800, Asus Striker II Formula, X1950XTX
2/24/2008, 9:51 am Link to this post Send Email to Mike Borodin   Send PM to Mike Borodin
 
Moseph Profile
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Registered: 01-2008
Posts: 24
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Re: Something I learned Tonight


quote:

Mike Borodin wrote:

I thought about volunteering to DM for a separate group defending the city while the elves attacked when the lag spikes struck.



I think something like that is a great solution. To have this happen last night would have been awesome, because once the quest got moving, roughly half the characters were ridiculously out-classed anyway. It would have made a lot more sense to put together a schism of the group, where the super-high level PCs could head off with Numos, while the less advanced characters could attempt to handle a related challenge that was more on par with their skill set.


To run through the elf assault would also have kept the momentum that was generated by the sea creature stuff immediately prior to it. I found that after the reboot, the immediate drop in momentum really killed a lot of the fun I was already having. I had developed a nice sense of urgency that was immediately squashed by dilly-dallying. While I did get to enjoy the benefits of Milo being selected for a frantic midnight ride across the Brandywine, I don't really think anyone else had a similar fresh spark in game momentum.

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Faraday Halifax - Rick from the Reef

Milo Mestilsun - Half-Elf Tinker/Courier

Durben - Human Farmer/Artisan <whereabouts unknown>

Giaran Borma - Human Lawyer/Bounty Hunter <deceased>
2/24/2008, 11:07 am Link to this post Send Email to Moseph   Send PM to Moseph
 


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