A reset debate
Jan. 12th, 2012 03:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annwfynSo, I’m trying to articulate something about a reset, and probably am going to fail. But I figured I’d try anyway.
I’m trying to talk about two different issues that come up whenever a reset is discussed.
One is that every time it comes up, the last reset is mentioned. You know, the Year of Fire. The thing that almost halved the society and left pretty much every survivor with a deep seated sense of bitterness? Yeah, that reset.
The second is the one thing that people are really edgy about saying, but which I think is actually core to the whole issue, which is that when people are talking about a reset, they are really talking about whether you get to keep your character.
And that’s something people don’t like to say. There’s a vague taboo in RP circles about being overly attached to your character. You’re not meant to feel that way. It’s meant to be about something bigger. It’s meant to be about the story. But I’d put money on the fact that a significant majority of those who are anti-reset have a character they love, and stories they are still telling, and don’t want to miss out on, and a significant majority of those who are pro-reset either don’t attach heavily to characters (I am told these strange people exist) or currently have something missing from their RP, whether it be that they aren’t attaching to their current characters, or aren’t enjoying the games or whatever.
Certainly, I think the time when I was really anti-reset was when I had PCs I was desperately in love with and didn’t want to lose Venice, or Rio, or Rosie. I am slightly painfully aware that a lot of my slow shift towards being pro-reset has come from my retiring characters (for various reasons) and finding it really quite hard to get into the game with new ones.
And this, in turn, skews the debate, I suspect. I sometimes wonder if any vote on a reset will fail, largely because the people who care enough to vote are the people who are having fun, who want to save their PCs and their stories. The people for whom the games have already failed have already voted. They’ve voted by leaving, or ‘cutting back on games’ or signing off lists and spending their game time sitting upstairs drinking.
I’ve been thinking this for a while, but it was only today that I managed to make another link. We talk about how awful the last reset was. And, frankly, it was abysmal. It was the worst experience of my role playing life. But looking back on it, something struck me today.
It wasn’t the worst experience of my role playing life because it was a reset, or because the story ended. It really wasn’t. I’ve role played through the end of the world in indie games, and had an awesome time, and ended up with really cool stories to tell everyone. I’ve played in games that folded and not felt bitter.
I think it’s a totally false assumption that a reset would kill the society. I think a reset can be fun, can be exciting, can lead to great story. I do, however, think that when thinking about a reset we need to be more honest with ourselves and with others and remember that really, for all we whitter about ‘the society’ or ‘the story’ what we really mean is ‘my characters and their stories’, about 90% of the time.
I think that the last reset was a shambles. And it was a shambles because pretty much everyone ended up with a crappy ending for their character.
I don’t think it was actually the fault of the local STs. I blame the international staff hugely, and even they were not entirely at blame. They got stuck with running this epic metaplot for hundreds of PCs, most of them played by people they had never met, in games they would never go to, and they had to get rid of them all. It’s not really surprising that they screwed up.
And screw up they did.
Now, if I think about the ending of Zeitgeist, the indie game that I played the vampire and mage part of and ran the garou part of, I can tell you what happened to my 3 main PCs. They had awesome endings and I’m still mostly happy with them.
My endings for the oldWoD Cam, however, were uniformly crappy. I’m not going to go into them, because there are players and STs who were involved then who are still around and who I love as people. I don’t blame anyone particularly, but I do think that the Camarilla screwed up the Year of Fire, hugely, and make a lousy job of it. And that’s why people left. Not because there was a reset, but because there was a bad one.
And that doesn’t mean a reset is right for us now, or that we have to do one. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t good reasons to not do one or that we are being crazy. I do think, though, that we shouldn’t say we don’t want a reset because last time we screwed it up. I think we should say that if we do have a reset, we want to look at what we did before and never do that again. I do think we need to focus any reset more on not having some kind of uber plot featuring giant blobs of shadow, or thirty billion new rules every day. I do think we need to make this decision about how we make the best possible game for every individual player and make sure that they get the game they deserved, whether they are an enthusiastic frothy person who loves their PC hugely, or a disenfranchised, stressed out sort who only really keeps turning up to games because all their mates do.
I think we need to acknowledge that this is, at the end, all about people’s characters and their individual stories.
Now, I am pro-reset because I’ve not had a good couple of years when it comes to my PCs. Currently I feel like unless you’ve got a chronicle length PC, with a nice chunk of added MC, it’s really easy to be made irrelevant really quickly. Currently I feel like it’s a slow and difficult game to break into, unless you are either very confident or already know a lot of people. Currently I think every venue has a lot of awkward ghosts from badly run plots past, confusing rules calls, and way too much xp floating around, meaning that players don’t need other players, and the only plots left to run are the epic plots that this society is too scared of to run because that would involve changing the world.
That’s why I’m pro-reset. This doesn’t mean I’m right. I may well not be.
But I will admit that I’m also pro-reset because my RP experience is not as good as it could be, or has been in the past. I’m pro-reset and I also believe that we have the capacity to run a reset well, and just because it’s been done badly in the past, doesn’t mean it is impossible to run it well one more.
I’m pro-reset, and I’m also pro-spend and save MC and pro-separate continuities.
And if I am found dead, it’s because my 24 year old self just came forward in time with the express purpose of seeing me dead. So argue with me now! You may not have many more changes.
I’m trying to talk about two different issues that come up whenever a reset is discussed.
One is that every time it comes up, the last reset is mentioned. You know, the Year of Fire. The thing that almost halved the society and left pretty much every survivor with a deep seated sense of bitterness? Yeah, that reset.
The second is the one thing that people are really edgy about saying, but which I think is actually core to the whole issue, which is that when people are talking about a reset, they are really talking about whether you get to keep your character.
And that’s something people don’t like to say. There’s a vague taboo in RP circles about being overly attached to your character. You’re not meant to feel that way. It’s meant to be about something bigger. It’s meant to be about the story. But I’d put money on the fact that a significant majority of those who are anti-reset have a character they love, and stories they are still telling, and don’t want to miss out on, and a significant majority of those who are pro-reset either don’t attach heavily to characters (I am told these strange people exist) or currently have something missing from their RP, whether it be that they aren’t attaching to their current characters, or aren’t enjoying the games or whatever.
Certainly, I think the time when I was really anti-reset was when I had PCs I was desperately in love with and didn’t want to lose Venice, or Rio, or Rosie. I am slightly painfully aware that a lot of my slow shift towards being pro-reset has come from my retiring characters (for various reasons) and finding it really quite hard to get into the game with new ones.
And this, in turn, skews the debate, I suspect. I sometimes wonder if any vote on a reset will fail, largely because the people who care enough to vote are the people who are having fun, who want to save their PCs and their stories. The people for whom the games have already failed have already voted. They’ve voted by leaving, or ‘cutting back on games’ or signing off lists and spending their game time sitting upstairs drinking.
I’ve been thinking this for a while, but it was only today that I managed to make another link. We talk about how awful the last reset was. And, frankly, it was abysmal. It was the worst experience of my role playing life. But looking back on it, something struck me today.
It wasn’t the worst experience of my role playing life because it was a reset, or because the story ended. It really wasn’t. I’ve role played through the end of the world in indie games, and had an awesome time, and ended up with really cool stories to tell everyone. I’ve played in games that folded and not felt bitter.
I think it’s a totally false assumption that a reset would kill the society. I think a reset can be fun, can be exciting, can lead to great story. I do, however, think that when thinking about a reset we need to be more honest with ourselves and with others and remember that really, for all we whitter about ‘the society’ or ‘the story’ what we really mean is ‘my characters and their stories’, about 90% of the time.
I think that the last reset was a shambles. And it was a shambles because pretty much everyone ended up with a crappy ending for their character.
I don’t think it was actually the fault of the local STs. I blame the international staff hugely, and even they were not entirely at blame. They got stuck with running this epic metaplot for hundreds of PCs, most of them played by people they had never met, in games they would never go to, and they had to get rid of them all. It’s not really surprising that they screwed up.
And screw up they did.
Now, if I think about the ending of Zeitgeist, the indie game that I played the vampire and mage part of and ran the garou part of, I can tell you what happened to my 3 main PCs. They had awesome endings and I’m still mostly happy with them.
My endings for the oldWoD Cam, however, were uniformly crappy. I’m not going to go into them, because there are players and STs who were involved then who are still around and who I love as people. I don’t blame anyone particularly, but I do think that the Camarilla screwed up the Year of Fire, hugely, and make a lousy job of it. And that’s why people left. Not because there was a reset, but because there was a bad one.
And that doesn’t mean a reset is right for us now, or that we have to do one. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t good reasons to not do one or that we are being crazy. I do think, though, that we shouldn’t say we don’t want a reset because last time we screwed it up. I think we should say that if we do have a reset, we want to look at what we did before and never do that again. I do think we need to focus any reset more on not having some kind of uber plot featuring giant blobs of shadow, or thirty billion new rules every day. I do think we need to make this decision about how we make the best possible game for every individual player and make sure that they get the game they deserved, whether they are an enthusiastic frothy person who loves their PC hugely, or a disenfranchised, stressed out sort who only really keeps turning up to games because all their mates do.
I think we need to acknowledge that this is, at the end, all about people’s characters and their individual stories.
Now, I am pro-reset because I’ve not had a good couple of years when it comes to my PCs. Currently I feel like unless you’ve got a chronicle length PC, with a nice chunk of added MC, it’s really easy to be made irrelevant really quickly. Currently I feel like it’s a slow and difficult game to break into, unless you are either very confident or already know a lot of people. Currently I think every venue has a lot of awkward ghosts from badly run plots past, confusing rules calls, and way too much xp floating around, meaning that players don’t need other players, and the only plots left to run are the epic plots that this society is too scared of to run because that would involve changing the world.
That’s why I’m pro-reset. This doesn’t mean I’m right. I may well not be.
But I will admit that I’m also pro-reset because my RP experience is not as good as it could be, or has been in the past. I’m pro-reset and I also believe that we have the capacity to run a reset well, and just because it’s been done badly in the past, doesn’t mean it is impossible to run it well one more.
I’m pro-reset, and I’m also pro-spend and save MC and pro-separate continuities.
And if I am found dead, it’s because my 24 year old self just came forward in time with the express purpose of seeing me dead. So argue with me now! You may not have many more changes.
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no subject
Date: 2012-01-12 03:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-12 04:07 pm (UTC)My phase of being pro-reset was heavily tied in to the period where I was miserable, had no characters I enjoyed playing, and no enthusiasm for games at all.
Now I have characters I enjoy (in part), I'm thinking about it a bit more carefully. The idea of a 2 year buildup is fair, gives time for decent story and less of a whimper ending.
But I guess I still solidly believe there's limited point discussing a reset unless it is coupled with a solid discussion and decision regarding MC and continuity. A reset without that is....well, only going to result in the discussion rolling around again in a few years time when we end up with the exact same issues :)
no subject
Date: 2012-01-12 04:23 pm (UTC)I think I agree with that absolutely.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-12 04:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-12 06:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-12 08:39 pm (UTC)If we make something new and better, solving issues with MC, continuity and XP scales - then people will choose to play it. If it isn't good enough, they'll stick with what they have.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-12 09:39 pm (UTC)A reset where a new set of games started rolling out ahead of the demise of the old would be problematic from a timetabling POV - but it would allow the old chronicle to come to a less car-crash paced ending (without risking people having nothing ready to play afterwards); and a reset which veered towards eternity turnsheets rather than world-crushing plot would allow people to have the option of good _lives_ for their characters, rather than a not-necessarally-good death.
Continuing from that OOC side of things - I wonder whether a new continuity could be rolled out on a beta/origins basis, which would help to build up a collaborative background, while giving the safety-net of a generation gap before it went fully 'live'. (Taking inspiration mercilessly here from the year-long OU RPGSoc society games, where the new game initially goes live in the summer term, to be brutalised by existing students, before plot causes a generation gap of some sort before the game rolls out in the autumn ready for the Freshers to join for two terms. Next year's game proposals get voted on in the spring TGM, from recollection, and the current game ends at the end of the spring term, if anyone's interested in how the cycle completes ;)
no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 12:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 07:23 am (UTC)Personally, I'd see MC scrapped if there was a reset, it'd make storytellers jobs a lot more straight forward if there was a less disparate gap in power levels.
In terms of a reset in general, my position varies depending on whether it is coupled with any balancing changes. If nothing is done to address the issues that led to the reset being necessary, then why bother?