((As promised... features))

[lilith_rta]

Alright so we've gone over Motivation, Jumping the Shark (I should do Rails soon), The Great Divide... and now Features.

Comments

[kynan_r2a]

Features walk a fine line--too powerful and they feature-slam a plot, too weak and then they become inconsequential. Frankly, I can't handle that responsibility so I never play one... well, almost never. I had some fun with a minor one on CoA.

But in any case, I agree with your point that they can have a critical role in storytelling, particularly in the Amber genre. The key is to keep them an engine of play, and not become insular.

[lilith_rta]

I agree. Insular for anything can actually be bad for a game.

Course I had it explained to me pretty well last night. Sometimes it comes down to trust. Whether you do or don't.

[servalle_rta]

I think that on Road To Amber, Features fill a very particular role of genre touchstones. We've departed so much from both the 'canonical' events and backstory of the books and the 'standard' mentality of Amber MU*s of the past that if you removed all references to Amber, most of the game and, in fact, most of the characters could stand alone. In a case like that, the features serve as anchors to the 'Amberness' of the game - part of the reason that the feature app process stresses so heavily the need for the features to feel right, I think, is that they're tasked with setting the overall feel of the game, the way that makes you say 'This is an Amber game' versus 'This is a multiverse fantasy game.'

[benedict_rta]

... Or I could just say 'what he said' instead of having posted my answer.

Only then he might send me more flowers.

[benedict_rta]

I vacillate. I have the strange position in that my character is not just written, it's relied on. People on an Amber MUSH expect the books to be history. Ben appears in the second book, and has quite a lot of play. So I'm really playing an author's PC, with the background already written. However, there are other features who get only name mentions. I'm ignoring those for this answer. They never send me flowers

[lilith_rta]

See on my last game, Dukes and Duchesses were not aware of what power the /did/ have. Because we ran on a storyline that was on Rails for /so/ long that it was impossible to try anything without getting smacked for it.

Sometimes you have to define things and people will still have questions. Not to say that RTA doesn't, they're actually one of the better examples that I offer to my mushing friends in search of a 'grand new game.'

[benedict_rta]

Sometimes you have to define things and people will still have questions.

Expand on that?

[lilith_rta]

Basically on our last game, we worked to get all the Heads of Houses (dukes/duchesses) to be held by PC's. Now this is after the HUGE fallout on that grid, so our 'staff' (two people at this time) were still a bit dogmatic about things being in straight lines (I will outline better I Hope in Rails to be posted later today

[benedict_rta]

From my IC point of view, it has been too. I don't know how it looks from the outside, but if you take the Corwin vs Eric thread which runs through the books, you get a great comparison between the two. WWED?

[lilith_rta]

Feature-smash?

Alright, I'm goin got have to poke you on that one to find out what you mean. Bah, maybe just an excuse to pester too.

[benedict_rta]

I think he means that features can smash a plot, either because of IC sheets, or because of IC power. For example, I could invade Montevalno and 'solve' problems there. Which would seriously mess with all the good war that Celeste has built up there for herself, and all the back and forth. Either my IC sheet (best general EVAR) or my IC power (my army's stronger than your army) could be used to smash. Even if I were invited in, I'd have to be very very careful.

Or it could be that new fad where you take two features and write fanfic about them, but I don't think so.

[baksi_rta]

Like many others, I am torn on features. I know they're among the toughest jobs *on* a MUSH, and they seem to be pretty much thankless