Boring boards

[Quirk]

So, you're a newbie, fresh to the game, newly spawned in a major city (because you're a newbie that heeds the suggestions of the docs, not some crazy set on starting an exciting life as a Red Storm half-breed pickpocket).

You exit the spawn room in late morning game time, and you're in an empty bar. Before you go out to explore, your eye is caught by the in game board. What do you see?

Alternatively: you're an old experienced player who's been in a bit of a rut, taken a few days off, and are chancing to log back in search of inspiration. What's the first thing you hit up to look for news that happened in your absence? The in game board. What's likely to be on it?

Well, Tuluk has a serious problem here, because the answer is likely to be nothing of any interest. House X wants to hire a new set of minions. The tall muscular man wants someone to work for. Agent Amos is back in town. Go back far enough and there'll be some big imm-sponsored change, but a newbie reading the board alone could be forgiven for thinking that nobody but the militia does anything around here. The code of silence is killing us.

But before those of us playing elsewhere get all excited, the picture isn't always vastly better there either. There are still plenty of posts with all the excitement of classified ads. Of the posts which aren't, many of them deal with what I'll call soap opera conflict.

What do I mean by this? Well, in a soap opera, the setting changes but rarely, and the focus is on personal tensions. There's drama and conflict, but none of it can be expected to mean much beyond the people involved and those associated with them. There is no bigger picture.

So, to pick a case of pretty awesome soap opera conflict: Malik is falsely accused of being a sorcerer in Red Storm and flees to Allanak, fearing for his safety. He's not there long before the rumours follow him and a templar decides to execute him, just to be on the safe side. All of this shows up on the in game board - and, in this case, let's pretend it's a satisfying read even if you never met Malik, with a stirring little piece of speechifying by the presiding templar thrown in.

What does this offer by way of story hooks to our new player, or our player in a rut whose PC never met Malik? Truthfully? Not an awful lot. Malik's dead, the story's over. But even if Malik had fled and got away, the hook's a weak one. If you don't meet Malik in person, the best it serves is idle gossip, unless someone's sufficiently lacking in self-preservation to try hunting down a suspected sorcerer. It's a cool story which is no real use to you.

What if, however, we move away from the simply personal, past soap opera conflict? Imagine now that the story on the in game board involves the Kuraci having an armed standoff with the militia at Allanak's gates over accusations of spice smuggling. This is much richer fare. Anyone in a dun-coloured cloak operates with a haze of outlawry about them, and there's likely two sides to the story waiting to be discovered. Even if subsequent news suggests the situation has calmed, the impression of simmering tensions remains. The world seems more dynamic.

The best news deals with groups, not individuals. It has the potential to remain relevant long after the individuals who may have been involved are dead. I would suggest that making conflict between groups more open gives new players and players seeking inspiration more delicious roleplay meat to sink their teeth into, and may even help retention. Please, be indiscreet.

I don't know, am I off base here? Do you feel the boards are quite exciting enough already? Or do you think there are better solutions?

[QuillDipper]

So, just so I have this straight, you're suggesting that coded PC events should get blown up more on the boards? Or that virtual situations involving groups should occasionally filter onto the boards to create conflict?

[Nyr]

From http://www.armageddon.org/help/view/Board%20Etiquette :

Board Etiquette
(Communication) Rumor boards are meant to serve as OOC constructs to facilitate the spread of information and rumors amongst the player base. We have compiled some helpful tips to keep in mind for posting a rumor on one of these boards.
Use proper spelling and grammar. While staff members are not going to police every single typo, your post may be removed if it is below a certain standard.
Rumor posts should be appropriately vague and objective. Recruiting posts for clans are generally fine as are announcements for events, but rumors about other things should generally be more vague and written from an objective point of view. This is difficult to define within the confines of a helpfile. If your rumor is removed for this reason you will be notified accordingly.
Along those same lines, be careful how vNPCs are used in the depiction of rumors so as not to step over the line. Some examples NOT to follow would include "All of the nearby hunters in the tavern agree..." or "Everyone in the militia suspects that the elf with the tressy-tressed hair..." or "The most prominent citizens have banded together to denounce..."
Rumors should not be epic-length verbatim descriptions of events, stories, songs, or poems.
When in doubt, put in a request.
See Also:
board, editor, read, write

[Quirk]

The former. As Nyr has indicated, virtual situations are not appropriate for posting on the boards.

If there's conflict between groups, airing it allows more people to follow what's going on, and makes the world more interesting. Obviously not all such conflict needs to be public, but if none of it's public, you essentially hide from new players that anything much is happening at all.

[long live miley cyrus]

I would like it if wanted people didn't have their sdescs up on rumor boards, they have enough trouble with every pc in Salaar hunting them on and off and the Legion looking out for them, but obviously they're going to have a description, possibly generic, or even wrong. Flat-out wrong? If its dire enough someone may have just gotten themselves fired or killed if they don't flee themselves 

Given that its Tuluk, maybe bards should advertise their services, level of skill, places of performance, and/or expected playtimes. Fill up some of these gaps between rumor postings.

[Cutthroat]

I don't know, am I off base here? Do you feel the boards are quite exciting enough already? Or do you think there are better solutions?

My answer to this is, the boards don't have to be exciting. They have to fit the board etiquette and they have to be used to make actually playing the game exciting. That means clans using the boards to recruit and make their clans exciting, and people writing objective reports on rumors and happenings to keep people in the know and interested in what's going on in-game.

Not sure what the point of sneaking a shiv into Tuluk's side in your post was, considering that conflict there has spilled over onto the boards a bunch of times, but if you want to talk about conflict that is reported, and you want that conflict to be a cut above what it is, then that conflict has to actually exist and be able to be fairly reported on.

[Quirk]

My answer to this is, the boards don't have to be exciting. They have to fit the board etiquette and they have to be used to make actually playing the game exciting. That means clans using the boards to recruit and make their clans exciting, and people writing objective reports on rumors and happenings to keep people in the know and interested in what's going on in-game.

I think we have the same understanding here. My point was largely that "keeping people in the know and interested" seems to get the short end of the stick. Things that go onto the board live there quite a long time, but little of what goes on there has much longevity of interest. The boards are one of the first things players see after logging in, and are the main channel for distribution of commonly known news. If the news archives look dull, the game looks bad.

Not sure what the point of sneaking a shiv into Tuluk's side in your post was, considering that conflict there has spilled over onto the boards a bunch of times, but if you want to talk about conflict that is reported, and you want that conflict to be a cut above what it is, then that conflict has to actually exist and be able to be fairly reported on.

My starting position is the suggestion made elsewhere on the boards that goals-based conflict between groups exists but is conducted largely in secret i.e. not all conflict is soap opera conflict. Secret conflict is fine, but if all conflict is secret, it's effectively invisible to most of the rest of the playerbase and complaints about stagnancy arise - particularly if that conflict ends inconclusively with nobody achieving anything tangible.

If, of course, such conflict does not exist, then yes, there's a deeper problem. I'd like to believe that this is not the case.

[Nyr]

If things happen and they are interesting, then they should go on the IG boards.

...I really doubt you're going to find anyone disagreeing with you on that point!

[ShaLeah]

If things happen and they are interesting, then they should go on the IG boards.

...I really doubt you're going to find anyone disagreeing with you on that point!

Maybe the question is who should add these? Or even why would we know?

Let's take Kurac for instance, notoriously tight lipped. They got their shit in lockdown. And for things happening in Tuluk where delicacy and stealth are king? How would we know anything that doesn't happen in public?

I like the idea of more things shared on the board, I just wonder how we'll deal with that in Tuluk where things are hush hush. Maybe that's why the boards there are elusive?

[Nyr]

Maybe the question is who should add these? Or even why would we know?

Staff, players.  Anyone that witnessed it or participated in it could put something up.  The only real concern is to be sure that it is objectively posted as a rumor and not completely biased to one side or another.

Let's take Kurac for instance, notoriously tight lipped. They got their shit in lockdown.

Yet they can and should put up a rumor about something that occurred if it's noteworthy.  It's not really required or anything, but it's good to show that something happened.

And for things happening in Tuluk where delicacy and stealth are king?

Almost everything we've done recently in Tuluk has had a rumor board posting for days prior to it ever showing up on the history page.

How would we know anything that doesn't happen in public?

If it's worth mentioning then perhaps it can go up there.  If it was a meeting between two tavern whores then it's probably not important.  If it was a private meeting between any two people, it's probably not important.  Rumors are there for spreading stuff that is public for the most part.

If you see a rumor that is problematic you may report it to staff and we'll review it.

I like the idea of more things shared on the board, I just wonder how we'll deal with that in Tuluk where things are hush hush. Maybe that's why the boards there are elusive?

I'll add this concern to my list.

[Quirk]

If things happen and they are interesting, then they should go on the IG boards.

...I really doubt you're going to find anyone disagreeing with you on that point!

I think there'll be a lot of agreement with the principle.

The practice is a bit trickier. Individual PCs may be secretive types, and their players may be infected by that secrecy and be loath even to add things witnessed by large numbers of NPCs and VNPCs if those things are things the PC would prefer not to have spoken of. Even players of less secretive PCs may feel it's not their place to add the rumour. There's a distinction between "would my character spread news about this?" and "would this be notable enough for other people to talk about it?" and I think the first question can eclipse the second.

For instance, in the hypothetical Kuraci standoff at the gates example, the underlings may well feel the rumour-mongering should be left to the leaders, the Kuraci leader may well not want to make a post that makes Kurac's position more awkward, and the militia leader may not be particularly proud of how they handled the situation and be happy to let it pass by without further comment. It could be a great, long-lasting hook to pull a new player into wanting to find out more, but it could easily fizzle if nobody's willing to push the story wider. In some ways it can seem easier to post a rumour about some petty but very public spat you were involved in than to post a rumour that your PC's boss might prefer people not to know about.

There's also some value in being less discreet generally where large organisations are concerned, just to generate interest and make it obvious that things are going on. In particular, if a large organisation has a great many people acting on some goal, there should be some visible signs. I think a good example of this being done right was the leadup to the last HRPT where the buildup and changes in the dispositions of soldiers was discussed via a number of rumour board posts.

[ShaLeah]

And for things happening in Tuluk where delicacy and stealth are king?

Almost everything we've done recently in Tuluk has had a rumor board posting for days prior to it ever showing up on the history page.

Those were pretty big things, things that players (despite participating/witnessing the events) didn't have anything to do with. My curiosity is how Amos the Shmo Citizen start a rumor without getting pinned and losing his clandestine status. I don't think Nak would have the same caution to post.

[Nyr]

And for things happening in Tuluk where delicacy and stealth are king?

Almost everything we've done recently in Tuluk has had a rumor board posting for days prior to it ever showing up on the history page.

Those were pretty big things, things that players (despite participating/witnessing the events) didn't have anything to do with. My curiosity is how Amos the Shmo Citizen start a rumor without getting pinned and losing his clandestine status. I don't think Nak would have the same caution to post.

Not really following you here.  What is Amos worried about exactly?

[Nyr]

by which I mean, I guess...if I were Amos and I wanted to spread a rumor I would pay someone else to do it.  Or a shadow artist.  I mean, hell, that can't be expensive...

[CodeMaster]

As I read the help files I see small OOC nudges to the players. The nature of mul breeding in "help mul" comes to mind.

I have no familiarity with Tuluk. But, it seems that the atmosphere of Tuluk invites OOC nudges, and I bet you could have fun with it.  Here are two example posts you could write on the wall board:

REAL STORY: XXX has become illegal, or well-known independent PC XXX was assassinated.

BOARD STORY: For reasons unspoken, it has become hard to carry on a conversation about XXX.  Most conversations veering to the topic cease with an awkward silence, and pick up a new thread moments later.

REAL STORY: House YYY has been destroyed and all of its members executed.

BOARD STORY: Compound YYY was razed to the ground but, clearly it was a result of some unexplained accident by its occupants.  The "acceptable explanation" is that a small celebration simply got out of hand. Despite the enormity of the fire, witnesses seem hard to come by. But, some mention seeing templars near the compound at the time, clearly their only purpose to ensure that the fire did not endanger others.  Fortunately, not a single person was injured, although the compound's former occupants have been unusually quiet.

Just two cents from a dorky noob.  Maybe the posts on the board are already written in this way, or maybe this type of tongue and cheek writing does not fit the theme.

[Molten Heart]

What kind of news/current events in a civilization center justify a board post?  Who should write them? Should I write them if no one else does, or is this something staff should do?

These are sort of rhetorical but I look at some game boards and wonder if there's not more going on in an area but it just doesn't get posted.

Anyone have any thoughts or opinions?

[nauta]

I agree - I've often been vaguely related to a plot that I felt should have been posted on the boards (simply because the virtual population would have been gossipping about it) but didn't feel like I was the one who should do it (since I didn't know the facts and it wasn't my plot).

Another case is a staff plot - I'm not sure if it's too early to say, but let's just say hypothetically giant creatures came out and terrorized the city.  I've seen this happen in both cities now and then gone to the bar and PCs that just logged in had no idea what had happened.  (Often nothing was posted!)

Related, when someone is "disappeared" in Tuluk, the docs say that you can generate a rumor, but of course the dead PC can't, and the ones that killed the dead PC don't have much knowledge of whether that dead PC would have been missed or if it was worthy of a post.  (Or they don't care.)

Solutions?  We should all pick up the slack and just post and let staff weed the board if we go overboard?

[Quell]

Not having all the facts isn't a problem for posting rumors. It's more of a feature.

Actually, even if you did have all the facts you shouldn't probably be posting them with 100% accuracy anyways, right? If you feel the urge, I'd say just go for it. And assume that the hunter/barkeep/urchin just has the same (or less) knowledge as you.

[valeria]

What kind of news/current events in a civilization center justify a board post?

The kinds a lot of people would be talking about.

Who should write them?

Pretty much anybody who thinks the topic is something a lot of people would be talking about.

Should I write them if no one else does, or is this something staff should do?

If you think they merit a board post!  In my experience, staff don't generally post anything unless it relates to an RPT.

I agree - I've often been vaguely related to a plot that I felt should have been posted on the boards (simply because the virtual population would have been gossipping about it) but didn't feel like I was the one who should do it (since I didn't know the facts and it wasn't my plot).

I tend to think that unless you paid someone reliable to make an announcement (like if you're doing some hiring and have minions who would spread that word), then your rumor board posts probably should not contain a lot of details, should maybe contain contradictory opinions, and don't need to include a lot of facts.  Just those facts a lot of people would be talking about.

[Talia]

What kind of news/current events in a civilization center justify a board post?  Who should write them? Should I write them if no one else does, or is this something staff should do?

This got answered up thread too, but if there's something going on region-wide that PCs should know something about, and there's not a rumor post up already, then go ahead and post one. Sometimes staff forget to do it or get busy with doing other stuff. Optionally, you can always put in a request with clan staff for the region to ask them to put a rumor up if you think that's been missed.

Looking over the Allanak board, there are quite a few rumors from the past 6 months about significant things that have happened in the city.

If PCs want to know more about what is going on, they can always buddy up to nobles and templars and even GMH family? Heck, Byn Sergeants tend to get involved in regional plots as well.