Post by Hazuki Tsukimiya on Dec 30, 2017 15:46:26 GMT -5
For a while now, we’ve been working behind the scenes in an effort to bring Bleach Gotei into the new year—and a new era. There are some pretty fundamental changes on BG’s horizon and I thought I’d take a moment to give you all an idea of some of the things that are on their way in this (very informal) announcement.
Setting
We have a setting problem on Bleach Gotei. It’s rooted primarily in the scope and inherent bias of the source material, and it doesn’t lend itself well to the intimacy of the interpersonal relationships we are trying to foster between our player characters. The setting is quite simply too large for our playerbase—always has been—and it is exacerbated by the natural tendency to gravitate toward certain races. The Gotei becomes a monolithic entity supported mostly by certain individuals and the idea of it being something larger than its constituent parts. In contrast, the Quincy are constantly at odds with one another, and the Arrancar are left leaderless, waiting for someone to take the reins and unite them. No matter what, however, there is an element of flux, of impermanence, that pervades these situations, and we are left with a feeling that these things will pass. We lack the motivation to do something about it.
So the problem is twofold: the Shinigami dwarf the other races, and the current situation is simply a passing blip on the radar. We have a solution. It’s not in BG’s nature to enforce racial quotas; we’re not going to prevent people from playing a Shinigami just to pad the Arrancar numbers. Instead, the approach we’re taking is less direct: to shatter the Shinigami image of an indestructible, all-powerful Gotei by introducing something that undermines that image and provides the basis for a fresh start.
Alongside a site-canon timeskip of a few years which will aid in cementing the current racial situations as something more than just temporary incidents, we will also be outlining the details of a lethal plague that has struck Seireitei, leaving the Shinigami population decimated and turning a once-flourishing fortress-city into a shadow of its former self. The idea is to humble the Shinigami identity—bringing it more in line with the other races—as well as provide the opportunity to tell a different kind of story as a Shinigami. The surviving player-character Shinigami will be free to rebuild Seireitei and the institutions it once housed, as the Arrancar and Quincy do the same in Hueco Mundo and on Earth.
Skills
Striking the proper balance between freedom of expression and a reliable system that can be used as a tool to resolve conflict is something we’ve cycled through a number of iterations of. The overbearing Dungeons and Dragons-style mechanics from 2013 and the more freestyle implementation have been either too complex or not complex enough. The main failing has been the inability to properly address the fact that quite simply put, not all skills are created equal.
In order to better reflect this, and to provide concrete benefits to the numerous racial skills that are integral to racial identity, we are introducing a new type of skill on Bleach Gotei: the minor skill. With only three ranks (one of which is counted as and priced equal to Mastery), we are better equipped to handle the implementation of skills that do not check against others in order to provide a benefit. In practical terms, we now have skills that compare to one another in order to produce a result and skills that provide an effect independent of others. The latter is what constitutes a minor skill, and we are in the process of converting skills that fit the bill, such as Hierro and Kaidō, into this new breed of skill by adding specific effects for each rank.
Continuity
Players coming and going has always posed a problem on BG given that certain positions carry with them certain influence. Captaincy is a good example of this, and until now the usual treatment has been to treat absentee players’ characters as simply disappearing, leading to in-character power vacuums that pressure characters who aren’t ready for the responsibility into positions they otherwise wouldn’t have to fill. To address this, we will be keeping characters whose players disappear in their original positions as NPCs, preserving the status quo until they can be replaced by worthy candidates among the active playerbase.
A mainstay of Bleach Gotei has been that anyone can rise to prominence and that in-character influence actually carries weight, and while that will remain true, certain conditions (related almost entirely to Total GP) will now need to be met in order to replace inactive player characters in positions of power. These criteria will be in place for no reason other than to ensure that in-character ranks maintain a certain level of gravitas—that Captains feel like Captains, and Espada feel like Espada.
Rule Revamp
There is a simply gargantuan amount of information that must be taken in and processed in order to participate on our site, and constant efforts are being made to ensure that this information is presented in a clear and logical way. To that end, some of the information will be moved around into what we hope will be a more accessible configuration for all, with a clearer separation between the "hard" rules, such as player mechanics in the form of stats, skills, checks, and the like, and "soft" rules, such as racial information and structure. It is vitally important that if players are going to be held to certain standards, those standards must be clear.
With all that said, I can’t give anyone any definitive dates at this time, but know that we are aiming for a January release. I’d be more than happy to answer any questions, so if you’re wondering about something, feel free to ask.
Setting
We have a setting problem on Bleach Gotei. It’s rooted primarily in the scope and inherent bias of the source material, and it doesn’t lend itself well to the intimacy of the interpersonal relationships we are trying to foster between our player characters. The setting is quite simply too large for our playerbase—always has been—and it is exacerbated by the natural tendency to gravitate toward certain races. The Gotei becomes a monolithic entity supported mostly by certain individuals and the idea of it being something larger than its constituent parts. In contrast, the Quincy are constantly at odds with one another, and the Arrancar are left leaderless, waiting for someone to take the reins and unite them. No matter what, however, there is an element of flux, of impermanence, that pervades these situations, and we are left with a feeling that these things will pass. We lack the motivation to do something about it.
So the problem is twofold: the Shinigami dwarf the other races, and the current situation is simply a passing blip on the radar. We have a solution. It’s not in BG’s nature to enforce racial quotas; we’re not going to prevent people from playing a Shinigami just to pad the Arrancar numbers. Instead, the approach we’re taking is less direct: to shatter the Shinigami image of an indestructible, all-powerful Gotei by introducing something that undermines that image and provides the basis for a fresh start.
Alongside a site-canon timeskip of a few years which will aid in cementing the current racial situations as something more than just temporary incidents, we will also be outlining the details of a lethal plague that has struck Seireitei, leaving the Shinigami population decimated and turning a once-flourishing fortress-city into a shadow of its former self. The idea is to humble the Shinigami identity—bringing it more in line with the other races—as well as provide the opportunity to tell a different kind of story as a Shinigami. The surviving player-character Shinigami will be free to rebuild Seireitei and the institutions it once housed, as the Arrancar and Quincy do the same in Hueco Mundo and on Earth.
Skills
Striking the proper balance between freedom of expression and a reliable system that can be used as a tool to resolve conflict is something we’ve cycled through a number of iterations of. The overbearing Dungeons and Dragons-style mechanics from 2013 and the more freestyle implementation have been either too complex or not complex enough. The main failing has been the inability to properly address the fact that quite simply put, not all skills are created equal.
In order to better reflect this, and to provide concrete benefits to the numerous racial skills that are integral to racial identity, we are introducing a new type of skill on Bleach Gotei: the minor skill. With only three ranks (one of which is counted as and priced equal to Mastery), we are better equipped to handle the implementation of skills that do not check against others in order to provide a benefit. In practical terms, we now have skills that compare to one another in order to produce a result and skills that provide an effect independent of others. The latter is what constitutes a minor skill, and we are in the process of converting skills that fit the bill, such as Hierro and Kaidō, into this new breed of skill by adding specific effects for each rank.
Continuity
Players coming and going has always posed a problem on BG given that certain positions carry with them certain influence. Captaincy is a good example of this, and until now the usual treatment has been to treat absentee players’ characters as simply disappearing, leading to in-character power vacuums that pressure characters who aren’t ready for the responsibility into positions they otherwise wouldn’t have to fill. To address this, we will be keeping characters whose players disappear in their original positions as NPCs, preserving the status quo until they can be replaced by worthy candidates among the active playerbase.
A mainstay of Bleach Gotei has been that anyone can rise to prominence and that in-character influence actually carries weight, and while that will remain true, certain conditions (related almost entirely to Total GP) will now need to be met in order to replace inactive player characters in positions of power. These criteria will be in place for no reason other than to ensure that in-character ranks maintain a certain level of gravitas—that Captains feel like Captains, and Espada feel like Espada.
Rule Revamp
There is a simply gargantuan amount of information that must be taken in and processed in order to participate on our site, and constant efforts are being made to ensure that this information is presented in a clear and logical way. To that end, some of the information will be moved around into what we hope will be a more accessible configuration for all, with a clearer separation between the "hard" rules, such as player mechanics in the form of stats, skills, checks, and the like, and "soft" rules, such as racial information and structure. It is vitally important that if players are going to be held to certain standards, those standards must be clear.
With all that said, I can’t give anyone any definitive dates at this time, but know that we are aiming for a January release. I’d be more than happy to answer any questions, so if you’re wondering about something, feel free to ask.
