Post by Genki Ogawa on Jun 5, 2018 22:33:04 GMT -5
The Storytelling Update
In days long since gone, Bleach Gotei had a large block of 'powerful' characters who were all in a fairly competitive band of comparative power. Their numbers were far from perfectly balanced but one thing they were able to do was to use their weight to drive action around them and between factions in our setting, allow players at far different levels of power to work off of the action going on around them and under a uniting narrative to make progress in their character's story. Obvious the Bleach Gotei of today is not that same place. Many of those folks who wrote here years ago have moved on to other challenges and adventures in their lives but the spirit they fostered still dwells here and we would like to empower you to help take advantage of it.
So to that end and In conjunction with the NPC Update published earlier this week, we are pleased to announce that we'll be returning to some of our more tried and true storytelling roots. We have designed an initiative to take advantage of the lessons we have learned along the way as well as the new landscape that we will all be taking advantage of to tell stories with a little more structure and a little wider appeal. "The Storytelling Update" is a system of short story vignettes or short story narrative arcs that will be spurred to life by characters from the fabric of our setting and are designed to funnel action through player characters.
The simple explanation is that NPC's will be brought to life with short-form applications similar to the example of Cherish in Failure's post . Staff will announce the Story Arc in the metagame board for that NPC, which includes a plan for a number of threads with a specific purpose, and then open up sign-ups, Some of these arcs will be made with the hope that players thwart an evil person's aims, and some of them will be made with the hope that the players involved are thrown into doubt by the questions raised in the threads. Perhaps an example will suffice. Please kind in mind that this is a PURELY theoretical example.
============================
The Staff makes an announcement in Metagame about a new Vignette.
One of the Espada has figured out how to extract and distill the tainted essence of a Vaizard and turn it into a weapon. He has begun attacking spiritually gifted targets on Earth in an attempt to see the effects on Fullbringers of exposure to this toxin, and in hopes that he can lure a Shinigami into the open and perhaps compel their turn to a Vaizard.
Additional details include the short-form application of the NPC Espada, as well as a short block "planned threads" open for sign up.
Such a list of threads may be worded vaguely like "1. Intro -- Fullbringer under 150 Reiatsu requested". This list of threads could be as short as 2 or 3, or maybe something far more substantial like 9 or 10. It is possible that some threads in each vignette might include an intended rematch or second meeting from earlier in the arc.
The declaration will also include primary themes and roles for the NPC. In the above case, the NPC is an antagonist in the classically 'evil' sense, and your PC can interact with that in whatever way befits them. Maybe you'll give them data in exchange for your freedom, maybe you'll offer another test subject, maybe you'll defy them and try to end their madness right then and there. The choice is yours! Any NPC can be beaten at any time in typical Shounen fashion...but that doesn't mean it'll be a cakewalk!
===========================
For the sake of driving these events along and keeping participation, interest, and results flowing these threads will forgo our usual Word Count GP calculation and instead award only a flat amount of GP for completing. In the event that any part of the vignette goes incomplete from an inactive thread participant, we'll simply move on to the next phase of the arc and fill in a summary of what happened that does not make the inactive character necessarily unplayable.
At the start of this process, NPC's in these vignettes will be played via a Staff Account and maintained by staff. However, in the future, reliable posters may absolutely submit their own narrative arcs and take their own turn at running NPC vignettes from the same position of canon and authority that staff would use. Look forward to the 'phase 2' update for this in the future, pending program adoption/success.
Please see our discussion thread for additional questions.
In days long since gone, Bleach Gotei had a large block of 'powerful' characters who were all in a fairly competitive band of comparative power. Their numbers were far from perfectly balanced but one thing they were able to do was to use their weight to drive action around them and between factions in our setting, allow players at far different levels of power to work off of the action going on around them and under a uniting narrative to make progress in their character's story. Obvious the Bleach Gotei of today is not that same place. Many of those folks who wrote here years ago have moved on to other challenges and adventures in their lives but the spirit they fostered still dwells here and we would like to empower you to help take advantage of it.
So to that end and In conjunction with the NPC Update published earlier this week, we are pleased to announce that we'll be returning to some of our more tried and true storytelling roots. We have designed an initiative to take advantage of the lessons we have learned along the way as well as the new landscape that we will all be taking advantage of to tell stories with a little more structure and a little wider appeal. "The Storytelling Update" is a system of short story vignettes or short story narrative arcs that will be spurred to life by characters from the fabric of our setting and are designed to funnel action through player characters.
The simple explanation is that NPC's will be brought to life with short-form applications similar to the example of Cherish in Failure's post . Staff will announce the Story Arc in the metagame board for that NPC, which includes a plan for a number of threads with a specific purpose, and then open up sign-ups, Some of these arcs will be made with the hope that players thwart an evil person's aims, and some of them will be made with the hope that the players involved are thrown into doubt by the questions raised in the threads. Perhaps an example will suffice. Please kind in mind that this is a PURELY theoretical example.
============================
The Staff makes an announcement in Metagame about a new Vignette.
One of the Espada has figured out how to extract and distill the tainted essence of a Vaizard and turn it into a weapon. He has begun attacking spiritually gifted targets on Earth in an attempt to see the effects on Fullbringers of exposure to this toxin, and in hopes that he can lure a Shinigami into the open and perhaps compel their turn to a Vaizard.
Additional details include the short-form application of the NPC Espada, as well as a short block "planned threads" open for sign up.
Such a list of threads may be worded vaguely like "1. Intro -- Fullbringer under 150 Reiatsu requested". This list of threads could be as short as 2 or 3, or maybe something far more substantial like 9 or 10. It is possible that some threads in each vignette might include an intended rematch or second meeting from earlier in the arc.
The declaration will also include primary themes and roles for the NPC. In the above case, the NPC is an antagonist in the classically 'evil' sense, and your PC can interact with that in whatever way befits them. Maybe you'll give them data in exchange for your freedom, maybe you'll offer another test subject, maybe you'll defy them and try to end their madness right then and there. The choice is yours! Any NPC can be beaten at any time in typical Shounen fashion...but that doesn't mean it'll be a cakewalk!
===========================
For the sake of driving these events along and keeping participation, interest, and results flowing these threads will forgo our usual Word Count GP calculation and instead award only a flat amount of GP for completing. In the event that any part of the vignette goes incomplete from an inactive thread participant, we'll simply move on to the next phase of the arc and fill in a summary of what happened that does not make the inactive character necessarily unplayable.
At the start of this process, NPC's in these vignettes will be played via a Staff Account and maintained by staff. However, in the future, reliable posters may absolutely submit their own narrative arcs and take their own turn at running NPC vignettes from the same position of canon and authority that staff would use. Look forward to the 'phase 2' update for this in the future, pending program adoption/success.
Please see our discussion thread for additional questions.