Penny Dreadful MUSH is a game of Victorian supernatural horror, heroic adventure, and scientific romance using the True20 system. Players create intrepid adventurers of the late 19th century and, although based in London, pursue stories which take them to the farthest reaches of the globe (and beyond). Personalities from literary fiction exist in this setting alongside historical figures, and it is possible for veteran players to take on these literary fictions as characters of their own. Most stories are created by players who, acting as Narrators, guide a few of their fellow players through harrowing or amazing scenes to a dramatic climax (and rewards).
“Scientific romance” is the Victorian term for what we now call early science fiction, typified by the works of Jules Verne and HG Wells. Stories in this mode typically involve amazing inventions based on an understanding of physical laws different than our own, and can include travel to other planets, the discovery of Lost Worlds, or struggles against mad geniuses who seek to use their new inventions to terrorize mankind. The technology of the Scientific Romance often crosses over with the genre of heroic adventure in this “age of steam”; this style of story emphasizes swashbuckling melodrama, True Love, dastardly archfoes, and dashing heroes. Finally, the powers of magic and mysticism are explored by real groups like the Golden Dawn, by spiritualists and mediums, and in fiction that portrays awful monstrosities, the living dead, or Things Which Should Not Be.
No specific date is set for stories in Penny Dreadful MUSH. Instead, the setting is “Timeless Victoriana”, encompassing the second half of the 19th century. Some major events are definitively in the past (the American Civil War, for example) while others have yet to occur (the Martian Invasion), but by avoiding a specific date we allow literary and historical figures from throughout the period to appear as protagonists, supporting characters, or foes. The players are based in London but travel frequently throughout genteel Europe, to the rough and tumble Americas, the exotic Orient, the Dark Continent of Africa, the inhospitable poles, and even through space to the Moon, Venus, or Mars.
Characters can take many forms, but are at least nominally action-worthy. Supernatural and psychic talents exist and can be explored by those of intrepid spirit and keen mind. Military careers are common in a time of aggressive colonialism and new, ever more dangerous, weapons. Inventors can develop amazing engines encompassing everything from hand-held weaponry to fantastic vehicles. Many new inventions have already become fairly common in the setting of Penny Dreadful, and are available to adventurers with the resources (or pluck) to acquire them. (Player inventors can add their own patents to this catalog, ensuring their fortune and everlasting fame.) Limited super-human characteristics can appear in characters, but will be narrowly defined and single-purpose. Non-human characters (animals surgically altered to human shape, re-animated corpses , mechanical men) are rare but extant, and generally not as competent as ordinary mortals. After playing Penny Dreadful for a time, players have the option to apply for a literary character from the period; these characters are created using Mutants and Masterminds. They do not rise in skill or competence once created and players who have them are expected to act as Narrators, creating stories for other players to enjoy. The primary way most players interact with literary charactes from the period is when these characters appear in stories as non-player villains.
While some stories are designed and Narrated by Penny Dreadful’s staff, this is not the emphasis of the game. (Staff Narrators exist to ensure a minimum level of activity on the game, and their stories are differentiated not by scope or setting-impact but by access to secrets not known to the general player base.) Instead, effort is made to provide a large toolbox of antagonists, rewards, and story guidelines which make it easy for players to create and narrate stories for their fellow players. These stories require approval from an experienced Narrator, who checks to ensure the antagonists and rewards are appropriate to the level of the player characters. Once complete, the story is posted in a public place, and it becomes a part of the ever-growing world of Penny Dreadful MUSH.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
12 comments:
The draft itself looks pretty good, and encapsulates a lot of the wonder and breadth of the setting. I would go even further with stating that staff aren't the center of the plotting universe, perhaps--but I also wouldn't mind if a player ran the Martian Invasion when the time came, or at least served as lead for it, provided they could lay out a good plan and stats for making such happen.
If staff just ran everything they did as PrPs and didn't differentiate, that might help defray some of the 'staff scene' mystique. Some plots are more epic than others, but labeling them 'staff plots' always frenzies up the competition, somehow.
I mean, I'd leap at and sink my teeth into any of Magik's plots forever, whether she was a staffer or not, but a lot of them are just villain-strikes with agendas running in the background; they don't usually affect whole cities or the world until later, if at all.
I totally appreciate the idea that staff plots should be judged on the same basis as non-staff plots; I understand there was some concern that player-plots were some sort of "second class citizen" on CC and/or CE, and there is a desire to avoid that.
But at the same time, I do sort of feel like I am one -- not the only, but one -- of the GMs on this game, and if all plots are run by players, and staff has no role in that ... what exactly am I GM of?
Perhaps there is some middle ground, or some way to emphasize the fact that staff plots and player plots face the same approval process. At the same time, someone on staff has to have authority over the game's overall story and "artistic vision." I'm not comfortable leaving the game's overall story arc to the blind forces of the marketplace.
Well, that is what I mean--let staff be the visible hand; they approve or deny, based on the clear-as-one-can-make-them guidelines, and make sure that there are not two Martian Invasions within the same week. Keep the calendar organized, so to speak, try to maintain something approaching quality control. Gatekeepers, more than GMs. The GMs are also the players, and as visible and active players one has influence in addition to being staff.
I suppose in this I don't see an overarching story. There is no Event, at least not yet, no hated-and-feared we must overcome. Unless we choose to design such a thing? Does mankind have an overall nemesis they must confront at a pivotal time in timeless history, the foe whose downfall allows civilization to truly climb free of the fetters of the past? Is it a foe more specific than ignorance?
Sorry for the melodramatic stylings; interesting concert evening, let's just put it that way.
Well, let's use your Martian example. In 15 days of war, the Martians destroy the city of London and evacuate it's millions of inhabitants. By the end of the novel, scientists have captured Martian flying machines and are learning how to replicate them.
I don't want players to be doing that! It would ruin the game. I don't know if the game has an overarcing story, but it may. We may just be too early to see it.
Well, that's the point of having plot applications--we wouldn't really want staff doing that either, unless the game had reached a critical point of inertia and we just wanted to shake things around a lot and/or close. If someone applied to blow up the moon, the answer can simply be 'No'.
If we reached a point where destroying and evacuating London and introducing the possibility of replicating Martian technology into the theme was workable, I wouldn't see a huge difference in letting a player propose it over a staffer, provided they could pass the same tests of scrutiny for stats/effects/followthrough and whatever else we'd need to examine.
Staff does and would have the prerogative to halt such ideas in their tracks if they started to ruin things, but letting players have a noticeable impact on the world is a good thing, I think. It just requires some different management.
In that sense perhaps any game metaplot is one that would be emergent based on Narrator actions, or perhaps 'Plot Staff' is something of a fluid position in my mind, as some people only have one large story in them, while others have lots of smaller ones which don't really need any special code flags.
What are you envisioning as staff-only roles or stories?
That's a fair question. I'm not sure how specific of an answer I can give, but I will try.
I'm a storyteller by nature. I do not know what form it will take, but I am pretty certain that as Penny's setting begins to take shape and we begin to make organizations, antagonists, and mysteries, some very large, campaign-wide stories will begin to take shape. These stories may be huge ("Martians Invade! World Helpless!") but they might also be simple unveilings ("Professor Moriarty is the head of British Secret Service!"). We had dozens of these stories built into Crucible when we launched it; many got developed (the Prince Primeval break-out), others did not (the truth behind the Event).
But these are the sorts of stories I see as being staff-run adventures. I don't necessarily think that those stories are more important than player stories; they differ not in their scope or world-transformative nature, but in the sense that they depend on elements of the setting which only the staff are privy to.
The ultimate difference between player Narrators and staff Narrators is one of stability. In principle, staff will stay around for the long haul while players can come and go without restriction. Some players may be as long-lived as any staff member, but they are not expected to be. Staff Narrators have a responsibility to run stories, and because they are long-term fixtures at the game table they can use their improved access to Penny's secrets in order to run stories no player could.
In general, I'm with occamsnailfile: I think MU*dom has been crying out for a game where player run plots are exactly as important as staff run plots.
At the same time, Prospero makes a very good point that there'll be plots only staff CAN do on account of information access that most of the players won't have.
But I don't think these two viewpoints are impossible to mesh together.
As long as we make sure that the players ARE able to change the world as much as staff, and as long as we make sure our staff bits ONLY run those plots based on mentioned non-player-acessible info (using our playerbits to run all other TPs just like anyone else) then we'll be golden.
In essence, I'd like us to take the step of trusting players. Not stupidly so (i.e we'll still approve plots etc), but I'd like to see a positive upwards circle of mutual trust and respect.
I think if we give them the tools and tell them to go to town (while still being around for support and approval/unapproval of the end product), we'll become an extremely popular game.
Note that it's not that I think Prospero doesn't trust players(!), but I think that a lot of MU*s do not. As such, if we take that extra step, we'll be viewed all the better in contrast with the pre-existing places.
I think in a roundabout way it'd also alleviate stress from staff, since official staff plots won't have that extra shine that they tend to. Ours might be based on that rare info, but that wouldn't mean they're more important. Which in turn means players won't feel jealous/threatened/excluded/other negative things.
In short: I think you're both right, and I think we should meld those visions together. For great justice!
I have no problem with allowing players to propose plots with a large scope (which can "change the world") and I have no objection to making staff who want to run plots submit their plots to review by other experienced narrators (the "gate keepers").
But I do think we need Plot Staff -- people whose job it is to run adventures when the players arent doing it, and I think the one advantage staff has when it comes to making stories is that they know things about the setting which the general player base does not.
Can that be agreed upon?
Absolutely. :D Besides, like mentioned on the MUX I think Plot Staff would also be the natural ones to approve/disapprove/help with PrPs.
Oh, by the way? I keep forgetting to say, but there's an unfortunate typo in the very last piece of this post.
'the story is posted in a pubic place' should be 'in a public place'. @.@
Late to this conversation, but I did want to add that an unfortunate side effect I noticed on CC was that when a player did want to work in a PrP involving 'unknown lore' that was only available to staff (Atlantis comes to mind) it was generally shot down. I think the important difference here should be that access to such would not be so verboten, but worked with in conjunction to 'what lore has been writ in stone'. Staff GMs aren't exclusive in their good ideas, after all.
I'm not disagreeing, but I'm not sure I understand. Do you mean ...
a) Staff should unveil secret setting info to players who want to run a plot that might involve that secret, or
b) Staff should be willing to incorporate setting stuff invented by players.
My only recollection of Atlantis on CC was that players in fact invented both it and Lemuria, so I guess my opinion is that I'm happy to welcome good ideas when they come across the bow...
Post a Comment