(MUCK) Possible Venue
So I understand the setting under consideration at the moment is the trade city of Threshold, five years down the line...
I think that's an improvement, but doesn't solve the major issues in my mind. And the city, as presented, seems a little off in my mind. I think people are clinging to the old Threshold and ignoring thirty to forty years of Drachen control.
I have trouble envisioning a "tent city" outside the walls. I mean, given how far north the city is placed, that wouldn't likely survive a winter, much less many. And I doubt Dove would be willing or able to ignore things for that long. I could see public longhouses, at least, but more likely an effort to get people settled there and elsewhere.
The city also wouldn't be quite the might/wealth-makes-right place it once was. After all, the big players behind that were murdered before it was handed over. It would, however, be a good bit less strictly lawful than the Shire. There's room for a criminal element of petty crime and power players. As long as you don't plot against the crown or to the serious detriment of the land, it's unlikely anyone will bust down your door in the middle of the night with a mental can opener to steal your plans and leave you a mindless husk of a warning. The laws would probably be a little less strict than the Shire's in most cases, and the city watch isn't divinely empowered or obliged. So that's all probably better - in terms of allowing creative room for conflict and story.
It's... closer to unsettled lands, but it's not quite as close as some seem to present. The Northern Wilds are still roughly 150 miles west, over a mountain range, and through land guarded by Drachen. That's a bit more than a day hike, even if you take a ship around the coast. And it would be rare that Threshold itself would actually be in danger or see "wandering monsters." I think most of that would be stopped by posts in the mountain passes. So this too makes threat a little closer, which is probably better for plot possibilities, but it still takes some effort to get outside of civilization.
As far as I remember, it's primarily Arin. So there's less of the Joshuite influence that some people dislike. And there's very little Naipon influence, if any. I don't specifically recall and of the Brotherhood/Sisterhood, though it wouldn't be surprising to have some there. Overall, it seems to me fairly mono-religious. I'm not sure if that's good or bad.
Five years means current characters are still playable, and offspring probably aren't yet. I guess that keeps a certain element happy, but it doesn't change much. Current super-characters are still around to overshadow the new ones.
But that's a problem no matter where you play. Time itself doesn't even fix that, because most really powerful characters are virtually unaging. Ultimately, you'll have to find some measure of balance with the rules system, but without a fundamental shift in the setting, that can't happen. Right now, the game world is built around certain assumptions that make it impossible to narrow the difference between old and new characters.
Example of said assumptions:
Truth 1: Dragons are really powerful, they don't have the same limits as normal mundane characters. They're stronger, faster, rawr...
Truth 2: Players can (usually not initially, but through events they may not even be after) play true dragons.
Result: Dragon Character A will, and is expected to, wipe the floor with Normal Character B.
You could replace "dragon" with any number of other things. Mage (in fact, the difference between mage versus non-mage tends to be bigger than physical variance). God. Whatever.
One of the biggest complaints about difficulties running things on Faire has been that experienced, supernatural, powerful characters so grossly overshadow normal noobs that there's nothing for the new characters to do if they're together. Well, as long as the world allows characters to attain such heights, this will continue to be a problem. Even if you find a way to fix it just in the rules, you have rules that are out of synch with the defined reality of the setting. Either the issue has to be embraced and worked with/around (I don't know how), or something needs to change in the setting as a whole before this can be fixed.
My general thought is that the upper end of what is "PC-playable" needs to be brought down. But not everyone agrees with that.
I think that's an improvement, but doesn't solve the major issues in my mind. And the city, as presented, seems a little off in my mind. I think people are clinging to the old Threshold and ignoring thirty to forty years of Drachen control.
I have trouble envisioning a "tent city" outside the walls. I mean, given how far north the city is placed, that wouldn't likely survive a winter, much less many. And I doubt Dove would be willing or able to ignore things for that long. I could see public longhouses, at least, but more likely an effort to get people settled there and elsewhere.
The city also wouldn't be quite the might/wealth-makes-right place it once was. After all, the big players behind that were murdered before it was handed over. It would, however, be a good bit less strictly lawful than the Shire. There's room for a criminal element of petty crime and power players. As long as you don't plot against the crown or to the serious detriment of the land, it's unlikely anyone will bust down your door in the middle of the night with a mental can opener to steal your plans and leave you a mindless husk of a warning. The laws would probably be a little less strict than the Shire's in most cases, and the city watch isn't divinely empowered or obliged. So that's all probably better - in terms of allowing creative room for conflict and story.
It's... closer to unsettled lands, but it's not quite as close as some seem to present. The Northern Wilds are still roughly 150 miles west, over a mountain range, and through land guarded by Drachen. That's a bit more than a day hike, even if you take a ship around the coast. And it would be rare that Threshold itself would actually be in danger or see "wandering monsters." I think most of that would be stopped by posts in the mountain passes. So this too makes threat a little closer, which is probably better for plot possibilities, but it still takes some effort to get outside of civilization.
As far as I remember, it's primarily Arin. So there's less of the Joshuite influence that some people dislike. And there's very little Naipon influence, if any. I don't specifically recall and of the Brotherhood/Sisterhood, though it wouldn't be surprising to have some there. Overall, it seems to me fairly mono-religious. I'm not sure if that's good or bad.
Five years means current characters are still playable, and offspring probably aren't yet. I guess that keeps a certain element happy, but it doesn't change much. Current super-characters are still around to overshadow the new ones.
But that's a problem no matter where you play. Time itself doesn't even fix that, because most really powerful characters are virtually unaging. Ultimately, you'll have to find some measure of balance with the rules system, but without a fundamental shift in the setting, that can't happen. Right now, the game world is built around certain assumptions that make it impossible to narrow the difference between old and new characters.
Example of said assumptions:
Truth 1: Dragons are really powerful, they don't have the same limits as normal mundane characters. They're stronger, faster, rawr...
Truth 2: Players can (usually not initially, but through events they may not even be after) play true dragons.
Result: Dragon Character A will, and is expected to, wipe the floor with Normal Character B.
You could replace "dragon" with any number of other things. Mage (in fact, the difference between mage versus non-mage tends to be bigger than physical variance). God. Whatever.
One of the biggest complaints about difficulties running things on Faire has been that experienced, supernatural, powerful characters so grossly overshadow normal noobs that there's nothing for the new characters to do if they're together. Well, as long as the world allows characters to attain such heights, this will continue to be a problem. Even if you find a way to fix it just in the rules, you have rules that are out of synch with the defined reality of the setting. Either the issue has to be embraced and worked with/around (I don't know how), or something needs to change in the setting as a whole before this can be fixed.
My general thought is that the upper end of what is "PC-playable" needs to be brought down. But not everyone agrees with that.
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