Crimes Against Nature Post-Mortem
As with The Scales in the Sands, this is an analysis of what I think worked particularly well about the plot over the past six months, as well as some thoughts on where to proceed in the future.
A brief overview: My original plan for this plot involved expanding on the number of opponents who could stand toe-to-toe with the players after dealing with the problem of large, single bosses being very easy to beat for a savvy group in Scales. The plan was to have the twelve prisoners as a regular threat, each posing an individual challenge, and each death slowly revealing the corruption of the real villain, to lead to a climactic boss-fight.
I estimated it would take about three months.
Since all involved know how off-base almost everything in my projections turned out to be, let's look at what worked.
Strengths
Theme:Â The concept of taking a closer look at the problems inherent in Gridanian governance - specifically that it used to be based on some pretty brutal suppression of groups marked as outsiders as recently as a generation ago, and that it is based around a kind of living child sacrifice - hit hard for a number of players, and generally everybody was sympathetic to at least one of the prisoners or O-Rehn Fahn with a few exceptions. Â It hit so hard that I hadn't considered the roleplayer capacity for mercy. That was part of what made the plot last so long - since nobody killed any prisoners, O-Rehn remained uncorrupted for longer. If even one had died earlier in the story, it would have taken a very different turn.
Flexibility: The above necessitates discussing another element: This story could have been very different, insofar as it was "scripted." My plans for it presumed what would happen if characters killed NPC X or Y, but did not rely on them for the plot to continue. There are notes for events written up that either never came to pass or played out differently. The dungeons were different based on the order in which they were tackled. There was a third dungeon that I'd never considered but everybody seemed eager to try, so why not write it up? As a general rule of advice for budding Fate-14 DMs, it's useful to not get too attached to a specific set of outcomes in order for the story to progress.
Co-DMs: Credit needs to be given to Nihka Mioni and Spahro Llorn for helping with this, addressing a problem I'd had with Scales. The two of them did a great job handling sideplots, and Nihka's storyline expanded into a mini-plot of its own. They were also extremely helpful for answering sheet questions, handling rules disputes, and introducing new players. I would be a wreck right now if it were not for their assistance.
Office Hours:Â Taking a cue from academia and setting specific office hours where I could answer questions about the rules or help people with adjusting their sheets lightened my workload considerably as DM. Prior to that, I would field questions from players nearly constantly, and while I can't fault the enthusiasm, it did mean it was my main activity whenever I logged on. If you plan to DM and manage a larger storyline of your own, I highly recommend this.
Weaknesses
Too Many Hooks (Too Many Hooks . . . ): While having a lot of prisoners and the mystery of how they got out and where they came from gave many, many opportunities for players to get involved early in the plot, there were so many different angles to consider that I couldn't give appropriate attention to all of them, and could easily have shaved several. Some of these hooks were not developed through player choice: Hamond Wolfedge, the Ala Mhigan monk from before Theodric's rise to power, was largely ignored. Others were present, but weren't well-developed due to lack of time. In particular, I think I could have cut out Pelderain Dornier, the Duskwight quack, and the Horse Oil plot at large without affecting the overall storyline.Â
Information Sharing: In Scales, one of the things I liked about the plot was that small event sizes required players to RP out of events in order to pool information and come up with plans of action. Crimes has shown me the downside of that in what happens when players won't pool information. There were several instances where players were at an impasse because their characters, for legitimate in-character reasons, did not trust each other and wouldn't share information they'd gained. This was another cause of the plot's length because it could lead to OOC delays as people argued over whether they should be working together or not, and I was not a fan of using the Fate-14 system to compel people to talk to each other. In future storylines I'll need to find some means for players to communicate effectively on the OOC level without compromising what they feel they would do in-character.
Kidnapping Nihka Mioni:Â I need to qualify this by saying that I feel the kidnapping was the correct move for the plot as a whole. We had telegraphed the possibility of it at several points throughout the storyline by including her kidnapper from very early in the plot, and several people were aware it was a possibility. The resolution of the kidnapping also tied into the themes of the plot mentioned above, and primed some characters to be in a very dangerous mental state when they confronted Neruhm.
That said, the practical act of managing the kidnapping was messy because many people were very invested in finding her as soon as possible, which made the larger storyline grind to a halt for a week or two. and in part because there was a conflict between what people were trying to do to find the character and what Nihka and I had deemed plausible methods. I found myself in a position where people were getting angry because their actions were not producing results, but I was unwilling to compromise on the difficulty of trying to find her based on the means described. It led to a lot of frustration on all sides, and I will be much more careful about attempting any plot development of such nature in future storylines.
What's Next?
For me, a break.
I've been tinkering with the Fate-14 system for a year and a half. In that time I've run four storylines - two while I was testing out the basic system in Harbingers of Dawn and two more on my own, here in the forums. In that time a lot of people have taken interest, the popularity of the system has expanded enough that I know of at least one FC using a version of it for their own storylines, and other members of the Roll Eorzea linkshell are already planning new stories in the wake of Crimes' ending.
In that time I've experienced the problem everybody who spends most of their time DMing experiences - the inability to play my own character. I've been fine with this; Verad is a bit player in the world, and I'm happy to take a backseat IC while other people do bigger things. But I'd like to get back to playing him and a few alts in earnest.
To that end, I'm going to be stepping down from managing the Roll Eorzea linkshell in favor of other members as significant staff. The Fate-14 rules are finished with the single document Fate-14 Complete, and that will replace the document links in the linkshell's page. The only other document I will be adding is a bestiary of common Eorzean critters for ease of DM use.Â
It's been a pleasure running storylines for everyone; no doubt in the future I will get the itch again. I cannot thank the RPC and Balmung community enough for taking so much of an interest in these plots that the system could grow the way it did. It's yours, now. Please look forward to it.
As with The Scales in the Sands, this is an analysis of what I think worked particularly well about the plot over the past six months, as well as some thoughts on where to proceed in the future.
A brief overview: My original plan for this plot involved expanding on the number of opponents who could stand toe-to-toe with the players after dealing with the problem of large, single bosses being very easy to beat for a savvy group in Scales. The plan was to have the twelve prisoners as a regular threat, each posing an individual challenge, and each death slowly revealing the corruption of the real villain, to lead to a climactic boss-fight.
I estimated it would take about three months.
Since all involved know how off-base almost everything in my projections turned out to be, let's look at what worked.
Strengths
Theme:Â The concept of taking a closer look at the problems inherent in Gridanian governance - specifically that it used to be based on some pretty brutal suppression of groups marked as outsiders as recently as a generation ago, and that it is based around a kind of living child sacrifice - hit hard for a number of players, and generally everybody was sympathetic to at least one of the prisoners or O-Rehn Fahn with a few exceptions. Â It hit so hard that I hadn't considered the roleplayer capacity for mercy. That was part of what made the plot last so long - since nobody killed any prisoners, O-Rehn remained uncorrupted for longer. If even one had died earlier in the story, it would have taken a very different turn.
Flexibility: The above necessitates discussing another element: This story could have been very different, insofar as it was "scripted." My plans for it presumed what would happen if characters killed NPC X or Y, but did not rely on them for the plot to continue. There are notes for events written up that either never came to pass or played out differently. The dungeons were different based on the order in which they were tackled. There was a third dungeon that I'd never considered but everybody seemed eager to try, so why not write it up? As a general rule of advice for budding Fate-14 DMs, it's useful to not get too attached to a specific set of outcomes in order for the story to progress.
Co-DMs: Credit needs to be given to Nihka Mioni and Spahro Llorn for helping with this, addressing a problem I'd had with Scales. The two of them did a great job handling sideplots, and Nihka's storyline expanded into a mini-plot of its own. They were also extremely helpful for answering sheet questions, handling rules disputes, and introducing new players. I would be a wreck right now if it were not for their assistance.
Office Hours:Â Taking a cue from academia and setting specific office hours where I could answer questions about the rules or help people with adjusting their sheets lightened my workload considerably as DM. Prior to that, I would field questions from players nearly constantly, and while I can't fault the enthusiasm, it did mean it was my main activity whenever I logged on. If you plan to DM and manage a larger storyline of your own, I highly recommend this.
Weaknesses
Too Many Hooks (Too Many Hooks . . . ): While having a lot of prisoners and the mystery of how they got out and where they came from gave many, many opportunities for players to get involved early in the plot, there were so many different angles to consider that I couldn't give appropriate attention to all of them, and could easily have shaved several. Some of these hooks were not developed through player choice: Hamond Wolfedge, the Ala Mhigan monk from before Theodric's rise to power, was largely ignored. Others were present, but weren't well-developed due to lack of time. In particular, I think I could have cut out Pelderain Dornier, the Duskwight quack, and the Horse Oil plot at large without affecting the overall storyline.Â
Information Sharing: In Scales, one of the things I liked about the plot was that small event sizes required players to RP out of events in order to pool information and come up with plans of action. Crimes has shown me the downside of that in what happens when players won't pool information. There were several instances where players were at an impasse because their characters, for legitimate in-character reasons, did not trust each other and wouldn't share information they'd gained. This was another cause of the plot's length because it could lead to OOC delays as people argued over whether they should be working together or not, and I was not a fan of using the Fate-14 system to compel people to talk to each other. In future storylines I'll need to find some means for players to communicate effectively on the OOC level without compromising what they feel they would do in-character.
Kidnapping Nihka Mioni:Â I need to qualify this by saying that I feel the kidnapping was the correct move for the plot as a whole. We had telegraphed the possibility of it at several points throughout the storyline by including her kidnapper from very early in the plot, and several people were aware it was a possibility. The resolution of the kidnapping also tied into the themes of the plot mentioned above, and primed some characters to be in a very dangerous mental state when they confronted Neruhm.
That said, the practical act of managing the kidnapping was messy because many people were very invested in finding her as soon as possible, which made the larger storyline grind to a halt for a week or two. and in part because there was a conflict between what people were trying to do to find the character and what Nihka and I had deemed plausible methods. I found myself in a position where people were getting angry because their actions were not producing results, but I was unwilling to compromise on the difficulty of trying to find her based on the means described. It led to a lot of frustration on all sides, and I will be much more careful about attempting any plot development of such nature in future storylines.
What's Next?
For me, a break.
I've been tinkering with the Fate-14 system for a year and a half. In that time I've run four storylines - two while I was testing out the basic system in Harbingers of Dawn and two more on my own, here in the forums. In that time a lot of people have taken interest, the popularity of the system has expanded enough that I know of at least one FC using a version of it for their own storylines, and other members of the Roll Eorzea linkshell are already planning new stories in the wake of Crimes' ending.
In that time I've experienced the problem everybody who spends most of their time DMing experiences - the inability to play my own character. I've been fine with this; Verad is a bit player in the world, and I'm happy to take a backseat IC while other people do bigger things. But I'd like to get back to playing him and a few alts in earnest.
To that end, I'm going to be stepping down from managing the Roll Eorzea linkshell in favor of other members as significant staff. The Fate-14 rules are finished with the single document Fate-14 Complete, and that will replace the document links in the linkshell's page. The only other document I will be adding is a bestiary of common Eorzean critters for ease of DM use.Â
It's been a pleasure running storylines for everyone; no doubt in the future I will get the itch again. I cannot thank the RPC and Balmung community enough for taking so much of an interest in these plots that the system could grow the way it did. It's yours, now. Please look forward to it.
Verad Bellveil's Profile | The Case of the Ransacked Rug | Verad's Fate Sheet
Current Fate-14 Storyline:Â Merchant, Marine
Current Fate-14 Storyline:Â Merchant, Marine
