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Old 08-12-2003, 01:37 PM   #73
Sophia the Thunder Mistress
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It’s been a while since this thread has been active, and I think it’s probably been open longer than it was intended to run for. But this is good, because I now have found my feet in the Downs RP system, and have had a chance to step back and look at the system as a whole. I’ve looked about a lot, I post in games in the Shire, and at the inn in Rohan and I’ve also read much of what goes on in all three forums.

This is what I’ve observed: a bustling and smooth running Shire, a struggling Rohan, and a largely empty Gondor.

I realize that the purpose of Gondor has been discussed ad infinitum on this thread already, and that it is fully intended to be the most slow moving of the three, but seeing a total of one new game open during the course of my half-year of gaming is not encouraging. The purpose of the levels (in my opinion) ought to be to encourage improvement and upward movement among the members. This is not what I see happening. What I have seen, in my half-year of gaming on the Downs, is vast improvement in my own writing, and in the writing of the majority of the Downers with whom I have gamed.

However, this hasn’t contributed to a sort of mass migration to Rohan where my “generation” so to speak, moves upward and leaves the Shire to a new batch of baby-gamers, perhaps paying a few visits back to help the newer players learn. What has happened instead is that the overall skill level of the Shire has gone up. The games which are being started now (including my own) are of a much higher complexity level than the ones that I was playing in when I first began. I can imagine that most of the maturing writers are feeling a little frustration with the (intentionally) beginner oriented standards of their playing environment, and as a result the games have become much less beginner friendly. In fact, gamers that had previously been playing in Rohan are coming to the Shire looking for well plotted games. This seems somehow off kilter.

Why aren’t we moving on to game in Rohan? Bethberry’s recent revision of the White Horse Inn has been a huge success, becoming overnight one of the most well written threads in the RPG section. Why aren’t we building our games there as well, crafting stories there where the standards are a little higher, and we don’t need to worry about taking on a few newbies to even out the playing field?

Here’s what I think. 1) The gamers in the Shire are abundant. There are always enough people looking to take on another game that we can feel confident about filling our rosters. All the action is in the Shire right now, “go where the players are” seems to be the mindset.

2) The new requirements of gaming in Rohan (while understandably designed to up the standards of writing there) make it necessary for any aspiring Rohan gamer to lead a game in the Shire. These gamers are people who are wanting to move on to Rohan because they are tired of gaming at the Shire level and want to move upward. They don’t want to play in another Shire-level game, much less run one. Therefore the game they start might be Rohan-level (my own included, though I didn’t realize this until well after it started).

***I don’t have any realistic suggestions for changing the standards, as anything that based movement on actual assessment of writing skill would make more work for our already overworked innkeepers and also put them at risk of accusations of bias. However, I think the idea of “running a game in the Shire” before moving to Rohan sets an unnecessary block in the way of mature writers and opens the way for less experienced (but more confident) writers who might still need time in the Shire.***

3) Many of us lack confidence and need a nudge out of the door. The mods might want to be on the lookout for this and encourage people to make the switch when it is time.

The inactivity of the Gondor Forum makes it an unattainable goal for most of us, I am more inclined to move forward if I have something achievable to reach for. Gondor isn’t this kind of a goal for the majority of the Downs RPers. While it needs to be fairly exclusive to maintain the high level of play (and freedom) that I have seen there, it also needs to be open for people who honestly want to work toward those standards. While the people currently on the list of founders decidedly deserve their positions on the list, they are (as Mithadan pointed out), some of the busiest among us, and therefore don’t have the time to lead new games. I believe there are other gamers currently playing at the Downs (many in the Shire, unfortunately) who could maintain the standard of play in Gondor, but who can’t get there, simply because there isn’t a game to prove themselves in. At present there isn’t even an inn that is active in which to test the waters. I think that making Gondor an attainable goal would encourage more gamers to leave the Shire and help make the three-forum setup what it was intended to be.

Sophia

Note: I have been slightly concerned about posting this, lest it be taken as a long string of criticism without any attempt at finding solutions. That isn’t how I intended it to seem at all, but to avoid making my post too long to read and follow, this post is really just the first few “cars” in a long train of thought on the subject.
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The seasons fall like silver swords, the years rush ever onward; and soon I sail, to leave this world, these lands where I have wander'd. O Elbereth! O Queen who dwells beyond the Western Seas, spare me yet a little time 'ere white ships come for me!
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