04-21-2014, 09:45 AM
Arete should be increasingly rare the higher up the mountain a character climbs toward enlightenment. It should be very difficult to do so. This is kind of like deciding to not keep score in the tee ball game equivalent of the Ascension War. That's just my gut reactions and I usually follow my gut (to the buffet line).
And all of our player characters? Are not special snowflakes any more than they are unique in relation to the next and should not be any more or less likely to do it because we think they can. It should take collaborative effort and activity that shows dedication to the game, the character, and the other players. If you enjoy roleplaying? I think that you will agree that effort will make it hard and fun.
An XP system objectively (to a point, as requests for XP are approved by our Admin) quantifies this advancement (and all advancement) based on in character activity. Activity already includes supplemental awards from forum posts and character development notes, as well as kudos from other players, along with the regular awards for actually playing the character in scenes that are or aren't storyteller run.
I think that it shouldn't be easy (or even possible) for a PC whose player hasn't brought the character out many times to be able to send in a journal once a month with a scene or two noted and eventually get a seeking.
It's not that I don't think our Admin isn't capable of wielding that magnifying glass and making that kind of decision when such a player comes to him asking for a seeking for his PC; I think he shouldn't have to. Not when there is already a system in place that has allowed multiple PCs to move toward a Seeking and get that increased flex in their Enlightenment muscle.
(Enlightenment Mussel is the name of my psychedelic Cold War era Beatles cover band.)
Is the Arete system extremely expensive? Yes. Maybe we should consider making it less expensive (closer to raising an Attribute) rather than making it completely subjective? In a way that still leads to it being exponentially (not mathematically speaking, but you get what I mean) harder to climb that Nietzschean mountain? I don't know; I kind of like where it's at now and I'm looking for alternatives to what I see as an option that completely rehauls a system I don't think is broken.
Finally, whichever way this ends up going, I completely trust Samael to be able to maintain the balance he has already established in the system. Yes, I realize that he's the one who brought up this question and if he wasn't willing to have to deal with the repercussions he wouldn't have, but whatever. I'm saying it anyway: I just also don't think he should have to be the hard ass that says, "No Seeking for you," and dealing with the very rare player on our wonderful site who may not be able to deal with that.
And all of our player characters? Are not special snowflakes any more than they are unique in relation to the next and should not be any more or less likely to do it because we think they can. It should take collaborative effort and activity that shows dedication to the game, the character, and the other players. If you enjoy roleplaying? I think that you will agree that effort will make it hard and fun.
An XP system objectively (to a point, as requests for XP are approved by our Admin) quantifies this advancement (and all advancement) based on in character activity. Activity already includes supplemental awards from forum posts and character development notes, as well as kudos from other players, along with the regular awards for actually playing the character in scenes that are or aren't storyteller run.
I think that it shouldn't be easy (or even possible) for a PC whose player hasn't brought the character out many times to be able to send in a journal once a month with a scene or two noted and eventually get a seeking.
It's not that I don't think our Admin isn't capable of wielding that magnifying glass and making that kind of decision when such a player comes to him asking for a seeking for his PC; I think he shouldn't have to. Not when there is already a system in place that has allowed multiple PCs to move toward a Seeking and get that increased flex in their Enlightenment muscle.
(Enlightenment Mussel is the name of my psychedelic Cold War era Beatles cover band.)
Is the Arete system extremely expensive? Yes. Maybe we should consider making it less expensive (closer to raising an Attribute) rather than making it completely subjective? In a way that still leads to it being exponentially (not mathematically speaking, but you get what I mean) harder to climb that Nietzschean mountain? I don't know; I kind of like where it's at now and I'm looking for alternatives to what I see as an option that completely rehauls a system I don't think is broken.
Finally, whichever way this ends up going, I completely trust Samael to be able to maintain the balance he has already established in the system. Yes, I realize that he's the one who brought up this question and if he wasn't willing to have to deal with the repercussions he wouldn't have, but whatever. I'm saying it anyway: I just also don't think he should have to be the hard ass that says, "No Seeking for you," and dealing with the very rare player on our wonderful site who may not be able to deal with that.