TAG Talk Tuesdays – Sean
It’s Mat again, and we are here again for part two of our interview with our Plot Head Sean in this week’s edition of TAG Talk Tuesday!
Welcome back, Sean and thank you for once again taking some time to talk to us about your role as plot head. I would love to get more into your motivations and vision and maybe even get a little preview for what to expect this coming season!
Excited for another chance to talk, but I will say I can only reveal too much. Can’t give away all the secrets!
Haha, well it is worth a shot anyway! In any case, how about we start with what your vision was for the first year and how you think things went?
Absolutely! So, first off, while our first official season was last year, for me the vision I had began the year before that during Beta testing. From the very beginning we had hoped to establish the basics of the world of Arkrath, such as the rifts, as well as the basics of Shieldhaven, such as the council. Lastly, we wanted to show the players they really would have choices in the world and how it grows. One of the key opportunities we had was allowing the players to decide whom they would like to elect as the Magistrate for the area, and then allowing them to name the Outpost we adventure out of. There will be more opportunities for this in the future. We were really happy with how this all went over and players enjoyed this based on feedback, but there were still some difficulties we dealt with as well. Last year, we experimented with players working NPC shifts. Initially, we saw this would give everyone to PC at each event, but it ended up causing detriments to the structure of events and caused issues for me as a Plot Head.
What sort of difficulties did you have the first year with that were caused due to the NPC shifts? I did hear a bit about it being disjointed, but were there other things? And with us moving to plot rotations this year how has your vision for a weekend changed?
The main issue I faced was being unable to tell shift runners the full story of the weekend since they would have to go back out there to face it shortly thereafter. If we were going to be building to a big encounter at the end of the event, I couldn’t explain to players how we were going to get there and that caused confusion among the runners. I learned later that players did not understand that there were two orc tribes feuding which was causing a lot of the issues last year which I believe was a direct result of the NPC Shifts. Going forward, I can explain in depth to the players the game plan for the weekend and don’t have to worry about revealing too much. I hope players understand events far better going forward and the NPCs are not confused about their expectations.
One issue we had previously with Plot Rotations in other games was players that were on the rotation missed out on very important moments that shaped the world. I am going to do my utmost to ensure that this does not happen in this game. If something big comes up that I would like to see all of the players participate in, such as voting for something important, I will allow the players to step into the game for a little while to participate as their player characters. We have to understand that the players’ characters do still exist within the world even if they are not actively participating for a single event.
This kind of reminds me of how you handled the Ooze cavern last year. I was expecting to be NPCing for it and miss out on the opportunity to participate in it, but you allowed me to get involved.
That dungeon is actually a vision of how I would like to see things go and one of my favorite mods from last year. It was interesting. Players had fun. There were a lot of laughs and memories. I also knew that oozes and golems were important to your character’s backstory so I wanted to ensure you got a chance to participate in it. We were planning on running it multiple times anyway so it only felt right to get you into the dungeon to participate.
I sincerely thank you for that opportunity as it really was a highlight for me last year! I got involved with something very important to my character, but also got to have some great memories – Adam/Grukkar simply walking into the Gelatinous Cube to retrieve his weapon and hearing a mimic screaming ‘CHOMP, CHOMP, CHOMP!’ deep in the night! I am happy to know that plot rotations will not necessarily take away an opportunity such as this from that weekend’s NPCs.
So you have told me a bit about the vision for yourself going forward, what about your vision for your plot runners? I know a lot of players who like to write plot and run things. Do you have any expectations for your plot runners or suggestions for them?
One of the things I am working on and hope to have ready for the first event is a list of golden rules for my plot runners to both make things both easier on them as well as to ensure we are all on the same page. Examples of what I will include on the list are items such as ensuring the players use only previously approved monsters, this doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t create a new monster before the game begins, but only use stuff that is approved. Steve/Gambit has been working exceptionally hard on creating us a monster manual, but we need to test and use it. Another item I will include is to work with the players and allow them agency to try things. The rules are new and expect players to try and use them in interesting and new ways. Don’t limit this! Go with it and adapt. Some players favorite memories are their creative usage of abilities, creating those epic moments! I also ask that plot runners to show me what they have planned prior to the event. This is not to play big brother, but we might be able to find creative ways to really incorporate what you want to do into the main storyline so it feels even more impactful. Lastly, if you are interested in running, but don’t have the time to come up with your own mod, or are unsure on what to write, I plan on having a stack of premade mods you can use to try out running!
One last question, I know there is a major push to allow players to create the world of Arkath to their own vision. Can you please explain this for those that are unsure how to go about doing this.
Absolutely, this is one of my favorite opportunities we are giving players. While we have a basic framework of all of the regions with Arkrath, we have sparsely developed the towns and cities within these areas! We want the players to really feel they were instrumental in creating this world. If you have an idea of a town you would like to have your character come from, you may use one of the pre established ones, or you can work on creating your own unique area of the world that will become an official place in the world of Arkrath that we may very well travel to at some point in the future. Do not limit yourself with your imagination! If you have an idea, feel free to present it and we will work on finding the perfect place for it and get it added to our ever expanding Wiki!
Thank you so much Sean for taking time to talk to us these past two weeks about your vision as the head of plot and giving us a little insight to your future expectations for the game! And I know I speak for everyone, when I state we all cannot wait to see what new secrets are revealed in the coming months!
Thank you, it has been an absolute pleasure and I cannot wait for the upcoming season, too!
And there you have it folks! Next week we will learn a bit more about the operations of the game as we talk with another one of the board members this coming week as we interview Adam Giles and learn not only about his role as the head of operations, but also about his character Nasir!
Sean talked a bit this week about some of his golden rules for running plot! What are some of your golden rules while either running plot, or for those that do not run plot, your golden rules as a player participating in events? Please leave your comments below as we would love to hear from you!
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