Capture Settings: Changes, Improvements and Thoughts

[Spicy Serious]

I think removing Cap 0’s, as other people have said, wouldn’t result in the kind of tension that’d be good for the game. But instead of just dismissing it, I wanna say my piece on the two things that this change would aim to affect. Tension and Immersion. The two cornerstones of any narrative, and the blood that roleplay thrives upon, and where Eternia can struggle purely because of the nature of the beast.

Tension is the core of any narrative which aims to convince viewers of it’s stakes. It’s what puts the audience on the edge of their seat waiting for what happens next, and it’s where Eternia can struggle the most because things aren’t a curated written out story, it’s a collaborative effort of dozens of stories intersecting. It’s the comedy club’s Improv Night except Joe and Martha have decided they’ll improv through Macbeth while the audience tosses out suggestions. Narratively it leads to…issues, obviously. As naturally narratives aim to gradually increase tension throughout the story to create a memorable climax and invest the audience more and more.

An audience, and writer, need time with relatively low stakes. To acclimate themselves with the characters and world before limbs start getting cut off. That is a Cap 0 Aggressive’s place. To start off the beginning of an arc’s escalation of tension. And like others here, I think that clarifying engagement rules, and making them more available (small popup in the chat window every time you log on telling you /rules will pull up an up to date window of the rules) would naturally lend itself to a natural curve of tension. Knowing that well, the first time you run into that Kaor in the wild you can ask for a Cap 0, but next time you’ll have to do a Cap 1 if you bump into them again, and so on and so forth, would serve to naturally raise the tension for a character over their lifespan (theoretically the older they get the more they’ve fought and the higher risk battles they’ll wind up in) without ratcheting up the tension for a new character wandering to an allied settlement before they’ve so much as sneezed at having IC skin in the game.

Everyone knows what can happen once you’re capped. Everyone knows it’s a pivotal moment in a character that could completely change their IC before the night is done. It can see you wasting away in a prison for IC years. It can see you killed on the spot. Or having to watch aaa friends and chars you care about die and get injured because you choked and missed your Water Whip. It’s a cool moment, it can result in cool as fuck IC. And it’s moments that are vital to keeping the game’s landscape as fresh as it can be….but it’s not so cool to have these pivotal, character defining things happen hours after you press Play because you got unlucky and ran into a stack of demons five high and now you’re dealing with a corruption arc before you even got to do anything as Holy McGoodytwoshoes. But, running into demons you’ve fought off several times before, falling to them, and now dealing with a corruption arc after you’ve saved lives, healed the sick and stood for other people? Baller arc for everyone involved.

TLDR, escalating tension is important. And good. Creating/Clarifying systems that gradually raise the tension on a character through their life is vital. But constant tension is bad. It drives people to avoid possible escalators. It drives burnout and people to victimize themselves.


Immersion is the other major goal of the game, and I won’t write a novel on it. As I think it’s in a pretty good place atm with mentor systems and the like. However things like Mana Blood or other things that could leave dynamic marks on the map for people to stumble on would be an incredible addition to really add weight to large battles, random world events, and other things. And I fully believe that systems like that, which allows an easier impact on the map that effects other players, can make a world of difference. Player-built buildings, cities, and custom props are marvelous, and I’m hoping it can be deepened over time.

On topic though. Increasing the cap could certainly add immersion. Or take it away depending on your experience and the kind of games you enjoy. It would make Meranthe feel more like a war-torn hellscape that’s slowly devolving more and more due to the enroaching of various evils and the failures/collapses of past nations. It could make every character trying to push back against it or further destroy law and order feel more impactful, precious, or world-weary…but, that’s because I’m a masochist in this regard. I think that that experience would probably sound like a turn off to most people, unless they’re a particular fan of the Aesthetic of it all.


TLDR 2: Mana-Rich Blood would be a based af system. Give me more shit like that. But let’s be careful about how immersive we try to make the Suffering Experience™ so it doesn’t shake out with people feeling disenfranchised/beaten down. Which is an easy enough trap to fall into in a writing game that needs as much time as Eternia.