User:Cedric/Regional gameplay

Game night selection is done by examaning WHO is nearby in the region during boss encounters. A referee can be between tables to manage events.

ADD:

• DMs should have character sheets where they play as demi-gods (which they are essentially) and as such have very few moves (time_slots) in their player's game universe. This is how the gods work in real life: they so far above humans that they make very few moves relative to the time domain of the humans/players below on the material plane. The DM perhaps can play under a patron demi-god or god/dess from the standard pantheon, which might be held (in character sheet) by even higher-level GMs (something like Adventurer's League is conceived as a good solution to regional organization, just like sports has divisions for regional organization).
• DMs can come together occasionallly under a higher-level Game Master (AL?) and decide and balance things in their universe(s)? Likewise, AL or GMs can meet up at the table of TSR or WotC and align all of hte good vs. evil dynamics.
• Parents for school play can be game night “hosts”, setting up candles, handling out pamplhets, baking treats for the concession stand.
• Adults in the school that wish to participate should roll-up a player-character sheet for themselves to attune to the game. They can set a backstory of residing in some village remote and stay dormant 99% of the time if they wish, but should dream up quests or items they’d like accomplished as their contribution to the dynamics of the game. This gives an opportunity for a good surprise to find that the quest that you hear from another villager to find “Prat Whipplesnap” in the remote “dwarven’ village of X is actually a PC played by your school headmasster and s/he rewards you with 5000gp (or whatever) for the finding. (Prep the headmaster with an appropriate backstory and some element of intrigue unknown to the players that they can explore if they wish...)

Game stores could have membership (fellowship) cards. $1-5/month from WotC (for tracking DCI numbers and such) and $5-15 customizable by each game store. This gives unlimited “hanging-out” priveleges, along with other benefits provided by each game store.

Regional or high-participation gameplay can branch out from the standard DM model and have a LM (lore master) that does all of the describing of scence, and perhaps NPCs who do not have player-actors to play for them and the DM which then is in charge of only mechanics like tracking XP and perhaps other stats (like alignment) for each player. Different BBEG could visit from other schools and really try to win against the home game table. But each time the BBEG dies it loses a level (or more) so that regaional directors try to keep the highest value on each characture.

No more binary good vs. evil, or lawful vs. chaotic, but a “spectrum” of values. Women use black as their prefernece on the latter (representing the Unknown), while men use white (representing the Known). Fey creatures in the middle get chosen by the goddess which direction they go. A goddess may keep a feral male creature on her side with black, or may give it more to the gods and put it to white. A circle rainbow colors, represents the old good vs. evil binary with an empty center, allowing PCs and NPCs that are purer to the ideal that the color represents towards the edge (away from center).

For regional gameplay, their real-life city can be reflected in some township that they identify and can develop, allowing gameplay to evolve trade-routes and other merchant, educational, … abiltiies.

Factions (alignment affilication), guilds (class affiliations), tribes (race affiliation) could build camaraderie and social team dynamics, like sports (sport-type, team).

FIX: XP gained by NPC play by students and such can translate into CHR/WIS/INT premanenty stat points in their PC. If’n they DON’T earn XP at the NPC table, they shall be rewarded a NEGATIVE stat bonus permanently, until they’re behavior improves.

There perhaps should be a fourth level between WotC and AL: factions perhaps would fit here but something akin to university regional groupings, like NAII. These coudl be called dieties above the lower-level demigods. Their purpose to to maintain balance in the realm and perhaps monitor and understand movements of giants and dragons, and premature light or shadow growing gaining unwarranted attention by the demigods.

The state of the game world is : the 9 gates of hell (how much goblins, orcs enter the realms, for example, how much Ravenloft or other ark lord domain suck people into their demi-planes (Strahd would be Purgatorio, most likely) ).

PLAYING NPCs at the table

One can actually simulate the game universe by having other NPCS (played by different kids at school or even teachers) have their own player-sheet, keeping track of the total mana, HP, etc. which must be treated like a real person. If a player playing Strahd for example, gets a kill of a LVL15 player, they get at least half of the XP in MANA for life-regeneration of Strahd whch could occurt off the table or during downtime.

DMs do not have to know the NPCs that may appear, since they are not playing them, and can be part of the fun of surprise and gameplay.

School games might expand or contract the number of players based on the encounters and campaigns played. However, like athletics, there is probably more interest than there is capacity to host players by the DM, so you have “away teams” that go to other cities to play NPCs that will be encounterd for other game tables. Likewise, for example, an adventuring party at your home table might walk into a new tavern that you haven’t been in before and cue in several foreign players that acts as NPCs at the tavern, drinking beer and being rowdy, or whatever. There is a character sheet for each such NPC to help keep track of things that happen at other tables. In such cases, the DM can just sit back and doesn’t have to role-play anything, but let’s things get worked out between their home party and these visiting (possibly nefarious) NPCs, acting part as referee to make sure that rules are played correctly (favoring their home team of course). Home team adventurers always have to play “good” PCs.

After the game, game-manager asks home team and visiting team questions:

• How did you think you did?
• How well did the visiting team give you a scare for your life?

Visting team:

• Was there anything our team did that was surprising and unexpected?
• How many times have you played your characters?

DMs get a large counter, visible by the audience, that allows 2hrs of game-time with an intermission after 1hr. If the time runs out amidst a battle or highly-intense interaction, overtime can be allowed. Ideally, the audience has yes/no to give the a vote up or down at the audience members seats, for each move made by players. This gets totalled and activiats a cheer or buzz to be emitted intot he theatre.

So as not to compete with athletics (where many players might be part of band, etc.), Monday night is suggested as the best “fright night” for weekly tournament gameplay. Players will have all weekend to think about and brainstorm events that led up to game night from prior week’s “practice” sessions. Also, just as in real-life, one imagines first, and then acts. RP at the beginning of the week, athletics at the end. Saturday could be considered, however.

Teachers and other coaches that make epic game play have to be rewarded on game nights by name and perhaps on the record (like football coaches get their picture on the state trophy board).

For regional play, supervisors should pass out some amount of free ability score points (say, 6-20, depending on how deficient the region is). Let’s say that there wasn’t anyone playing an elven mage in the games, they might reward +2 points to the player to allocate as they see fit.

Excess banter consumes spare mana each round. Players can have mechanical “clickers” that increment and track mana count in 100-200 block increments. Refs can decide how much banter discounts the mana regeneration each round (-400 penalty).

Big game items stay with the school. But if the character dies that possesses the big game item, it can go back into circulation of the national (or other regional) gameplay.

Consider letting the DM of one team be the DM of the other in regional play. This makes more honesty for each team. Also, a camera above the DM allows the crowd to see all rolls.

Level of campaign selects the size of the region for multitable play (nationals, state, county, and city game levels). There are onlhy two game tables in the nationals, it can be funded by federal money. Each level of govefnment can sponsor their team.

The DM gets to choose how many players in a party, based on their ability to hold the group. Others get to be bards, sound board managers, pamphleteers, lighting techs, video techs, etc.

Sound mixers might play spooky music during “half-times” to hold the tension of gameplay.

Bards can be put in charge when there are lull points in the game (clued in possibly by the DM).

School colors, like letter jackets for sports, except chevrons showing your tier and a herald of your affiiliations.

DMs can be the Leader for a city in the realm. Pick a city much like your own that represent it that you make the best. Other teams can get tempted to visit away teams cities,

Party’s should originate in the same city somewhere in the realm, using an existing place name or inventing one where none exist, the characterizes their own city. The Neverwinter Knights, for example for some place that is sunny, largish, whatever…

Teachers and less committed students can play NPCs at the table, rolling their dice and acting out their character. DM can pass notes to the NPC if they get out of line or the table starts moving away from them. Maybe some students role-play dragons well, or maybe just a particular NPC, like Shrahd. This brings in much more particication without too much extra overhead for the DM. They also can conform to the rule of having at least one prop to anchor your character. For a dragon player, this might be a box concealing a gem.

Each student should still create a character for themselves and imagine where they reside when their PC is not at the gaming table as themselves. This way they can be “woken up” when gameplay allows for it and teachers want to switch out players at the table, like a football game. Table dynamics can deal with the change in RP. “Wish you well stout Hamult! We had a mighty run. May you find happiness back with your family” etc. etc.. OR (new player) “Sturgis! What have you been doing all this time?” “I’ve been making a mountain of flutes.” — Fantasy Role-plyaing groups used in schools as extra-curricular alternative to sports will make exciting new arenas for game-play development, campaign development, teaching economic systems theory across cities, and offer epic rewards in high-level tournaments. Higher-level "Game Masters" (or GMs) can keep track of XP totals, like economists keep track of RL currency in circulation, so that they are comparable across regions. Holographic EQ cards (with serial number) can be traded to keep highly-prized items valuable and the game-world can be developed in a balanced, in-sync manner.

Each DM group can create their own figurine, with higher-level regions having larger figurines as their mascots. These can be kept to oversee game-times to signify that official rules for XP and EQ generation are in-play. Game play can take place in the school theatre, where community members and others can watch. The stage offers the dark curtains to hold the game space as well as music play-back to create atmosphere.

If the prior-year’s team loses, the mascot curses (or blesses for wins) the present team * their alignment_vector by some nominal amount) This latter bit is important as it allows the greater dynamic of the game to evolve. The level of this curse or blessing accumulates based on winning and losing streaks.

Mana can get awarded in tournament-play to the DMs, churning the (in-game) city-machine-state into motion to produce goods (made by your craftslans), which are tradeable across cities/regions. The DM can also decide to turn it into coinage rather than equipment. In this way player’s cities can experiment with the idea of being industrial generation centers or developing other values where value is stored in money. Any out-of-game equipment trading should get taxed by the DMs who should collect like 10% in gold for getting greater equipment inventories.

If the teacher or a player decides that the ruling of a DM should is wrong, it can be contested in a “jury of their peers”, players and teacher (except the one who dissented) get to vote and decide by a simple majority.

Female game managers can play the parts of the hags and bargain with players in ways that balance out the realm where they see imbalances from their own perspective. “We will help you but only if you retrieve the eye that was stolen from us at Gatereach Castle.” and so forth.

Players, since they invest in the PC, might opt to stay in a particular village while the rest of the party wishes to go explore some big bad evil guy. If another table in regional play visits this village, the player could consider joining their table and fellowship (conjoining the knowledge that they know from their home-field events).

Teachers and adult can assume demi-gods and create character sheets of level50 and above. They can hold dominion over some part of the realm (that they perhaps create or identfy with). Further, different teams may challenge the goals, philosophies of the other team’s demi-gods to see how it plays out. Focus on a particular abilityi scoare: are the STR-based, INT based, etc. and imagine what such a character/race might look like. Have them think of a motto that sums up the demi-god or goddess and let [players poke around].

There are mechanics of how demi-gods influcence those below at hackerspaces.org wiki. STr-based give DAM bonuses, for exampele.

More experienced, higher-level educators (superintendents?) can be up to LEVEL250 but if they get p0wned by a lower-level demi-god, they have to go to their level.

WotC should hold the ALl-THAT-IS, or the nAmman (like Mammon, eh?), a LVL 1000, God/dess at once (omni-gendered) keeper of the universe.

Demi-gods have no incarnate form and cannot participate in the game of life below. However, if a higherlevel god (over 2x their own level) decides, this higher-level disincarnate form can project an incarnate form of the demi-god below into the material plane for up to a day. (actual amount depends on mana available and mana consumes in the materal plane).

As making a demi-god/dess is a major undertaking, whenever someone wants to make a new demi-god, a higher-level DM/GM/WotC should examine the suggestion and see if it fits within the game universe or already has a god for it. If not, the higher-level GM, etc. should ask you creator of the being the following questions:

1. What motto or phrase sums up its governing/living philosophy?
2. What geographic regions or political categories (trade routes, industrial development, magic development, forests, child-rearing, etc.) is this new PCD interested in holding dominion over?
3. Do you have a image for this PCD or please provide a text description.
4. What stats are you suggesting for this PCD?

These should all be honed within the present pantheon, jostling all other dmei-god/desses around as needed to fill a unique niche within the ATI. If it isn’t unique enough, all contenters will need their assigned XP downgraded to allow everything to fit. This is a reason you don’t add them easily.

—— Cultural..

• Consider buttons for players to press whenever they’re in-character. This lights up a lamp on the table to let everyone know what is what. Later, excess banter can be removed by keeping the content that was in-game. Even the DM could have a button so that banter such as “Why don’t you go call a friend?” (is a joke reference to wno want’s to be a millionaire, but as a joke it is clearly out-of-game, so they have to hit the dinger) is off-“camera”, and their narration of events is separate.
• Race affiliations for other members to recognize each other in society and fraternize, just as sport teams. Buttons, colors, insignias/patches.

—— Lore masters know all the lore around the realms, the dynamics and agendas of the god/desses. DMs keep tracks of stats and pre-calculate, when available, modifiers for different rolls (DC checks, battle DAM, AC protection, etc.). Players can write some of these down, but it might shift, without them knowing during gameplay.

DM sheet:

• Tracks each player (own sheet): Birth date (month of the Candle)/year (Year of the red sun) or DR1765, family name (optional), race, nat. ability scores, NPCs they’ve killed or helped (for alignment and god-dynamic calculations), places visited, events hosted, characters they know (trust_card data for clerics).
• God/dess sheet, trust-cards for each towards the players, and other parts of the realms. This is used for tensor/vector calculations for luck and battle modifiers, but also enchanted and cursed items.
• The allmother-father gets their own sheet to keep track of all trust settings towards the demi-gods and for the main characters in the drama of the game.