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Aeoshattr

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Posts posted by Aeoshattr

  2. Guardian of Tools Should Grabban based on depletion?

    in General Forum

    Posted

    8 hours ago, klatdees said:

    Rereading mallos's cited announcement (and see also the tool guardian tag description)

     

    I think depletion is quite clearly "sabotaging the use of the tools" for the straightforward reason:  if there are few/no resources, what is the point of grabbing the tool?  

     

    Besides which, if we know the Monarchs can specify tool use limitations, and they have specified depletion limits, how else could you categorize those limits except as limits on tool use?

     

    On 7/22/2016 at 0:25 PM, DarkRaptor said:

    I guess this confirms what Miq says..

    NadDepletesWaterInLR_20160722.jpg

    Depletion seens not to be a abuse ... or is it under certain conditions?

    And yet... nadrolski himself depletes. That seems to be lacking some objectivity. I do realise the above screenshot is in Loreroot, yet it is not as if nadrolski doesn't deplete water in Marind Bell too.

    For clarity: my issue is not with depletion itself (while I do dislike it), it's with the apparent double standard which is in my opinion unacceptable for such positions. It could be argued for or against, but I would honestly like to see nad say something on the topic.

  3. Guardian of Tools Should Grabban based on depletion?

    in General Forum

    Posted

    11 minutes ago, DarkRaptor said:

    The bucket i grabbed in MB capitol is available to all with gardenning values above 8.

    I was able to use the bucket without any restriction.

    My bad. Apparently I have never been fast enough to see that bucket in the shared item list.

    Then I suppose we need to refer to the original topic where Mur says 
    "The Guardian will have powers to ban players from grabing shared items if they are found to have more than one of a type or if they are hoarding them on alts, or abusing them in any way (abuse ways will be clearly specified)"

    I don't know whether depletion falls under abuse or not, I don't know if these abuse ways were clearly specified to the guardians of tools themselves or if they were publicly released somewhere (and I missed them). So perhaps we need confirmation first on this aspect?

  5. Tranquil Nights

    in General Forum

    Posted

    Next iteration: Sunday, 24th of July.

    Apologies for not having posted the logs (I do have the raw version, just need to give it a scrub); vacation and travelling are highly detrimental to my access to a working laptop.

    The theme will be Wealth. Feel free to host or organise trading or harvesting throughout the day; I will be hosting the (by now stereotypical) storytelling in the evening, around 8 PM ST - anyone is welcome to tell a short story or contribute artistically in any way on the theme. Location to be announced on the day as usual, through the mood panel. 

  6. Tranquil Nights

    in General Forum

    Posted

    18 hours ago, Aethon said:

    I'm happy for rewards from the Archive Treasury to be sponsored for good stories. (I took the impression that the story telling will be like @Curiose's story nights?) If so, feel free to confer with @Nimrodel to see what rewards are available. I'll also throw in 5 GC's to the reward pool as well as Mirror ritual spell stones when needed.

    I have a feeling you probably would have anyway but, please could any stories be posted on the forum?

    Thanks and good luck,

    -A

    I will post cleaned logs on the forums when the activity suits logging; some days might revolve around harvesting or maybe trading, which won't produce very interesting chat logs, most likely. If anything noteworthy happens, it will be posted.

    I have to decide on how to tier rewards and I'll let you know.

     

  7. Tranquil Nights

    in General Forum

    Posted

    Tranquil Nights

    When the clashing of swords echoes no more, I call upon you to join me in storytelling, harvesting, reminiscing, teaching, trading or any activity that is deemed suitable for the day. When the day does not make itself entertaining, it is up to us to make it so.

    Lay down your blades,
    Lay down your shields;

    Join one, join all, on every Day of Tranquility from now on (12th and 24th of each month). All are welcome and encouraged to contribute; I shall set the theme and pace and will announce it ahead of time.

    Rejoice, unite
    Your scattered might.

    Points will be given and a tally will be kept. Rewards will be given to the diligent, ranging from coins and spellstones to nightmode access. Any sponsors are welcome, everyone is free to reward what they deem worthy of rewards.

    Fate and Control shall be your first theme. Prepare a brief parable (or another short act that you deem suitable).

    Important tidbits and TL;DR

    Spoiler

     

    Introduction on 4th of July 2016, 20:00 ST - I am unable to host on the 12th of July, but would like to introduce the event and give players a chance to prepare before the next one on the 24th. I realise this is Independence Day for those in the USA, I picked it solely because it is a New Moon night. I can postpone to any date between the 4th and 10th if interest is shown but the date is unsuitable.

    Location will be announced on the day. Time is subject to change and will be announced via mood panel.

    To participate in this one, prepare a short act (preferably written, but feel free to be creative) in which you present your view on fate and how or if it can be controlled. "Artistic license" is given, but anything that disrupts the event as a whole shall be treated as an interruption which is detailed below. In other words, you're free to do anything as long as it doesn't disrupt the event or other players in the event.

    Trolling and interruption (via any means) shall be treated identically, with a zero tolerance policy. Both shall result in the indefinite exclusion of the offender (and any assistants in the offence) from any quest or event awarding nightmode access held presently or in the future. Pardons are to be given by me, at my own discretion.

     

     

  8. WTB / WTS Creatures

    in Central Market

    Posted

    Interested in trading:

    GG Drachorn (mine) for Wind Dragon (yours)
    For clarity: I want to give a GG (+ a few coins maybe) in order to obtain a Windy.

    I can toss in a few gold coins to balance the deal, or other deals may be struck. Please contact me via forum PM.

  10. Humbly Stepping Down

    in Historic Documents

    Posted

    23 minutes ago, Sunfire said:

    @Aeoshattr you seem to forget that Mur is the demon of the East, he rules the land by force, however we Easteners have a leader of our own, and the demon even wants us to have a king, on his terms however

    yet we wouldnt be Easteners if we didnt do things our own way

    let me ask you a question Aeoshattr, what is a king?

    @DARK DEMON you are obviously ignorant of the workings of the Lands of the East, ill excuse you for that, it is a bit complicated. However before you insult our ways you should better learn how things are, now you look like the fool, which isnt quite a good thing for a king in my oppinion.

    Taking into account Ann 3906 and then subsequently Ann 3917, the titles of "Demon" and "King" are interchangeable with regards to the very specific point I was addressing: legitimacy of heredity. Exactly how they rule is besides the point. The point is that only they have the authority to name/train/magically appoint a heir. 

    Currently, Mur has that running quest that you're mentioning to appoint a king (technically a heir, since he's the ruling power currently). But until that quest is complete, the candidates are not official rulers and thus cannot appoint heirs of their own. Can they take leader responsibilities? Maybe. But not appoint heirs. You can't name someone to inherit something you don't have yet.

    Also

    2 hours ago, Nimrodel said:

    Honestly guys... Did your part of the brain which provides neural impulses for 'humour'die? Jeez...

    I thought I had a pretty neutral and serious tone, I don't know what prompted you to feel that my humor is dead (since you clearly downvoted both me and DD when you posted that, so you weren't talking to DD only, and even more so since I posted a humorous reference in my initial post)?

    So is it a joke or not? Because Nimrodel suggests this is a humorous thing, but Sunfire seems pretty serious.

  11. Humbly Stepping Down

    in Historic Documents

    Posted

    9 hours ago, Sunfire said:

    So Mur has not recognised the role yet, that matters little. It is not a crown or a title that makes you a leader.

    As per Ann 3917, which you are quoting:

    Quote

    "Is a king truly a king if...
    he is voted in by his people? "
    This implies the answer "no"; otherwise, this announcement would have been at least half pointless. In other words, people voting in a king or a king by popular agreement is not necessarily a king; leader maybe, but not king. 

    " a king trains up his apprentice to take over from him when he leaves the position. "
    So the one who names/trains a successor must hold the title of king.

    Mur - LoTE
    The current king of the East has not named any successors. 

    I agree, it is not a crown or a title that makes you a leader but it is a crown that makes you a king, at least as per Ann 3917 - can be seen to happen in other instances in MD, where loss of the crown is synonymous with loss of the status of king but not necessarily leader. If anything, quoting Ann 3917 works against you.
     

    Spoiler

    Or as George R.R. Martin would say...F98C03EF0733DDA554DAD727BC47AB1F3DAAC24E

     

  12. Handling new players

    in New Ideas

    Posted

    In a way, I like the concept. I wouldn't automate it too much,because that might restrict the tasks that can be given and I think there is much more of a "wow" factor to realising an old/powerful player can actually make stuff happen in-game, rather than viewing the progression through MD as purely mechanical.

    Maybe a role would be best for this, with a few tools? Or a function, like LHO, that old players can apply for.

    I think @Assira the Black was running a similar thing, with heat stones as rewards, among other things.

  14. Plushie apology request

    in General Forum

    Posted · Edited by Grido

    On 10/06/2016 at 7:23 AM, dst said:

    I am not one that hides under the rug when making a mistake. So I assume it and correct.

    Not really my business to butt into this thread, but I do want to point out a couple of things relating to the above.

    I never got any sort of apology for the incident with the hollow warrior plushies (which involved essentially outing one of my alts and publicly slandering me) in spite of it being subsequently announced that nothing wrong was done.

    Furthermore, not only did it involve you alt-checking the account that you thought was suspicious, but also all my other alts and then extending the accusation to farming and abusing my alts as a whole, without me even doing anything on those alts. I didn't get any sort of apology for that either. If it had been all in PMs, I would not have cared too much, but it was all done at GoE, with many people around.

    Log attached.

    dst plushies log.txt

  17. Step One

    in Contests, Quests and Adventures

    Posted

    After a long time, the results are finally here! Rejoice! Do the drum rolls, spray confetti and champagne! The following are the results (in order, score out of 100 in brackets):

    1. Jubaris (57.7) - WP (from TKs) + pool reward (from me)
    2. AmberRune (40) - 2 Root Warriors (from me) + pool reward (from me)
    3. dst (37) - 5 SC (from me) + pool reward (from me)
    4. Blackwood Forest (26)
    5. Sirix The Black Robot (24)
    6. FireStarter (8.3)
    7. *Nimrodel* (0)
    8. Wideberth (0)
    9. klawdees (0)
    10. Maebius (0)

    Participants 7-10 either forfeited willingly or never submitted an entry, in spite of reminders. The score breakdowns can be found on this Google Spreadsheet. This was done with the help of 2 judges, Assira the Black and MaGoHi, who to my surprise were considerably harsher than me.

    Top 3 entries:

    Jubaris - sent in a whopping 30 minutes total quest time!

    Spoiler

     

    Reasoning:

    - Barren soul was obviously one of my first creatures, if not the first. Its description connects it with fallen berserkers of Marind Bell, slain by Necrovion. So my homeland + my beginning, the choice was two fold.

    That arrow ends up in Raven's peace - convenient, I was once of Loreroot.

    The next arrow goes towards Necro scene, fitting because of the taint effect the circumstances of me leaving Loreroot were.

    It is also the scene where I am recruiting UPs for my tutorial campaign quest :P

    Necro is sort of a counter-part of MB - well, of all lands, but it's conflict with MB has a special weight.

    People of MB are defined by their (inner) conflict with Necrovion, because only by defeating its influence can we strive to heights.

    So my arrow leads me to my ultimate goal - combat my spiritual corruption.

    Diagram Meaning:

    - The creatures and the scenes are associate-able with parts of our personality. I'm in a dilemma on whether it is supposed to represent our course of actions in MD or an approximation of our identity (by you), both might turn out to be the same thing though.

     

    AmberRune - very personal and insightful, looking at symbolism a lot.

    Spoiler

    Reasoning:

    At first I tried to connect the inner square to the different seasons or personality. The elemental egg was a summer or was passion with loyalty; the barren soul was fall or a loss of purpose; the water being as winter or gaining surety; the toxidendrite seed being spring or zeal in using abilities. These have the easiest visible connection to a season but are on the inside where personality and inner self would be described. So instead I looked at them as left (the elemental and barren soul) and right (the seed or water being) learning to prioritize of the improvement of a group instead of personal growth, with up and down as offensively/passionately pursuing goals to slowly/passively having them. With those considerations, I know that I am fairly passively having goals but have lost my overall sense of purpose. In the inner square, I am solidly the barren soul.

    I was not able to really find a sense of time or season in the outer square but found a separation between halves like I had with the inner square. In this case, I found the top scenes to be showing an isolation of person in different environments: alone, hiding, and away from people with the armor in the cellar or alone, inviting, and in the open with Bob at the Path of Loneliness. The bottom scenes show a sense of togetherness, be it in a peaceful companionship at Raven’s Peace or in a tumultuous gathering at the Way of Cleansing. Left in the outer square favors the quiet where right favors the lively. My reality of MD is that of an unallied person in a land other than No Man’s Land. I am not actively part of a group of people but usually enjoy company. This fairly alone but with good company situation seems to point to the openness of Bob at the Path of Loneliness.

    In short: I am somebody who has lost some sense of purpose, living together but alone in a chosen land. A barren soul at the Path of Loneliness.

    Diagram Meaning:

    From mandala construction, I found that by starting the center and working outward we are presenting an exchange between the inner self and the experienced outside world. With only the two distinct levels, we are not concerning ourselves with our awareness or the voidness with mental activity.

    Since the shape of the mandala is in the form of squares, it seems to indicate the interaction of the foundations of me as a person against the foundations of the world that I reside in. Not in the nebulous way of belief, but in the simple and basic sense of structure and balancing yourself in your environment

     

     

    dst - best, most clear reasoning, in my opinion.

    Spoiler

    Reasoning:

    Inner self image has 4 small images: air scout, seed, water being, barren soul which I matched like:

    D - barren soul

    I - air scout

    S - water being

    C - seed

     

    Outer self has also 4 images which I matched like this (don't know names of the locations by heart but if needed I will look for them):

    D - Fire from the Necro scene (down - right image) - Way-of-Cleansing  --- fire

    I - Bob the tree (upper right)  ----air

    S - Recruiting place from Loreroot (down left)  ----water

    C - MDA Basement (Cellar upper left)  ----earth

     

    My MD personality is D (outer) C (inner) - so fire on the outer border and seed in the inner one.

    That's what my 2 arrows show.

    Diagram Meaning:

    The 2 squares are the inner and outer self. Outer self is the image you show voluntarily to the others. It's a mask. The inner self is the "true" you, the person you become for example under stress.

     

    There are 4 types of "personalities": Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, Conscientious (in short DISC).

    They are matched with nature's elements:

    D - Fire

    I - Air

    S  - Water

    C - Earth

    Rewards in the first post. Jubaris, Amber and dst please post what reward you pick from the reward pool here, in order. Find me in-game (usually with the Travelling Training Camp, currently at Ash arch) for all rewards except the WP, for which either contact Eara or wait for me to contact her.

  20. Step One

    in Contests, Quests and Adventures

    Posted

    Quest Ended. 

    Judging in progress. Keep in mind, it might take a little while since I've got an exam hell-week coming up.

    Also: question for participants:
    Would you object to your submission being made public, if you rank in the top 3? 
    This is an opt-out! I will post your submissions (top 3), unless you specifically ask otherwise.

    • Popular Post
    • Popular Post

    Questmaker's Etiquette Guide

    in General Forum

    Posted · Edited by Aeoshattr
    Added Judging Tips

    Hi all. Since I produced quite a stupendous amount of text, this will come in parts (since I do need time to study and other things too). Please feel free to move, I was not sure if it was appropriate to post this in the "Quests and Contests" subforum.

    Feedback is more than welcome, please try to stay constructive. If you feel that I missed something, point out where and what you think should be added.

    Pardon fancy language. I may or may not have been under the influence of beverages at the time of production. Without further ado, here is the first part, about quest design and sponsorships. The part about judging & rewarding is still a work in progress. Text Wall ahead.

     

    Questmaker’s Etiquette Guide

    With various fantabulous tips, tricks, do’s and don’t’s

    Glorious Introduction

    Here we shall look at 3 major topics regarding making, holding and rewarding a quest, particularly for the realm of MagicDuel, as follows:

     

    1. Quest Design

      1. What is good design? What is bad design?

      2. Accessibility. Types of quests. Target audience. Tips for a few types of frequently-held quests.

      3. How and when to announce quests. Miscellaneous.

    2. Sponsorships

      1. Short tips about who and how to approach for sponsorships.

      2. List of rough values of certain items and creatures (maybe).

    3. Quest Judging and Rewarding

      1. Single blinding, Double blinding and other judging paraphernalia.

      2. Rewarding: do’s and don’t’s, who and how to approach for help.

    4. "How to". Quick guide to help you jumpstart your quest. (This will be a skeleton only! To help you guide your own creativity, not to be used as given!)

    5. Case studies (maybe).

      1. I shall point to a few quests (mine, unless someone else volunteers their own quests and experience with them) and try to dissect out the good and the bad.

     

    One thing to keep in mind is that throughout this guide I shall ask questions. These are to provoke thought rather than to demand an answer. There is no correct or incorrect answer in general (with a few exceptions), but there will be a correct answer for your quest. You just have to think how that question relates to your quest (think about how your quest would answer that question, not about what answer I want to hear, if that helps).

    Quest Design

    Briefly put, in MagicDuel there are a few things to keep in mind as a questmaker. Some are obvious, some are not, some are counterintuitive. I will also look at a few specific structures of quests that pop up frequently and suggest tips for them, if they are to be used as templates. I shall also attempt to discuss how to tailor your quest to a target audience while keeping in mind the idea of accessibility, and a few suggestions about how to make announcements regarding quests.

    What is good design? What is bad design?

    In a nutshell, a quest that is well designed will run smoothly. It will not need adjustments on the way, it will not need the direct intervention of the questmaker to resolve issues, it cannot be cheated, and there is no unintended interaction between participants (spoiling or sabotaging).

    It’s vague, unfortunately, and it will vary for each quest types. But here are a few things you can do, or questions you should try to have an answer to:

     

    1. Try and test whatever can be tested.

      1. Do your clickables function, if any?

      2. Is the quest goal achievable?

        1. Does it require very personal information (i.e. specific relations of your character in-game)? Could others effectively know and solve it?

        2. Is the amount of heat/resources/whatever obtainable in the time you give?

      3. Could you do it? Could someone help you test it?

      4. Is the time window feasible?

      5. Will the quest take too long or too little time?

      6. Does the quest heavily depend on everybody showing up, or on a specific number of participants? Can that become an issue? Can it be avoided?

    2. Try and anticipate flaws or issues in your quest.

      1. Are there ways to cheat/cheese it?

      2. Can it be easily disrupted by a third party (movelock, attacklock, teleporting)? Do you want to change the design to avoid this, or rely on external help?

      3. Are there any unintended progress-stoppers?

      4. Is there a risk of participants spoiling eachother, or sabotaging eachother? Is it indended? Is it an issue?

      5. How could you prevent these issues?

      6. Is your quest transparent? Is your judging and rewarding transparent? Can people obtain details about judging and rewarding after the quest? The answers here should be yes!

    3. Can you manage the quest by yourself? Do you need assistance with:

      1. Scripting clickables?

        1. Try the scripting section on the forums

        2. Try contacting known scripters for help (please let me know if you want to be named here)

      2. Preventing disruptions?

        1. Do you know who might potentially disrupt your quest? Diplomacy works (most of the time).

        2. Request help from friends, or protection under neutrality (Can MDA offer such help?)

        3. Request help from your land leader (if any)?

        4. Alter your quest design to avoid or reduce the risk of disruptions (hold it in a nojump location, for instance).

      3. Effectively holding the quest?

        1. Need a shady character that participants need to chase? Ask around.

        2. Need another helping hand with distributing things to players during the quest (information, items)?

        3. Need someone to supervise what participants do?

    4. Is the quest engaging? Does it feel like an adventure, a continuous process or are there breaks and holes in it? Is it just a series of unrelated trials? Does it relate to MagicDuel at all? You could run a ‘good’ quest without this, but a good quest design will also make the quest enjoyable and fun, not just ‘doable’. One of the best things to do is to try and integrate it with the world of MagicDuel. Try and make it part of the game, rather than just a ‘task’.

    Accessibility, Target Audience and Types of Quests

    Though this may be subjective, one fundamental principle of quests is their accessibility. This doesn’t necessarily mean that everybody should be able to complete it, but as many people as possible should be able to begin it. This may refer to restrictions or requirements on:

     

    • Mindpower

      • Is your quest for a specific Mindpower only, or does it bias for/against a specific Mindpower? How, why, and is it intended this way?

    • Active Days

      • Don’t think I’ve seen this one, but is there a restriction on active days? Why? Is it necessary? Why?

    • Land / Alliance

      • Can only people from certain lands/alliances participate? Why? Does your quest design bias against/for people from certain lands/alliances? Why? Is it necessary?

    • Specific people

      • Obviously, saying “X cannot participate” will immediately be bad. This does not mean you cannot exclude people from your quests, but it should not be baseless (for instance, that person is a judge or a sponsor, or that person has a repeated history of trolling your quests, etc). But excluding people should be considered bad practice, and making such a decision should be taken extremely seriously.

    • Number of participants

      • Does your quest have a restriction on how many questers can begin it? Why? Is it intended or necessary, and if so, why?

    • Talent & Skill

      • Naturally, drawing quests are going to be fundamentally different from tournament quests. Keep in mind though that you can easily put talent into the backseat by adjusting your judging/scoring parameters!

    • Stats

      • Does your quest bias against players with specific stat values? Is this intended / necessary? Does it need adjusting (such as tiering participants)?

     

    Keep in mind, many quests will often encounter at least one of those restrictions. These are not to be considered as deadly sins (or things to not do under any circumstance), but rather things that you should be prepared to explain if asked, or changed if not intended.

     

    Moving on to the target audience. MagicDuel has a very mottled player base. Some are artists, some are grinders, some are roleplayers, some are coders, some are good with numbers and ciphers, etc. It is very difficult to design a quest for absolutely everybody, so you should at least aim to have a specific audience (whether it is broad or narrow). It is perfectly fine to make a quest for artists or grinders only, but it is good practice to try and make it as broadly available as possible. Think “roleplayers” rather than “that specific type of roleplayer”, if that helps.

     

    You could also include multiple, different types of players by introducing multiple stages (have a combat stage, an art stage, etc)! This should be designed very carefully however, or it might discourage people from participating. Maybe make the quest for teams, and thus give them the possibility to include different skill types in their team? Up to you.

    Quest Types

    The Arts & Crafts Quest

    Spoiler

     

    Usually has the format:

    1. Draw / Build / Sculpt / Craft / Cook X

    2. Styles (digital or traditional) / tools (pencil, pen, colour) / ingredients  accepted are: X Y Z

    3. Number of drawings / photos of your creation required: X

    4. Special requirements: X (which can be stuff like a selfie with the creation or making a ritual with it, etc.)

    5. Time to complete and submit: X

    6. Judging & Rewards.

     

    Pros: Very low-maintenance. Doesn’t require the questmaker to be 100% involved, doesn’t require 100% of the questmaker’s attention. Easy to judge (can be a good ‘beginner’ quest to make) with many potential judges available. Easy to relate to MD (such as draw a specific creature or scene), but difficult to integrate or make it a part of MD (such as making participants need to do other things in-game in order to obtain what they need to draw, or why, etc.)

     

    Cons: Subject to participant exhaustion. Quest type is fairly common, you might end up with nobody doing it because they have done too many. May be intimidating to some participants who don’t think they’re particularly good at arts (maybe you can adjust this by judging? Value the concept more than the execution? Is this worth it?). Can be very subjective, but single/double blinding can be done very easily.

    The Tournament Quest

    Spoiler

     

    Usually has the format:

    1. Registration to participate

      1. Name, ID, Mindpower, Stats?, Active Days?, etc

    2. Creature types allowed

      1. Can be just about anything, but needs to be mentioned and detailed. Can also refer to creature abilities or auras.

    3. Tokens and Stats (influence)

      1. Are tokens allowed? What influence slider value should participants use (0-100%)?

    4. Spell usage?

    5. Outside Interference?

    6. Mode of combat

      1. Pairing

      2. Trials/pair

      3. Progression (semifinals, finals, etc etc)

    7. Time to be held

    8. Judging & Rewards

     

    Pros: Judging can be easy (who won vs who lost, does not necessarily need a spectrum or a complicated quantification). Can be more captivating than a drawing quest, and more related to MD. Can be easily given a MD feel (choosing of a champion of a land, or some invasion or something). Can be repeated easily. Objective to judge.

     

    Cons: Requires the involvement of the questmaker or a helper to observe the development of the quest. Can be interrupted by spells very easily. Cannot be held in certain locations (sanctuaries). Cannot be held on certain days (days of tranquility). Can heavily bias for certain players or mindpowers (low MPs might be at a disadvantage due to low numbers of players).

    The Roleplaying Scenario Quest

    Spoiler

     

    Usually has the format:

    1. Description of the scene that will be played. (May be a dinner, a gathering, a fighting scene, etc)

    2. Roles available and who is eligible to take them, with a short description (maybe) of what that role is.

    3. Date to be held.

    4. Order for roleplaying and amount of text allowed / turn.

    5. Potential special effects or modifiers (things like making a player skip their turn, swapping roles, etc.)

    6. Judging & Rewards.

     

    Pros: Can be massively entertaining. Can be made to have a “MD feel”. Can put players into unexpected situations, or take them out of their routines, which is fun (most of the time). Can essentially be held in any location (-no chat scenes). Can be fun for onlookers too.

     

    Cons: Can take a huge amount of time. Requires a lot of attention for a long period of time, both from questmaker and quester. Requires logging capabilities (acousticremains). Can be very subjective (and difficult to blind, due to them being public by default). Can be easily interrupted or sabotaged (silvertongue, silence, petrify, teleport spells). Can be disrupted by onlookers. Can be very confusing if orders and turns are not clearly explained. A bit of a difficult quest to manage, in spite of it being very entertaining. Can be biased towards skilled roleplayers.

    The Clickie Chase Quest

    Spoiler

     

    Usually has the format:

    1. Go to clickable item X and insert password Y to begin

    2. Receive different bits of puzzles or information and get sent to different clickable items with different passwords.

    3. Obtain a final answer.

    4. Time and answer are ‘measured’ and judged.

     

    Pros: Very versatile, the clickables can essentially contain any type of puzzle you can think of, thus the quest isnn’t intrinsically biased towards a specific group of people, but the puzzles you put in it might bias it. Requires some involvement during the active phase (hints, potential glitches). Can give very objective results (exact time and answers and steps reached). Can be very engaging (if serious code-magic is done, like various mini-games). Generally works as a good substrate for more complex quests.

     

    Cons: Requires access to script clickables and knowledge of how to do so. Lots of testing and lots of preparation work needed. Can bug-out and halt progress for everyone. Can bug-out and may allow for cheating/cheesing that you did not predict. Clickables require maintaining every 2 weeks (I think), or they become inactive. Can feel bland and rudimentary (just a window with text).

    The Cipher / Puzzle Quest

    Spoiler

     

    Usually has the format:

    1. Receive a puzzle of sorts (cipher, picture, you name it).

    2. Have a specific constraint (time, number of attempts, hints, etc).

    3. May or may not have a set goal (such as crosswords which you must complete, or just a text that you need to decipher).

    4. Judging & Rewards

     

    Pros: Can be a very good component of other quests. Can be scripted into clickables fairly easily. Can be presented as a picture file (if cipher) to avoid copy-pasting into deciphering software. Can be very rewarding to participants (“I FINALLY GOT IT!”) and very engaging. May also be given a MD feel, but it may not be easy. Can be very objective. Is essentially open to everybody.

     

    Cons: Require preparation from the questmaker (design the ciphers and puzzles). May potentially be difficult to judge, depending on the format in which the answer is delivered. Require testing to make sure they are solvable. Can be intimidating.

     

    Announcements. Miscellaneous

    Tips about how to announce your quests, where to do so and how.

    1. You should announce your quest preferably when you are certain you can hold it (this means you have found sponsorship for rewards, if necessary, or already designed and implemented the bulk of the quest). This is often done on the forums, here. Key elements you should mention in your quest release announcement should be:

      1. Description of the quest requirements (registration - optional, only use if 100% necessary, or details you need for an application)

      2. The task itself + deadlines

      3. Rewards

      4. Judging or scoring methods (do not name your judges. Just say if there will be any and give a few details on what you will be giving points for, if applicable).

    2. Keep in mind that for some quests it is better to announce later rather than earlier (when you want to prevent people from finding loopholes in your quest, for instance).

    3. Try and give a decent amount of time, but do not give a stupendously distant deadline. This means people will have to wait very long for their rewards! Give too short a notice and people won’t participate, as they will fear their effort will be wasted.

    4. During the quest, keep in mind that you announcing details about any of the participants (who is participating, if they have any score so far, who is leading, etc) may lead to their sabotaging! Do not divulge information about participants that is not public by quest design, even if you think it’s harmless!

    5. Be wary that information leaks. Try to tell as little as possible about the quest prior to its release. You might give details to third parties helping you set the quest up and while said third parties may not participate, they may pass the information further to potential participants.

    Sponsorships and Rewards

    Quest rewards can be varied, but can usually be broken down into 5 major categories:

    1. Wishpoints. Arguably most valuable.

    2. Coins (Gold or Silver). Arguably most versatile.

    3. Creatures. Can vary from extremely valuable and rare, to very mundane.

    4. Items or Resources. Some can be valuable and usable (spellstones), other are for RP purposes only. Some resources can be used to create other items or creatures.

    5. Other rewards. This may include things such as nightmode, dreams, melodic charm, medals, group memberships or spelldocs. These can perhaps be some of the rarest rewards, but their value will vary wildly on the perception of the receiver.

     

    For 1-4, you can approach the Treasure Keepers (namely Eara Meraia in-game). You can also ask for sponsorships from just about any player! However, by the time you ask you should already have:

    • A clear quest structure in mind

    • An idea of how difficult the quest would be

    • An idea of what sort of rewards would be suitable for it

    For 5, you should approach the players responsible for those rewards (for instance, myself for nightmode - Aeoshattr in game)

     

    Players who can give special rewards (in their own quests and/or as sponsoring):

    • Nightmode - Aeoshattr
    • Dreams - Jubaris (?)
    • Melodic Charm - Burns (debated currently, I believe)
    • Spelldocs - lashtal, *Nimrodel*, Intrigue

     

    You can always award part of your own items or creatures. If you want to be able to award Wishpoints on your own, you will need to obtain Wishpoint Reward Codes, which you can get from the permanent Drachorn Quest, but are sometimes awarded to questmakers by admins for particularly good quests.

    Keep in mind that rewards should scale with quest difficulty! There is no “here are some average rewards” guide. You should be able to assess the difficulty of your quest and have a rough idea of the type of rewards that should be given. You can always use past quests that you can find on the forums here as a reference.

     

    If you are unsure of the value of a specific item or creature, you can consult past prices by searching the forum here. Make sure you look at the time and date of the transaction! Prices change in time! If still in doubt, you can always ask veteran players in-game or post on the forums.

     

    Quest Judging and Rewarding

    While I cannot provide direct instructions as to how to judge each and every quest, I can provide some principles that are good to follow when thinking about how you select your judges, how you send the quest information to those judges, and subsequently how to distribute rewards. Luckily, some IRL principles can be applied here very successfully! Without further ado…

    Judging Principles

    Single Blinding. This means that your questers do not know who your judges are. This is extraordinarily simple to implement and I dare say it is something that you must do in all of your quests. How?

    • Ask for judges publicly, but ask for applications to be sent to you privately.

    • Go directly to someone you know does judging and ask privately. Make sure you ask them not to divulge their judge status.

    • Do not accept judge applications that are made publicly.

    Why is this good practice? Think about questers potentially influencing judges. Telling them “look for a submission like this one, see if you can give it extra points”, etc. If your questers are unaware of who judges your quest, then that is much more difficult to achieve. Always try and go for reliable, reputable players, whenever possible.

     

    Double Blinding. This means, like single blinding, that your questers do not know who their judges are, but it also means that the judges do not know whose quest entry they are judging! This may sound a bit trickier, and it is, but nevertheless it is not very difficult to achieve. What this means is that you need to take these steps, in order:

    1. You apply all the principles above when selecting your judges

    2. Ask for quest entries to be sent to you privately (forum PMs?)

    3. Make sure you keep a record of which entry belongs to whom (privately). Microsoft Excel (or Google Spreadsheets) is great for this.

    4. Anonymise each entry (remove player names or revealing details, such as titles, ID, etc). Replace them with “Participant X”, where X is a number you assign so you can undo the anonymisation later.

    5. Send each anonymised entry to your judges.

    Therefore, the questers will not know who judges them and the judges won’t know whose entry they are judging. This is one of the fairest things you can do. This also ensures that the only one who knows whose entry belongs to who is you. Obviously, this can be cheated, but it is much more difficult than if you don’t do it at all.

     

    For the more visually inclined, here is an example of what you would receive by forum PMs and what you should send to your judges (using real player names, for the sake of it):

     

    Spoiler

    What you receive:

    Aeoshattr
    My answer to the quest is somewhere “Inside the Drachorn Lair”, because Aeo found the last clue there and the trail seemed to end.

    *Syrian*
    I think the treasure was hidden outside the Drachorn Lair.

    MaGoHi
    MaGoHi says the treasure is inside the Drachorn’s belly and that it must be turned into bacon to retrieve it.

    Turn into:

    Participant 1
    My answer to the quest is somewhere “Inside the Drachorn Lair”, because Participant 1 found the last clue there and the trail seemed to end.

    Participant 2

    I think the treasure was hidden outside the Drachorn Lair.

     

    Participant 3

    Participant 3 says the treasure is inside the Drachorn’s belly and that it must be turned into bacon to retrieve it.

     

    Also, for you (and only you) to keep privately, until the judging is done:

     

    Participant 1 = Aeoshattr

    Participant 2 = *Syrian*

    Participant 3 = MaGoHi

     

    Other bits and details, in no particular order.

    Google Spreadsheets is a great tool to be used for judging. Here are a few things that it can do (automatically) to make your life easier:

    1. Maths. It can calculate averages and just about any other formulas you might need just from values you input.

    2. Easy Sharing. Just send a link to your judges. Make sure you set the document to request permission to view from you by e-mail, don’t let everybody with the link see it!

    3. Hiding. You can hide certain parts of a sheet, or certain sheets from your judges, so they don’t see either your own scores (if you give any) or they don’t see the totals and rankings so far, so that it will not influence their judging!

      1. Think of it this way, if one judge sees that he can make the difference between 1st and 2nd place by his choice, it might influence him in the scores he will give in order to put one participant in front of the other.

    4. Selective Editing. Google Spreadsheets can be set-up to allow each user to edit only a specific portion of the entire spreadsheet. This means you can have a single sheet for everybody, and each judge can edit only his own little section. No changes in the formulas you put in or in the layout, etc.

    This works very well for quests where specific score break-downs are needed (such as an arts & crafts quest, where the total score is composed of many little scores awarded for different criteria).

    You should post your score break-downs, where there are any. This is for transparency. You may or may not want to reveal the judges at the end, and if you do not want to reveal their names (also ask them if they want their names out or not), then simply use Judge X, Y, Z, 1, 2, 3, etc.

    You should double check your scores and calculations. I know it’s very tempting to just take what Google Spreadsheets gives you, but at least look over it once to make sure there are no blatant errors.

    You should aim for two judges for most quests. If you apply double blinding by default you cannot be a judge, unless someone else does the anonymisation for you (which I don’t recommend, I would prefer depending on myself only for this kind of thing).

    Each judge should have an equal weighting in the final score. This means you can’t have 3 judges, but in total their opinion is worth 10% and yours is worth 90%. Each judge should have an equal weighting.

    Make sure your ranking criteria are defined at the beginning. This means if your quest isn’t a simple hierarchy of scores but has some sort of tiers or thresholds, you define those clearly from the very beginning and maintain them at the end of the quest, regardless of how many people ranked in each tier (or didn’t). You should always consult your sponsors, if you think there is a problem with how many people ranked (or didn’t) in a certain position.

    Make sure you provide the judges with your marking scheme. This means be sure that you send them the entries you get from the questers, but also exactly what they should be giving points for, how many and how! If the quest is a puzzle, you might need to send them the puzzle solution. If it’s an arts & crafts quest, you might need to send them the criteria (such as creativity, originality, design, relevance to quest, etc). Always send marking schemes after the quest is finished and when no further entries can be submitted. Just to be extra-safe so your answer doesn’t get leaked before judging starts.

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