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GM Guide - All GMs Should Read

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Posted 03 September 2006 - 08:05 PM

This will basically summarize what the GMs can do. I'll keep it as short as possible, but this is necessary so we're all on the same page and won't create balance or story conflicts.


What GMs Do:

- Manage their own quests. They can create and control various necessary characters, make items to give, create challenges or hostile encounters, or anything else within logical boundaries to support the quests. The quests can be geared toward the stats of the one who gets involved in them, or they can be set in a way that requires a certain level or class of character to complete.

- Create a somewhat living world. GMs can make encounters that don't involve quests, start up shops, create their own related storylines, or just have some fun with characters and provide a means for interaction.


What GMs Can't Do:

- While GMs can (and should) involve themselves in others' quests and maintain their own legitimate characters, they should not use their GM powers to provide an advantage.

- GMs cannot alter the primary storyline. I'll get into this later.

- I've received a lot of questions about this, but being a GM doesn't provide moderator powers.

- GMs should not double-post for NPC conversations.

- The role of the GM is not to alter the fundamentals of the game. In other words, they can't directly create deities, classes, or anything else that is part of the "official" game. It's possible (and I repeat, possible) for certain aspects to be added if they make sense, but since DStorm is leading to a real game that we're developing, this cannot always be the case.


Balance Concerns:

- Just something to keep in mind... Don't try to out-do everyone else. This mostly involves the items or money rewards that you give. We had a problem with this initially, and it forced the whole scale of the game to shift and a lot of changes had to be made (and some classes were broken because of it). This is a problem in some forum RPGs that I know of, where GMs feel the need to make every quest better than the last. "Better" often translates to "better loot". Others start to follow suit, and suddenly the economy, as well as the balance, are destroyed.

- This caused some confusion before, but just because an item was placed in one of my shops doesn't mean that I intend for it to be logically available at that time. A few asked me questions about this before, often along the lines of "How are we supposed to afford this item?" If someone asks this about something, expect my answer to be something along the lines of "You aren't supposed to afford it yet." The job of the GMs is not to make it affordable. As things progress naturally and logically, in time it will become affordable, but a GM should not intend to rush it.

- Take great care when giving items certain effects. When in doubt, please ask me about it. Sometimes even the simplest effect will create balance issues. This won't make sense until I implement the class trees, but as a general rule, the higher up the skill is, the less likely that it is suitable for an item. You don't want to replace a class' strengths with an item. Some status effects like poison can be a safe bet. The best effects should usually be implemented in weapons so the slots are limited.

- Be sure to price your items appropriately in shops. This doesn't need to be a science, I don't want the GMs calculating averages and graphing price versus damage or something. Just be logical, there should be good deals and bad deals scattered around anyway.

- Thought I should mention it again... But take care when you give money for something.


Story Concerns:

- This isn't a tremendous issue, but please take care with your plots. You have a ton of freedom, but please don't do something that fundamentally alters the story. I'll list a couple things to avoid:
  • Controlling or involving the story's characters. These include the characters mentioned in the Great Library and in the "Story Characters" page. You can refer to the characters, but shouldn't do something that directly affects them. The only exception is if I bring them in for some reason, but anyone can interact with them then.
  • Please don't directly affect the locations in a way that fundamentally affects them. By this, I basically mean don't destroy a place or change who controls it.
This isn't as much of a concern as the balance issues, since there's no real damage that can be done. You really have to be trying, though, to mess with the storyline. I'm trying to keep it as open as possible for side plots, and will soon be providing areas that have no context in the story for the GMs to have some fun. Just keep this in mind.
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#2 {lang:macro__useroffline}   Cspace {lang:icon}

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Posted 11 September 2006 - 12:44 AM

Updated:

QUOTE
- GMs should not double-post for NPC conversations.

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