Icebound

Every topic we bring to this forum will follow the same basic format: we’ll explain what we are trying to do and why, we lay out the scope of what we are considering, and then we open the floor. We want your constructive feedback and your suggestions. This will help us find the best compromises we can, because what "works" is going to look different depending on who you ask.

Rather than repeat this introduction at the top of every thread, we're putting it here once to refer back to whenever a new topic goes up:

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If the game can enforce it mechanically, it should. 

This is a 24/7 persistent world, and staff cannot be everywhere at once, nor should you want us to be. Every time staff has to step into player relations, it puts someone in the position of the "bad guy." Someone walks away from that upset, and every one of those moments chips away at the health of the community, win or lose.

    

Disputes will still happen, and we can't engineer around every edge case. But wherever we can shore up a system so it doesn't depend on staff intervention, we will. This is especially true in a permadeath setting, trusting a stranger on the internet to act in good faith with hours of your character's life on the line isn't a great foundation to build on, no matter how much good faith actually exists in this community.

Additionally, in preparation for our next point, even if something makes sense to include in the setting; lockpicking and PvP stealing are good examples, if it's impossible to police without relying solely on good faith or heavy micromanaging of the playerbase, don't expect it to make it into the game.

Wherever the engine allows it, mechanics should be in service to, or at the very least not detract from, the setting, story, and fun. The world will lean on its mechanics to inform the narrative wherever it can to make for a smoother transition between game and roleplay. 

It also leaves less room to cherry pick when roleplay applies and when it doesn't, something that gets weaponized more often than we'd like. 

Ex. Someone watches you kill an NPC, and now rush to a brand you a murderer to the masses, but when you remind them of the murder spree they performed running through a dungeon that same afternoon, that was "just a dungeon.". Neither party is wrong in this example, its something that the design should account for. So here, NPCs go down the same way players do, and killing one is a choice the same way killing a player is a choice and ignoring it a meaningful contraction that informs the character, not a selective player interpretation that paves the way for an out of character conflict.

There will still be times we have to use common sense on when to suspend a mechanic, or find creative ways to roleplay around what the game allows, but wherever we can lean on the mechanics instead, we’ll try our best to utilize them.

We're building this for the realities of a niche hobby made up of a community of adults who have jobs, families, and a litany of other things competing for their time.

Naturally, we want to tempt you and your friends into spending your free time here telling stories, but we don't want the game to punish people for not always having that time available. We also want to design with a big tent in mind, to help grow the hobby without detracting from the setting.

That said, the difficulty curve is aimed at letting you meaningfully engage with, and mechanically progress through, the game in a couple of hours a night, with some soft gates built in to encourage you to slow down and tell stories with your fellow players.

In general, expect safer play to progress more slowly, and riskier play to progress faster, to balance the spectrum of playstyles.

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So if you find yourself wondering why something does or doesn't work the way you'd expect, it's likely attributable to one of the tenets above. It may not be the best decision, and it may need to change, but keep these in mind when framing your feedback.