* Story Council is currently inactive and not open for membership. Roleplay
ideas may still be submitted via applications.
What does Story Council do?
The Story Council provides additional roleplay opportunities for the
playerbase and rewards interesting, thoughtful roleplay since the immortals
cannot watch everything all the time. Story Council members are expected to
run one small quest per month with minimal immortal assistance. Additionally,
they help to foster RP by encouraging character involvement in existing
plotlines or by beginning roleplay themselves. In many ways, Story Council
may be considered a possible recruitment pool for immortals. We hope that an
active, invested Story Council will improve the overall quality of the
roleplay on the game and involve as many players as possible in events.
What are the requirements for Story Council membership?
We expect Story Council members to have a firm grasp of game rules, a solid
handle on RP tools available to players, and the time to run at least one
role-play event per month. We look for people who will not abuse the tools
they are given and who will be active in generating roleplay. Story Council
membership provides no in-game benefit to the member themselves: it is a role
in which members must put aside some of their own time to improve the game
for other players. If you don't have the time one month to run an event due
to extenuating circumstances, the immortals are happy to accommodate that as
long as you let us know what's going on. However, we will remove players from
the Story Council if they do not fulfill their commitments, as we expect
members to actually do what we bring them onto the council to do.
What is expected of Story Council quests?
We do not expect Story Council members to be running huge, complicated plot
lines. We are looking for small, simple quests that take one to two hours to
run and provide fun, entertaining things for people to do while there's
nothing else going on. You don't need to announce these quests in advance:
ideally, you should be able to start a small event whenever people gather.
Additionally, these events should not require the participation of an
immortal beyond possibly providing a few props for the quest or moving a mob.
Story Council members are welcome to run more complicated plot lines if they
wish, but for the once-a-month quests, simpler is often better. We encourage
quests to be ones that anyone may participate in, but we do not expect Story
Council members to break character while running plots. The immortal staff is
always happy to help fine-tune ideas if you have questions about how suitable
a quest would be.
What is an example of a Story Council quest?
One member of the Story Council ran a quest using her character, who was a
mage that liked to perform experiments. She had a potion which she had never
quite been able to identify and decided to enlist a volunteer to help her
figure it out. After one sip of the potion, the volunteer was sent a series
of clever echoes by the Story Council member that made it clear it was a love
potion. The recipient fell deeply in love with an NPC guard and was
eventually taken to the temple of Sune to see how they could help. It took
about an hour and a half to run, was fun to participate in and didn't require
much setup - just a single prop supplied by an immortal. However, players are
also welcome to act as bystanders during their quests and puppet mobs to run
things rather than lead themselves.
What tools do Story Council members have in order to run events?
Story Council members have access to echo, recho, areaecho, echoat, and
reward commands. Recho allows players to send a message (similar to an emote
but not requiring the use of the players name in the string) to the room.
Echoat sends a message to a targeted player that cannot be seen by anyone
else. Areaecho sends a message to an area, and echo sends a message to the
entire game. The reward command allows Story Council members to give glory
for good roleplay and participation in quests.
What are Story Council members allowed to use these tools to do?
The tools available to Story Council members are not meant to give members
any kind of advantage over other players. They are not meant to enhance or
give flavour to an individual's own roleplay, allow a Story Council member to
avoid interacting with other players, or to be used to advance an
immortal-run plotline without actually participating in quest events. Story
Council members should be using their tools to puppet mobs and manipulate
inanimate objects using echoes but these should only be done to benefit and
provide roleplay for other players, not for the benefit of the Story Council
member, his/her friends, or any faction over another. If you use the tools
you are given to cheat, you will be removed from Story Council and punished,
without exception.
What if players ignore me?
First and foremost, dont get discouraged! Sometimes players just won't want
to get involved or take a hint. It's nothing personal, and it happens to
immortals all the time, too. All we can do is put the roleplay threads out
there and hope that people take them. If they don't, regroup, find some
different people or a different time, and try again. For every person who
ignores something, there's also a person playing the game who will be
thrilled to have a role-play opportunity provided, and running quests and
events for those players makes it all worth it, in the end.
How do I apply to become a member of the Story Council?
Having carefully weighed everything we have talked about here, including the
critical notion that in this role you will be setting aside some of your time
to help the game and make it more fun for your fellow players, follow the
hyperlink at the bottom of this help file for details on what to include in
your application.
Can I still run events if I am not on the Story Council?
Yes! The entire game is about players creating their own adventures. Story
Council and the immortals are happy to help if a player wishes to run a
one-time quest, but you do not need our approval or Story Council tools to do
so. Found a strange, glowing stone left in the garden somewhere? Go find
other players and ask them about it. Maybe that strange rock is a star that
has fallen out of the sky and you can hold a contest to see who can shoot
another one down. Look around the game for things that are out of the
ordinary and you can turn almost anything into an adventure. When an immortal
sees players taking the initiative, we do our best to help out and puppet
mobs or leave clues to turn the adventure into something truly immersive.
Every player is playing the game to create his or her own stories, not to
read a book that has a predetermined ending. So get out there, use your
imagination, and make yourself an adventure. For all that the immortals try
to do, we can't play the game for people, and we can't make the game fun if
players aren't out doing things.
How can I make the game more fun for myself as well as others?
Most of all, be proactive rather than reactive. Don't just ignore anything
unusual, even if it seems minor. Investigate it, if you would ICly, even if
you think OOCly that it won't amount to anything. Don't discourage the
excitement of other players: let them figure things out for themselves and
explore the game, rather than telling them what everything is through OOC
channels. React to things in-character rather than out of character: a new
player will get a lot more out of walking through a new area if you're
in-character when you hear a strange clicking noise rather than telling them
in otell that its nothing to be worried about, its just a low level mob.
Remember, no one can play the game for you. If you're not actively writing
your own story, you're likely not going to have much fun.