With Age and I running it, if people start turning in another direction, it'd reasonable that it'll take forever.
Okay, that I can't say very much about. Frankly, my opinion is that if you find people are turning it in a different direction, that's the way you go with it. You re-write. Running a TP, any TP, is all about re-writing. It's far more about re-writing, or writing possible contingencies, than it is anything else. It's a challenge, that's for sure.
Take Tam's Arches Plot, for instance.
You have given me OOC permission to successfully build them. For which I thank you. However, I will not promise you that I will in fact be able to take advantage of that. There are far too many variables I simply can't control unless I script it down so tightly I'd have to get you personally to intervene with a "THOU SHALT" to make it work. And wouldn't that piss everyone off? Of course, I know you won't do that, but that's not the point.
The point is that I have to be prepared for a whole lot of continencies and possibilities. For instance:
Basuma has given us IC permission to go ahead with taking the proposal to the Hall and even to the Tower if we can get it past the Hall. But, she's sure as hell not happy about it. In fact, she's downright furious, ICly, that we'd even consider such a thing. She could, at the very last moment, as Amyrlin, recind her permission if she wanted. That would twist the plot damn quick. And I have to be prepared for that. What do I do if that happens? Do I give up? Do I try a different tactic? If so, what? Similarily, the Hall could twist the plot damn quick, too. Hell, it already has by forcing Elyse to present it early. We had planned an extend period of feeling Sitters out and making a bunch of quiet backroom deals. Thanks to Atalanta, that's just gotten a whole lot harder and a whole lot less likely. Is that a problem? No. It just changes the picture. So, I re-write.
If the Hall denies Elyse permission to take it to the Tower, as a further example, I'll have to re-write again. What will happen then? Will they demand to have the final decision on it, yes or no? Or will they simply force Elyse to scrap it for now? If they want final decision, what answer will they give? If yes, we go ahead as planned and move on to gathering the build team and constructing the terangreal. If they say no, however, then what do I do? I have to re-write. Figure out my options — one of them being to say, "Okay. People don't want to play this farther. That's cool. I can end it here." Is that my choice for the end of the plot? No. Is it a possibility? Yes.
Plotting for a MUSH is not like plotting for a novel. It's all about continencies, options, and possibilities. It's like those choose your own adventure books from when you were a kid — except you can't ever memorize the route to your favourite end and it never ends the same way twice.
The Manetheren ending was a mess, but even the end of that was planned out. So... I'm confused.
No. The middle of the Manetheren plot was a mess. Right up until someone — whoever it was, I don't know — finally said "This needs to be fixed. Here's what we're going to do." (I know Elyse ran the final battle; I don't know who finally pulled things back on track to allow her to do so.)
The Manetheren plot languished badly in the middle, as far as I could tell. There was no direction of which I, as a regular player "not in the loop", was ever cognizant. But, no. I don't think the Manetheren ending was a mess. It might have been unexpected, but it wasn't a mess. Not from a plot p.o.v., anyway — though maybe from an OOC p.o.v. I don't know. I wasn't privy to that. The actual running of the scenes that ended the plot, however, once the direction had been re-established, went very cleanly, very smoothly, and with lots of room for surprises. To, the plot's ends were all tied together, just waiting for the next plot to begin: I.e. the division of Manethren and the beginnings of the conflict among the Alliance. In that regard, it was spectacularly successful.
But, it was getting to the point of being able to run the end that hurt like hell. With that I won't disagree.
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momijizukamori
Plotting - Part 2
Date: 2003-04-23 02:06 pm (UTC)Okay, that I can't say very much about. Frankly, my opinion is that if you find people are turning it in a different direction, that's the way you go with it. You re-write. Running a TP, any TP, is all about re-writing. It's far more about re-writing, or writing possible contingencies, than it is anything else. It's a challenge, that's for sure.
Take Tam's Arches Plot, for instance.
You have given me OOC permission to successfully build them. For which I thank you. However, I will not promise you that I will in fact be able to take advantage of that. There are far too many variables I simply can't control unless I script it down so tightly I'd have to get you personally to intervene with a "THOU SHALT" to make it work. And wouldn't that piss everyone off? Of course, I know you won't do that, but that's not the point.
The point is that I have to be prepared for a whole lot of continencies and possibilities. For instance:
Basuma has given us IC permission to go ahead with taking the proposal to the Hall and even to the Tower if we can get it past the Hall. But, she's sure as hell not happy about it. In fact, she's downright furious, ICly, that we'd even consider such a thing. She could, at the very last moment, as Amyrlin, recind her permission if she wanted. That would twist the plot damn quick. And I have to be prepared for that. What do I do if that happens? Do I give up? Do I try a different tactic? If so, what? Similarily, the Hall could twist the plot damn quick, too. Hell, it already has by forcing Elyse to present it early. We had planned an extend period of feeling Sitters out and making a bunch of quiet backroom deals. Thanks to Atalanta, that's just gotten a whole lot harder and a whole lot less likely. Is that a problem? No. It just changes the picture. So, I re-write.
If the Hall denies Elyse permission to take it to the Tower, as a further example, I'll have to re-write again. What will happen then? Will they demand to have the final decision on it, yes or no? Or will they simply force Elyse to scrap it for now? If they want final decision, what answer will they give? If yes, we go ahead as planned and move on to gathering the build team and constructing the terangreal. If they say no, however, then what do I do? I have to re-write. Figure out my options — one of them being to say, "Okay. People don't want to play this farther. That's cool. I can end it here." Is that my choice for the end of the plot? No. Is it a possibility? Yes.
Plotting for a MUSH is not like plotting for a novel. It's all about continencies, options, and possibilities. It's like those choose your own adventure books from when you were a kid — except you can't ever memorize the route to your favourite end and it never ends the same way twice.
The Manetheren ending was a mess, but even the end of that was planned out. So... I'm confused.
No. The middle of the Manetheren plot was a mess. Right up until someone — whoever it was, I don't know — finally said "This needs to be fixed. Here's what we're going to do." (I know Elyse ran the final battle; I don't know who finally pulled things back on track to allow her to do so.)
The Manetheren plot languished badly in the middle, as far as I could tell. There was no direction of which I, as a regular player "not in the loop", was ever cognizant. But, no. I don't think the Manetheren ending was a mess. It might have been unexpected, but it wasn't a mess. Not from a plot p.o.v., anyway — though maybe from an OOC p.o.v. I don't know. I wasn't privy to that. The actual running of the scenes that ended the plot, however, once the direction had been re-established, went very cleanly, very smoothly, and with lots of room for surprises. To, the plot's ends were all tied together, just waiting for the next plot to begin: I.e. the division of Manethren and the beginnings of the conflict among the Alliance. In that regard, it was spectacularly successful.
But, it was getting to the point of being able to run the end that hurt like hell. With that I won't disagree.
At least, from what I was able to see, anyway.