Prime Time?

Hello! I'm realizing I short of joined at a weird time given the holidays et al, but generally what has been the game's "prime time" as far as time zone goes?

Just trying to get a sense if there's a better time to set aside for meeting folks, as everyone I've met so far has been super lovely! But just wondering if bigger crowds are mostly organized via stated RPT times or when the "rush" usually is.

Hello!

Awesome to see new people. And hmm I would through out 9 pm EST evenings into the 4 am ish times for busier times amongst the combinations of time zones. I answer that with the times I am most often free/seeing people online.

Events can also be good for coordinating times, paired with ic coordinating (letters, rumors etc)

There seems at the moment to be a smaller peak in the mid-afternoon (game-time, EST), and then a lull of a few hours, followed a bigger one as tpb Ighlaf says in the evenings from late night/early morning, but lately I have been finding people at all hours, which is quite nice! :)

As a follow up, what is the current kind of expected "loop" or what should folks generally be doing? What should they not be doing?

I have fun kind of wandering about and looking at stuff and foraging things, but, should I be looking to sell them? Craft with them?

The main purpose of Avaria is simply to tell stories together through roleplay and writing, so simply engaging with the world, with other characters, and with the story system is really the chief thing you're "supposed" to be doing in playing the game. The other thing, of course -- since we're only in alpha -- is just to help us develop the game by exploring the world, reporting bugs and typos, making suggestions, and giving general feedback about how things work.

As far as activities like foraging and hunting go, they're designed more as means of obtaining materials for crafting, or as subsistence-level activities for outdoors-oriented characters, rather than as a method for making serious money. As the systems are better developed, there will be more chances to find rarer plants and creatures and harvest more expensive parts from them in order to at least supplement a living. But right now they're in a pretty rudimentary state and by far the most reliable way of making money is through a job. Crafting can also be a decent money-making venture, though I need to get a lot more materials into the game.

One thing I've been working on is some long overdue updates of the wiki, and I've started by updating some pages pertaining to the story system, namely:

• Personal Stories
• The STORY Command
• The QUERY Command

These features are all things to help people develop their own stories and get involved in existing ones -- which, again, is really the main point of Avaria.

There are in fact quite a few background stories currently ongoing in the game, though I'll admit they're mostly going at a low simmer simply due to the fact of my limited time to do All the Things. But they are there, so simply being around and roleplaying may loop a character into current events, or garner them a connection that may lead to something interesting down the line. There are also PCs who have interesting stories of their own (some of them quite new PCs, even!) so just getting to know people may open additional doors to fun and character development.

As far as submitting character stories to the action queue goes, in general I'm probably not going to encourage submission of new PCs' stories until the player and/or PC has been around for a few months. This is just because:

• This gives new players time to learn about the game world and what is possible and interesting to do in it.
• It gives new characters (belonging to either new or old players) time to be developed more fully and begin to pursue truly meaningful stories.
• It allows staff to prioritize helping players/characters who have already invested meaningful time in the game, and who are likely to stick around to make use of their stories and plot hooks. It can take serious staff time and resources to address a story in a genuinely productive and interesting way!

However, I DO encourage everyone to make use of the QUERY command to request interactions with NPCs, and the STORY REQUEST command to ask for small, quick responses to stories. It may still take me a little while to respond, but I *try* to take care of these within a couple of weeks, and often I can do them within a few days, just depending on what else I have going on (in Avaria and outside of it). One caveat is that I'm roughly on the same time as Avaria, so I'm mostly available for actual interactions in the US Eastern-time evenings, and then on some weekends during the daytime as well.

I know it can be easy to feel like you don't really know what to do to pursue a given character's interests, or to find new things to get involved in, especially given our still-limited systems and small player base. My main suggestions are just to create and develop your personal stories, and simply to be around and engaged with the world. And, maybe above all, to be patient! I am, alas, only one limited human being, and though I do try to gently reel people into existing plotlines and help with those of their own PCs, I have a lot of things pulling me in all directions and I can't always immediately engage people even when I'd like to.

But, I am excited to have new people and to see where their stories eventually lead!

So, checking in a bit over a month later, still sort of trying to get a handle on what might be an interesting personal story to pursue versus more just "organic" RP.  In general, do folks (or had folks) joined with more fleshed out backgrounds that more naturally gave those hooks, or is there a more obvious (something) I might be missing that works/has worked for folks?

Well, I'm about as new as you, so this is just my two cents! I haven't had trouble coming up with things I want to pursue, though admittedly part of that is my ADHD-fueled hyper-curiosity. But I also think my usual character-building approach gels very harmoniously with Avaria's system. 

So for Kamenes, I did start with a more fleshed-out background that came with one big goal to get me going (the desire to attend the Elucidarium to study the history of the Amunati/their religion). The motivation for that hook came out of a personality trait (fascinated by historical questions and supernatural mysteries) that I expected would lead him into more interesting hooks in the future. And then underlying the personality trait is a foundational need or motivation - a thing this character wants and does not have (a way to comprehend the world that gives him a place in it). You may look at that need and say "well, that's stupidly ambitious". That's actually the point! For me, at least, the trick is to make that need something so difficult to truly fulfill that there's something to perpetually propel a character forward even if specific stories are followed through to the end. I owe this approach to my favorite piece of advice on writing ever, which really helped me formalize my process of character creation.

While this is something I typically do before I make a PC, the same process happens organically in RP all the time too. If you know something your PC wants to pursue, you can kind of intuit backward from there. WHY does this appeal to them- what psychological need would fulfilling this goal meet? Are they seeking security, autonomy, a desire to be loved? Most every character I play starts around one need that's the core of their concept, but I end up discovering more needs along the way through looking at other hooks and goals that resonate. Once you figure out a need, you can spin more goals out of it naturally, because it's rare people do only one thing to pursue those fundamental desires.

If absolutely nothing seems to present itself as a goal for a PC, I think this can even be done in a slightly OOC-led way. That is, you can think about the kind of things YOU want to do on a character, what sort of RP would interest you to pursue, and then work backwards to figure out what would motivate your character to pursue such a thing. With a less pre-formed backstory, you have a chance to insert something that could organically lead in a more exciting direction. Maybe there was something someone said to your PC that didn't mean much at the time, but now takes on a different meaning... maybe there was an old passionate interest that flamed out due to circumstances, but could be revived... maybe you even want to request a certain inciting incident to motivate a change in your story.

I hope this is helpful and not just rambling!

So doing a bit of a check-in after some more months, here's some follow up questions I've had:

- Are Query scenes meant to generally be things that are one-on-one or more private? Is that a staff preference/rule or more player choice/preference? Or can they be for more public things as well?

- What in general in the eyes of staff makes something a meaningful story? Are there things that we don't see enough of? Things we've seen too much of? What makes something a good idea that would make for a longer-term more developed story versus more one off requests? 

Throwing my own personal takes out here in case they're helpful to you:

QUERY can be private or public; it just means you want to talk to someone who isn't a PC. If you want one or the other I'd suggest noting it in the query itself, though the character limit for the command is rather low. Examples might be: "query a wizard I want to talk in public about rabbits in hats" or "query owner of the jolly osprey I need to chat in private about security"  or "query Kannareth I found something of hers" etc)

My take on meaningful story is simply meaningful to YOU and/or your character, and don't take staff's opinion or anyone else's into account. There's no quota of stories of a certain type that gets filled and then no more can be told. They are solely for you and your enjoyment as a player.

I'm going to reveal the stories I've got ongoing, for the purpose of sharing real examples, though I'll obfuscate some details for privacy:

    1. A story about Matty coming to Omrazir and learning how to fit in, make friends, see it as home (or not?), to feel like he belongs (or not). My focus here is, what is he doing to adapt and learn and fit in to a new culture? What difficulties is he having with the process, and what successes? Who are his friends, and why? This is quite long-term and broad, and I have not yet requested admin attention for it, because it's over-arching and more just for me to keep track of his overall progress than to have a "plot" in game. I will be submitting it soon, or else creating a new story arc for one particular part of this one, because my character currently has a goal that will anchor him to Omrazir more fully which requires admin help to achieve.

    2. A story about a particular mysterious phenomenon occurring in the game world right now that Matty has an interest in, and wants to pursue investigating and learning more and trying to assist. This is much more specific, and while I have not yet formally requested attention, I probably will be doing so in the future as he has a goal of attempting to help one particular entity in the world. In the meantime, there has been plenty of development over time that has been meaningful to me because the interactions he's had in pursuing this storyline have impacted him and changed him, and because it's been challenging to navigate talking to others about the storyline for IC reasons, which loops back in to story 1 because it affects his relationships.

    3. A story about Matty's loyalties and how they have been tested and questioned and reshaped by the events that happened in game between two other characters a while back that caused some major conflicts. I have requested attention for this one for a specific goal he had of contacting a particular figure in the game world to ask for their help. This story is also more specific, but ongoing because even though the main conflict has died down for now, there continue to be repercussions that affect how he moves through the world and interacts with others.

    4. This is cheating because I actually haven't created this story in my story arcs yet, but I am planning to start one more that focuses on *another* character's story that Matty wants to help out with, and his relationship with them.

    5. A background story arc. This is just for me, will never be submitted, I took the idea from someone else and made a story arc where I can jot down notes about Matty's background that I have come up with since entering the game (meaning these particular things are not already in his background that I submitted in chargen). It helps me to remember details about things, and gives me a space to freely write more background if I like.

Basically, I see the story system with submissions as simply a formalization of what happens in every RP game I have ever played, where at some point your character wants to do something, and the code doesn't support you doing it independently, so you have to ask for help from staff. Examples, both from my own experiences and others': ride a sea serpent, tame a wild horse, build a hotel, plant a tree, learn magic, kill a dragon, have a baby, burn down a building, steal a boat, break out of jail, invent a new medicine, build a bridge over a chasm, find out about some specific history of the gameworld, meet an NPC that maybe doesn't codedly exist yet, reconnect with characters from your background, tame a wolf pup, spy for a high-ranking NPC, acquire a ship, buy tourist souvenirs in a distant town, run for office... 

And even if you don't want to do anything like that? Just make a story that you don't submit. You don't have to submit it or request attention for it, ever. It can just be for you. Maybe your character has an epic romance - that's a meaningful story. Maybe your character is struggling to succeed in their profession which is supported by code and doesn't need admin assistance - that's also a meaningful story, as your character learns and grows and overcomes difficulty. Maybe your character keeps getting betrayed by other PCs, and is struggling to understand why this keeps happening and what's wrong with them. Maybe they had something happen to them in their background or in game that gave them trauma and they are trying to overcome it. All kinds of interpersonal stories are also meaningful and valid subjects for story arcs, even if they never demand staff attention. My understanding is that, while submitting a story codedly means that staff will take some action for your story, and thus they MUST read it, they tend to keep an eye on everyone's stories even when they're not submitted, because it is valuable information about your character and what you prioritize as a player.

If this is at all helpful, great. If not, I apologize for rambling without helping :] I love stories, so I like to talk about them a lot.

I don't have much to add here, but just wanted to say that pof Mathias, I found that description of the story system very helpful and inspiring. I have been a really terrible user of the system since alpha-alpha (really, my entires back then were chaotic and a terrible mess), and your description has inspired me to spend some time in coming days to clean things up and get more organized, so, thanks :D