Design Brainstorm: A better alternative to role calls

SoI and its successors (Atonement, Parallel, SoI:Laketown) had a system of roles that you qualified for with RPP (their version of karma) which included things for which Armageddon uses role calls. These were made available in chargen and did not require correspondence with staff. You might select a role for their equivalent of "officer of the AotD," and if there was no other current leader of that clan, you would just be given that position. Otherwise you'd be their second in command or whatever. It worked pretty well. These games hardly ever had to send out role calls, the clans were just naturally populated and always had leadership through organic progression of members.

This post will pertain more to the aforementioned system of roles than role calls. I think it's something Armageddon could really benefit from. Let's say that 1 karma allows you to enter the game as a Byn trooper, AotD private, Atrium graduate, or anything like that. This could breathe a lot of life into the game's ailing clans. Right now (and since forever), if you're not entering the game through an actual clanlead role call, you're joining a clan from the very bottom. Role calls are necessary for some roles - you can't really become a templar or noble through in-game means - but I think the frequent shortages of clanleads has something to do with the fact that such a small proportion of characters who join a clan stick around long enough to become a candidate for leadership.

When you always have to start on the bottom rung, odds are you're playing a different character three months later. Armageddon has serious issues with character longevity: 30+ new character applications per week in a game that has less than 200 active players? That's really bad. Most of those are not characters created with a specific concept in mind. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that people keep giving up on their PCs. You make a character, look around for something to do, join a clan, and then the recruit fatigue hits you immediately. Part of that, in turn, has to do with the fact that there's usually only one or two characters of any real rank in whatever clan you choose to join. It almost never feels like you're joining a thriving community. Clans are perpetually struggling to survive, so it's never a good idea to join them just for a source of roleplay.

I wouldn't mind playing, say, a corporal of the AotD, and eventually rise to the position of sergeant if it suited me, but I genuinely don't have the desire to go through the soulcrushing tedium of being a recruit for two months and then private for another two, for the 10th time. I've done that before on numerous occasions and eventually it's just not appealing anymore. One could probably submit a special application for it, but the thought of bothering staff about such a thing, and the annual restrictions on spec apps, makes it undesirable. If instead one's karma opened up options for standardized roles, I expect players would more readily take those.

I say that as someone who hasn't even got an active account and would make a new one if I ever return to the game, so this is not a matter of personal interest. One could write a thesis on the flaws of the karma system; but one thing they really ought to do with it is steer it away from "karma = coded power" and into "karma = easier entry into roles." Anyone who has a couple of karma points is surely trusted enough to create a militia corporal. Such roles could be temporarily closed anytime a given clan has sufficient players of the rank in question, and opened when not. I think this would greatly alleviate the need for role calls as players could start higher up in the hierarchy and more naturally slot into the leadership spots which would, in turn, make for a more seamless transition than when the new sergeant materializes out of nowhere.

Basically, when you create a character, there could be a chargen menu after races and classes that consists of currently open roles of the kinds that don't require extensive vetting and discussion amongst staff. A militia private at 1 karma, for instance. Staff really wouldn't need to discuss that. You could just be a transfer from another unit. It worked great in other RPIs and I think it would be a refreshing change for Armageddon where far too many players choose the indie life where you don't have to be a worthless nobody for a lengthy period of time, leaving clans perpetually underpopulated because veteran players are deterred by the prospect of playing a recruit for an in-game year after having already done it so many times before.

It should be easy for a clan's staff to enable or disable roles on a week-by-week basis depending on what's needed and what isn't. If there's no junior merchant in Kadius right now and no upcoming candidate, switch on a role that allows anyone with 1 karma to create such a character. If there's no need, switch it off. God knows the game is chronically crippled by underpopulated clans. The best thing for Armageddon right now would be to encourage clanned play, and this would certainly accomplish that.

The game has a serious problem with clan attractiveness because you're expected to be a shit-shoveler for ages before you count as a real member. It's why most clans usually linger around 2-4 members when they need 8+ to feel functional at all. As more and more clans get removed from the game, they really need to address this. There are so few options left that experienced players just can't be expected to go through the same process time after time. Being a worthless nobody has its charms, but not every time. It's particularly awkward when you want to play a character who isn't young. Sometimes you want to play a character who's seen the world, but the lengthy recruit phase seriously invalidates that. Not everyone wants to start at 18.

While I personally like the idea of speeding up promotions, a lot of these things do happen naturally. One runner is treated like dirt, while the other is listened to more then some troopers.

A process of climbing up the rungs is important, because to lead a person needs to know how to follow. It's why the leade s who climbed up the ranks fair so much better then role called ones.

Would someone be able to tell me? Has there been a more then a 2 week time when AoD did not have an officer/corporal of some kind present? Sargeant, or Corporal, or both?

one thats a gameworld group specific thing that u can easily avoid by forming ur own sellsword band with laxer rules for chars who dont want to pay three small and scrape dung

two being able to kill a byn corporal sergeant does not translate into a mercenary group trusting someone theyve never worked with or vetted the way they do with everyone else in their company to follow orders and stay loyal to the company its system and contracts much less automatically trusting them to in turn to lead and order ppl in line with the specific way they do things

three its a fucking joke to expect a long established hierarchy of paid killers to let anyone who hasnt otherwise proven their trust loyalty and willingness to follow orders to the same degree skip the entire vetting process into lower lvl leadership

doubly so for anyone already able to slaughter its leaders

yet no one cares about this when templars, merchant house family members, and nobles jump in and have authority

Reminds me of Salarry expansion division.

Long after the death of the agent who made it awesome, a newly role called crew leader showed up and began treating the lifesworn years old hunters like shit.

Within maybe an hour of the guys life, he suffered a sparring accident and died .

There was a lot of noise, but in the end nobody got punished. It was hilarious. Although annoying.

It's not ment to be contradictory. It's about two different things entirely. One posts talking about the scrab hunting dude and how they shouldn't be sped promoted, you explained it well enough in that quote. The other is about role calls.


As for the aide becoming noble. Or clerk becoming templar. It has happened before. Not in the fashion you speak of, but close enough.

Let's say a noble stores and their aide is now unemployed. A new role call is announced.

Nothing stops that aide from apping for that noble and while being chosen is not guaranteed, they will have an incredibly stronger chance of being chosen then nearly anyone. Unless the player of that aide is known to be bad at sponsored roles, or aristocracy roles.

There are numerous instances when becoming an aide to a noble, or clerk in AoD eventually landed those people nobility, templarate, Sargeant roles later on.

Being able to say "I know the ins and outs of house X" while being very familiar with the staffer whose house you've been playing is a major advantage during special role app consideration.


Off the top of my head, I can think of Taven. A good player who played multiple aide roles. Excellent roleplayer, but horrible at leadership roles, I'm sad to say. She was still given a templar role due to all that in clan knowledge she had as AoD recruit/private/clerk experience. Excellent player. Horrible templar.



I recall a conversation about jcarter once. He was playing a dwarf in the Byn with a Sargeant played by isfriday. Jcarter was trying to secure a promise from staff that if he can pull a rebellion and have that Sargeant scratched off, his dwarf would be promoted. I think the staff gave the usual,"No promises, but nothing is impossible" kind of thing.

Then the Sargeant died to a sparring accident (a real accident. It wasn't even planned) and the Byn staffer went on a whole quest, identifying jcarter emails to send him a "Come back to the game. Go be sarge", but I guess it never happened.



There is always consideration if it's possible to promote from inside. And it does happen. Sometimes to great effect. Sometimes it puts a real idiot into leadership role, but that's also part of life. Idiots do get into positions of authority. It's up to their underlings to fix that mistake.

Sometimes the possible pool of potential people to promote consists of people who would be excellent, but blatantly refuse to be leaders, people who do not know the game enough to keep their people alive 'yet', people who abuse and bend the code/ooc communication/awareness of the virtual world so stuff do not want to reward that behavior with promotions, and people who are known to get hostile to staff whenever they don't get what they want, so staff simply do not want to deal with them on the level of interaction that leadership roles require. Or people who are in depths of subplots that might get upset if they get promoted, in which case there is usually a conversation. Or some variable combination of all that.

Not counting people who haven't been in the house long enough, or who is much weaker then someone else who doesn't want to be the leader and their promotion will cause the other to leave, or player population to split off and kill the clan. Or if membership is so low, promoting one person will basically make him a leader of noone else. While getting a role call in, basically adds one new clan member.


Sometimes a role call is a neutral clean solution, when promoting within ranks will cause more grief then benefit. But in general, promotions within are preferred if the clan can support it with membership numbers.