Please disregard this if it gets to spoiler territory or future story stuff, but I wanted to ask if there were any tidbits you might share about the Vauhan family/young twins, or Shuos Academy in general - we know there are tracks (like majors) that cadets declare for, from assassination, bomb disposal, to Mikodez's admin/analysis. Five years of training in Jedao's time, with a centuries old game competition each year, and cute squirrels and carp on campus. What would a second year have learnt already, and was Zehun an instructor for long?
Note that you're welcome to edit a lot of these details since this is AU and I managed to leave a ton of this stuff out of the books. (I had to cut stuff for space reasons.)
- The Vauhans are a fairly close-knit extended family. Mikodez and Istradez had multiple parents (number unspecified, up to you). The Vauhans tend to breed really good-looking men even without genetic tinkering but most of them can't hold a tune in a bucket. There is an older sister, Avradez, who is the one who sent Mikodez the handmade soap, and who is probably the one Mikodez got his crafting tendencies from. Mikodez lives in terror of Avradez.
Andan Niath won't have been born yet if Mikodez is still a cadet, although he may have other nieces/nephews/sib-children. (I do not know of a non-awkward way to say "alt/nonbinary kids of a sibling" so if anyone has suggestions I'm listening.)
Mikodez attended Shuos Academy Prime, which is planetside near the Citadel of Eyes. (Basically, the Citadel is a space station in geosynchronous orbit over the Academy.) Because the hexarchate is a big place, there is also Shuos Academy Secondary and Shuos Academy Tertiary, as well as a ton of minor affiliated academies that churn out the lower-level Shuos. (The other faction academies operate similarly.)
Five years to graduate is average but it depends on how smart you are, how ambitious you are (triple-major?), and how hard you work. Think of it as a combination of generalized undergrad and fairly practical vocational training.
Things a second-year would know already: - Basic firearms and self-defense. That being said, a cryptographer or an administrator is not going to be expected to be Rambo and/or James Bond. Mikodez is canonically a good shot at the firing range, but would probably have issues if he went up against someone with actual combat experience in a real-world violent situation. - Introduction to Seduction is an optional first-year course but most cadets opt to take it. It's up to you whether you think Mikodez would have done so. - Security/social engineering. Cadets are usually encouraged to practice on each other. Again, canonically Mikodez is really good at persuading even paranoid fellow cadets to go along with him. If you ever hit a point in the game where Mikodez should be able to do this but you're stuck for ideas on how to pull it off, ask me or your fellow players and we can brainstorm ways for him to pull it off--the more eyes the better two heads are better than one, etc. - Introductory courses for their major. - A general introduction to game design so that all the other instructors can wallop them with it over and over for the rest of their academy careers. You can downplay this if you want, or if you need game design stuff for Mikodez I'm happy to advise. (I might read a little too much game design theory for my own good.) - Basic P.E. An analyst/administrator isn't going to be held to the same standards as someone planning to become an assassin! But they gamify basic fitness just to make sure that people are moderately healthy. Mikodez probably took up eating candy as an allergic reaction to this.
- Zehun had been an instructor for several years when they were sent in with a team of assassins to assess and possibly terminate Mikodez. Later in canon they ended up abandoning their teaching post to become Mikodez's personal person who nags them to eat real food assistant, in a "power behind the throne" way--they had a lot of contacts in the Shuos bureaucracy and ended up being crucial to Mikodez's takeover.
I hope this helps! Again, if some details don't work for your character conception, we can change them. Let me know.
(I am going to take every single word as sacred, especially regarding Avradez. Someone in the same category as /Kujen/ --!) There's nibling, and wiki tells me nephling also exists. I would definitely appreciate game design theory references, as I've played a total of...one single computer game, ever. The Shuos are irresistibly entertaining, until I have to consider existing near one of them - game based pedagogy is great when you're primed for it, but not for the poor Kel who just want a straightforward briefing and then to move on/escape with their life. -I think this Mikodez is likely to have take the Intro to Seduction with everyone else, if only to secure a front row seat to going-ons. -[encouraged to practice on each other] An admirably efficient way of instilling paranoia, gosh. (Zehun, less "power behind the throne" and "power behind the menu", sneaking vitamins into his candy from day one.) Thank you so much, this is amazing! I Did Not Expect the lack of musicality, but truly, Mikodez is a second Jedao.
I'm trying to think of short game design theory things that are either online or could hypothetically be found at a library and are not stupendously long.
If you're only going to read one thing, Greg Costikyan's I Have No Words and I Must Design [PDF, legal as far as I know] might be a good place to start. This is 25 pages long, which is long for a thing on the web, but hell and away shorter than a full-fledged game design textbook.
Salen & Zimmerman's Rules of Play is amazing, but it's also 600 freaking pages long. It is also analysis-focused--it will teach you a ton about theory but it won't teach you how to actually make a game. Ian Schreiber's web-based Game Design Conceptsdoes teaches game-making and has the beautiful virtue of being almost free if you can get the required text out of the library, but I wouldn't expect you to go through the whole thing for an RP! If you're curious about an example of card game design, there's David Sirlin's article on designing Yomi--don't sweat the details (some of which don't make a ton of sense unless you've played the game), you can just skim it.
For something you might be able to find in a library, and which is written (I think) pretty accessibly for a general audience rather than the hardcore game designer crowd, try Jane McGonigal's Reality Is Broken. McGonigal is a game designer with an interest in using games to make people's lives better. It's also less expensive than most game design textbooks, which tend to be pricey. (Ask me how I know.)
I would say that some main principles are:
- a game exists in an artificial "world" of its own (not necessarily in the sense of Middle-Earth, but in the sense that basketball or chess are not the "real world")
- a game's rules are arbitrary to a certain degree, and people willingly accept those arbitrary restrictions. Think about solitaire, for example. Solitaire is about sorting a deck of cards, but you're doing it with certain rules about how you can arrange and move cards, instead of just going through the deck and organizing it in the most efficient way possible, because the rules make it a challenge.
- the rules of a game determine what kinds of behaviors are rewarded and which are not. So if a computer game gives you lots of points for killing monsters, and doesn't reward you for diplomatic solutions to conflict, players are going to tend to kill things on sight rather than talking things out. (This can get meta, because obviously people cheat, modify the rules of games, etc.)
- In a sense, games are based around social contracts (players who agree to be bound by the rules of the game). Again, this can get meta real fast.
Yes, thank you! Much easier than me looking up game theory and running away. I’m still getting through I Have No Words, but I like the solvability one linked in the Yomi article for explaining optimal play/donkeyspace. I skimmed the online course a bit and came across the second principle [a “voluntary effort to overcome unnecessary obstacles.] The Kel may use stronger words, but that’s the Shuos, all right. (The last two principles I remember from the clear parallel Jedao drew to war, but funny how he doesn’t mention - what every Kel knows already.) With the first one [ a game exists in an artificial "world"], it almost sounds like the Shuos can create microcosms for people who play with them to reinforce the overarching calendrical effects (except there aren’t enough of them, not on Vidona levels, and I realise that Shuos individuals don’t do well with upholding the calendar game-wise. Cadet Jedao.) Actually that’s another cool layer!! Like I got that the backstabbing faction would backstab everything in sight, and that the trickster critters would manage to find a way out of the tyrannical regime, but it's nicely practical that the strongest attempts against the system would come from people who were trained to mess those up. (wait gotta relate this back to the shuos) Sorry, last question: Given the Scattered Needles denizens' willingness to play board games dropped by their enemies, it doesn’t seem like games are exclusive to the Shuos or bear a stigma for that connection like origami and the Vidona. Will interest in games (actual recreational ones, puzzles, etc.) betray a Shuos? (I guess the root of this question is about whether the Shuos have tried to modify the behavior of the populace to give them money, possibly by selling their well designed games on space Steam)
Nope, games are a general cultural activity. The Shuos are mainly known for their level of obsession with games and game design, but there are certainly non-Shuos of whom that's true. For example, jeng-zai card games/fortunetelling are pretty much played/done by most people in the h*archate.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2017-07-03 01:43 am (UTC)What would a second year have learnt already, and was Zehun an instructor for long?
no subject
Date: 2017-07-03 03:47 am (UTC)- The Vauhans are a fairly close-knit extended family. Mikodez and Istradez had multiple parents (number unspecified, up to you). The Vauhans tend to breed really good-looking men even without genetic tinkering but most of them can't hold a tune in a bucket. There is an older sister, Avradez, who is the one who sent Mikodez the handmade soap, and who is probably the one Mikodez got his crafting tendencies from. Mikodez lives in terror of Avradez.
Andan Niath won't have been born yet if Mikodez is still a cadet, although he may have other nieces/nephews/sib-children. (I do not know of a non-awkward way to say "alt/nonbinary kids of a sibling" so if anyone has suggestions I'm listening.)
Mikodez attended Shuos Academy Prime, which is planetside near the Citadel of Eyes. (Basically, the Citadel is a space station in geosynchronous orbit over the Academy.) Because the hexarchate is a big place, there is also Shuos Academy Secondary and Shuos Academy Tertiary, as well as a ton of minor affiliated academies that churn out the lower-level Shuos. (The other faction academies operate similarly.)
Five years to graduate is average but it depends on how smart you are, how ambitious you are (triple-major?), and how hard you work. Think of it as a combination of generalized undergrad and fairly practical vocational training.
Things a second-year would know already:
- Basic firearms and self-defense. That being said, a cryptographer or an administrator is not going to be expected to be Rambo and/or James Bond. Mikodez is canonically a good shot at the firing range, but would probably have issues if he went up against someone with actual combat experience in a real-world violent situation.
- Introduction to Seduction is an optional first-year course but most cadets opt to take it. It's up to you whether you think Mikodez would have done so.
- Security/social engineering. Cadets are usually encouraged to practice on each other. Again, canonically Mikodez is really good at persuading even paranoid fellow cadets to go along with him. If you ever hit a point in the game where Mikodez should be able to do this but you're stuck for ideas on how to pull it off, ask me or your fellow players and we can brainstorm ways for him to pull it off--
the more eyes the bettertwo heads are better than one, etc.- Introductory courses for their major.
- A general introduction to game design so that all the other instructors can wallop them with it over and over for the rest of their academy careers. You can downplay this if you want, or if you need game design stuff for Mikodez I'm happy to advise. (I might read a little too much game design theory for my own good.)
- Basic P.E. An analyst/administrator isn't going to be held to the same standards as someone planning to become an assassin! But they gamify basic fitness just to make sure that people are moderately healthy. Mikodez probably took up eating candy as an allergic reaction to this.
- Zehun had been an instructor for several years when they were sent in with a team of assassins to assess and possibly terminate Mikodez. Later in canon they ended up abandoning their teaching post to become Mikodez's personal
person who nags them to eat real foodassistant, in a "power behind the throne" way--they had a lot of contacts in the Shuos bureaucracy and ended up being crucial to Mikodez's takeover.I hope this helps! Again, if some details don't work for your character conception, we can change them. Let me know.
no subject
Date: 2017-07-03 06:40 am (UTC)There's nibling, and wiki tells me nephling also exists.
I would definitely appreciate game design theory references, as I've played a total of...one single computer game, ever. The Shuos are irresistibly entertaining, until I have to consider existing near one of them - game based pedagogy is great when you're primed for it, but not for the poor Kel who just want a straightforward briefing and then to move on/escape with their life.
-I think this Mikodez is likely to have take the Intro to Seduction with everyone else, if only to secure a front row seat to going-ons.
-[encouraged to practice on each other] An admirably efficient way of instilling paranoia, gosh.
(Zehun, less "power behind the throne" and "power behind the menu", sneaking vitamins into his candy from day one.)
Thank you so much, this is amazing! I Did Not Expect the lack of musicality, but truly, Mikodez is a second Jedao.
no subject
Date: 2017-07-03 07:54 pm (UTC)If you're only going to read one thing, Greg Costikyan's I Have No Words and I Must Design [PDF, legal as far as I know] might be a good place to start. This is 25 pages long, which is long for a thing on the web, but hell and away shorter than a full-fledged game design textbook.
Salen & Zimmerman's Rules of Play is amazing, but it's also 600 freaking pages long. It is also analysis-focused--it will teach you a ton about theory but it won't teach you how to actually make a game. Ian Schreiber's web-based Game Design Concepts does teaches game-making and has the beautiful virtue of being almost free if you can get the required text out of the library, but I wouldn't expect you to go through the whole thing for an RP! If you're curious about an example of card game design, there's David Sirlin's article on designing Yomi--don't sweat the details (some of which don't make a ton of sense unless you've played the game), you can just skim it.
For something you might be able to find in a library, and which is written (I think) pretty accessibly for a general audience rather than the hardcore game designer crowd, try Jane McGonigal's Reality Is Broken. McGonigal is a game designer with an interest in using games to make people's lives better. It's also less expensive than most game design textbooks, which tend to be pricey. (Ask me how I know.)
I would say that some main principles are:
- a game exists in an artificial "world" of its own (not necessarily in the sense of Middle-Earth, but in the sense that basketball or chess are not the "real world")
- a game's rules are arbitrary to a certain degree, and people willingly accept those arbitrary restrictions. Think about solitaire, for example. Solitaire is about sorting a deck of cards, but you're doing it with certain rules about how you can arrange and move cards, instead of just going through the deck and organizing it in the most efficient way possible, because the rules make it a challenge.
- the rules of a game determine what kinds of behaviors are rewarded and which are not. So if a computer game gives you lots of points for killing monsters, and doesn't reward you for diplomatic solutions to conflict, players are going to tend to kill things on sight rather than talking things out. (This can get meta, because obviously people cheat, modify the rules of games, etc.)
- In a sense, games are based around social contracts (players who agree to be bound by the rules of the game). Again, this can get meta real fast.
I hope some of this is helpful!
no subject
Date: 2017-07-04 04:33 am (UTC)(The last two principles I remember from the clear parallel Jedao drew to war, but funny how he doesn’t mention - what every Kel knows already.)
With the first one [ a game exists in an artificial "world"], it almost sounds like the Shuos can create microcosms for people who play with them to reinforce the overarching calendrical effects (except there aren’t enough of them, not on Vidona levels, and I realise that Shuos individuals don’t do well with upholding the calendar game-wise. Cadet Jedao.)
Actually that’s another cool layer!! Like I got that the backstabbing faction would backstab everything in sight, and that the trickster critters would manage to find a way out of the tyrannical regime, but it's nicely practical that the strongest attempts against the system would come from people who were trained to mess those up.
(wait gotta relate this back to the shuos) Sorry, last question: Given the Scattered Needles denizens' willingness to play board games dropped by their enemies, it doesn’t seem like games are exclusive to the Shuos or bear a stigma for that connection like origami and the Vidona. Will interest in games (actual recreational ones, puzzles, etc.) betray a Shuos?
(I guess the root of this question is about whether the Shuos have tried to modify the behavior of the populace to give them money, possibly by selling their well designed games on space Steam)
no subject
Date: 2017-07-04 03:44 pm (UTC)