Blathian
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Joined: Thu 04 Jan 2018, 02:17

Arc Development

Wed 17 Jan 2018, 01:36

After reading the book, a lot of it is about building the "Arc". When characters go into the zone...maybe for weeks ect. do you still do all the arc stuff as the characters aren't there to help? I could see a campaign getting very far away from the day to day duties of the Arc, but it seems integral into the system and in character development.
 
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Fenhorn
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Re: Arc Development

Wed 17 Jan 2018, 02:25

If the players aren't in the Ark, the GM do the Ark stuff as he see fits (according to the rules in the textbox on p103).

This can be very interesting. In a campaign I had a couple of years ago, the Ark was attacked and was in desperately need of better defence. The players knew that but they got a lead to a bunker, a bunker that could hold some leads to Eden. This bunker expedition took several sessions before they came back to the Ark. When they came back, the (GM controlled) Assembly had finished Militia (started by PC), Tribunal (started by PC). but also Surveillance because there was rumoured that the Ark has a traitor (working with the attacking group), a Torture Chamber was started and finally Autocracy was started. One of the bosses (despot) has managed to scare the people so much that they have started to believe that what the Ark needs is a strong leader. That become an interesting situation for the players to deal with  :D
“Thanks for noticin' me.” - Eeyore
 
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Atomics
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Location: Sacramento, CA, USA

Re: Arc Development

Tue 10 Apr 2018, 19:50

I think the boxed text on Page 103 (Mutant Year Zero rule-book) pretty much covers everything. As a GM, you should really use that last sentence freely - "She (the game master) can use this power to make the Ark develop in a direction the players might not want."

I wouldn't use this maliciously, but (for example) if you take an extended vacation from work, when you come back, there's probably been changes/decisions made by others which you find either inconvenient, or even downright frustrating. Ever had a co-worker/boss you didn't get along with? Maybe one that went out of the way to mess with you?

Now imagine if that's a Boss in the Ark the players don't get along with. If they leave him/her unchecked for weeks on end, they might not like the results. Maybe it's just a project or two they don't think are useful (technology when they were focused on food). Maybe it's something they straight up oppose (cannibalism or slavery?) Or maybe the Boss completes a project the PCs started, and it gets named/themed in a way they find annoying (welcome to the Temple of Donald Duck).

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