My error. Still, I think multiple GMs would be a very good thing.
I agree. The problem is though, as already mentioned by others, long term retention. We have seen the problems caused by agreements that Vates apparently made with people but, as I knew nothing about them, can do nothing about them. It would be easy to get someone keen and eager to help out for a while. It's not so easy to ensure they will stay around and not just end up frustrating people by leaving things half done.
But the game says they actually don't. You cannot be seriously saying there is some secret Zuma religion that was just never in the game until now. The game says that no such religion exists. It says they worship other things. This is textbook case of game mechanics trumping RP. If the game says they are Triunists, you cannot RP them as not being Triunists.
The game says there are Triunists within Zuma regions. It does not say they are born and bred Zuma that have abandoned their entire upbringing in servitude to the Daimons by turning to another faith. As for some secret religion. You've seen the paganism comments, that talk about "Many people are finding more solitude in the old local faiths". The whole way the Zuma are run is based around very local things so if you really need game mechanics to justify some of what I state, use that. Alternatively, I could have started a religion as soon as the Zuma came into existence on Dwilight and spent real life years preaching all across the western continent before any players actually arrived. I'm sure there would have been plenty of complaints if people moved in to find religion already firmly established everywhere.
Let's be clear. I didn't do this alone. I had over half a dozen players or characters in Terran contacting me or Hireshmont ICly and OOCly saying they were bored and wanted some action. We had a public, realm-wide discussion on the matter where everybody could chip in. The possible consequences were clearly explained.
The point, however, is that even our "best" option is vastly inferior to if the Zuma were less totalizing of a presence. Getting to choose whether you are killed by a horde of daimons or by the slow attrition of boredom and uninvolvement is not fun.
So, you have been attacked once for a situation that you didn't bring about yourselves and which the Daimons left you alone as soon as reasonable doubt was placed on the evidence they were given that caused them to attack you.
The Daimons have done nothing to you unless you instigated it. You are the ones that have chosen to sit in boredom. No one has stopped you from doing anything else whatsoever. If you were that bothered you could always have asked what would happen if you were to do certain things. If you are not getting involved in things, that is you're own doing.
I know a player did it. But they could not have done it without the daimons. By virtue of being willing to play the GM, they were able to nullify any previous RPs or power structures that may have existed. Deus ex GMica.
And, to survive, they had to have every player that's been there investing in that realm for years stand aside and have the rulership put in the hands of someone trying to actively undermine an institution almost everyone else in the realm has been building up for literally years, and that individual was able to accomplish this by making their realm's direction contingent upon permission for actions from Garret Artemesia (like the whole thing with Flavia not joining the Moot until Garret told her to).
This was an alternative choice provided by a player character that meant the Daimons left there and then. From what I can tell, if they'd just waited a few days more, they'd have delivered all 4 items that were asked for and we'd have left anyway. It was an alternative option that was provided by a player character and agreed as another option. How does that nullify any previous RP? That previous RP would still exist, still have happened.
Every player that's invested time had to stand aside? I think you're being overly dramatic there. The agreement that they chose to take up (remembering that, waiting a few more days they could have stuck with the original one) just meant that Flavia needed to be their ruler. They could have just put her in there as a figurehead as far as I'm concerned, kept absolutely everything the same within their realm apart from the fact that the 'official' ruler was someone else. Yes, I'm aware of the mechanics that could be done to change everything by the ruler. Did she do that? As for Flavia not joining the Moot until Garret told her, this is the first I am aware of that. Nothing to do with the Zuma.
Selfish? We had a freaking vote about the matter. Almost every noble in Terran got a say in this, and support for our present course was practically unanimous. The complaints, IMHO, are not that we could not have expected a response like this, but that the existence of the Zuma as they presently are precludes the possibility of our pursuing any of the plotlines any of us would have liked to pursue.
Again, Hireshmont has not done anything in secret or without the full permission of Terran's Senate. You misunderstand the complaint.
Clearly I do. Who told all the people in your realm that you are not able to do anything because of the Zuma being there? Who made that assumption and then passed it off as fact? Who came and questioned this with the Zuma (either IC or OOC). I'm just running the Zuma, I do not see everything that goes on within each realm. If there are serious OOC concerns the way to address them are constructively, not just letting the resentment build up before having a hissy fit when it's almost too late to do anything to address the concerns.
Again, Barca survived... and that doesn't make most of us optimistic about the Zuma's reasonability.
What?
Poll