Difference between revisions of "Actions"

Latest revision as of 13:05, 1 February 2020

Actions can blossom from a variety of avenues, both crisis and non-crisis.

This is a breakdown on how to use @action (alias @actions) on Arx. While it may appear daunting at first, the end result is streamlined and give staff a better understanding on what you, the player, seeks to achieve with your @action request. The former +storyrequest is now merged with @action in order to develop a more robust storytelling experience. Let's begin!

What Exactly IS an Action?

[Info] Aleksei: So maybe you've been investigating the Sacred Chalice of Bahamut. You're like, this is so cool, I'm running @investigations and stuff, people are helping. Eventually you get a @clue that's like, hey! The chalice was last known to be seen in this area... You're like, awesome, I want to go try and find it! That's when you're like, okay I want to DO a thing, and the GMs are going to have to determine if I manage to do it. Then you'd put in an @action like 'I'm taking this crew of awesome folks to this specific area to try and find this thing.'

More insight from Ailith: That is one example of an action that blossomed from an @investigation. There are others such as when a character got her 6 in one of their skills. They decided to do an action to reflect the legendary deeds and wrote a little story to backup reasons for it. What RP gave reason for people to think legendary. // Another example is using an action to say spread propaganda. A playwright could decide to do an action about the play they wrote and the impact (white journals and RP) it has had on the compact. Staff may look at it and go yes, let's write a vox about it.

Crisis actions are queued and simultaneously resolved by GMs periodically.

Creating a New Action

@action/newaction [<crisis#>=] <story of the action>

Creating a new action costs "Action Points" and requires a series of other commands before it is completed and sent to staff.

Non-Crisis

• @action/newaction Dame Euginia sets off on an expedition with a small group of explorers with the hopes of discovering the mythical race of hobgoblins.

(Without adding a +crisis# to your @action, this in essence is very much how +storyrequest used to work.)

Crisis Mode

If this action was part of a bigger story suggested in +crisis, then you would add the +crisis#:

• @action/newaction 333=Dame Euginia and a small group of explorers set out on a diplomacy mission to meet with the King of the Hobgoblins.

An @action # will be assigned to you once you've completed this section.

Setting Your Action

Congratulations! You've been invited to join Dame Euginia quest in searching for Hobgoblins. You will receive a notification of this invitation via @informs. You do not have to do step 1 of @action/newaction, because Dame Euginia already did that for you.

Invited Guests

@action/setaction #=<action text> This is where you put down what you're going to do in some detail.

• @action/setaction 1111=Sir Humphrey, backed by his cavalry, joins Dame Euginia through the mystical forest in search of the entrance to the Hobgoblin Kingdom. Knowing this is a diplomatic venture, he brings special, rare treasures in order to entice and hopefully find ways to trade with the hobgoblins.

If you are assisting Dame Euginia, you will be able to see who else is assisting in the action and how they are publicly assisting with the action when you type @action #. As an assistant, you would set your action in detail just as Dame Euginia did with the action -your- character will be taking.

TLDR

Because some players are rather verbose with their action description, this allows you to give a brief, 80 characters of less, summary of what you intend to do with your action.

@action/tldr <action#>=<title>

• @action/tldr 1111=Exploring forest for hobgoblins, bringing goodies.

And that's basically all there is to that. When you check with @action# at this point, you will see something that looks like this:

Action ID 1111 by Euginia
Action by Euginia:
Summary: Exploring forest for hobgoblins, bringing goodies.
Action: Dame Euginia sets off on an expedition with a small group of explorers with the hopes of discovering the mythical race of hobgoblins.

Action by Humphrey:
Summary:Bringing the cavalry and some goodies for trading
Action: Sir Humphrey, backed by his cavalry, joins Dame Euginia through the mystical forest in search of the entrance to the Hobgoblin Kingdom. Knowing this is a diplomatic venture, he brings special, rare treasures in order to entice and hopefully find ways to trade with the hobgoblins.

If you are Assisting Euginina, you will not see any other statement other than what Action she is taking. You are only privy to the information you add. Likewise, Euginia will not be able to see any other statements besides what public action you are taking.

Set Your Category

If you are creating the @action, you will have to set your category.

@action/category <action#>=category

• @action/category 1111=diplomacy

Categories: combat, scouting, support, diplomacy, sabotage, research.

If you are assisting, you do not have to worry about this step.

Rolls

All participants in the @action must set what stat and skill they would like the GM to roll.

@action/roll <action#>=<stat>,<skill>

• @action/roll 1111=Charm,Diplomacy

OOC Intent

So, you've got this plan, you've got some folks helping you out. Things look swell. As a player, what can you hope to achieve from this @action? That's where ooc intent comes into play!

@action/ooc_intent <action#>=what you as the player are hoping to get out of this @action

Taken straight from help @action: /ooc_intent which is the what sort of outcome you are hoping for, whether that's reputation adjustments, some advancement in a story, the favor of important npcs, magical power, whatever. It's just to make sure that GMs know what you have in mind for what you're trying to accomplish.

• @action/ooc_intent 1111=Story Advancement to build bridges between the humans and hobgoblins.

Try to be specific when describing intent and desired outcomes. via ((OOC: Apostate Q/A Session)):

[Puffin] My personal feeling is that sometimes people want a response but they don't give us much to work with. "I go into the shrine and pray for guidance" is a lot less helpful than 3 paragraphs of "I've had these things on my mind, and these other things happened, and it affected me this way, and so I've been working really hard to think about it and none of it makes sense. So I'm headed to the shrine to pray for guidance, hoping I'll get some kind of direction. I think I should do <this thing>, but is that really what I should do or am I fooling myself?"

Effectively, they're both the same act, looking for the same result. One is MUCH MORE DIFFICULT to respond to in a meaningful way."

[Pax ...] But also, giving us the most context and information you can /really/ helps -- yes, what Puffin said about guidance, that. I've handled actions where the action is basically 'I go into the shrine and pray for guidance', and the ooc_intent is literally 'I hope to get something to do which is relevant to the character and interesting to me.' And then I have to spend time figuring out what that actually might mean before I can even write a response, and so that extra prep-time means that action has taken me long enough that I could've done three more-defined actions in the same time."

Adding Items to your @action

This is where you add any extra goodie you'll be supplying to your @action like resources, silver, action points, or army.

@action/add <action#>=<resource or 'ap' or 'army'>,<amount or army ID#>

If you are adding more than just one section, you will need to repeat the process for each type of item you are adding to the @action.

Adding Resources

• @action/add 1111=economic,200

(Economic,Social, or Military applies here)

Adding Action Points

• @action/add 1111=ap,100

Adding Silver

• @action/add 1111=silver,250000

Adding Army

• @action/add 1111=army,21

The army# comes from the @army command. Check with @army to see which army unit you would like to have involved with the @action.

Amounts Insight

Jan 2018:
[Info] Orrin: Help @action doesn't really answer the specifics Im looking for, just tells you what the commands are. the crisis action guide is a little more helpful, but Im looking for information like: What is a relative/appropriate level of resources to spend on an action, how do you choose what dice to declare, etc, none of that is covered.
[Info] Orrin: I have no frame of reference on the numbers. So I have no idea if say, 10 social indicates you are putting huge effort behind something, or hardly much, etc.
[Info] Apostate: Orrin- 10 trivial, 100 significant investment of resources, 1000 the equivalent of probably a full fiscal quarter worth of investment, 10000 a legendary, long term project that would have impact throughout the Compact potentially

Jan 2019:
[Info] Isobella: Is there any sort of guide on actions, regarding resource/silver expenditures, etc? How do you know if your action needs 200 resources or 2000? 2000 silver, or 200000?
[Info] Apostate: It's a bit abstract, by magnitudes. 100 very localized effect, or say, building say a storefront. 1000 a significant effect, regionally noticable, building a vast library. 10000 noticable by Arvum, significant continentally, such as building the Great Archive
[Info] Preston: I think it was 5000 for the Grand Maosoleum of the Faith Militant, which is the same as the Cathedral of Arx in stature.

To Attend or Not to Attend...

The default toggle on an @action shows you will be attending the action. You can still create and assist without your character being present at the scene especially if your character is offering aid in the form of money or resources and is not the combat type or very diplomatic. To unattend you would type:

@action/toggleattend <action#>

The code will let you know you will not be present for the action. If you change your mind before you submit, just type the code again and it will set you to being physically present.

[Info] Apostate: I keep getting asked about the Physically Present tag in actions. Basically about being physically present, think of it as, 'If I had to choose between everything I was doing, to be onscreen and GM'd for this one, this is the one I'd pick'. That's it

Are You Ready?

You've created your @action, you've invited others to join in on the fun, you have done all your steps, but need to check on everyone else to make sure they have also done their part.

@action/readycheck <action#>

This lets the @action creator know who has submitted their action and who is either still working on it or forgot to submit the action.

Submitting Your Action

This is a very important step to complete otherwise your @action will not be submitted. If you are invited to an @action and you do not submit your assistance, your action will be canceled and your AP will be refunded to you. Once you have completed all of the previous steps and you are satisfied with your role in the @action, you do the following:

@action/submit <action#>

And that's it! Your action will be submitted to staff and/or added to the actions of the others who are participating in the @action event with you.

Questions?

Yup, We've got a section for you! If you happen to have questions about your @action, you can submit these here to staff via:

@action/question <action#>=Your Question Here.

Options and Extras

Optional @action commands

Inviting Others

@action/invite <action#>=<character>

Secret Action

@action/setsecret <action#>=<secret action>Hush hush action description goes here.
@action/setsecret/traitor <action#>=<action you are taking>Your secret action is to work against the main objective.

Crisis Response

@action/setcrisis <action#>=<crisis#> This sets the @action you've created as a response to a current +crisis.

Traitors

@action/toggletraitor <action#> This sets your actions to work against the story.

No Scene

@action/togglenoscene <action#> You would like your @action to have an off-screen resolution. When you toggle 'no scene', you may invite as many characters as you'd like. When you have an 'on-screen' action, there is a maximum of 5 characters allowed for GM purposes.

Public

@action/makepublic <action#> By default, all @actions are marked private. If you would like to make your @action to be public, you receive a small XP reward for doing so. This is optional.

Assists

Sometimes people are unclear on what all can or should go into an action assist. Here's an archived bbpost from staff that's very helpful in regards to differentiating between a proper action assist and stuff that should go into a _separate_ action:

Board: News, Post Number: 97 Poster: Pax Subject: @actions and You! Date: 01/14/18 23:41:18

So, as we've been going through crisis actions, we've found that there's still a bit of confusion on how best to use @action.

We've often had people put in assists that are entirely different actions on a similar topic, or just trying to do other things as part of the same effort. We've had, more than once, secret actions that are entirely separate actions only tangentially related to the main action. This makes it very hard to GM, and it also makes it very hard to recordkeep (especially since we can't include replies to secret actions in the main story, obviously).

The key is that a single @action should always have a single focus. Assists should be how you are assisting that one particular effort, not a related but different effort. Secret actions should either be how you are helping or hindering that specific effort, if there are elements you want us to take into account that you don't want the other people on an action to see.

An example might be the following:

Joe wants to find an aardvark to be his familiar, so puts in an 'I am searching for aardvarks' action. He details where he's looking for aardvarks. Jane puts in that she's using her expert survival and tracking skills to help Joe find likely aardvark habitats. Fred puts in that he's helping Joe by providing useful gear for the trip. Secretly, Fred sets the 'traitor' switch because he wants Joe to fail. Fred sets a secret action that he's coated all their gear in aardvark repellant. Petunia puts in that she's helping Joe, by using her knowledge of animals to find an aardvark. Petunia puts a secret action that she's using a secret aardvark-detecting compass to help Joe. All of the assists, and all of the secret actions, are related to Joe's search for aardvarks, and directly provide an impact on the success or failure metric of that specific action.

Now, we often see things like:

Ronald wants to learn more about plants, so wants to use Joe's trip to collect as many specimens of herbs as possible. Wendy helps Joe find aardvarks! Wendy actually is looking for buried pirate treasure she thinks might be near the aardvarks, but she doesn't want to share it with the others. Ronald's assist, and Wendy's secret assist, are not directly related to Joe going out to find an aardvark. They should be entirely different @actions, rather than assists, because it's a completely different set of outcomes (a bunch of plant information, or secret pirate treasure) than Joe's (one or more aardvarks, hopefully).

If you want to take an unrelated action which is only made possible by being a part of the main action, you should submit your normal assist with the main action, and then put in a second, separate action of your own referencing it. You can then put in a secret assist on the main action which references the other action. For instance:

Ronald is assisting with finding aardvarks! While out there, Ronald is also separately looking for herbs. Please see @action 12345 for details. This will let us handle responses in a concise manner and makes for better recordkeeping. Please help your GMs stay sane, and group your actions appropriately; our sanity is a limited resource!

See Also

• The Investigation Guide page.
• The Crisis Guide page.

The following files may be related and are viewable via help <filename> on the game as well:

• The @action command.
• The +crisis command.
• The @investigate command.
• The @clues command.