Advanced Rulebook

MODERATION

MODERATION SUMMARY

Without moderation, parties and Alliances are unable to truly affect the game world. Moderation brings depth and possibility to the Quest worlds. The moderated worlds have unique histories allowing you to interact with believable people and affect the events in the world. Your Alliance, and possibly even your party, can shape the course of history. You can search for artefacts of legend and antiquity, for your own use or that of your allies. Meanwhile beware, as your enemies will be doing the same. Learn powerful rituals and divine invocations that are beyond the level of the common adventuring parties. Stand for the righteous and just, or the foul and the diabolical, the choice is yours. Battle hoards of minions, such as Goblins and Undead or dare to confront mighty Dragons, Demons and Celestials. Given the chance would you advise a King or would you support a pretender to the throne. Your actions can cause a civil war or prevent one. Over the course of years it is possible to affect the relationships of grand Empires. From the origins of a humble adventuring party you and your Alliance can eventually become such important individuals as Warlords, Generals, Guild Leaders, maybe a King or even an Avatar for a God! And from there, who knows, ultimately challenging the might of the Gods themselves?

In short moderation is about cause and effect.

WHAT MODERATION MEANS TO A PARTY

Moderation is predominately based around Alliances, so unless a party joins, or forms an Alliance, then they will be restricted to taking part in the Special Quests advertised in the settlement news, item (620), and reading about the special events going on in the world. A party in an Alliance has access to a wealth of special aspects of moderation; details about Alliances are explained after the main moderation concepts have been explained.

QUICK OVERVIEW OF MODERATION MECHANICS

  • Many of the moderation concepts can only be explained properly by making references to another moderation concept, so the following is a quick overview of what each mechanic is:
  • Action - An action allows the player to interact with the GM to accomplish something in the game. See Special Action (SA) and Free Action (FA).
  • Moderation Skill - There are several skills that are used in moderation to determine a party's effectiveness at an action. Moderation Skills were previously known as Alliance Skills.
  • Free Action (FA) - This is a type of action that allows the player to interact with the GM to accomplish something in the game for free, which means anyone in the game that meets the requirements of a Free Action can issue one.
  • Liaison - A liaison is someone that handles communication between two parties, in reference to Quest: GME it normally means an NPC communicating with a party or an Alliance. An Alliance may also say that they have appointed their own spokesperson to handle all Alliance communication that they may call a liaison.
  • Organisation - The Organisations have been explained, to recap an Organisation is a generic term used to describe any of the powerful Guilds or the Settlement Officials.

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  • Power - This is a generic term used in reference to special powers, special Mage spells, and special Priest miracles that are only available via moderation.
  • Power Scroll (PS) - A Power Scroll is a scroll that has been enhanced with a special power.
  • Rank & Status - Status is a hidden game mechanic that the GM uses to track how much influence an Alliance has with an Organisation. Rank is used to show the differences in status, so the Alliance knows that at Rank 2 their opinion generally is more important than it was at Rank 1.
  • Special Action (SA) - This is a type of action that allows the player to interact with the GM to accomplish something special in the game. Special Actions are given to moderated Alliances; only an Alliance with a SA spare can issue a SA.
  • Special Quest (SQ) - A SQ is a moderation quest to carry out a designated task, or series of tasks.

TURN TIME

The real-life time is approximately how long has passed in the game world, so a 10-day game week equals 10 days.
Due to the open-ended nature of the game, no definite time factor is used for every action. The orders can be thought of as the most important things that happened, or in some cases the only things of note that happened.
Each world is being continually moderated, with the moderation based on a monthly cycle. Each world has a designated 4-week cycle, which corresponds to the moderation period.
The moderation cycle dates are shown at the end of a party's turn.

MODERATION & TIME

It is important to realise and remember that the moderated worlds have events that take place all the time, and the repercussions of these events can be manifold. The longer an action takes in moderation the more likely that things will have changed in the game and thus could result in actions having very different results. If you take a break from the game some things might have changed, but some things may be very similar.

The Quest Liaison could class special Quests that are more than a few months old as failures.

If you try to follow-up on some details several months after they were received things are likely to not be straightforward or successful.

PLOT HOOKS

New parties have the option of specifying a reason why the party formed and started adventuring. Based upon the player's selection the party is given a brief plot hook and the party starts in a settlement that has an appropriate alignment. The new party can then feel like they have more involvement in the moderated worlds.

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For example: The party was formed due to some relatives being killed by the Fleyshur Archmage Magnus the Dark. Then in the newsletters when Magnus the Dark is mentioned and in particular when a newsletter quest is issued the new party has a good reason to want to get involved. This also encourages new parties to join Alliances, or at least communicate with Alliances, as they really need access to Special Actions to pursue their plot hooks. Several parties with similar plot hooks could form their own Alliance in pursuit of mutual help.

At present this does not affect existing parties. This update forms the basis for more party depth, which will be added at a future date. Since the vast majority of players with existing parties already have reasons why a party was formed, at a later date existing party plot hooks will be added.

MODERATION INFORMATION

Information is the most important aspect of the game Quest: GME. Without knowledge of a situation it is very hard to have a major impact on the situation, so information usually becomes the most valuable commodity that a party has.
Information in Quest: GME is mostly short and to the point, with maybe some extra atmospheric IC comments from an NPC. If an NPC is important and they are relevant to the moderation information being given out by the GM then they will be named. If the location of an NPC is important then it will be provided, and so on. However it is often the case that the precise location of an NPC is not required to be explained OOC.

There are several very important reasons for information normally being short and sometimes having details missing.

  1. The characters know the details IC so unless it is important that a player knows the information there is no need to provide the information. As playing a game like Quest means the player is likely playing characters that understand varied and strange abilities that there is no way the player could be able to duplicate/understand in real-life it makes little sense to expect the player to be very knowledgeable in other ways. For example it is quite possible a player has combat experience with using a sword from years of fencing, but the same player could not possibly have any experience with calling on the Gods of Quest to aid them. The game mechanics for processing a Quest turn does not require the player to able to explain everything their characters are doing, it is the same with moderation.
  2. Collecting and crosschecking information takes up valuable player time. Time that could be spent interacting with other players and their characters, monitoring Special Quests, working out long-term goals, and so on.
  3. Creating and crosschecking information takes up valuable GM time. Time that could be spent creating more plotlines, adding new game enhancements, and so on.
  4. Reading or writing detailed explanations is more likely to result in mistakes occurring, and the mistakes will be harder to spot and fix.

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For these reasons moderation information is often kept short and clear, with only major NPCs normally being named, the address of a location in a settlement is rarely given, a quick overview of an event is given, and so on.

For the above reasons the final result is that the game becomes easier and quicker to play, which is good for everyone.
It is important to remember that information is not automatically passed on to a Liaison; the party needs to decide what it is going to report and then report it by contacting the GM.

You cannot ask to automatically pass details on from an action to a Liaison; you must see the results first. The reason for this is that it is possible that the results reveal that the Liaison is a traitor, or that the party are offered a special item that they want to keep and the Liaison may demand off them. Whilst it is slower to resolve moderation this way, it is a lot safer and gives all players the freedom to do what they want with their results.

WHO KNOWS WHAT MODERATION INFORMATION?

This is an important question to keep in mind at all times.
No NPC magically knows what a party knows just because the party knows it; Global Plot information is not an exception to this.
Not passing on information to an NPC like a Quest Liaison means the party cannot complete a Special Quest. For Alliance's remembering to pass on information is just as important.
Any moderation information a party finds out whilst on a Special Quest is likely worth passing on to the Quest Liaison.
As Alliances can potentially find out a lot of information from situations other than Special Quests, it is worth the Alliance passing on any moderation information to their Liaison(s).
Information in the newsletter, item (620), is not worth passing on as everyone in the world has access to it.

LIAISONS

The following is general information about liaisons, and applies to both independent parties and Alliances. There are two types of liaison, Organisation Liaison and Quest Liaison.
An Organisation Liaison applies to an Alliance that fulfils all the requirements to receive moderation. The liaison is a member of the designated Organisation.
As only Alliance parties can work with an Organisation the term Quest Liaison applies to the person that is handling a non-Alliance Special Quest (SQ).
A party can contact a Quest Liaison from anywhere in the game world, this was decided upon to make the game easier to play as the requirement of constantly having to travel to the Quest Liaison's location would make carrying out a SQ too time consuming for a party.
Contacting a Quest Liaison with moderation information about a SQ is a Free Action (FA). Contacting a Quest Liaison about something that does not relate to the SQ the party is on is not allowed, doing so can result in disciplinary action being taken by the GM, such as the SQ being cancelled.

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When passing on information to a Liaison:

  • It can only be information that has been carried out; you cannot pass on information about plans, unless the Liaison specifically asks for your plans. This is not to be confused with the idea of asking the liaison about a plan, which as a question will cost a SA.
  • You need to be specific, but also as with all Moderation actions the information needs to be as short and clear as possible. You cannot say for example: "Tell the liaison what happened." See the numerous examples in this book about how to carry out actions, and in particular the Alliance Examples.
  • Only pass on relevant details. If you received an action try not to just copy the results directly, it would be better for yourself if you rewrite the results in to something short and clear, then it will be easier for you to keep track of what a Liaison has been told. The following is what is allowed:
    • If it is one result then directly copying the result is allowed, as it is quicker for the player.
    • If more than one result is being passed on then you need to summarise the actions. You cannot send several directly copied actions they have to be summarised.

If you want to pass on information that is wrong, then it will cost a SA to lie to the Liaison. You have to clearly say on the action what you want to do, and also what the truth is.
A party that does not have a SA cannot ask the Quest Liaison for more information about a SQ, or any topic.
A player can ask the GM, not a Quest Liaison, questions. For questions that the rulebook clearly explains the player will likely be pointed to the appropriate section to read as GM time is very precious.

ALLIANCES & ORGANISATION LIAISON

In addition to the information given in the main section 'Liaisons', the following is information specifically applicable to Alliances.

A liaison will be designated to deal with the Alliance at set-up, as noted above in the Quest Liaison section.

All actions to the Organisation in the Alliances chosen settlement should be for the appropriate liaison's attention.
If an Alliance wants a replacement liaison, which could be for any number of reasons, this is possible, but the old liaison will no longer deal with them. Each liaison is a character, and thus a new liaison may not be as good as the previous liaison, or they might be better. A request to change the liaison requires a Special Action and will also cause a delay on any yet to be processed. Once notification of the new liaison has been received, they can continue without extra delay.
As an Alliance gains more Status by successfully completing Quests they will advance through the ranks.

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Everything that applies to a Quest Liaison applies to an Organisation Liaison, but not the reverse. I.e. an Organisation Liaison is the liaison that handles all the Alliance's quests, so an Organisation Liaison is also a Quest Liaison.
If the Alliance asks it's Organisation Liaison for their opinion or advice on anything such as Special Quests then it will cost a SA, as information is provided when the SQ is issued. In addition to a SA status will likely be used.
An Alliance can contact its Organisation Liaison with information about moderation events as a FA in addition to information about a SQ. The Alliance cannot provide information about something and then ask any questions as a FA, each question is a separate action and requires a SA; what the Alliance should do is provide information as a FA and if the Liaison does not reply with what the Alliance would like to know then a SA should be issued to ask a specific question.
Contacting the liaison with matters that are not important can result in a loss of status. This statement may initially worry some players, after all how does one define what is important? The GM gives some leeway when an Alliance is a low rank, which may result in a question being queried by the GM giving the Alliance members a chance to double-check the action. If something will affect an Organisation, the settlement/City-State the Organisation is in, or an allied Organisation/settlement/city-state, then it is likely to be important.

Here is an example of what is not classed as important:

For Example: Informing the liaison that the Alliance is at war with another Alliance who have done nothing more than insult the Alliance, declare war and/or attacked parties outside of the settlements related to the Organisation and thus the information is not important.
Reason: The enemy Alliance has not yet carried out anything against the Organisation, the settlement the Organisation is in, or part of the City-State. Players are generally renowned for giving big speeches declaring war, then peace, then neutrality and so on. If the Alliance was required to contact the liaison to keep the Organisation up to date with the Alliance's political relations it will consume a sizeable amount of GM time, and thus it is not required hence the status cost for taking up liaison and GM time.
An Alternate Solution: The Alliance could simply request a ban on the enemy Alliance. If the Alliance firmly believes that there is a problem then the Alliance should issue a SA and request the ban, if the Alliance provides reasons for the ban then it could have a reduced status cost. There is of course a chance that if the enemy Alliance or the Organisation/settlement/city-state has a history of causing problems that there will be no status loss.

 

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Here is an example of what is classed as important:

For Example: Informing the liaison that the Alliance is on bad terms with another Alliance who have definitely been carrying out hostile actions in a village that is part of the City-State is important.

Reason: If the Alliance knows that something is definitely happening, and by definitely the Alliance needs to have had results on their turn proving that something has happened and not just quote anyone's comments that something has happened, then the Alliance should probably use the information by at least informing the Organisation Liaison. The Organisation Liaison may then come back to the Alliance with the Organisation's opinion on the matter, which could result in a SQ being prepared for the next cycle, offers of rewards for more information; what is important that as the Alliance only provided information and did not ask a question then no SA was required and no status would have been used.

PHILOSOPHY LIAISON

If a Philosophy Goal is chosen the Alliance will be informed of its primary Organisation Liaison, this will be the liaison that the Alliance generally deals with. The liaison is someone that may work for a Temple, but is generally a follower of the Philosophy as opposed to even the Temple it works for.

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