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Cappen's note reminded me about the major story arcs that I have tried to introduce in the MUD called Dragon's Exodus. It is a RP encouraged (and still to a large extent hack and slash) MUD and for me as the head of RP the task is to involve the hard core RPers and the hack and slashers in the evolving story line of the game. Invasions and attacks by armies (PC or NPC) tend to trigger involvement of the most people. These sort of evolving and intermeshing story lines (with some excuse for killing thrown in) tend to get a lot of hard core involvement.
The problem that I encounter, however, is if the story arc gets too long (A trial for murder, an invasion apparently by a clan, an attack on a village, seige of the city, the clan turns out to be innocent, the invaders capture the city, the city burns down in the process, the invaders try to capture another city, there is an internal coup within city 2... etc etc....after like 9 months of intermeshing stories people lose track of the plot and where the story is going. Yes, one posts recap notes and posts the story on the MUD website, but it becomes simply too much detail for people to handle. What I am basically saying is, intermeshing story lines make for wonderful intense player involvement and quests that look and feel real. But one has to give serious thought to how long this single thread can be maintained and when you need to move to another thread.
Kleothera Servilius,
Head of Role Play and Mentors,
Dragon's Exodus
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