Beef up the UMC
Its flavor! Where's the taste?

I keep posting about UMC and i've never even been able to make it one due to its timing and my work. That makes me a little sad. This post isn't about that preface, though, it's about making the UMC more than it is. It seems interest in it is lacking and that's a shame because the UMC is real mix flavor i think. It -could- be the heartbeat of the mix, even. Sponsored violence. Hopes and dreams of fame...or shame. What's not mix about that? It gives corpies another reason to belittle mixers and use them for profit. Lives don't matter. Flash does. Screw deathball. Players could be actively betting on fights and it could be a wannabe bookie's wet dream. Its the games! Withmore's Coliseum!

I've seen two things happen in the year or so i've been playing:

1)Its the same names on the board, for the most part and, while this is just an observation on my part and may be way off base, 2) Its more about friends beating on each other so they can collect a little chy than it is about rivalries and desperation.

I have a feeling that's why we miss months of participation in the event and that sucks. Even if i can't go OOCly my character always loved catching up on the fights. Who beat who. How badly. etc. etc.and she still even participated -kinda.

One idea i had to boost some life into the games is this:

Have admin (if they wanted to) or trusted players even, roll characters just for the fights. Add bodies. Add flavor. Conflict. RP. Maybe they're coming in from East Red just for their shot at fame. They can be weak, strong, whatever, just something to get the blood splattering. If they beat a PC char, big deal. Come back next month and kick his ass. Start a feud. It shouldn't be a fraternity or even a fight club, it should be a blood sport.

I know that's opening up a whole can of worms by having additional characters with little or no backgrounds or further RP outside the fight nights and adds work for admin, but its not work if you have fun doing it. I wrote a little snapshot about the UMC a few months ago that nobody commented on, so maybe i'm just stuck on this for some reason and nobody else really cares or sees it as an issue. I guess i just see it as a missed opportunity. I'd love to hear from people whose char's are invested in it though. Is it fine the way it is?

Yeah. I get that Cerb. Stretched too thin already. I wish we could roll seconds so we could play around with other mechanics, rp styles, etc. while not having to vaca our mains, and some of us would roll fighters, too, but i've seen how destructive that can be to communities as inherent quirks like information cross-over, abuse, or even just now having -two- characters languish due to not enough PC points in multi-tasking.

I didn't know GM's did that though. And that's pretty awesome. I wish you had more time and more manpower. This kind of fits with an idea i never posted. But that was to allow old timers to add some flavor, too. People that have been here for years and really invested in setting the scene. They could create characters that just pushed the flavor of the game. IN the mix they could run blatant pick-pockets or bullies, drunks, bums, whatever. Just a char that stirs things up, pisses someone off, gets ghosted or just disappears. Up in gold they could be suits airlifted in by aero to the bank or some unknown NLM exec catching the water-cooler gossips slacking off. On Green they could be the hipster equivalent spinning yarns in Grunen's. Or Fighters in the UMC. They're just another NPC but more alive. Here one minute. Gone the next. Maybe their faces are known, maybe not.Maybe the oldbie ends up falling in love with thme and vaca's their main. :-)

I know this is probably impossible or not even remotely able to implement fairly. Just a thought.

Would mini-vacations help? I have thought it would be fun to run a different character for a bit, but I don't want to go on a full 6 month trip. Having your main on ice should help with the difficulty of keeping IC info partitioned between characters while still allowing some experimentation.

@cerberus Yeah, I get that. I saw it happen in another mud. Its like a train wreck that once it gets started you just cant stop it. I wouldn't wish that on this community. I'm just grasping at straws, here, hoping somebody will take the reins and run with it. We need a hero! (on a side note: Did you know Bonnie Tyler was doing a greatest hits tour through Germany this year?? That's crazy. She's like Lady Hasselhoff)

@aglidden I asked this question once. I believe the answer was a firm: No. And i see why, too. Having characters appear and disappear every few months because a player had an itch try something different is very disruptive to an rp environment.

@euclid aaaaaaaaand...you're right. Of course. Its not the GM's responsibility nor should it be. And believe me when i say i'm not pointing fingers. I can't. I've done little to change anything. I'm trying the old subliminal inspiration trick.