Sindome on a budget
Minimal hours to devote to the game

Yes, you won't be able to put in as much time as other players. Maybe you won't be involved in this big major plot that requires you to be on for a specific time for specific hours, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy Sindome.

Nobody is successful in SD and just because you don't think you aren't 'involved' in the big leagues due to time constraints it doesn't mean you are a bad player.

First off, if you have specific limited times to play, you need to be super proactive. You can't afford to just hang about and wait until someone else does something cool you can join in on. You have to make things happen at your pace.

Next, Plan out your playtimes as best as you can. Don't some in to 'see what might happen'. Come in with a goal. Like, the next time I log in, I will deliver X to location Y and grindmail the details to Z. Or, the next time I log in I will got to A and ask a few people about B and generally shoot the shit until I need to head home.

Also, pick IC activities that fit well with your OOC schedule. If you know you only have 10 mins, don't go out and get in a fight and the extended RP that comes with it. Maybe call someone, SIC them or send some gridmails.

Lastly, be ready for a few losses that happen because OOC happened. If you are on your way home and HAVE to OOCly be somewhere NOW and get attacked. You'll just have to suck up that loss. Don't log off or go OOC to avoid the bad. xhelp that you have to go but are leaving your PC in play so the other parties aren't cheated. Come back and recover as best as you can.

I sincerely believe that if you have goals and make plan atomic actions related to your goals that you can hop on and execute, you can do well even with a time budget.

In my experience, my limited play time has not limited me from plots. Maybe my character has never been a "major player," but honestly, I don't know what that means and I don't think it's true to say that a player who plays less does not get involved in those plots. The conclusion I've come to is what you want for your character and finding enjoyment in what play you have.

Therefore, I've picked focuses that I can do and that's not a matter of settling. It's a matter of what I enjoy and spending time on those things and frankly, ignoring the rest. There's a lot of RP I've found IC reasons to say no to and I'm doing that more and more as time goes on. Even if I did have all the time in the world to play, I'm not sure if I would. For me, too much play in a game is just inviting mass amounts of bleed, and I don't know about you guys, but I've got enough challenges in my life. Sindome feels like a place that should be for story and outlet, not obligation.

To others' points, that means I have to plan a lot and use resources that the game provides to move things along when I may not be able to leave my pad otherwise (use your imagination there). I've never had a lack of enjoyment from the game due to playing only a few hours a day (or one some days, none at all). The game allows for those who do enjoy playing long hours and those who don't/can't. I like what YNK says, about there being roles for all activity levels, because I think that's true.

Bottom line, I think there's fun to be had without being "big," which again, I think is a matter of player perspective (and character perspective) for that matter.

What to do when you're overloaded.

When your character has more IC responsibilities than you can reasonably commit to in X hours you have available per week, it's time to be a boss / manager and outsource! Take some time away from your quests to network and find people who do have the time to do it. Then be evil and steal all the credit for it. 😈

If no PC is able to do it, you have two attractive options:

1) Say, "Acing jobs like this takes time." Then log off. You can reasonably put off a quest for 1 - 3 weeks depending on what kind of task it is. If it takes more than 3 weeks for you to do it, just save yourself some trouble and decline the quest. Apologize and say you got too many jobs as is.

2) Bug an NPC to do it. There exist (somewhere, allegedly) NPCs that are pros at each task PCs can do, which can be recruited for quests if no PC of that archetype / job is available.

If you can't ICly afford the resources to outsource, just decline the quest and move on.

There are things that a character can do at any time. These things will produce a predictable amount of chyen. These are the "grind" / automated things that are available in the game. Depending on where your character is based, there are different options.

There are one off opportunities. One off opportunities are either things that your character does to help out another character. Or things that your character wants to hire / entice another character to do.

If I were on a limited time budget, I would always plan on doing the automated things. I would know that within a certain amount of time (15 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes, etc.) … I can likely log on and accomplish X number of tasks that will net me Y amount of chyen. The longer you play the game, the more of these tasks you will become aware of. You will then be able to focus on the highest paying tasks first.

While working on those automated tasks, I would remain aware of opportunities to help other characters. Log on and let your contacts know that you're around. If something comes up during your logon window, be willing to drop your automated task to help out the character. This might even involve a "loss" of chy if you have to abandon a certain task. But odds are the task you are getting paid for will net you more overall chyen.

So much of the second type of tasks, those involve other characters, are totally situational. My experience has been that due to timing, they more often than not do NOT work out. Someone doesn't show up, for whatever reason, and the task ends up getting canceled. But you have to keep trying because when they do pay off, they pay off. Also, you build the reputation of being reliable (within your limited ability to be there.) Those who are reliable tend to get asked to help first.

For some reason I was thinking earlier today back to when I had to figure this "playing on a time budget" stuff out.

Anyone familiar with PBP?

I haven't done it, but I know about it, and something made me connect my old gridmailing habits to the "play by post" idea. Spend half an hour making a few moves, check back for responses later, and keep things moving.

Basically, I had major stuff going on in my life and I had to give it up, which was to my dismay and potentially the mods and/or people here that were interacting with my character, but that's life. I do think it made sense for how off the rails my character was going.

I don't feel like I've "lost" anything by starting anew, because my character had his arc, and it was time for it to be over.