First off: what is a DM, and how does it relate to Disco:
Quote:The Dungeon Master controls all aspects of the game, except for the actions of the player characters (PCs) and describes to the players what they see and hear.
In many other RPG-communities there is an instance of one person or a group, which administrate gameplay, in order to maintain consistency of lore and make the players accountable to it.
So I’ve been in this community for years. And I do believe we all agree on the fact that this community is a RP-community. This means that the conduct between Players consists of all parties playing a specific role. This role is defined by both player choice and the fundamentals of the world the characters are set in: the lore.
Now this may work very well when there are individuals roleplaying as individuals. However, where it usually starts to fall short is, when people are roleplaying on behalf of one of the many factions in disco.
Leading a faction requires, nay demands, a very broad knowledge of the dependencies of that faction. For example: The Liberty Navy is powered by H-fuel. Without that fuel, there is no liberty navy. So if the Liberty Navy and GMG went to war, the liberty navy would cease to exist, as it would have to push through Kusari or Rheinland space to get to the source of their fuel.
And this is what the DM should do: If any factions has question about altering their diplomacy they can turn to the DM and they will work out the dependencies of the factions and the DM will set specific conditions to be met in order for the faction not to suffer ingame and/or inRP consequences.
In the example outlined above, I would suggest that the LN would have to secure additional sources of fuel (Mox, Deuterium or Oil) or acquire a large reserve and storage facilities for H-fuel and conduct RP toward these goals.
Another way to achieve those goals, might be events and the DM would discuss an appropriate setting with the involved faction. In the example above, this might be one or two supply-events (one to build the storage facilities the 2nd to fill it).
This would finally bring consistency into the diplomacy of Disco, as it incentivises choosing one’s enemy very carefully, while, at the same time, making it more dynamic, as every new enemy may need to be countered by a new friend. This might create the environment in which diplomacy, finally, ends to be a purely bilateral arrangements and ripple-effects have to be taken into account.
This will also bring a modicum of behavioral safety into disco, as irrational decisions or reactions from factions and their leaders are disincentivized and personal feelings can no longer be placed above the need of the faction without fear of consequences.
Now, in extreme cases consequences can, and should be, very drastic, to the extent of making a faction unplayable, as a warship without fuel, will be nothing but a sitting duck. However, as with any good DM, those consequences need to be communicated before the fact so none of this will ever come as a surprise.
Now, if the Admins take over the duty of a DM or if there will be a separate team or a single person DMing Disco is irrelevant. However, the point stands that the current system of people and factions twisting and bending the lore to their liking provides an inconsistent field of opposing realities.
Of course, factions and people who are simply looking for pews and bases to siege, will not like this change. However, I feel that a consistent lore creates a more enjoyable RP-environment and people simply looking for pews are still free to join any of the warring factions.
Personally, I would like to be DM or part of the DM-team, due to my extensive knowledge about the Freelancer lore, the dependencies of the factions with regards to both resources and trading partners and lastly by my education in macroeconomics. This will help me to make very believable and realistic (in terms of the lore) assessments of the influence of diplomatic changes.
I am a DM (I like the term Gamemaster or Storyteller) and I think that it would not work in Disco, even though it would be a cool thing to have one. The Disco story is just too huge! I bet there is no one who actually has a firm grasp of all factions, how they interact, etc. And that is what a GM normally should have: total control bc the world answers to him, and he shapes it.
It would be a great thing to have a GM who is accepted by everybody and who knows everything... but realistically, it will never happen.
I'm a DM, and I'd rather jump off a building than try to DM for all of disco at once. I'd have to know literally everything about the lore everywhere, and have about a million contingency plans for the story, just to make sure that it doesn't get regressed everytime someone does something.
Trying to take into account the thousands of actions players take on a daily basis, a DM would either die due to overwork from stress, or not do much thats noticable to try and keep everything smooth.
Games too big for a single DM to try and direct the universe around, and too many players would feel shafted if he tried to pay attention to everything, as theres way too much going on at once, even with a smaller server population.
The closest that can get to DM is @sindroms, doing the events. With all respect to his works and all - calling him DM doesn't work, because big part of events he create are non-canon and do not have any impact onto the story.
Besides, DM won't work on Disco, as the main plot is just preplanned already by Story Devs, so...
This little bird went to sleep forever. So long.
Thank you for everything.
Maybe you're all getting too hung up on the therm "DM". I have been a "Rollenspielleiter" in a German RP, and I've only found "DM" ad a well-known term that is used in that context.
Simple fact is, that a "Loremaster" on Disco, would not need any contingency-plan as there is no story-arch he needs to uphold. Also it is also not indented to be a primary story-driving entity. It is simply there to make sure that factions to uphold the lore.
The focus is set very much on the factions themselves, as they are the primary entity who's actions can defy lore without repercussions. If you do it on an individual scale it's an ID-violation (most of the time), however, there is no system in place to make factions adhere to lore.
The DM is only needed for interactions between factions and even on that level only if diplomacy is changing severely.
Plus the focus on the interaction between factions, completely eliminates any overlap with the Story-Dev side
It's not a Loremasters duty or ability to retcon. This is a perrogative of the Lore-devs and the Admins. The DM is simply here to evaluate the dependencies of the factions in terms of trading partners, resources and so forth.
It has nothing to do with Retconning or Lore-deving. The position of the DM is uphold the lore, as is, with regards to interactions between factions.
As stated above, this will bring several advantages to the Discovery-gameplay, especially in the diplomacy between factions, which will become much more dynamic, as one event will lead to another.