Fast-forward

In a text-based rpg with many players, we've had a single day last 2-3 months. After 9 years of play, at that speed we might be maybe 6 months away from the Virus release rather than almost 2 years.

We attribute that to one of our most closely guarded, moderator-controlled devices: the time jump. Kind of like a fast-forward for writing.

We haven't used it a lot, and always with agreement among players that this is something to be desired.

It's kind of fun too!

Example: at the end of our game's Season-1 where we destroyed a good chunk of the city and didn't know who survived, we decided not to start Season-2 as the same day/next day and what comes next. Rather, Season-2 began weeks later where we picked up with the Brotherhood in control of the city and slowly... slowly... let people know who had survived the perilous battle. We "jumped" ahead to keep from getting bogged down trying to step-by-step the aftermath.

A more recent example was the "jump" from mid-summer to late fall. Our characters were getting bogged down & we needed a fresh perspective. Ergo, voile! Harvest-time.

Our fast-forward strategy focuses on the story line & making sure we can get ourselves out of situations before we write ourselves to a stand-still.

If text-based gaming has taught us anything, the lesson is to find every way we can to be creative without sacrificing our game to gimmicks. If we over-used it, the time-jump would really have no meaning. We'd lose control of the story & the whole point of our work together.

But used discretely? Ah... creative, yes. Wicked creative. And it keeps our tribal story line fresh, exciting, and maybe a little unpredictable--which is sooo not a bad thing!

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"