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Firan is an online role-playing game (RPG) that blends various elements: primarily an RPG environment with a touch of a coded MUD feel, and hints of ideas from computer video games like Civilization and Colonization, SimCity, and Populous. However, the real aim of Firan is to provide a rich play environment that encourages role-playing and storytelling. The game helps players role-play in a number of ways. This site describes our game.

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Featured Article: Custom TinyPlots

On one Firan custom TP, players rescued one of Zin's creatures from the clutches of the Shamibelians. She seemed grateful.

Overview

Most tinyplots on FiranMUX are started by the staff to highlight the story of the Firan people. However, if you've earned enough CP for a custom TinyPlot, you get a small window of time to make the story all about you. Think if this as writing a short movie or television show set in the Firan world, featuring your character.

Thus, your custom TP should have a beginning, a middle, and an ending, and you should think of each night's roleplay as an episode in your television show or a big scene out of your movie.

GM Commitment

Because you have the CP to spend, that must mean that you've have helped out the game in special ways, and therefore the staff is happy to give some special attention to your character.

When you submit a custom TP, we have to find a Game Master who is familiar enough with the thematic backdrop to your story to run it, and someone whose schedule can match yours. This GM must be willing to commit to 1-5 mostly consecutive days and 3-4 hours per day.

The GM also has to commit to:

1. Making sure to document your TP on the wiki
2. Run your custom TP by appropriate staffers for approval
3. Plan ahead for exigencies that come up during the adventure
4. Find a backup to GM for him or her if there's an emergency
5. Take the information from the Custom TinyPlot Worksheet, and add unexpected twists and turns
6. Deepen and enrich the story outline the player submits for their custom TP
7. Ensure that PCs brought along on the mission have stuff to do even though they aren't the star of the show

Player Commitment

As a player, you and any of the companions you're bringing on your custom TP need to commit to:

1. Submitting a detailed Custom TinyPlot using the worksheet below via @request. (If the information isn't secret, feel free to use a wiki page to outline your custom TP so that it's easier for you and the staff to collaborate.)
2. Don't be intimidated by the worksheet--you don't have to write a novel. Just sketch out the basics and if you get stuck, ask other players for ideas. They're full of them!
3. Understand that your TP might be denied if it falls afoul of thematic guidelines. (No, you may not invent an airplane, no matter how many CP you have.) Understand too that the staff may ask you to revise and expand upon your submission until there's a meeting of the minds.
4. Showing up at the appointed times as scheduled in advance with the GM
5. Logging all the RP, editing the logs, and posting them to the appropriate place on the wiki along with summaries, each night. (The staffer in charge of your mission will not be allowed to GM for you unless and until the log and summary of the previous night's RP is posted.)
6. Accepting the fact that the staff does not guarantee any outcomes for your TP and will work in thematic elements you may not have expected or planned for.

Cost

These costs are subject to change based on the scarcity of administrative resources on the game.

• 1-2 Night Custom TP: 150CP
• 3-5 Night Custom TP: 200CP

Please be aware that more is not always better. If you can get something cool done in 1-2 nights of custom GM time, it will probably make you and your GM happier. Players may also pool CP and divide up the quest so that one of them has the starring role each night, but that'll take some clever writing on your parts to weave the stories together.

Custom TP Worksheet

Name

Give your custom tinyplot a catchy name and it'll stand out from the rest when staffers are picking tinyplots to run. Examples: Panther Bones, Snakes on a Plane, etc.

Goal

For the entire tinyplot, what is your character's overall goal or objective? Is he trying to steal a hatchling from Uf's sacred island? Is she trying to pull off a disguise for a week in a foreign city? Is she trying to find her long lost mother?

Internal Struggle

What is your character's main internal struggle--the one that is going to keep coming up during this custom tinyplot? This should be an emotional issue you want to see explored during your adventure. Maybe you'll get closure on this issue for your character, or maybe the problem will be exacerbated. Either way, a great story will hopefully unfold.

Examples:

1. My character's failure to deal with the untimely loss of his wife, which causes him to make self-destructive choices
2. My character's lack of a father figure, which makes her prey to being duped, conned, and otherwise manipulated by anyone who will give her the paternalistic attention she so desires.
3. My character did something bad for which he needs to attone on this mission and my character has a lot of guilt to be played on.

Supporting Cast

PCs

You paid CP for this, so you absolutely can go on your quest alone. However, if you're bringing other characters with you on your adventure, list who they are, and why they'd be coming along. We recommend bringing no more than three. A party any bigger than four absolutely requires more than one GM and that can strain staff resources. If you're bringing players with you, make sure they understand that they are supporting cast, and that your character is the star of this show. Let them know what your character's inner struggle is so that they can help push the matter. Also, include their personal struggles on your worksheet so that the GM can maybe give them a little character development in the scenes too.

NPCs

If you know some Non-Player Characters who either live in the place you're going on your quest or are coming along with you, list two of them and how they might be of assistance to your character in achieving his or her goals. You may think of these people as 'recurring' characters in your television show.

If you don't know of any NPCs offhand, you may invent two. Give them a name, how your character knows them, and a one sentence description of who they are and what kind of help they can provide.

The GM's job is, in part, to give life to your NPCs and help you find clever ways to use them. They will also try to manipulate your NPCs so as to play upon your issues.

Nemesis

Who will your nemesis be on this quest? What is the person, creature or force of nature that will interfere with your character's goals and objectives? Is this person/force known to you?

The GM's job is, in part, to give life to your nemesis, to make your life miserable, and to give you obstacles to overcome. To that end, don't expect the nemesis you envision to be the only one who will show up on your adventure.

Scenes

It's possible that your GM will be able to fit more than one scene into a four hour RP session, but for the sake of simplicity, pretend that it'll take one night to RP out one good scene. To that end, outline 1-5 potential scenes you'd like to experience on your custom TinyPlot.

Setting

Where is your scene going to happen? Note that we prefer custom TinyPlots occur outside the city of Anarinuell or at least off grid. The reason for this is that the city proper is filled with characters who are being played and think that they are the center of their own story. They will compete with you as a protagonist, and make it hard to run an adventure for you in a way that highlights your character's personal issues. It's also difficult to manage. We may make exceptions to this rule (ie. My character is searching for long lost treasure supposedly buried under the Great Library) but we prefer not to.

Objectives

What is your character trying to accomplish in this scene and why? Is it a plot scene, in which you're trying to say, steal a magic sword before the Carnotti wakes? Or is it a character scene, in which you finally find your long lost twin brother for a tearful reunion? What cool thing do you get out of this scene?

Conflict & Complications

What is the likely conflict going to be in this scene? List some possible difficulties you'd like to see your character have to overcome to reach his or her objective? Brainstorm here, and be creative!

What's at Stake?

What is at stake if your character loses this conflict? Will he or she lose reputation? Will they slide into depression and go on a drinking binge? Feel free to be creative about some of the angsty tortures you'd enjoy RPing if things don't go well in this scene.

Using your Connections

Looking over your character's sheet, what skills or background can you use to help win this conflict? If it's a relationship to someone that would help, how will you use those NPCs you know or the PCs that you brought with you to resolve the conflict in this scene?

Resolving Your Story

All movies end, and we'd like some idea of how yours is going to turn out. Most likely, you know what you want to have happen if you succeed. It's the failure part that players give little thought to. It's entirely possible that by the end of your custom TP your character might end up in jail or even dead. (See: Braveheart, Cleopatra, Gladiator, etc.)

However, as a staff we're also interested in other more interesting endings to your movie. Perhaps your character fails at her objective, but gains some meaningful insight along the way. Perhaps your character ends up changed by his failures. Please think of the best stories you know, where the hero doesn't actually get the girl (or guy. See: My Best Friend's Wedding) and suggest some endings that we can use to make a good closing act for the movie, or even set up the sequel!

See Also

• Quests
• TinyPlots
• TinyPlots for Admin
• How to Run a TinyPlot
• Tinyplot Tracking List

Categories: New to Firan? | Thematic Direction | TinyPlots